The Case of Too Many Clues

by Cindy Vincent

  Then she bounced onto a chair and was about to launch herself into the air — straight at the Wise One.

  The rest of us all shouted “Noooo . . .!”

  Just in time to make her pause. She crinkled her face in confusion. But then she shrugged and bounded out into the hallway.

  I let out a long, slow breath. Whew. I had to say, that was a close one. I couldn’t imagine what would’ve happened if Mitzi had cat karate-chopped herself on a collision course with Miss Mokie!

  And I wasn’t the only one.

  I glanced over to see the Princess’ eyes had gone just about as wide as our food dish. But she quickly blinked a few times, shook her head, and pulled herself together. And she jumped down from her chair like a feather floating on the air. Then the three of us jogged into the hallway and barely caught a glimpse of Mitzi before she raced down the stairs in a flash. In fact, she went up and down, and then back up and down again, before Bogey and the Princess and I even got to the first floor.

  “Do you think we’ll catch any bad guys?” Mitzi hollered as she ran around in circles. “Do you, Buckley? I’ll bet you’ll catch a whole bunch of bad guys!”

  If only she were right.

  But first things first. So without another word, we made a beeline for the little jar with the diamonds.

  The Princess didn’t waste any time in looking at those gems. “They’re real diamonds, all right,” she told us. “Ten nice little stones.”

  Bogey raised an eyebrow to her. “Are they worth much?”

  The Princess nodded. “Oh yes. They would be worth a lot. Where did they come from?”

  “Somebody put them on our front porch,” I explained. “In that little jar.”

  Her chin nearly dropped to the floor. “I wonder why someone would do that. People usually steal diamonds. They don’t usually leave them on someone’s porch.”

  It was one of the questions that Bogey and I had been asking ourselves. And any way we looked at it, there wasn’t a good answer.

  Bogey shook his head. “It’s a real head-scratcher, all right. Hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of this tomorrow.”

  Mitzi suddenly stopped moving, though her eyes were still dancing. “Where are you going tomorrow?”

  “On an investigation,” I told her.

  “I’ll go!” she announced and started to bounce around again.

  Bogey put a paw on her shoulder to get her to hold still. “Sorry, Short-stuff. Not this time. Because we don’t know what we’re walking into. Could be a trap. And we might have to do some pretty fancy footwork to get out of there. So you’re staying home.”

  I gulped when I heard his words. Just talking about walking into a trap suddenly made a chill race up and down my spine. On top of it all, having to do any “fancy footwork” made me even more nervous. After all, for a big guy like me who couldn’t get his paws to go where he wanted them to go, “fancy footwork” wasn’t exactly something I was good at. And if we had to rely on that to get us out of a bad situation, well . . . we just might be in a whole lot more trouble than I thought.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 8

  Holy Mackerel!

  The next morning, I was really dragging when we set off for our Mom’s antique store. But I wasn’t the only one. Gracie had slept through her alarm and our Mom had to wake her up. Twice. And Bogey had to do plenty of stretching before he could even crawl out of his cat bed.

  Our Mom was the only one who seemed to be awake and raring to go. But if nothing else, at least Bogey and I were waiting at the back door by the time she and Gracie were ready to leave.

  “I guess the boys are going with us today,” our Mom laughed as she picked up Bogey. “Honey, could you please take Buckley?”

  “Sure, Mom,” Gracie said in a sleepy voice. Then she picked me up and gave me a nice hug. “I love you, Buckley. But I’m still a little mad at you.”

  So I gave her a big kiss on the nose. Just to tell her I was sorry. And to let her know that I loved her, too.

  Then the next thing I knew, we were in our soft-sided pet carriers and in our Mom’s car. And we were headed to downtown St. Gertrude, where our Mom ran the best antique store in the whole town.

  But oddly enough, I couldn’t get comfortable in my pet carrier. I wasn’t sure if I was just tired, or if I’d grown some more overnight. For some reason, the space seemed smaller than usual. And the floor and the rear even felt sort of lumpy. I tried and tried to wriggle into position. Yet no matter what I did, I couldn’t settle down and relax.

  “You okay over there, kid?” Bogey asked from his pet carrier next to mine.

  “Something’s not right here,” I told him. “And I can’t figure out what’s wrong.”

  Then I used a claw to pull up the bottom mat of my carrier. And that’s when I finally figured out the source of my problem. In fact, I could hardly believe my eyes. Especially when I saw a little face staring right up at me.

  Mitzi.

  She blinked twice and stretched.

  I gasped. “How in the world did you get in here?”

  She rubbed her sleepy eyes. “I sneaked in here last night. So I could go with you today!”

  “But . . . but . . . but . . .” I blathered on. “How did you even know about the pet carriers?”

  She smiled. “That’s easy! I asked the Princess how you would get out of the house today. And she told me about the pet carriers.”

  I felt my eyes go wide. “Did the Princess know what you were up to?”

  “Nope,” Mitzi said with a shake of her head. “I kept it a secret. And after you went to sleep, I climbed into one of the carriers and hid under the mat.”

  Bogey tilted his head and looked down at her. “So you became a stowaway, huh, Short-stuff?”

  “That was pretty sneaky . . .” I murmured. For some reason, the whole situation kind of irritated me.

  “Yup,” she said as she sat up and stretched. “I figured out what to do all by myself. See, Buckley? I really am going to be a great cat detective some day. Just like you.”

  Bogey nodded. “Not sure if I like your method, Short-stuff. But I have to give you credit for figuring things out.”

  Okay, when it came right down to it, so did I. She was pretty smart for such a young kitten. Even so, I thought she should have followed Bogey’s orders from last night. And I thought she should have stayed home. Though mostly, I didn’t want her to get in the way while we investigated.

  My brother must have been thinking the same thing. “All right, Short-stuff, but don’t get any ideas about tagging along with us today. I want you to stay at our Mom’s store until we go home tonight.”

  Her lower lip started to tremble. “But, I want to go with you and Buckley . . . I want to catch some bad guys . . .”

  Bogey shook his head. “Sorry. Not this time.”

  Just hearing that made me feel better as we drove past the big sign in front of our Mom’s store. The one that said “Abigail’s Antiques.” As always, our Mom turned at the corner and headed for the back alley. She parked near the back door, and then she and Gracie carried us inside and opened our pet carriers. Bogey and I stepped out right away.

  Our Mom’s two employees, Merryweather and Millicent, were waiting there to greet us. Millicent had short, curly gray hair and dark-framed glasses that she wore on the end of her nose. Merryweather was dressed in a pink, polka-dotted dress with a big skirt. A dress she once said was from the 1950s. Her dress went really well with her red hair and her pink glasses. Our Mom called them “cat-eye” glasses. And I have to say, I liked them a lot!

  Bogey grinned and purred up to both the ladies, while I rubbed around Merryweather’s legs.

  “These two are especially sweet today,” Millicent said with a smile.

  Merryweather picked up Bogey and gave him a nice hug. “Oh, Bogey, you are such a handsome guy. If only I could find a man like you.”

  But Millicent was already shaking her head. “I don’t know, Merryweathe
r . . . I think these two are up to something today. Mark my words. They always lay on the charm when they’re cooking up some kind of scheme. One that usually involves them sneaking out of the store.”

  “Which they’re not supposed to do,” our Mom said as she rubbed behind my ears. “Last night we found them dripping wet, just inside the front door. We have no idea how they got that way. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they’d been outside.”

  “We still don’t know how they got so wet,” Gracie chimed in. “Because we thought they were inside the house with us the whole time.”

  “Hmmm . . .” Millicent murmured. “Sometimes I wonder if there’s more to these boys than meets the eye . . .”

  “Maybe they’re great detectives who secretly go around solving big mysteries,” Merryweather said. Then she laughed and plopped a kiss on Bogey’s forehead.

  Millicent laughed, too, and so did Gracie. And they kept on laughing while Bogey just grinned up at them and purred away.

  But the strange thing was, our Mom didn’t laugh at all. Instead she just tilted her head, put a finger to her chin, and looked from me to Bogey. And then back again.

  Millicent picked me up. “Well, Buckley won’t be going anywhere today. He’s pretty easy to spot, since he’s so big. So I’ll be keeping my eyes on him . . . “ she started to say.

  Just as Mitzi came strolling out of my pet carrier.

  And everyone gasped, except for Bogey and me.

  The next thing I knew, Bogey and I were back on the cold, hard cement floor. Without so much as a “See you later, boys.” And Mitzi was now in the arms of Merryweather.

  Then we heard all kinds of oooohs and aaaahs from Millicent and Merryweather. And when they started in on a chorus of “She’s so cute,” Bogey and I made a beeline for the front door.

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t a beeline exactly. Maybe it was really more of a zigzag route. Because we ran into the front room of our Mom’s store and immediately hid under an old dresser. From there we ran behind a cabinet full of pretty vases and glasses. We kept as low to the floor as possible, so we wouldn’t be spotted. Then we zoomed behind some bookshelves and under another little table. We know our Mom’s store like the back of our paws, and we were at the front door in a hurry.

  Just as a couple of customers strolled on in. Thankfully, the man and the woman stood there with the door wide open for a good full minute. It was plenty of time for Bogey and me to slip on out. Without them even knowing it. By the time the lady called out, “Yoo-hoo, Abby,” Bogey and I were already outside and halfway up the sidewalk.

  Bogey gave me a quick grin. “That was pretty slick. Wouldn’t you say, kid?”

  “Uh-huh,” I told him with a nod.

  To tell you the truth, I could hardly believe how easy it had been to sneak on out. Usually it took a lot of planning and finagling on our part. Even then it might be iffy. But today things were definitely going our way. Now all we had to do was get into the jewelry store, investigate, and then sneak back into our Mom’s store. All without anyone knowing we’d even gone anywhere. And since things were going so smoothly, I had a good idea that the rest of the trip was going to go that way, too.

  For once.

  So I wasn’t exactly surprised when Garnet Gabinski herself opened the door to her store. She held it open wide while she smiled in the sunshine and breathed in the fresh air.

  “Ah, what a perfectly lovely day,” she said out loud.

  As near as I could tell, she was talking to herself. Because I was pretty sure she didn’t see Bogey and me when we slipped inside and then hid behind a cabinet. Once we were in place, I peeked out to get a good look at Garnet. She had fluffy, bright red hair that went down to her shoulders. She was wearing a black dress with a huge diamond necklace. And really, really big diamond earrings. I had to say, those diamonds sure sparkled in the sun! They were almost kind of blinding.

  Before long, a short, round man strolled into the store.

  “Good morning, Mr. Pennypacker,” Garnet greeted him in a sing-songy voice. “I believe I have the perfect gift for your wife’s birthday. And we’re having a big sale today.”

  “Ah, excellent,” he answered and removed his bowler hat to reveal his bald head.

  She followed him inside and started to show him some jewelry. “I think your wife would love this ruby bracelet.”

  Mr. Pennypacker shook his head. “I’m not so sure. I believe she prefers pearls and emeralds. Do you have anything like that?”

  “Why, yes, I’ve got several to choose from. I’ve got a stunning pearl and emerald pendant in the far display case. And I’ve got a couple of bracelets and a ring or two in there as well.”

  “Splendid,” came his reply. “My goodness, you certainly have an excellent selection.”

  Which made me take a glance around. And sure enough, she did have lots of jewelry in her store. All of her cabinets and display cases were positively packed with jewelry. She even had some things sitting on the top of the glass cabinets, too. And with the sun shining in, the whole place sparkled.

  In fact, it was so sparkly that it even made me blink a couple of times. Thankfully, Bogey nodded toward the back room, and I knew it was time for us to sneak off and investigate. But just when I thought he was about to slink out of there, he suddenly froze. His eyes darted to a spot just behind me and his brows shot up his forehead. Like something had completely shocked him.

  For as long as I’ve known Bogey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him react like that. To anything. He was a true pro when it came to being a cat detective. So it took something pretty serious to make him act that way.

  So what had Bogey seen? Was there a snake or a spider right behind me? Did Garnet have a gigantic dog that had spotted us? Or had Garnet herself figured out that we were there?

  Without even looking behind me, I started to shake in my paws. A very big part of me wanted to run away and then look back from a nice, safe distance. But as long as Bogey didn’t take off running, well, then I couldn’t, either. Because I sure didn’t want to be a total scaredy-cat. So I decided to face the music instead. Or, rather, I decided to face whatever big, scary thing had caught Bogey’s attention. So I took a deep breath and turned around.

  And that’s when I saw a sight that made my heart skip a beat. Not only did my jaw drop, but my chin almost hit the floor, too.

  For standing there, just a few inches away from me, was Mitzi.

  Right away I had a bad feeling that our investigation was doomed. A very bad feeling.

  “I’m here!” she meowed. “I’m going to help you catch the bad guys!”

  I quickly clamped one of my paws over her mouth and gave her a “Shhh!” Thankfully, my big paw went right where it was supposed to go for once.

  Still, I could hardly believe my eyes. How in the world had Mitzi gotten here? She must have followed us somehow. But we sure hadn’t noticed her coming behind us. Now I only hoped that Garnet and Mr. Pennypacker hadn’t seen her, either.

  Especially when they suddenly went silent.

  “What was that?” Garnet asked. “Did you hear something?”

  Mr. Pennypacker wheezed. “I did hear something. But I don’t hear it anymore. Perhaps it came from outside.”

  Garnet trilled with laughter. “Oh, I’m sure it was nothing at all. Now, how much jewelry would you like to buy today? As I said, everything is on sale.”

  “Oh, I haven’t decided yet,” Mr. Pennypacker said. “Let me keep looking.”

  Then while the two of them talked, Bogey and I slipped into the back room. Thankfully, Mitzi followed us.

  Bogey frowned and turned to Mitzi when we were safely out of earshot. “I’m not tickled that you decided to join us, Short-stuff. Buckley and I are on an important case. But now that you’re here, I want you to stick close and keep a lid on it.”

  She crinkled up her tiny face. “Keep a lid on it? What am I supposed to keep a lid on?” She glanced up at me.

  And I glanced at Bo
gey. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure where that lid was supposed to go, either.

  “Just an expression,” Bogey said. “It means I want you to keep quiet.”

  “Oh, okay,” she chirped and then started to dance around.

  Bogey waved a paw. “And there’ll be none of this dancing business on a case, either. If you want to help us, you’ve gotta be serious. And play by our rules.”

  With that, her eyes went wide and she sat up straight. “Okay, Bogey. Whatever you say. I want to be just as good a cat detective as Buckley.”

  Bogey gave her a nod. “All right, then. Stick close, pay attention, and stay out of sight. Don’t let the people in the store see you.”

  She nodded her head and her eyes practically bounced with excitement. I was pretty sure her little body wanted to do the same.

  “I won’t let them see me at all,” she announced with a flick of her tiny tail. “After all, I sneaked up on you and Buckley. Twice.”

  Much as I hated to admit it, I knew she was right. She had sneaked up on us. And she’d done a pretty good job of it. We didn’t even see her coming.

  Bogey raised a brow. “Yup, Short-stuff, you’re a natural when it comes to stealth. But you’ve gotta learn to take orders.”

  I was pretty sure Mitzi didn’t hear the second part of Bogey’s comment. Because she bounded up onto the desk with a, “Woo-hoo! Bogey said I was a natural!” Though if nothing else, at least she kept it to a whisper. A really loud whisper.

  Unfortunately, she also landed on a stack of papers that was leaning over the edge of the desk. Her paws barely touched the papers when the whole pile came tumbling down to the floor. Mitzi came down too, but she bounced back up on her feet and jumped out of the mess right away.

  Bogey raised his paw for silence and we all froze in place. Then Bogey and I pointed our ears toward the outer room and listened for signs that someone had heard us. Thankfully, we could still hear Garnet and Mr. Pennypacker talking about jewelry.

  I breathed with relief and then glanced at the papers scattered on the floor. As near as I could tell, they were Garnet’s bills. The bill on top looked like it was from her insurance company. And I could see that she used the same company for her store that our Mom used for hers.