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‘But what were the cats doing here?’ Heather asked, glancing quizzically at us. Matt and Jonathan started picking the trees up and it was soon apparent that it actually looked much worse than it was. But where had Barbara gone and how on earth were we going to catch her now? The red paint was coming off the stage with a bit of elbow grease, hopefully George could be restored as easily.

‘Of course,’ Vic said, standing still, tree in one hand.

‘Of course what, Vic?’ Matt asked.

‘Heather, why didn’t we think of it? We got Salmon a camera collar, it records everything. No sound, mind, it’s not that sophisticated, but we can watch the footage.’

‘You mean to tell me you have a camera on your cat?’ Jonathan looked incredulous. As did I. If I’d known that it would have made my plan so much easier. I glared at Salmon.

‘I didn’t know what it was for,’ he hissed at me. ‘They only put it on me yesterday.’

‘We bought it after he got shut in the prop room the other night. I said to Heather, if he goes missing and we’ve got a camera on him we’ll always be able to find him. Didn’t occur to me that we’d be able to use it to fight crime, but what a bonus.’ Vic sounded very pleased with himselfand for once I was pleased with him too. Busybodies who liked to know everything that was going on came in handy on a number of occasions.

‘You put a camera collar on your cat?’ Jonathan repeated, scratching his head.

‘I spoke to some of our friends in the security and cat-loving community we’re part of and they suggested it. Said it was very good for making sure our cats were safe and it’s also interesting to see what they got up to.’

Goodness, would Jonathan get me one? It would make my life so much easier if I could communicate to my humans that way. Although of course there were times when I valued my privacy and didn’t want them to know what I was up to … Um, thinking about it, I wasn’t sure. No, in fact, no, I definitely didn’t want a camera on me.

‘So how do we see what it recorded?’

‘It’s linked to my phone. Oh, how exciting, this is the first time we get to use it and we might have solved the great mystery. I told you it was a good idea, Heather,’ Vic said.

‘You did, Vic, and you were right,’ Heather replied.

‘So, we can see what happened here tonight?’ Matt asked, clearly trying not to sound impatient.

‘We certainly can. Come and look.’ As Vic did something to his phone, they all crowded round the screen and I was pretty sure we had managed to do exactly what we set out to do, although not exactly how we set out to do it. And as Barbara wasn’t even hurt, she would hopefully be caught this time. As they started to watch the footage I felt nervous. Would it be clear it was her? Would they only see us and the trees? If this didn’t work then I didn’t know what we’d do.

‘It’s very dark and fuzzy,’ Matt said.

‘Well, it is a cat cam,’ Heather said defensively.

‘I can make out the cats running riot on the stage,’ Jonathan said. ‘Blimey, you guys were crazy.’

I tried not to take offence– we were saving the showand Jonathan’s budgets at the time.

‘How on earth did all the neighbourhood cats get involved?’ Matt asked, sounding confused. ‘Oh look, there’s a pair of human feet, not big feet either,’ Matt pointed out.

‘So, by the look of this, the cats were trying to stop whoever it was from doing any damage,’ Jonathan said, scratching his head.

‘Ah, Salmon, chip off the old block, he is the cat neighbourhood watch,’ Vic said proudly. I decided to let that one go. I mean, I didn’t do all this for praise, but they could have acknowledged me.

We finally struck lucky. Just as I thought they wouldn’t identify her from her feet and ankles, Jonathan shouted.

‘Look, there, the cats sort of trip the person up and oh, she, it’s a she, fell under all those trees,’ he exclaimed.

‘My goodness, is that Barbara?’ Heather asked. She was identified by her springy grey hair, I assumed.

‘It looks like her,’ Vic said, a bit uncertainly.

‘Meow,’ I shouted. Yes it was.

‘She fell under a lot of trees,’ Matt said.

‘You know, ever since she did that awful audition I knew there was something dodgy about her,’ Jonathan added. Actually, in fairness, he did. It was Claire who said she was fine. He never trusted her.

‘Well, it looks as if we have our culprit,’ Vic said.

‘But why would she do it?’ Matt asked.

‘I guess we’ll find out when we confront her with our evidence,’ Vic said. ‘Good work Salmon and friends.’

So, OK, it probably should have been Alfie and friends but again, I was going to let that go because she was there on film, so finally our work here was done. Lucky, as I was beyond tired. Being a crime-fighting cat is not for the fainthearted.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

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‘So I didn’t even need to install cameras, I could have just put the cat in there the whole time,’ Jonathan said as he explained to Claire what had happened.

‘So you’re telling me the cats foiled the plan and it was … Barbara? Have you called the police?’ Claire asked.