“Tickle, my cat has disappeared.” I told my mother. “Don’t worry , she’ll turn up. If she doesn’t, I will inform the police”, she said. It all happened this morning. I let my Siamese cat out for her walk in the garden. I couldn’t take her because I was doing my homework. After that when I called out for Tickle, there was no loving purr, nor the adorable mewing reply.

I asked my mother to investigate, interrupting the argument between her and Cook. Then, something struck me! Tickle could have been stolen! Who was there in the house that morning?, I wondered. There was the cook, the milkman and the gardener. I would interrogate them. “Where were you all morning?” I asked the cook. “In the kitchen”, she said. “Doing what?” I asked again. “Why are you asking me these things?” she said suspiciously, “No, no one was here, but I was baking this cake. Couldn’t you smell it?”. I had smelt it, and I thought about what she had said. The gardener and the milkman also had strong alibis. “I was cutting the weeds. You can ask your little sister, she was here, trying to plant her doll and thinking it would grow into a doll tree”, the gardener replied. “I went after handing the milk to your mother”, the milkman answered. I was confused, as all of them had good alibis. Then the answer hit me, but I needed evidence. No one had seen cook, and what if she wasn’t in the kitchen when Tickle had been stolen? I went back to the kitchen and then I noticed that Tickle’s Salmon tin was missing and only the cook and I knew where it was kept as she fed Tickle.