Franklin's Emporium: The Pet Shop Mystery

by Gill Vickery

  ‘I haven’t seen him.’ Sam was serious for once. The boys kept Cesare out of the studio in case he spoiled their work. Not so much the installations as the drawings and paintings they did at the planning stage. Cesare could really damage them, like he did my chewed-up homework.

  Just at that moment one of the spinning mirrors reflected Cesare sneaking out through the door. The mirror twirled again and the reflection was gone.

  I blinked. There was definitely no cat. It must’ve been a shadow captured for a second in the glass.

  ‘I’m going to clear up the mess in the kitchen before Mum gets back,’ I said. ‘You coming down for lunch?’

  ‘May as well.’

  Downstairs I cleaned up the cake while Sam helped himself to half the contents of the fridge. There was still no sign of Cesare.

  I left Sam pigging out and went to the local library. Like everything else in Golden Bay it was really, really old-fashioned. Outside it looked like a Gothic castle, all turrets and battlements, and inside it looked like Dracula’s study. The bays of books were heavy, dark wood with white marble statues of famous writers teetering on the tops. In between the bays were polished wooden tables and chairs with legs as thick as an elephant’s ankles. You practically needed a forklift truck to move them.

  Amazingly for Golden Bay there was a computerised library system but, even better, there were loads of books. Reading was my thing; I’d die if I couldn’t read. This time though I wasn’t after my favourite fantasy titles; I was going to do some research.

  The librarian helped me find material on optics. It didn’t mention invisibility in any of them. I went to try an online search. The terminal had a sign saying: SYSTEM DOWN. Typical.

  I gave up my search for invisibility information and chose more fantasy fiction instead. I sat on the floor, my back against a bookcase, and read.

  It was only when a smiley young library assistant nudged my foot and said, ‘We’re closing in a bit,’ that I remembered to check the time. Six thirty! Dinner was at seven.

  I took out a couple of books and ran home.

  Cesare and I arrived at the same time, just as Mum was dishing up the dinner. He was mewing pitifully as if we hadn’t fed him for days. Mum did manage to restrain herself from feeding him till the humans had finished eating, but the minute the meal was over she filled his dish.

  I took our plates to the dishwasher. When I turned round, Cesare’s bowl was empty and he was meowing mournfully for more.

  ‘That was quick, even for you,’ I said ignoring the sad face and the winsome winding round my ankles.

  ‘Think again, pussycat. You’ve already had half a kilo of buttercream today. You’ll explode if you have more food.’

  Mum picked him up and cooed at him. He purred loudly, closed his eyes and rubbed his head under Mum’s chin. She fell for it.

  ‘Give him some biscuits, Alex,’ she said.

  She was so gullible.

  ‘I’m not clearing up if he’s sick,’ I said firmly as I poured the snacks into his bowl.

  Mum put Cesare down and he strolled over to the dish, sniffed the biscuits, sat down and stared at them in disdain.

  ‘Mr Picky,’ I said. ‘You’re not getting anything else.’

  Cesare glared at me. I ignored him and went back to the dishwasher.

  To my surprise, when I turned round a moment later, the biscuits had gone.

  *

  A monster wind blew up that night. It churned the sea into giant waves that hurtled over the surface and squirted huge jets of foam into the air. Outside my rattling window, trees thrashed, the wind moaning and roaring in their branches. I drew the curtains and they swayed in the wind leaking through the window.

  The catch on my bedroom door clicked, the door floated open and Cesare strolled in.

  I turfed him out. He gave me one of his evil looks.

  ‘You know you’re not allowed in the bedrooms,’ I said. ‘Go away.’

  Cesare sat down.

  ‘Please yourself.’ I shut the door properly and went back to bed with a book. I read a few chapters till the wind died down to a soothing moan. I yawned, closed the book, switched the light out and burrowed deep under the duvet. I went straight to sleep.

  In the night I half-woke to feel Cesare’s feet coming up the bed towards me. He snuggled up against my back and purred loudly.

  Already drifting off, I mumbled crossly, ‘Make yourself comfy, why don’t you?’ and went back to sleep.

  As soon as I woke in the morning I remembered the cat. There was a warm patch where he’d been sleeping but no sign of him. He knew he was in disgrace for sneaking back into the room and was in hiding. I looked under the bed and behind the curtains. Nothing.

  I flopped back on the bed, puzzled. How had Cesare got in? I knew for sure I’d closed the door properly. I jumped up and opened it. Cesare was curled up outside.

  I goggled at him.

  Had I dreamt the whole thing? I’d just decided I must have when I felt a furry body brush past my ankles. I looked down. There was nothing there.

  Cesare uncurled with a happy little mewling sound and licked an empty space in front of him. The empty space began to purr loudly and two large, slanted yellow eyes stared at me out of nowhere.

  I sagged against the doorframe for support. The invisible cat had followed me home.

  Chapter Four

  PAWS 4 THOUGHT

  I clicked encouragingly at the cats and they trotted back into my bedroom mewing for food. Now what? I thought. I didn’t want a magic cat. I’d learned the hard way that magic comes back on you. This cat was going to have to go.

  Cesare and his new friend were getting impatient. They wanted their breakfast so I stopped panicking, shut them in my bathroom and ran down to the kitchen for supplies.

  How could I have been so dim? Missing all the obvious signs yesterday: the dog barking madly at an unseen thing on the wall; the way Cesare’s food disappeared so quickly after he’d refused it; the way the invisicat had sneaked into my room and slept on my bed all night after I’d locked Cesare out.

  I gathered up cat food and a couple of spare bowls from the utility room and hurtled upstairs. I plonked the bowls on the bathroom floor and filled them with food and water. While the cats were troughing, another thought flashed through my brain.

  I dashed downstairs again, grabbed a bag of cat litter, a scoop and a spare tray from the utility room and hauled them back upstairs. I sorted the litter tray in the bathroom.

  When they’d finished eating, I let the cats curl up on my bed while I thought about the invisicat. Maybe the cat that had appeared in the installation mirror the day before wasn’t Cesare at all. It had seemed pretty large and Cesare was still a kitten.

  I got a hand mirror and held it up to the purr that was all I could detect of the invisicat. There it was in the glass; grey and fluffy, like a very large version of Cesare but with a less grumpy face. I wondered if the cats were related. They were definitely very happy with each other, grooming away and purring like small engines.

  I hurled myself back against my pillows and groaned. What was I going to do now?

  By rights I should take the cat back to Paws 4 Thought. It did belong to the pet shop man. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe he’d stolen it. There was no way of knowing.

  Whatever, I didn’t fancy facing up to the man in the pet shop. He’d been bad-tempered the day before, and he’d probably be worse if I told him I’d accidentally lured his special cat away. This wasn’t getting any easier.

  I could hardly let the invisicat roam around free. It was firm friends with Cesare now and the pair of them working as a team could probably reduce the house to rubble. I shuddered and thought for a nanosecond about telling my family. No. None of them would believe me; they’d say it was another of my fantasies. And even if they did believe me, they’d make me take the cat back to Paws 4 Thought. Either that or they’d send it to some research place to be experimented on while the scientists tried t
o find out what made it invisible. I couldn’t let either of those things happen.

  I’d have to decide quickly; I could hear noises of people moving about. Mum was going to take more cakes to Charles before coming back to bake for the installation preview the next day. Dad was going to do some final adjustments to fitments and even the boys were getting up early to go to Franklin’s to tweak the installation.

  The only thing I could do was lock the cats in for the time being and hope a brilliant idea would light up my brain sooner or later and solve the problem of having an invisible cat in the house.

  ‘Come on, cats.’ They followed me trustingly into the bathroom and I piled up the food bowl again. As soon as they dived in to eat I ran out of my bedroom, closed the door, very firmly, and went down for breakfast.

  My family were finalising arrangements for the day. I got assigned to general duties helping out Mum, which was what I expected.

  I grabbed my jacket and heard a rattling noise. It was the box of treats. The toy was in my other pocket. When the pet shop man threw me out the day before it had happened so quickly I’d left without paying.

  That was useful. It gave me a perfect excuse to go back to Paws 4 Thought. Maybe that would help me decide what to do next.

  *

  Mum and I used the lift up to the Terrace Restaurant to give Charles his cakes. I still didn’t raise my eyes to look at the liftman; I kept them trained on his shoes. They were very shiny. He didn’t speak except to ask where we wanted to go and announce when we’d arrived.

  Even with Mum there it was still a relief to get out of the lift. I’d had quite enough of magic with the invisicat. I didn’t want to risk accidentally getting involved in any more by speaking to the liftman.

  Mum stayed to talk business to Charles while I went to Paws 4 Thought to pay for the treats and the toy. I told Mum what I was doing.

  ‘Don’t be long,’ she said.

  I promised and used the stairs to get to the lobby. There was still a lot of hammering going on behind the shrouded installation. There were also raised voices. I wasn’t sure if Ben and Sam were shouting to each other or at the scaffolders. The boys got intense when it came to their art.

  There was no sign of the pet shop man in Paws 4 Thought. I was about to ping a brass bell on the counter when I saw a stack of business cards next to it. I picked one up. It read:

  PAWS 4 THOUGHT

  Bartholomew Magus

  Licensed supplier of

  small animals, fish and birds

  Caters for all your pet’s needs

  FRANKLIN’S EMPORIUM - Unit 10

  Ground Floor

  I put it in my pocket and dinged the bell.

  ‘I’ll be out in a minute,’ a voice called from behind a dark curtain at the back of the shop.

  I took the chance to check out the animals. The fish were the same as the day before. I went into the rodents section. Yesterday there had been two chinchillas. Now there was only one. Must’ve sold the other, I thought. That was heartless; chinchillas are very sociable. I bent down to talk to the lonely animal. Four eyes stared back at me. Four eyes? Another invisible creature.

  I went from cage to cage and in all of them there was a least one invisible animal. Pairs of confused eyes blinked from the back of the cages. That was bad enough, but the birds were worse. There was a parrot that was only a muted squawk and two beady black eyes that glared accusingly at me. And there was a single lovebird snuggling up to nothing. I only knew another bird was there because I could see them both reflected in their little mirror, the invisible one with its eyes closed.

  I went round a second time and noticed some of the visible animals were a bit faded, not exactly transparent but sort of. . . weirdly insubstantial.

  I had no idea why Mr Magus was turning the animals invisible but I did know he was making them all miserable. I made up my mind.

  ‘I can’t help you,’ I said to the parrot, ‘but I’m not bringing the invisible cat back.’

  ‘You’ve got my cat?’

  Mr Magus had sneaked up on me from behind the curtain.

  I stared dumbly. It was impossible to pretend I hadn’t said it.

  Mr Magus gave a half-snarl, half-sneer. ‘Bring that cat back.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because it’s mine. And because I can use it to help complete my experiments.’

  That made me surer than ever that I wasn’t going to let him have the invisicat. I started to back away.

  He thrust his hand into his sagging black velvet pocket, drew it out again and threw a handful of glittering dust all over me. It settled for an instant then evaporated – poof!

  Mr Magus began to chant softly in a strange language. My head swam. I made unsteadily for the door and came face to face with Mum.

  ‘You’re still here then,’ she said. ‘Have you paid yet?’

  Mr Magus stopped chanting and sneered, ‘She hasn’t, but she will, oh yes, she will.’

  ‘You needn’t make a song and dance about it, it was a mistake,’ Mum said sharply. ‘Pay the man, Alex.’

  I paid Mr Magus and Mum propelled me out of the shop.

  ‘Steer clear of him in future,’ she said.

  She didn’t need to tell me that – he’d creeped me out, big time. He was much, much worse than the liftman.

  Chapter Five

  FADING AWAY

  At home Mum said. ‘You’re a bit peaky. Are you feeling all right?’

  ‘I’m a bit tired,’ I admitted. It was true. I thought it was probably all the running up and down stairs I’d done.

  Mum gave me a hug. ‘Go and have an hour or two’s rest then see how you feel.’

  That sounded ok to me. Any excuse to read.

  Mum went off to her chef’s kitchen to get started on a marathon bake for the exhibition preview. She’d wanted to do a miniature version of the installation in cake. The boys wanted to keep it secret and wouldn’t let her. I didn’t blame them.

  I went into my room carefully, making sure the cats didn’t escape. I needn’t have worried; they were curled up together on my bed. Cesare seemed to be fast asleep with his chin in the air and his nose pointing upwards. It was eerie even though I knew he was resting his head on the invisicat. That was the only way I did know it was there as its eyes were closed. They opened as I came in and it mewed. That alerted Cesare and both cats bounded off the bed and pleaded for food.

  ‘Give me a chance,’ I said, trying to wade through two cats winding impatiently round and round my ankles.

  I gave them some biscuits, kicked off my shoes, lay on my bed and picked up my book. I’d got to a part where the main character, who had stowed away on an airship, had been discovered by the captain. I read on. The cats came and curled up next to me. The stowaway fought the captain tooth and nail, up and down the ship. He grabbed at her, she slipped over the side of the ship and was hurtling through the clouds when there was a knock at the door and Mum’s voice said, ‘Can I come in?’

  Why now? I thought savagely.

  ‘Just a minute.’

  I pinned a startled cat under each arm, dashed to the bathroom, dropped them and closed the door.

  I hopped back onto the bed. ‘Come in.’

  Mum sat on the end of my bed.

  ‘You really do look a bit pale.’ She took my book and put it on the bedside table. ‘Stop reading and have a nap.’

  A nap? How old did she think I was? Three?

  I gave a pretend yawn. ‘OK.’ As soon as she’d gone I was going to open that book again. I was desperate to know what happened to the character plummeting to Earth.

  There was a clawing at the bathroom door and angry meowing.

  ‘What’s that?’ Mum opened the bathroom door and Cesare shot out, ran through the bedroom and disappeared onto the landing.

  It was a good job he moved fast. The invisicat’s eyes followed him at the same speed and Mum didn’t notice them.

  So much for my plotting, I thought. I might
just as well have let them out in the first place.

  ‘What was he doing in the bathroom?’ Mum asked.

  ‘No idea,’ I fibbed.

  She shook her head in exasperation and went.

  That was a narrow escape, which was good. But now I had the problem of finding the invisicat yet again and putting it where it couldn’t be found while I worked out what to do with it.

  In the meantime I thought I’d better bag up the leftovers in the cats’ bowls and the drek in the litter tray. Mum hadn’t had time to notice it but she would if she came back and smelled a pong. Then I’d have to admit to locking Cesare in the bathroom without being able to say why. The book would have to wait.

  I filled a pedal bin liner and went to wash my hands before I took it down to the wheelie bin. As I rinsed off the soap, and the water sluiced over them, I thought my hands looked a bit peculiar. The skin was almost transparent and I could see my veins and sinews underneath.

  Queasiness flooded through me and I sat on the edge of the bath. Tentatively I held out my hands. I wasn’t mistaken. My skin was definitely transparent. I rolled up my jeans and examined my ankles and feet. They were transparent too. In fact, they were even more transparent. I could see bones.

  No wonder Mum thought I looked washed out. I was washed out. It was horrible. I was half way to becoming invisible.

  Now I knew what Bartholomew Magus had been up to when he threw sparkly dust at me and started chanting. He’d cast a spell on me. Why hadn’t I made the connection before? Because the spell had made me feel light-headed and unable to think straight.

  On the good side, Mum had interrupted Magus before he could complete the spell. That explained the semi-invisibility but even though I was only faded, I’d still have to get the spell reversed. Being see-through was as bad as being invisible.

  There was only one thing for it; the thing I’d been avoiding ever since I came back to Golden Bay with my family. I’d have to talk to the liftman. I needed to ask for his help.