Ping and the Missing Ring by Emma Shevah

Author:Emma Shevah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

THE SEARCH BEGINS

Tong wasn’t overly delighted about taking them to the park. “Ughhh – do I have to?” he groaned in a gravelly growl, his voice high and then low, like an old car trying to start on a winter morning.

“Yes, Tong,” Aunty Lek said. “You do.”

“Yes, Tong,” Ping repeated, flashing her eyes open again and again so he’d know she was trying to tell him something. “You do.” Tong looked at her like she had an earthworm wriggling out of her nostril. He clearly didn’t understand secret eye codes.

Taptim grinned. “What – not looking your best today?” she teased. “Worried you’ll bump into your friends and you won’t look cool?”

Ping faced him. She hadn’t paid the slightest attention to how Tong looked today – or any other day, for that matter – and that bothered her. Her senses should have been on high alert about absolutely everything at all times. Tong did seem paler and groggier than usual – but then that was no doubt their fault for waking him up so early. But why would he care about how he looked in the park? Why would anyone care?

Teenagers. So confusing.

Tong swept a hand through his hair and retorted. “I look awesome. As always. But I have to walk around outside with you two.” He suddenly looked as if he was in pain. “And pick up Jelly’s… deposits… in a plastic bag.”

Ping laughed but then noticed that Tong wasn’t joking. She opened her mouth, fully prepared to say that she would pick up Jelly’s ‘deposits’, but then she closed it again because watching Tong doing it, cringing with embarrassment, would be much more fun.

“I need… things. For the park,” Ping announced. She felt bad because adventures were very much out of the question and this was undeniably adventure-like, but she also felt excited because, well, this was undeniably adventure-like. She ran upstairs and packed a small backpack with her notebook, her magnifying glass, her paintbrush and a torch. She had no idea if she’d need the last three items but she put them in anyway. She needn’t have rushed because twenty minutes later, Taptim was still looking in her bedroom mirror.

“Why are you taking all that… stuff?” Taptim asked, eyeing the backpack and picking up her earphones and her phone.

“Isabelle didn’t steal that ring,” Ping replied firmly. “I know she didn’t. We have some detective work to do. You said you wanted a mystery to solve.”

“Actually, I didn’t. I said Jelly was an excellent detective dog. I didn’t say–”

“So let’s try him out.”

Taptim scoffed. “He’s not going to find an engagement ring, Ping. And anyway, I thought you weren’t allowed any adventures.”

Ping winced. It was a quandary, for sure. Her mother would be angry with her but in her quiet, graceful way. When her mother was angry, it was more like an infinitesimal ripple on a still lake than a mighty wave pummelling a coastal cliff. And what about the alpacas? Would she ever know whether her favourite preferred her to call him Mr Al Packington or Alberto Pacolito?

Ping was torn.

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