The Case of the Clever Secret Code Page 14

  Then I spotted Frank who had found his way to Nadia. Together they seemed to be whispering about something. Bogey was sitting on a table right next to Nadia. So I knew he was listening in on every word they said.

  Steele Bronson was in the middle of the living room holding a big plate of food. He was surrounded by lots of women who were holding plates of food, too. He was talking and smiling, and all the women were sort of giggling.

  Our Dad carried me on into the kitchen, and that’s when I saw our Mom. She was busy picking up paper plates and throwing things into the trash. Gracie was right beside her and helping the whole time. I had to say, it was really hot inside our kitchen, probably because there were so many people in our house. Gracie and our Mom both had red, sweaty faces. It looked like their new hairdos had started to droop.

  I didn’t see any of the caterers anywhere. As near as I could tell, they must have already left.

  Gracie paused and wiped the sweat from her brow. “Mom, we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to eat. And I’m really getting hungry. Do you think it would be okay if I ate something? Now that all the guests have gotten their food?”

  Funny, but when Steele Bronson announced he’d be coming to our house for dinner, I never dreamed that meant our family wouldn’t get to eat. I thought they’d all be eating together.

  Our Mom stopped working and gave Gracie a hug. “Absolutely, honey. I sure appreciate all your help tonight. Have I told you today, how happy I am that you’re my daughter?”

  Gracie smiled and hugged her back. “No, not today. But I think you said it a few days ago. And I’m happy that you’re my Mom.”

  That kind of made me smile, too. Because I was happy that our Mom was my Mom, too. And I was happy that Gracie was my human sister. And just to let our Dad know how I felt about him, I leaned over and gave him a kiss on the nose.

  He laughed. “Okay, Buckley. I get the picture. I love you, too.”

  With that, he put me onto the kitchen floor. He tossed me a little piece of chicken. Then he helped Gracie scrape together some dinner from what was left of the food.

  Our Dad put his hand on our Mom’s shoulder. “Why don’t we have a bite, too, Abby? We’ll finish cleaning this up later.”

  Our Mom put her arm to her forehead. “Sounds good. I’m hot and starving.”

  Together they pulled some leftovers from the pans and took their plates to the dining room. Gracie led the way.

  Just as Bogey came running up to me. Lil was right behind him.

  He had a huge frown on his face. “I’ll explain later, kid. But right now we’ve got to get these people out of here.”

  I gulped. “Um . . . okay. But how are we going to do that?”

  Bogey grinned. “Easy, kid. Just follow my lead.”

  And so I did. When Bogey jumped onto the counter, I jumped up right behind him. And Lil jumped up with us. There wasn’t a lot of room up there, so Bogey shoved one of the empty food pans right onto the floor. It landed with a loud clang!

  That got everyone’s attention.

  Or, at least, it got the attention of the people near us in the kitchen.

  Bogey nodded to Lil and me. “Okay, on the count of three, start to scratch.”

  I raised my brows. “Scratch? What do you mean?”

  Bogey grinned again. “Scratch away, kid. Use your back feet up near your ears. Or use your front claws on your legs. But whatever you do, put some heart into it.”

  Lil laughed. “All right, Bogey. Whatever you say.”

  Then he counted to three and we all started to scratch. I put my back foot up to my neck and gave it a good scratching. Lil used her front paw to get her back hips. And Bogey switched from scratching his ears to his neck to his stomach. But together we sat there and scratched and scratched and scratched for all we were worth.

  It wasn’t long before a lady I’d never seen before turned our way. She let out a little “eeek!” and leaned into her husband. She whispered something in his ear, and they practically ran out of the kitchen. In the direction of the front door. Seconds later, a man saw us and turned to whisper to his wife. The next thing we knew, they were on their way out, too. And they whispered to a few other people along the way. Those people also headed out in a hurry.

  And so it went. The more we scratched, the more people got out of there. Pretty soon we had that whole kitchen cleared out.

  Then the strangest thing happened. Once a few people had started to leave, well, other people just followed them. Then more people followed those people. And pretty soon, almost the whole crowd suddenly decided to leave. Then Lil jumped down from the counter to go tail the reporter again. Bogey and I jumped down, too, and zoomed into the hallway. We wove our way around people’s legs like we were running a maze. Once we were near the front of the house, we jumped back up onto the hall table again.

  That’s when our Mom and Dad sort of positioned themselves at the front door. So they could say good-bye to people as they were leaving.

  Some of the people were pretty nice and thanked our Mom and Dad. But others just walked out. Finally, the only people left were Steele Bronson and Frank and Nadia. And Steele Bronson’s hairdresser, Taffy.

  And the reporter who had taken the Princess’ picture. Lil fell into place behind him and kept on tailing him.

  Taffy reached up and tried to put our Mom’s hair back into place. She pulled out a few pins and put them back in. But our Mom’s hair just drooped all over again. Finally, Taffy gave up.

  “I’ll be over tomorrow,” she said.

  Our Mom’s eyebrows went up. “Tomorrow? But Gracie and I don’t need to have our hair done again.”

  Taffy shook her head. “Oh no. It’s not for you. I have to give your two black cats a bath. And get their fur ready for being on camera.”

  “Wait a minute . . .” our Mom started to say.

  And let me tell you, I sure wanted to hear the rest of what our Mom was going to say. Because I sure was hoping our Mom was going to tell Taffy that she would not be allowed to come over and give us a bath. As far as I was concerned, Bogey and I didn’t need a bath! Ever. And we definitely didn’t need to have our hair done.

  But our Mom didn’t even get a chance to finish saying what she was going to say.

  That’s because Steele Bronson suddenly moved in next to our Mom and Dad.

  “Don’t worry,” Steele Bronson said. “Taffy’s handled animals before. It’s standard procedure for all animals on film to be bathed first. Your cats won’t even know the difference.”

  Right about then, I’m guessing my eyes went wider than they’d ever gone before. Because he sure had that wrong. Us cats definitely knew the difference between having a bath and not having a bath! And we hated baths! That’s because we hated being in the water.

  Now Steele Bronson took our Mom’s hand. “You’ll be there, won’t you, Abigail? When we film Buckley and Bogey’s part?”

  Our Dad looked right at Steele Bronson. “One of us will be there.”

  Our Mom pulled her hand away and leaned into our Dad. Just as Gracie joined us all.

  Steele Bronson turned on his brightest smile. “You look worn out, little girl. And your hair is a disaster. I guess you must have had a lot of fun tonight.”

  Gracie just sort of nodded.

  Nadia smiled. “You’re a very lucky girl to have dinner with Steele Bronson. Most of his fans would give anything to have dinner with him.”

  Gracie looked like she was trying to force a smile on her face. “Um . . . yeah. Very lucky.”

  Then Steele turned to Taffy. “You’ll need to redo her hair for her part in the movie.”

  Gracie’s mouth fell open. “My part?”

  Our Mom’s eyebrows came down. “What part?”

  Steele Bronson stared at his fingernails. “Oh, did I forget to mention it? I’ll need Gracie to read her essay again. And I’ll need you in the audience, Abigail. I want to recreate the essay contest. For my movie.”

 
For a second or two, I thought Gracie was going to start crying. It was bad enough that she’d had that awful experience at the essay contest once. But now she had to relive it?

  Before anyone could say another word, the reporter jumped in. “Let me get another picture of the winner with Steele Bronson.”

  “Get my good side,” Steele Bronson commanded as he moved over to Gracie’s left.

  He stood right next to her while the reporter snapped their picture. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw a tear roll down her face.

  Then the reporter turned to Frank. “Don’t worry. I’ll be sure your picture makes the front page tomorrow. Just imagine the headline: ‘The Man Behind Steele Bronson’s New Movie Being Filmed in St. Gertrude.’ It’ll be a human interest story.”

  Frank grinned. “Great. Don’t forget to mention my book. It’s about some research I did on my ancestors. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. They were both signers of the Declaration of Independence, you know.”

  “Sounds interesting,” the reporter said. “I’ll be sure to mention it in my article. Just as long as you’ll take a look at my screenplay.”

  Then without answering, Frank turned to our Mom. “I understand you’re writing a book, too, Abby.”

  If I thought our Mom looked surprised before, well, it was nothing compared to now.

  She raised one eyebrow. “Yes, I am . . . But how did you know that?”

  Frank looked out the open front door. “My publisher knows your publisher.”

  And without saying another word, Frank and the reporter walked out.

  Steele Bronson and Nadia left, too. Without so much as saying thank you.

  Taffy at least said, “Thank you for a lovely evening.” Then she followed the rest outside.

  I turned to my brother. “What’s this business about us having to get a bath?”

  Bogey shook his head. “First I heard about it, kid. But I’ll be sure to send an email to my agent. Let her complain for me.”

  “Sure wish I had an agent,” I muttered.

  “I wouldn’t sweat it,” Bogey told me. “Because right now we’ve got bigger problems. Meet me in the office after our Mom and Dad go to bed.”

  Bigger problems? Wasn’t getting a bath a big enough problem?

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 16

  Holy Mackerel!

  It took our Mom and Dad and Gracie quite a while to get the house back in shape after the party. The kitchen was a huge mess, and so was the rest of the downstairs. While our Mom tackled the kitchen, our Dad ran the vacuum cleaner. And Gracie picked up trash and straightened things up in the other rooms. I could tell they were all really hot and tired. Very tired. It was almost midnight by the time they were finished.

  Gracie was half-asleep when she said goodnight. She barely had her eyes open when she thudded upstairs to bed. Lil trotted along beside her, to make sure she made it okay. I knew Lil would be spending the rest of the night in Gracie’s room, keeping guard over her. Just like she always did.

  In the meantime, Bogey and I sat at the bottom of the stairs and watched them go up. Lil paused for a second, looked back at us, and saluted. Bogey nodded and I saluted back. Well, I saluted pretty well, anyway. More and more my huge paws were starting to go where I wanted them to go.

  Could the other cats be right? Was I going to grow into my ever-growing paws someday? Just like they did?

  Our Mom and Dad locked up the house and turned out the lights. Then together they headed toward the stairs, too. Along the way, our Mom leaned down and kissed us both on the top of our heads. And our Dad petted us.

  “I still can’t believe it,” our Dad said as they stepped onto the staircase. “I can’t believe the nerve of that guy. Inviting all those people to our house. Without our permission.”

  Our Mom sighed. “And without even telling us. Plus, I got the impression this dinner was supposed to be some kind of a prize for Gracie. But it certainly wasn’t any great treat for her. She did nothing but help out in the kitchen all night long. Especially after those caterers took off and left us holding the bag. I don’t think Steele Bronson even said hello to her until the end of the night.”

  Our Dad shook his head. “Well, he sure didn’t eat dinner with her. I don’t get it. Why was the guy even here?”

  Our Mom moved up to the top step. “I have no idea. None of it makes any sense to me. But I have to say, this big, famous movie star sure is disrupting our lives.”

  “He doesn’t have a lot of respect for us,” our Dad told her. “Did I tell you I caught some guy who works for him going through our dresser drawers? Some guy named Frank?”

  Our Mom stopped and her eyes went wide. “Frank? That’s Steele Bronson’s writer. What was he looking for? Was he stealing from us?”

  Our Dad shook his head. “Well, if he was, he didn’t get anything. I checked. But maybe that was what he was planning to do.”

  Our Mom slipped her arm around our Dad’s waist. “This has been such a weird couple of days. I will be so glad when all this is over.”

  He put his arm around her shoulders. “You and me both.”

  Then they turned the corner and headed for their room.

  That’s when Bogey turned to me. “Lil told me what happened upstairs, kid. It’s a lousy deal, them getting a shot of the Princess like that. But it sounds like you and Lil fought a good fight. And Miss Mokie, too. I have to say, that old gal’s still got it.”

  I sighed. “We would have done a better job, but we were blinded by all those camera flashes. We couldn’t see a thing. And the Princess had fallen asleep, so she didn’t hear us yelling to her in time.”

  Bogey put his paw on my shoulder. “There’s the rub, kid. The Princess should have been safe up there. Because those two jokers weren’t even supposed to go upstairs. They crossed a whole lotta lines.”

  I nodded. “That’s for sure. Especially when the Princess tried to get away and dove behind Miss Mokie’s couch. And Frank went after her.”

  Bogey squinted his eyes and looked at the front door. “The guy’s nothing but trouble, kid. It’s the second time he’s ruffled our feathers. First he rewrote Gracie’s essay. And now this. Like our Dad said, the guy’s got a lotta nerve.”

  I bit my lip. “You can say that again. I only hope the Princess’ picture doesn’t end up in the paper.”

  Bogey frowned. “Me, too, kid. Me, too. It could put her in some serious danger. So we’ll need to tighten our security around here. Probably run more surveillance rounds and keep the Princess close. Just so she’s protected.”

  I sat up at attention. “That sounds like a good plan to me. I sure wouldn’t want anything to happen to the Princess.”

  I shuddered. Just the thought of her old owners finding her made my skin crawl. After all, I’d seen them in action before. I knew how badly they’d treated her.

  Bogey got to his feet. “You and me both, kid. By the way, thanks for helping me get this crowd out the door tonight. That old ‘scratching trick’ gets ‘em every time.”

  I smiled. “It sure did. But what was going on that you wanted to get everyone out of here so fast?”

  Bogey shook his head. “I got an earful when I tailed Nadia, kid. There’s more to this business than meets the eye.”

  I nodded my head. “That’s what I thought, too. After I tailed Frank.”

  Bogey flexed his left front paw. “Let’s talk about it in a bit. First I need to do some research. In the meantime, maybe you could check on the Princess. Make sure she’s okay after that guy grabbed her.”

  I glanced up the stairs. “Got it. I’ll go see her.”

  Bogey nodded at the French doors to our Mom’s office. “How about meeting me in the office when you’re done. We’ve got lots to go over on this case.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I told him right before I trotted upstairs.

  To tell you the truth, I was kind of glad to be checking on the Princess. After all, I’d been a little worried about her mys
elf. I hadn’t seen her since she’d run to hide behind Miss Mokie’s couch. And I wanted to make sure she was all right. So I ran straight for the sunroom, where I knew I’d find her.

  Along the way, I thought of all the stuff that had happened since Steele Bronson and his crew came to town. And one thing was for sure — a lot of the things he did made my family really unhappy. Gracie was miserable, the Princess might be in danger, and our Mom and Dad were really tired. And pretty mad. Plus Bogey and I had to add to our security, and worst of all, we might even have a bath in our near future! That was just for starters. Because as near as we could tell, he was searching for some secret treasure in town. Something that he might steal right out from under the noses of the citizens of St. Gertrude!

  Yet so many people in town acted so giddy and excited around him. It just didn’t add up. Why did my family and I feel one way around him, when everyone else in town felt another way?

  Before long, it seemed like all the thoughts in my head were whirling around like a big, giant tornado. There had been so much going on that I just didn’t understand. I could hardly make heads nor tails of it all.

  But I knew someone who could.

  The Wise One.

  And since I had just about reached the sunroom, well, I figured it might not hurt if I asked her a question or two. While I was there.

  Suddenly, my heart started to pound and my paws started to shake. And that was when I was just thinking about talking to Miss Mokie! Like I said before, maybe I got nervous because it seemed like she could read my mind. Not to mention, I’d just seen her in action when it came to protecting the Princess. And let me tell you, Miss Mokie was not a cat to be messed with!

  Holy Mackerel!

  But Miss Mokie had helped me before, and I knew she could help me again. So I took a deep breath and gathered up all my courage. I slowly stepped into the room and peeked around. Much to my surprise, the Princess wasn’t even there. But Miss Mokie was sitting upright on her purple velvet couch. She was cleaning and sharpening her claws.