Dad looked up, surprised. ‘What were you doing in the shed, Dorcas?’ I could see he was about to crossen up, but then he looked at me and changed his face. ‘I don’t know, Dorcas. I’ve never seen it before. Where exactly was it?’

‘It was pushed down the back where you couldn’t see it easily. Is this what Mr Johnson brought Sixpence home in? But why did he put her in a box if he had this cage? And why did he hide the cage in our shed?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, Dorcas. I don’t know. But I think I’ll ask him.’ Dad walked out the door looking very determined. I thought about going with him, but I knew he would just send me home. If Mr J deliberately killed Sixpence, I would be happy if Dad told the police and if they put him in jail. We are meant to forgive other people and turn the other cheek, but I would quite like him to go away, even if it meant Mrs Johnson and the girls had to live on their own and only visit him in prison on his birthday, which I was pretty sure they would let them do even if he was a guinea-pig killer.

Ruthy was ready to go to school, but I wanted to find out what happened when Dad came home. Mum and Caleb were asleep in Caleb’s room, so I told Ruthy just to go to school and I’d go by myself later. Ruthy came up to me at the kitchen table and gave me a little hug.

‘I’m really sorry about Sixpence, Dorcas. I really am. It’s horrible. You were mean to Caleb yesterday but you didn’t deserve that to happen. Mum thinks you made him have an asthma attack, but I’m sure you didn’t. His teacher said it is the spring allergy season and that lots of kids are getting asthma and hay fever, and I’m sure that’s what it is because he always gets sick just before the union exams in September. Where is Sixpence now?’ she asked.

‘She’s buried in Mr Driver’s garden behind the shed. After school he’s going to help me build a memorial to put on her grave. I can show you after if you like. Or you could help. You’re good at making things.’

‘I will be glad to help, Dorcas. I’ll think about ideas at school today and we can walk home and decide what to make. We’ll make something really beautiful for her.’ She hugged me again. ‘I’m going to make some special Sixpence pages in my journal in her honour, and you can write in them too if you want. There’s a girl in my class who is a very good drawer. I’m going to ask her to go to the library with me to look for photos of guinea pigs and then I’ll ask her to draw Sixpence for us. We can cut the drawing out and put it in the journal. And I am going to write to Daniel and tell him about it because he would have loved Sixpence too and I know he will be very sad for you.’