The Case of the Clever Secret Code

by Cindy Vincent

  I was just about to dive into my pet carrier and search for her when I heard a little yawn.

  It was the Princess!

  She popped her head up from under the blanket and smiled at me. “Sorry, Buckley. I was so tired from running and being up so late last night . . . I must have dozed off the minute I got here.”

  Now Bogey came running up to join us. “Have any problem hiding that paper, Princess?”

  “No problem,” she said with a smile. “I’ve got it right here beside me. It’s not going anywhere.“

  And then she looked at me with her big, green eyes.

  It was just more than I could take. The room started to spin and my heart started to pound. I just flopped on over.

  The next thing I knew, Bogey was standing over me with a cat treat. “Here you go, kid. This’ll get you going.”

  “What happened . . .?” I sort of murmured.

  “Dames, kid,” Bogey whispered in my ear. “They’ll get you every time.”

  “Dames,” I mumbled.

  As I munched away, I wondered where Bogey had found the bag of cat treats he was now passing around. I figured he must have had them hidden in his pet carrier.

  A few seconds later, I crawled into my own pet carrier with the Princess. I was barely aware of our Mom and Gracie joining us. They counted to make sure all of us cats were there before they zipped up our carriers. I rested my eyes while Bravo drove us home. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it sounded to me like Gracie and our Mom were pretty happy the filming was over for today.

  What there was of the filming, anyway.

  I meowed over to my brother when we got close to our house. “What do you think this means? If Steele Bronson’s bunch think they found the key, will they be finished pretending to shoot this movie?”

  “Probably not, kid,” Bogey meowed back. “Not when they open up those books they stole. And when they find the page they’re really looking for is missing. That means they won’t be cracking any code any time soon.”

  I felt my eyes go wide. “Do you think they’ll suspect we have it?”

  Bogey sat up tall. “Could be, kid. Or they might think our Mom has it. Or she knows where it is. Either way, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this bunch yet.”

  Bravo dropped us off at home, and our Mom and Gracie let us out of our pet carriers.

  As soon as they did, Bogey murmured to the Princess. “Mind taking that paper up to the sunroom? And hiding it for us?”

  The Princess smiled. “I would be happy to.”

  Then she went scampering off as we went to the living room to watch Gracie set up for her party. She set out the cupcakes, made the punch, and put out plates and napkins. Gracie had become such a great hostess. We were really proud of her.

  A few minutes later, Lil joined us. Then the Princess came running in, too.

  Our Mom smiled when she saw what a great job Gracie had done. “Do you need my help? Or would you like to handle this on your own?”

  Gracie finished arranging some flowers in a vase. “Thanks, Mom. But I think I’m old enough to host this one on my own.”

  Our Mom kept on smiling. “Sounds good. I’ll check on you in a bit, in case you need any help later.”

  “Thanks,” Gracie said and gave her a hug.

  Then she ran up to her room and changed into a nice sundress. She had barely come back downstairs when the doorbell rang. Her first guest had arrived. Pretty soon all the kids who had been contestants in the essay contest were there, including Dylan Federov. Mrs. Peebles was the last to arrive.

  Gracie made sure everyone got cupcakes and punch, and right away the party started out to be pretty fun. The kids were laughing and talking. And everyone told Gracie what a nice job she did with the cupcakes and the decorations.

  The only one who wasn’t joining in on things was Dylan. But I figured he was going to be a whole lot happier once he found out what Gracie had in store for him.

  Bogey pulled out the bag of cat treats he had stashed in the base of the exercise wheel. He passed some treats to each of us, and it turned into a real party for us, too.

  After a while, Gracie held up her punch glass and tapped on the side with a spoon. It made a ding, ding, ding that got everyone’s attention.

  Then Gracie stood up nice and tall. And for the first time in days, she was smiling. Really smiling.

  She looked at all the faces around the room. “If I could have your attention, please. You’re probably all wondering why I called you here today. Well, I decided to host this party because I have been feeling very bad. You all saw what happened at the essay contest. And, well, I didn’t do a very good job reading my essay at all. In fact, I didn’t even get a chance to finish reading my essay before Steele Bronson jumped in. He declared me the winner, and . . . for some reason, all the judges and everybody went along with it.”

  Murmurs arose from the kids.

  Gracie took a deep breath. “Well, I never felt right about being declared the winner. Because I didn’t really win that contest. But we all know who should have been the winner.”

  Now Gracie pulled her trophy from the piano bench. “So today, I want to set things right. I want to give this trophy to the real winner of the essay contest. This person will ride on the float and read their essay on Saturday night after the picnic.”

  I watched as all the kids stood there, with their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide.

  But Gracie just kept on smiling. “I want to award this trophy to Dylan Federov. He is the real winner of the essay contest!”

  Now all eyes turned to Dylan. And let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight. Dylan slammed his plate and cup right on top of the piano. He put them down so hard I was surprised he didn’t break them. His eyes were blazing and his mouth was sort of trembling.

  Then he pointed at Gracie. “You have no business doing this! What do you take me for? A poor, pathetic loser? Did you think I was falling apart and my life was ruined because I didn’t win that contest? So you have to take pity on me?”

  Gracie gasped. “But-but-but . . . I was only trying to help! I just wanted to make things right . . .”

  Dylan stomped into the hallway. “Who asked for your help? I don’t need your pity! I’m not a big baby, you know!”

  Well, if he wasn’t a big baby, he sure was acting like one now. Especially since Gracie was only trying to do something nice.

  Gracie stood there biting her lip. A couple of tears rolled down her cheeks.

  The Princess leaned into me and meowed in my ear. “Oh no! I never dreamed my plan would backfire. Poor Gracie!”

  Now Dylan went storming down the hallway. He flung the front door wide open.

  Us cats all sat there in shock. The other kids stood there without moving. I figured they must be in shock, too.

  Dylan flung his arms open wide. “When I need your help, Gracie, I’ll ask for it!”

  Then he flew out onto the front porch.

  Just as two people came running inside. A man and a woman. They were both wearing hats and coats, and I couldn’t see their faces. They pointed to all of us in the living room and came rushing inside.

  Now what was going to happen?

  Unfortunately, I didn’t figure out the answer to that question until it was too late. Because, from that moment on, everything happened so fast. And at the same time, it kind of felt like it was going in slow motion.

  “There she is! Get her!” the woman yelled with a strange accent.

  I recognized that accent, but I wasn’t sure where I knew it from. The woman flew into the living room and that’s when I saw her cold, cold, ice blue eyes. She reached down, snatched the Princess in a tight grip and then went racing for the front door. The Princess yowled louder than I’ve ever heard her yowl before.

  In a split second, the man and the woman and the Princess had all vanished. Straight out the open door.

  But I did catch a glimpse of the woman’s long, platinum blonde hair that fell fro
m her hat as she left.

  It was the Count and Countess Von De Meenasnitzel.

  And they had just catnapped the Princess!

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 23

  Holy Mackerel!

  Gracie screamed and the other kids around us started to scream, too. Mrs. Peebles shouted for our Mom.

  Ice cold fear drenched my entire body. I felt like somebody had just thrown me into a bath. And not a nice warm bath like Gracie had given us. But instead a bath filled with ice cubes.

  Then all at once, I felt a whole different feeling. Something else took over inside of me. I remembered how badly the Count and Countess had treated the Princess. And I sure wasn’t going to let them treat her like that again. And I definitely wasn’t going to let them take her away from us.

  I loved the Princess. She was part of our family.

  Now my heart started to pound and anger bubbled up inside of me. Then for some strange reason, I suddenly knew exactly what to do. I turned to Bogey and he was already nodding. He knew that I knew. And we were obviously thinking the very same thing.

  He sprang to his feet. “Ready, kid?”

  I jumped up, too. “Ready!”

  Lil must have been on the same wavelength as we were. “I’ll hold the door open and get eyes on that car!” she shouted.

  So while she scampered to the front door, Bogey and I jumped into our exercise wheel. We reached up, latched our claws into the carpet, and pulled that wheel down to get it started. Then we ran for all we were worth. The wheel started to spin faster and faster.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey hollered. “Now lean to the side and let’s tilt this thing.”

  And I did just that. In a matter of seconds, we had that wheel wobbling. A few seconds later, it popped off its stand and landed on the floor with a loud ka-whump! Then we went barreling down the hallway. Kids were jumping out of the way as the wheel steamrolled past them.

  “Lean over, kid,” Bogey told me. “We’ve got to straighten it out again.”

  I moved slightly to the center and we kept on running and running and running. The wheel straightened out just fine.

  Our Mom was coming down the stairs when she spotted us. She jumped back in the nick of time as we rolled on by. We saw Lil right where she said she would be — holding the door wide open.

  “They went left at the corner,” she shouted as we bounced through the opening. “Big, silver car!”

  Then that heavy, giant-sized wheel hit the front porch with a gigantic thud! And it went whump, whump, whump as it rolled right on down those steps. It was a pretty bumpy ride and a little scary, too. Especially if I thought about the way I’d crashed it last time. But I knew I couldn’t think about that now. Instead, I just kept my mind on my legs, and we kept on running and running and running. I suddenly had more energy than I ever dreamed I could have.

  It’s funny what a guy can do when he finds out his Princess has just been catnapped.

  We rolled on down the sidewalk and then hit the street at an angle. It was pretty rough going, but we managed to keep that wheel upright. Thankfully there weren’t any cars coming right at that moment.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey yelled. “Lean it left. We’ve gotta turn it so it goes down the street. Think of what we’ve seen people do on bikes.”

  “Got it!” I hollered back.

  And so we did. We put our weight to one side and leaned hard. We made a pretty shaky turn, but we quickly got it leveled out and headed straight down our street. Our neighbor, Mrs. Nelson, was driving home and about to turn into her driveway. But she hit the brakes and stared at us with wide eyes. We barely missed the side of her car as we barreled on by.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey yelled. “Step on it. We’ve gotta catch up with the Count and Countess.”

  So we did. We ran faster and faster and rolled that huge wheel on down our street. And we picked up some good speed, too. Another car headed toward us and quickly pulled over to let us go by. I caught a glimpse of the faces inside that car as we zoomed past. All the people had wide eyes and open mouths.

  I guess they weren’t used to seeing cats go by in a gigantic wheel.

  Before long, we were coming to the end of our block.

  “Time to take another left, kid,” Bogey hollered. “This one’s going to be a little tighter. But we can do it. Let’s hope there aren’t any cars in the intersection.”

  I gulped. I hadn’t even thought of that before. But I figured now was probably not the time to start thinking about it. Especially if it only scared me. This just wasn’t the time to get scared. So I just kept on moving and so did the wheel.

  I saw the intersection in the very same second that I saw a big, red pickup truck and a mailman’s truck. The truck was turning right and the mailman looked like he was going to go straight.

  “This is going to be tight,” Bogey hollered.

  Holy Mackerel! He had that right! We had to work our way around the pickup before the mailman had a chance to go through the intersection. And that big truck didn’t exactly leave us a lot of room to turn.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey hollered. “We’ve gotta be precise. When I say lean, I want you to lean.”

  “Got it!” I said as I kept on running.

  The pickup truck made his turn, and we barely missed sideswiping him by a few inches.

  “Now, kid! Now!” Bogey yelled. “Lean!”

  So I leaned for all I was worth. And that wheel made a really tight turn. For a second there, I think we even went up on one rim.

  “Down, kid. Lean back,” Bogey yelled frantically.

  I scooted over, and we missed the mail truck by inches. I could even hear the mailman gasp right before he drove up on someone’s lawn.

  Finally, I could see a big, silver car about a quarter of a mile ahead of us. “It’s them!” I yelled to my brother. “I see them! We’re gaining on them!”

  And that’s when I accidentally leaned too far in the wrong direction. Because all of a sudden, we zigzagged across to the wrong side of the street.

  Right in front of a police car!

  It was Officer Phoebe.

  She hit the brakes and stared at us with her mouth open.

  “Turn back, kid!” Bogey practically screamed. “Get us back on our side of the street!”

  I quickly leaned the other way and we zagged back to the other side. But I overdid it on my leaning, and we zigzagged a few more times.

  Finally, I got us straightened out.

  “Put the coals to it, kid. We can catch them!” Bogey yelled.

  Now we heard people calling to us from the sidewalk. We saw kids and grownups and even some grandparents. Some were cheering and some were laughing. A few people were even clapping for us.

  In the meantime, Officer Phoebe had turned around and was now following us. She had her lights flashing and her siren screaming.

  Suddenly I wished our wheel had come with a rearview mirror.

  “Bogey, I think she wants us to pull over,” I hollered to my brother.

  “No can do, kid. We’ve got to catch the Count and Countess! Go faster!” Bogey insisted.

  “Won’t we get arrested?” I asked.

  Bogey picked up speed. “Nope, kid. We’re going to lead Officer Phoebe straight to the crooks. Not only did they kidnap the Princess, but they broke out of jail, too. There’s probably a reward out for them.”

  “Okay, whatever you say!” I told him as I picked up speed alongside him.

  By now we were getting closer and closer to that silver car. I could see the Princess in the back window. Her big, green eyes went wide when she saw us. I could see her mouth moving and I knew that she had started to meow. I was pretty sure she was probably calling for us.

  It made me even more determined to get to her!

  But the Count was driving, and I saw him glance into his rearview mirror. That’s when he stepped on the gas. Because suddenly the car started to pull away from us.

  “Faster! Faster!” I yelled to
my brother. “We can’t lose them!”

  “I’m on it, kid,” he hollered back.

  A few seconds later, we heard more sirens. Then we saw a huge fire truck speeding toward us from the opposite direction. It must have been enough to scare the Count. He swerved a couple of times, just as the cars in front of him came to a stop for the fire truck.

  He laid on the horn, but it was no use. Finally, he must have figured the siren and the flashing police lights might be for the Countess and him. He slowed the car down and pulled over.

  But Bogey and I kept on rolling forward with the power of a freight train.

  The front doors of the car flew open wide. The Count jumped out and took off running. And so did the Countess.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey hollered. “On the count of three, we abort. Just like I did at our house. You take the Countess and I’ll take the Count. Got it?”

  And I new exactly what he was talking about. Because this was the tricky part. Running in the big, giant wheel was easy. But stopping it or having a smooth landing if we got thrown out was the hard part. Because let me tell you, our wheel did not have brakes. And we had built up a whole bunch of speed and forward motion. Plus, we still hadn’t actually rescued the Princess yet. Until she was home safe with us again, we couldn’t exactly relax.

  So that meant we had to be perfect in our next step. Or one of us might get hurt.

  Really hurt.

  Not to mention, we didn’t want the Count and Countess to get away!

  “Okay, Bogey,” I hollered. “I’m ready.”

  “One, two, three!” he yelled.

  Then we both dug our claws in and quit running. The wheel spun around one and a half times. And we went around with it. Then we both kicked out. One on either side. I did a couple of somersaults in the air until I straightened out. I went flying, flying, flying with my claws out on all four paws. I landed right smack dab onto the back of the Countess. I bashed into her with so much force that I knocked her straight to the ground. She made a loud smack sound as she hit the pavement. It knocked her out cold, and made a nice soft landing for me.