The Case of Too Many Clues

by Cindy Vincent

  And when I glanced out, I could hardly believe my eyes.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 16

  Holy Mackerel!

  There I was, staring out onto the front porch of our house. My heart was pounding so hard and so loud I was afraid the whole neighborhood would hear it. Because I was pretty sure I was about to catch our culprit in the act. Meaning, I thought I was finally going to see the person who’d been leaving us clues.

  But instead, I saw something completely different. Or maybe I should say, someone.

  “It’s Hector,” I told my brother.

  Bogey rolled his eyes. “Hector?”

  “And it looks like he’s got his brother with him.”

  Bogey sounded surprised. “Hector brought Henry this time? What are they doing out there?”

  I pulled the blind down a little farther. “Eating cat treats from a little jar. One that looks exactly like all the other little jars somebody left us.”

  “Black shiny lid?” Bogey asked.

  “That’s the one,” I told him. “They got it off.”

  Bogey joined me at the window. “They’re eating our next clue.”

  I nodded. “Don’t I know it.”

  My brother batted his paw against the window and got Hector’s attention. “Put a lid on it, Hector. We need those for evidence.”

  But Hector just shook his head and passed another treat to his brother. “No way. These are the best cat treats I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t quit eating them if I wanted to.”

  That sure sounded like something Hector would say. In case you didn’t know, Hector is the Siamese who lives across the street and down a few doors.

  A Siamese cat who is a really big blabbermouth.

  And not only is Hector a blabbermouth, but he’s very, very nosy. If you’ve got a secret that you don’t want anyone else to know about, well, don’t tell Hector. Because he loves to find out any juicy gossip about anyone. And whenever Hector gets any juicy gossip on anyone, he quickly passes that on to everyone.

  “Evidence for what?” Hector finally decided to ask when he came up for air. “Are you on a case, Buckley and Bogey? You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone.”

  Now I rolled my eyes. “Fat chance, Hector. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “We got locked out,” he said between mouthfuls.

  “Again?” came Bogey’s reply.

  Hector shook his head. “It wasn’t my fault this time. Henry sneaked out when our Dad took out the trash. And if Henry gets out, that means I have to go, too. After all, Henry is deaf and he can’t exactly hear if a car is coming. And he can’t hear our Mom call his name. So I had to follow him. To make sure he got home okay.”

  Just then, Hector raised his paws and did sign language to Henry. Henry grinned and did sign language back. Henry was a good-sized cat with long white fur and blue eyes. He may have been deaf, but he was as good a guy as you could ever find. And since Henry had been adopted into the family, he’d turned Hector into a better cat.

  I waved at Henry and caught his attention. He grinned and waved back. Then we did a little “signing” and he told me how delicious those treats were. He even said it was really thoughtful of us to leave them out on the porch for them.

  Right about then, I sure didn’t have the heart to tell him that we weren’t the ones who’d left those treats. Though I did know exactly how delicious they were. Probably just as good as the ones we’d had earlier.

  I could tell Bogey was dying for one of those treats, too.

  “Did you leave any, Hector?” he asked through the window.

  Hector shook his head. “There weren’t very many. Maybe ten. But we left you the message inside.”

  Chills raced across my fur once again. Did he say message?

  “Can you read it to us?” Bogey asked.

  “Sure,” Hector said as he pulled the paper out and unfolded it. “It says, ‘St. Gertrude Cat Treat Factory. Gourmet cat treats. Best cat treats money can buy.’”

  Well, let me tell you, I’ve lived my whole life in St. Gertrude and I’ve never even heard of any cat treat factory. I turned to my brother who had the strangest look on his face. If I had to describe it, I’d say he seemed sort of shocked and happy and a little annoyed. All at the same time.

  Hector ate the last treat and wiped his mouth with his paw. “Say, Buckley and Bogey, can you get us back inside our house?”

  Bogey rolled his eyes again. “Don’t we always, Hector?”

  Of course, I already knew the answer to that question. Because, yes, we always did help Hector get back into his house. Every single time he got himself locked out. Which was a lot.

  So Bogey loped on into the office, got on the computer, and typed out a message. Then he used that message to call Hector’s Mom and Dad. The message came through in a computer voice, saying, “Please let Hector and Henry back inside your house.”

  A few seconds later, I watched as the front door of Hector’s house opened up. Hector’s Dad was calling his name.

  “Gotta run!” Hector said. “Thanks for the treats. Thanks for getting us back inside.”

  With that, he signed to his brother. Henry waved good-bye before the two of them took off. They raced across the street and ran into their house.

  “Thanks for nothing,” I said as I glanced at that empty treat jar.

  Then I joined my brother in the office. “Did you know St. Gertrude had a cat treat factory?”

  Bogey had already called up their webpage on the computer. “Looks like they’re new, kid. Brand new. And you’ll never believe who owns the company.”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. Pennypacker.”

  That’s when my breath got stuck right in my throat. When Bogey said I wouldn’t believe it, well, he wasn’t kidding. Because I was shocked.

  In fact, I was so shocked that I stayed frozen to the spot for a minute or two. Right until I heard someone pounding on our front door. Pounding really, really hard.

  “Is Hector back?” I asked my brother.

  Bogey was already up and headed for the door. “Couldn’t be. Hector can’t pound that hard. It’s gotta be a human out there.”

  That certainly made sense to me. Especially when the doorbell rang. And rang again. Whoever was out there sure wanted us to open the door.

  Before Bogey and I could go and look out the front window, a light went on in our Mom and Dad’s room. And the next thing I knew, they were coming down the stairs in their bathrobes.

  “Who could that be?” our Mom kind of mumbled as she half-tripped on the last stair.

  Our Dad caught her just in the nick of time. “Must be some kind of an emergency,” he murmured. “For someone to be so frantic at our front door.”

  He took a couple of long strides and reached the door in record time. Then he peeked through the peephole and turned on the front hallway light.

  “What in the world . . .?” he muttered before he opened the door.

  That’s when Garnet Gabinski jumped inside our house and practically flung herself into our Mom’s arms. Garnet was wearing pajamas and a bathrobe, too. And she was crying so loud that the sound of her sobs practically filled our whole house.

  “Oh, Abby,” she wailed. “I feel horrible! Absolutely horrible! There I was, just lying in bed. And I couldn’t sleep a wink! I felt so awful about the way I treated you and your daughter today. I never should have said the things I said. I don’t know why I acted like that! This burglary has got me so upset that I’m not even myself. I just had to run over here and apologize. I couldn’t wait another minute. I never meant to hurt you and Gracie.”

  “There, there,” our Mom said as she patted Garnet on the back.

  “Can you ever forgive me?” Garnet sobbed. “I’m so, so sorry!”

  “Of course,” Our Mom said.

  “I said all that without even thinking,” Garnet went on.

  And on. Sobbing and wailing and making strange gurgling noises.
/>   Our Mom glanced at our Dad and he just shrugged. Then he raised his eyebrows and looked at Garnet like she had just landed in a spaceship from outer space.

  “Why don’t you sit down and rest,” our Mom went on. “I’ll get you a drink of water and some tissues.” She led Garnet into the dining room and held out a chair for her.

  Garnet practically collapsed into the chair, still wailing. Then she put her head on the table and cried.

  Our Dad cringed and turned on the light in the dining room. “I’ll go get the water,” he said to our Mom. “You stay here with Garnet.”

  So our Mom took the seat beside her and patted Garnet’s hand. And Garnet kept on crying until our Dad came back with some tissues and a glass of water. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose with a loud pbbllltt!

  Then after a few minutes, she finally calmed down a bit. She sniffled and blew her nose a few more times and stared right in front of her. And kept on staring. To the very spot where the Princess had been teaching the two kittens about diamonds.

  “Wait a minute . . . what are those?” Garnet gasped and pointed to the diamonds that were still on the hardwood floor. They sparkled in the light.

  Our Mom squinted and glanced in the direction of the stones. “I have no idea. Whatever they are, they’re shiny. Must be something off one of Gracie’s costumes. And I don’t know what that little jar is doing there.”

  Garnet suddenly bolted upright and placed her hands firmly on our Mom’s antique dining room table. “I know exactly what they are. They’re diamonds! Stolen diamonds! And I have a pretty good idea where they came from — my store. You and your daughter really did break in and steal my stuff!”

  “No, we did not,” our Mom said calmly. “I’m sure those aren’t real. Probably just something the cats found and were playing with.”

  “Those are real, all right! And I’ll bet they’re mine!” By now, Garnet was shouting. “I’m calling the police! And I’m calling them immediately! I can’t believe you did this to me, Abby. And to think, I was feeling so horrible, after I thought I’d falsely accused you of robbing my store. When it turns out, you really did rob my store!”

  And with that, Garnet pulled her cell phone from the pocket of her bathrobe and dialed nine-one-one.

  Our Dad rolled his eyes. “My wife and daughter didn’t steal your stuff, Garnet. Let me prove it to you.” He strolled over to pick up the diamonds.

  Whereby Garnet shrieked and pointed at him. “Don’t you touch a thing! Not till the police get here. I don’t want you to hide those stones or switch them out for something else.”

  Our Dad glared at her. “May I remind you that you are in our home? And you barged in on us? In the middle of the night. For all you know, those gems belong to us. They’re probably just something Gracie had laying around in her jewelry box.”

  “We’ll let the police pick them up, and I’ll prove they’re mine,” Garnet went on. “They’ll all have serial numbers on them. And I’ll have records of them back at my store.”

  Our Mom shook her head and held her hands open wide. “There must be a rational explanation for this. If we stole your diamonds, would we really just leave them lying around on the floor like that?”

  “Maybe,” Garnet sniffled. “After all, you probably never imagined that I’d be coming over tonight. And there was so much jewelry that was stolen, I’ll bet you didn’t even miss that handful of diamonds over there. You probably just dropped them and didn’t even realize it.”

  Right at that moment, Bogey motioned for me to join him on the stairs. “Best we keep a low profile right now, kid,” he meowed quietly.

  “But don’t you think we should do something?” I whispered to my brother.

  Bogey shook his head but kept his eyes glued to Garnet. “Not much we can do right now, kid. It’ll just make things worse if we jump in. It’s best if we wait it out and come up with a game plan. Once we figure out what’s really going on here.”

  Seconds later, Officer Phoebe arrived with another officer, a young man named Officer Peyton. They had barely walked in the door when Garnet started hollering and carrying on even worse than she had before. And let me tell you, Officer Phoebe had to work pretty hard to get Garnet to calm down enough to explain the situation. In the meantime, the other officer carefully picked up the stones with tweezers and dropped them into little plastic bags. He also took a few photographs of the place where they’d been found.

  “I’ll have these checked out,” Officer Phoebe said grimly. “If the stones have serial numbers, we’ll find them. Then we can compare them to your records, Garnet. Have you already filed your insurance claim?”

  Garnet crossed her arms. “Yes, I did it this afternoon. Once the police were finished at my store. But if these diamonds have been found, I can take them off my claim. I never thought I’d ever see any of my jewelry ever again!”

  Officer Phoebe turned to our Mom and Dad. “Any idea how those stones got there?”

  Our Dad shrugged and our Mom shook her head.

  “I haven’t got a clue,” our Mom said.

  “Could Gracie have been playing with them . . .?” Officer Phoebe started to suggest, but quickly let her words die out.

  “On the floor?” Our Mom said with a laugh. “I don’t think so. Gracie was busy all afternoon on her computer, getting a party set up. I don’t think she even set foot inside this room tonight. And we had dinner in the kitchen.”

  Now Garnet stomped her foot. “Arrest them! All of them!”

  That’s when Officer Phoebe turned to Officer Peyton. “Would you please escort Garnet off the Abernathy’s property? And take her statement outside?”

  The other officer nodded and took Garnet’s arm. That’s when Garnet started sobbing and sobbing again.

  Once she was gone, Officer Phoebe sighed and sat down with our Mom and Dad.

  Our Mom rubbed her forehead. “I’m so sorry you had to come out in the middle of the night like this, Phoebe. I honestly don’t know what’s going on. Or how those diamonds got there. If they even are diamonds.”

  “Did anything strange happen today?” Officer Phoebe asked our Mom. “Anything out of the ordinary?” She pulled her little notepad from her pocket.

  Our Mom sighed. “The whole day was filled with strange things. First, we had a gigantic crowd at the store today. I sold more antiques in one day than I’ve sold in weeks. So we definitely had our hands full.”

  Officer Phoebe jotted down a few notes. “Anything else?”

  Our Mom was already nodding. “Well, you were there when Garnet came in and accused Gracie and me of robbing her store. She was just so out of control that she wasn’t even making any sense. One minute she thought we had robbed her and the next minute she apologized. The whole thing upset poor Gracie so much that I had no choice but to bring her home early. I had to leave Millicent and Merryweather there by themselves. Not that they couldn’t take care of things.”

  “They do a good job,” Officer Phoebe said with a smile. “So then what happened?”

  “A large package got delivered here by mistake,” our Mom went on. “It should have gone to the store, but the driver said it was rerouted.”

  I glanced at my brother and he raised an eyebrow. After all, we knew the real story behind all that.

  Officer Phoebe kept on writing. “Do you remember, Abby, did you lock the door after the driver had gone?”

  Our Mom looked in the direction of the front door. “I don’t know. I’m not sure.”

  “So anyone could have gotten in,” Officer Phoebe suggested.

  Our Mom’s mouth fell open wide. “I suppose so.”

  Our Dad glanced at the floor where the diamonds had been. “And someone could have planted those stones right there.”

  Our Mom gasped at the idea. “But who would want to do something like that?”

  Officer Phoebe shook her had. “I don’t know, Abby. Though I do know that neither you nor Gracie could break into a jewelry store. Even so, I s
till have to investigate this and see what’s going on. First I’ll have to find out if those stones really are from Garnet’s Jewelry Store. And if they are, then I’ll have to figure out how they got into your house. I’m sure you know that I may have to question Gracie.”

  “As long as we’re with her,” our Dad said. “And quite frankly, I’d rather not tell Gracie just yet. Not until we find out if those stones are real. Because I don’t want to upset her before we even know if there’s a problem or not. As I understand it, all the drama today really shook her up.”

  Officer Phoebe nodded. “Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. We’ll check out the stones first and go from there. I’ll be in touch soon.” Then she said good-bye and left for the night.

  Once everyone had gone, our Dad put his arm around our Mom. “Don’t worry, honey,” he told her. “You and Gracie haven’t done anything wrong, and it will all be okay. I’m sure Phoebe will get this straightened out soon.”

  Our Mom let out a big sigh, and I could tell she was really upset.

  “I sure hope so, Mike,” she murmured. “I sure hope so.”

  He gave her a kiss and walked her up the stairs. I knew how much our Dad wanted to protect our family.

  Just like Bogey and I wanted to protect our family, too.

  So we raced right back to the office the second they’d gone back to bed. And we got right to work on the case.

  “Someone has raised the stakes, kid.” Bogey grabbed the bag of cat treats that he kept hidden behind some books. “I don’t like this. Not one bit.” He pulled the bag open and passed out a round of treats.

  “Somebody raised the stakes? Were they building a fence or something?” I munched on my treat and thought about what he’d said.

  Bogey shook his head and practically inhaled a treat himself. “Just an expression, kid. Meaning, the situation just got a lot more risky. And dangerous. For us and our family.” He passed me a couple more treats and took some for himself.

  I shivered. “You can say that again.”

  “We are being played, kid,” he went on. “Whoever sent those diamonds is probably the same person who robbed Garnet’s store.”