The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues

by Cindy Vincent

  “Wow . . .” I finally managed to say. “Is anyone else invited?”

  “‘Fraid so, kid,” Bogey told me. “I had to invite . . .”

  But before he could say another word, the phone rang. We listened as our Mom talked to the caller. I could tell she was still pretty tired by the way she kind of slurred her words. And when she said the name, Cassandra, we knew exactly who she was talking to. It was our neighbor who lives across the street and down a few doors. A neighbor who has a Siamese cat.

  A Siamese cat who was a really big blabbermouth.

  Hector.

  I rolled my eyes while Bogey grinned.

  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.

  Our Mom frowned. “Yes, it seems strange to us, too, Cassandra. But if you got one and we got one, well . . . I guess it must be for real.”

  Now Gracie moved over to our Mom and hugged her around the waist. “Please, Mom. We have to go. It’ll be so much fun. Buckley and Bogey can see the Museum.”

  Our Mom nodded to Gracie and put her arm around her shoulders.

  Then she spoke into the phone. “Sure, I guess we’re going. It looks like we have to bring our flyers. We have to present them at the door to get in. Would you and Hector like to ride with us?”

  Now Gracie started to jump around the room again. Our Mom talked on the phone a few more minutes while our Dad set lunch out on the table.

  When our Mom finished talking on the phone, she turned to our Dad. “I’ll take Gracie and two of the cats. We won’t stay long though. Gracie’s got to practice for her piano recital.”

  “Which two cats?” our Dad asked.

  “It has to be Buckley and Bogey,” Gracie announced. “It says black cats and boy cats. The other cats probably wouldn’t like it, anyway.”

  Our Dad shook his head. “Wow, this is really, really strange.”

  Our Mom shrugged. “Well, I guess that’s who’s going then. Cassandra and her cat are going to ride with us.”

  Now I turned back to Bogey. “Hector? Hector’s coming with us?”

  Bogey put his paw on my shoulder. “Sorry, kid. It had to be done. I sent a flyer to Hector’s Mom over the Internet. He’s so nosy I knew he’d see it before she did. Then I knew he’d find a way to bug her about going. A guy like him couldn’t resist.”

  I lay down on the floor, and covered my head with my huge paws. “But why Hector?”

  “We need him, kid,” Bogey said. “He’s going to be a distraction for the real distraction I’ve got set up. With Ranger.”

  I peeked out at Bogey. “More distractions?”

  “Yup, kid,” he told me. “So we can sneak away and investigate. Hector will distract everyone with his non-stop chatter. Then Ranger can do his thing. Amelia’s going to help, too. They’ll keep people busy for a long time. It’s all going down in the Dinosaur Room.”

  The Dinosaur Room?

  There were dinosaurs at the Museum?

  Suddenly “Take Your Cat to the Museum Day” didn’t sound all that fun.

  I gulped. “Are they real . . .?”

  Bogey nodded. “That’s what I’ve heard, kid.”

  Holy Mackerel!

  Weren’t dinosaurs supposed to be dangerous? And couldn’t they eat us?

  My heart started to pound really hard and I started to shake. Nobody told me there were dinosaurs at the Museum!

  I never dreamed our trip to the Museum was going to be so scary. But the funny thing was, Bogey didn’t act like he was afraid at all. In fact, I was the only one who was scared.

  And I sure didn’t want to act scared when the Princess and Lil showed up. We all gathered around our food dishes and had a bite of lunch.

  The Princess blinked her big, green eyes at me. And my heart just went right on pounding like it was going to bounce out of my chest. I sort of remembered that I wanted to ask Bogey some questions about his plan. But for the life of me, at that moment, I couldn’t remember what those questions were.

  “I want to hear all about the Museum when you get back, Buckley,” she said. “Especially about the statues in the Daunton Exhibit. I’ve heard they’re all so pretty.”

  Lil nodded to me. “Detective Bogart has filled me in on your activities last night. Sounds like you’ve got another case for the Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Agency. And the plan for today sounds excellent. Inviting Hector was a nice touch.”

  About a half hour later, I sure wished Bogey hadn’t invited Hector. That’s because I was stuck in the back of our Mom’s car with him. And the guy hadn’t stopped talking since the second we picked him up. While Gracie held on to me, Bogey sat in the front passenger seat as our Mom drove. Hector’s Mom sat beside Gracie and held on to him.

  As much as Hector annoyed me, I have to say, I sure liked Hector’s Mom a lot. She had brown hair that she always kept in a ponytail, and she worked as a nurse. She was always nice to us cats, and to people, too. Plus, she took really good care of Hector. She even seemed like the kind of cat Mom who had enough love for more than one cat. The only problem was, it would be pretty hard for another cat to put up with Hector.

  Just like I was having a hard time putting up with him now. Because he talked and talked and talked and talked. He talked so much, I couldn’t even hear myself think.

  “And did you hear where the Nelsons went on vacation?” Hector rambled on. “They even took little Bella, their black cat, when they went to Florida. They took her to the beach and she said it was the biggest litter box she had ever seen. And she had such a great time chasing all the bugs . . .”

  It was about that time when I snuggled my head right under Gracie’s chin. I ducked in as far under her hair as I could go and tried to cover my ears. I still had lots of questions for Bogey about his plan to investigate at the Museum. And the distraction he had set up with Ranger. But I couldn’t ask him a thing, since we both knew better than to talk in front of Hector. If Hector heard about our plan, he’d have it broadcast all over St. Gertrude in a matter of minutes.

  Then it would never work. And I figured we already had enough trouble, since we might have to deal with dinosaurs at the Museum.

  I squeezed my eyes shut tight and tried not to think about those dinosaurs! When I became a cat detective, I never knew that running around with dinosaurs would be part of the job. And I still couldn’t believe that Bogey didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Then again, he was a really good cat detective. One of the best. Maybe good cat detectives like him weren’t scared of things like dinosaurs.

  But our Mom and Gracie weren’t cat detectives. And they didn’t seem to be scared either.

  Why was I the only one who was scared?

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 6

  _____________________________

  Holy Mackerel! The closer we got to the Museum, the more I thought about those dinosaurs. And the more nervous I got. I even started to shake all over again.

  Gracie held me nice and tight. “Don’t be afraid, Buckley,” she whispered to me. “You’re going to like the Museum a whole bunch.”

  I sure hoped she was right.

  When we arrived, she kept her arms wrapped around me as she got out of the car. Then she headed for the entrance of the Museum. I peeked around her hair to see our Mom and Hector’s Mom walking right behind us. Our Mom carried Bogey over her shoulder, and Hector’s Mom carried him like a baby. Gracie had put Bogey’s royal blue collar on him and my red collar on me. I had to say, we both looked pretty spiffy.

  Unfortunately for Hector, his Mom had put a leopard-print collar on him. It had tons of dangling ribbons with beads attached to them. It kind of made him look like a circus cat.

  If only it would have made him be quiet.

  But it didn’t. Inste
ad he talked the whole way to the front door.

  That’s when we ran into our friends. First I spotted Amelia, cuddled in her Mom’s arms. Amelia is a beautiful, long-haired calico cat with orange, brown, tan, black, and white fur. But let me tell you, she’s as sweet on the inside as she is pretty on the outside. I waved at her and she waved back. She was my good friend and Bogey’s . . . well . . . Let’s just say that he was staring at her with his eyes kind of glazed over.

  Funny, but the only time I ever saw Bogey act like that when he was around Amelia. And he always acted that way around her, since the first time he’d met her at the cat show. I wanted to give him a cat treat, just like he would’ve given me. To help him snap out of it. But since I didn’t have any cat treats, I just whispered, “Dames.” Like he would have done.

  He nodded back. “You got that right, kid. Dames. That Amelia’s a one-in-a-million gal.”

  “Hello,” Amelia meowed to us when we got closer.

  We said hello back, and then we saw our old pal, Ranger. Ranger is a kind of a cat called a Tonkinese. He has mostly light beige fur and blue eyes. But the interesting thing is, he has dark brown hair on his face and tail and ears.

  He waved the second he saw us. “Good to see you guys again! Things have been pretty boring lately, so I was happy to get your email. Quite a plan you’ve got going here. Reminds me of the time I climbed a redwood tree in the Sequoias. Such great fun! The humans were pretty upset though.”

  I have to say, I always liked to hear Ranger’s stories. And believe me, he had lots of stories to tell! That’s because he is a grand adventurer who has gone kayaking in a wild river, rubbed noses with an elk, and all kinds of things. Obviously he didn’t seem too worried about any dinosaurs! Ranger is a pretty muscular guy, and his skinny blonde Mom was having a hard time hanging on to him.

  “Thanks for lending us a paw,” Bogey meowed to Ranger and Amelia. “Without friends like you, we wouldn’t be able to pull this off.”

  Amelia smiled and glanced at each of us. “Anything to help. I’m so happy to have friends like all of you, too.”

  With those words, Bogey looked right at Amelia, and his face sort of hazed over again.

  I reached over and waved my paw in front of his eyes to bring him back.

  In the meantime, the humans talked among themselves as they carried us into the Museum.

  “I’d never heard of ‘Take Your Cat to the Museum Day’ before today,” our Mom told the other Moms.

  Ranger’s Mom shifted him around in her arms. “It was a big surprise to me, too. Especially since it was such short notice. I just got the flyer before lunch.”

  Amelia’s Mom kissed Amelia’s head. “Me, too. Though my little Amelia doesn’t mind getting out. She enjoys seeing the other cats. Especially since she’s an only cat.”

  The next thing I knew, we had arrived at the ticket counter. Then the Moms all reached into their purses and took out their “Take Your Cat to the Museum Day” flyers. Together they handed them to the scrawny young man who worked behind the counter.

  He brushed his messy orange hair out of his eyes. He looked at a flyer and his bushy eyebrows shot up his forehead. Kind of like a couple of caterpillars.

  “What is this?” he asked. “I’ve never heard of this.”

  “We all got the same flyer,” our Mom told him.

  “Are you kidding me?” the young man sneered. “‘Take Your Cat to the Museum Day?’ That’s ridiculous. Why would anyone want a bunch of cats around?”

  Suddenly I felt Gracie stiffen up as she held me. “We love our cats and you’re being very rude. You shouldn’t talk to your customers like that. And you shouldn’t make fun of our cats.”

  The young man laughed at her. “I’ll have to call my manager about this cat thing.”

  “Good!” Gracie spoke without blinking. “Because I’d like to talk to your manager, too!”

  Our Mom touched Gracie’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, honey. I know you want the boys to see the Museum. We’ll get this all straightened out.”

  And that’s when it suddenly hit me. What if Bogey’s plan didn’t work? What if we weren’t allowed into the Museum? Then how would we investigate? Much as I was worried about running into dinosaurs, I knew we still had a job to do.

  The young man called his manager on a microphone and his voice went out over a loudspeaker. That meant everyone in the entire Museum probably heard it.

  I had to say, that made me even more nervous. Since we were trying to sneak into the Museum, we didn’t exactly want it broadcast to the whole world!

  I looked over at my brother. But he didn’t seem shook up at all. Instead, he just grinned and dug a claw into the pocket of our Mom’s jacket. He fished around for a few seconds and came up with a bag of cat treats.

  Our Mom laughed. “I don’t remember putting those in my pocket, Bogey. Come to think of it, I can never find any of the bags of treats I bring home from the store.”

  “Bags of cat treats disappear at our house, too,” Ranger’s Mom added.

  They both shook their heads while our Mom passed out treats to all of us cats. She made sure everyone got two, before she put the bag back in her pocket.

  By now I felt like I had a whole bunch of butterflies flapping around in my stomach. So I could only manage to eat one of my treats. I kept the second one in my paw to save for later. All the while, I kept waiting and waiting for that manager to show up. And I kept glancing around to see if there were any dinosaurs sneaking up on us. What if some of them had escaped their room? Then again, how did the Museum even manage to keep dinosaurs in just one room?

  Finally, the manager stomped in. Her long, silver hair shook behind her. And her yellow-green eyes looked as cold and mean as pictures I had seen of real dinosaurs’ eyes. For a moment, I wondered if she might even be related to some dinosaurs. I figured she was almost as scary.

  “What’s the problem, Murwood?” she demanded of the young man.

  “Did you hear about this?” he pointed right at me.

  I gulped.

  Murwood crossed his arms. “These people brought their cats for ‘Take Your Cat to the Museum Day.’”

  “Huh . . . what?” the manager sputtered. “That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

  The young man handed her the flyers.

  She read them quickly and kind of let out a little scream. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?” She glared at Murwood.

  He shrugged his skinny shoulders. “Beats me. Nobody told me about it either. I thought it was kind of stupid . . .”

  The manager’s silver eyebrows plunged down into a “V” across her forehead. “I can’t believe this!”

  Uh-oh. I ducked my head under Gracie’s chin and peeked out.

  “Uuuuuugh!” the manager shrieked. The sound reminded me of the steam that came out of our Mom’s teakettle.

  I noticed she had a nametag that read, “Evaline Esterbrook.”

  “Chill,” Murwood told her. “Don’t have a conniption.”

  But those words seemed to make her even madder. That’s when I figured it would only be a few minutes before we were all kicked out. I glanced at the door. Maybe if we made a run for it, we could still get away before this lady started yelling at us.

  She stomped her foot. “I can’t believe he did that.”

  “Who did what?” Murwood asked.

  “Byron,” she screamed. “Since he got to be curator, he keeps me in the dark about everything. It makes me so mad. Especially since he owes me. Now here he is, trying to make me look bad.”

  Murwood gasped. “You know, I think he might be trying to make me look bad, too. He sure keeps me in the dark about everything.”

  Now Evaline started to tap her foot. “First, he wouldn’t tell me anything about the break-in last night! I got here right after he did, not long after the alarm went off. And he told me to go home. He wouldn’t even let me stay while he talked to the police.”

  Ranger’s Mom’s
eyes went wide. “Oh no! I hope nothing was stolen.”

  “Not a thing,” said Evaline. “Whoever tried to break in didn’t even get inside. But that’s not the point.”

  “My antique store was broken into last night, too,” our Mom added.

  “Not my problem,” Evaline snapped at our Mom. “My problem is Byron B. Bygones! Museum Curator! But I’ll show him!”

  “Me, too!” Murwood jumped in.

  Evaline stomped her foot again. “If he thinks he can get away with this . . . and if he thinks he can keep us in the dark about his new programs, well . . . he’s got another think coming.”

  “Yeah,” said Murwood. “That’s right. What she said. That’s what he’s got.”

  Then all of a sudden, Evaline grabbed the flyers and pointed to the main part of the Museum. “Go in! Now! Just don’t go into the Daunton Exhibit. We were lucky to convince that lady to let us put it on display in the first place. I don’t want to ruin things by having a bunch of cats running around!”

  The Daunton Exhibit? That was the very exhibit Bogey wanted us to investigate! I guess it was a good thing he had our distraction all set up. Because obviously we were going to need it.

  The only problem was, I hadn’t had a chance to ask him any more about it. I didn’t even know exactly what he had planned for this big distraction.

  “I expect you to be on your best behavior,” Evaline said. “Because I will be alerting the media, to make sure they know about ‘Take Your Cat to the Museum Day.’ You can expect to see some pictures in tomorrow’s paper. That’ll show Byron. He thought he could keep me in the dark about this. In his dreams maybe!”

  Our Mom looked at the other Moms. Ranger’s Mom kind of giggled and Amelia’s Mom shook her head. Then the Moms and Gracie all turned and carried us into the main part of the museum.

  “My goodness,” said Hector’s Mom. “Usually they’re so nice here at the Museum. I wonder when that all changed.”

  “I know,” our Mom agreed. “Usually they are. But I’ve never seen those two before. I think they’re pretty new. And I know the curator is new, too.”

  Amelia’s Mom shook her head. “I miss the people who used to work here. I wish they’d come back.”