The Case of the Clever Secret Code

by Cindy Vincent

  “I can’t believe he’s here,” she whispered again and again. “Him. The guy every girl dreams about. And you boys are going to be in his movie! I can hardly stand it! This is the most exciting day of my life.”

  It was? Funny, but the most exciting day of my life was the day when I got adopted into my family.

  I glanced over to see Millicent and Merryweather sticking close to our Mom. Steele Bronson stood even closer to her. It was strange, but she didn’t seem very happy at all about his being here.

  In the meantime, his assistant, Nadia, went out to the limo to pick up a stack of his pictures. Officer Phoebe unlocked the front door to let her out and then locked it again behind her. As soon as Nadia had gone, the blonde woman who always fixed Steele Bronson’s hair let out a huge sigh. Then she sort of melted into a wing chair and closed her eyes. I guess she must have been really, really tired. Maybe it was a lot of work to keep Steele Bronson’s hair perfect all the time.

  One of the security guys walked over to us. He leaned against a desk that was right next to the one we were sitting on.

  He nodded to Gracie. “I’m Tango. And that’s my buddy, Bravo, over there with Steele Bronson. Nice store your Mom’s got here.”

  Gracie smiled. “Thanks. She works really hard to have a good store. And she really loves antiques. I come down to help her in the summer and on weekends. We bring Buckley and Bogey with us some days, too.”

  Tango grinned at Bogey. “I like the way you handled yourself out there, cat. You showed some real courage.”

  Bogey grinned back and lifted a paw. Then he bumped his paw against the security guard’s huge hand.

  Tango’s eyes went wide. “Did you just give me a fist bump, cat? If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you just gave me a fist bump.”

  But Bogey just sat there and kept on grinning.

  “You did give him a paw bump, didn’t you?” I meowed to my brother.

  “Sure did,” he meowed back. “He’s a good enough guy. He’s just doing his job. Like we are.”

  I tilted my head and looked up at Tango. I tried to salute him but I only ended up poking myself in the ear with my big paw.

  Then Tango’s eyes went even wider. “Did you try to salute me, big cat? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you tried to salute me.”

  I crinkled my nose and meowed up to the man.

  “And now he’s trying to talk to me,” Tango said. “Gracie, did you see all that?”

  Gracie giggled. “Aren’t they the best cats ever? We’ve got three more at home.”

  “Whoa . . .” Tango said. “Your cats are kind of scary . . . it’s almost like they know what I’m saying . . .”

  At that point, Tango scooted away and headed for the front door. But not without looking back at us a few times.

  Bogey passed us a few more treats. I munched on one of my treats and then turned to look at our Mom. She was busy pointing out different pieces of antique furniture to Steele Bronson.

  She ran her hands over the top of a desk. “This is an especially beautiful piece. Note the wood. It’s walnut.”

  Let me tell you, Steele Bronson sure looked excited about that desk!

  He nodded his head very, very fast. “And you say it was owned by someone who helped settle St. Gertrude?”

  “Yes, it was,” our Mom told him. “They moved here from Philadelphia and brought all their furniture . . .”

  But Steele Bronson didn’t even let her finish. “I’ll take it.”

  Our Mom wrote it down in her receipt book before she pointed to a china hutch. “And this piece was owned by the first mayor of St. Gertrude. In fact, he and his family moved here from Boston. His wife loved to host big dinner parties with . . .”

  Again, Steele Bronson didn’t even let our Mom finish. “I’ll take that, too,” he said.

  She wrote it down in her receipt book before she pointed to a table. “Here we have a full mahogany dining table along with eight chairs that . . .”

  He was right behind her. “I’ll take them also.”

  Holy Catnip! He sure was buying a lot of stuff in our store. I figured this would make our Mom happy, but she still wasn’t smiling.

  As Steele Bronson picked out all the stuff he wanted to buy, Merryweather and Millicent worked as fast as they could to group all that furniture together. Bravo jumped in and helped, too.

  Nadia knocked on the front door and Officer Phoebe let her back in. Then Nadia walked up the red carpet and came over to the desk next to the one we were sitting on. She slapped a big stack of photos on the desk with a loud thwack! It made quite a breeze and I almost jumped to the ceiling. But she barely even glanced our way before she strolled off to join Steele Bronson.

  “I’ve sent the reporter and cameraman packing! Exactly like you wanted,” she told him.

  He smiled at her. “Good.”

  Then he just kept on following our Mom around the store and buying more and more furniture. Before long, he had a huge bunch of furniture picked out. I wondered how he was going to move all that stuff out of our Mom’s store. Sure, his limo was big, but it wasn’t big enough to carry all that stuff.

  Finally, our Mom said, “And that’s everything in my store that was owned by the early settlers of St. Gertrude.”

  “Excellent!” Steele Bronson proclaimed. “Now, are there any paintings or photo albums or anything else? From the people who founded this town?”

  “Why, yes . . .” our Mom sort of stammered.

  Then she took him around and showed him all those things, too. Just like before, he bought every single one of them.

  “Is that it?” he asked when they were done. “There’s nothing left in the store from the early families?”

  Our Mom smiled for the first time. “That’s everything I can think of.”

  She wrote down a few more things in her receipt book. By now the list of things that Steele Bronson had bought was pretty long. Two pages full of stuff.

  Steele Bronson pulled a credit card from his pocket. “Charge it all to my card.”

  Our Mom took his card. “Thank you for your business,” she said very politely before she headed for the cash register.

  Seconds later, we heard a loud knock on the glass front door. We turned to see a man in blue jeans and a faded, gray t-shirt standing there. His hair was the opposite of Steele Bronson’s hair. While every hair on Steele Bronson’s head was perfectly in place, this man’s light, brown hair was sticking out all over. Kind of like he had just gotten out of bed.

  Officer Phoebe hollered to the man through the thick glass. “Sorry, the store is closed right now. It’ll be open again pretty soon.”

  The man pointed toward Steele Bronson. “I’m with him.”

  Steele Bronson glanced at the door. “Oh right. It’s Franklin Jefferson. You can call him Frank. He’s my writer. He’s writing the script for my movie. Let him in.”

  Officer Phoebe crinkled her brow. “All right.”

  Then she unlocked the door and let the man stroll inside.

  He yawned and headed straight toward the blonde women who had fixed Steele Bronson’s hair. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I thought she might be asleep. Frank looked at her and then slid into a chair next to hers.

  “You’re late, Frank!” Steele Bronson yelled at the man before he pointed to us. “And by the way, I want you to write those two black cats into my movie. They’ll give it a certain ‘noir’ quality.” He pronounced the word “no-whar.”

  I leaned toward my brother. “Noir? What does that mean?”

  Bogey shook his head. “It means bleak, kid. Sort of dark and unhappy-like.”

  That’s when I sat up straight and swished my huge tail. Back and forth. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in a movie that was bleak. Or unhappy. To tell you the truth, I really only liked happy things.

  Bogey pulled a few more cat treats from the bag. “Anything here strike you as being fishy, kid?”

  I glanced around the room. “You mean, lik
e the cat treats?”

  Bogey shook his head. “Nope, kid. I mean, does anything seem odd to you? Out of place?”

  Well, I had to say, the whole situation seemed “odd” to me. Ever since Steele Bronson had shown up, things had gone from odd to odder.

  “Uh-huh. It sure does,” I told Bogey.

  He squinted his eyes and scanned the room. “So what is Bronson going to do with all this stuff he’s buying? And why only stuff from the first families of St. Gertrude?”

  I crinkled my eyebrows. “He said it’s for his movie.”

  Bogey tilted his head and stared at the movie star. “That’s what he says, kid. But I have a hunch the guy’s telling a big, fat fib.

  Bogey had another hunch? Well, if there was one thing I’d learned, it was that Bogey was probably right.

  I munched on my last treat. “I guess he is an actor. So he could probably lie really well. And people would believe what he’s saying.”

  Bogey stashed the bag of treats back into the drawer. “You got it, kid. You’re thinking like a cat detective.”

  Frank pointed to us and chuckled. “Do you want me to write lines for those cats? Or just action scenes?”

  Steele Bronson shot the man a dirty look. “Very funny, Frank. Cats aren’t that smart. So no lines for them.”

  Well, let me tell you, that made the hairs on my back stand up. “What does he mean by that?” I meowed to my brother. “The part about us not being smart?”

  I wasn’t sure if I was the smartest guy around, but I sure knew my brother was smart. And to top it off, we had a really, really old cat in our family who was probably smarter than anyone. That’s why we called her the “Wise One.”

  Bogey put a paw on my shoulder. “Take it easy, kid. Let him think we’re not too bright. It might just come in handy.”

  All the while, I noticed Nadia was talking on her cell phone.

  She put it to her shoulder for a second and turned to Merryweather. “Is there a back door to this shop? Where we can load all this stuff into a big truck?”

  Merryweather pointed to the back of the store. “There sure is. Right back there. We’ll even help you get it loaded up.”

  “Good,” Nadia said. “We’ve rented an old warehouse on the edge of town. We’re going to store this stuff there for a while. Until we’re ready to put it on the set.”

  “My goodness,” Millicent jumped in. “You’ve already got a warehouse and storage set up? That was quick.”

  “You’d better believe it,” Nadia nodded. “Things will roll pretty fast around here. We plan to start filming right away.”

  And speaking of fast, it wasn’t long before everyone had all that stuff moved to the back room. From the sounds I heard next, I could tell a truck had backed up into the alley. And all the stuff that Steele Bronson had bought was being loaded up.

  “Gracie,” our Mom called out from the cash register. “Have you been practicing your essay?”

  “No, Mom!” Gracie hollered back. “But I’ll get right on it.”

  With those words, she pulled her essay out from her pocket.

  Let me tell you, that sure got the attention of Frank Jefferson. He pushed himself up from his chair and headed our way.

  “What’cha got there, little girl?” he asked Gracie.

  “It’s my essay,” she told him. “It’s for our Fourth of July essay contest.”

  “I’m a writer,” he told her. “Let me look at it. I know a lot about this Fourth of July stuff. I’m related to both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Indirectly, anyway. That’s why my name is Franklin Jefferson. But everyone just calls me Frank.”

  She handed her essay to him. “Oh that’s so cool. You must be proud to be related to the people who founded our country.”

  He shrugged. “It’s okay.”

  Gracie smiled. “Well, you’re going to love it here in St. Gertrude. It’s a great town.”

  Frank laughed. “I’m sure I will. I accidentally learned about it while I was doing research for my book. You have no idea how happy I am to have found this place.”

  Then, without saying another word, he started to read her essay so fast that I could see his eyes moving. Back and forth. Back and forth.

  “Needs work,” he told her as he pulled out a red pen.

  Before Gracie could say a word, he started making marks on her essay. He drew lines and arrows and wrote things all over her papers. Her mouth dropped open wide and, for a moment or two, she just stared at him.

  But he didn’t seem to notice. “You need to punch it up here. Add some ‘zip’ and ‘pizzazz’ here. And cut this and add this.”

  Well, I wasn’t sure what the words “zip” and “pizzaz” meant. And from the frown on Gracie’s face, I wasn’t sure if she did either.

  He handed her essay back to her just as our Mom walked over to Steele Bronson. She held his credit card in front of her.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Bronson,” she said. “But I’m afraid your credit card won’t work. It was declined when I tried to use it for payment.”

  “What!” he practically shouted at our Mom. “Then try it again. I’m sure that card is good.”

  Our Mom shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not. I tried it twice.”

  “Oh this is ridiculous,” he kept on shouting. “I’m Steele Bronson. Obviously, I can pay for all this furniture.”

  Our Mom smiled. “Not with that credit card, I’m afraid. You’ll either need to use a different credit card or I’m afraid we’ll have to unload that truck.”

  Steele Bronson stomped his foot and yelled at the top of his lungs. “Nadia! Come here at once!”

  Nadia came running from the back room. She stopped in front of Steele Bronson and wiped the dust from her pants.

  Steele Bronson crossed his arms. “Nadia, I need to use your credit card to pay for this furniture. Mine doesn’t work.”

  Her eyes went wide and her jaw practically hit the floor. “Steele . . . I can’t pay for all this . . .”

  “It’s just for now,” he told her. “I’ll pay you back.”

  “But . . .” she started to say again.

  He shook his head and held out his hand.

  Nadia frowned and reached into her pocket to get her own credit card. She handed it to him and then he handed it to our Mom.

  “Go!” Steele Bronson yelled at our Mom. “Ring up my furniture.”

  Our Mom frowned, too, but then she turned and went back to the cash register.

  “All right, Steele,” Nadia said. “I will not forget that you owe me.”

  “Not to worry, little one,” he said with a sparkly smile. “By the time we’re done in this town, we’ll be back on easy street.”

  I turned to Bogey. “Easy street? That’s a funny name for a street.”

  But Bogey squinted his eyes and stared at Steele Bronson. “Just an expression, kid. It means they plan to make a lot of money here.”

  I crinkled my brow. “From their movie?”

  Bogey shook his head very slowly. “Maybe, kid. Maybe. But I’m not so sure. There’s something’s wrong with this picture.”

  And by “picture,” I don’t think he meant Steele Bronson’s new movie.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 5

  Holy Mackerel!

  Right after Steele Bronson had finished his shopping, Officer Phoebe let people back into the store just like she had promised. Then Nadia kept all those women herded into one huge, long line. And I do mean huge! The front of the line led straight to the desk where Steele Bronson sat with his pile of pictures and a big, black pen. The rest of the line snaked out the door and all the way down the block. As near as I could tell, it even turned the corner. I wondered if it might have gone down another block and even turned another corner or two.

  Bogey and I watched it all from the desk next to the one where Steele Bronson was seated.

  Bogey glanced at the long line of women and shook his head. “Dames. I can never make heads nor tails of
‘em, kid.”

  “Dames,” I repeated and shook my head, too.

  Though I had to say, I wasn’t exactly sure what Bogey was getting at. But I did still wonder why all those ladies would wait in line like that. Just to get Steele Bronson to sign his name on his picture.

  Especially since he said almost the same thing to each one of the women. He always told them they were pretty or beautiful or had nice, shiny jewelry. And they always said something about being his number one fan. Funny, but I always thought there could only be one number one fan. Yet we had seen a whole bunch of number one fans today. Somehow it just didn’t quite add up to me!

  After a while, Bogey nudged me and nodded to the front of the store. “Let’s move to the big window, kid. We’d better keep an eye out.”

  And so we did.

  We sat and watched as lady after lady came through the line. After those women got their autographed picture, they didn’t leave the store. Instead, they stayed and shopped. Pretty soon I wondered if we’d have any room left in the store for more people.

  Our Mom and Merryweather and Millicent sure had their hands full. They rang up purchase after purchase on the cash register, and put things into bags and boxes. Gracie jumped in to help, too, even though she was supposed to be practicing her essay. I wasn’t sure she’d actually read her essay since Frank had written all over it.

  It was several hours later before we finally saw the end of the line. It was just outside the front door.

  Right about then, I could barely hear our Mom say to Merryweather, “I’ve got to get Gracie to that essay contest. She hasn’t even had any dinner yet. And I don’t think she ate her lunch.”

  Merryweather waved her hand. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Abby. I can stay late and take care of this.”

  “Me, too,” Millicent added with a smile. “Especially if Bravo and Tango will help us out a little.”

  Both the security guards grinned.

  “We’d be happy to,” Tango said.

  “That’s right,” Bravo added. “All this has upset your day. So we’d be happy to pitch in and set things right.”

  Our Mom smiled for the first time. “Thank you so much. All of you. I certainly appreciate it. Gracie would be pretty disappointed if she missed her essay contest tonight.”