“Arrr,” the man shouted. “I’m sure I left it in here the other night.”
“Night?” our Mom asked. “We’re not open at night.”
I could tell by our Mom’s voice that she was kind of suspicious.
Bogey and I scooted up to the doorway and poked our heads out. And that’s when we saw a scruffy old man barreling down the aisle. He was weaving from side to side and opening all the cabinets and drawers everywhere. The smell of fish got even stronger. From the way the man looked and smelled, I figured he hadn’t taken a bath in a while.
Our Mom and Millicent rushed to keep up with him. Millicent had her lips pushed together in a very thin line. And our Mom didn’t take her eyes off the guy.
But the man just kept stumbling forward. He opened canisters and china cabinets and everything he could find.
Now our Mom turned to Millicent and held her fingers up to her ear. “Call Phoebe.”
Of course, we knew “Phoebe” was actually Officer Phoebe. And if our Mom was calling the police, that meant something was wrong.
Millicent nodded and headed for the cash register counter.
“C’mon, kid,” Bogey motioned to me. “I don’t think our Mom likes the way this guy is acting. Let’s make sure she’s okay.”
Well, let me tell you, I didn’t like anyone acting bad around our Mom. Or any other member of our family, for that matter!
So Bogey and I hightailed it out of the back room and ran to where our Mom stood.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she said. “But my store was searched on Saturday night. And I can assure you, we didn’t find a package.”
“That’s because I hid it,” the old man said.
I noticed he was wearing a rain slicker and a ship captain’s hat. It had the name “La Paloma” written on it.
“You hid it?” our Mom asked. “Why would you do something like that?”
He shook his head. “Arrr . . . I got confused, lady. ‘Twas easy to do. I’d been at sea a long time.”
He practically tripped over his own feet and almost went headfirst into a mirror. He was walking like he was on a ship being bounced around in the waves.
Not that I’d ever actually been on a ship before. But I’d watched them on TV with Gracie. I shuddered at the idea of being around all that water.
“Maybe it would be best if you sat down,” our Mom suggested to the man. “You don’t look like you’re feeling well.”
He turned and blinked at her. He swayed even when he was standing still. Then he squinted at Millicent when she came back to join us.
“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Millicent nodded. “Why don’t you sit and we’ll look around for your package. Maybe you can start by telling us what it looked like.”
The man pointed right at Bogey. “Just like that.”
And the next thing we knew, he reached down and tried to grab my brother. Our Mom and Millicent screamed.
Of course, Bogey was way too fast for the man. And the man probably didn’t know that Bogey could fly. So when he grabbed for my brother, Bogey sprang straight up in the air. The man didn’t even get a chance to stand up before Bogey landed on the guy’s back.
And that’s when the man dropped right to the floor, with his arms and legs sprawled out. His head was turned to the side.
Seconds later, he started to snore.
Holy Catnip!
I’m sure my eyes went about as wide as my food dish. Sure, I knew my brother was one of the best cat detectives ever. But I had no idea he could bring down a full-grown man! I glanced up at Bogey as he stood on the man’s back. I had to say, I wanted to be just like my brother, now more than ever before.
After all, our Mom and Millicent had been scared of that guy. And, he had tried to go after my brother. Obviously he was not a good man. But I still wondered what he was doing in our store.
Millicent petted Bogey on the head. “You’re my hero, Bogey. What a great guy you are!”
Bogey grinned up at her before he jumped down to the floor. Then he began walking around the snoring man. While our Mom and Millicent talked to each other very excitedly, Bogey sniffed the man’s face. Especially his mouth. Then he sniffed the man’s jacket.
“Over here, kid,” he meowed to me. “I need you to cover me. I’m going in.”
He was? Exactly what was he “going in” to? To tell you the truth, I had no idea what Bogey was talking about. But I sure understood the words “cover me.”
Especially since a big, long-haired cat like me can really provide a lot of cover. So I bounded over to help him.
“I need to check his pockets, kid,” Bogey meowed in a whisper. “Don’t let the people see what I’m doing.”
“Aye, aye,” I whispered back.
So I stood on all fours between Bogey and our Mom and Millicent. I made kind of a big, fuzzy wall right next to my brother. Not that it mattered. Our Mom and Millicent were still talking really fast, and now they’d called Merryweather over, too. I don’t think they even noticed Bogey and me.
Especially when Officer Phoebe walked in.
That’s when Bogey pulled a small, folded piece of paper from the man’s pocket. He slid it between the middle toes on my front left paw. Only seconds before Officer Phoebe told everyone to give her some room.
“Take this to your cat bed, kid,” Bogey whispered. “Don’t lose it. I’ll keep an eye out here.”
So I did. While Officer Phoebe checked the man’s breathing and his pulse, I clinched that paper in my toes. Then I slowly backed away.
And let me tell you, slowly was the word! It wasn’t easy turning and walking with that paper stuck between my toes. The paper was folded into fours and it stuck up about an inch and a half above my foot. It also stuck out about an inch in front of me. So I had to walk very, very slowly, or else that paper would’ve fallen out.
But I couldn’t let that happen, because I’d never get it back between my toes again. And I sure couldn’t carry it in my mouth. Especially since it looked like it had writing on it. If I carried it in my mouth, I might get it wet and the ink might run.
So instead, I just inched along carefully in the direction of the back room.
In the meantime, I could hear a siren wailing in the distance. I wondered why.
But I didn’t stop to look. I just kept on moving. One little step at a time. Step after step. Outside, the siren sounded louder and louder. I could hear more footsteps and people coming in and talking all at once.
But I just kept on going, until I got to the opening to the back room. Then I took off at a run. Of course, the paper fell right out of my toes. And that’s when I batted it, just like it was one of our mouse toys. I kept hitting that thing until I’d gotten it clear over to my cat bed. After that, I scooped it up with one paw and . . . whap! The next thing I knew, it was on my bed. Then I pulled up the blanket and hid that folded paper right underneath.
Mission accomplished!
Or, well, at least part of the mission was accomplished, anyway.
Now it was time for me to get back to Bogey.
I raced into the main room, and suddenly, the siren sounded really, really loud. Blaring, you might even say. For a moment, I wondered if we should all be running out of the store. But then the siren quit when an ambulance pulled up outside. I figured Officer Phoebe must have called for it.
Seconds later, the ambulance workers pushed a big stretcher into our Mom’s store and straight up the middle aisle. Millicent and Merryweather rushed over to help and quickly moved stuff out of the way. Then the ambulance people rolled that big stretcher right to the spot where our Mom and Officer Phoebe were kneeling by the man. His ship captain’s hat had fallen off his head, showing his scraggly white hair. He was snoring even louder now.
Lots of other people walked into the store and gathered around. Just to watch, as near as I could tell.
The ambulance workers loaded the man onto a stretcher. He didn’t even open his eyes. They put his hat back on his head and stra
pped him onto that stretcher.
I ran to sit beside my brother. “Wow, Bogey. You really knocked that man out.”
Bogey shook his head. “Wasn’t me, kid. Something else knocked him out. Did you smell his breath?”
“Um, no . . . did you?” I asked him.
Bogey nodded. “Yup, kid. Someone gave that man something that made him go to sleep. Probably sleeping pills. I smelled the same thing on a case I worked a long time ago. Near as I can tell, they probably gave him a pretty hefty dose.”
We watched the ambulance people wheel the man out on the stretcher. They rolled it carefully past the front door and out onto the sidewalk.
“Maybe he took it himself,” I suggested.
Bogey shook his head. “I don’t think so, kid. I’ll bet someone slipped it to him in a drink or some food. Because that guy was in our Mom’s store to find something important. He was on a mission. You can bet he wouldn’t dose himself with anything that would put him out like a light.”
I glanced at the crowd of people who were still inside the store. Nobody seemed to be leaving. In fact, all of a sudden, people just started buying stuff. Millicent and Merryweather were working at the cash register, and they sure had their hands full.
I turned back to my brother. “But why would someone want to make that man go to sleep?”
“Beats me, kid,” Bogey said. “And we probably won’t find out anytime soon. That guy had to go to the hospital. And I’ll bet he doesn’t get out for a while.”
I sniffed at the floor. It still smelled kind of fishy.
“I wonder who he is?” I asked Bogey.
“Sea captain, kid,” Bogey told me. “Officer Phoebe looked in his wallet. He owns a ship called the La Paloma. Or, in English, it’s called The Dove. He had some papers on him that said he’d just sailed over from Turkey.”
I blinked a couple of times. “You mean The Dove sailed from Turkey?”
Bogey grinned. “You got it, kid.”
That seemed like an awful lot of birds to me.
I crinkled my forehead. “But we’re not even close to the ocean.”
Bogey flexed a front paw. “Don’t I know it, kid. That guy traveled a long way after he docked his boat. What he’s doing here is a mystery. One we’ve gotta solve.”
“I wonder what he was looking for in our Mom’s store,” I sort of murmured. And just as soon as I’d said it, I was pretty sure I knew the answer.
Bogey gave me a grin. “Bet it was our package, kid. The one we’ll be unwrapping tonight. Right after we get it home. And right after our family goes to sleep.”
All of a sudden, my heart kind of skipped a beat. “Do you think the package belongs to him?”
Bogey glanced at the people lined up at the cash register. “I doubt it, kid. If it was his, it doesn’t make sense that he would break in here and hide it at night. But maybe we’ll know more after we unwrap it. And, after we figure out what’s in it.”
By now people were starting to file out of our store, shopping bags in hand. We could hear lots and lots of talking coming from just outside the door to the back room.
Bogey nodded toward the front of the store. “We’d better check this out, kid. I have a funny feeling about all this.”
I followed Bogey as we ran all the way around one side of the huge room and made our way to the front. Then we jumped into the huge picture-window display that faced the street. We hopped up on a tall buffet to get a better view.
But there were so many people out on the sidewalk and street that it was hard to see much at all. The ambulance workers had just finished loading up the sea captain and hooking him up with some tubes and things. The crowd of people had barely left the ambulance workers any room to get through and work.
Holy Mackerel! I don’t think I’d ever seen such a crowd in front of the store before! For some reason, I shivered. I sure was glad we were inside the store and not out on the sidewalk.
More than anything, I really wanted to go back to my cat bed and curl up. Where I’d be nice and safe.
Beside me, Bogey didn’t seem fazed one bit. He just kept scanning the crowd over and over again.
Finally, he nodded a little to the right. “See anyone familiar out there, kid?”
To tell you the truth, I could hardly see just one person. Instead, all I could see were a whole bunch of people, sort of packed together. But I took a closer look, and tried make out people one by one.
First I noticed the people who worked next door. Then I saw a lady in a floppy hat. Beside her was a little boy who kept tugging at the lady’s arm. Beside him was a lady who came in our store every year for Christmas presents. And right next to her was . . .
I sort of gasped. “Is that . . .?”
Bogey nodded. “Sure is, kid. It’s Byron Bygones. Curator of the St. Gertrude Museum. Now look on the other side of the ambulance. About ten people down. Who do you see?”
I glanced first at the ambulance and then started counting. One . . . two . . . three . . . Until I got to ten.
This time I gasped really, really loud. For standing there, looking furious, was Delilah. The same lady we had seen at the Museum yesterday.
“Bogey, what are they doing here?” I sort of whispered.
Bogey shook his head slowly, from side to side. “I dunno, kid. But this looks really suspicious to me.”
Well, I had to say, it looked pretty suspicious to me, too!
I glanced back outside. “Now what should we do?”
Bogey stood up and stepped to the edge of the buffet. “I think we’d better go to the back room, kid. We’d better make sure our package is hidden really well.”
I felt my heart start to pound. “Um, okay. Do you think someone might try to steal it?”
Bogey squinted his eyes and looked outside one more time. “Yup, kid. That would be my guess. I have a hunch that sea captain won’t be the only one looking for it.”
I gulped and followed Bogey after he jumped from the buffet. Just as the ambulance pulled away from the curb and drove off. Then together Bogey and I ran toward the back of the store.
“One other thing, kid,” Bogey said. “We’d better check out that paper I found in the sea captain’s pocket. I’ve got a hunch it’s another clue.”
Another clue?
I could hardly believe it. How many more clues and things were we going to run across? And to think, we hadn’t even opened our package yet. Right at that moment, I had no idea how to even start putting all the pieces of this puzzle together.
Though one thing I did know for sure — this was definitely our most complicated case ever!
Holy Catnip!
CHAPTER 13
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Holy Mackerel! Bogey and I raced as fast as we could to the back room of our Mom’s store. More than anything, I wanted to see our package again. I just wanted to make sure it was okay. And I wanted to make sure no one had stolen it!
Along the way, we ran past our Mom, Millicent, and Merryweather. And a bunch of other people who were still inside the store talking. Our Mom looked a little bit upset, so I backtracked over to her. I took a second to rub around her legs. Just so she knew I loved her.
She leaned over and rubbed my back. “Thanks, Buckley. I needed that. I love you, too.”
Then I zoomed on to catch up to Bogey. He was already in the back room when I got there. He’d pulled the door to my pet carrier open and he was halfway inside.
“The package is fine, kid,” he hollered out to me. “I’ve got it hidden under the mat and the blanket. Someone would have to do a lot of digging to find it.”
I let out a really big sigh. “Good. Boy, I sure wish we could open it now.”
“I know, kid,” Bogey agreed. “But we’d better wait till we get it home. I think it’ll be safer that way. Especially since we can’t wrap it back up again if we need to.”
I nodded very slowly. “I know. It’s just really hard to wait. I wish we could take a peek.”<
br />
Bogey grinned at me. “Patience, kid.”
Well, to tell you the truth, I was pretty tired of being patient. I’d already been waiting a long time. Being patient had to be one of the hardest parts about being a cat detective. It was just another thing that Bogey was really good at. And one more thing that I needed to work on.
Let me tell you, it sure was a lot of work trying to become good at something.
I flopped over onto my cat bed. Sometimes I wondered if all the hard work was worth it. After all, lots of cats spent their days lounging around the house. They would take time out from a nap to nibble on some food, or maybe play with a few toys. What if I lived a “life of leisure” like that, as humans say?
Well, I guess I knew the answer to that one right away. If I lived a life of leisure, I would have missed the fun and the adventures I’d had being a cat detective. And I wouldn’t have made so many new friends. And I wouldn’t have felt good about myself, every time I helped solve a case. Or every time I helped someone that needed our help.
But then I thought, maybe it wasn’t so important that I become a great cat detective. Maybe it would be all right if I was just a so-so cat detective. What if I only did an “okay” job when it came to trying to solve cases?
I glanced at my brother, and I guess I already knew the answer to that one, too. No, it sure wouldn’t be all right to only be “okay.” After all, I admired my brother. He was one of the best cat detectives in the business. And I wanted to be just like him. That’s when I understood what our Mom had said to Gracie. About how stretching ourselves and taking a challenge can make us do bigger and better things. And how we don’t even know what we’re capable of until we try.
I scooted around on my cat bed. Below my blanket, I felt the piece of paper that I’d hidden earlier. Funny, but I’d forgotten all about our new clue!
I jumped up and grabbed it from under my blanket. Bogey moved over to the side of my cat bed. Almost like he’d read my mind.
The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues Page 11