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dark to go round there now. But he could be anywhere, Lucie. And it’s a horrible night.”
    “Can I come and help you look? I bet my mum will come too. The morepeople the more chance there is we’ll spot him,” Lucie suggested.
    For the first time since she’d realized Smudge was gone, Olivia felt a little bit better. “Would you really help look?”
    “Call me tomorrow and let me know when,” Lucie told her firmly. “We’ll find him.”
    “OK,” Olivia whispered. “Thanks, Lucie. See you in the morning.” She put the phone back in its cradle. “Lucie’s going to come over and help us look,” she explained to Mum and Dad.
    Dad nodded. “That’s nice of her. Look, I think you should go to bed. You’re only sitting here making yourself feel worse. And we want to get up early and go and look for Smudge.”

    Olivia nodded, and went up to her room, but she didn’t think she’d be able to get to sleep. And when she did, she was sure she was going to dream about Smudge all night. Smudge lost and all alone, and wondering why she hadn’t come to find him.
    She lay in her warm bed, listening to the rain drumming on the roof outside her window, and hoping that Smudge was tucked away somewhere safe. But he could be anywhere, she thought worriedly, turning over, and huddling under her duvet. What if they never found him? What would they say to the people from the Rescue Centre? Debbie had said they would call in the next few days to see how they were getting on, and whether Smudge was settling in. They would have to tell her that they had lost him! Or actually, that a stupid, selfish, idiot boy had stolen him.
    Olivia thumped her pillow. At least being angry with Rob had stopped her wanting to cry. She wondered if someone could be sent to prison forstealing a kitten. Rob certainly deserved it. Dreamily, she imagined Rob in handcuffs, and herself standing there, with Smudge purring in her arms, watching as the police led him away.
    It seemed so real. For a moment, she could hear Smudge purring, she was sure. But it was only the rain, beating against her window.

Chapter Eight
    Smudge woke up, shivering. Although he had huddled himself into the pile of dustsheets, it was freezing inside the garage. He felt so cold he could hardly move. At last he stood up gingerly, stretching out his paws and fluffing up his fur to keep himself as warm as possible. He was sure that he was colder because he was so hungry. The last foodhe’d had was the sandwich in that boy’s bag yesterday afternoon, and now he felt horribly empty.
    It was getting light. There were dirty, greyish windows at the top of the walls, just under the roof, and a little watery sunshine was fighting its way in. Somehow it made Smudge feel more cheerful, even if it wasn’t making him much warmer. In the light he could see that the garage was full of piles of old junk – bits of cars and bikes, piles of pots of paint, and lots of dust. Last night it had just been strange shapes that wobbled when he scurried past them. It was all a lot less scary in the daylight.
    He jumped down from his pile of dust sheets, his legs still stiff and achyfrom the cold, and started to search for a way out. Last night, with the rain pouring down, the garage had at least been a shelter. Now it was stopping him going home to Olivia, and he was determined to escape. Surely now it was lighter he would be able to find another hole somewhere? Smudge made his way along the wall, sniffing and nudging at the concrete blocks.
    Edging round the side of a large box, his whiskers twitched hopefully as he spotted a little light coming through a crack at the bottom of the wall. He nosed at it eagerly, and then his whiskers drooped again. It was such a very small gap. But he had to try. The rest of the walls were made from solid concrete blocks, but hereone of the blocks seemed to have broken, and it had been patched up with a metal sheet on the outside. If he wriggled into the dark gap between