CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
WHAT’S IN THE WAREHOUSE?
Twenty minutes later the pair were standing on the edge of the industrial estate. There were four warehouses scattered across weedy concrete.
‘I’ll start with that one,’ said Jonny, pointing at the nearest. ‘Henry, you case out the one next to it.’
Jonny pushed open the doors of the first warehouse and saw a security guard dozing by the front desk. A strong smell hit him. What was it? Dog food? Then he saw a sign. Premier Pies. This couldn’t be the right place. He ducked back outside and saw Henry wafting towards him, shaking his head.
‘Some sort of cabinetmakers,’ said Henry. ‘Nary a child in there – I checked everywhere.’
‘Let’s try over here,’ said Jonny, and sprinted off towards the furthest warehouse.
Inside, an unmistakable smell of fish hit Jonny’s nostrils. Henry spluttered a bit and curled his lip.
‘By the mass, what a stench! I’m more of a mutton man, myself,’ he said. ‘I’ll investigate outside.’
Jonny pushed through a door and into an area full of huge freezers. It was cold and smelly. No sign of any children. He tiptoed forward and pulled open the heavy door of one of the freezers. Fish fingers! Thousands of them, stacked up like breaded bars of gold. But that wasn’t all. Looking around the room Jonny saw towers of boxes piled in one corner. One contained flashing budgie collars, ‘So you can always spot your bird in the dark!’, and another was bursting with sachets of dehydrated shepherd’s pie. There was a sack full of battery-powered eye massagers and a couple of plastic trays with boxes of chocolate-coated sprouts, ‘A taste sensation’. What was all this stuff, and who would keep it here? The fish fingers, all these weird gadgets and gear: they all made a bell ring in Jonny’s head, but it was muffled, like the bell was inside a sock or under a bear.
Then Jonny noticed another door and pushed it open. It was warmer on the other side, and less pongy. There were several long rows of cubicles, similar to the ones in the changing rooms at a swimming pool. Jonny tried the door of one. Locked! He tried another and another. All locked!
‘Hello?’ he whispered. ‘Anyone here?’
‘Hello?’ ‘Hello?’ ‘Hi, hello?’ Several voices answered Jonny – voices coming from inside the cubicles. How many children were in here, all locked up and waiting to be swapped? Then Jonny heard a voice he recognised.
‘Jonny!’ A tiny blond boy jumped up and down in a cubicle a little way off. ‘I told you I could run down here in ten minutes. We had a bet, remember? And I won. Obviously!’
Alfie!
Jonny ran to Alfie’s cubicle.
‘Never mind about the bet. I can help you, but first I have to find Ted. Where is he?’ Jonny shouted through the door.
‘He was in the next room to me,’ said Alfie. ‘He’s really extra upset, Jonny! He says he’s never going home again, not after how you treated him.’
At this, Jonny felt sick. He rattled the door of the next cubicle.
‘Ted! Ted! Are you in there?’
No answer.
‘Don’t bother,’ said Alfie. ‘He said that as you don’t want him, he’s off.’
‘No!’ said Jonny, rattling the door again. Then he heard a squeak from the next cubicle over and the sound of digging.
‘Hari?’ he said.
A squeak came back in reply. Yes! Jonny grabbed a box, hopped up on to it and looked into Hari’s cubicle.
‘Oh my pancakes!’ he muttered.
The floor of Hari’s cubicle wasn’t a floor any more. It was a building site. There were piles of earth everywhere and, heading down into what had been Ted’s room, a tunnel. A very definite tunnel.
Jonny hurriedly moved the box and squinted into what had been Ted’s space. There was another tunnel opening here, and it led, most definitely, through the wall and out of the warehouse.
‘Oh Satan’s sausages!’ muttered Jonny, fearing the worst. He ran out, past the freezers, out of the front door and around the side of the warehouse. There was Hari, still working on his tunnel.
‘Hari!’ Jonny spluttered. ‘What have you done? The tunnel! Did you let Ted escape?’
SQUEAK. Yes!
‘Noooo,’ said Jonny, his hands thrust into his hair, his face a picture of despair. ‘Where did he go?’
But Hari was too busy scuffling around in his beautiful meerkat tunnel to listen.
‘What’s this?’ boomed Henry, ghosting alongside Jonny and spotting Hari’s masterpiece.
‘Ted’s escaped,’ Jonny explained to Henry, trying to keep his voice from sounding panicked. ‘Hari dug a tunnel and Ted used it to get out.’
‘The fool!’ said Henry, glowering at Hari.
‘It’s not his fault. He’s a meerkat, sort of. Digging’s what they do,’ said Jonny. ‘We have to find Ted, though. Maybe he’s at home? Please be at home!’
He rang Pete-Pip, explaining that Ted had escaped and asking if he had showed up at home. No. Pete-Pip offered to send her drone out to look for him.
‘You have a drone?’ Jonny asked.
‘Of course,’ said Pete-Pip. ‘I have several!’
Wow, she was good! Having a computer- geek girl ex-brother living in your shed certainly had its benefits.
‘He’s not at home,’ said Jonny, turning to Henry. ‘We have to find him. He’s angry with me and thinks I don’t want him, so he’s run away. Where is he? We have to track him down before he gets too far and disappears for good.’
‘What about me?’ shouted Alfie. He was peeping through a window, watching the whole scene.
‘I’ll come back for you, Alfie, I promise!’ shouted Jonny, waving at his little ex-brother, whose blond hair shone brightly, even through the grubby window. ‘But first I have to find Ted.’
With that, Jonny began running, with Hari bounding along behind him.
‘Huzzah!’ cried Henry. ‘The hunt is on!’