Abe took a few steps toward us. “I must offer you my thanks for finding this wonderful secret passage. You two black cats are quite the excellent detectives. Though I suspect very few humans are aware of your skills. I recognized them at once when I found you in my store. Of course, it was only one of many reasons why I’ve been keeping my eyes on you and your family. I trust you have the Tobias statue in your possession.”
Bogey and I didn’t even meow. Instead I took a deep breath and stared at Abe just like Bogey did. Then I secretly nudged the Princess a little with my back foot. Just to let her know it would be time to run pretty soon.
Abe moved ever closer. “Ah, yes, the strong silent types. I do love those who face the end with such courage. But who is the little white cat with you today? Another feline member of your family? I must say, it’s a shame your family didn’t eat the dinner I delivered the other night. Though I would suspect you boys had a paw in it. You probably wouldn’t let your family go near the fish I had laced with sleeping pills.”
Again, Bogey and I didn’t say a thing. We just kept staring at him.
And he kept on talking. “I must say, I certainly didn’t have any problem getting the sea captain to eat some similar fish. Those pills put him under for days. And it was a good thing, too. I could hardly have him running around telling everyone where he’d left the package he was supposed to deliver to me. No, I figured out where he’d left it. And I knew it most likely went home with you. I’ll be retrieving it from your house later. Even if I have to drug your family correctly this time. Without you around, they won’t have anyone to warn them.”
Right about then, I quit being scared and just started being mad. I didn’t like it when people tried to harm my family. Or even talked about it.
I slid my eyes over to get a peek at my brother. He nodded his head ever so slightly toward the door. That’s when I knew he wanted us to run. So I put my paw around the Princess, ready to push her forward. Just as soon as Bogey gave the signal.
Abe took a few more steps toward us. I think it was the first time he got a really good look at the treasure.
He kind of gasped and hiccupped at the same time. “My, oh my, but what a fantastic treasure trove you’ve uncovered. Never have I seen so many jewels in one place. If I thought you’d go along with me, I’d employ you kitties in my criminal ventures. But alas, I fear you’re what might be considered to be the ‘good guys.'”
Boy, he sure had that right. We were the good guys! That’s why his words were making me madder by the minute. I edged the Princess just a little farther forward. I could feel her resist when I pushed her. Sometimes when the Princess got really scared, she just sort of froze up.
Just like I used to do. Back when I was a new cat detective.
But I wasn’t a new cat detective any more.
“Don’t even imagine you’ll survive your little adventure,” Abe went on. “Because I certainly can’t risk having you open up this secret passage again. And set someone on my trail. No, I’m afraid you cats won’t come out of this one. I’ll be locking you in here forever. No one will ever find you. Though I will see that a statue is made in your honor. I do like a good statue, and I’m sure you do, too!”
Then he laughed. A really loud, creepy kind of laugh.
Suddenly I realized just how chilly it was in that secret passage. Somewhere behind me, I heard a drop of water hit the stone floor. And that’s when it dawned on me — if Abe locked us in here, we might never be found. Because we were the only ones who knew about this secret passage.
Abe leaned over to run his fingers through the jewels in the treasure chest. Just as he did, Bogey gave the signal.
It was time for us to zoom out of there!
Bogey and I leaped forward, and I pushed the Princess along with me. Once she got going, that cat was ready to run. We were halfway to the entrance when I thought we were home free. That was, until we smelled a smell that made Bogey and me freeze in our tracks. The Princess held back when we did.
To tell you the truth, we actually smelled two smells. But one was a lot stronger than the other. And that scent made shivers run up and down my spine.
It was perfume.
And it was coming from the woman now standing in the entrance to the secret passage.
Delilah.
Holy Catnip!
And parked right next to her was the sea captain. They both seemed like they were out of breath. Like they had been running or something.
“Well, well, well,” Delilah drawled. “Isn’t this just cozy? We’ve got Abe and the two cats I’m going to turn into a collar and a hat.”
Now she spotted the Princess and pointed at her. “And oh, look. There’s a third one. A little white one. She’ll make a lovely pair of mittens.”
Without thinking, I scooted right in front of the Princess. So Delilah couldn’t get her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bogey sizing up the opening to the secret passage. But I knew there wasn’t enough room for the three of us to get out. Delilah and the sea captain blocked it pretty well.
“Arrr,” the sea captain said. “Those are the kitties from that store. The one where I left my bundle. I’ll bet they stole it.”
Delilah and the sea captain started moving forward.
Bogey and the Princess and I started backing up.
Behind us, Abe sighed. “Hello, Delilah. I see you’ve turned up once again. While I generally do like a person who is as determined as yourself, I’m afraid in this case I simply find you annoying. Frankly, I’ve had head colds that were easier to shake than you are.”
Delilah squinted her eyes at Abe. “Give me what is mine and I’ll be out of your life forever. Then we’ll all be happy.”
Abe laughed. “What is yours? As I recall, I owe you nothing. Unlike your double-crossing companion beside you.”
“Arrr,” the sea captain hollered. “I got confused. That’s all. ‘Twas an easy thing to do.”
“Zip it, Ralph,” Delilah shouted.
I jumped and so did the Princess.
“Now, Abe,” Delilah said sweetly again. “You know I was the one who found the Tobias statue in Istanbul. Hidden away in the far corner of that nobleman’s home. I found it when I was having dinner with him one evening, after I had excused myself to powder my nose. Of course, I wasn’t able to steal the statue that night. Though I most certainly stole some of his lesser jewels. In any case, you know I planned to steal that statue later.”
Delilah and the sea captain inched closer, and us cats kept on scooting back.
Abe stood with his hands on his hips. “Ah, yes, dear lady. I fear your downfall is that you simply talk too much. You shouldn’t have been bragging about it all over town. My people found out about it, and I arranged to have it stolen first. Then I had it shipped to St. Gertrude via our mutual friend here — Ralph the captain of the La Paloma.”
Delilah smiled. “That may be, Abe, but I contacted Ralph shortly after he set sail. I convinced him to work with me instead. He was to meet me here in St. Gertrude at the Museum. He was supposed to give me the statue instead of dropping it off at your store. Our signal was a foghorn.”
Abe snickered. “My, but you have a flair for the dramatic! There was never a foghorn. It was simply a recording on your cell phone. A good one at that. Not that it mattered. Because Ralph decided to stick with our original agreement. Unfortunately, when it came to the actual delivery, I fear Ralph failed miserably.”
“Arrr,” the sea captain said. “I couldn’t get my land legs. Not in that blasted fog, I tell you. It was a wet one. It made the ink run on the note you gave me. I couldn’t tell what store I was supposed to leave your package in. And I couldn’t tell what numbers I was supposed to use.”
Then Delilah did something that really scared me. She smacked the sea captain across the face.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she said. “You were supposed to meet me inside the Museum and bring me the statue. I thought you were there that night, so I tried
to get in. I thought you had shut off the alarm, but when it went off, I knew you had double-crossed me. And I knew you had gone downtown to Abe’s store instead. So I raced over there in that awful fog. But then I saw police cars at that other store, and I knew you had messed up your delivery. So I kept trying to find you, and I even looked for you at the Museum the next day. Thanks to you, I was blasting my foghorn sound everywhere.”
“But you didn’t need to do that,” said a man’s deep voice. “You knew I loved you, Delilah. I’ve always loved you. I was so close to getting that statue. And once I had it, I would have shared it with you. I knew you would have loved me then, too.”
Now we all turned to see Byron Bygones standing at the entrance to the secret passage.
Delilah sneered. “Byron, you fool. You weren’t even close to getting either of those statues. And besides, I could never love you. I only used you so I could steal more antiquities.”
I glanced at my brother and the Princess. Not only was this even more confusing than ever, but now I wondered how we would ever escape. Bogey looked at me and then nodded toward the entrance.
With the humans arguing away, us cats started to slowly tiptoe out. We saw openings on either side of Byron’s legs. And we were pretty sure we had just enough space to escape.
Bogey whispered to me, “On the count of three, kid. You bring the Princess along like before.”
I nodded back. Then I watched while he tapped his paw on the floor once. Then twice. I put my arm around the Princess, ready to get her moving. I was just waiting for Bogey to tap on the floor one more time.
And that’s when two more people showed up at the entrance to the secret passage.
Evaline and Murwood.
Once again, we stopped in our tracks.
Holy Mackerel!
How many more people were going to show up? If only the people from the recital would appear. Then we would be saved.
Now Evaline started yelling at Byron. “That statue belongs to me, Byron. Once you got it, you were supposed to give it to me. You told me you would.”
“Yeah,” Murwood said. “And once she sold it, she was going to split the money with me.”
“I told you nothing, Evaline,” Byron shouted. “You made that up in your mind.”
Then all the people started talking at once. Suddenly I wished the walls weren’t made of stone. Otherwise, the people in the piano recital hall would have heard all the noise. Then someone might have come in and saved us.
Murwood and Evaline and Byron started walking into the secret passage. And us cats scooted back again. All the while, Bogey and I kept an eye out for an opening between the people. Something big enough for the three of us to zoom through and escape.
But no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t find an opening. We were boxed in.
Soon all the people noticed the treasure. Then they started arguing about who should get to keep what. Thankfully, no one noticed the Tessa statue that was wrapped up in the cloth. That’s because it was next to the chest and sort of out of sight. But I figured the people would spot it any minute now, since I heard someone mention it. Seconds later, they all started arguing about it, too. And they accused each other of having it.
Strange, but I remembered what Bogey and I had talked about. How all these people knew each other and probably had been friends once. But when I looked at them now, they sure didn’t act like friends. And just like the Wise One had told me, sometimes humans stop at nothing to own something. Things like the Tobias and Tessa statues. Even if it meant losing their friends. They just didn’t understand what was really important.
But I knew what was important. Starting with the two other cats who were here with me now.
I only hoped the humans might be so busy arguing that they’d forget about us. But I couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
Because Murwood raised his hand and asked, “By the way, who has the first statue? That Tobias statue.”
Abe pointed to us. Then suddenly all the people went quiet and stared right at us.
“Those cats!” Delilah shouted. “Get them!”
And before we knew it, Delilah grabbed the Princess. Murwood grabbed Bogey and the sea captain grabbed me.
Well, let me tell you, if I thought I was scared before, it was nothing compared to how I felt right now. A cold chill passed over my whole body and my fur stood on end. I didn’t know what they planned to do with us, but I didn’t care to find out either. I tried to catch Bogey’s eye, but he was busy trying to fight off Murwood.
That’s when I decided to take things into my own paws. After all, I’d been a cat detective for a while now. And everyone kept telling me I was going to be a great cat detective someday. So maybe it was time I started to act like it. Maybe it was time for me to come up with a plan of my own. A plan to save us and keep the treasure out of the hands of these crooks.
I knew I needed to get the people from the recital back here. So they could rescue my friends. And in order to do that, I needed to get their attention. I needed to do exactly what Bogey and I had done when we were at our Mom’s store. And when we were at the Museum.
I had to create a distraction. In fact, I had to create the biggest distraction a guy like me could create. I had to distract all the humans away from the piano recital and onto me.
In a split second, I figured out how to do just that.
Right then and there, it sure paid to be an extra big cat. And an extra strong cat. Especially when all that fear and anger seemed to make me even stronger than before.
I wrestled around in the sea captain’s arms. Just enough to reach over and sink my teeth into his hand. I bit him so hard that he screamed louder than I’ve ever heard anyone scream. He dropped me, grabbed his hand and bent over.
The humans turned their eyes to him.
“Run, kid! Run!” Bogey shouted.
And I did just that. But first I grabbed the Tessa statue by the cloth that covered it. Then I picked that statue up and took off. As fast as I could go. I dodged around legs and between people. Carrying that heavy statue the whole way.
“What’s that cat taking?” Delilah shouted.
“It’s the other statue,” Evaline said. “He’s got the Tessa!”
“Get him!” yelled Murwood.
Now I heard the Princess’ sweet voice. “Hurry, Buckley! Save us!”
That was exactly what I intended to do. I didn’t even look back. Instead I weaved around a few more legs and ran for all I was worth. I zoomed through the entrance of the secret passage. I turned right into the hallway of the church. And I just kept on going.
It took every bit of strength I had to run and carry that statue at the same time.
Behind me, I heard footsteps thumping on the floor and echoing in the hallway. I knew the people were trying to catch me.
But I had to make it into that recital without getting caught. The lives of my friends depended on it.
The only question was, could I do it, without those crooks catching me?
Holy Catnip!
CHAPTER 24
_____________________________
Holy Mackerel! I pushed my legs just as hard as I could and kept on running. The statue I was carrying felt like it weighed more and more and more. With every step I took.
It was strange, but I’d already run those hallways a few times before. And they didn’t seem all that long to me then. And it didn’t seem like it took much time to run them.
But now it was different. Now it seemed like those hallways were a million miles long. I wasn’t sure they would ever end. Especially with all those people chasing me.
Right after I’d turned the corner out of the secret passage, I’d heard another person scream. I really, really hoped that scream came from Murwood. More than anything, I wanted to believe that Bogey had bitten him and gotten away, too. And I sure hoped he would be flying up to join me as I ran. Because right about now, teamwork sure would have been nice.
More t
han ever in the last week, I had learned just how important friends are. They made all the difference. And this was one time when having my best friend with me would have made a difference. A really big difference.
I would have given anything to see Bogey grin at me. And to hear him say, “Don’t sweat it, kid.”
Because let me tell you, I was sweating it all right. A lot. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so scared. And well, so tired. My legs were already getting worn out as I raced along. It wasn’t easy carrying that statue, let alone running with it. Behind me, I could hear the shouts of the people chasing me. I didn’t even look back to see how many were there. I was afraid it would slow me down.
And if I slowed down, I might get caught.
Now my legs started to ache. And for just a second, I thought about dropping the statue and running straight to our Mom and Dad.
But that wasn’t part of the plan I came up with. If I dropped the statue, the crooks behind me would take it and disappear. They would take the treasure, too. And they would probably close up the secret passage so no one would ever know it was there.
Worst of all, who knew what they would do to the Princess? And Bogey, if they still had their hands on him? Plus, our Mom and Dad wouldn’t know what was really going on. After all, we weren’t supposed to even be here right now. Our Mom and Dad would never know the Princess and Bogey were with me. They would never know about the secret passage or how we’d been captured or anything.
Sure, I knew Gracie would tell them us cats had been in the truck when our family went to the recital. And people might even search for Bogey and the Princess. But they’d never let me go running around the church again. So I’d never be able to open up the secret passage. Not that my friends would be in there by then anyway.
After all, Delilah kept talking about turning them into things she could wear.
So my friends would probably never, ever be found. Not in time to save them.
And I wasn’t about to let someone hurt Bogey and the Princess.
But there was only one way I could figure out to save them. I had to bring the Tessa statue to the recital and show it to the people. It would get their attention, and then they’d wonder where I got that statue. Then I could get them to follow me to the secret passage. To save my friends. Before it was too late.
The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues Page 20