Now the detective remembered that in his dream he’d hidden the cake tins He cleared his throat and looked at the floor I was wide awake said Buffy so I went out and chopped a bit of wood And I found the cake tins in the woodshed It was a nasty obnoxious scoundrel the detective said vehemently In the dream I mean He suddenly had a terrible thought imagine if the cake tins were empty It would be an awful shame to find he’d eaten all the cakes in his dream without actually enjoying them He’d have only empty tins left And an extra fat tummy He reached for one of the cake tins He chose the morning one There were three different tins the morning cake tin the afternoon cake tin and the evening cake tin 10
Since police work often continued into evenings and nights it was very important to be able to tell the time by taste What if the morning tin was empty But all the cakes were there He stacked one vanilla cake on top of another and ate them Wonderful Grumph grumph I’ve become a little greedy lately he thought Buffy rummaged in the dressing-up chest under the bed and put a gold crown on her head She danced to and fro across the floor She sang I investigate investi ga-ga-gate all the time watching herself in the mirror Do you know said Gordon it’s been quite hard work being a police officer But since you became Police Assistant last winter things have been a lot easier It’s much nicer now at the police station The mouse danced on her tiptoes across the floor and the detective clapped his hands I think I’ll have a vanilla cake to celebrate he said A double one Mm-mm grumph grumph Ah yes now I’m happy 11
Buffy stopped mid-step and looked seriously at her chief But not everyone in this forest is happy she said There’s something funny going on because almost everyone looks troubled They are sad Is that so said the detective The mouse nodded Is it a crime she asked If everybody’s sad and serious A very serious crime said Gordon Oh did you want a cake too Sorry Never mind said Buffy I ate a nut when I woke up 12
She looked into the empty cake tin Only the smell of morning cakes remained Buffy had a very good sense of smell and she loved vanilla it smelled of wind flowers and big faraway mountains Detective Gordon shuffled over to his desk and took out a sheet of white paper The police must do something about this He couldn’t think what to write on his notice Not yet He satisfied himself with taking out the old and very important stamp from the drawer He placed it in the middle of the page He moved it a little to the right Then a little to the left Hmm Perfect Kla-dunk went the stamp An official stamp appeared on the page A new case had begun 13
