The Cat's Paw

by Kat Shepherd

  “Of course I believe you,” Detective Bermudez said. “And I didn’t say I couldn’t do anything; we can notify Animal Control and the Department of Natural Resources about the website you found. They’ll follow up on the ads, try to find the buyers, and get the site shut down. But as for Marvin’s disappearance, we’re in a tough spot. The zoo’s official stance is that Marvin was killed by B-17. They haven’t filed a report of theft, and until they do, there’s nothing for police to investigate.”

  “Fine, then. I’d like to report a theft,” Sophia said. Her lips were a thin line. “What do I need to fill out?”

  “I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way.” The detective’s voice was soft. “Unfortunately, only the owner of the missing property can report it stolen.”

  “But Marvin isn’t property!” Sophia said.

  “I understand that, but a red panda isn’t a human being, so they are considered property according to Minnesota law.”

  Sophia folded her arms and glared. “So, that’s it, then? It’s just tough luck for us, and tough luck for Marvin? You’re just going to let the kidnapper get away with it? You’re not even following up on the website yourself! You’re just making some call. Big deal; I could have done that on my own!”

  Evie could see Detective Bermudez was trying hard to be patient. “I have to call the other departments, because they’re the ones who investigate animal crimes. That’s how the law works.”

  “But cops do investigate kidnapping, don’t they? Marvin was kidnapped, and you still aren’t going to do anything about it, just because Marvin’s an animal and not a person.”

  “Chill, Sophia. He’s not saying that,” Vishal said. He eyed the detective. “Are you?”

  “I want to help you,” Detective Bermudez said, “but animal-related crimes aren’t under my jurisdiction, and I can’t start an investigation into the theft without a formal complaint from the zoo. And the city council is putting a lot of pressure on every department about B-17. Folks are getting pretty worked up about having a wild bobcat roaming through the city. Some pets have gone missing, including Councilman Brown’s own Yorkie, Peaches. Now the man is out for blood.”

  “That explains the press conference,” Zach said grimly.

  “Where did the pets go missing?” Evie asked.

  “From all over the Twin Cities, but mostly Kenwood and Summit Hill.”

  “But that’s not even B-17’s territory,” Sophia protested.

  “Listen, I have to do what my boss orders me to do,” the detective said. “But I’ll tell you what: Tell the zoo what you told me. Lay out your evidence. If you can convince the director to file a theft report with us, then I’ll have the power to open an investigation. But until that happens, my hands are tied.”

  “And what about the red panda on the website?” Vishal asked.

  “I will make sure that DNR and Animal Control make it their highest priority. If you can pass along any photos of Marvin you might have, they might be able to use them to compare to the panda in the ad.” He stood up and led them back down the hall to the station entrance. “Assuming anyone can tell red pandas apart. I have a feeling they all look the same.”

  “Yup,” Vishal agreed. “All equally adorable.”

  As they stopped to say goodbye, Vishal noticed a bulletin board plastered with photos. “Are those the missing pets?” he asked. The detective nodded. Vishal took a closer look. “Huh,” he said.

  “What?” Evie asked.

  “Well, if B-17 is responsible for all of these, she must have really expensive taste.”

  CHAPTER

  16

  Vishal sat in the back of the Boyds’ black SUV, researching the animals in the photos he had snapped of the bulletin board at the police station. “Those missing pets are all rare or fancy breeds,” he said. “Did you know that a Tibetan mastiff puppy recently sold for over a million dollars?”

  “One million dollars for a puppy? Why would anyone pay all that money when they could just adopt one from a shelter for almost nothing?” Evie asked.

  Zach shook his head. “I will never understand rich people.”

  “Hey!” Sophia elbowed him. “I’m sitting right here, you know! And, BTW, I would never get a dog from a breeder. So don’t lump me in with them!”

  “Sorry,” Zach said sheepishly. “I wasn’t talking about you.”

  “Can I see that map again?” Evie asked. She studied it for a moment. “These pets are from all over the Twin Cities. There’s no way this could all be B-17.”

  “Well, duh,” Sophia said. “How’s a wild bobcat going to catch a python? It’s not like someone lets their pet snake just hang out in the backyard; those things live in heated terrariums. What did B-17 do? Disguise herself as the maid and talk her way into the house?”

  “Do you think the missing pets are related to Marvin’s disappearance?” Zach asked.

  “Good question,” Evie answered. “My guess would be no. I mean, Marvin went missing from the zoo, and the others were from private homes.”

  “But it seems like a pretty big coincidence that all of these animals disappeared around the same time,” Vishal said.

  Zach pulled out his notebook and jotted something down. “We should check pet sale websites and see if the animals for sale fit any of the descriptions from the flyers.” “Good idea,” Vishal said as Edgar pulled up in front of his house. “I’ll start searching after I finish my homework.”

  “Cool,” Evie said. “Back to the zoo tomorrow?” The others nodded. “I just hope we can convince the director to listen to us.”

  “Don’t worry,” Sophia said. “If there’s one person we can count on, it’s Dr. Chang.”

  ***

  Dr. Chang stacked a pile of papers on his desk and tucked them into a workbag, keeping one eye on the clock. “I know you children mean well,” he said, “but I have a fund-raising meeting in an hour, and with this latest round of budget cuts, I need to focus every ounce of attention on keeping the zoo open. I simply don’t have time to listen to conspiracy theories about a red panda that we already know was eaten by a bobcat.”

  “But surely you can’t still believe that’s what happened to Marvin,” Zach said. “What about all the evidence we showed you?”

  “An empty meat container and an exotic pet website is hardly enough to go on,” the zoo director said. “B-17 was in the vicinity of the zoo that night, and we found her paw print inside the red panda exhibit. Quite frankly, it’s an open-and-shut case.”

  “It is if you ignore everything that doesn’t fit your theory,” Sophia snapped.

  “I know that it might be hard to accept what happened to our red panda, Sophia. Your parents told me of your work with MEOWS, so I understand why you want to believe that the bobcat isn’t responsible. But wishful thinking won’t bring Marvin back.”

  “But what if it isn’t wishful thinking?” Vishal asked. “What if we’re right?” The zoo director just shook his head.

  “Fine,” Evie said. “I understand you’re busy and you don’t want to investigate. Can you at least help us investigate it on our own? Did any of the donors at the dinner try to back out of their pledges? Anyone say they were short on cash?”

  Dr. Chang sighed wearily. “You know that all donor information is strictly confidential.”

  “Please, there must be something you can do,” Zach said. “If not for Marvin, for B-17. The city council vote is this Monday, and if they follow through with Brown’s plan, she’ll die. It’s not just unfair; it’s wrong!” Zach was surprised at the vehemence in his own voice.

  “I agree with you on that point,” Dr. Chang said. “B-17 has as much a right to live here as we do, and it’s our job to learn to adapt to her, just as she has learned to adapt to us.”

  “Then do something about it,” Sophia said. “Help us prove her innocence!”

  Dr. Chang stood up and tucked his bag under his arm. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help prove something that isn’t true.” />
  Sophia was almost in tears. “Dr. Chang, I don’t understand why you won’t listen to us. You’re the one person I thought would really care about making things right.”

  The zoo director didn’t answer. Without making eye contact with any of them, he walked to the doorway. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a fund-raising meeting to attend.” Disappointed and bewildered, the others stood up. Dr. Chang was already halfway down the hall; he never looked back.

  “I thought Dr. Chang would be on our side,” Sophia said bleakly. “What just happened?”

  Evie pointed at something on the zoo director’s desk. “Maybe there’s a reason he doesn’t want Marvin found.”

  CHAPTER

  17

  “That’s an insurance claim form for Marvin,” Evie said. She pulled out her phone and took a photo of the form. “Marvin was insured for one hundred thousand dollars.”

  Vishal whistled. “That’s a lot of money, and it sounds like the zoo sure needs it.”

  “But would Dr. Chang really kidnap one of the zoo’s animals just for the insurance money?” Zach asked.

  “Not just the insurance money, remember? There’s also the money he’d get for selling Marvin on the black market.” Evie waited for Sophia to interrupt her and defend Dr. Chang, but she was silent. “Dr. Chang would never do that, though, right, Sophia? I mean, he’s the zoo director.”

  Sophia walked into the hall, and the others followed. “If you’d asked me yesterday, I would never have dreamed that he could be a suspect,” she said quietly. “But he was so strange just then. It wasn’t only that he didn’t listen to us; it was like he didn’t even want to listen.” She lowered her voice even more. “Honestly, I don’t know who to trust anymore.”

  “Well if it is him, then we’ll have to work even harder to prove it,” Zach said. “Maybe we should follow up on the website angle. After all, who knows how long the DNR or Animal Control will take to start investigating it? We can answer the ad ourselves and set up a meeting. When the kidnapper shows up, we’ll catch him in the act.”

  A slow smile spread on Vishal’s face. “That could actually work. We need to set up a dummy email account first, though. Is there a computer we could use here?”

  “There’s one in the volunteer center,” Sophia suggested.

  ***

  A short time later, the four looked approvingly at the message they had composed under their new fake account, pandafan365: Hi. I saw your ad for the red panda, and I’m very interested. I work in cash only. Let’s meet.

  “I like it,” Vishal said. “Short, sweet, and to the point.”

  “I still think it could use more backstory, but it gets the job done,” Sophia agreed.

  Evie pointed at the little Sent icon next to the message. “There it goes. Now what?”

  “Now we wait for the kidnapper to write back,” Zach said.

  “Ugh, I hate waiting,” Sophia said. “Isn’t there something we can do in the meantime?”

  “What about those photos of Marvin for Detective Bermudez?” Evie suggested. “The zoo has a photographer, right?”

  Sophia nodded. “Lester Pham. I think I know where his office is.” She led them out into the zoo to a wooden building near the giraffe enclosure. Vishal let out an enchanted squeal when he spied a baby giraffe cuddling close to its mother. “Look at the baby! So little!”

  Sophia laughed. “Baby giraffes are six feet tall when they’re born, but sure, I guess you could call her little.” The group paused to watch the mother nuzzle her young baby for a moment before they went inside to Lester’s office.

  The photographer’s work space was part studio and part library. Photographs of animals covered every available wall space, and the L-shaped desk had several large monitors and a high-tech printer. Lester bent over a monitor, peering intently at an image of a tall, crowned bird. “Hi, Lester,” Sophia said.

  Lester looked up. “Hey, Sophia. What’s new?”

  “Not much,” Sophia said. She introduced her friends.

  “Oh, yeah,” Lester said, “I recognize you from the donor dinner. Do you volunteer with Sophia?”

  “No, but I’d like to,” Evie replied. “We helped out the other day, and it was really fun.”

  “You should do it,” Lester said. “I started out here as a volunteer when I was your age. Now I have my dream job; I get to spend all day taking pictures of animals.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” Zach said. “What’s your favorite animal to photograph?”

  “That’s a hard one,” Lester answered. “I think my favorite pictures are when I capture an animal in an unexpected way that makes people look at it differently.” He pointed to a framed photograph of an adult alligator with a tiny baby riding on its snout. “Like this one. This is an alligator giving one of her babies a ride. People think of alligators as dangerous predators, but they’re also great mothers. They take very tender care of their young.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Vishal said. His eyes ran over the wall of photographs. He pointed to one. “Is that Marvin?”

  Lester nodded sadly. “I took that a few years ago.”

  “Do you have any more recent photos that you could print out for us?” Sophia asked. “It’s for a project.”

  “Of course.” Lester opened up a folder and selected a few images for printing. “It will just take a few minutes. Do you want to see some of the pics from the donor dinner in the meantime? I think I got some great ones of you with Shakti, and a few with Billy the elephant, too.”

  Vishal looked at Zach with a smirk. “I think Zach would love a picture of himself with Shakti. Maybe you could put it in a heart-shaped frame for him?”

  The others laughed, and Zach grinned and puffed out his chest. “Vishal’s just jealous because Shakti liked me better.”

  “She’s pretty special, isn’t she?” Lester asked.

  “The best rhino in the world,” Zach agreed. “I mean, I’ve never met any others, but you can just tell.”

  “I get it,” Lester said. “Here.” He pulled out a stack of photos. “I printed out a bunch of pictures to send out to the dinner attendees. Feel free to sort through them and find some you like. I just need to get my other memory stick from the car. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  The kids leafed through the photos while they waited. There was an image of a grinning Vishal feeding rose petals to Prudence the sloth. Another of Sophia and her parents talking to a leather-gauntleted keeper with an owl perched on her wrist. And a particularly sweet one of the twins stroking Shakti’s snout with wonder in their eyes. They quickly sifted through photos taken throughout the night, hoping to find one of the four of them together. Suddenly, Zach let out a tiny exclamation, and the photos in his hand dropped to the floor. “What is it?” Evie asked.

  Zach sorted back through the photos and laid out a few on the table. “I know how Marvin was stolen, and I know who did it.”

  CHAPTER

  18

  Zach pointed to a photo of Dante and Bitsy taken later in the night. They were sitting in one of the carts next to a docent holding Prudence the sloth. Bitsy was smiling brightly, but a small bead of sweat was trickling down her forehead. “I still don’t know why she would wear that awful coat; it wasn’t even cold that night,” Sophia said with disgust. “No wonder she was so overheated.”

  Zach pointed at Bitsy’s collar. “Look more closely.”

  Sophia gasped. “Oh, my gosh, Zach. You genius! No wonder she wore that stupid coat!” Nestled around Bitsy’s neck and tucked under the collar of her fox-fur coat was a sleeping Marvin. Sophia could see his snout peeping out near her collarbone.

  “She must have fed Marvin with drugged meat,” Vishal said. “It makes total sense. She wouldn’t have to worry about a carrier or coming back for him. She could just walk right out of the zoo with him draped around her neck.” His voice held grudging admiration. “I hate to say it, but it’s a pretty brilliant plan.”

  Evie nodded her head s
lowly. “It is. But I still can’t believe Bitsy did it. I had her pegged as a total ditz!”

  “Ditzy Bitsy,” Sophia agreed. “I didn’t even think she cared about animals. I guess she has hidden depths.” Suddenly her expression changed. “Oh, no. What if it’s one of those Cruella de Vil situations? What if she stole Marvin for his fur?”

  “We have to tell Detective Bermudez right away,” Zach said. “We have all the evidence; now the police can arrest her and get Marvin back.”

  “Should we tell the zoo first?” Vishal asked.

  Sophia shook her head. “No time. We don’t know where Marvin is or how he’s being cared for. I doubt Bitsy even knows anything about red pandas. The longer he’s gone, the greater the danger he’s in.”

  Evie snapped a picture of the photo of Bitsy and texted it to Detective Bermudez along with the details of the crime. Her phone rang seconds later. She listened for a few moments. “Okay. We’ll be right there.” She hung up and turned to the others. “He wants us to meet him at the station.”

  “Edgar’s on his way to pick us up,” Sophia said. She scooped up the photos of Bitsy, and they rushed to the doorway, bumping into Lester, who had just returned.

  “Hey, I found these great shots of Marvin I took last summer!” His expression turned to confusion when he saw the look of urgency on the four detectives’ faces. “Is everything all right? What’s happening?”

  The kids broke into a run. “No time to explain,” Vishal called over his shoulder. “Thanks for the photos!”

  ***

  Detective Bermudez was in the station’s conference room briefing a small team of police and animal control officers. “The suspect’s name is Bitsy Romanevsky. She is a female with blond hair and brown eyes. Mid- to late twenties, petite, approximately five feet two inches tall. We’ve secured a warrant to search the suspect’s address at 120 Eighth Avenue North, in the North Loop. She may or may not have the red panda in her possession at this time.” He looked up and saw the kids. “Oh, good, you’re here. Do you have the photos with you?”