by K. J. Emrick
“Kujo! Oh Kujo!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. The huge black beast’s head shot up. He sniffed the air. He sniffed the air more furiously and shot up out of his bed. Still sniffing madly, he ran one way and then another.
I knew the exact moment he locked on to me. His huge head turned in my direction and those big, dark eyes of his looked straight at me. He hurled himself in my direction making the most awful racket. Slobber flew from his mouth as he launched himself at me only to be thrown backwards by the wire mesh fence that was between us.
I thought he would be smart enough to realize that he couldn’t get me through the fence but I underestimated his stupidity. He kept ramming the fence desperately trying to get to me. I waited for him to calm down but the fence was only serving to enrage him all the more. He bashed against it repeatedly with his head and I watched as the fence began to pull away at the top.
This was not good. He would be through in a matter of minutes. I needed another plan… and fast. I looked all around and about fifteen feet away was a large, sturdy tree. In the time it had taken me to look for somewhere safe to escape to Kujo had gotten his head through the fence. His huge teeth were just inches away from my face. Time to get out of here.
I sprinted as fast as my legs would go toward the tree. I heard him breach the last part of the fence and he was on my tail, literally. I could feel his hot breath scorching my rear end as I reached the bottom of the tree. Not pausing I leaped as high as I could and dug my claws securely into the trunk so as not to slip and give him the advantage. I scampered up the tree to the first branch that was out of his reach.
I took a few moments to get my breath back and get my heart rate under control. Then I looked down. The beast was jumping up the trunk in a mad frenzy trying desperately to get me. No way Kujo. That’s not going to happen. Even if I have to sit here for the rest of the day.
So I sat there for the rest of the day and most of the evening. Kujo had kept watch at the bottom of the tree all of that time. The mad dog is singled minded it seems. By the time his owner showed up, the sun had already set. Boy was he mad when he saw the fence. That dog was in big trouble.
There was a lot of activity and noise as the owner of the tree I was in came home at the same time. Lots of raised voices. Glad I wasn’t that dog. He sure wouldn’t forget me in a hurry.
I hid among the dense leaves and waited. The commotion eventually died down and everyone went back in to their respective houses. Then it was safe for me to leave. I raced home as fast as my legs would take me. I was exhausted and felt like I could sleep for a week. The search for Persephone would have to wait until tomorrow.
I didn’t make any headway on the case the next day either. It was the day of the Misty Hollow festival and there was just too much activity going on for me to be able to concentrate.
I did a bit of digging in the morning but came up empty so I decided to spend the rest of the day up on the bookstore roof where I could watch all of the comings and goings. In the end I fell asleep in the sunshine and missed most of it. I needed the rest as I was still recovering from my time up the tree yesterday.
It was the loud squawking that eventually woke me up. I opened my bleary eyes I realized two things. Firstly, it was already night time and secondly there was a long black beak and two beady black eyes in my line of vision.
“Corvin! What are you doing?” I was annoyed that the aggravating crow had woken me up from a fantastic dream. Twistypaws and I had been running free through fields of brightly colored flowers. I felt alive and Twist was giving me that look that she sometimes does. You know, the one where she’s making gooey eyes at me and I feel like jelly all over.
“Sorry, sorry. Need to talk to Smudge now. Gotta show Smudge now.”
Corvin was a very excitable fellow. I’d known him a long time and he had never been any different. Nervous energy radiated off him.
“What are you talking about.” Just then there was a loud boom and the sky lit up with all of the colors of the rainbow. The boom made Corvin jump but I knew what it was and it didn’t bother me.
Fireworks.
I sure had slept a long time. Corvin waited impatiently, hopping from one foot to the other. It was getting on my nerves but as soon as the fireworks finished he said, “Bad is coming, bad is coming.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. He was making no sense. “Smudge has to help. Bad is coming.”
“Corvin, what on earth are you talking about?”
“Smudge has to stop it. Bad is coming.”
“Calm down and tell me what it is going on.”
“Bad is coming.”
“Yeah, I got that part. What do I have to stop.”
“Show Smudge. Have to stop it.”
“Okay, show me then.” He waited for me to wind my way down to the street level. Flapping madly about making me lose my footing more than once. As soon as I reached the bottom he flew off. I followed him as quickly as I could but he was flying too fast. It was really foggy and I lost sight of him several times. He had to double back a few times to wait for me to catch up.
He was taking me in the direction of home but at the last minute a flew across the open space between my house and Anna’s house. I followed him and when we were close to Anna’s house he flew down next to me.
“Need to be quiet. Don’t want him to see us.”
Who? What was going on here? Corvin flew up onto the front porch and landed on the window sill. I climbed up and sat next to him wondering what I was supposed to be seeing.
“Look Smudge.” He tapped his beak lightly against the window. It made a tiny tap tap sound. I looked through the window and could see Anna bustling around inside. She was getting cups out of the cupboard and placing them on the table. Two cups.
So Anna had a visitor. Not so strange. But she did seem to be agitated. That was not so strange either. For as long as I’d known Anna she had always seemed a bit of a nervous type.
I could hear her voice raise and watched as a man came into view. I couldn’t see his face, he had his back to me. But his voice sounded angry. Anna and this man were arguing. This was unexpected.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying but the conversation was heated. The man seemed to be pleading with her about something. This isn’t good, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen.
The arguing went on for a long time. The man was becoming more and more agitated when Anna kept shaking her head and saying “No” to whatever it was that he wanted. Suddenly he grabbed her and was holding her by the arms and shaking her.
Then he pushed her away and something flashed in Anna’s hand. I could see she was holding a gun on the man.
Definitely not good.
He stepped back a couple of paces and anger flared up in him again. He was yelling but I still couldn’t make out the words.
I knew something bad was going to happen just like Corvin had said. How had he known? Didn’t matter.
What could I do to stop this?
I jumped as the man rushed Anna and grabbed her hand with the gun. They struggled and as he pulled the gun away from her hand it slipped. As he lunged to grab it he must have pulled the trigger. Anna fell to the floor.
I didn’t wait to see any more. I needed Darcy.
Now!
I raced home but the house was still in darkness. Darcy wasn’t home yet. I was about to go and get her when I heard the crunching of gravel in the distance. I knew it was Darcy walking along the road toward home. Waiting impatiently for her, she came into view. She smiled when she saw me on the porch waiting for her. This was not going to be easy for her.
She put out a hand to pat me and I let out the loudest meow I had. She was instantly on alert. I bolted off the porch and headed for Anna’s house. I could hear Darcy following behind and she mumbled something about Lassie, whoever that was. Sometimes humans don’t make much sense.
She was slow to enter Anna’s house when we got there. It was like she already knew what was waiting
for her on the other side of the door. I watched as she ran to Anna and did that thing that humans do on the side of the neck.
But I knew that it was already too late.
I had been hoping that Darcy would be able to help me find Persephone. Now that Anna had been murdered I knew that Darcy would be involved with finding out who did that. I had my suspicions. I had seen it happen and the man involved looked very much like our own Mayor of Misty Hollow. I was finding it very hard to believe though. He didn’t seem like the murdering type. But who knew.
So I guess it was up to me to find the missing cat. I needed to talk to Kujo but as I found out the other day he is very unstable. And dogs aren’t really my favorite kind of animal to hang with anyway.
Give me another cat, or guinea pig or even a crow, any day.
After another disastrous aborted attempt to talk to him I gave up. I decided to inconspicuously follow him around instead. See what he got up to and if he would lead me to Persephone. I was sure he knew where she was.
In the end it was another wasted day. Kujo led a pretty boring life. He didn’t do anything that led me to find Persephone. I pondered what to do about the missing cat mystery all evening as I relaxed on the sofa with Darcy that night.
She was busy going through a bunch of old photos, getting misty eyed over them. Especially the ones of me, but who could blame her. I was cute. Still am.
And there was that one of Anna that made her act a bit weird.
I think she is as perplexed about her mystery as I am about mine. She ended up calling Grace while she scratched behind my ears. I just love it when she does that and hoped she would talk on the phone all night if it meant she would keep doing it.
The next day I continued to follow Kujo around. I was convinced he had something to do with Persephone’s disappearance. All morning I followed him and watched him bully and taunt one frightened animal after another. It was like a sport with him. Didn’t he have a conscience at all?
Around lunchtime I was just about to admit defeat and give up when Kujo began acting kind of furtive. I kept watching as he sauntered down the sidewalk looking one way and then the other. Then he took off… bounding out of the neighborhood. I had to be quick to catch up with him. For such a large dog he could really move.
I followed him through a couple of small back streets and alleyways. Soon we were into the industrial district. Where was he going? There was nothing but warehouses and storage sheds out this way.
I watched as he stealthily slipped through a slit in a fence that surrounded one of the buildings. He stopped and looked all around, checking to see if he had been followed. The big mutt didn’t see me though, when a cat doesn’t want to be found he can be very hard to spot.
Satisfied that he was alone, he quickly ran around the side of the building. I wasted no time in following him. I caught up just as he was wriggling his way through a small opening. If it was any smaller he would get stuck.
I followed him very quietly, almost on my tippy toes. I had to be really careful. One whiff of my scent and he’d be on me like white on rice. I was in a very dangerous situation right now and needed all of my wits about me.
I listened to his movements and then I heard him talking. Who was he talking to? I crept closer until I was able to work out what he was saying.
“So howya doin’ today?” He laughed with a really nasty tone to it.
I heard another voice answer. I couldn’t work out what it was saying as it seemed to be coming from a long way away. Definitely a female though. Could it be Persephone? Did Kujo have her locked away in here somewhere? But why?
I needed to get closer but then I risked him being able to smell my scent. I couldn’t have him knowing I was here. I decided to take a chance anyway and crept closer to him.
“You gonna die down there you know? You and those little runts of yours.”
“Why are you doing this? Please tell someone we’re down here. Do you want to have the deaths of myself and my children on your conscience forever?”
I was convinced now that is was Persephone. It looked like she was down a hole in the floor. How far down was she I wondered?
“I don’t give a damn about you or your runts. I’m having a good time watching you die. And you are gonna die lady, make no mistake about that. You’s is slowly starving to death right now. This’s gonna be such fun to watch.”
“You’re sick.”
Kujo laughed. “I’ll be back later.” He flicked his head and turned around casually walking away. I moved as fast as I could to find a hiding spot. I wriggled my way into a pile of boxes and then froze.
He shuffled past my hiding spot and suddenly stopped. Lifting his head and turning it one way and then the other he sniffed. I held my breath. He was close, too close. I was sure he would sniff me out. Time seemed to slow down and drag as he stood there sniffing the air. I had nowhere to go if he found me. It would be curtains for me.
After what seemed like an eternity he dropped his head and sauntered off. That had been really close. I don’t like getting into these sorts of situations. I’m a peace loving cat and I don’t like to fight if I don’t have to. After a couple of minutes, I was fairly confident he was gone. With some difficulty, I wriggled out of my hiding place.
I crept over to the hole, looking all around just to be sure Kujo wouldn’t spring out. I peeked over the edge and my suspicions were confirmed. Down about twenty feet I could see in the dim light of this old warehouse, lay Persephone.
And snuggled up next to her were four little balls of fur. She’d had kittens and they were the cutest little things. I melted. I am a sucker for a fluffy baby. I could see that they were pure white and fluffy like their mother except for the little bit of black on their faces and on the tips of their ears. That would be their father’s genes. Ernesto. He would be so happy.
“Persephone,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to startle her.
She looked up. “Smudge! Oh, thank goodness.”
I smiled at her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, although I’m starving and so are the little ones. My milk is running out as I haven’t eaten in… I don’t know how long.”
“Okay. First order of business. I will get you some food and then we’ll work out how to get you out of there.”
“Oh, thank you Smudge. You’re a life saver.”
Indeed.
I rounded up all the cats in town that I knew along with all of the new friends I’d made during this investigation.
Tony the Tiger and Twistypaws, my cat friends Rolo, Samson, Enzo, Paolo and Omar, and Onyx, Mariel, Ernesto and I gathered together all of the food we could find and headed for the warehouse building where Persephone was stuck.
She seemed relieved to see so many of us but the one she was most excited to see was Ernesto and he was relieved to see her also.
We made a plan that at least one of us would be with her at all times until we could find a way to get her out.
“I’m going to get Darcy,” I told them. “She will know what to do.” I left the others to work out the roster for staying with Persephone while I headed to the bookstore to get Darcy. I only hoped that she would understand what I needed her to do.
I raced into the town center as fast as my legs would carry me and entered the bookstore through the roof. Darcy would be mad if she knew that there was a small hole in the corner of the ceiling that I use for emergencies to get in and out of the store. Right now I was glad for it.
I jumped down onto the nearest book shelf and then onto the floor. I could hear Darcy and Sue talking up front so I made my way up there. Darcy was sitting at one of the reading tables. Good, it looked as though she wasn’t busy. I really needed her help.
“No, I don’t,” Darcy was saying to Sue. I’m not sure what they were talking about. I jumped up onto the table and meowed as loud as I could in Darcy’s face. I needed to get her to realize the urgency of what I was trying to tell her. She shook her head at me and said, �
�What? I do not think he’s cute.”
What on earth was she talking about? Who was cute? I’ll bet they’re talking about that Jon person. It hadn’t escaped my notice the way he looked at Darcy. He’d better keep his distance though. I didn’t want him hanging around making a nuisance of himself.
I needed her to come with me. Sue chuckled nervously. She was kind of weird sometimes. She really didn’t get that Darcy and I have such a close relationship. Just because I’m a cat and she’s a person doesn’t mean we don’t communicate.
Darcy patted me and then got up. Good, she got the message and is coming with me. She laughed at Sue and then walked away.
Wait! I need your help. I jumped off the table and ran after her but she just ignored me and went back to work. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to get her attention in vain. She could be so oblivious sometimes. If only humans could speak cat, life would be so much simpler.
In the end I gave up. I knew it was a lost cause. It seemed that whatever was on her mind was more important. With a sigh, I found a comfortable spot to lay down and rest. Being a cat is exhausting work you know. I vowed to get her attention as soon as possible though. This was something that couldn’t wait.
The sun was setting on Misty Hollow once again, and I had failed to get Darcy’s attention all day. Whatever she had on her mind must be very important.
I thought that maybe after dinner when she was relaxing on the sofa would be a good time to try again. But that didn’t go according to plan. She left the house and I had to scramble to catch up with her.
Where was she going? I followed her to Grace’s house. What was she up to? I waited for an eternity for her to come out again and when she did she headed in the direction of the bookstore.
I sprinted along a short cut I knew to get ahead of her. By the time she entered the town center I was sitting on the sidewalk waiting for her acting all mysterious-like with my head up sniffing the air.
She finally took notice. Before she could get distracted yet again, I dashed off in the direction of the warehouse where Persephone was trapped. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist following me. As I thought, she chased after me.