Ch. 18- Search for the Puppies

The five parents decided to search near Tony’s restaurant thoroughly, looking through the corners and alleyways. After looking through every pile of dirt and every garbage can in the area, they couldn’t find any of their puppies anywhere.
    “We have to do something else,” Lady stated firmly. “Any ideas?”
    “Well,” Pongo answered, “There’s always the Twilight Bark.”
    “What is the…” Lady asked, but Perdita intervened. “This isn’t London, Pongo… are you sure there is a Twilight Bark here?”
    “Well, we can always try,” Pongo stated, and then abruptly, he barked a few times as loud as he could.
    “Pongo, keep it down,” Lady whispered. “There are babies in the houses that are trying to sleep.”
    “I can’t, Miss…” Pongo told Lady. “I need to be loud enough for the others to hear me.”
    Then, from the middle of nowhere, Pongo heard an answer from far away. Pongo grew excited.
    “We’re in good luck!” Pongo told the others. “Let’s see… according to whoever it is, they were put in a small red car…”
    “Yes, that’s right,” Peg told them. “I think it was quite a snazzy kinda rich car...oh I think I remember the license number.”
    “You do?” Perdita asked. “What is it?”
    “Something like…”002BADUN”
    “How did you remember that?” Lady asked astonished, but Perdita interrupted.
    “Horace… and Jasper,” she muttered. “But…”
    “I got an idea!” Pongo told them. “Let’s try to follow the car…”
    Then Pongo sent out the message, asking for where a car with a license plate of 002BADUN would be. There was silence… and then…
    “Oh, bad luck,” Pongo stated sadly. “No one ever recognized a car like that.”
    “Oh come on,” Tramp told them. “D’you know what? I think it’s a fake license.”
    “You mean…” Lady asked, and Tramp stated, “I think they’re breaking the rules.”
    “She didn’t seem much like a good driver,” Peg stated, batting her hair. “She jammed with a halt and a huge screechin’ noise came from that car when she left.”
    “That’s certainly Cruella,” Pongo told Peg.
    “But where can we start looking?” Lady asked. “Maybe…”
    And then her eyes lit up. “Do you know where she lived in Britain?”
    “Some old rusty mansion,” Pongo stated. “It’s known as Hell Hall where we live… we didn’t stay long to investigate… but why?”
    “Well, I was just thinking,” Lady told them softly. “That if she was really rich or something, she might want to try to find a rich hideout here.”
    “What a great idea!” Pongo told Lady. “Do you know any sort of rich neighborhood around here?”
    “Well, I suppose you might call my house rich,” Lady answered. “But Peg and Tramp would know more.”
    “Hmm… let me see,” Peg stated slowly. “There isn’t really any neighborhood richer than dearie’s in the city,”
    “But there are some further out!” Tramp told them, remembering. “I remember one place with a lot of booty. There’s all kinds of stuff there… I went there once, and tasted the finest steak I ever tasted… ooh boy, delicious.”
    “What is this place?” Perdita asked Tramp.
    “It’s some place called Dusk Way,” Tramp told them.
    “I never heard of it,” Lady told Tramp.
    “Well, our humans would never go there,” Tramp stated. “It’s kinda dark and dingy… but it has a lot of old rich mansions… plenty of booty, and empty houses. Everyone’s scared to go there, a lot of people think it’s haunted.”
    “It’s worth a try,” Pongo told Tramp, and Perdita nodded.
    “I actually know that place kinda well too,” Peg told them softly. “I went there a while back to run from the dogcatcher and to look for Angel before.”
    “I suppose we should try to go there,” Lady stated, and the five parents headed down the street.
    The sky was pitch-black as they made their way through the dimly lit streets, and the city seemed huge still despite the distance they crossed through it. Lady then muttered, “Oh, I wish Jim Dear and Darling were here… they would be able to help us out. They can call the police.”
    “My pets called Scotland Yard,” Pongo told her. “But there would have to be time for them to cross the sea… then it would be too late.”
    “And the last thing we need is the dogcatcher,” Peg added. “I can’t imagine if Angel went to the pound…. Poor darling.”
    “Have you spent much time with her?” Pongo asked.
    “No, not really…” Peg stated sadly. “We were separated when a family came to adopt her.”
    “Oh, poor darling,” Lady commiserated. “And she had to live with that mangy Buster…”
    “Who was that?” Peg asked.
    “That guy who took Angel in when she was young,” Lady explained.
    “Oh, he was that nasty thing,” Peg bitterly stated.
    “He was a real nuisance,” Tramp told them scathingly. “I never really understood him. He seemed to think I was his best friend or something because I saved him out of some trouble at one point… and then when I went out on my own, he started to whine and complain. He tried to kill Scamp.”
    Peg gasped. “Oh dear… I knew he was bad, but I never knew she would have to deal with that.”
    Lady, however, looked at her husband imploringly. “You should have told Buster your true intentions,” she stated firmly. “If you did, he would not have hated you so much.”
    “So, what is the point you’re trying to get at, Pigeon,” Tramp asked.
    “Please, please don’t keep any more secrets about our past from our children,” Lady told Tramp. “You have to come clean about them, otherwise, they’ll misunderstand just like he did, and we will wind up with larger problems to deal with.”
    Tramp paused, pondering, and then stated, “Well, it looks like Dusk Way is a long way from here. Come on, let’s get going.”
    But as they turned around another corner, Lady saw in Tramp’s eye that there was something in his eye that seemed to be… almost guilt? Finally, Tramp was realizing what must be done, Lady thought.