It was a few minutes later that the balloons finally began to descend towards an open piece of parkland in the west of the city. The sun was still high in the sky, and the white stone of the buildings surrounding the park glowed like jewels in the golden light. The balloons floated down in clusters, the cries of delight from the crowd and the race teams mixing with the sound of baskets bumping along the ground. The grass rose to meet them and as they thudded down three men rushed to steady the basket, slapping the team on the back and greeting them excitedly.
Maximilian grinned at Oscar and the two of them leapt from the basket, miaowing their thanks to the men who had rescued them. Then, being very careful to avoid being caught up in the ropes and baskets and canvases of balloons that were being deflated and falling with deep sighs to the ground, the two cats set off to find Zelie.
As they neared the house where they had seen Zelie, they heard her ordering one of the maids around as she had at Summer Rose’s. The sound was coming from a room at the front of the house, by the door. Creeping closer and peering in they saw that she was arranging the room for a photo shoot. A plush cream velvet sofa was being set so that it perfectly caught the rays of the sun, which bathed it in a shimmering haze that made the soft silk fibres of the cushions bloom with warmth. Zelie stood fussing with her camera set up on a tripod, her back to the window.
“How perfect my Eloise will look there,” gushed an elderly lady dressed in far too many layers of lace. “It’s her favourite spot. We often put her basket there in the summer, she loves it so much.”
“Really?” murmured Zelie, and Maximilian noticed her eye stray to a plush cat bed by the wide window.
The elderly lady waved a hand at a passing maid and after a moment’s wait the most beautiful cat that Maximilian had ever seen was brought into the room. She had perfectly round blue eyes of such startlingly bright colour that they took Maximilian’s breath away. Her coat was glossy and pale silver, with dark flecks of jet across her nose and the tip of her tail. The maid placed her carefully on the sofa and the sun’s rays turned her silver coat to peach and made her eyes flash with a hidden fire under their cool blue. She was just settling her tail prettily under her front paws and purring politely to the maid who was brushing stray strands of fur out of her eyes, when her gaze met Maximilian’s and her eyes widened.
Maximilian gulped.
“Wonderful!” Zelie exclaimed. She worked quickly, taking photo after photo while the spring sunshine flooded the room. Eloise was coaxed into tilting her head down to her paws or looking straight up into the camera, her eyes alert and flashing with light.
Maximilian thought that he had never seen a cat as lovely as her and he quite forgot that he was there on official detective business. He did not even think of the case until Oscar, bored with asking him what he could see and getting no response, swatted at his tail and demanded to know what exactly was going on.
“It’s just as with Peppi,” Maximilian said, ducking his head out of sight. “Zelie is taking plenty of photos, but she’s not been left alone for even one second.”
“I think I have as many photos as I need,” said Zelie’s voice from the front room. Maximilian raised his head over the window sill once more. Zelie was packing up her bags of equipment while a maid removed a cream satin ribbon from around Eloise’s neck and replaced it with a necklace of shimmering sapphire beads from which hung a sparkling diamond “E”.
“Well, I need to be getting ready soon,” the lace-covered lady said. “I have been invited to the grand final of ‘The Voice of Paris’ competition tonight. Drinks at Maurice’s and then a trip to the concert hall.”
Zelie drew closer to the window.
“I left one of my lens cloths here somewhere,” she muttered. Maximilian ducked away out of sight and saw her slide her hand under the window and slip something on to the sill.
“I’ll close this for you if you would like, Madame,” she called, pulling the window shut.
Maximilian caught Oscar’s eye, and felt his tail tingle. The woman was definitely up to something. Something in her voice had sounded very calculating and he wanted a closer look at whatever she had left on the window sill. Being very careful not to be seen, he peered into the room. Zelie was leading the lace-festooned lady out into the hallway. Eloise sat on her cushion, grooming her front paws. Maximilian let out a small sigh and Oscar coughed gently and raised an eyebrow.
“She is certainly a most beautiful cat, my friend,” he said sternly. “But I believe we are here on official business?”
Maximilian blushed and turned his attention to the window. The sill was painted sunshine yellow, some of the paint peeling a little at the edges, but a slice of white in one corner caught his eye. He reached out and nudged it with his paw.
“She’s wedged something under the window,” he miaowed to Oscar. “Look, it stops the catch from closing properly.”
He peered closely at it and gasped. It was a folded piece of glossy paper. Maximilian’s tail tingled again. Where had he seen something like this before? Of course! It was exactly like the piece that he had seen in Summer Rose’s room and had dismissed as meaning nothing. How foolish he had been not to recognise it for the clue that it was.
Oscar nudged at the paper with his nose. “If I am not mistaken,” he said, “that is photographic paper. Very easy for her to tear a piece up and wedge it under the window. That must be how she is planning on getting back in to take Eloise.”
Maximilian felt a sudden chill. They had to warn Eloise that she was in danger! He tapped his paws on the window and miaowed frantically at her, waving his tail to get her attention. Eloise paused mid-paw wash. Her beautiful blue eyes widened still further. Then, smoothing a tuft of fur behind one ear, she leapt elegantly to the floor and padded across to the chair by the window.
Maximilian leaned down so that he could talk through the slim gap in the window frame. It necessitated sticking his bottom in the air and was not the most dignified way to meet a lady, but for once there were bigger things at stake than his dignity.
“You are in great danger,” he said.
Eloise gave a little cry of alarm and took a step backwards. Maximilian felt rather silly for having started so bluntly, but he was not in the habit of warning young ladies of their impending kidnapping and was unsure of the etiquette.
“What my friend means,” said Oscar, “is that we have fears that the lady you have just been entertaining intends to kidnap you, either this evening or in the very near future.”
“Probably tonight, while your mistress is at ‘The Voice of Paris’ finale,” said Maximilian.
They quickly filled Eloise in on everything they suspected. At first she was unsure, then amused, convinced that they were playing a trick on her. But once they pointed out the wedge of folded paper that Zelie had hidden in the window, she realised that they were telling the truth.
“Don’t worry,” Maximilian said. “We are going to save the other cats.” He felt so heroic as he said this that he squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest, but the effect, with his bottom still stuck up in the air, was so comical that Eloise merely laughed, covering her giggles with her paw.
Maximilian sighed. It was very difficult trying to whisper through a tiny gap in a window and retain one’s dignity. “We’ll hide in the garden and wait till Zelie arrives,” he said “then we’ll follow her. You stay safely out of sight. Hide in your mistress’ room, and don’t eat anything she leaves in the house.”
Eloise frowned. “But she might not go straight to the other cats without me,” she said. “She will only take you to where the cats are if she has another to leave there.”
Maximilian paused. She was right. There was only one answer.
“We’ll think of something else,” he said at precisely the same time that Eloise said the last thing he expected to hear.
“I’ll go with her.”
Maximilian stared at her. It would be foolhardiness itself for Eloise to let he
rself be catnapped. Zelie was a very dangerous woman.
“You would be putting yourself in great peril,” he said.
“And saving fellow cats,” she said.
“But if we can move the paper so that the window closes properly then you will be safe,” Maximilian objected. He placed his paw against the folded paper holding the window open and pushed hard, but it would not budge. He was about to try again when he realised that Eloise had her paw holding it fast on the other side.
“A cat does not run away from danger to save herself,” she said.
Maximilian met her eye and realised that he was not going to win.
“Mademoiselle is right,” Oscar said. “We will do all in our power to rescue you, Mademoiselle, but we cannot deny that there is a chance we will fail.”
Eloise nodded. “Three clever cats against one human?” she smiled. “I think there is every chance that we will succeed.”
“A remarkable cat,” Oscar said on their way back to the theatre. Maximilian was silent. Secretly he was very worried. What if they lost sight of Zelie and Eloise was left captured and alone? He would feel responsible. As they reached the door of the Opéra Musique, Oscar said, “I am sure Mademoiselle Eloise is correct, my friend. Working together we will foil this woman.”
Maximilian nodded, but he could not shake the worrying feeling that he was leading them all into great danger. He wanted to seek out a quiet spot and plan out every detail in his mind, but the minute he entered the concert hall, Sylvia and Agnes swooped down on him and Oscar.
“We thought you’d been catnapped!” cried Sylvia, scooping him up into her arms and burying her face deep in his soft fur.
“We were about to call the gendarmes,” scolded Agnes, dangling Oscar under her arm in a rather ungainly fashion. “We looked everywhere for you both.”
“Neither of you will be let out of our sight till we are back on that boat to London,” Sylvia announced.
Maximilian miaowed a frantic “but I have a dastardly crime to solve” miaow, but Sylvia and Agnes ignored him, as usual, and he and Oscar were dragged away to sit in the dressing rooms with them while Minette prepared for the evening concert, the grand finale of the competition.
If Maximilian had thought that they would be able to sneak off, he was mistaken. Agnes and Sylvia were as good as their word and every attempt to leave the dressing room was scuppered by one of the girls. Agnes spotted Maximilian’s attempt to slip around the legs of Madame Emerald as she did her nightly round of the dressing rooms to wish all the competitors luck. Sylvia caught Oscar trying to sneak away while they were all crowded round the mirror choosing a hairstyle for Minette. Eventually, Agnes shut the door of the room and, picking up both cats, placed them firmly on a cushion on the dressing table.
Maximilian watched the clock tick slowly round, his heart sinking. Zelie could be planning on taking Eloise at any time from the start of the concert. They had to get out of the theatre and back to her house.
At six o’clock there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Minette called, but there was no response. After a few minutes Sylvia went to open it and found Pierre standing outside, his jacket slung over one shoulder. Maximilian rolled his eyes. It was so like Pierre to refuse to open a door himself. Ignoring Sylvia, the man swept past her into the room. He dropped his jacket on the back of a chair and sat down.
“I need your music for this evening, Mademoiselle,” he said. “Need I remind you that any lateness will result in instant disqualification.”
“Yes, Judge,” said Minette.
“Premier judge,” Pierre reminded her with a smile.
Maximilian grimaced. The man was insufferable. Still, this was an excellent opportunity to investigate what he had in his pockets. Perhaps the papers he had flourished at Zelie earlier would still be there? Taking care not to be seen, Maximilian leapt to the floor and crept round behind Pierre. He edged a paw into Pierre’s pocket and peered in. It was stuffed to bursting with pictures torn from newspapers, and they were all of the missing cats. On each of the photos the broad signature of Zelie was circled with a red pen. Maximilian felt his whiskers buzz as he pieced the clues together. Pierre must have worked out what he and Oscar had – that Zelie was behind all the disappearances. Was that what he meant when he told her he would “keep her secret”? Had he realised that and then asked her to kidnap Peppi?
Maximilian was shocked. The correct behaviour for anyone who stumbled across a dangerous kidnapper was to inform the police at once. Maximilian was just delving deeper into the pocket when Pierre stood up and whipped his jacket away and over his shoulder. Maximilian whisked his paw away and tried to look as though he had been innocently washing it.
“I’d better take my music down,” Minette said as Pierre swept out of the room. She opened the top drawer of her dressing table, drew out a smart leatherette folder bound with twine and set off for the stage with Sylvia and Agnes in tow. For one glorious moment Maximilian thought that he and Oscar were going to be left alone, but Sylvia quickly squashed this hope by heaving him over her shoulder while Agnes swept Oscar into a cuddle that looked most uncomfortable indeed.
As they reached the end of the dressing-room corridor, Minette paused. From the auditorium came the sound of a beautiful love song, full of high trills and swooping cadenzas. The blood drained from Minette’s face and she looked as though she was going to faint. With a little cry of “Oh no, no” she set off at a run for the stage. Sylvia and Agnes followed, Maximilian letting out a “mrowl” of annoyance as he found himself bumped along on Sylvia’s shoulder. Minette ran out on to the stage where Julienne was mid-song, her arms lifted to the galleries. Minette let out a horrified gasp and Julienne turned. Maximilian saw a look of triumph pass over her face and she took a deep breath and carried on singing.
“What is it?” Sylvia asked. “What’s wrong with that song?”
Minette bit her lip to try to stop herself from crying. “It’s my song,” she said, in a voice that was barely a whisper. “It’s the song I was planning to sing as my final piece.”
“But surely that’s a song for a soprano,” Agnes said. “Just listen to all those top C’s.” Maximilian heard the sigh in her voice as she said this and knew that Agnes had been thinking how wonderful it would be to sing it herself.
Minette shook her head. “It’s written for a low voice like mine. It’s from my favourite opera. I didn’t think that Julienne would choose it, but she must have had it rewritten to suit her own voice.”
Maximilian’s whiskers prickled and he glanced at Oscar. He had not imagined that cruel look on Julienne’s face. She had known that Minette was planning to sing this song. She must have got hold of Minette’s music folder and somehow stolen her song.
“I’m sure whatever you choose to sing instead will be lovely,” Sylvia said, but Minette shook her head.
“It was my best piece and I really thought I had a chance of winning with it. I don’t have anything half as lovely. Julienne will win for sure now.”
“It’s the singer, not the song,” Agnes said firmly, but try as they might they could not cheer Minette up. They spread the music from her folder out across the side of the wings, ignoring Julienne’s laugh as she stepped over them on her way to her dressing room, and tried to find something else for Minette to choose for her final performance.
Maximilian saw his chance. Sylvia and Agnes were poring over the music sheets, Agnes humming along as she expertly read each song. Sylvia was looking at her with the same admiration that Agnes’s face wore when she watched Sylvia dance. Maximilian felt a little disloyal for not staying and helping them choose. Clearly a cat with taste would be a useful asset at such a time, but with Eloise’s safety at stake he was needed elsewhere. He winked at Oscar and, padding as softly as they could, they made their escape.
They fled across the city, dodging between the feet of people heading out for suppers in bistros or café bars and, risking their tails, dashing between
the wheels of passing motorcars. As they neared Eloise’s home, Maximilian saw that the sun was beginning to set, pink and peach rays spreading out across the sky. The lace-covered lady would be heading out for her elegant cocktails very soon, leaving Eloise all alone in the house.
“Hurry,” he urged Oscar, and they picked up speed, racing down the wide avenue towards Eloise’s house. They jumped over the low wall into her garden and dashed to the window. Maximilian leapt to the window sill and his heart sank. The white wedge of folded paper had gone from the window and it was locked shut. The sofa with the velvet cushions was empty and there was no sign of Eloise.
They were too late.
Maximilian let out a howl of dismay. Eloise could be anywhere in this huge city and they had no way of finding her. He dashed to the road, desperately hoping that he might spy Zelie creeping round a corner, but there was no sign of her.
“We’ve lost her!” he cried. “How could we be so foolish?”
But Oscar did not respond. He was staring at something on the ground, something round and twinkling.
“Isn’t that a bead from her collar?” he asked.
Maximilian leapt on the bead. It was a shining sapphire, milled into a perfect orb. The light of the setting sun danced in the heart of it. Oscar was right. It was exactly like the sapphires that were on Eloise’s beautiful collar, the one with the diamond “E”. Her collar must have come loose when Zelie was taking her from the house. Maximilian looked at the sapphire in his paw and felt his tail tingle. Surely if Eloise’s collar had broken there would be more of the beads scattered around, not just one? Something in the back of his mind made him think that this had been left deliberately. He looked around, his eyes scanning the ground. At the edge of the garden gate something glinted.
The Catnap Caper Page 6
