Pur-Ling & the Mystery of the Missing Gunge - Part 3

Things were getting tense at Catnap House in Wobbly End. Clawdia was still sitting in the gunge tank, still tied to her chair, nervously waiting to see if anyone would be able to answer Catnap’s fiendish quiz questions and secure her release. Catnap had kept her up to date with a few of the results he’d had come in so far and, unfortunately for Clawdia, so far, no one had got every question right and it was looking increasingly likely that she was going to get gunged.

“You’ve done this on purpose!” She said to Catnap as he sat on the sofa opposite her. “You made that last question extra hard hoping someone will forget one of us didn’t you?”

Catnap leaned back and stretched contentedly. “Yeeeah, that’s about the size of it. Still, I expect everyone will get which wasn’t a Catastrophes song. I mean, everyone knows the titles of The Catastrophes songs right Clawd?”

“Oh ha ha, ha de haha!” Clawdia said sarcastically.  “Very funny.”

Then Clawdia gave Catnap a cheeky look. “Think I should wear my Princess Peach costume for Halloween this year Mr Smartypants?”

“Shut up or I shall press the button myself!” Catnap snapped back.

“Just sayin’.” Clawdia grinned. “Anyway, am I missing much at the moment? Anyone up to anything exciting?”

Catnap thought for a moment. “Hmm, I believe some have gone home to watch Feral Brown’s new show. Might watch that too, he’s very clever. How he does those mind game things is beyond me. Catrina and Tabi are still trying to sort out their wedding venue, thought they’d got one but unfortunately it’s all fallen through…”

“Oh that’s a shame,” Clawdia said sympathetically. “That the one at the castle?”

“Yeah, apparently it’s closed down since we did Vanishing Guests there. Reeow was trying to get them into Manoir de la Rose Noire instead but she’s not heard back from the owners yet.”

“Aww, hope they find something soon. Any other news?”

“Well, Zena’s rehearsing for the Christmas ballet, or is trying to anyway. Keeps getting a bit, um, delayed. Whiska has one of her sculptures going on display at the art gallery next week and um…think that’s it. Oh, and Pur-Ling is investigating some missing gunge apparently.”

“Is she really?” Clawdia didn’t look impressed. “Can’t imagine where that’s gone.”

“No nor me.” Mr C gave Clawdia a wink. “And that’s all the news as far as I know.”

PING!

Catnap looked at his laptop.

“Oooh another set of answers has come through…could be your prince charming, your knight in shining armour…let’s see…Ooooh it is!”

Clawdia tried to see the screen but couldn’t. “Well, how did he do?”

Catnap spent a few moments reading through the highly detailed answers. “Well…”

**************

Pur-Ling started to wake up, still feeling light-headed and spaced out. It took her a while to get her bearings but she was not in the least bit surprised to find herself tightly bound with tape. As she’d drifted off to sleep, she kinda guessed this would happen. Question was, where was she? Another question was, who had done this to her? And a third question was, what’s with all the flashing lights?

She shook her head and blinked to try and get used to her new surroundings. She was sitting in a comfortable(ish) chair in a darkened room. In front of her, was the source of the lights; a large screen showing some kind of movie. She quickly twigged that she was in a cinema. She watched the film for a few minutes wondering why on earth anyone would catnap her to take her to the movies then realised all was not as it should be. This was certainly no mainstream movie. This was some weird arty thing.  She sat there confused as she watched the odd collection of film clips that seemed to be totally unconnected and random: ducks flying backwards, crows pushing buttons for rewards (always the same kind of button), ice cream slowly melting and dripping down the side of a cone, cats under waterfalls, cats doing their laundry…all very odd.  Amongst the weirdness, positive affirmations like ‘do it’, ‘when one door closes another door opens’ and 'you know you want to' flicked between the images. Very strange.

Just then, Pur-Ling realised she wasn’t alone. She looked to her right and saw Sassy (still in her cop outfit), bound on the next but one chair. Pur-Ling mmmphed as loudly as she could through her tape gag to try and get Sassy’s attention but Sassy just stared at the screen. Pur-Ling tried again.

“SSSSSYYYYY!!!”

Still, no reaction. The would-be cop was gazing transfixed at the movie. No matter what Pur-Ling tried to get her attention, Sassy didn’t notice.

Pur-Ling started to get frustrated and looked around the movie theatre to see if anyone else was around. She thought she saw a glimpse of someone in the projection booth but they quickly disappeared. She struggled in vain then with a sigh, decided to give in and try and work out what was going on. She looked over at Sassy again. Sassy was still staring at the screen, unaware of anything around her.

Pur-Ling watched the screen bemused then something caught her eye. Small phrases kept appearing. At first they didn’t seem to make any sense, then she realised something. They all seemed to have the same letters in them. Or was she imagining that? Mentally, the captured detective tried to make a note of the phrases. They did seem strange:

egg nutrient plugholes
English opulent tugger
Goth singletree unplug
nought reptile snuggle
ghoul glen guttersnipe
nitrogen pulls thuggee

She started going over them in her head then something began to dawn on her…she knew whodunnit!