The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues

by Cindy Vincent

  “I'll be fine,” she told him. “Phoebe and the police will be there. Plus I'm the only one who'll know if anything is missing.”

  “Well . . .” our Dad started to say.

  Our Mom kissed him on the cheek. “We can't both go. One of us has to stay here with Gracie.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “But call me as soon as you know anything. And why don’t you take my truck instead of your car? In case you want to cart anything back home.”

  “I will,” our Mom said before she pulled her long dark hair into a ponytail. Then she ran to get dressed.

  A few seconds later, the alarm company called, too. While our Dad took the call, Bogey glanced at the door.

  “Our Dad doesn't need to worry about our Mom, kid,” he said.

  I turned to my brother. “He doesn't?”

  Bogey shook his head. “Nope, kid. Because we'll be going with her.”

  Now my eyes went wide. Really wide. “We will?”

  He motioned toward the door. “Yup, kid. We've got to investigate.”

  Before I could ask more, Bogey turned and raced out of the room. I tried to keep up with him.

  My paws felt a little wobbly. “B-b-but, our Mom will never take us to her store in the middle of the night.”

  “Don't sweat it, kid,” Bogey yelled over his shoulder. “I've got it covered.”

  He did? But how? Bogey and I sure couldn't run all the way downtown. Plus, well, we weren't really supposed to go outside. Especially since we were supposed to be housecats.

  So how in the world did he plan to get us to her store?

  What did Bogey have up his paw?

  Holy Mackerel!

  CHAPTER 2

  _____________________________

  Holy Catnip! I chased after Bogey as he raced down the upstairs hallway. I was just dying to know how we were going to get to our Mom’s antique store! I finally caught up with him when he came to a screeching halt at the top of the stairs.

  That’s where we ran into Lil Bits, another former shelter cat who lives at our house. But when I say we ran into her, well, I don’t mean we actually ran into her. Lil is a kind of cat called a British Shorthair. She is white with black spots and she looks sort of like a linebacker. Even though I’m a big guy, I wouldn’t want to run into her. And I wouldn’t want to get tackled by her, either.

  She nodded to us. “Good evening, Detectives Bogart and Buckley. I heard the telephone ring. I suspect there is trouble.”

  Lil always talked to us like that. She called me “Detective Buckley,” and she treated me with a lot of respect. It’s been said that she used to be one of the best cat detectives in St. Gertrude. But she retired mysteriously one day, and no one knows why. She only recently came back to the business, to help Bogey and me when we needed her. Even so, she spends most of her nights in Gracie’s room, watching over her.

  Bogey glanced back at our Mom and Dad’s bedroom. “I’m afraid so, Lil. The alarm went off at our Mom’s store. Our Mom is about to go down there and meet Officer Phoebe.”

  Lil looked from Bogey to me. “Sounds like it needs to be investigated by cat detectives, too. Are you headed there now?”

  “Yup,” Bogey told her. “We’re on our way.”

  We were?

  My breath caught in my throat for a moment. I really wanted to ask Bogey more questions, but I didn’t want to look like a big baby in front of Lil. After all, I was the junior detective in the bunch. I didn’t exactly want to advertise it.

  “Good call,” Lil told him. “I would be happy to help, Detective Bogart.”

  Bogey grinned. “That’d be great, Lil. Our Mom is taking our Dad’s truck.”

  “Very good,” Lil nodded. “I assume you’ll be hitching a ride with her. I’ll hold the door to the garage open long enough for you to get through. Then you can take it from there. But it wouldn’t be good if you boys got slammed in the truck door.”

  Boy, she could say that again! I shuddered at the thought.

  “Thanks, Lil,” Bogey told her. “And don’t worry, we can zoom right into the truck. She won’t even know we’re there.”

  Now he turned to me. “Right, kid?”

  My mouth fell open wide. I still wasn’t sure what Bogey had in mind. But he and Lil seemed to know exactly what the other one was talking about. Unfortunately, I was the only one who seemed to be in the dark. Maybe it was because Bogey and Lil both had a lot of experience as cat detectives. And I was barely more than a rookie.

  So I just said, “Aye, aye.”

  I tried to salute Bogey and Lil, but I only ended up poking myself in the nose. Lucky for me, they’d already turned and headed down the stairs.

  I raced after them. Once we hit the hardwood floor of the main level, we zoomed into the kitchen. We didn’t stop until we got to the door that led to the garage. Then we all hid behind the wall across from the door.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey whispered. “This is going to go quick.”

  My paws started to shake. “But . . . um . . . our Mom won’t have time to get our pet carriers out and load us into the truck . . .”

  “We’ve gotta make a run for it, kid,” Bogey told me.

  “You mean . . .?” I gulped.

  “Yup, kid,” Bogey nodded. “We’re going to zoom out when our Mom opens the door. Lil will hold it open as long as she can. That’ll give us a few more seconds to get through. Then we’ll fly into the truck when our Mom opens the driver’s side door.”

  My heart pounded in my throat. “Um . . . we will?”

  Bogey glanced back into the kitchen. “That’s right, kid. She’s so tired, she won’t even know we’re there.”

  “B-b-but . . . shouldn’t we talk about this first?” I glanced around our house. I sure did like our house. I sure would have liked to stay in our house for the rest of the night. Especially since there might be burglars running around outside.

  Bogey put a paw on my shoulder. “No time for dilly-dallying, kid. Timing is everything. When I say ‘go,’ you’ve got to go. No stalling.”

  Now Lil turned to me. “You can do this, Detective Buckley. Just give it all you’ve got. Don’t hold back.”

  “Um . . . okay,” I managed to squeak out.

  Suddenly I felt like I had a whole bunch of butterflies inside my stomach. And they all seemed to be fluttering at once. I was about to suggest that maybe I should stay home and keep a lookout here. But I didn’t get a chance. Not when we heard our Mom’s footsteps headed our way.

  “Okay, everyone, this is it!” Bogey whispered.

  I barely had time to breathe before our Mom got to the door. She grabbed the doorknob and pulled that door open wide. She stepped through and Lil jumped into place. Lil pushed her wide body against the door and planted her stout paws on the hardwood. Even so, she was no match for the heavy wooden door. It started to close slowly anyway, pushing her ahead.

  “Run, kid! Now!” Bogey hollered.

  Let me tell you, right then and there, I wanted to turn around and run the other way. I wanted to stay in my nice warm house where I was safe and sound.

  Bogey sprinted through the opening, just inches from our Mom’s feet. In a split second, he’d made it to the truck and was ready to jump in.

  But all I could see was that solid wood door, starting to close right in front of my eyes.

  “Go, go, go, kid!” Bogey hollered.

  “Leap of faith, Detective,” Lil managed to sputter as she worked hard to keep that door from slamming shut.

  I don’t know how I gathered the courage, but somehow I did. I took a deep breath and scampered through what little opening was left. Lil couldn’t hold it any longer, and she had to jump out of the way. The edge of the door caught a few hairs on the tip of my tail as it slammed shut.

  But I didn’t let that stop me. By now our Mom was pulling the door to the truck open. I flew straight through the garage. Then I leaped inside the truck and onto the front floor. Bogey was on my tail. He barely made it up into the tru
ck before our Mom put her foot inside.

  “Into the backseat, kid!” Bogey whispered.

  So we both jumped in the back and hid down on the floorboard.

  Only seconds before our Mom got in and pulled her door shut with a loud whump! Then she pushed the garage door opener and the big, outer door roared to life. It went up and our Mom started the engine.

  I glanced across at my brother and he grinned back at me.

  “Good job, kid,” he said. “You got into the truck faster than I did. You’re really getting the hang of this business.”

  I was?

  Sometimes I felt like I knew what I was doing. And other times it seemed like I didn’t have a clue. But one day I hoped to be as good a cat detective as Bogey. And Lil.

  Bogey found a bag of cat treats hidden under the front seat. He passed one to me and then took one for himself.

  I was so nervous I could hardly even eat. There we were, headed to our Mom’s store. Just to check out the alarm that had gone off. And our Mom didn’t even know we were along for the ride.

  “Okay, kid,” Bogey said. “Here’s the drill. We’ve gotta do this all over again.”

  “We do?” I hung on as our Mom made a turn onto another street. I noticed she didn’t take the turn as fast as she usually did.

  Bogey just rolled with the curve. “That’s right, kid. When she opens the truck door, we zoom out. And when she opens the door to her store . . .”

  “We run in,” I nodded to Bogey.

  Bogey gave me a paw bump. “You got it, kid. You got it.”

  I glanced up and out the window. Above me, I could see streetlights passing by. Only those streetlights weren’t shining as brightly as they normally did. Instead they looked kind of hazy and funny. That’s when I realized it was foggy out. And though cats can see in the dark, they can’t see in the fog so well.

  To tell you the truth, I never really liked the fog very much. It always seemed sort of frightening and creepy to me.

  And tonight that fog seemed extra creepy. Especially since we were out investigating in the middle of the night. Who knew what we might find at our Mom’s store?

  Holy Mackerel!

  All of a sudden, I really missed my house.

  I gulped and tried not to act as scared on the outside as I was on the inside.

  “How are we going to get home?” I asked Bogey.

  He passed me another treat. “After we look around, kid, we’ll let our Mom know we’re there. Then she’ll take us home with her.”

  I had to say, I sure liked that idea. I didn’t want to get stuck at her store for the rest of the night. Even though she had everything set up in the back room for us. We had cat beds and a food and water dish. We had toys and cat treats and everything a cat could want. Plus the people who worked for her were really nice to us.

  Even so, something had set that burglar alarm off. And if it was a real burglar, I sure didn’t want to be around if they tried to break in again.

  After all, we’d had some experience with burglars on our last case. And let me tell you, I wouldn’t mind if I never came across another burglar again!

  I glanced at my brother. He looked like he was almost enjoying himself.

  Our Mom took another turn. The fog had grown thicker, and she slowed the truck way down. Seconds later, we could see hazy red and blue lights flashing all around us.

  “We must be in the alley, kid,” Bogey whispered. “I’m guessing there is more than one police car here. So look alive. Follow my lead and stay on my tail. This is gonna go fast. We’ll go right out under our Mom’s feet when she starts to get out of the truck.”

  Our Mom hit the brakes a little harder than she usually does, and Bogey and I both fell forward. But we dug our claws into the carpet so we didn’t hit the seats in front of us.

  Now Bogey motioned for me to crouch down, ready to spring into action. And I did just that. After all, we only had a few seconds to get outside after our Mom opened her truck door!

  Our Mom put the truck in park and turned off the key. She unlocked her door and started to push it open.

  Bogey signaled to me. Our Mom had barely leaned over in her seat and put one foot outside. That’s when Bogey smoothly slid onto the seat and then to the floorboard. He slipped out the opening before her foot even touched the ground. I was right behind him, moving just like he’d told me to.

  “Over here, kid,” Bogey whispered. “Follow me.”

  Together we ran and hid behind one of the truck’s tires, seconds before our Mom slammed the truck door shut.

  “Keep your eyes peeled, kid,” he said.

  That wasn’t going to be easy on a night like tonight. Not when we could barely see ten feet in front of us.

  We peeked around the tire and saw our Mom join Officer Phoebe.

  “Some night,” our Mom said. “What do they call weather like this? A pea-souper?”

  Officer Phoebe nodded. “I think so. It’s the kind of weather every crook dreams about. They can break in without anyone seeing them.”

  Our Mom shook her head. “My goodness, Phoebe. In all the years I’ve owned this store, we’ve never had a break-in.”

  Officer Phoebe glanced at her police notebook. “It’s the second one we had tonight. Another store down the street got hit, too. That’s why we were in the area. And that’s why we got here so fast.”

  Our Mom’s eyes went wide. “Oh, so it wasn’t just someone who bumped into the door and accidentally set off the alarm? Someone who was out too late on a Saturday night? Or, I guess I should say, Sunday morning?”

  Officer Phoebe shook her head. “I’m afraid not, Abby. This was a real break-in.”

  Our Mom glanced toward the back door of her store. “I can’t even tell that someone got in.”

  “It’s really hard to see,” Officer Phoebe said. “But let me show you. We’ve already gone inside and checked out the whole building. Whoever broke in is gone. And I turned off the alarm after your husband gave me the code over the phone.”

  The two women walked toward the door.

  Officer Phoebe shined her flashlight on the doorknob and the doorjamb. “See those scratches, Abby? Whoever broke in did a pretty crude job. And it doesn’t even look like they tried to disable the alarm in any way. So I think our burglar got spooked when it went off. Or they just planned to get in and get out in a hurry.”

  Our Mom put her hand to her cheek. “Well, if they didn’t plan to stay long, I guess they didn’t plan to steal much either.”

  “It’s very odd,” Officer Phoebe said. “Because they seemed to have a real purpose to what they were doing. Maybe they had something special they were after. But we’ll find out for sure when we go inside and you take a look around. To see if anything’s been stolen.”

  Our Mom shivered. “I sure hope not. I’ve got some pretty valuable antiques in there. Though the burglar wouldn’t have had time to take anything too large. Like furniture. And I lock up all the money and the jewelry in the safe every night.”

  “Hmmm . . . that’s interesting,” Officer Phoebe said. “Most crooks case out a place before they break in. That adds to my theory that our crook had something specific in mind.”

  “I wonder what?” our Mom kind of murmured.

  Officer Phoebe reached up and pulled the door open from the top edge. “Me, too. It’s a strange one, all right. We already checked for prints and we didn’t find anything. The door and knob were clean.”

  Beside me, Bogey whispered, “That means the burglar wiped them off, kid. Or, they wore gloves.”

  “Oh, okay,” I whispered back. “I guess that was pretty smart. So they wouldn’t leave fingerprints.”

  Bogey glanced around. “Probably, kid. Probably. Or maybe their hands were cold. Now, get ready to zoom. I think they’re going in.”

  I followed Bogey’s lead and got into a crouched position.

  Our Mom and Officer Phoebe had just pulled the door open all the way when Bogey gave the signal.


  A half a second later, we flew from under that truck and straight into our Mom’s shop.

  Officer Phoebe froze. “Did you hear that?”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” our Mom answered.

  “There was a noise,” Office Phoebe said. “And I felt something. Like a little breeze going past my legs.”

  She shined her big, bright flashlight around.

  And straight into our eyes.

  We were caught in the act!

  Holy Mackerel!

  CHAPTER 3

  _____________________________

  Holy Catnip! I could hardly believe it! There we were, sneaking into our Mom’s store, and Officer Phoebe had just spotted us.

  Bogey and I both blinked in the bright beam of her flashlight. I turned to see our shadows on the wall behind us in the small back room. And wouldn’t you know it, but our shadows came out giant-sized! They made us look as big as panthers.

  Not exactly the kind of thing a couple of cat detectives wanted when they were trying to be stealthy.

  “Isn’t that . . .?” Officer Phoebe started to say.

  “Buckley and Bogey?” our Mom gasped. “How in the world?”

  Officer Phoebe laughed. “You brought your cats with you tonight?”

  Our Mom’s mouth fell open and she looked like she was trying to speak. Then she just sort of sputtered, “Uh, uh, uh . . .”

  In the meantime, Bogey grinned up at the women while I tried to hide behind him. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, considering I’m twice his size.

  Finally, our Mom said, “I guess I must have brought them. But I had no idea they were with me.”

  She shook her head and wobbled over to the wall to turn on the light switches. First the back room lit up. Then one by one, rows of lights in the main part of the store blazed on. We could see it all through the open entrance to the huge front room.

  Officer Phoebe clicked her flashlight off and reached down to pet us. “Looks like the boys must have hitched a ride. You bring them to the store a lot, don’t you?”

  Our Mom nodded. “Yes, but in their pet carriers. I hardly ever let them travel out in the open like that.”