Milly paid her one and six at the entrance. The children’s playground stretched over a couple of acres, and she was amazed by what she saw. Seebold had worked hard to achieve a magical atmosphere. A castle dominated the centre space. Children could climb a winding staircase to drop ‘bombs’ – soft balls – from the battlements, and for an extra thruppence could try on some child-size armour. There were swings, roundabouts, slides and a climbing frame. For older children and adults, there was a shooting range, darts, hoopla, and a game where you rolled tennis balls uphill and into a hole. Milly saw a queue of small children waiting to have a ride in a Cinderella coach, which was pulled by a goat in harness, and little ones were leaning over low fences, fascinated by the white rabbits and guinea pigs running around in an enclosure which looked like a village from a fairy story. Their hutches were made to look like tiny houses and there was a small village green in the middle. All the staff wore smart blue shirts and blue trousers or skirts, and it struck her that none of them had pockets. That meant that none of his staff could craftily pocket the takings instead of putting the money into the tills. She smiled to herself. Seebold had thought of everything.

At the back of the complex was a small tea van which also sold ice creams. People sat around on the benches provided to eat and drink their refreshments.

Milly headed for the office which, to her surprise, turned out to be nothing more than a wooden shed on the edge of the site. Clearly he was more keen to create an unforgettable experience for his punters than catering for his own creature comforts.

‘Knock, knock,’ she said as she approached the door.

Seebold sat behind a small desk. As soon as he saw her, he leapt to his feet. ‘Milly! You came!’

‘Of course I did,’ she said with a laugh, ‘but I had to fight my way in. It’s manic out there.’

‘It’s great, isn’t it,’ he beamed. ‘You know I can hear the sound of the children’s laughter in my dreams.’

He offered her a chair and turned towards a small primus stove. ‘Tea?’

Milly nodded. ‘I can’t believe what you’ve done. It’s magnificent.’

‘I didn’t manage to get everything I wanted,’ he said, handing her a mug of dark brown tea. ‘There’s still more to come. I’ve only half-done the enclosure for the story of Little Red Riding Hood.’

‘I think I saw that!’ cried Milly. ‘Was that where a child-size dummy wearing a bright red cloak was standing behind a fenced-off area?’

Seebold nodded. He was pouring himself some tea. ‘I’ve arranged for a wolf to come. It should arrive this afternoon, along with some more sheep and a snake to go in my Adam and Eve booth.’

Milly’s eyes widened. ‘A wolf? I thought they were hunted to extinction in this country. Are you allowed to bring a wolf over here?’

Seebold came closer and tapped his nose. ‘Probably not, but don’t tell anyone.’

‘You naughty boy,’ Milly said teasingly and Seebold grinned.

As they sipped their tea, someone knocked on the door and a swarthy-looking man with greasy hair and a sweaty face stepped into the office.

‘Road train has arrived, boss,’ he said, snatching off his flat cap.

‘Good man,’ Seebold said, rising to his feet. ‘Milly, this is Alf.’

Milly and Alf exchanged a nod.

‘Have the press turned up, Alf?’

‘There’s one chap from the Gazette, but nobody else.’

‘Damn,’ said Seebold. ‘This was supposed to bring me some publicity.’

Lena suddenly burst through the door. ‘Seebold, you’d better come quickly. There’s a problem.’

Milly stood up and Lena gave her a quick wave. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ll chat to you later.’

‘What’s happened?’ asked Milly, as she tagged along behind them.

‘The road train just came in,’ Lena said over her shoulder, ‘but one of the cages is damaged.’

Everybody hurried to the far corner of the field, where a collection of vehicles was parked up by the fence. Some boys no more than twelve years old were hanging around, trying to see what was going on. There was a lot of shouting, and people were gesticulating with their hands. She spotted a couple of men removing animals from their cages to put them into their new accommodation, but the boys weren’t interested in that. As she came closer, Milly could see a couple of sheep, and a man who was heading towards the Adam and Eve enclosure, carrying a large box which she guessed must be the snake.

‘Lena, what is it? What’s wrong?’

Her sister swung around. ‘Seebold ordered a wolf but it isn’t there,’ she whispered.

Milly frowned. ‘Perhaps they forgot to put it in the cage,’ she suggested. It was a little disconcerting, but there had to be a logical explanation – didn’t there?

It was only when she set eyes on the wolf’s cage that she understood everybody’s panic. One bar was only attached to the cage at the top because the wood underneath appeared to be rotten. It was powdery and splintered. The bar next to it was bent in the middle, as if someone or something had pushed its way out.

Seebold was interrogating Alf, the driver. ‘That cage couldn’t have got damaged that bad without you knowing about it, man. You must have seen what happened.’

‘No, guv, I just told you. I only took over in Brighton. Herb asked me to drive the wagon ’cos his missus is having a baby. They said the kiddie was on its way and Herb wanted to be there, though why ’e did I shall never understand. I saw my baby brother coming and I’m telling you it wasn’t a pretty sight. Enough to put you off your dinner fer life.’

‘Yes, yes,’ Seebold interrupted. ‘But that bar couldn’t have got bent like that unless somebody exerted considerable force on it.’ He put his hand on Alf’s shoulder. ‘Don’t you see? Somebody must have tampered with it.’

‘Well if they did, guv, I never saw ’em,’ Alf insisted. ‘I never saw nobody.’

‘Did you stop somewhere?’

‘No, guv. Upon my life.’

Seebold shook his head with a puzzled expression.

‘Oh wait a minute,’ Alf cried. ‘Now I come to think about it, I did stop. I had to. It was near the river.’

‘What do you mean, you had to? Are you saying somebody forced you to stop?’

The driver leaned towards him in a confidential manner. ‘Nah. I needed a pee.’

‘But when you stopped, you were seen?’

‘Course not,’ said Alf. ‘I made sure of that, don’t you worry.’

Seebold seemed confused. ‘I don’t understand.’

Alf moved closer and lowered his voice. ‘I got out of me cab and went in the bushes,’ he confided. Lena and Milly stifled a laugh. ‘Bloody busting I was,’ he continued, ‘so don’t worry, nobody saw me.’

Seebold rolled his eyes.

Someone pushed through the gathering crowd. ‘Excuse me, excuse me. Archibald Crump, reporter, Worthing Gazette. What’s going on?’

He motioned to a man with a camera and, a second later, there was a bright flash. Seebold froze and the driver looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

He turned away muttering,  ‘All this fuss for a bloody pee. If there was a wolf, I never saw the going of ’im.’

The reporter did a double take. ‘What’s this about a wolf? What wolf? Where is it?’