P I Penguin

By Justin Richards

Polly loves animals, and she loves working with her parents at the Three Rivers Animal Park. But she never expected to find a penguin in her bath – and certainly not a detective penguin. Before long, Polly and her new friend Pip are involved in a mystery that involves disappearing fish, a missing bicycle, light-fingered meerkats, and low-flying puffins...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Justin Richards
• Release date: Jun 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781908265029

Justin Richards

Justin Richards is the author of over a dozen genre and sf novels (including Dr Who). He lives in Warwick with his wife, two sons and a nice view of the castle.

Book preview

P. I. Penguin – Antarctic Detective

In

Fishy Business

By Justine Jardine

*

Braxiatek

www.braxiatek.com

P.I. Penguin

*

This edition published in 2014 by Braxiatek Limited at Smashwords

All rights reserved

© Braxiatek Ltd, 2014

The right of Justine Jardine to be identified as author of this

work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Cover Design: TX Dynamic

ISBN 978-1-908265-02-9

Braxiatek

www.braxiatek.com

1

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1

Polly couldn’t wait for bedtime. Not because she wanted to go to bed – like most little girls she hated going to bed. But the sooner it was bedtime, the sooner tomorrow would come.

And tomorrow there was no school because it was the end of term. So tomorrow Polly would go to work with her Mum and Dad. They both worked at the Three Rivers Animal Park, but doing very different jobs. Polly loved it there, which was why she couldn’t wait for tomorrow to arrive.

After tea she lay on her bed in her pyjamas reading. Her favourite books were all about animals. When she helped Mum at the gift shop in the Animal Park, she loved showing other children the big shelf of animal books.

It seemed no time at all before Mum was telling Polly it was time to turn her light out. Dad was back from work and came to say good night. He smelled of straw, and Polly guessed he had been sorting out the elephants and giraffes.

Polly dreamed about animals and fish, about lions and tigers and giraffes and Gloria the Gorilla. She dreamed she was watching the penguins swimming. She could even hear the sound of water splashing into their pool.

Except… Polly was awake. She was staring up at her African Safari Mobile. Her clock said it was long after midnight. So how come she could still hear the water splashing?

Polly got out of bed and opened her door. There was a light on in the bathroom.

‘Mum?’ she called softly. ‘Dad? Are you in there? Are you all right?’

The water stopped and there was a faint reply. It sounded like ‘Huk-huk.’

Polly turned the handle. She expected the door to be locked, but it opened easily. The room was full of steam. Gradually, it cleared and Polly saw that someone had run a deep, hot bath. She could smell the scent of the bubble bath. There was a lot of it. The bubbles were piled up over the top of the bath like icing on a huge wet cake.

Polly could see that there was someone in the bath, moving around amongst the bubbles. Someone not much bigger than Polly.

A black and white shape rose up out of the mass of bubbles. It seemed to pause above the bath, then dived back down into it. Polly only saw the shape for a moment, but that was enough. She stared in disbelief.

There was a penguin in the bath.

As she watched, the penguin’s orange beak poked out through the bubbles. Black, beady eyes stared at Polly.

What,’ the penguin asked in an accusing voice, ‘have you done with all the fish?’

Chapter 2

Polly was a clever girl, and she realised at once that she must be dreaming. After all, penguins don’t talk and they rarely take a bath in someone’s house. Since she was dreaming, Polly decided, she had better answer the penguin.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but we don’t keep fish in our bath.’

The penguin’s beak emerged again from the top