Reality Hack by Niall Teasdale Read Free Book Online

going out to see if I can find out where you came from. You must belong to someone.’
    The cat curled under her arm, rubbing its back across her hand, and then curled around her leg before giving her elbow a head-rub.
    ‘No, you don’t belong to me,’ Nisa told it, though she had the weird feeling she was kidding herself.
    ~~~
    Limehouse Police Station was a fairly typical, yellow-brown brick blockhouse structure with an unhelpful desk sergeant. To be fair to the middle-aged man behind the counter, he was not being unhelpful on purpose. No one, however, considered a lost cat, even one which looked like it should have a pedigree, a matter for the police. Maybe she should consider checking local shop windows, or calling the RSPCA, or Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.
    Well, Nisa had tried Battersea before walking to the station. Of course they had had missing cats reported, but they thought the distinctive eyes would have been mentioned, and no one had reported a lost cat with vibrant green eyes to them.
    Well, Cat was clearly going to be staying longer. Nisa figured she could check some windows as she walked back via the shops on St Paul’s Way. She was going to need cat food… Oh God, was she going to have to buy a litter tray?!
    ‘How come the damn cat has to fixate on me?’ she muttered as she marched toward home. ‘She couldn’t find a nice old lady to leech off. Oh no, gotta go for the tall blonde on the top floor of a tower block.’ She got an odd look from someone walking past and frowned. ‘And now she’s got me talking to myself. Great.’
    The mini supermarket she got a bag of dry food from did indeed have a couple of notices about lost cats in the window. There was a missing ginger tom who answered to the name of Sparkles. Nisa imagined she knew why he had bolted: what cat wanted to be known as Sparkles? The other cats probably made fun of him when he went out looking for girl cats. ‘Oh look, it’s Sparkles,’ they would say, and then do little kitty snickers behind their paws. There was also a white female named Duchess, which brought on the suggestion that Sparkles had run off to Paris with her. They were probably in a rooftop garret playing jazz piano as Nisa read their wanted posters.
    What there was not was a black cat with green eyes, pedigree optional. So Nisa tried asking the shopkeeper whose name was Jones even though she was pretty sure he was Indian.
    ‘Black cat with green eyes?’ Mister Jones mused. ‘No, not had anyone looking for anything like that.’ He tapped his index finger against his lip, the note Nisa was using to pay for the cat food waving in his other hand. ‘Mrs Carew has a cat, because she buys food here. Haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks. Maybe she’s lost her cat.’
    ‘I don’t suppose you know where she lives?’
    Jones shook his head. ‘Always pays cash, like you. If she paid by card I might know, but she always pays cash. Must live around here though. Not much point in using your local supermarket if you’re not local.’
    ‘Carew?’ Nisa asked.
    ‘Jenny, I think,’ Jones said with a nod and rang up the purchase.
    Well, she had a potential name, even if it was a long shot. And tomorrow she would have access to the Police National Database. Somehow she doubted that Kellog would consider hunting for the owner of a lost cat to be correct use of police systems, but she could ask.
    ~~~
    The cat eyed the bowl of dry food and then looked up at Nisa. The question was apparent: ‘Where’s my tuna?’
    ‘This is good for you,’ Nisa told the cat. ‘And I can’t afford to feed you tuna every day. Well, not yet anyway. Maybe when I get my first pay in, but right now this is what I’ve got. I’ll spring for some Sheba or something and dance through the lounge in bare feet when I get paid, okay?’
    Apparently mollified, the cat began munching the biscuits. Even to Nisa they sounded dry and she thought to put down a saucer of water, which got her a meow and