The Kidnapped Kitten (8 page)

“But I’ve found them!” Tia cried. “The catnappers!”

“What?” Mum stared at her, and some of the people in the line looked round curiously.

“There was an ad for pedigree cats for sale in the newsagent’s. It has to be them! And I’ve got the address.”

“Oh, Tia, I know you’re desperate to find Milly, but you’re jumping to conclusions.” Mum shook her head.

“Why won’t you ever believe me?” Tia said furiously. “I’m going there now!” She turned and marched out, Christy scampering after her. She didn’t even look back to see if Mum was following. She just had to find Milly.

Chapter Eight

Milly threaded her way through the overgrown front garden and squeezed under the rickety wooden gate. She darted a glance back to the house, but the man wasn’t chasing her. Still, she wanted to get further away. Then she would find Tia. She set off down the pavement, sniffing at the dandelions and the parked cars. It was when she reached the end of the street, where it met another, larger road, that she
realized finding her home was going to be harder than she’d thought. She had expected to somehow know which way to go. But coming here in a van, she had lost her sense of direction.

She set off along one road, but it didn’t feel good. Milly turned uncertainly and hurried back. The other way felt as though it led home.

Milly plodded on, trying to sense the right direction. She wasn’t used to walking so far and the pavements were hard. Her paws hurt. Worst of all, she wasn’t really sure she was getting any closer to Tia.

Wearily, she jumped up on to a low wall for a rest. Another cat had scent-marked the garden beyond the wall, and Milly peered down nervously. The cat didn’t seem to be around. She curled herself into a tense little ball and let her eyes close. She was so tired.

Suddenly, Milly’s eyes shot open, and she nearly fell off the wall. A ginger cat was in the garden below her, hissing furiously. His fur fluffed up so much that he looked four times as big as her.

Milly scrambled backwards, her tail straight up, all the fur sticking out like a brush. She hissed at the ginger cat, but he was much bigger than she was. Milly backed herself up to the end of the wall and then sprang down on to the pavement, racing away as fast as she could.

“It’s this way,” Tia panted, hauling Christy along behind her.

“We should wait for Mum!” Christy wailed. “I can’t see her, Tia! We aren’t supposed to go where we can’t see Mum! We’ll get in trouble!”

“I don’t care! I’m going to find Milly. Look, this is Emwell Road!”
Tia stopped, gasping for breath. What if the man who took Milly saw her and Christy? He’d probably recognize them. “Be like spies, all right? We don’t want the catnappers to catch us.”

Tia pulled Christy in close to the wall and they began to creep along, looking for number seventeen.

“This is it,” Tia murmured, a little way up the road. “Oh! The van!” She squeezed Christy’s hand and pointed. “Laura saw a blue van when the man was asking about Charlie.”

“Tia!” Mum was running up the road after them, looking furious. “How could you run off like that? You crossed roads! You know you’re not allowed!”

“Mum, look!” Tia grabbed her arm, towing her towards the van. “Look! It’s the catnappers!”

Mum frowned. “Oh… Is that the van Laura talked about?”

“Yes! And this is the road where the man who put up that advert lives. It’s got to be him, hasn’t it?”

Mum nodded slowly. “All right. Don’t you dare go in there, Tia! I’m going to call that number the police gave me. It’s starting to look as though you’re right.”

“Have a look at these.” The policewoman held out her mobile phone, and Tia stared at it eagerly. It had been so hard to wait for news. Tia had wanted to stay outside the house in Emwell Road, but Mum had said they’d better go home. They didn’t want to get in the way when the police came.

“We might make that man suspicious if we’re hanging around,” she had pointed out to Tia. “We don’t want him moving the cats.”

Tia knew she was right, but she hated to walk away when she was so sure that Milly was somewhere in that house.

It had only been a few hours until a police car drew up outside their house that evening, but it felt like Tia had been waiting for days.

“Is Milly one of these?” PC Ryan flicked through the photos – a Persian, and what looked like another Bengal, but with a marbled, stripey coat, and another cat Tia didn’t recognize.

“No…” Tia’s voice shook. “Look, there’s an empty cage next to this one. He’s already sold her!”

PC Ryan frowned. “Maybe. But he was definitely showing a spotted Bengal kitten to someone this morning. Another lady phoned us, saying that she’d been to see a kitten, and she suspected she might have been stolen. Perhaps your Milly got out.”

“Milly is very good at getting in and out of places,” Mum agreed hopefully. “If any cat could, it would be her, wouldn’t it, Tia…”

But Tia wasn’t listening. She dashed away upstairs to her room and scrambled up her ladder to hide in her bed. She couldn’t bear it. They were too late, and Milly was gone.

Milly kept walking all afternoon even though she was so tired she stumbled. The light was starting to fade now, and it was getting colder. Someone was walking along the road towards her with a dog, and Milly darted under a parked car to hide.

Even when the dog had gone by, she didn’t want to move. At least under the car she was out of the wind, and she couldn’t smell any other cats. She would just stay here for a little while, until she felt better. Milly dozed, her eyelids flickering and her paws twitching as the ginger cat chased after her. It was chasing her further and further away from Tia…

She hissed and startled awake, not sure where she was. It was now bright
daylight, she realized as she peered out from under the parked car. She must have slept there all night, worn out from her long walk.

She stepped cautiously out on to the pavement and stretched herself. Then she heard voices. Children’s voices. Not Tia and Christy, she was pretty sure, but still … she would just go and see. Somehow she felt much more hopeful today, with the bright sunshine warming her fur.

It was a playground, and two little boys were chasing each other round and round. Milly paused at the gate, ready to run.