Following further questioning of Station Rats A & B, the mystery of how 628 Standard Issue Wee Parasols came to be found in Mr Moss’s Travelling Tote has been solved.
Rat B admits that, on the morning after the Health & Safety (Ant Division) celebrations at Chester Station Tap following their successful execution of a synchronised quadruple somersault with parasols fully extended, he collected the Wee Parasols left behind intending to hand them in to Lost Property.
On his way, however, he made the ill-advised decision to visit Rat A, then serving a 34-day sentence at Chester Station Small Mammal Jail. Upon seeing the parasols, Rat A proposed Rat B should sell them and give him a share of the proceeds as recompense for the “bumbling which put me in ‘ere”.
Rat B initially refused, but Rat A persisted, instructing Rat B to hide the parasols in Phileas Moss Esq.’s missing Travelling Tote of which he (somehow) knew the whereabouts. Rat B admits to following the plan, but only because he felt scared and intimidated.
Rat A’s statement is rather different: He admits finding Mr Moss’s Tote shortly before his arrest and removing the paperwork inside for “safekeeping”. He maintains he had intended to return the paperwork and Tote to Lost Property but was arrested before he could do so. He therefore claims that his instructions to Rat B were entirely innocent: collect the Tote, put the parasols inside and return all 629 missing items in one convenient trip.
Unfortunately for Rat A, Mrs Gladys M. Dillwyn-Llewelyn’s statement after overhearing a conversation between the pair rather comprehensively corroborates Rat B’s version.
It is therefore concluded that Rat B intended to return the Wee Parasols but was intimidated by Rat A into selling them, using Mr Moss’s Tote to conceal them.
Rat A has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation as to the whereabouts of Mr Moss’s missing paperwork, the investigation into which remains ongoing.
Tiggy is now considering the appropriate punishment. Unfortunately for both rats, the Chief Rat Catcher may not be in the office, but she is still very much keeping abreast of and in control of events…