The Case of the Clever Secret Code Read online

  “You got it, kid,” Bogey meowed.

  I shook my head. “That’s very sneaky. So it’ll be easier for her to break into our house and search for the key. When she and the others come back.”

  “Bingo, kid,” Bogey meowed. “I’m sure they plan to pull the tape off when they’re done. And shut the door behind them. So it would lock just fine.”

  I kept on staring at our house. “And nobody would even know they’d been there.”

  “But not this time, kid,” Bogey told me. “Lil plans to tail them and Miss Mokie will nail anyone who tries to mess with her. And the Princess will stay hidden. But it will be a very short visit. Just long enough to get caught red-handed.”

  I could hear the grin in his voice, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. Of course, everything depended on how things went with Bogey’s plan. I was glad we’d put the real key in my pet carrier last night after we’d finished with it. I could feel that paper under my blanket, along with a printout of what we’d found when we cracked the code. Just the idea of it made me smile. Nadia and Steele Bronson’s bunch could search our house all they wanted. But they would never find what they were looking for.

  Our whole family was pretty quiet as Bravo drove the limo to the library. Along the way, I could see people putting out flags and other decorations for the Fourth of July celebration tomorrow.

  “Do you have your essay?” our Dad asked Gracie.

  “Uh-huh,” she answered him. “I found a nice, new copy printed off for me this morning. Right on my desk. Thanks for putting it there.”

  Our Dad’s brows went up. “I’m not the one who put it there. It must have been your Mom.”

  Our Mom smiled at Gracie. “It wasn’t me. Maybe you put it there after you rewrote it on the computer. Remember, you were working on it the day before your party. Maybe you just forgot, with all the things that have been going on.”

  “Hmmm . . .” Gracie murmured. “I’m pretty sure this is a new copy. It wasn’t folded like my other copy was.”

  I could tell Bogey had another big grin on his face right about now. Because we knew who’d put that new copy on her desk.

  “Did you practice reading it any more?” our Mom asked softly. “I know life has been so crazy lately that you probably didn’t get much time to practice.”

  Gracie sighed. “I read it aloud once after I fixed it and printed out my copy. I took out most of the things that Frank guy wrote on it.”

  Our Dad put his hand on her shoulder. “I think that was a smart move.”

  Gracie turned to stare out the window. “I’m not looking forward to seeing the other kids. Especially Dylan. I don’t know why he got so upset at my party. I guess he didn’t like it when I tried to make him the winner.”

  Our Dad leaned over to Gracie. “Maybe Dylan thought you felt sorry for him. Some people don’t like having people take pity on them. It hurts their pride and makes them feel small. Even so, it sounds like Dylan really went overboard.”

  Boy, our Dad sure had that right!

  A few minutes later, we arrived at the library. Our Mom carried Bogey in his carrier and our Dad took me in mine. Gracie followed along with her head down as we all went into the building.

  Once we were inside, Nadia pointed to a corner. “Just leave your cats over there for now. We won’t need them for a while, so they can stay put.”

  Our Mom and Dad set us down with our pet carriers side by side. Then they turned and headed for the auditorium.

  But Gracie came back and unzipped our carriers. “I really need you two boys to be there for me today. Just like last time. Except it’s going to take a lot more courage for me to get on that stage today. Especially with Dylan being so mad at me. And I’m not sure, but I think the other kids might be mad, too.”

  I poked my head out and gave Gracie a big kiss on the nose. Just to let her know we’d be there for her. She gave us both a nice hug, right before Taffy came over.

  Taffy scowled at Gracie. “I’ve got to fix that hair of yours before you go on camera.”

  “My Mom already fixed my hair this morning,” Gracie said firmly.

  Taffy let out a loud huff and put her hands on her hips.

  Gracie ignored her and ran off to join our Mom and Dad. They were standing close to the auditorium entrance and talking to Officer Phoebe.

  Officer Phoebe raised an eyebrow. “I got the strangest email last night. It said I should be here today. But there was no name on the email. Only the initials BBCDA. Seems I’ve seen those initials somewhere before . . .”

  Before she could say another word, Nadia directed everyone to go into the auditorium. Bogey and I watched all the people wander inside, until there was no one left in the main room of the library. A few seconds later, we saw Nadia run out and make a beeline for the front door.

  Bogey glanced at me and grinned. We knew exactly where she was headed — to our house.

  And that’s when Bogey and I raced for the auditorium. Because let me tell you, now more than ever, we wanted to make sure our plan fell into place.

  Once we got into that huge room, we could hardly believe it. Everything looked almost exactly like it had for the original contest. The judges were there. And the kids in the contest were all sitting up front. I saw lots of the same people sitting in the audience, too. Bogey and I even slinked through the room exactly as we had on that first night. And we moved into the exact same spot where we hid for the original contest. Right under the chairs in the front row.

  Gracie was already on the stage and standing in front of the microphone. She had her head down and she was holding her essay in front of her. She looked very, very sad.

  I sure wished I could run up and give her a nice hug. But I knew I couldn’t just yet. Still, it didn’t stop me from waving at her. To let her know that Bogey and I were there for her.

  Steele Bronson paced around just below the stage. He had bags under his eyes, and for once, his hair wasn’t perfectly in place. In fact, it was really kind of a mess. I got the feeling he hadn’t gotten much sleep.

  I whispered to Bogey. “Do you think Steele Bronson was up all night, trying to crack the code?”

  Bogey grinned. “Looks like it, kid. I’m guessing it didn’t go too well. Probably because he had the wrong key.”

  That’s when I smiled. “He had the wrong key because we had the right key.”

  Bogey gave me a paw bump. “Thanks to you, kid. And your hunch. I’m proud of you. You’re on your way to becoming a topnotch cat detective.”

  Suddenly I felt kind of warm inside. I knew I wasn’t as good a cat detective as Bogey was, but I was getting better. I’d already had my first hunch. And thankfully, it had been right. Now I could hardly wait to have more hunches. Just like Bogey did.

  I nearly jumped when Steele Bronson clapped his hands. “Quiet on the set. Little Girl Reads Essay Scene! Take one! Ready!”

  Seconds later, he yelled “Action!” and somebody clapped the clapboard again.

  Gracie looked up and held her essay papers in front of her. Then she read it right into the microphone. This time she read it perfectly.

  “My name is Gracie Abernathy and I am proud to be an American,” she said with perfect inflection. “It makes me smile every time I see the red, white, and blue — the flag that is the symbol of our great country. When I see our flag, I am so happy that our forefathers and mothers started this great country, a place where people would have freedom. Of course, they risked everything they had — their homes, their belongings and even their own lives — to create this great nation of ours.”

  She paused and took a breath. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to imagine, but once upon a time, there was no country named America. In fact, the United States is leas than two hundred and fifty years old! And while that seems pretty old to me, believe it or not, as a country, that’s actually pretty young! Then again, it took a lot of years to grow and become this nation of fifty states. Especially since we started out very small,
with only thirteen colonies — Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.”

  Gracie paused for a breath. “Sometimes I try to imagine what life was like back in those original thirteen colonies. At first, the colonies were under the rule of England and King George II. But then, when King George III became king, little by little, our history changed forever. Just like my life changed forever this last week. The week that Steele Bronson came to town.”

  Suddenly Gracie’s eyes went wide. She hesitated for a moment, but she didn’t quit reading.

  Now her voice took on a whole different tone. “You see, when Steele Bronson showed up at my Mom’s store on Monday, I was so excited I could hardly stand it. That’s because Steele Bronson was my favorite movie star. And judging by the way everyone reacted when he got here, I think he was a lot of people’s favorite star.”

  Murmurs rose from the crowd.

  I leaned over to my brother. “So far so good. She’s reading your script.”

  Bogey grinned. “And she’s doing a bang-up job, kid.”

  I raised my brows. “So besides solving our case, we finally figured out how to help Gracie, too. But are we helping her to help herself?”

  Bogey nodded. “Close enough, kid. It still depends on whether she keeps reading or not. Let’s hope she keeps going till she gets to the good part.”

  Thankfully, Gracie blinked a few times and then read on. “Of course, Steele Bronson counted on everyone acting like they did around him. Because people sort of forgot themselves, since they were all so excited to see him. Especially when he claimed he had come to St. Gertrude to film a movie. The only thing is, he lied to us all. He’s not really here to make a movie. In fact, if you take a look, you’ll see the camera isn’t even on right now.”

  Gracie’s mouth fell open wide. She pointed to the camera halfway up the stairs to the right of the room. Gasps and murmurs rose from the audience.

  Now Gracie started to read really fast, like she wanted to see what else her new essay said. “Steele Bronson is really here because he and his bunch thought they had figured out the hidden location of a very important historic document. Right here in our town.”

  Steele Bronson suddenly stomped down to the stage. “Cut! Cut! Cut! I don’t know where you got that garbage, but that’s about enough of that!”

  And that’s when I saw something I hadn’t seen in a long, long time. I saw fire in Gracie’s eyes, because she was clearly very mad. So instead of stopping like Steele Bronson had told her to do, she just kept on reading.

  “You see,” she practically shouted, “Steele Bronson’s writer, Franklin Jefferson is related to both Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. He was doing research on both of those men, since they were both signers of the Declaration of Independence. And that’s when he learned that about two hundred copies of the Declaration had been printed up on the night of July 4th, 1776. Those copies were called Dunlap Broadsides. Those copies were sent out to the thirteen original colonies to announce that America had declared her independence. And today, there are only twenty-five of these copies known to exist. But people are still on the hunt to find the rest of these lost copies, since they are worth a fortune. The last one sold at an auction for over eight million dollars!”

  Steele Bronson raced up onto the stage. He tried to grab Gracie’s essay away from her. But she jumped to the side and held it away from him.

  “Enough of this!” Steele Bronson yelled into the microphone. “Cut, cut, cut! This is not part of the script. If you people don’t want to cooperate with my movie, I will have no problem replacing you.” Then he tried to grab Gracie.

  Before we knew it, our Dad was on his feet. He scooted down his row, then into the aisle, and headed straight for the stage.

  “Listen, Bronson,” he shouted. “You will not speak to my daughter like that! And you’d certainly better not touch her.”

  I glanced at Bogey. “Now?”

  Bogey nodded. “Now, kid.”

  Then together we ran across the floor in front of the stage and raced right up the steps. We actually got to Gracie before our Dad did.

  The people in the audience started making all kinds of noises. There was a whole lot more gasping, and a little shrieking, and lots and lots of talking.

  Finally the Mayor stood up. “Back down, Mr. Bronson. Let Gracie finish reading her . . . essay . . . or whatever this is. I want to hear what she has to say.”

  Steele Bronson started shouting and raising his fist in the air. “This is libel! This is slander! I’ll get you for this! All of you! I demand that you stop this charade!”

  The Mayor smiled at Gracie. “Please, if you would, Gracie? Go on.”

  Bogey stood on one side of her while I stood on the other. Then we sat up nice and tall. We made it pretty clear that neither Steele Bronson nor anyone else should come near her.

  Our Dad pulled Steele Bronson off to the side so Gracie could finish reading.

  Gracie put her papers in front of her again and spoke directly into the microphone. “Through Frank’s research, Steele Bronson and his bunch caught wind of a hidden Dunlap Broadside right here in St. Gertrude. And they wanted to come here and look for it, but without anyone suspecting what they were really up to. That’s why they pretended to be filming a movie here.”

  Gracie glanced at the audience before she kept on reading. “Once they found it, they planned to leave town with it. Then they planned to quietly sell it and make a lot of money. Even though the copy belongs here. At our library. But that didn’t matter to Steele Bronson and his group. Because they were willing to do whatever it took to find that document. Including breaking into someone’s house. Now, here’s the part of my story where I’d like to talk to Officer Phoebe. If you and the police would please go to my house right away, I think you’ll find we suddenly have some burglars. That’s because Steele Bronson’s bunch have broken into our house and are searching it right now . . .”

  Suddenly Gracie gasped and put her papers to her chest. “Mom and Dad, I think this is for real.”

  With that, Officer Phoebe jumped up and so did our Mom. She looked at our Dad and he mouthed the words, “Go with Pheobe!” Then Officer Phoebe and our Mom raced from the auditorium while Steele Bronson pulled out his cell phone. I’m pretty sure he was going to call Nadia and warn her. But our Dad grabbed his phone from him.

  I glanced at my brother. “It’s all going just like you planned.”

  Bogey’s mouth was set in a firm line. “We’re not out of the woods yet, kid. Gracie’s gotta finish reading the rest. Otherwise we’re sunk. And she looks like she’s about to fall apart.”

  Well, let me tell you, that was an understatement! Because Gracie had started to cry and she was hugging herself with her arms. I knew that she was about to go running off that stage any minute now.

  But if she did, our whole plan would fall apart. In a very big way! That meant we had to get Gracie to pull through, no matter what!

  But how?

  Holy Catnip!

  CHAPTER 26

  Holy Mackerel!

  There we were, just sitting on the stage and watching Gracie get more and more upset. Pretty soon she’d be crying so hard she wouldn’t even be able to read! Then our plan would fall apart right before our very eyes. Everything depended on her reading the rest of Bogey’s “script.”

  Somehow we had to get Gracie to go on.

  Bogey nodded to me. “Okay, kid. You know what to do. You’re the only one who can pull her out of this. Time to go to work.”

  And the funny thing was, I really did know what to do. I’d seen Gracie upset and scared many times before. So I knew exactly how to help her.

  Gracie needed a hug. A really good hug. And if there was ever a cat who could give her a good hug, it was me.

  So I ran to her and reached up her side. To get her to pick me up. And she did just that. She leaned
down and let me climb up into her arms, just like she always does.

  I quickly wrapped my arms around her neck. Then I purred as loud as I could. I was purring so loud I probably sounded like a lawn mower.

  “Thanks, Buckley,” she whispered into my fur. “I needed that. I think I’d like to go home now.”

  But I grabbed onto her even tighter. Then I pulled back and licked away a few of her tears. And I gave her a really big kiss on the nose.

  That’s when Gracie giggled. Just like she does lots of times when I give her a kiss.

  Then I leaned over and grabbed her essay papers with my teeth. I pulled them up and out of her hands. I brought them up higher and sort of put them in front of her face.

  She laughed and leaned back from the papers. “Buckley, what are you doing?”

  But I just pushed the papers even closer to her. Then I wiggled them around before I lowered them and stared into her eyes.

  Gracie gasped. “You want me to keep reading, don’t you, Buckley? That’s what you’re trying to tell me, isn’t it?”

  She took the essay papers from my mouth and I gave her another kiss on the nose.

  “Okay, Buckley,” she said softly. “If that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it.”

  I wrapped my arms around her and gave her another good hug. Just to let her know it would all be okay.

  Gracie took a deep breath and moved back in front of the microphone. I jumped down to the stage and she wiped away her tears.

  Then she started to read again in a shaky voice. “Now, you might all be wondering why Steele Bronson’s bunch even wants to break into my house right now. Well, they are looking for a key. But it’s not a regular key. You see, they’re looking for the key that cracks a secret code . . . the code that is written on the Fartheringston Stone on the second floor of our library.”

  Gracie gasped again and looked at Bogey and me with wide eyes. More gasps and murmurs rose from the audience. I even heard a few people say, “So that’s what’s written on that stone!”

  Gracie turned back to her pages and read faster now. “There are two parts to every code. The first is the code itself, and the second part is the key that is used to crack the code. The key can be almost anything. A letter, a page in a book, or another document. In this case, once the key was used to crack the code, it would lead to the location of the hidden Dunlap Broadside. One that had been passed down in Arthur Fartheringston’s family. That’s because Arthur was related to Benjamin Franklin.”