Magical Mystery Paws (The No 2 Feline Detective Agency) by Mandy Morton

Author:Mandy Morton [Morton, Mandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788420983
Publisher: Farrago
Published: 2018-07-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Flaky had given permission for the bus to spend the night in the Pavilion’s car park, and the journey the following day would be a short one, as the next stop was the Palace Cinema in Felix Toe. The venue had stopped showing films after the projectionist caught his paw in the loading mechanism, which caused the screening of Easy Rider – a catnip-fuelled motorbike epic – to come to a sticky end long before its time. It had been decided to turn the venue over to the live music circuit until the projectionist’s paw healed, but the change of use hadn’t been welcomed by the good cats of Felix Toe. Poppa knew at the time of booking that the Palace could be the duff gig of the tour, although so far he’d kept that knowledge to himself.

The West Grunting Pavilion date had been a storming success, and after Flaky had settled up the door takings, Poppa, Hettie and Tilly spent some time counting the money from their night’s work, adding in the album and T-shirt sales. Poppa was able to pay himself back for the merchandise and turn a healthy profit to go towards paying his entertainers and tour personnel. After sorting out the finances and waving Flaky off on his bicycle, the three friends boarded the bus, hoping for a light supper from Tilly’s tartan shopper and some sleep – but, in the true tradition of touring, that simply wasn’t going to happen. Bruiser was the only cat on the bus who was asleep. The rest of the company, including Boobah, was in party mode. Derek had come out from behind his curtain, and he and Tarmac – armed with their acoustic guitars – were offering accompaniment to the tour party’s rousing chorus of ‘All You Need is Fluff’.

Tilly scoured the seats, looking for Belisha, but she was nowhere to be found, which was just as well, as Suzi Quake had draped herself round Derek’s neck as he strummed his guitar. Poppa waited until the final chorus had been sung before beckoning Derek over to his seat, keen to find out why Magical Mystery Paws had taken the evening off. Derek hung his head in apology as Tarmac launched into ‘The Wild Rover’. Tilly couldn’t resist joining in, but Hettie moved closer to Poppa and Derek, keen to hear what Derek had to say for himself.

‘The thing is,’ Derek began, ‘Belisha has left me. It just wasn’t working. We had a big bust-up earlier and she ran off, so I went after her. We walked along the clifftop for ages and she just kept shouting. In the end, I couldn’t take any more. She said she wanted me to chuck everyone off the bus and drive her home or she’d leave me, so I told her that was okay with me. Truth is, I never wanted her to live on the bus anyway – she sort of moved in on me and turned my life upside down. I’m not good at relationships.

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