“Wow,” I sort of breathed. “So sometimes humans think the stuff they own is more important than their friends. And they do bad things just to get the stuff they want.”
Miss Mokie nodded. “Ah, yes, you understand correctly. You have learned well, Grasshopper.”
I smiled. And for a moment, I just sat there and thought about what she’d said. Even so, I never understood why she called me Grasshopper. She did the same thing to Bogey, and he didn’t understand it either. Still, I sure understood what she was saying about friends and owning stuff and all that. So, as near as I could tell, the people we ran across today had all been friends once. But the Tobias statue was more important to them than their friendships.
I had to say, I thought that was very sad.
Miss Mokie waved her paw above me. “You must leave me now, young one. It is time for me to rest.”
So I thanked her and bowed and backed out of the room. I noticed she’d already closed her eyes before I had gone through the door.
I ran straight for our favorite upstairs window. Bogey had a grin on his face as he stared out and down the street. I looked out, too, and saw Delilah standing under the streetlamp like before. Only this time, there was a police car right next to her. The officer inside looked like he was talking to her from his open window.
A few seconds later, Delilah got into the front passenger seat and the car drove away.
“Dames?” I said to my brother.
He nodded his head slowly. “Dames, kid. But that’s one dame who’s a pretty nasty piece of work.”
Boy, he could say that again.
The rest of the night, we ran extra surveillance runs. We made sure all the doors and windows were locked. Plus we kept an eye outside for anything unusual.
We did the same thing the next night and the next night. On Tuesday night, we spotted a man underneath the streetlight outside. I wasn’t sure, but I thought it might be Murwood, wearing a fedora hat and trench coat. The next night I thought I saw Byron. He looked like he might be in disguise, too. But neither one of them stayed very long. So we didn’t have a chance to call the police.
Still, we kept our senses on full alert and kept our eyes wide open every night. Plus we decided to add extra surveillance runs during the day. While our family was out of the house. Thankfully, nobody tried to break in. And our statue stayed hidden up in the sunroom closet.
“What are we going to do with our statue?” I asked Bogey late Wednesday night.
He was busy typing on our Mom’s computer. I stood on the desk and looked at the screen. There were a couple of articles about Danby Daunton that Bogey had been reading.
Bogey grabbed a bag of cat treats he had hidden in a vase on top of the desk. He handed one to me and took one for himself.
“We’ll keep the statue hidden until we get this case figured out, kid,” he told me. “We still don’t know who broke into our Mom’s store. Or, who drugged the sea captain. And since he’s still in the hospital, we probably won’t find out much from him.”
I munched on the fish-flavored treat. “And now we might be looking for treasure, too.”
Bogey passed us both another round of treats. “Yup, kid. Not to mention, we’ve still got to keep our family safe from all these shady characters running around.”
I finished my second treat. “But who does our statue really belong to? I don’t think we can keep it. Can we?”
Bogey raised his brow. “Good question, kid. One that might take some sorting out. Probably someone in Daunton’s family somewhere should legally own it. My money’s on Mr. Daunton’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Vera Glitter. I’ll bet we’ll find it belongs to her in the end.”
“And we still don’t know where the Tessa statue is,” I added.
Now Bogey grinned. “Oh, I have a feeling it may not be so far away, kid.”
That made me sit up straight. “You do?”
Bogey pointed to the computer screen. “Think about it, kid. The Tobias statue is stolen, and then the Tessa statue suddenly goes missing. But I’ve got a feeling the Tessa statue wasn’t stolen. I’ll bet Mr. Daunton hid it.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “So nobody could steal it.”
Bogey nodded. “Yup, kid. That would be my guess. It’s probably with the rest of the stuff he hid.”
All of a sudden, I had a hard time breathing. “The treasure!”
Bogey passed me another treat. “You got it, kid. If we find the Tessa statue, we’ll find the treasure, too.”
Holy Catnip.
I glanced around the room. “But where would he hide it? I’ll bet his relatives already looked all over his house.”
Bogey pointed a paw toward the ceiling. “Think about it, kid. How many times have you run surveillance on that sunroom? Did you know there was a false bottom in that closet?”
My mouth fell open wide. “Well . . . no.”
“Me either, kid,” Bogey said. “Could be lots of hidden spaces in buildings around town. Hidden places that no one even knows about.”
“Wow,” I just sort of breathed. “That treasure could be anywhere.”
Bogey nodded. “You got it, kid. Daunton helped found St. Gertrude. He probably helped build some of the first buildings here. Maybe he put some secret spaces into some of them.”
I flopped onto the desk. “This case is so complicated. I’m having a hard time keeping everything straight.”
Bogey tilted his head. “You and me both, kid.”
He passed us each another cat treat before he stuffed the bag back into the vase.
I shook my head. I sure wished I could make the pieces of this puzzle fall into place. But it seemed like the more I tried and the more I learned, the more confusing this case got. And it didn’t help that I was pretty tired after running all those extra surveillance rounds. All hours of the day and night.
So by the time Thursday rolled around, I was exhausted. Bogey was, too. We both almost jumped a mile when the doorbell rang late that afternoon. Right after our Mom and Gracie had barely walked in the door.
Bogey signaled for me to get into position by the front door when our Mom opened it.
When she did, we saw a deliveryman standing on our porch, carrying a bunch of metal pans. He had long black hair pulled into a ponytail. Big, black glasses sat perched on his nose and his face was sort of hidden by his huge hat. He was also wearing an extra-large navy jacket and pants that looked way too big for him.
Funny, but even though I’d never seen the man before, he seemed kind of familiar.
“Good evening, madam,” he said to our Mom. “I’ve been asked to deliver this delicious meal to you and your family. It seems you have a customer who wanted to give you a gift. She hired us to deliver this to you.”
Our Mom’s eyebrows went up. “She did? But who is ‘she?'”
The deliveryman shook his head. “I’m afraid, dear lady, that she wanted her identity to be kept secret. But she was so pleased with the help you gave her, that she wanted to do something nice for you, too.”
Our Mom blinked a few times. “Oh, that is so sweet.”
The man smiled. “It certainly is. She sent over pans of mashed potatoes, green beans and salmon. And chocolate cake for dessert. Enough for your entire family.”
Before our Mom could say another word, he passed the pans to her. Then he tipped the bill of his hat and practically ran down the sidewalk. He climbed into a white van and drove off.
Gracie joined us and took two of the pans from our Mom. “Wow, that was really nice, Mom. Now we have supper for tonight. And Dad likes salmon a lot. And you like chocolate cake.”
“You’ve got that right,” our Mom agreed with a laugh.
Our Mom closed the door. Then she and Gracie took the food into the kitchen.
I turned to Bogey. “That was nice. And we like salmon, too. Maybe our Dad will give us some.”
Bogey squinted his eyes at the door. “Not so fast, kid. Did you notice something funny about that del
ivery man?”
I looked at the door, too, since Bogey was staring at it. “Um, no. Did you?”
Bogey ran to the window to look outside. “Yup, kid. His glasses were too big and I think he was wearing a wig.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “He was?”
“That’s right, kid,” Bogey told me. “We’d better go check out that food.”
So we did. We ran into the kitchen, and when our Mom and Gracie went upstairs, we jumped on the counter.
Bogey made a beeline for the salmon. “Something’s fishy here, kid.”
I crinkled my brow. “Um . . . is it the fish?”
Bogey pulled the aluminum foil from the top of the pan. “You got it, kid. Take a good whiff.”
I did just as Bogey asked. That’s when I smelled it. Something funny.
“What is it?” I asked my brother.
For once, Bogey turned serious. Really serious.
He moved closer to the fish. “Exactly what I smelled on the sea captain’s breath, kid. Someone’s put something in this salmon. Probably ground up sleeping pills.”
They had?
Holy Catnip!
CHAPTER 19
_____________________________
Holy Catnip! I took another good sniff of the salmon, and I knew Bogey had been right. Someone had put something in the fish.
My chin practically hit the counter. “Who would do that to our family?”
Bogey moved to the other side of the pan. “Someone who wants our family to be sound asleep tonight, kid.”
I blinked my eyes a few times. “But our family always sleeps at night.”
Bogey glanced at the edge of the counter and then back to the pan again. “Whoever sent this fish, kid, wants to make sure our family doesn’t wake up for a while.”
I shook my head. “But why would they want that?”
Bogey put his paw on the edge of the pan. “They probably want to break in here tonight, kid. And they want to make sure our family doesn’t wake up while they’re searching our house.”
My heart skipped a beat. The light was finally starting to dawn. “Because they want to look for our statue?”
Bogey turned the pan so it was lined up with the edge of the counter. “You got it, kid. And by sending over salmon, they probably figured us cats would get a few bites, too.”
Now I started to shake just a little bit. “Then we would be asleep, too.”
Bogey pushed the pan forward an inch. “That’s right, kid. And nobody would interrupt them while they searched away.”
Just then we heard our Dad drive into the garage. He was home from work already. That meant our family would be eating this dinner really soon. And it wouldn’t be good for them. For all I knew, they might end up in the hospital just like the sea captain.
But Bogey and I couldn’t let that happen. We had to do something.
And fast.
I glanced at Bogey with wide eyes. “Bogey, how can we stop our family from eating this bad fish?”
Bogey pointed his ears toward the garage door. “Way ahead of you, kid. Turn around, and on the count of three, we’ll shove this pan off the counter with our back feet. Give it all you’ve got. Right when our Dad is walking in. When it goes flying, drop down off the other side and hide.”
“Aye, aye,” I said. I saluted him and this time my paw went almost where I wanted it to go.
Then I turned around and got into position, just like Bogey had told me to. I wanted to ask a whole bunch of questions, but I knew I’d better not. We just didn’t have the time. We had to act quick if we wanted to save our family.
What happened next all sort of happened in a blur. Bogey turned around, too, and put his back feet against the pan. Then our Dad turned the doorknob and Bogey started to count to three. On “two,” our Dad began to open the door. When Bogey said “three,” we both pushed that pan of fish just as hard as we could.
And let me tell you, we must have kicked it pretty hard. I glanced back to see that pan go soaring through the air like an airplane taking off.
At the exact moment when our Dad stepped inside and yelled “Hello!”
Holy Mackerel! Or maybe I should say, Holy Salmon!
Bogey and I didn’t wait around to see what happened next. Instead we jumped right off that counter and flattened ourselves against the cabinets. Just as we heard that pan go crashing onto the hardwood floor. Then we heard kind of a splat and a bunch of ssszzzzz noises. I figured that was probably the fish hitting the floor and sliding into pieces.
Our Dad yelled, “Aaaaaaaahh!!”
Bogey motioned for me to follow him and we ran straight into the dining room. Only seconds before our Mom and Gracie went running into the kitchen.
“What happened?” our Mom gasped.
“I don’t know,” our Dad said. “I just walked in the door and this pan of fish came flying right at me.”
“That’s really strange,” our Mom told him.
“Tell me about it,” he said.
“Maybe it was the air suction from opening the door that did it?” our Mom wondered out loud. “Or maybe we left the pan too close to the edge of the counter?”
“I don’t know,” our Dad said. “All I know is that I walked in and that pan was airborne. The fish broke into a million pieces when it hit the ground. It went sliding everywhere! We’ll be cleaning up fish for a month!”
For some reason, Gracie started to giggle and couldn’t stop.
Our Mom started to laugh, too. “Looks like we’re ordering pizza for dinner now.”
Beside me, Bogey grinned and gave me a paw bump. And that’s when I kind of grinned, too. We’d saved our family from eating any of that bad fish. Even if they didn’t know it.
Bogey pointed to the front entry. “We’re not out of the woods yet, kid. Someone’s probably planning to break into our house tonight. To search for our statue. We’d better be ready.”
I gulped and nodded. “Maybe we should get Lil to help out. And the Princess, too.”
“Good plan, kid,” Bogey said. “We could use some extra paws on the job. Let’s go chat with them.”
So we did just that. We ran into the living room when Gracie started to practice the piano. Lil and the Princess were already there. Then while Gracie played, us cats huddled together and came up with a plan. Of course, we wanted to stop any burglars from even getting into our house. But just in case they did, we came up with a backup plan. And either way, we wanted to get a good look at anyone who tried to break in. To help figure out who was behind all this.
But just talking about burglars made my paws start to shake. I noticed the Princess was shaking a little bit, too. And that’s when I started to get mad. The idea of anyone trying to hurt my family always made me feel like that. Especially when it came to a really small cat like the Princess. At least a big guy like me had a chance to defend himself. But a little one, like the Princess, didn’t have a chance at all.
I turned to listen to Gracie’s music and tried to calm down. She had just started to play her recital song. The music was so pretty, and I kind of floated away.
She was almost all the way through the song when she made a mistake. A big mistake. She quit playing and tears instantly rolled down her cheeks. I knew she was extra nervous, since the recital was only a few days away.
And well, if anyone understood what it was like to be nervous, it was me! But I also knew how to help Gracie so she didn’t feel so nervous any more.
I nodded to Bogey and he grinned back.
“We know the drill, kid,” he said.
We sure did. I jumped up on the piano bench and Bogey jumped onto the front ledge of the piano. I gave Gracie a kiss on the nose while Bogey leaned over and hit some piano keys.
She giggled and gave me a hug. “Oh, Buckley. I love you so much. I love all you cats. If only you could be at my recital. I wish I could sneak you all in. Then I’d be fine.”
I gave her another kiss on the nose to let her know I loved her, too
. She giggled again and started to play. She went all the way through her song and played it perfectly. I was so proud of her.
Later that night, after our family had gone to bed, we ran our surveillance rounds. Only tonight, we ran extra rounds. We checked doors and windows and looked outside, too. Lil and the Princess took one route and Bogey and I took another. Then we switched. It was around midnight when we heard someone fiddling with the lock on the back door.
But we were ready for them. And all of us cats knew exactly what we were supposed to do. Thanks to the plans we’d made that afternoon.
Bogey hollered, “Get into positions! They’re picking the lock!”
Without a peep, the Princess jumped onto the kitchen counter. She flipped the switches and turned on the kitchen lights. In a split second, she bounced down from the counter, raced from the kitchen and flew upstairs to wake up our Mom and Dad. Bogey pulled the curtains open on the window next to the door and tried to get a good look at the burglar.
In the meantime, I pulled the cupboard open where our Mom and Dad kept the pots and pans. Then Lil and I started pulling them out one by one. We made as much racket as we possibly could. Those pots and pans fell on the floor with a whole bunch of loud clangs! Especially when one pot fell on top of another pot.
It was enough to wake up our Mom and Dad, just like we’d planned. They sort of came stumbling down the stairs, turning on lights as they went.
And that was enough to scare our prowler away.
Especially since they’d probably been expecting our family to be sound asleep for the night!
When our Mom and Dad came downstairs, Bogey and I raced upstairs. We saw the Princess wave at us before she ducked into the sunroom. And downstairs, we knew Lil would now be hiding under the dining room table.
Bogey and I made a beeline for our favorite upstairs window. We were just in time to spot a figure in black dodging from house to house. Whoever it was, they looked like they were trying to hide in the shadows.
And even though us cats can see really well in the dark, we still couldn’t tell who it was.
The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues Page 16