The Case of the Clever Secret Code Read online

  She stopped when she saw me enter.

  I bowed to her like Bogey had taught me to do.

  She waved her paw, motioning for me to get up. “Ah, yes, young Detective. So delightful to see you again. No need to stand on ceremony tonight. Not after this evening’s events. I suspect you’re here to see that Princess Alexandra has survived her ordeal. She’s been under my personal care, of course. And I assure you, she is much stronger than you might realize.”

  Well, that made me feel better. “Um . . . that’s good, Miss Mokie.”

  She gave me one of her rare smiles. “I trust you put a halt to that villain who so brazenly invaded the sanctity of our home.”

  I looked up at her and nodded. “Uh-huh . . . yes, I did. I went on the attack. I made him yell loud enough to get our Dad’s attention. Then our Dad showed up and took the man downstairs.”

  Miss Mokie raised her paw and brought it down in a swoop, like a queen knighting a subject. “Splendid, young Detective. Simply splendid. Though I do regret that troublemaker managed to take a photograph of the Princess. We must all be on our guard from now on. To make sure she is protected.”

  I shifted my weight a little. “Boy, that’s for sure. Bogey and I are already planning extra security measures.”

  Miss Mokie tilted her head. “Excellent. But I see that you are here for other reasons. Something else has you rather distressed.”

  Her words made me jump. How in the world did she know that?

  Like I said before, it was almost like she could read my mind.

  “Um . . . I . . . well . . .” I sort of sputtered.

  But then I figured, since she could practically read my mind anyway, I might as well just spill it. Like Bogey would say.

  So I did. And once I started, it felt like I had turned on the tap to our bathtub. Because the words kept falling from my mouth so fast I could barely keep up with them all.

  I sat up straight. “It all started when that movie star, Steele Bronson, came to town, and everyone went crazy over him. Ladies were screaming and crying and fainting. Everyone wanted his picture and his autograph and all kinds of things. Plus it seemed like whatever he did, people thought it was wonderful. And they all went along with him, no matter what he said. Or what he did. I’ve never seen people in St. Gertrude act like this before.”

  Miss Mokie put her paw to her chin. “It’s tragic, indeed, young Detective. I’m afraid I have personally witnessed such folly myself in my life.”

  Now I started to pace across the floor. “When Steele Bronson walked right into Gracie’s essay contest, he just interrupted everything. And I do mean everything! But if anyone else had done that, they would have gotten in trouble. Big trouble. But he just stood up and announced that Gracie was the winner, and he hadn’t even heard all the essays. And he especially hadn’t heard her essay. Yet the strange thing was, when he called her the winner, everyone went along with it. Nobody said a thing. They just cheered for him and congratulated Gracie.”

  The Wise One shook her head. “Most unfortunate.”

  I kept on pacing, moving faster and faster. “Then when he said he was coming to our house for dinner, nobody even asked whether he should get permission from our Mom and Dad first. I just don’t understand it . . . Whatever he says he wants, people sort of bend over backwards to make sure he gets. He’s behaving very badly and yet most of the people are going around all goo-goo eyed over him.”

  The Wise One nodded. “Yes, it truly is a most complicated situation.”

  Now I sat down and started waving my paws for emphasis. “I don’t understand why they’re all acting this way. These aren’t people who would normally just go along with things. Especially if they thought something was wrong. But when they’re around Steele Bronson, they’re different. It’s all very strange. And it sure doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  The Wise One sat back on her haunches and sighed. “I fear you have encountered a weakness that many humans have. A weakness that, thankfully, cats do not possess. So it makes it rather difficult for a cat to understand why humans would act this way. Humans, of course, are generally a much more flawed species. But we love them anyway, despite this weakness so many of them suffer from.”

  I’m sure my eyes went pretty wide right about then. “They have a weakness? Sort of like a sickness?”

  Miss Mokie nodded. “I fear it’s true. It is much like a sickness. For humans simply do not understand what makes someone valuable. Of course, us cats know quite well that it is age and wisdom that makes one important. But humans have a rather odd notion that fame makes a person more important.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “Fame?”

  Miss Mokie closed her eyes for a moment. “Yes, sadly, it is so. There are those who desire fame, and there are those who worship it.”

  “Wow . . .” I breathed.

  Miss Mokie sighed. “Unfortunately, those who worship fame treat the famous people as though they’re superior to all. They may believe the famous person has greater knowledge and abilities, simply because they are famous. And they tend to let the famous one get away with all kinds of bad behaviors. In a sense, they sort of spoil the famous ones.”

  I could hardly believe my ears. “That’s exactly how people have been acting around Steele Bronson!”

  The Wise One flexed her newly sharpened claws and held them up for closer inspection. “Yet Steele Bronson would be one of those humans who desires fame. He looks for attention from others. He wants to be adored and worshipped. I would suspect that no one warned him to beware of fame.”

  I gulped. “You mean, we’re supposed to beware of fame?”

  Holy Mackerel! There were already so many things I had to watch out for as a cat detective. And now I had to add fame to my list?

  “Yes, young one. You must beware of fame,” Miss Mokie said. “And you must not be blinded by those who have achieved fame. Remember, just because one achieves fame, doesn’t mean they deserve respect.”

  I put my paw to my chin. “Oh, like Steele Bronson. He hasn’t earned the respect of me or Bogey. Or the rest of our family.”

  The Wise One nodded. “That is excellent, young Detective. For your eyes have been opened. But you must also be careful not to seek fame, just for the sake of being famous. Fame may call your name and promise many, many wonderful things. Yet being famous is rarely wonderful. Fame usually brings nothing but a false happiness. And fame can be fleeting. One might be famous one day, and not the next. Often, when fame starts to go, humans will do more and more peculiar things to hang onto it. Just to get the attention they’ve come to crave.”

  I gulped again. “So how do I stay away from this fame?”

  Miss Mokie raised her brows. “Ah, therein lies the difficulty. You must stay focused on your work and do your job well. But do it for the sake of doing a good job and serving others. Rather than doing something merely so you’ll become famous. On the other hand, if you become famous as a result of doing a good job, that is fine. But if you want to be famous just to be famous, then I fear you will end up terribly unhappy in the end. Fame, for the sake of fame, should never be your goal.”

  “Um . . . okay,” I murmured. “So I just need to be the best cat detective I can be. If I become famous because I’m a good cat detective, that’s fine. But I shouldn’t try to be a good cat detective just so I might be famous someday.”

  Now the Wise One smiled. “Ah, yes. You have learned well, Grasshopper.”

  “Um . . . thank you,” I murmured, even though I still didn’t understand why she called me that.

  “But now you must leave me,” Miss Mokie said. “It’s time for me to rest.”

  I bowed to her. “Thank you, Miss Mokie. Before I go, do you know where the Princess is? I want to make sure she’s okay.”

  Miss Mokie nodded. “Of course. Very noble of you, young Detective. I believe you’ll find the Princess Alexandra in young Gracie’s room. Apparently she is setting up some sort of surprise.”

&n
bsp; I smiled. “Thank you, Miss Mokie. I sure learned a lot today. I hope you have a nice nap.”

  Her eyes were already closed when I backed out of the room. I ran into the hallway, and then I just sat still for a moment or two. I had so much to think about. And I finally understood why everyone was acting so weird around Steele Bronson.

  It was all because of fame.

  The bad part was, he was getting away with acting very badly around my family. And I, for one, didn’t like it. More than anything, I wanted to put a stop to it. Before he hurt them even more.

  That’s when I realized something. If we solved our case, it might send Steele Bronson packing. Because then he might not be interested in St. Gertrude anymore. And maybe he’d go home, which meant he couldn’t hurt our family anymore either. Unless he really was filming a movie.

  All of a sudden, I was more determined than ever to crack that code and solve our case.

  But how?

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 17

  Holy Mackerel!

  I sure had a lot to think about. And it seemed like that was all I was doing as I trotted over to Gracie’s room. The whole house was dark, but since us cats can basically see in the dark, that wasn’t a problem. Besides, the moon and the stars were shining in brightly through the upper transom windows. The temperature may have been hot this time of year, but the sky sure was pretty at night.

  I paused when I reached the doorway of Gracie’s room. I wanted to be extra quiet when I went inside, so I wouldn’t wake her up. Especially since she had worked so hard tonight. And a growing girl like her needed her sleep.

  I peeked inside the room. That’s when I spotted a white paw waving at me. It was Lil. She was lying on the end of Gracie’s bed while Gracie snored softly. The Princess was tiptoeing around on the floor. She had her stack of pictures that she’d taken from the magazines downstairs.

  Or, at least, she had what was left of that stack. As near as I could tell, she’d already placed most of those pictures around the room. A picture of red, white, and blue cupcakes was on Gracie’s night table. And a picture with Fourth of July party decorations was on Gracie’s desk. Another picture was right next to her pink slippers. Yet another one was sitting on the end of her teal-colored bed comforter.

  I watched as the Princess put the last few pictures around the room. She had a huge smile on her face. And she was so focused on her work that she didn’t even see me.

  Right about then, I was so proud of her and so absolutely amazed. Here she was, in hiding from her former owners. The very people who had abused her. And the people who might even find her again if her picture ended up in the paper.

  Yet instead of worrying about herself, she was more concerned about Gracie. Maybe that was one of the things I liked the best about the Princess. She had once been famous in the cat show world. She could have ended up like Steele Bronson and been very rotten and mean. Not to mention, completely selfish.

  But she didn’t turn out like that.

  Instead, she happily left fame behind for a better life. To top it off, she wasn’t even the least little bit selfish. Instead, I think she was just grateful to live in a happy home where everyone loved her.

  She finally spotted me and I waved to her. She waved right back. Then she looked at me with her big, green eyes and well . . . you know the rest. The room started to spin and I sort of flopped over.

  Seconds later, she was by my side. She nudged me with her paw.

  “Buckley, Buckley,” she meowed softly. “Are you okay?”

  I lifted my head just as soon as the dizziness stopped. “Funny, but that’s what I came to ask you.”

  I pulled myself up, and together we walked down the hall. So we could talk without waking up Gracie.

  She nodded her little head. “I’m okay. Except I’m a little bit scared.”

  To tell you the truth, I was, too. But I wanted to do everything I could to make the Princess feel safer.

  I leaned closer to her. “Bogey and I will be adding some extra security measures. And well, don’t forget that the Count and Countess are still in jail.”

  She sighed. “Thanks, Buckley. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they broke out just to come after me. Because I’m sure they were pretty furious when I escaped and they went to jail. They were so mean and they thought they owned me. In their minds, they probably want to make me pay.”

  I stood up just as tall and straight as I could. “Bogey and Lil and I won’t let them hurt you. We’re here to protect you.”

  She smiled and looked at me again with her big, green eyes. “You’re my hero, Buckley.”

  Then she reached up and gave me a kiss on the nose.

  That was about all I remembered until my head cleared again. I found myself flopped over on the floor, and by then, she was gone. And I knew it was time for me to meet Bogey in the office.

  I got up on wobbly legs and stumbled down the stairs. Then I sort of tripped into our Mom’s office. Bogey was sitting on the desk and working on the computer. He had an open bag of cat treats next to him.

  He took one look at me. “Dames, kid. They’ll get you every time.”

  “Dames,” I mumbled back and jumped onto our Mom’s desk.

  Bogey passed me a few treats. “Here you go, kid. You look like you could use a couple of these.”

  I took the treats and munched away. Pretty soon I started to feel a little better.

  Bogey nodded at the computer screen. “Glad you made it, kid. Because we’ve got lots to talk about.”

  I blinked my eyes a couple of times and tried to focus. All of a sudden, I realized I was running short on sleep and long on being really, really tired. But if I wanted to be a great cat detective like Bogey, well, I had to look alive. As he would say.

  “Okay, I’m ready,” I told him and sat up straight.

  Bogey got right down to business. “First, here’s our new case as I see it. It’s pretty clear that Steele Bronson and his gang are in town to search for something. Something that must be pretty valuable. And I’ll bet it’s something that should belong to the residents of St. Gertrude. Cats included.”

  I nodded. “Uh-huh. And for some reason, they seem to think it might be in our house.”

  Bogey put his paw into the treat bag and pulled out a few treats. “Maybe, kid. Maybe. His buddies were doing a bang-up job of searching for something here. But I’m not sure they believed the real item they were after was in our house.”

  I tilted my head. “Huh? Then why were they searching so hard?”

  He passed us each a treat. “Because of something I overheard tonight, kid. When I was tailing Nadia. Right after Frank came downstairs, he and Nadia said something about an ‘old broad.’ They mentioned it a couple of times. And how that ‘old broad’ had to be here in town.”

  I crinkled my brows. “That isn’t a very nice way to talk about a lady. And they sure better not be talking about our Mom like that. Or Miss Mokie.”

  Bogey waved his paw in front of his face. “You’ve got that right, kid. But I don’t think they were. Seems to me the ‘old broad’ was something else. But I’m not sure what. I’m guessing it may be a very, very old painting of a woman. Or maybe a sculpture of a woman or something.”

  I put my paw to my chin, and for once, it went right where I wanted it to go. “Hmmm . . . So it could be something like a valuable painting. Or some kind of art.”

  Bogey nodded. “That’s my guess, kid. Something really expensive. Something like they put in famous art museums.”

  I shook my head. “But our Mom doesn’t have any valuable art stuff. Sure, she has some old paintings on the wall. And she has a few little sculpture things around. But I don’t think they’re worth a lot of money.”

  Bogey passed us each another round of treats. “Me either, kid. At least not the kind of money that Steele and his gang are talking about.”

  I took the treat in my paw. “And I’ve never heard of anybody in St. Gertrude having any really
famous paintings or anything.”

  Bogey bit into his own treat. “Ditto on that, kid.”

  Then it hit me. “Could it be an old book? Our Mom says some old books are worth a fortune. And that could be why Steele Bronson wants to film his movie at our library.”

  Bogey grinned at me. “I’m all ears, kid. I like your train of thought.”

  Funny, but all of a sudden, I didn’t feel so tired anymore. “But I still don’t understand. Why did we also hear them talk about searching our house for a key? It kind of seems like they’re looking for two different things.”

  Bogey grinned. “Exactly, kid. That brings me to the second thing I want to talk about. When they said they were looking for a key, I don’t think they were looking for a house key. Or a car key.”

  I crinkled my brows. “I wonder what kind of key they were looking for?”

  He nodded. “Remember me telling you about codes, kid? That there are two parts? There’s the code and then there’s the . . .”

  I jumped to my feet. “The key! You said the second part was a key.”

  Bogey gave me a paw bump. “Bingo, kid. The thing that decodes the code is called the key.”

  All of a sudden, my heart started to pound really hard. “So you think they were searching our house for the key to decode the code. And the decoded message will lead to the ‘old broad.’ Which could be a book or a painting or who knows what?”

  Bogey passed us each another treat. “Keep it up, kid. You’re on a roll.”

  Now I gulped. “So we’re in kind of a race. We’ve got to find this key before they do.”

  Bogey nodded. “You got it, kid.”

  Holy Mackerel! When I said this was our toughest case ever, I wasn’t kidding. It was turning into a real doozie. And I was having a hard time keeping track of everything.

  I scooted closer to the computer. “Okay, so what would this key look like?”

  Bogey raised his brows. “That’s what we’ve got to figure out. It could be a paper. Or a document. Or something from a book. Even a poem. But one thing I do know, is that Bronson and his bunch haven’t found it yet.”