Mystery at the Pet Food Corp.

by Eleanor Kittering

They continued driving on the New Jersey Turnpike, heading into Pennsylvania. Thomas Parks still had a considerable gain on them, so whatever they did tonight would happen far away from Thomas Parks.

  *****

  Thomas Parks continued driving and started to think to himself dinner time was approaching. He would have to keep an eye out for one of those roadside eateries that would grab his attention at first glance. After passing a few, he saw one looking fancy enough to trust. It seemed to be new, too, so he parked his car and went inside. He sat at a booth and after placing his order, he made a call.

  “Well, I'm getting a bite to eat and very soon after I'm going to be looking for a motel or a hotel to spend the night. I don't want to be driving all night and I'm sure I can find someplace decent nearby where I can spend a comfortable night.”

  “Sounds good, we'll speak tomorrow.”

  And he hung up. Soon they served his dinner and he dug in.

  *****

  About ten miles away, Jill could see on the tablet Thomas had stopped somewhere along the way.

  “Well, it seems he finally made a pit stop. Depending on how long he stays there, it's either a bathroom break, a dinner break or he found a hotel. We'll be able to gauge once he starts moving. We'll keep driving, so we can get closer. We don't want to be right on his tail, but we don't want to be ten miles out either, like we are right now.”

  “Honestly, I need to make a pit stop. I drank quite a bit of tea in the afternoon to put me off my worrying and now the tea is trying to make an appearance in my bladder.”

  “Well, perhaps we can stop at the next gas station.”

  It wasn't long before a gas station appeared before their eyes.

  “I think this is as good as any. We might as well get some gas while we're at it.”

  “I'll pump the gas while you go to the bathroom. And then afterwards, I'll go,” Jill said.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  In a short time, feeling much relieved, Mandy and Jill were back on the road.

  “He's been holding still at this place. He may be camped out for the night. Oh, wait, I think he's moving again. He probably had some food and now he's driving again. We'll soon find out how imperative it is he continues driving.” Jill said.

  “What do you mean?” asked Mandy.

  “Well, if he continues driving all night, it means this is something urgent and he needs to resolve this issue. If he stops shortly, we can assume this trip is a leisure trip and he can take it easy. However, I don't think leisure is what's behind all this. I think he's up to something and he has to go out of state to make this happen.” Jill explained.

  “Well, let's hope whatever he has in mind does not involve hurting Roger in any way.” Mandy said worried.

  “I think Roger is somewhere safe. Have you tried the tracker??”

  “Yes, but I get no signal.”

  “It means they still have him hidden.”

  Mandy's phone began to ring. Caller ID told her Fred was calling.

  “Hi, Mandy, listen, I don't know if this is a bad time, but I thought to take your mind off Roger, and for me to take my mind off work, we could get together tonight and you could try a reading?”

  Mandy's eyes became round like saucers and she choked on the words. What should she tell him? She covered the receiver and pointed to phone, whispering to Jill, “It's Fred!”

  “Oh, Fred, you know that actually sounds like a good idea, but Jill kind of beat you to it. She suggested we take a drive and eat at one of the fancier restaurants along the highway, away from town so I'm not reminded of Roger. But had Jill not mentioned this, I would have loved to meet up with you and do a reading. It would take my mind of Roger for sure. How about we shoot for the weekend?” Mandy hated lying to Fred, but he handled the situation good naturedly.

  “Ok, sounds good to me. I'll call you to see what would be a good time for you.”

  “Sounds great Fred, we'll talk this weekend.”

  Mandy hung up and let out a sigh of relief.

  “Poor Fred, he called to get me to do a reading for him to take my mind off Roger and I had to tell him you were taking me out to dinner. I just had a conversation with him this afternoon and he specifically told me not to pursue Thomas Parks, and what are we doing? Pursuing Thomas Parks. I'll have to come up with some excuse as to where we went to dinner tonight.”

  “Oh, so how come you're doing a reading for Fred?”

  Mandy explained how Fred had reached out to her, consumed and stressed out with police work, complaining he only knew people on the police force. He just needed somebody to talk not involved with police shop talk or talk about some crime or something.

  “He suggested I do an astrological chart and a Tarot reading to see what his hidden options are in life.”

  “Well, hopefully that will help him get a new direction.”

  In her mind, Jill thought about Mandy's romantic state. Ever since Daniel, her husband, had died five years ago, Mandy had shut herself off from the world, just reaching out to Jill and some other close friends. Jill knew even though Mandy and Fred had dated in high school, he never stopped having feelings for her from way back then. However, she didn't dare give voice to any of these thoughts because Mandy still hurt from losing her husband.

  But still, if anybody could step in and fill Daniel's shoes, it was Fred. A good man, a model citizen, and he would do anything for Mandy. Another thing she liked about this situation, Fred had initiated it. It could never be said Jill started this if things didn't work out. No, Fred had orchestrated all this; she would have to see what developed.

  Well, she'd watch the situation from afar and would try to help it along if she could do so subtly. She didn't want Mandy to think she interfered, but by the same token, sometimes things just needed a little push. Some say familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity, you can't breed anything. Jill hoped this might become a nice friendship so Mandy had someone else in her life other than her cat and herself. Meanwhile, Jill thought, she better start thinking about finding food, because she felt quite hungry.

  “Well, considering our quarry seems to have parked again, I think we should definitely think about getting some dinner. My guess is the first time he stopped for dinner and now he's stopped for the night. There's no way we're going to catch up to him tonight so we should probably get some food as well.” Jill said.

  They saw a chain restaurant they liked along the turnpike and decided to have their dinner there.

  “I haven't been here in a while and they definitely have good food.” Jill said.

  “Yeah, one good thing about chain restaurants, if one has good food, you can count of all of them having good food across the board. Because they all use the same formula, you're guaranteed a good meal. Of course, not everyone thinks that way. There are people who wouldn't be caught dead in a chain restaurant. But me, hey, I'm good with it.” Mandy said.

  “Me, too, I have no problem with any place as long as the food is good. And you're right, I haven't eaten at this place in a long time either.”

  They parked the car, got out, and headed for the restaurant.

  “You know, now that I'm actually going to eat, I realize I'm hungrier than I thought. Or maybe it's all those meals they show in the commercials running through my mind.” Mandy said.

  “Yeah, I know what you mean, I'm seeing those pictures in my mind, too. I also realized, I'm starving.” Said Jill.

  So they bounded up the stairs to the restaurant as if they hadn't eaten in a week.

  Chapter Nine

  By this time Colin realized Roger found himself in trouble again through no fault of his own. He couldn't believe he had been wrong about his living situation. He has planned for it to be peaceful and allow Roger to live the quiet life of housecat. Instead, he'd had to protect this woman from a murderer and now it appeared he himself had been kidnapped for simply being famous on YouTube. The craziness of human beings continued to astound Colin, in this case
particularly. Somebody taking an animal from their owner constituted a special kind of sickness.

  But he couldn't standby on the sidelines. He'd thought this would resolve itself in a day, but now it had gone into a couple of days and he knew it not only involved Roger but other animals as well, all for a similar reason. Although Colin wanted to keep interventions down to a minimum, it appeared this would not work out easily for Roger.

  For those who haven't yet read the first book, Colin is Roger's guardian angel. He had to help him out of a scrape in the first book and he came back to help him out of yet another bizarre situation. He never thought people would kidnap Roger, but that's exactly what had happened.

  Colin appeared at the animal compound. He explored the situation at the animal compound. As he walked, he noticed all the animals were treated very well, they were well fed and they were all healthy. It appeared the needs of the animals were taken care of. However, they were being kept against their will, never a good thing for any animal or person. Colin knew who did this and why they did it, but they were wrong.

  Meanwhile, Roger relaxed in his cage, having the time of his life. He had a catnip toy and they fed him three times a day and the food was great. In his mind, he figured Mandy would come pick him up sooner or later and he would go home.

  Colin observed the effects of the drug they used to kidnap Roger had made him more like a cat. He did not fight his captors. Roger continued to think Mandy would come pick him up at some point. It's good he was thinking about Mandy, because it would make this easier. Not like the last time. The last time, he had to work hard to get Roger to remain a cat. This time, it didn't look like he was going to have a problem.

  As Colin looked around the animal compound, he noticed there were at least fifteen animals. Since all of them were four legged mammals so they could all run to safety when the time came. He did notice among them an iguana, but he would deal with the animal when the time came. Right now, he was formulating how to save the animals.

  Eventually, Colin came up with a plan that although a bit bizarre, was the only way he could get these animals out of here. However, the first thing he had to was open the cages. Colin clapped his hands together and all the cage doors opened up. The animals didn't even notice; they all seemed to be in worlds of their own. However, he had to get Roger's attention, since Roger would assume the leader position.

  “Roger, remember me?”

  Roger looked at this man and he had some vague memory of him. He did remember him as a friend and when they played together. Roger came over and rubbed himself against Colin's leg.

  “You do remember me. Now listen, Roger, we're going to get you out of here so you can go back to Mandy's house.”

  In Roger's mind, he remembered Mandy. He wondered why Mandy hadn't come around. This guy wanted to take him back to Mandy. Okay, he could handle that.

  Colin clapped his hands again.

  “All my beautiful friends, I need you to listen to me for a minute. I know all of you can hear me and all of you can understand me. We are going to leave this place and we're going to take you back to your respective owners. Remember home?”

  Into the mind of each animal, he put a picture of their respective homes and suddenly they were all very lonesome.

  “Yes, I know you all miss your homes. Well, guess what? Today, we take the first step to getting you back home. People are going to find you and take you to your homes. You will be back with your families. Do you all want to go back to your families?”

  There were varying barks and meows and happy animal sounds all around.

  “Okay, then listen to me, this is what we're going to do.”

  He brought Roger to the center of the room.

  “We are all going to follow the gray cat.”

  The animals looked at each other and they were all in agreement. After a suggestion/command from Colin, nobody had a problem with it. The Rottweiler among the animals caught Collin's attention. Colin started to talk to him.

  “You, my friend, are going to help our friend iguana here. He's going to ride on your back, because he doesn't move as fast as the rest of the dogs and cats in this room.”

  Colin levitated the iguana and placed it on the Rottweiler's back. Both of them knew this would be necessary, so they cooperated.

  Colin started to look around the compound when he saw a door leading to a garage next door.

  “So, here's what we're going to do, my friends. We're going to go through that door, once I open it, all of you follow the gray cat. No matter what happens, no matter how dangerous things may seem, follow the gray cat. I will protect you all, nothing bad will happen to you.”

  All the animals felt the wave of a feeling of well being wash over them, like something great would happen very soon.

  And so Colin clapped his hands and the door opened.

  “C'mon Roger, follow me and don't stop following me no matter what.”

  Roger remembered the last time they played a game of chase. Definitely a lot of fun. And yes, he remembered, this man took him home, he could trust this him.

  The animals all made a beeline for the door and all followed the cat. The animals went through it easily. The door stayed magically open, and then when the last animal went though, it closed.

  They headed into the garage and Colin took time to talk to the animals again.

  “Okay, when I open these doors, we're going to be outside. There are a lot of swamps and marshes out there. Again, follow the cat and you'll be safe and no matter if you hear the sound of danger in the distance, keep running, you will get home today.”

  The doors of the garage started to open. Only two to three feet opened and all the animals started to scurry out. However, opening the doors also set off an alarm, which alerted the guards to something going on.

  “I should have thought of alarms,” Colin said. “Things were so much simpler in the past. Okay my friends, keep following the gray cat.”

  The animals were running into the swamps and marshlands with Colin guiding Roger and the animals following up behind. The iguana held on tight to the back of the Rottweiler and both seemed fine in spite of it all. The guards showed up at the animal compound.

  “The boss is not going to like this, not going to like it one bit that all the animals have disappeared.”

  “But how could they disappear? Some of these animals have been here for years, and now all of a sudden they make a break for it? And look, who opened the cages, who opened the garage door? There's something strange going on here. I better get Rufus and we better get going out there see if we can round them up.” Rufus the hound dog belonged to the older of the guards and they kept him around in case any of the animals ever escaped. Now he would have to chase all of them. Both men had tranquilizer guns and they had Rufus to show them the way.

  “Hey, look, we may find them before the boss finds out about it and we won't get into trouble. Still, there's something strange here, how did all these animals escape?”

  “Well, I think we should chase them and see if we can get them back into their cages before the boss finds out.”

  They opened the garage door and started running down into the swamps and marshlands. Rufus barked and led the men in the direction where the animals went.

  In the distance Colin could hear they were being followed. He thought to himself:

  “Oh dear, I really wanted this to be quiet and uneventful. But no worries, no matter what, I will save these animals.”

  The animals kept running. Up ahead, Colin could see a small river before the marshlands got to the highway. He would have to get the animals across it; otherwise, they would be trapped by the guards who were in pursuit.

  The guards were discussing the situation.

  “Hey, you know what, I think we're going to be okay. There's a river up ahead and there's no way they're gonna get across. Rufus could trap them by the bank and we could tranquilize all of them and bring them back.”

  “You sure about th
is river?”

  “Sure, I'm sure, I've seen it a dozen times while walking around these parts. I know you're new here but believe me, I had to learn these parts to capture some animals escaping in the past. Rufus hasn't once let me down.”

  They both felt better now knowing they were going to get the animals back and would avoid getting chewed out by the boss or possibly losing their jobs. In any event, it now seemed like a pretty straightforward job.

  The animals were running faster and faster and Colin egged them on, but he knew sooner or later they would come to the river. And the guards were beginning to gain on them. It appeared they were being guided by some kind of hunting dog. If only he had remembered to shut off the alarm. Well, he'd think of something.

  Up in the clearing, Colin could see the river, and he could see the guards were getting more and more of a gain on them. The hunting dog ran very fast! He also listened to the guards' thoughts; they were so sure of themselves, they would trap the animals by the river and they could tranquilize them and bring them back.

  The animals and Colin reached the river's edge. They were perplexed, because for a small river, it sure seemed to be deep. What should they do? Suddenly, Colin had an idea.

  “Well, I really don't go in for dramatic grandstanding, but this is an emergency and these guards think they have it all figured out how they're going to trap these poor animals. However, they weren't counting on divine intervention.”

  Without further ado, Colin waved his arm and the waters of the river parted.

  “Run across, my little friends. Roger, keep running as fast as you can and take them to the highway. Run as if Egyptians are chasing you.”

  All the animals were running very fast and following Roger, away from the water. When the last one of them safely got across, Colin waved his arm again and the waters went back to normal. He then flew on ahead of Roger to continue guiding the animals.

  The animals had made a lot of headway; it seemed like they were particularly energized by running away. The iguana and the Rottweiler appeared to be one unit and they all formed a line, away from danger.