The Case of the Jewel Covered Cat Statues

by Cindy Vincent

  Wait a minute . . . Did he just say he was expecting some “people” to show up and create a distraction? But the distraction had been caused by us cats. Either he had us confused with people, or he was actually talking about some humans. But then I had to wonder, why would he be “expecting” some humans to cause a distraction anyway? I crinkled my brow and tried to figure it out. It sure was confusing.

  The security guard leaned his body forward and his feet moved a little closer to the wall. I backed up a few inches.

  “Well, Mr. Bygones, I would hope you’d be expecting some people,” the guard said. “After all, isn’t that why we put up an exhibit anyway?”

  Mr. Bygones laughed. “Not just any people, André. But people who couldn’t resist the Daunton Exhibit. People who would be drawn to it like flies to honey.”

  “It’s a very nice display, Mr. Bygones,” the guard said. “I think anyone would be drawn to it.”

  Mr. Bygones’ laugh became deeper. And I have to say, sort of creepier.

  “You wouldn’t understand, André,” he said. “But the people I’m looking for are the very people who might know something. Like the location of the lost pieces. There are people who have been chasing them since they disappeared almost a hundred and fifty years ago. Those are the people I’m looking for.”

  “Well, if you give me their names and descriptions, I’ll notify you when they arrive,” the security guard said.

  This brought even more laughter from Byron. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t have to set this bait for them, now would I? Besides, they might be in disguise.”

  “They might? You set out bait?” the guard asked.

  And to tell you the truth, I was wondering the exact same things. Because I sure was having a hard time following this conversation. It sounded like the security guard couldn’t figure out what Byron Bygones was saying either.

  “Yes, you nit,” Byron said. “The exhibit is the bait. But I certainly wouldn’t expect you to know that. Being the simple man that you are.”

  Okay, now this Byron guy was just being rude. Funny, but I hadn’t even set eyes on him and I didn’t like him already.

  “Yes, Mr. Bygones,” the guard said in a sad voice.

  I would have been sad, too, if somebody had talked to me like that!

  Byron’s shoes started clapping down the hallway. “Don’t worry,” he called back over his shoulder. “I’ll know when they arrive. And I assure you, it won’t be long now.”

  I got a glimpse of the back of Byron Bygones as he strode away. He was tall and thin and had dark brown hair slicked back on his head.

  Lucky for me, the guard stood up. I figured he was probably saluting his boss. That’s when I ran under the chair and straight into the Daunton Exhibit.

  Bogey popped out from behind a display case.

  I glanced around the room and then looked at my brother. “Bogey, did you hear that? Did you hear what Byron Bygones said to the security guard?”

  Bogey nodded. “Oh yeah, kid. I heard it all right.”

  I felt my heart start to race. “What do you think it means?”

  Bogey looked up at the cabinets and displays all around us. “I’m not sure yet, kid. But I think we’ve found another clue. A really big one.”

  We had?

  Holy Catnip.

  CHAPTER 8

  _____________________________

  Holy Mackerel! Did Bogey say “a big clue?” By now my heart was pounding so loud that I was afraid the security guard might hear it.

  I stared at my brother. “Um . . . I don’t understand. Exactly what part of what Byron said is the ‘big clue?'”

  “All of it, kid,” Bogey told me. “Especially the part about using the Daunton Exhibit for bait.”

  I crinkled my brow. “Bait? What does that mean?”

  “It’s like fishing, kid,” Bogey explained. “When humans go fishing, they use bait to lure in a fish. Then they can hook it and reel it in.”

  I tilted my head. “O-o-o-h . . . You mean they don’t just use their claws? Like we do?”

  Bogey shook his head. “Nope, kid. They do it the hard way.”

  I tilted my head to the other side. “Um, okay. So I guess we could say that ‘something’s fishy here.'”

  Bogey grinned at me. “You got it, kid. Just like all the other strange things going on around town. You can bet they’re connected somehow. But we won’t know how until we’ve got all the pieces to this puzzle. Then we can put it together.”

  Well, I had to say, it would be pretty hard to put a puzzle together if you didn’t have all the pieces.

  “So . . . tell me, what pieces do we have again?” I asked him.

  You know, just to make sure I was on the same page as my brother.

  Bogey squinted up at a display case. “Too many suspicious things happening at once, kid. It’s a pretty long list. Starting with the Daunton Exhibit going on display, which Byron is using as bait. Plus our Mom’s store is broken into and someone leaves a mysterious package. And, someone breaks into the Museum and another store. They didn’t take anything from the Museum, but we don’t know about the other store.”

  “Wow,” I sighed. “That’s a lot of stuff in a short time. Stuff like that doesn’t usually happen in St. Gertrude.”

  Bogey nodded his head. “That’s right, kid. You got it. Too much stuff to be happening by chance. This has got to be our most bizarre case yet.”

  I sighed. “Boy, you can say that again. I sure hope we can figure it all out.”

  “Me, too, kid,” Bogey said. “Especially since our family might be in danger.”

  I’m sure my eyes went as wide as my food dish. “Danger?”

  “‘Fraid so, kid.” Bogey flexed his back legs, like he was getting ready to jump. “Whoever left that package at our Mom’s store might come back for it. Or they might be hiding it from someone else. And that ‘someone else’ might want it and figure out where it is.”

  I gulped. “And you think those people could be dangerous?”

  Bogey squinted his eyes. “That would be my guess, kid. Only shady characters operate this way.”

  I started to shiver just a little bit. “What do you think is in that package?”

  “Wish I knew, kid,” Bogey said. “Must be something pretty valuable if someone went to so much trouble to hide it like that.”

  I glanced around. “I sure wish we could have opened it when we found it.”

  Bogey nodded. “Me, too, kid. But we’ll get our Mom to take us to work with her in the morning. Then we can check it out. Right now, we’d better get a move on and investigate here.”

  “And get back to our Mom and Gracie,” I said.

  Bogey nodded. “You got it, kid. We’d better hurry. Let’s find out what’s so important about all this Daunton stuff.”

  With those words, Bogey jumped up onto the wooden counter around a glass display case.

  I followed him. Once I was up on the counter, I took a good look around the room. It was about half as big as the front room of our Mom’s store. And it was filled with a whole bunch of glass display cases on top of wooden stands. Around each display case was a wooden counter for people to lean on. Or, in our case, cats to sit on.

  The displays were about ten feet apart, probably so people had plenty of room to walk around. And, probably so the place wouldn’t get too crowded if lots of people came in at once.

  Bogey nodded toward the case in front of us. “Take a look at this, kid.”

  So I glanced inside. And that’s when I sort of gasped. Because there, with the lights beaming down, were three little statues. They sparkled and shined so brightly that I couldn’t help but blink a couple of times. The statues were the same ones I’d seen in the pictures on the Internet, only they looked a whole lot prettier up close and personal. And well, for a few seconds, I couldn’t stop staring at them.

  Each one was about seven inches tall. There was a bluebird, a mallard, and a cardinal. The card that went along w
ith the display said they’d been carved out of three different colors of marble. The bluebird was decorated with small sapphires, the mallard was decorated with small emeralds, and the cardinal had little rubies on it. They were so stunning I could barely take my eyes off them.

  Holy Catnip!

  “Wow, Bogey . . .” I sort of breathed. “I’ve never seen anything so . . .”

  “I know, kid,” he said before I could finish. “But don’t get too dazzled. We’ve gotta keep going.”

  So we did. We jumped down and ran to the next display. Then we quickly leaped up onto the wooden counter and looked inside this glass case, too. This time we saw a dog and a rabbit and a squirrel. The display card said they were made out of a kind of stone called agate. And they were decorated with lots of small gems, just like the other statues.

  Let me tell you, those little statues glowed and shined and sparkled. Almost like they had a light coming right out of the middle of them. It seemed like the more I looked at them, the more I was in a daze. I tried to speak, but for some reason, I couldn’t say a word. Instead, I just followed Bogey as we went from case to case. We saw lots more statues. Some were made out of gold and silver, as well as different kinds of metals and stones. And they were all decorated with gems. Lots and lots of gems. It seemed like each statue looked more beautiful than the last.

  Once we reached the middle of the room, we came across a big sign that told the story of Mr. Daunton. Bogey and I read it just as quickly as we could. That’s when we learned that Mr. Danby Daunton was one of the people who helped found the town of St. Gertrude. About 150 years ago. He was a jeweler and an artist, too, and he really liked to make those little statues. He was so good at it that he became famous for them. And he sold them to aristocrats and nobility, and politicians and famous people all around the world. When he retired, he moved to St. Gertrude and used some of the money he’d made to help get the town started. He passed away about fifteen years later, and that’s when his stuff became even more famous than ever.

  Then, about ten years ago, Mr. Daunton’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Mrs. Vera Glitter, wanted his work to be back in the family. So she decided to collect as many of those pieces as she could find. She went to lots of auctions and stores and searched all over to buy those statues. And this was the first time she’d ever loaned it all to a museum to be put on display.

  Well, I had to say, I sure was glad she’d done just that. Because even though we were investigating, I was really glad I got to see all those statues. I’d never seen anything like them before.

  I turned to my brother after we finished reading the sign. “Wow, Vera was kind of like a detective, too. She had to do a lot of investigating to find all this stuff.”

  Bogey glanced around the room. “She sure did, kid.”

  For some reason I smiled just thinking of how Vera tracked down all those pretty pieces. She must have gone to a lot of work to find them all.

  Bogey paused and pointed at the statue of a turtle. “Do you see that, kid?”

  “Uh-huh,” I nodded. “The display card says ‘It’s a figurine made out of bronze and decorated with emeralds from Colombia.'”

  Bogey pointed again. “Take a look at the foot, kid.”

  I scooted in closer until my nose was pressed up against the glass. That’s when I spotted a tiny marking outlined in the bronze. It looked like a sun with four pointy rays peeking out from a behind a cloud.

  “I see it,” I told my brother. “I wonder why he carved that into the metal.”

  “I was wondering the same thing, kid,” Bogey murmured.

  Then he pointed at the bear in the middle of the set. “Check out the foot on this one, kid. It’s got the same symbol.”

  I looked where Bogey pointed, and sure enough, there was a little sun peeking out from behind a cloud.

  So I turned to the third statue in the case, a little owl. I stared right at the base, and after a few seconds, I spotted another symbol. But instead of a sun, this one was a flower with four petals.

  I pointed to the owl. “Look, Bogey! Here’s another one. But it’s not the same as the first one.”

  Bogey squinted his eyes. “Good job, kid. I wonder why it’s different.”

  For some reason, chills suddenly ran up and down my spine. “Do you think Mr. Daunton put symbols on all his statues?”

  “Good question, kid,” Bogey murmured. “Let’s split up and find out. You take one side of the room and I’ll take the other. Search for symbols on every piece.”

  “Even the ones we’ve already looked at?” I asked him.

  “Yup, kid,” he said just before he jumped down. “We’ve got to check ‘em all. And we’d better put it in gear!”

  Well, he didn’t have to tell me twice. I knew our Mom and Gracie might be looking for us by now. So I bounced to the floor and backtracked to the display cases we’d already seen. I quickly inspected each statue in each case before zooming on to the next display. Across the room, Bogey was doing the same. He flew from display to display in a black blur.

  So far every one of the statues I’d seen had symbols on them. Funny, but I wondered why I hadn’t spotted them in the first place. After all, that was one of the jobs of a cat detective — to see things that others might miss. And well, I’d done a very good job missing the things I was supposed to see.

  But why?

  It was something I’d have to think about later. Because right now, I had a job to do.

  By the time I finished checking my side, I’d counted four different symbols. There was the sun peeking behind the cloud, the flower, a pine tree, and a moon peeking out from a mountain.

  I was headed over to Bogey just when he hollered to me. “Come take a look at this, kid.”

  I raced over and jumped up to join him by another glass case. I looked down into the display.

  But there weren’t any statues there.

  Suddenly my heart started to pound really hard.

  “Bogey,” I barely squeaked out. “What happened to the statues in here?”

  “They’re missing, kid,” he said quietly. “Been missing for almost a hundred and fifty years.”

  “Huh?” I’m sure my eyes went pretty wide right about then. “What happened to them?”

  Bogey pointed to a painting inside the case. “Here’s what they looked like, kid. They were Daunton’s best and most expensive work. The card here says they would be priceless if somebody located them today. Take a look.”

  I glanced at the painting that showed two cat statues completely covered in jewels. Both of the cats were made from platinum. One was covered from head to tail in white diamonds and the other with Kashmir sapphires. And when I say they were covered, well, I do mean covered!

  Holy Mackerel! There sure were a lot of jewels on those cat statues!

  The cats were sitting up and they each had their tails entwined around the other. That way they fit together as a set. One cat without the other probably would have looked sort of funny. Both cats had big almond-shaped emeralds for eyes, and square rubies for noses.

  I looked down to read the small sign beneath the picture. It said the statues were called “Best Friends.” Mr. Daunton designed them after his own two cats. One was a white Turkish Angora, just like our Princess at home. And the other was a kind of cat called a Russian Blue. The sign also said the cat statues mysteriously disappeared, shortly after Mr. Daunton had made them.

  I had barely finished reading about the missing cat statues when we heard footsteps. They were coming from the entrance to the exhibit. Then we heard a woman talking to the security guard. Seconds later, the flowery scent of perfume filled the air.

  Strong perfume.

  Strong enough to make my eyes water.

  Then all of a sudden, I felt a little tickle in the back of my throat. Then in my nose.

  Before I knew it, those tickles weren’t so little any more. My nose started to scrunch up and I knew exactly what was going to come next — a very big sneez
e!

  And if a big guy like me sneezed, well, it would give us away for sure.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 9

  _____________________________

  Holy Mackerel! There I was, just seconds away from the biggest sneeze of my life. And I knew the sound would probably echo around the whole room. Then the guard would probably come running in and find us.

  Somehow I had to figure out how to stop that sneeze! And fast!

  So I ducked my head down, closed my eyes, and tried to hold my breath. But it was no use. I could feel the explosion coming at any moment.

  Then I felt a furry arm wrap around my face and press right up against my nose. It pushed in tight. Really tight.

  And that was that. No sneeze.

  I waited a few more seconds, and still no sneeze!

  All at once I kind of wanted to laugh. I opened my eyes to see Bogey grinning at me.

  “Thanks,” I said to my brother. “I needed that!”

  “Don’t sweat it, kid,” he said as he pulled his arm away. “Now let’s go hide behind that corner display. I think we’ve got company.”

  Together, we quietly hopped down to the floor. We crept over to the front corner of the room and slid in between the wall and the wooden base of a corner display. It was the perfect hiding place. Yet we could still peer around the corner to see what was going on.

  And we could also hear what the security guard and the woman were talking about.

  “I do declare,” we heard her say in a smooth voice. “There is the most awful commotion going on in that gi-gan-tic room with those b-i-i-i-i-g dinosaurs. They’re trying to bring in some h-u-u-u-g-e machinery with a lifting device. It looks like a whole bunch of giant crisscrosses.” She drawled out her words to make them extra long.

  “They are?” the security guard said.

  “Oh my, yes,” she answered. “And they’re asking for all the big, strong, handsome men like you to go and help.”