“I suppose,” I said. “But that doesn’t help too much, Shed. Unless you have an idea which grown up it might be. Why would a grown-up want the money?”

  Shed coughed.

  “Er, well … maybe … the thing is …”

  “Come on, Shed,” said Salim. “Tell us. Who do you think it is?”

  Shed looked at the ground before looking up at me.

  “Ade, I think it could be your dad.”

  14

  All Over It, Over

  “SUSPECT leaving the house, over,” I said into a walkie-talkie from my hiding place behind a parked car.

  “I have eyes on the suspect.” Dexter’s voice came crackling back at me. “Well, one eye as I’m standing sideways on, over.”

  The suspect in question was Dad.

  When Shed had suggested that the tall person in the Darth Vader mask might be Dad, I was shocked. I didn’t want to even consider it.

  If Dad didn’t like something, he’d tell you straight. But when I told the rest of the gang that Brian pointed out that was exactly what he’d already done. Dad had said he didn’t want me to play for the Rollers. End of. And I’d ignored him.

  I argued back that Mum had said she hadn’t told Dad about the fundraising for the chair, so if he didn’t know anything about it, how could it be him?

  The answer, according to most of the others, was simple. Mum had told him. As Salim said, parents are like that sometimes. They do what they think is best, but they tell you what you want to hear, when actually they’ve done something different.

  I still wasn’t convinced. If Mum had told him, why had Dad not just told me straight to stop fundraising? It felt like we were going round in circles.

  Shed reckoned he had the answer to that one. He said after his dad lost his job, he’d wanted to tell the family straight away, but his mum had convinced him not to. She thought it was better not to worry everyone. Shed thought mums could pretty much convince anyone to do anything, especially dads. He thought my mum had told my dad that she would deal with it. Or maybe, that she had convinced him not to tell me straight but to let me down gently. So that’s how they both came up with the Masked Marauder idea.

  To me, there seemed to be more questions than answers, and we didn’t have much to go on, apart from the Masked Marauder being tall. But when I’d tracked down Steph’s brother again, whose name was Andy, he’d said that the person also had quite a deep voice. Like a grown-up.

  Like my dad.

  Try as I might, I couldn’t come up with any other grown-up suspects. Everyone else was pretty supportive of my ambitions – the teachers at school had all sponsored us and loads of our neighbours. Dad was the only grown-up who made sense.

  Being totally honest, I was shocked at the idea, but we didn’t have any other theories. Once Shed had said it, I just had to know one way or the other, so I agreed that we should at least check it out.

  The plan we’d come up with was this: Andy would contact the Masked Marauder to arrange to hand over the money he was supposed to have taken from the cake stall. Andy had told us that they’d previously met in the Chicken Basket, a fast-food restaurant on the High Street, on a quiet table near the back, away from prying eyes.

  Andy would arrange the time and then we’d stake out my house to see if Dad left to go to the meet. If he did, Dexter and I would follow him and when Dad got to the restaurant … Well, I was going to have to confront him and then who knows what would happen.

  On the other hand, if Dad didn’t leave the house, we’d know it wasn’t him. In that case, we’d decided that Melody, Shed, Salim and Emily would be waiting in the Chicken Basket, ready to pounce when the real Masked Marauder turned up.

  Unfortunately, my worst fears had been confirmed. I lived about twenty minutes’ walk from the restaurant and, sure enough, twenty minutes before Andy had arranged to meet the Masked Marauder Dad set off.

  “Suspect is carrying a small rucksack,” I said into the walkie-talkie. “Big enough to conceal a Darth Vader mask. Setting off in pursuit, over.”

  I just couldn’t believe it. How could Dad be the Masked Marauder? It was like a very bad dream.

  I was following quite a long way behind, but Dad wasn’t exactly rushing so it was easy to keep him in my line of vision.

  After about two minutes, Dexter popped out from behind a bush and joined me.

  “Suspect heading in the direction of the restaurant, over,” he said.

  “Dex, you don’t need to say ‘over’ – you’re right next to me.”

  “Oh. Okay,” he said. “Over.”

  I shook my head.

  “Come on. We don’t want to lose him.”

  Trying not to draw attention to ourselves, we picked up our pace and saw Dad again as soon as we rounded the corner.

  My guess was that he would duck into another building near to the restaurant to put the Darth Vader mask on, and then make his way to the meet with Andy.

  When we got to the High Street Dad headed into the bank.

  As we waited for him to come out, my wheelchair began glowing. This time, it wasn’t red but green. Green for go. But did it mean go and confront him now, or did it mean go home? I was confused.

  “He’s taking a long time to put the mask on,” said Dexter.

  “Yes, he is,” I said slowly. “You don’t think he’s gone out of a back door, do you?” “Hang on,” said Dexter.

  He switched his walkie-talkie back on.

  “Dexter to Melody, over.”

  There was a crackle from the walkie-talkie, then we heard Melody’s voice.

  “Receiving.”

  Dexter looked at me.

  “She didn’t say ‘over,’” he said. “What should I do?”

  “Just talk to her anyway, Dex.”

  “Okay. Melody, any sighting of MM yet? Over.”

  “Negative,” she replied. “Andy still alone, no sign of MM. Repeat, no sign of MM.”

  Dexter didn’t say anything again and looked at me.

  “She didn’t say ‘over’ again,” he said.

  I was about to tell him that it really didn’t matter, but I’d had enough. What was Dad doing in the bank? I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

  I pushed down hard on the wheels of my chair and charged towards the front door. I was just about to enter when …

  Crash!

  I banged right into someone coming out.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I started saying. “I was just looking for … Dad!”

  “Doyin?” Dad said. “What are you doing here? And why are you in such a hurry? Have you got a secret savings account that you are hiding from us?” He said it with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Eh?”

  I was confused. If Dad was the MM and on his way to meet Andy, why was he in such a good mood?

  “If you have been hiding money, then I’ll need at least ten years of rent from you.”

  He laughed loudly. Dad always enjoyed his own jokes.

  “Oh no, erm, I wasn’t,” I spluttered, not knowing quite what to say.

  “You certainly seemed to be in a hurry to go inside,” said Dad.

  Dexter came running up.

  “We weren’t following you, Mr Adepitan, honestly we weren’t,” he said, the words pouring out of him like a waterfall.

  “Following me?” Dad looked confused. “I never thought you were.”

  “Oh good,” said Dexter. “Because we definitely weren’t. In fact, we definitely haven’t been following you since you left your house twenty minutes ago, carrying a Darth Vader mask in your rucksack so you could take the money we’ve raised for Ade’s sports wheelchair.”

  Dad looked at the two of us. It was a look I knew well. It wasn’t a good one.

  “Adedoyin,” he said, “I don’t know what it is you and your friends are up to, but it is time for you to have a talk with me and your mother. We’re going home. Now!”

  I didn’t have a choice. As I left, Dexter made a face as if to say, ‘What have I done?’

  The answer to that, I thought gloomily, was ‘got me into a whole lot of trouble’.

  At home, I sat at the kitchen table facing a very stern and cross-looking Mum and Dad.

  “Well?” said Dad.

  I tried to think of lots of different reasons for being at the bank, and why Dexter would have said all that, but everything was a big muddle in my head, so in the end I just sighed and told them the truth.

  “Adedoyin!” Mum shouted. “Why would you think your father would do such a thing?”

  “It seemed to make sense,” I whimpered.

  “Only to you and your friends,” said Mum. “Hahh! I’ve never heard such nonsense.”

  I looked down. I didn’t feel good. I’d accused my dad of being a thief. Mum was scarily angry, but Dad was silent. Somehow that was worse.

  “Adedoyin,” said Mum sternly, “go to your room while your father and I have a talk.”

  “Yes, Mum,” I said. “I … I … Sorry.”

  Sitting alone in my room I felt pretty stupid. I’d messed up. It didn’t matter how strong my Cyborg Cat powers were or how good I was at basketball – if I made the wrong decisions, I’d never amount to anything.

  I picked up a football magazine and flicked through it, but I couldn’t really concentrate. I couldn’t make out what Mum and Dad were saying, so all I could do was sit there and await my fate. No super Cyborg hearing for me now, I thought dejectedly.

  “Doyin!” shouted Mum about half an hour later. “Come here, please.”

  I made my way downstairs with a heavy heart and a nervous stomach. I couldn’t look at my parents and stared down at the ground as if my eyes were being pulled by extreme gravity.

  “Doyin,” said Mum. “Look at us.”

  My head felt like it weighed a ton, but I lifted it up slowly.

  “We have been talking about your situation quite a lot,” Mum continued. “Not just today, but over the past few weeks and … well, why don’t you tell him, Ajibola?”

  Dad looked at me. I expected to see a fierce anger in his eyes, but it wasn’t there. I was relieved, but also confused.

  “Adedoyin,” he said, “I’m still not exactly sure what you thought I was doing earlier, but the fact that you seemed to think I might be going to steal money from you, that I do not like. It upsets me greatly.”

  “I know, Dad, but …”

  He held his finger up to silence me. There was more he wanted to say.

  “I hope you know that I would never, never do anything like that.”

  I nodded.

  “Good,” Dad said. “Now, you also know that I have found it difficult seeing you in a wheelchair, Doyin.”

  I nodded again.

  “But, over the past few weeks, I have noticed how well you have been doing in it, how determined you are, and that makes me very proud.”

  I smiled, taken by surprise.

  “I really do believe you can do anything, whether you’re in a wheelchair or not, and I do mean anything.”

  This was going well now.

  “Does that mean you don’t mind me being in the basketball team?” I asked, still a little unsure.

  “No, I don’t mind,” said Dad. “I can see how much it means to you. So you can play. On one condition.”

  “Yes, Dad?”

  “You must concentrate on your studies, and at the end of each term you must get As in all of your classes. I will speak to your teachers. If they tell me that you have been messing around or not working hard enough, there will be no more basketball.”

  “Yes, Dad,” I said forlornly. Getting top marks at school was going to be tough.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” he said. His voice was stern again. “You had better be the best player on the whole team. I want you to get an A in basketball as well. If Coach Carlos tells me you’re not working hard there will be trouble.”

  I was in shock. “H-how do you know Coach Carlos?”

  “Doyin –” this time it was Mum’s turn – “don’t worry. Just do as your father says.”

  She smiled and gave me a wink.

  “Yes, ma’am! Yes, sir!” I said, saluting with a huge grin on my face.

  I hadn’t expected this. I was so happy I almost cried. It was such a relief to know Mum and Dad believed in me.

  I was in such a good mood I was just about to ask Dad if he wanted to throw a ball around with me. That was until I suddenly remembered.

  Dad wasn’t the Masked Marauder.

  That meant whoever it really was must have turned up at the restaurant to meet Andy. With any luck that also meant it was time for another unmasking.

  15

  In a Restaurant Not So Far, Far Away

  “WHERE is he? Where’s Darth Vader? It’s time to defeat him and his evil empire.”

  After what had happened with Mum and Dad, I was absolutely buzzing when I got to the Chicken Basket. It didn’t last long.

  “He’s not here,” said Brian. “He didn’t show up.”

  “We’ve been sitting here the whole time,” said Shed.

  “Yeah,” said Melody. “And Andy hasn’t moved either.”

  Andy gave me an awkward wave from a nearby table.

  “I contacted him, honestly,” he said. “But it’s just an answering machine. I left a message. It’s always worked before.”

  “Dex told us what happened with your dad,” said Salim. “So we thought you, erm, might not be in such a good mood.”

  “Yeah, I thought I wouldn’t be either,” I said. “Dad wasn’t happy about me thinking he’d taken the money, but, get this – he’s completely changed his mind about me playing basketball!”

  “That’s amazing, Ade,” said Melody.

  “I know, it’s brilliant!”

  “But, Ade, the Masked Marauder didn’t turn up here and your dad didn’t turn up here,” said Shed. “So doesn’t that mean it could still be your dad?”

  “No way,” I snapped. “Dad and Mum are both completely behind me getting a sports wheelchair. They want me to do well so why would they try to stop me?”

  “So who’s left as a suspect?” Emily asked. “What’s our next move?”

  I really didn’t know. It felt as if we were back to square one. Who was Andy’s mysterious, evil boss? None of us had any idea. There was only one thing for it.

  “Emergency summit meeting,” I said.

  “Not another one,” groaned Salim.

  “Yes,” I said. “We’re the Parsons Road Gang and when we put our heads together we can solve any problem!”

  Everyone punched the air and cheered, even Andy – although he clearly didn’t know what we were on about.

  Despite the fact that my nemesis was still a mystery, it felt good to be with my friends. I knew we would figure this out.

  “Excuse me.”

  One of the restaurant’s employees was standing by our table.

  “You’ve all been here for ages and only had a bag of chips and one drink between you. If you’re not going to buy anything else, my manager says you have to leave.”

  As we all got up to go, Shed said, “Hey, why don’t we have the meeting at my house?”

  I was pleased. Shed hadn’t invited us to his house since his dad had lost his job, so maybe this was a sign that things were getting better for him and his family.

  We said goodbye to Andy – with Dex reminding him once again not to leave the country or escape to Hungamania – and set off back to Parsons Road, mucking about on the way as usual. Halfway there, though, Melody pulled me back from the others. Something was on her mind.

  “Why didn’t the Masked Marauder turn up?” she said.

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “Perhaps he knew that you lot were going to be there.”

  “That’s what I’ve been thinking,” she said. “But how?”

  “Andy could have told him, I suppose,” I said, but I knew I didn’t really believe that.

  “Maybe,” she replied. “But listen, Ade, if not, the only other way he could have found out is if one of the gang told him.”

  “What?!” I shouted so loudly the others turned round.

  I laughed it off, but as soon as they’d started mucking around again I turned back to Melody.

  “No way,” I said. “No one in the Parsons Road Gang would do that.”

  “I agree,” she said. “But I don’t mean on purpose, of course. I mean by accident. Maybe one of his friends overheard us talking?”

  “It’s possible,” I said. “Let’s see what the others say.”

  We headed up to Shed’s bedroom for the emergency summit – the others helped me and Salim get upstairs. I kicked it off by recapping what we knew – not a lot – and then I asked if any of them could have been overheard talking about our plan to ambush the Masked Marauder at the Chicken Basket.

  None of them could recall doing that. Brian said he’d spoken to Dexter about it on the phone, but he’d taken the phone up to his bedroom and spoken really, really quietly under his bed.

  Dexter suggested that the government might have been listening in to the call.

  “I think they’ve trained Dr Snuggles,” he said.

  We all stared at him, open-mouthed.

  “Dex! What are you talking about?”

  “Dr Snuggles, my sister’s cat!” Dexter said, looking at us like we were the idiots. “He meowed very loudly when Brian called me. And he was staring at me from the stairs. It could have been Dr Snuggles who told MM about the plan.”

  “Dr Snuggles is a talking spy cat that works for the government? And may have informed MM about our plan?” Brian replied, his hands on his head in total disbelief.

  “Yeah, I know, it’s an absolute catastrophe!” Dexter said casually.

  They all cracked up.

  “Come on, you lot, stop messing around,” I said impatiently. We had to get serious if we were going to find out who was behind the Darth Vader mask.

  Knock knock.

  It was Shed’s mum.

  “It must be hungry work doing whatever it is you’re doing,” she said. “Dad’s had some good news and we’re celebrating. He’s going to the fried chicken shop, so would you all like something?”

 

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