Ducking beneath the flowering plum, neatly trimmed and contained in its over-manicured gravel circle, she demanded “ where did you last see this cat, I mean, Tobias” “ Over the back there, by the green fence with the gap under it” came the small voice. Jolinan noticed the boy was rubbing his hand where she had gripped him unconsciously hard. He didn’t complain.

Together, the pair of them started calling the cat, bending over and looking under the wooden bench, under the variegated foliage and between the plants “puss, puss-puss,” carolled Jolinan “Toby cat, Toby cat” echoed the boy busily poking around under neatly trimmed shrubs. They moved further down the back yard, further away from the sanctuary of Jolinan’s cosy sun room. Further from the security of locked doors and the telephone.

“Well. Tobias seems to have moved on” grumbled Jolinan as she straightened her back and puffing slightly. “No I’m sure he went in there” riposted the child as he indicated a narrow path between fence and hedging shrubs. “Well I’m not going along there; I am going back to the house and getting a cool drink, how about you? A cold drink of water?’ “No, look I saw his tail!” turning, the boy tried to scamper away, tugging at Jolinan’s hand in his urgency. As Jolinan was about to rebuke the boy with a “That’s No Thank-you! young man” a crash of glass came from the house.

The boy stopped tugging at Jolinan’s hand and stood, alert for any movement. “What on earth?” Jolinan had started moving toward the house almost before the final tinkling of smashed glass had reached them. She looked behind to see the boy dart away along that narrow path. She smiled grimly as she hurried as fast as her creaking limbs would take her. The boy reappeared in her line of vision, near the top fence, by the old cucumber frames. He vaulted the low wooden palings and disappeared from view. Puffing slightly, Jolinan gained the high ground by the road fence and watched the boy, hand in hand with a denim clad man carrying a large black cloth bag, running towards a car parked at the top of the cul de sac

She held her mobile phone to her ear as it speed dialled and was picked up on the first ring. “Heading toward their red ford sedan, parked by 44 Laminge Close… You can pick them up there, yes I’m fine, couldn’t be better” she said as she watched a police car slide to a halt in front of the boy and his partner in crime. “You should find those marked goods you left with me in his bag. Yes, their standard entry MO, the boy distracts whilst he broke the door glass to get in. Yes I’ll see you to make my statement later.”

She hung up smiling sweetly, it felt like her first real job since retiring 13 years before and she didn’t feel she had lost her instincts after 30 years on the force. It paid to have friends and a daughter in the job. She turned, dusting her hands, as she contemplated the times that the pair had got away with robbing the elderly in their own homes. Well no longer. Smiling contentedly she went to put the kettle on for a nice rewarding cup of tea.