The detective sat on the bed and cried. Buffy was surprised. It didn’t look as if he had hurt himself very badly. And yet he was crying a lot.
“Is there an enormous lump?” asked Gordon.
Buffy looked and looked.
“No,” she said. “More the size of a mosquito bite.”
“Ow-ow-ow,” said Gordon. “Do we have any large sticking plasters? Can you put something on it?”
How could the big, heroic Detective Gordon suddenly be crying like a small child? Buffy didn’t understand.
“I can blow on it,” she said. “Fff, fff, fff! And then you can have a little cake…”
“Ye-es,” said Gordon pitifully. “Is it morning, midday, or evening?”
He swallowed four evening cakes. His big mouth was full!
“Strange about that letter,” said Buffy meanwhile. “I was sure the magpie was the culprit. When I met the crow, he was crying and so sad. As if he was the one being teased. I don’t understand. You can’t both tease and be teased. Can you, Chief?”
She looked at Gordon, who had found the secret cake tin and stuffed three more cakes into his mouth.
“Mmmph, mmmph, wroof,” answered the detective.
Buffy waited till he had finished.
“I think that one of the police groups must investigate further,” said Gordon.
Then he felt a little ashamed. Why had he cried like that? He was an important police officer, after all. And then he’d eaten all those cakes to make himself feel better. It was embarrassing.
But he didn’t want to talk about it.
“What shall I do when I investigate?”
“Try something new,” said Gordon obscurely, which is what he said when he didn’t really know.
“Hmm, something new, something new…” Buffy immediately began thinking of funny clothes and strange hats. Or maybe strange ears and a funny nose…
“In the morning I’ll dress up,” she said, “because I have a plan!”
She yawned. She had spent the whole day working with mountains, tents, axes, and snakes.
Now she wanted to sleep.
“But perhaps you don’t want to go to bed yet?” she asked Gordon. “You’ve been sleeping all day.”
“Gosh, I’m still in my pajamas. I might as well creep off to bed. I can read you a nice long bedtime story. The entire Book of Law!”
So the detective sat on the edge of Buffy’s bed and read and read.
“§ 489 Forbidden: to push squirrels into water. § 490 Forbidden: to steal cakes from a baby mouse…”
It was exciting to listen to, thought Buffy. She could imagine the culprit sneaking out from behind the bushes to shove the squirrel into the water and then vanishing, laughing, from the scene. Or the scoundrel stealing cakes from a hungry baby mouse.
After each of these crimes was committed, the forest animals had had a meeting to make laws forbidding such deeds. There really had been a squirrel-shover and a cake-snatcher. But now there would be an end to it! The police would make sure that animals didn’t do these stupid things. Buffy was proud to be a police officer.
Sometimes she pointed at a letter and asked what it was.
“That’s called i,” said Gordon. “Like a little candle with a flame.”
Or:
“U. Like a slide which goes down first and then up again,” explained Gordon. “And all the children yell ‘Yeergh!’”
That evening Buffy learned so much that by the end her head was buzzing.
The detective closed the heavy book.
“I have something important to say,” he said. “You’re so good at this that I’m thinking of making you Chief of Police as well…”
But when he looked he saw that Buffy was already asleep. She was sleeping with her mouth open.
“Little Police Chief,” he said. “Sleep well and sweet dreams!”
And Buffy did have sweet dreams. She dreamed that she dressed up to go investigating. She dreamed about the Book of Law, especially § 867 Forbidden: to tease a police mouse with big ears and a red nose.
Gordon also went to bed.
I hope, I hope I dream about Mamma’s picnic, he thought.
