The Case of the Clever Secret Code Read online

  In the meantime, that big, heavy wheel had rolled right up and over the Count’s car. It dented the trunk and the roof and the hood with a loud thunk, thunk, thunk! Then it sort of bounced onto the pavement and right into the middle of the street. I could still see it rolling on and on. I wondered when it might ever stop.

  If it ever stopped.

  But right at the moment, I was more worried about Bogey and the Princess. So I jumped off the Countess’ back and ran around the car. There I found Bogey standing on the Count’s back. Thankfully Bogey had hit his mark and landed safely too. The Count was lying on the ground and he was sort of moaning.

  “Way to go, kid!” Bogey said with a grin. “Wow, that was a wild ride, wasn’t it?”

  Boy, he could say that again.

  He shook himself all over. “Remind me to send Steele Bronson a thank-you note, kid. For the wheel. Who knew it would come in handy like that?”

  Well, I sure never knew we’d end up using it like we did. But right at that moment, I needed to know that the Princess was okay. So I jumped into the front seat of the car and called her name. She poked her little head out and smiled a very shaky smile. She was pretty scared, but other than that, she was fine.

  “Oh Buckley,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I knew you’d come for me. I just knew it.”

  I was pretty careful not to look into her big, green eyes. Especially since we hadn’t finished with our job yet. I knew I couldn’t be getting all dizzy and flopping over in the middle of a rescue.

  “Let’s get you home, Princess,” I told her.

  Then I helped her jump from the car.

  Just as Officer Phoebe came running up. “Buckley and Bogey! And little Lexie! What in the world are you cats doing?”

  But then she spotted the Count as he was starting to get up. “Wait a minute . . . isn’t that the Count Von De Meenasnitzel? He’s a wanted fugitive! He and his wife escaped from prison.”

  She glanced quickly at us. “You cats were chasing them down? How did you know . . .?”

  Before she could say another word, two firemen showed up.

  “Did you see that thing?” one fireman asked. “What in Heaven’s name was that big wheel that went by? I’ve never seen anything like it . . .”

  Then they tended to the Count and Countess, just as Officer Phoebe put them under arrest.

  That’s when Bogey nodded at the road. “Time to head home. We’ve got a long walk.”

  And while a big crowd gathered on the sidewalk to see what had happened, us cats quietly sneaked out of there. This time we trotted home a little more slowly. Bogey and I stayed on either side of the Princess. I could tell she was still pretty scared that she’d been taken.

  About a half an hour later, we got to our house. Gracie and our Mom had been standing in the front yard. Gracie’s cheeks were stained with tears.

  That was, until she spotted us coming up the sidewalk. Then she threw her arms into the air and screamed. She came running straight for us. Our Mom followed. Our Mom picked up Bogey and the Princess, and Gracie got me.

  She hugged me tight the whole way home. “I thought I lost you,” she sobbed into my fur. “I thought I lost all three of you. I didn’t even care if my party turned out to be a big mess. I only cared about losing you cats. You’re part of my family.”

  I wrapped my arms around her neck and buried my head into her long, dark hair.

  They took us into our house and shut the door behind us. I couldn’t remember ever being so glad to be home.

  Holy Catnip.

  CHAPTER 24

  Holy Mackerel!

  That night Gracie did not let us out of her sight. And let me tell you, us cats didn’t mind one bit. I was so happy to have the Princess back safe and sound. I didn’t even want to think about how close we’d come to losing her forever.

  I think Gracie felt the same way. Not only was she upset about her party, but she was even more upset that the Princess had been stolen. And, that Bogey and I had rolled out of the house on our wheel and disappeared for a while. So when Gracie went to bed that night, she brought all of us into her room with her. While Lil stayed at the end of the bed, Gracie kept an arm over me and the Princess on one side. She kept another arm over Bogey on her other side. Then she did her very best to stay awake and keep an eye on us. The only one missing was the Wise One. But Gracie probably didn’t want to take Miss Mokie out of her sunroom.

  I was already pretty tired by the time Gracie had brought us to her room. And I had to say, there was nothing I liked better than to be snuggled when I was tired. So it wasn’t long before I dozed off for a while.

  After all, it had been a really long night. Officer Phoebe had shown up at our house shortly after she’d caught the Count and Countess. She came in to talk to our Mom and Dad, but she seemed to have trouble finding the words. Bogey and I sat nearby and watched the whole thing.

  “Um . . .” Officer Phoebe started. “I’m not sure why, but I found three of your cats at the scene. And right before that, I saw Buckley and Bogey rolling in a giant wheel along the street . . . They appeared to be chasing a silver car.”

  Then Phoebe closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were trying to catch the Count and Countess. Since, well . . . truth be told, they actually did catch them.”

  Our Mom smiled and shook her head. “I know what you mean, Phoebe. The Count and Countess had just run in and kidnapped little Lexie. And the next thing I knew, the boys were running after her in that big exercise wheel.”

  Officer Phoebe peeked out with one eye. “How on earth do I explain this in my report?”

  Bogey leaned my way. “Writing up that report doesn’t sound too tough to me. She saw the BBCDA in action, kid. That about sums it up.”

  I turned and meowed to Bogey. “But she left out a lot of the good stuff. Like how we turned the corner in that wheel. And how we timed it perfectly to land on the Count and Countess.”

  Bogey shook his head. “I hear ya, kid. I hear ya.”

  Funny, but the humans never did give us credit for solving so many cases. They just didn’t understand the great crime solving skills that cat detectives have.

  I glanced up to see our Mom and Dad and Officer Phoebe all staring at us.

  “They’re meowing to us,” Officer Phoebe murmured. “It’s like they understand what we’re saying . . .”

  Our Dad laughed. “Welcome to our world, Phoebe.”

  Then he walked over and gave both of us pets on the head. “I’d like to think my guys were out there rescuing a damsel in distress. And if any cats could do it, it would be these two.”

  “What ever happened to the wheel?” our Mom wanted to know.

  Officer Phoebe shook her head. “Nobody knows for sure. But we’ve been getting lots of reports about it. Someone said they saw it on the highway, and someone else said it was down on Main Street. And somebody else thought they spotted it rolling down the runway at the airport.”

  Now our Mom laughed. “So we may never know.”

  Our Dad rubbed his head. “I don’t think we’ll be too upset if that wheel is gone for good.”

  Boy, he could say that again. Though to tell you the truth, Bogey and I did have some fun with it. Once we got the hang of it out there on the street, that was.

  After Officer Phoebe had left, Nadia showed up on the doorstep. I had to say, Nadia did not seem happy. In fact, she acted kind of mad.

  By that time, our family was too tired to let her in.

  Nadia glared at our Mom. “It looks like we’ll be filming again tomorrow. We’ll need Gracie, and we’d like both you and your husband to be there. Plus your two black cats. We’re going to film Gracie’s essay.”

  But Gracie shook her head. “No, thanks. I think I’ve had about enough of all that.”

  That’s when Nadia’s eyes went really wide and sweat beaded up on her forehead. “No! You can’t quit now. You have to be there. Steele will be so upset and
disappointed. You don’t want to disappoint him, do you?”

  “Well . . .” Gracie started to say.

  Nadia thunked a hand to her chest. “Please, I’m begging you. Steele will be heartbroken. He’s had such a rough week. Something like this will put him over the edge.”

  Gracie moaned. “Fine. I’ll be there.”

  “And the rest of you?” Nadia sort of whimpered. “You’ll be there, too?”

  “Fine,” our Dad said. “We’ll all be there. But not for the whole day. It’s our holiday weekend, and we plan to have some fun.”

  “Good,” Nadia said, and suddenly she smiled a very smug smile.

  She leaned into our house, and her eyes darted right and then left, before she glanced up the stairs. Then she craned her neck around to look into our Mom’s office.

  Our Dad took a step forward, sort of making her scoot back out onto the porch. He started to close the door.

  “We’ll be expecting you at nine,” she said quickly.

  “Fine,” our Dad said right before he shut the door behind her.

  I turned to my brother and raised my brows. “What was that all about?”

  Bogey grinned and gave me a paw bump. “It means they didn’t find the key, kid. To crack the code. And they want us out of here so they can break in and search for it.”

  I gulped. “They do?”

  Bogey nodded. “Yup, kid. Which makes the odds even better that you did find the real key. I have a hunch that your hunch was right. But we’ll find out tonight when we plug it in.”

  I suddenly started to shake a little. “But what will we do if they come to our house and break in? Especially if we have to go the library tomorrow?”

  Bogey put his paw on my shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, kid. I’ve got a plan.”

  He did? Holy Catnip!

  And that was the last we got to talk about it. Because right after that, Gracie and our Mom and Dad took us cats up to Gracie’s room. So she could keep an eye on us. And that’s when I felt so nice being snuggled, that I must have dozed right off.

  It was hours later when I woke up. Lil and the Princess were still there. But Bogey was long gone. And Gracie was snoring softly.

  I wiggled out from under Gracie’s arm. The Princess was sound asleep, and I was careful not to wake her. After all, she’d had a terrifying day. It was probably bad enough just to see her old abusive owners. Let alone get kidnapped by them.

  So I left her all snuggled up still with a peaceful look on her face.

  Then I tiptoed off the bed and carefully dropped down to the floor. Lil nodded and saluted me as I was leaving. I saluted her back. Perfectly.

  I could hardly believe it! Lil smiled as I walked quietly to the hallway. Then I made a beeline for the office. I was dying to know if the page we’d found at the library was the real key or not. And I was dying to see if Bogey had already started in trying to crack the code.

  I ran full speed ahead into our Mom’s office. I spotted Bogey working on the computer right away.

  He waved me in and handed me a couple of cat treats from an open bag. “I’ll be right with you, kid. I’m almost finished writing this.”

  I munched on a treat and tried to be patient. “What are you working on?”

  He grabbed another treat for himself and grinned. “Let’s just say I’m writing a script for this movie tomorrow.”

  My eyes went wide. “A script? You are?”

  His grin got even wider. “Yup, kid. I wasn’t too happy with the ending on the old one. So I thought I’d write a better ending.”

  I shook my head. “But we know it’s not even a real movie. It’s all just a cover so Steele Bronson and his bunch can look for the Dunlap Broadside. Plus, I’m not even sure there ever was a script. So how could there be an ending?”

  But Bogey just grinned again and passed me another cat treat. “Let’s just say there’s an ending now, kid. A good one, too. But I’ll fill you in on the details later. First we’ve got some other business to handle.”

  I crinkled my brows. “Um . . . We do?”

  Bogey took a treat for himself. “Yup, kid. Starting with the email we got from Luke tonight.”

  I grabbed a couple of treats from the bag and handed one to Bogey. “So how is our friend, Luke?”

  Bogey took the treat. “He’s got a little problem, kid. Three cats were brought in to the Buckley and Bogey Cat Shelter today. They’ve been part of a family for a long time. So they don’t want to be split up. They want to be adopted into a new home together.”

  Well, I had to say, I sure wouldn’t want to be separated from my family!

  “What happened to their home?” I asked.

  Bogey shook his head. “It’s a sad case, kid. They only had a human Mom, and she was very, very old. She just passed away.”

  I gasped. “And there was nobody left to take care of her cats?”

  Bogey rubbed his forehead with his paw. “‘Fraid not, kid. Luke asked us to be on the lookout for a family who could take all three.”

  I handed him another treat and took one for myself. “We’ll keep our eyes open, that’s for sure.”

  Now Bogey grabbed a folded piece of paper from a drawer of our Mom’s desk. A folded piece of paper that I recognized. It was the page that we’d pulled from Mr. Fartheringston’s book.

  Suddenly my heart started to pound and my paws started to shake. At long last, we were going to find out if my hunch had been right. And if this paper really was the key that would decode the secret code.

  Bogey unfolded the paper on top of the desk. Then he called up the picture of the Fartheringston Stone on the computer.

  “So, kid,” he said with a grin. “Here’s our next order of business. Are you ready to solve this thing?”

  I gulped. “Um . . . I’m ready.”

  Bogey passed us each another round of cat treats. “Okay, kid. I’ve already got us started. I’ve already numbered all the letters in the alphabet.”

  I looked at him sideways. “Huh?”

  Bogey pointed to a list he’d made on the computer screen. “‘A’ is number one. ‘B’ is number two . . .”

  I nodded. “ . . . and ‘C’ is number three.”

  Bogey sat up straight. “That’s it, kid. All the way down to the letter ‘Z.’”

  I tilted my head sideways. “Oh . . . okay. But why did you do that?”

  Bogey nodded at the screen. “Take a closer look at the stone, kid. If you look at it right, you’ll see all the letters are grouped into pairs.”

  I scooted toward the screen. And sure enough, for the first time, I saw what Bogey was talking about. The letters were all sort of together in pairs.

  Bogey put his paw to the screen. “I figure the first letter in each pair is for the paragraph on the page. The second letter is for the word in that paragraph. And just like most codes, we’ll take the first letter of each word. Got it, kid?”

  Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn’t completely sure what he meant just yet. But I figured I’d go along with a few to see what he was talking about.

  Bogey pointed to the first pair. “We have a ‘J’ and a ‘B’ here. So, the letter ‘J’ is the tenth letter in the alphabet. That means we go to the tenth paragraph on our key.”

  Now Bogey moved his paw over to the paper and counted until he’d found the tenth paragraph.

  I was finally starting to catch on. “And since ‘B’ is the second letter of the alphabet, we go to the second word in the paragraph.”

  Bogey nodded. “You got it, kid. And that word starts with the letter ‘I.’ So ‘I’ is the first letter in our code. Let’s go on to the next pair.”

  Suddenly I felt chills running up and down my spine. “Got it. We have the letter ‘F’ and the letter ‘N’. Since ‘F’ is the sixth letter in the alphabet, we go to the sixth paragraph.”

  Bogey put his paw on the paper again. “And since the letter ‘N’ is the fourteenth letter, we go to the fourteen word in the paragraph. That word
starts with the letter ‘H.’”

  And on we went. One letter at a time. Back and forth. From the picture on the computer to the key on the old sheet of paper. Then together, Bogey and I cracked the code. By the time we set off to run our first surveillance round of the night, we knew exactly where that Dunlap Broadside was hidden. Right there in the library.

  But we still had to get to that famous document before Steele Bronson did.

  We quickly finished running surveillance on the first floor and raced up the stairs to check out the second floor. That’s when Bogey told me all about his plan to save that copy of the Declaration for St. Gertrude. I gulped when I heard it. Because it sure depended on a lot of people acting just like we thought they would. And who would ever guess that his plan also depended on letting someone break into our house?

  The thought of it made me shiver. But one thing was for sure, tomorrow was going to be a doozie of a day.

  Now there was nothing left to do but wait until morning when we could put that very plan into place.

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 25

  Holy Catnip!

  That night, I hardly slept a wink. And I was still pretty bleary-eyed the next morning when Bravo arrived to pick us up. This time Nadia came with him. She held the front door for us while our Mom and Dad carried Bogey and me out to the limo. Gracie walked quietly behind us. The sun was bright in the sky and the outside air was already heating up. It was going to be another hot day. Though I had a feeling the temperature wasn’t the only thing that was going to be hot today. Oh no. I figured things would be heating up at the library very, very soon . . .

  Bogey meowed over to me from his pet carrier. “Check it out, kid. Nadia just slipped a piece of tape over the door latch.”

  I turned to see her following us to the limo. “Why did she do that?”

  “So the door won’t lock, kid. It’ll shut just like normal. And our Mom and Dad probably think the door locked automatically. Like it always does. But with that tape over it, the latch won’t slide closed.”

  I felt the fur on my back stand on end. “So all they have to do is push the door and it’ll open right up?”