“We do?” said Khepri.
“We do,” I said to him. “Hold on tight.”
But when I hopped over the wall, a fierce gray beast careened toward us.
“Jackal!” I shrieked. Khepri flattened himself in the fur between my ears.
But I was wrong. It wasn’t a jackal. It was something even worse: Boo, the guard dog.
Sleek and eager, he raced up to me, licking his muzzle with his big pink tongue. “Hi there, Pharaoh’s Cat! I’m free now. Want to play?”
Run Around
“Um…no,” I said to Boo. “No playing for me today.”
“Not even one game of tag?” Boo said, his dark eyes hopeful.
Tag? With a guard dog? I don’t think so.
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m on duty. You know how it is.”
Boo scratched his head in confusion. “Wait a minute. Pharaoh’s Cat has a job?”
“He’s a Great Detective,” Khepri piped up from between my ears. “And so am I. That’s why we were asking you all those questions earlier, remember?”
“About the clues and the tombs and all?” Boo nodded. “Sure, I remember that. I didn’t realize it was a full-time job.”
“It is,” I assured him. “A very full-time job. Not a minute to myself. No time to play. Ever.”
“Aw, that’s too bad.” Boo bobbed his head in sympathy. “When the Captain of the Guard brought me down here to Set Ma’at, I thought for sure that we’d have time for a game.”
“What’s the Captain doing here?” Khepri asked.
Boo scratched his head again. “I don’t know exactly. He doesn’t usually come into the village. But I think he wanted to see his brother Huya. Actually, the Captain seems upset with him. I heard them arguing.”
“What about?” I said, suddenly alert. Huya was one of our suspects.
“Who knows?” Boo said. “Though I think I heard the Captain say something about gold.”
“Gold?” Even Khepri was excited by that.
“But maybe he said cold,” Boo mused. “I wasn’t listening closely. It was kind of boring, really. That’s why I came to find you instead. It made me so happy when you started that game this morning. Nobody wants to play with me anymore, ever since that little accident last year.” He looked at me hopefully again. “You sure you can’t play? Just for a bit?”
“Nope,” I said swiftly. “I’m on a case.”
“Oh, go on and play with your friend, Ra,” a voice called. I looked up and saw Sabu sitting on the wall, a big cat grin on his face. How long had he been there?
“Hi, Sabu!” Boo greeted him eagerly. “How are things? Want to play?”
“I’m on a case,” Sabu told him. “The same one as Ra.”
Boo regarded him with respect. “So you’re a Great Detective, too?”
“The Greatest,” Sabu assured him.
“Why, you haven’t solved a single mystery, you great big boaster,” I spluttered.
But Sabu was still speaking to Boo. “And since I’m on the case, we can spare Ra. You two run along, and have a good time together.”
“Really?” Boo’s eyes shone. “That’s great.” As Sabu disappeared over the wall, he turned to me, paws clicking. “Did you hear that, Ra? I’ll give you a head start, and then I’m coming after you!”
“Yeooooooooowl!” I shot forward like one of Pharaoh’s spears. “Sabu, I’ll get you for this!”
I darted straight up the same wall where he’d disappeared, but I couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Hey!” Boo scrabbled at the bottom of the wall. “No fair going up where I can’t reach you.”
“Boo?” The Captain of the Guard strode down the alley, brows twisted in a frown. I thought again how much he looked like Huya. “Here, boy! Let’s go.”
Boo sighed but obeyed. “Sorry,” he called back to me. “Guess I’ll catch you later.”
“Not if I can help it,” I murmured, flopping down on the top of the wall. But it wasn’t really Boo I was mad at. He was just doing what dogs do. Sabu, on the other hand…
“Khepri, can you believe the nerve of that cat? Calling himself the Greatest Detective, and then siccing Boo on me?”
“That wasn’t very nice,” Khepri agreed, hopping down onto the wall beside me. “But frankly, you haven’t been nice to him, either.”
“Why should I be?” I scraped my claws against the stones. “He’s called me Fancypaws and fusspot—”
“And you insulted his village. Remember: we need his help.”
“He started it,” I grumbled. “That loudmouth alley cat.”
Khepri gave me a long, hard look. (Perhaps you’ve never seen a beetle’s eyes close up. Trust me, they can bore right into you.) “Ra, why are you quarreling with Sabu over everything? Why can’t you be more gracious? You’re Pharaoh’s Cat, but you’re acting like a stray fighting over scraps.”
Ouch! Even my old buddy was starting to think of me as a stray.
Shaken, I looked down at myself, and what I saw wasn’t reassuring. I was dirtier than ever, as slovenly a cat as I’d ever seen. I didn’t look fit for the alleys of Set Ma’at, to say nothing of Pharaoh’s shining palace.
And if Khepri was right, the changes hadn’t stopped there. Was I losing my royal grace?
Well, that settled it. Forget the nap. I needed to prove I was truly a royal cat. But if Khepri thought I was going to do that by being nice to Sabu, he could think again.
I had another plan, a much better one: What I needed to do now was solve this case. Then I’d be a hero and the greatest Great Detective, and everyone would know I was Pharaoh’s Cat. Sabu would be put in his place, once and for all.
There was just one problem. I looked down at my unkempt paws.
Where did I start?
“I think I need a snack,” I said faintly.
“Later, Ra.” Balanced on the edge of the wall, Khepri was peering down the alley. “Look! Neferhotep’s coming this way.”
So he was. He crossed paths with Huya, who turned to glare at him and then stomped off in the other direction.
“We need to investigate those rings,” Khepri said as Neferhotep came closer.
“His rings…?”
“You said he had too many,” Khepri reminded me. “You thought one of them might come from Setnakht’s tomb. This is our chance to look. Who knows? He could be wearing Setnakht’s heart scarab under his tunic.”
Neferhotep did have a lot of jewelry. You could hear him jingling as he came our way. He was singing, too—a ditty that sounded like “I’m a lucky, lucky man…”
Maybe it was the singing, but I started to feel woozy. “I can’t investigate on an empty stomach, Khepri.”
“Then I’ll do it!” With a valiant cry, Khepri launched himself onto Neferhotep’s bald head.
Slap!
The moment Khepri touched him, Neferhotep shrieked. His jewelry jangled, and his hands went stiff.
“Khepri, watch out!” I shouted.
Slap! Neferhotep struck his head where Khepri had landed.
Luckily, he only hit himself. Khepri was already on his shoulder.
“Get off me, you creepy thing!” Neferhotep screamed.
Slap! Slap! Neferhotep’s blows came fast and hard. But Khepri was even faster. He wriggled down to Neferhotep’s chest, then scrambled under his tunic.
Neferhotep yelped and grabbed a sharp stone from the ground.
“Jump, Khepri!” I yelled. “He’ll smash you to bits.”
“Not…done…yet…” Khepri popped out at Neferhotep’s wrist, clinging on for dear life.
As Neferhotep tried to scrape him off with the stone, I leaped into action—and I do mean leaped. I landed on Neferhotep’s shoulders and wrapped myself around him like a fur collar.
“Help!” Neferhotep dropped
the stone and clutched at his chest. “Get away from me, you vile beasts!”
“I’ll vile you,” I muttered, but Khepri had dropped to the ground, so I did, too. “Climb aboard, buddy.”
Once Khepri had a good hold on my fur, I bounded back up the wall out of reach. Fearing Neferhotep might pick up another stone, I kept moving down the wall. But when I glanced back, he was being comforted by Bek, who had come running to his aid.
“A cat and a bug attacked you?” Bek was saying. He sounded puzzled. “Are you sure? I have to say, it doesn’t sound like something a cat would do. They’re lovely creatures, cats—”
“Not this one.” Neferhotep shuddered. “He’s a real beast, I tell you. And he smelled disgusting. Like something that had died.” He scuttled away down the alley, looking thoroughly spooked. Bek followed, shaking his head.
Like something that had died?
I sniffed myself delicately. Okay, so I smelled a bit stronger than usual. But that was no reason to be rude.
“Tell me he’s guilty,” I said to Khepri.
“I didn’t see the heart scarab,” Khepri said, “or anything else that looked like it belonged to a pharaoh. But maybe I missed it.” He sounded dazed. “Everything happened so fast.”
Well, that was a setback. “Maybe he’s got the loot hidden at home. That would be a smarter place to put it.”
“Or maybe he’s innocent,” Khepri said. “We just don’t know, Ra.”
I stopped padding down the wall. “I do know one thing.”
“What’s that?” Khepri asked.
“I need a snack now.”
“Hey!” Khepri surged up into my fur. “Let’s go investigate the house next door.”
“But I’m hungry,” I protested.
“You can’t be, Ra. You just had that snack from Kenamon. And you ate from Menwi’s trough, too.”
“Don’t remind me.” My ears flattened just thinking about it. “I’m never eating leftovers again—”
“Ra, if you don’t move soon, he’s going to get away.”
“Who?”
“Huya the carpenter. I saw him on the roof terrace next door. I think that’s his house. He’s just gone downstairs.”
“You think he’s hiding something? Like treasure?”
“It could be,” Khepri said. “But we’ll never know if we don’t get moving.”
“Right.” It was hard to ignore that hungry feeling inside, but the life of a Great Detective requires some sacrifice. “Hold on, Khepri!”
In three bounds, I was over the wall. I landed in the dusty patch of ground behind Huya’s house—only to find myself face-to-face with an angry goose and her goslings.
“Out! Out! OUT!” the goose honked. “Out this minute, or I’ll report you to Sabu next door. He promised my goslings would be safe, and he’d better not go back on his word—”
“We won’t do you any harm.” Khepri popped out from behind my right ear. “We just have a few questions.”
At the sight of him, the goslings let out excited peeps.
“Mom, it’s a beetle!”
“Yum!”
“Can we eat him?”
“He can be your afternoon snack, my dears,” the goose honked, “if he and his friend don’t get going.”
“Yikes!” Khepri burrowed into my fur. “Ra, get me out of here.”
Silly Goose
“Don’t worry,” I whispered to Khepri. “I know how to deal with geese. You just have to show them who’s boss.”
As Khepri cowered behind my right ear, I jumped to the top of what must have been the goose house and proclaimed in my most regal tones, “I am Ra the Mighty, Pharaoh’s Cat, and this beetle is under my royal protection. We are Great Detectives, and you must cooperate with our investigation.”
“Do you think I’m a fool?” The goose snapped her orange bill. “Look at you! Pharaoh’s Cat, indeed. You’re nothing more than a jumped-up alley cat. I’ll report you to Sabu, I will.”
I scrabbled to keep my grip on the goose house. “Fine. Go to Sabu, if you want. He’ll confirm it: I’m the Lord of the Powerful Paw.” Or would he just call me Lord Fancypaws?
The goose was close enough to see the doubt in my eyes. “A likely story.”
I dug my claws into the goose house. “It’s the truth, you silly goose!”
“Silly goose?” Her neck pumped. A bad sign.
“A figure of speech,” I said hastily, but it was too late.
She flapped her clipped wings, rising just high enough to reach me. “Get OUT!” Her golden beak flashed, aiming straight for my tail.
“Raaaaaaa!” Khepri wailed.
I sprang up onto the nearest wall.
By now, the goose was making such a clatter that everyone in the house was peering out—including Huya, who was frowning, instead of smirking. So much for any chance of sneaking up on him.
But Pharaoh’s Cat isn’t one to give up easily. “Look,” I called down to the goose, “I’m fighting for justice here—”
Huya charged out of his house. Those bulging muscles of his weren’t just for show. He moved as fast as an arrow, and he had a heavy hammer in his hand. He looked even angrier than he had when he’d crossed paths with Neferhotep. “Scat!”
An energetic woman jumped out from behind Huya’s shadow and jabbed at me with a broom. “You leave our geese alone, you stinking stray!”
Yikes! That broom had a long reach. I needed a brushing—but not like that. I darted into the next yard.
“Whew!” Khepri croaked in my ear. “Ra, next time you want to show somebody who’s boss, remind me not to be there.”
“I got you out, didn’t I?”
“At the last possible second,” Khepri mumbled. “I never want to be that close to a goose again.”
Truth was, neither did I. Putting some more distance between me and that beak, I trotted along the boundary walls. “Khepri, tell me the truth. Do I really stink?”
“Oh, no,” Khepri said. “You smell great.”
The more I thought about it, the less reassuring that was. “You mean I smell like—”
“Ra, look over there,” Khepri interrupted. “Kenamon’s up to something.”
“Kenamon?” Turning, I caught a glimpse of the boy darting into a niche between two houses, then snaking his way up a section of back wall that was largely screened off from view. He was moving like a cat—a cat who didn’t want to be seen.
Part of me had to admire him. The rest of me was worried. A boy who could move like that wouldn’t just make a good cat. He would make a good thief.
Was I wrong? Was Kenamon guilty after all?
“Let’s follow him,” Khepri murmured.
I made a beeline for the boy, cutting through the courtyard next door and leaping up to the wall. If I could get the boy to sit still long enough, maybe I could pry the truth out of him with my purr. As I’ve mentioned, that’s the one bit of real magic cats have. Of course, it works best with people you’re strongly attached to, but I felt a bond with Kenamon, so it was worth a try.
“Faster!” Khepri said in alarm. “He’s getting away!”
The boy was slipping away as quietly as he had come. I was about to spring after him when Khepri cried out in terror. “Ra!”
I didn’t so much see the brick as hear it, whistling down to crush me.
Nefru
“What was that?” I said groggily.
“Hold on, Ra.” Khepri’s chirp wasn’t as cheerful as usual. “Miu’s coming.”
I saw two of her dashing toward me, then blinked and saw one.
“What happened?” She crouched beside me, worried. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. I didn’t expect to find you sprawled half dead in Pentu’s courtyard.”
Pentu’s courtyard? Was that where I was? I blinked and
caught sight of the model tomb. Not the most comforting sight, frankly.
“He’s lucky he’s not all the way dead,” Khepri said. “A brick fell and nearly killed us.”
“I jumped,” I muttered. It was coming back to me. “Just in time.”
“But then the brick shattered on the wall, and some of the pieces hit you,” Khepri told me.
That explained the ache in my tail. I stretched out my paws and wriggled, determined to get back on my feet. “It’s not so bad. Nothing broken.”
Miu sighed. “Honestly, Ra, you attract trouble.”
“I think this time trouble was aiming at him,” Khepri said.
“Did someone throw that brick at me?” I drew myself up. Ouch.
“These houses are well built,” Khepri said. “Bricks don’t fall from well-built houses. Besides, what are the odds that a brick would knock you over just as we were chasing Kenamon—”
“Well, the boy couldn’t have done it,” I said. “He was over there.” I waved in the general direction with my tail. Double ouch.
“But maybe someone in his family did,” Khepri argued. “His father owns this house, and I think the brick came from their balcony.”
“Probably an accident,” I said, but my voice was faint.
“Or maybe the boy led you into danger,” Khepri said.
“Let’s move you to Sabu’s yard,” Miu urged. “Sabu’s out looking for the treasure with his cats, but he won’t mind. It’s right next door, and you’ll be safe there.”
Sabu’s yard wasn’t my idea of a place to recuperate, but Miu wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Hey,” Khepri said as we scrabbled down into the tiny yard. “Sabu is here. Wait, no—it’s just a kitten.”
So it was: a small tabby maybe three months old, curled up by a half-carved statue. When she saw us coming, she started to back away.
“Don’t go,” Miu called out. “We’re friends of Sabu’s.”
The kitten hesitated. “Do you know where he is? I need to talk to him.”
The Great Tomb Robbery Page 8