I was visited in my garden shed headquarters by Olivia Barnes. She’s in my class at school – a round girl with neatly shaped hair and a face which always reminds me of a chipmunk.
‘I need your help,’ she said. ‘One of our pet fish has vanished into thin air.’
‘Are you sure he wasn’t just eaten by the other fish?’ I said.
‘Eurgh!’ cried Olivia. ‘Definitely not! He’s the biggest fish in the tank. And they’re all well fed. Rupert is a very rare species of Albanian goldfish, you know.’
‘Rupert?’ I muttered. ‘That’s a funny name for a goldfish… Rupert the goldfish...?’
‘You gonna help me or not?’ she grumbled.
We hurried over to her house. Olivia showed me the living room, where there was a large fishtank sitting in a tall shelving unit against one wall. It housed about a dozen different fish, along with various little fishy tunnels and ornaments.
‘We came back from a week’s holiday,’ said Olivia, ‘and Rupert was gone. Vanished.’
‘The rest of the fish were OK? And the tank?’ I said.
‘All as normal,’ said Olivia. ‘Everything in the whole house is as it usually is.’
If Rupert hadn’t been eaten, two possibilities as to what had happened to him sprang to mind. Can you work out what they were? |
