The Case of the Crafty Christmas Crooks Read online

Holy Mackerel. I sure didn't feel like a pro! I really felt more like a big, giant scaredy-cat.

  "Yup, kid, you held it together the whole time. If you hadn't, who knows what might have happened to us?"

  I shuddered at the thought. "Do you think Nunzio and Brutus are the ones breaking into the houses?"

  Bogey sighed. "I don't know, kid. Could be. We know they're crooks, all right."

  I put my paws in front of me and rested my head on my front legs. "I know, I know. We saw Brutus steal money from the cash register."

  Bogey nodded. "That's right, kid. And Nunzio is selling lousy merchandise for a big price. He knows that stuff will fall apart right away. But you can bet he doesn't mention that to his customers."

  I shook my head. "There are going to be a lot of sad people in St. Gertrude right after Christmas, when their presents all fall apart. Wish we'd learned something that could link Brutus and Nunzio to the break-ins."

  Bogey passed us each another cat treat. "I hear you, kid. But the truth is, we didn't find a single piece of evidence that pointed to them being the burglars. Nothing."

  I rolled onto my side. "I know. We didn't."

  Bogey gave me another treat and took one himself. Then we both just munched quietly for a few minutes. Sure, we'd learned a lot by sneaking over to Nunzio's. But were we any closer to catching the criminal mastermind than we were before?

  Finally, Bogey spoke up. "There is one thing we can do, kid."

  My ears shot up. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

  Bogey stretched out his front paws. "We can be ready in case they break into our house. We'd better have a plan in place to handle them."

  I gulped and almost choked on my cat treat. "Are you kidding me? You saw what almost happened back there! Do you really think we could catch those guys if they ever broke in to our house?"

  Now Bogey grinned. "Don't forget, kid. We'd have the advantage. We know the layout of our house. They don't. We can see in the dark. They can't. Plus we could have lots of traps set out for them."

  Right about then, I'm sure my eyes went really wide. To tell you the truth, I would have been perfectly happy if I never saw those guys again. Let alone, tried to trap them in our house!

  Holy Catnip!

  I tried to speak, but all that came out was a bunch of "uh-uh-uh" sounds.

  Bogey kept right on grinning. "Glad you're on board with this, kid. We'll talk to Lil tonight and get a plan in place."

  And Bogey wasn't kidding. That night, Gracie worked on her cat collars and our Dad worked in his woodshop. Our Mom worked around the house and gathered things our Dad and Gracie would need for the big craft fair on Saturday.

  In the meantime, us cats had a meeting.

  All of us cats except for the Wise One, of course. At her age, we figured it might be a little tough for her to catch burglars. So Lil and Bogey and the Princess and I all sat in our dining room.

  Lil seemed especially happy to help out. She started by asking to borrow Bogey's bag of cat treats. When he passed them to her, she pulled a whole bunch from the bag.

  She put three treats in a line with her short white paw. "These treats represent the front door," she told us.

  Then she added more treats in more lines. "And this is the hallway and the dining room and our Mom's office."

  She continued doing this until she had practically drawn an outline of our whole house. With cat treats! Finally, she and Bogey started talking about something they called "strategies."

  Well, right about then, my head started to spin. I'd never heard of something called "strategies" before. But it turned out that strategies were things like, what we could do if burglars broke in the front door. Or what we could do if burglars broke into the back. And on and on.

  Before long we talked about things we could use to trip up the burglars. Or scare them, or make them fall on their heads and knock themselves out.

  After a few hours, we had come up with an action plan. Bogey and Lil grinned and gave each other "paw bumps" over this plan. But I wasn't so sure about it. My idea was to run away and hide if a burglar showed up. The Princess had agreed with me.

  Yet Lil and Bogey were so sure we should take action against any burglars. "A surprise attack," Lil had said several times. And I had to admit, Bogey and Lil had lots of experience when it came to being cat detectives. Since I was barely more than a rookie, I figured they probably knew way more than I did.

  So that night, we had action plan drills in between our surveillance runs. And I have to say, it made for a pretty long night. Especially after the day we'd had. Even so, I also had to admit that I was starting to get the hang of the action drill. Eventually I had a pretty good idea what I was supposed to do if a burglar broke in.

  Now the question was, would I be brave enough to carry out my part of the action plan if I had to?

  Just before morning, Bogey booted up the computer in our Mom's office. I joined him on the desk. While he checked out the local news, I lolled on my side.

  The next thing I knew, I heard him make a "tsk, tsk, tsk" sound. "They did it again, kid. There were two more break-ins in St. Gertrude last night."

  My eyes popped open wide and I sat up straight. "Really?"

  Bogey nodded. "Yup, kid. It looks like our same guys, too."

  I gulped. "How can you tell?"

  Bogey scooted closer to the computer screen. "Same MO, kid. Same MO."

  In case you don't know what MO means, don’t sweat it. I didn't used to know what it meant either. But MO is short for Modus Operandi. And the MO is the way a crook operates. Believe it or not, most crooks operate the same way every time. It was one of the first things Bogey had taught me when I became a cat detective.

  I moved over to look at the computer screen. "Did they take the Christmas presents again?"

  Bogey rubbed his eyes with his sleek, black paw. "Yup, kid. They took them all."

  "And the wreath on the front door?" I asked.

  "You got it, kid," he answered me. "And here's the interesting thing. In one house they took the star ornaments off the tree. Even the star on the top."

  I gasped. "Just like at the Nelsons'!"

  He flexed his right front paw. "That's right, kid. And in the other house, they took the star off the top of the tree and the bright star from their indoor manger scene. Plus they took the star candle holders, the star Christmas placemats and the lighted star decorations from the windows."

  "Wow," was all I could breathe. "These crooks sure do like stars!"

  Bogey grinned at me. "You've got it, kid. They like stars, all right. I'm guessing it's their weakness."

  I looked right at Bogey. "Their weakness?"

  Bogey nodded. "Yup, kid. Every crook has a weakness. And it looks like our crooks can't resist taking these stars."

  "Wow," I said again. "Is that important?"

  Bogey turned off the computer. "You bet it is, kid. It might be the clue that leads us right to them."

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER_14

  __________________________

  Holy Mackerel! The rest of the week went by in one big blur. Our humans spent every extra minute of their days getting ready for the Craft Fair. And us cats spent every minute of our nights running surveillance and action drills.

  Of course, Bogey checked the local news each day, too. And each day he read more reports of more break-ins. All of the break-ins sounded pretty much the same. With presents, wreaths, and stars stolen from each house.

  By now all the citizens of St. Gertrude were on edge. The police were stumped. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't figure out who was committing these crimes.

  Even so, the big craft fair was still on for Saturday as scheduled. So on late Friday afternoon, Gracie packed up the hundred or more cat collars she had made. She put them in a big cardboard box, along with a pretty red tablecloth and the sign for her booth.

  I sat on the kitchen chair next to her and watched.

  She smiled and petted me on the
head. "I sure hope I sell most of these, Buckley. I worked really hard making all these collars. I want to make enough money to buy Christmas presents for the whole family. Plus, I saw the prettiest winter coat in a store downtown. I am just dying to get it. So will you be a good boy and help me sell my collars?"

  I stood on all fours and purred up to her. Then I gave her a nice, wet kiss on her elbow. Of course I planned to help her. I knew she'd worked really hard, night after night. And I wanted to make sure all her hard work paid off.

  She was just finishing up when our Dad walked in. He had a huge grin on his face.

  "This might help," he told us.

  Then he set a little red sleigh on the floor. One that he had made himself. One that had wheels and a harness. So I guess you could say it was more of a wagon, even though it looked like a sleigh.

  "Here you go, big guy," he said as he picked me up.

  The next thing I knew, he had placed me in that harness.

  He scratched me behind my ears. "You can pull this around while you're wearing one of Gracie's collars. That'll have everyone buying Gracie's collars and my Christmas lawn ornaments, too."

  Holy Catnip! At first I wasn't really sure what to think about the whole idea. But then I figured, hey, if it helped out my family, well, I was in!

  Before I could take a single step, Bogey came trotting into the room. He jumped into the back of the wagon and grinned at me.

  "Let's see if you can pull this thing, kid," he meowed.

  "Hang on," I told him.

  Then I shifted my weight forward and started to pull. The wagon rolled right along behind me, just as slick as silk. Our Mom walked in just in time to see me pull that wagon across the kitchen.

  I could hardly believe the way our humans acted when they saw me. Our Mom and Dad and Gracie all cheered and laughed! I guess it made them pretty happy to see me pull my wagon with Bogey riding.

  Minutes later our family went back to packing things up for the show. I ducked out of the harness and then practiced getting back into it again. Before long, I was pretty good at getting that harness on and off.

  After dinner that night, our humans headed to the St. Gertrude Events Center to set up their booths.

  Bogey and I stayed behind and kept an eye on things at our house.

  Bogey passed me a cat treat. "It's going to be a big day tomorrow, kid."

  I glanced out the window. "I know. I wish I was looking forward to it."

  Bogey grinned. "You never know, kid. It might be perfect for our investigation. Our burglars could be there, too."

  That's when I'm sure my eyes went wider than ever before. "The burglars? Going to a craft show? Do you really think so?"

  "Yup, kid," Bogey told me. "St. Gertrude is a small town. And everyone goes to this craft fair. Let's keep our eyes peeled for someone who has lots of stars to sell. Or maybe someone who is buying lots of stars. You know how our burglar can't keep his paws off the stars."

  "Wow," I breathed. "You're right. I never dreamed we might run into our burglars there. Do you think Brutus and Nunzio will go?"

  Bogey grabbed a treat from the bag. "I'd count on it, kid. Nunzio will be there to check out the competition."

  I raised one eyebrow. "Competition?"

  Bogey nodded. "Yup, kid. The stuff sold at the Craft Fair will be good quality. Because it's homemade. Not like the junk that Nunzio sells."

  I munched on a treat and glanced out the window again. Up until that moment, I really hadn't thought much about the Craft Fair. Now it seemed like it could be important to our case. And it sounded like we'd be doing a whole lot more than just selling cat collars!

  Holy Mackerel!

  Before I could say another word, the doorbell rang.

  Ding-dong!

  Bogey's ears went up and I stood at attention. Of course, us cats couldn't answer the door. But we certainly wanted to know who was there.

  I was about to run and glance out the front window when Bogey held up his paw.

  "Hold on there, kid. Something doesn't feel right," he said quietly. "It's Friday night and our Mom and Dad aren't expecting anyone. Best not to take any chances. Let's holler at Lil and get into action plan positions."

  But we didn't even need to call Lil. Instead she showed up at the office door with the Princess right behind her. The Princess' eyes were huge, and I could tell she was pretty scared.

  "Everybody ready?" Lil asked in her most serious voice. "Detective Bogart? Detective Buckley? Princess Alexandra? All in?"

  We stood in a circle and Lil reached a paw into the middle of the group. Bogey did the same but put his paw on top of hers. Then I reached my paw in and put it on top of Bogey's. The Princess looked from side to side and scrunched up her face. I could tell she wasn't sure what to do at the moment.

  I leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Stack your paw on top of the rest of them."

  The Princess nodded. "Oh, okay. Thank you, Buckley."

  She licked her paw a few times until it was good and clean. Then she did as I told her to. She put that wet paw right on top of mine.

  Bogey and Lil both blinked a few times. But nobody said a word because the doorbell rang again.

  Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

  "Positions!" Lil commanded. "Front door positions!"

  And we all scurried to our spots.

  Bogey nodded to Lil. "I'm going to take a glance outside. See if I can tell who's here."

  Lil nodded back. "We've got you covered."

  Then Bogey slinked across the hardwood floor, just as low as he could get. He didn't make a sound.

  I'd never seen a cat be as stealthy as Bogey was right at that moment.

  He lifted his head up at the bottom of the curtain. "I can't tell who it is. It's dark out and it looks like they're wearing black. I think there's two of 'em. The porch light is off."

  "Oh, no!" I gasped. "Our Mom and Dad must have forgotten to turn it on before they left!"

  "Looks like our drills are about to pay off," Lil said in a low voice. "Everyone ready?"

  "Ready," we meowed back.

  Now the people outside started knocking on the door. Pounding actually. For a moment there, I thought they might even break down our front door.

  It was almost as loud as the pounding of my heart.

  Then everything went silent.

  Every piece of fur along my back stood on end. The suspense was almost more than I could stand. I glanced over at the Princess. Her eyes were bigger than I'd ever seen before, and she was shaking like she was cold.

  All the while I had to wonder, had the people left? Or were they just getting ready to make their next move?

  Then we all heard it. Voices outside. They were so low we could barely pick them up.

  And all of a sudden, Bogey waved his paw and motioned for us to move. "Back door! They're heading for the back door!"

  "Change of plans," Lil hollered. "Take your back door action plan positions!"

  I have to say, I've never seen a group of cats move so fast. In a matter of seconds, we had shifted gears and we were ready for a break-in at the back door. I guess Lil and Bogey had been right, making us practice our drills over and over.

  Because even with my heart pounding and my nerves frazzled, I could still do the job I was supposed to do.

  But then I heard a noise I didn't mind hearing at all. Our Dad's truck turning into the driveway. His headlights brightened up the whole night.

  I glanced at Bogey and Lil and the Princess. Relief was written all over their furry faces. Everyone sighed "whew" at almost the same time.

  A few minutes later, I heard our Mom's voice. "Mike and Mesmeralda! So nice to see you."

  "Hello, Abigail," Mrs. Mitchell's voice said. "We just wanted to return your casserole dish. Nobody answered the front door, so I was going to leave it at the back. I didn't want anyone to steal it. I thought the back door would be a safer place to leave it."

  "Well, thank you," our Mom said.

  Bogey
let out a deep sigh. "False alarm, everyone. It was only the Mitchells."

  Lil nodded to each of us. "That's okay. It was good practice for us all. Good job, team! You make me proud to be a feline."

  The Princess finally smiled. "I've never been part of a team before. I like it. It feels so nice."

  I smiled at her just as the door from the garage opened up. Our Mom and Mrs. Mitchell walked inside.

  Our Mom took the casserole dish from Mrs. Mitchell. "Is your booth all set up for the Craft Fair tomorrow, Mesmeralda?"

  "We're all ready," Mrs. Mitchell said. "I hope we sell lots and lots of wreaths. So we can pay for new Christmas presents."

  Our Mom put the dish into the cupboard. "I'm sure you will, Mesmeralda."

  Mrs. Mitchell glanced around the room. "My, but you certainly have done lots of decorating for Christmas. You look like you're all ready for the holiday."

  "Amazingly, I am," our Mom laughed. "I just need to wrap my presents, bake a few cookies, and pick up a turkey for dinner."

  Did she say turkey? Right at that moment, my mouth began to water. Just the thought of turkey made me hungry. I had my first taste of it over Thanksgiving, and let me tell you — it tasted good! I could hardly wait to eat it again.

  Mrs. Mitchell stared at her feet. "I wish I could be as organized as you are, Abigail. But ever since the break-in, I just can't seem to get focused."

  Right then, Gracie bounced into the room. "Why don't you come to my Christmas play, Mrs. Mitchell? That will cheer you up!"

  For once, Mrs. Mitchell smiled. "Well, dear, I think that is a splendid idea. When is your play?"

  Gracie smiled back. "It's next Friday night. At seven thirty."

  "We'll be there," Mrs. Mitchell answered. "But now I'd better get home. Mike and I will have a big day tomorrow. We've got to get our rest."

  "We'll all need our rest," our Mom laughed. Then she walked Mrs. Mitchell outside.

  That was when I flopped over onto my side. I closed my eyes and dreamed about eating turkey.

  In fact, I was almost sure I could smell turkey. But how could that be? Our Mom wasn't cooking turkey yet.

  I opened one eye to see Bogey standing over me. He was waving a cat treat in front of my nose.