The Case of Too Many Clues

by Cindy Vincent

  Once I could focus again, well, I was really pretty mad. I had to say, I didn’t appreciate somebody practicing their cat karate on me. Especially when they didn’t even know how to do real cat karate.

  So I did exactly what I’d done before. I raised my paw in the air. And once again, Mitzi sat on the floor at attention.

  The Princess gasped and put a paw to her mouth. For a moment, I thought she was going to say something, but she just kept quiet.

  But Mitzi wasn’t about to stay quiet. “Buckley, I want a treat.”

  I shook my head. “Not after you just tried to karate chop me.”

  “But I want a treat,” she repeated.

  I crinkled my brow. “And that’s not even the right way to ask for a treat.”

  Mitzi tilted her head. “It isn’t? How am I supposed to ask for a treat?”

  That’s when the Princess jumped in. “I’ll handle this,” she said to me before she turned to Mitzi. “Young lady, you should always use good manners. Especially when you are talking to an older cat.”

  “Manners?” Mitzi repeated the word like she’d never, ever heard it before in her whole life.

  “That’s right,” the Princess said gently. “You should always say ‘please’ and ‘thank-you.’ If you would like a treat, you should say, ‘May I please have a treat?’”

  Mitzi smiled and glimmered up to the Princess like she was the most beautiful cat in the world. Then again, as far as I was concerned, the Princess was the most beautiful cat in the world.

  “I want to talk just like you do,” Mitzi gushed before she turned back to me. “It sounds so nice. Buckley, may I please have a treat?”

  “Yes, you may,” I told her and pulled the bag of treats from behind the desk. “As long as you say you’re sorry for karate chopping me.”

  Her little chin drooped. “I’m sorry, Buckley. Sometimes I just get so excited and I don’t know how to stop.”

  “I know,” I told her. And for some reason, I wasn’t mad at her anymore. I passed her a cat treat and she practically inhaled it.

  The Princess scooted closer to Mitzi. “Now you should say thank you.”

  Mitzi’s eyes went wide. “Oh, okay. Sure. Thank you, Buckley.”

  “Very good, Mitzi,” the Princess said as she put her arm around the little kitten. “Cats are known for their manners and it’s important that you have manners, too. You won’t get very far in life without them.”

  And that’s when an idea hit me like a cat toy flying across the room. “Bogey also wants me to teach you how to have patience,” I told the little kitten. “Because a good cat detective figures out when it’s time to run in. Or if it’s just better to stay put. Or . . . if you should run right on out the door.”

  Mitzi nodded so fast her chin was kind of a blur. “Oh, wow, Buckley! I think it would be good for me to learn that. Do you think I can? Do you think I’m smart enough?”

  I tilted my head. “Well . . . sure. I think you’re a very smart kitten. You figure out lots of stuff.”

  The Princess smiled her brightest smile. “That’s right. I just know you’ll catch on in a hurry.”

  Mitzi looked at the floor. “I’ve never had anyone teach me things before.”

  That’s funny. Because I’d never taught things to anyone before. I guess we were both learning new things today. I only hoped my idea would work.

  So I grabbed the bag of cat treats and took them across the room. “Okay, here’s what I want you to do . . .” I pulled a treat from the bag and put it on the floor. “I want you to stay right where you are until I count to ten. Then you can run across the room and get your treat.”

  She tilted her tiny head. “Why can’t I just have the treat now?”

  “Umm, well . . . because sometimes a cat detective needs to wait for things,” I told her. “And that’s what I want you to learn — how to wait for things.”

  The Princess smiled at Mitzi. “That’s right. You have to learn how to be in control of yourself.”

  Mitzi put her paw to her chin. “Oh . . . Okay. I get it.”

  “Are you ready?” I looked right in her eyes to make sure I had her attention. “Here we go . . . one . . . two . . .”

  And the next thing I knew, a blur of orange and black and white whizzed right past me. It was so fast I almost fell over. To make things worse, the treat was gone. And Mitzi was standing in the very spot where the treat had been.

  She smiled up at me. “How did I do, Buckley? Did I do good? I got the treat.”

  I crinkled my brow. “Umm . . . maybe you don’t understand how this is supposed to work. You’re not supposed to run for the treat until after I finish counting to ten.”

  That’s when she started to bounce around again. “Oh, okay. I’ve got it. I can do this.”

  So we tried it again. This time I had barely said the word ‘five’ when she was already in front of the treat and scarfing it down.

  Right away, she started to dance around. “How was that? Pretty good? I did better that time. I did, I did, I did! I know I did.”

  For a moment, I couldn’t even speak, and when I finally could, I wasn’t sure what to say. “Maybe we should do this a little differently. Maybe you should wait till I count to ten and then the Princess says ‘Go!’”

  I glanced at the Princess and she quickly nodded to me. Letting me know she was on board.

  Then I looked right back at Mitzi. “Maybe you should repeat the plan back to me. So I know you understand it.”

  She looked from me to the Princess and then back at me again. After a few seconds, her eyes kind of lit up. It reminded me of a light bulb going on.

  “Oh, right,” she said. “You’re going to count to ten and I’m going to wait until the Princess tells me to ‘Go!’”

  “That’s it!” I hollered. I could hardly believe how happy it made me feel, just knowing she’d figured it out.

  So I put a treat down and we tried it one more time. And this time, she did it exactly right. Holy Catnip! After that, there were paw bumps all around, and Mitzi started to bounce around some more. For some reason, I sort of felt like bouncing around, too.

  But I didn’t.

  Instead, we just kept on practicing. Soon I was counting to twenty and even thirty. And I had to say, she was really getting the hang of it. She could wait for quite a while before going after a treat.

  That’s when I realized that the Wise One had been right, when she suggested we give Mitzi some training. Because Mitzi wasn’t a bad kitten. And she might even be a really good cat detective one day. She just needed someone to train her.

  But she couldn’t learn everything she needed to know in one lesson. So after a while, I figured she’d had enough for one night.

  “Let’s stop for now,” I told her. “Because you’d better get some sleep.”

  “But I want to run around with you and Bogey,” she whined. “When you run surveillance.”

  By now, I knew just how to handle this situation. I raised my paw and she quieted down right away. “No, we need you to be rested for tomorrow.”

  “Okay, Buckley. Aye, aye,” she said and then stuck her paw in her ear.

  I crinkled my brow. “What are you doing?”

  She looked up at me so sweetly. “I’m just saluting you like you saluted Bogey.”

  I dropped my head to my arm and shut my eyes for a second or two. That’s when I realized that I was going to need a lot of patience myself to train this kitten. Being a teacher was really, really hard work. And I couldn’t help but wonder if it had been pretty hard for Bogey, too. When he was training me.

  I turned to the door and saw him standing there with a grim look on his face. “How’d it go, kid?”

  The Princess batted her eyes at me. “Buckley did a wonderful job! He’s absolutely brilliant when it comes to teaching young ones.”

  Bogey raised a brow. “You might just have a new role at the BBCDA, kid. Training the CDITs.”

  I tried to say something to
my brother, but for some reason, my words came out like, “blub, blub, blub . . .” Because I wasn’t really sure if I wanted a job like this one. Not full time, anyway.

  Bogey nodded to Mitzi, who sat at attention. She had a huge smile on her face and I could see she was really pleased with herself.

  “We’ve had a change of plans for tomorrow,” he told Mitzi. “You’ll be staying here and working with Lil and Trixie. On your cat karate.”

  “We’re not going to Mrs. Bumble’s house?” I asked my brother.

  He shook his head. “Probably not, kid. Because we need to go back to our Mom’s store. Without Short-stuff.”

  I hated to say it, but the idea of spending the day running surveillance at our Mom’s store sounded just perfect to me. And a nice afternoon nap or two would be wonderful.

  Still, I had to wonder why we’d had a change of plans. Especially since it was pretty clear where our newest clue was leading us — straight to Mrs. Bumble’s house.

  But Bogey answered my question before I could even ask it. “We’ve got to sneak back into Garnet’s store.”

  That got my attention. Not to mention, made my heart start to thump really loud. I really didn’t like the idea of going back in there again. Especially after we’d been caught. And I sure didn’t like the way Garnet had treated Gracie.

  “Bogey . . . why would we want to go back there?” I asked.

  He glanced at the dark night sky outside the window. “I just caught word over the Internet. The burglar alarm went off at the jewelry store. Looks like there was a breakin. And a robbery.”

  The Princess gasped, and I could see the fear in her big, green eyes.

  I fought hard not to gasp myself. Because I could hardly believe it. A breakin at the jewelry store?

  “That’s really odd,” I told my brother. “We were just in that store today.”

  “I hear ya, kid,” Bogey said. “And I can’t shake the feeling that this breakin is somehow connected to our case.”

  That’s when my eyes probably went about as wide as our food dish. Because this case just kept getting stranger by the minute!

  And, it seemed like the more we learned, the less we knew.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 12

  Holy Mackerel!

  Even though I tried my best to stay calm — just like a good cat detective is supposed to do — Bogey’s news still made my fur stand on end. Because it hadn’t been very many hours before when we were right there in Garnet’s Jewelry Store. And now it had been robbed. To make things even worse, we had plans to go right back into that store. The very place where we’d been caught and Gracie had knocked over a jewelry display.

  Yet before we could talk about it more, Gracie came up to bed. Apparently, she’d heard the news, too. Because her eyes were wide and she was shaking her head when she walked into her room.

  “That’s so weird,” she murmured to herself over and over again. “I can’t believe it! A breakin and a robbery at the jewelry store! And to think, it’s just a few doors down from our store.”

  I had to say, she seemed pretty shook-up about it all. Then again, I guess we all were. But if nothing else, I was happy to see that Gracie didn’t have her cell phone with her. And instead of tapping away on that phone, she reached down and petted each one of us cats. Plus she talked and talked to us.

  She even sat down on the floor with us. “It’s funny, but I feel like I haven’t spent any time with you kitties lately. Even though I was right here with you in the same room with you. But when I was on my phone all the time, I didn’t even know all the stuff that was going on around me. It’s so nice to be back.”

  I reached up and gave her a kiss on the nose. Because it was really nice to have her back. So to speak.

  She giggled and gave me a hug before she picked up little Mitzi. “My goodness, I hardly even noticed how cute you are, little foster kitten. I sure wish we could give you a name.”

  Of course, Gracie had no idea that I’d already taken care of that problem. Though she might not be happy if she found out that Mitzi had been named after a doorknob. More or less, anyway. Then again, it turned out to be a pretty good name. If I ever had to find a name for someone again, I might just check out the other hardware around our house.

  Gracie put Mitzi on the floor and leaned over to give the Princess a kiss on the head. Then she picked up Bogey and looked right into his eyes. “Can you believe it, Bogey? You and Buckley and I were all in Garnet’s store today. It really gives me the creeps when I think about it. Especially after my accident in there. What were the odds of all that happening in one day?”

  But Bogey’s only response was to purr and give her some slow eye blinks.

  She cradled him for a moment before she put him back on the floor again. After that, she got ready for bed, climbed between the covers, and fell fast asleep. That’s when Lil wandered in and said hello to us all. She jumped up and settled down on the end of Gracie’s bed, ready to watch over her. Just like she always did. Mitzi hopped up, too, and curled up next to Gracie’s pillow. Seconds later, she was out like a light.

  I had to say, I was glad to see Mitzi was going to get some sleep. Not only did she need it, but she was also doing what she’d been told to do. For once.

  And believe me, we were careful not to wake her. Or Gracie. Bogey and the Princess and I all quietly waved goodnight to Lil and then tiptoed out the door. The Princess headed to the sunroom while Bogey and I went downstairs to run our first surveillance round of the night. By now, our Mom and Dad were in bed, too, so the whole house was dark. Except I noticed they’d left the porch light on for a change, which sort of surprised me. Maybe it had something to do with the news about the breakin.

  And maybe that was why Bogey and I both seemed to be on full alert tonight as we checked all the doors and windows. I had to race to keep up with my brother after he started us out running twice as fast as we usually went. We even doubled-back to the front door and paused there for a moment.

  I turned to my brother. “Bogey, what do you think is going on? First we get all these clues on our doorstep. Then one of those clues leads us to a store that gets robbed later on. Doesn’t that all seem strange to you?”

  Bogey set his mouth in a grim line. “You got that right, kid. I’d bet a case of cat treats that it’s all connected somehow. And that someone is trying to send us a message.”

  “A message?” I repeated. “What do you think that message is saying?”

  “I don’t know yet, kid,” Bogey said under his breath. “Could be they’re trying to tell us that our Mom’s store is next.”

  I gulped at the thought. Especially since I knew our Mom would be really upset if someone tried to rob her store. Or our house, for that matter.

  I stretched up to the knob on the front door and double-checked to see that it was locked. All the while, I couldn’t shake the idea that somebody had been right out there on our doorstep, only a few inches away from where we were now. Three times. Just to leave some little jars for us.

  Bogey raised his brow and motioned to the dining room. “Time for a quick break, kid.”

  So we made a beeline for the potted plant, and Bogey grabbed the bag of cat treats he kept stashed there. But much to my surprise, he gave me a couple of treats and only took one for himself. Then he stashed the bag right back where it had been.

  I felt my eyes go wide. “Aren’t you hungry tonight?”

  Bogey shook his head and grinned. “Just trying to cut back, kid. If Gracie can ease off her cell phone, then I can cut back on the treats.”

  “Oh, okay,” I told him.

  He patted his belly. “Think I’ve been stress-eating, kid. Too much work and not enough play.”

  Well, I had to say, that made plenty of sense to me. “We’ve had a lot of cases lately for just the two of us at the BBCDA.”

  Bogey nodded. “You can say that again, kid. This new case didn’t help, either. It’s really got us chasing our tails.”r />
  I glanced back at my own huge tail. “I haven’t chased my tail since I was a little kitten. Well, okay . . . maybe there was that one time when I was really happy because our Mom was about to give us tuna fish for dinner.”

  Bogey grinned. “Relax, kid. It’s just an expression. It means we’re doing a lot of busy work and not really getting anywhere.”

  “Oh . . . well, that sounds about right,” I told him. “Because we sure don’t seem to be getting anywhere with this case. Not so far, anyway.”

  “Don’t I know it, kid,” Bogey said with a nod toward the stairs. “Don’t I know it.”

  Then without another word, we took off to finish our rounds. When we were done, we headed for our beds in the family room. We got a little shut-eye before our early morning surveillance run. And after that, we took our final nap of the night. Luckily, everything was quiet and nobody left us any new clues on our front porch.

  Even so, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time because I was busy listening for footsteps outside. But I must have dozed off at some point. Because the next thing I knew, it was morning and we were dragging ourselves out of bed. Gracie fed us all breakfast, and she even gave each one of us a quick hug before she put our food down. I had to say, I sure didn’t miss her cell phone one bit.

  Then it wasn’t long before Bogey and I were in our pet carriers and headed for our Mom’s store. Mitzi had promised she would stay home today for her cat karate lessons. But I checked the back of my pet carrier anyway. Just to make sure she wasn’t hiding in there and riding along.

  Thankfully, I was the only one in my carrier.

  Once we got to our Mom’s store, I couldn’t believe how packed the place was. There were people standing around in bunches all up and down the block, and lots of them had wandered into our Mom’s store. Plus, plenty of those people were shopping and buying things as well. So our Mom and Millicent and Merryweather sure had their hands full.

  Gracie got right to work, too. She wrapped small items in newspaper and put them in bags for customers. “I wonder why it’s so busy today,” she said to Merryweather.