Page 16 - Billy the Cat and Katie

this case, but his accomplice in that robbery is still at large. Don’t worry, we’ll find him
eventually.’ William shook the Chief Inspector’s hand and went back outside where Kathleen
was waiting patiently. Riding back home he told his cousin about the man and what the police
had said. ‘I think I’d like to see this crook and have a little talk with him.’

By Wednesday the papers were full of stories of masked heroes, giant cats and of course the
robbers who’d been caught red handed with the help of two people with secret identities. It
was at this time that one of the reporters tracked down Charlie Robins who’d got off with only
a fine for attempted burglary as he’d not actually stolen anything. He’d been telling people that
he was the first to see the cat-person and had actually been caught due to being chased from
the scene by the figure with amazing strength and agility. Charlie was no slouch and was an ex-
football player but even he was easily overcome by the ‘cat’. The reporter arranged to meet
Charlie in the local pub, The Bull and Gate where he’d already had a few pints before the
reporter Terry Marsh got there which made his job even easier. A few more pints and Charlie
was talking non-stop about the ‘cat’, about the house where Mabel Grange and her children
lived and how he’d been jumped upon by this superhuman attacker and had only escaped by
sheer luck. When he described how the ‘cat’ had caught a kitchen knife in mid-air, Terry
dropped his drink and nearly fell off his chair. It was an amazing story and would make great
headlines the following day so it was well worth the £10 that he paid Charlie, even if he’d only
spend it on drink but that was the deal and Terry wanted this exclusive really badly. Charlie had
gotten off lightly compared to another villain who was about to receive a very big surprise.

Back at the police station in Burnham one of the custody officer’s duties was to accompany a
single prisoner to and from the exercise yard at the rear of the building, where each one would
get 15 minutes to walk around inside walls that are 20 feet high topped with barbed
wire. Listening every night to the police radio William discovered that every day the crooks
were left alone to their exercises, as the police officers knew that there was no way that any of
them could escape but they weren’t expecting anyone to break into the police station. The
crooks were to be transferred to Scotland Yard in two days time so William and Kathleen only
had one day in which to carry out their plan. William and Kathleen had also learned that the
man who was part of the London robbery was Sidney Logan or Big Sid as he was known, due to
his height of nearly 6 feet 3 inches. At exactly 11.15 on Saturday morning the custody officer
unlocked the door to let Big Sid back into the station cells from his exercises but was astounded
to find that the crook had been tied up from head to toe and hung upside down from a
drainpipe by his feet on a length of black rope. Tucked inside his prison overalls was a note and
two photographs, the note read ‘With compliments – Billy the Cat and Katie’ and the
photographs were of two robbers inside the bank with their hands and feet tied up and also the
other two laying bound together alongside the railway line surrounded by stolen money. The
policeman had to call for assistance to get Sid cut down as he was at least 6 feet off the ground
and Big Sid was shaking with fear, shouting all the time that two figures dressed in black and
wearing helmets had lassoed him and strung him up, just like cowboys in a western film. So
now they knew the names of their mystery crime fighters, it was ‘Billy the Cat and Katie’.