Pugly Solves a Crime Read online

  “But why did you GUINEA PIG-NAP him in the first place?” shouted Glitterpuff. “And WHY DID YOU BALD HIM??”

  And that’s when Tiny looked completely

  “WHAT?! I didn’t GUINEA PIG-NAP Sal! And it’s DEFINITELY not MY fault he’s BALD! He came to ME needing help.

  And now he won’t LEAVE.”

  EVERYONE stared at Big Sal.

  “She’s telling the truth,” he said.

  “But we saw the

  said Clem. “Your hutch door was wide open and the place was a

  “I just left in a rush, that’s all,” said Big Sal.

  “But we found

  that someone else had been in your hutch.”

  I showed Sal the long, grey hair.

  “Get that AWAY FROM ME!” he yelled. “THAT’S the reason I came here!”

  Tiny cleared her throat and said, “I’ve been Big Sal’s hairdresser for a while now. You didn’t think his hair was THAT thick and shiny without some professional help, did you?”

  “WHOA WHOA WHOA! You’ve never offered to do MY hair before!” said Chester, swishing his hair around. But then he glanced at Sal’s patchy, bald bits. “Actually, never mind!” he said.

  “So what happened?” Clem asked Tiny. “Did you use the wrong shampoo or something?”

  “HEY! It wasn’t MY fault,” said Tiny. “I tried to get rid of them but nothing worked. I nipped out to get even MORE orange hair dye and when I came back Sal had CUT OFF ALL OF HIS OWN HAIR!”

  I was puzzled. “But why?”

  “MY HAIR IS TURNING GREY!” wailed Big Sal. “I found the first one in my hutch yesterday,” he said, pointing a shaky foot at

  “I pulled it out and ran over here as FAST as I could. I was worried there were MORE. And there were,” he whimpered.

  “He’s been hiding in my basement ever since he cut all his hair off,” said Tiny. “He won’t LEAVE!”

  That’s when Sal turned to Glitterpuff and said, “I know you probably don’t want to marry me any more. I mean, I’m NOTHING without my hair.”

  “Don’t be SILLY!” cried Glitterpuff. “It’s just HAIR!” And then she picked up the scissors and cut a huge chunk of her own pink hair off and threw it on the ground.

  “See? Hair isn’t important. I love YOU, Sal, not your hair.”

  screamed Big Sal.

  And EVERYONE cheered and ran out of the house.

  So that’s when me and Clem made Tiny PROMISE that she would take back EVERYTHING that she had stolen and that she’d NEVER steal anything ever again.

  “I p-p-promise!” said Tiny.

  “Next time we’ll call the COPS,” said Clem. “Consider yourself WARNED.”

  “You’ve caused us a LOT of bother today, Tiny,” I said. “I had to give up ALL of my doggy biscuits to keep this investigation going AND I lost my hat in the park!”

  “I’m so sorry!” said Tiny. “Here, you can have ALL of my fancy biscuits. I don’t deserve them anyway.”

  So I took a paw-full and then gave the rest of the box back because it had been brave of Tiny to admit what she had done and to apologise.

  After the wedding, everyone headed off to Glitterpuff’s kennel for the disco. None of the other guinea pigs CARED about Big Sal’s hair. In fact, they said it made him look AS HARD AS NAILS and he

  By the time me and Clem got home we were so EXHAUSTED that we almost didn’t notice the box next to the cat flap.

  There was a note on top which said:

  “It’s probably Maddy’s jumper,” said Clem.

  And it was. But there was something else under the jumper, wrapped up nicely in orange wrapping paper.

  I opened it.

  It was my DETECTIVE’S HAT!

  I looked at Clem. She was just as shocked as I was.

  “She must’ve gone searching for it in the park after I told her I’d lost it! WOW – she must REALLY be sorry.”

  “Hmm,” said Clem. “Maybe chihuahuas aren’t that bad after all.”

  I put my hat back on and went inside with Clem. It was time to write our OFFICIAL REPORT because the case of the missing orange guinea pig had been SOLVED.

  And now it was time for belly rubs and BISCUITS!

  Hola Pugly!

  Thanks for solving the crime and saving our wedding day! We’re having a great time in Mexico. It’s really hot so we’ve both got hats to keep off the sun.

  We know how much you love hats so we got you one too!

  Love & hugs

  Glitterpuff & Sal

  Also by

  Pamela Butchart:

  Wigglesbottom Primary:

  The Toilet Ghost

  The Shark in the Pool

  The Magic Hamster

  Illustrated by Becka Moor

  Baby Aliens Got My Teacher!

  The Spy Who Loved School Dinners

  My Head Teacher is a Vampire Rat!

  Attack of the Demon Dinner Ladies

  To Wee Or Not to Wee!

  Illustrated by Thomas Flintham

  Copyright

  To Roz and Gavin. Happy Wedding Day!

  P.B.

  PUGLY SOLVES A CRIME

  First published in the UK in 2016 by Nosy Crow Ltd

  The Crow’s Nest, 10a Lant Street

  London SE1 1QR, UK

  This ebook edition first published in 2016

  Nosy Crow and associated logos are trademarks and / or registered trademarks of Nosy Crow Ltd

  Text copyright © Pamela Butchart, 2016

  Cover and interior illustrations © Gemma Correll, 2016

  The rights of Pamela Butchart and Gemma Correll to be identified as author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblence to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 978 0 85763 677 5

  www.nosycrow.com