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Hiding place 1: The drawers under the fishtank. One of them would only have to be open slightly to let a goldfish drop into it.
Hiding place 2: Down the backs of the armchairs. If people can lose coins and remote controls down there, surely they can lose a goldfish?
Hiding place 3: In amongst the newspapers in the magazine rack.

I discounted the plant pots. Too far away from the tank. Rupert would have to be SuperFish to fall into one of those!
     I searched each hiding place. Nothing.
     ‘I told you,’ said Olivia. ‘We looked everywhere.’
     ‘I suppose it was a long shot,’ I said. ‘In any case, by now he’d be starting to stink if he was still in the room.’
     ‘Eurgh!’ cried Olivia. She looked a bit upset. I stared at my feet and looked for a way to change the subject.
     But as I looked I noticed some light streaks to the carpet under my feet. I glanced around. It was nowhere else in the room. In fact, the rest of the carpet looked slightly darker than the patch by my feet.
     ‘That’s weird,’ I muttered to myself. ‘Has anything been moved recently?’ I asked Olivia.
     ‘No, everything is how we left it, apart from Rupert,’ replied Olivia.
     There was a clear conclusion to be drawn from that . . .