Chapter 1

Horatio and Wheels were in the kitchen at Wheels’ place. Horatio was enthusiastically stirring a pot of bolognese sauce on the stove when the siren sounded.

After he, Ming and Wheels had been grounded following their last adventure, Mrs Petersen had thought it was an opportunity to give them cooking lessons.  Horatio wasn’t sure he liked the thought of becoming the family cook, but almost anything he cooked would be an improvement on his mother’s efforts.

Last night she had cooked her version of pizza, which you might have thought could not possibly go wrong. The problem was his mother almost never shopped so she substituted ingredients as if she was conducting science experiments in the kitchen, instead of the University of Queensland where she and Horatio’s father worked. She had used a sheet of frozen pastry for the base – “It looks like a pizza base,” she’d said – and then added a jar of mustard pickles instead of tomato sauce, sausage slices, brussels sprouts, and broccoli. Horatio thought if he didn’t learn to cook soon they might all be poisoned.

The alarm was still screeching when his friend Ming burst through the door, with a small fire extinguisher.

“Where’s the fire?” she yelled. Horatio took the extinguisher from her hand. The sound of the siren was so close that for a moment Horatio thought Wheels’ sister, Pauline, had tried to get into Wheels’ bedroom.

Wheels clearly had the same idea because he turned his chair on its back wheels and rushed down the corridor with Horatio behind him. When they reached the bedroom door it was clear the sound hadn’t come from the siren Wheels had set up to keep Pauline out. Nor had it come from anywhere else in the Petersen’s house.

“I thought you’d set the kitchen on fire.” Ming said.

“Let’s take a look outside,” Horatio said.

When they reached the pavement he looked towards his home, which was next to the Petersens’.  There was no one nearby, but they could hear now that the sound came from the empty house on the other side of the Entwhistle home.

“That’s odd. Mr Johnston’s house has been deserted ever since he went to jail.”

“Maybe someone’s moving in.”

Horatio frowned. “I don’t think so. There’s a lady who comes and cleans once a month but Mum is the one who feeds the cat every day. She hasn’t said anything.”

“And how is Snowball?”

“Still green and still hissing at me.”

Both boys laughed. Snowball was Mr Johnston’s cat and he had a habit of sneaking into the shed out of back of his house where Horatio did his experiments. So far his fur had turned pink when he drank from a beaker containing one of Horatio’s chemical mixtures; blue when he’d somehow tipped another of Horatio’s concoctions all over his back; and now he was green.  He hissed whenever he saw Horatio.

“I think we should go over,” Horatio said. The words were hardly out of his mouth when the noise stopped.

“Probably Snowball.”

“I don’t think so. He’s almost always over there by himself and he hasn’t set an alarm off yet.”

The two boys sauntered down the pavement. If it was possible to ‘saunter’ in a wheelchair, Horatio thought Wheels did it very well. His blonde, wavy hair made him look almost angelic. He and Ming found it useful to send Wheels out first whenever something they were doing looked suspicious. People were so distracted by his purple wheelchair with its myriad contraptions that they ignored those around him.

There was no sign of anyone at the house and nothing seemed disturbed.  The street was deserted except for a man in a black hat who hurried down the pavement. He was dabbing at his hand with a blood stained handkerchief.

“Are you all right, sir?” Horatio said.

“Get lost, kid,” the man snarled as he hurried away from them towards the street corner.”

“Charming. What do you think that was about?”

Wheels shrugged. “I don’t know, but they looked like scratches on his hand. I wonder if -.”

“That man almost bowled me over as I came round the corner,” Ming interrupted. “He didn’t even apologise. I was tempted to put him in a judo hold.”

Horatio grinned. “It’s good to have you with us again, Ming. How did you manage to get permission to come over?”

Ming looked at Wheels. “Your wonderful mother,” she said. “She rang and said she was teaching you to cook, and since there’s no school tomorrow Mum let me come.”

“ Oh, no! The bolognese sauce!”

Without giving Ming a chance to say anymore, Horatio ran into the house. He could smell the burning as soon as he opened the door. Mrs Petersen was in the kitchen, holding the saucepan upside down. The sauce was stuck to the bottom of the pan and was burnt black.

“Well it’s look like we won’t be having spaghetti for dinner tonight.”

“Sorry, Mum,” Wheels said as he came into the kitchen with Ming behind him. “We heard an alarm go off at Mr Johnston’s and thought someone was breaking in.”

“The only alarm likely to go off around here is our fire alarm. Now let me tell you about the rule concerning leaving food cooking unattended on a hot stove.”

They must have all looked so downcast that Mrs Petersen relented. “No harm done this time, but you must be more careful.” She put the saucepan in the sink and filled it with water. “Good to see you, Ming.”

“Thanks, Mrs P. It’s great to be out of the house. I don’t know what you said to my dad.”

“I told him you were wasting your brain at home when you could be learning something new, and he agreed.”

“You’re a genius. Dad’s always telling me how good it is to use my brain, and how often I don’t seem able to.”

“Your dad’s a wise man.” She handed Wheels a scourer. “ The next rule about cooking is, he or she who makes the mess cleans up. Get this cleaned and when I’ve finished my chapter, I’ll teach you how to cook an omelet.”

Wheels groaned and handed the scourer to Horatio. “You wash and I’ll dry.”

Horatio grinned. “You owe me.” He picked up the blackened saucepan and started to scrub.

“The man near Mr Johnston’s, do you think he had anything to do with the alarm going off?”

“The man in the black hat?” Ming said.

“Yes. It seemed to be such a strange place for a businessman to be in the middle of the day. And it’s suspicious he had scratches on his hand,” Horatio said.

“I thought they were scratches too,” Wheels said. “I wonder if they’re something to do with Snowball?”

“We’re thinking the same way. Maybe he was trying to get in the house and Snowball attacked him?”

“It would be nice to have another mystery to solve,” Ming said.

There was silence while the three friends thought about the adventures they had had together and the people who were in jail because of them.

“It was fun,” Wheels said.

“Well, I don’t suppose we’ll get another chance, unless the mystery happens in Wheels’ or my backyard. I know my parents are watching me pretty closely right now. I think they feel guilty about being so busy at work so they’re making up for it by giving me too much attention.”

I know what you mean,” Ming said. “Except my Mum and Dad aren’t worried about giving me attention. Their aim is to keep me trapped at home until I’m 45!” She sighed. “I still think that man looked like he was up to no good.”

Horatio was silent. He was sure there was something suspicious too. 

At that moment Snowball burst into the kitchen and immediately jumped onto Wheel’s lap.

“He’s shaking,” Wheels said as he smoothed the fur on his back, “and he’s wet.”

He held up his hand. It was smeared with blood.