Spy Cat (6 page)

“Go ahead and catch him and take him home,” Mary said. “Rocky and I can keep looking for Pearly.”

Alex hesitated, debating whether to say what he was thinking. Lately he had begun to suspect that Pete was not an ordinary cat. He wondered if Pete understood what people said and even tried to communicate with them.

Alex had not mentioned this suspicion to anyone. He was afraid his parents would react the way they did when Benjie told his fanciful stories about flying animals.

Tonight Rocky had witnessed Pete’s behavior. He knew that the reason the boys had seen the van was that Pete woke Alex up, as if the cat had wanted him to look out the window.

Alex decided to take a chance. “I hope you won’t think this is a really far-out thing to say,” he began, “but Pete sometimes seems to know things. He acts like he understands what’s going on as if he were human. The reason we saw that van tonight was because Pete jumped on me while I was asleep, and meowed until I got up to feed him, and then he ran to the window, and when we looked out, we saw the van leaving. It was as if he knew it was there and was trying to show us.”

“That’s true,” Rocky said. “Pete acted strange.”

“Cats are very intelligent,” Mary said.

“
Hurry up!
”
Pete called.
“
Pearly’s smell is strong right at the base of this maple tree.
”

“I’m wondering if he might be calling us to come now,” Alex said. “Maybe he knows where Pearly is. Let’s skip this part of the yard and go over where Pete is.”

“
Don’t stand there talking. Get a move on!
”

Alex started into the wooded area at the rear of the Kendrills’ property. Mary and Rocky followed. Besides shining their lights back and forth on the ground, they also aimed the lights up into the branches of each tree that they passed. They couldn’t see Pete yet, but they could certainly hear him.

“
I smell her! I smell her! Come this way!
”

“If he’s found Pearly, he’s probably scaring her half to death with all that screeching,” Mary said. “I don’t imagine Pearly has ever seen a cat—certainly not one as big as Pete.”

Alex’s flashlight picked up two gleaming eyes. “There he is,” he said. He kept the light aimed at Pete. The cat stood beside the brush pile where Alex and his dad had heaped branches that had come down in a recent windstorm.

“Birds and small animals need brush piles for cover,” Mr. Kendrill had told Alex. “Eventually the branches will rot and enrich the soil, so why cart them off to the dump?”

Mary swept her light across the tangled tree limbs.

“
I tracked her this far
,”
Pete said.
“
The smell goes into these branches
,
but it doesn’t come out the other side. She’s hiding in the branches.
”

“Can you make him be quiet?” Mary asked. “Pearly’s scared of every little unexpected sound, and I imagine an animal noise is the most frightening of all. If she is hiding in there, she’ll never come out while Pete’s meowing.”

“
I’m only trying to help
,”
Pete said.

“Be quiet, Pete,” Alex said. He inched closer to the cat.

Rocky walked to the far side of the brush pile and moved his flashlight across the branches. “I don’t see Pearly,” he whispered.

“
She’s in there
,
all right
,”
Pete said.

“Shh,” Alex said.

Mary crouched on the ground, beside Pete. Both of them peered into the brush pile as Alex moved closer. Mary slid her hand over to Pete. “I have hold of his collar,” she said.

“
Traitor!
”
Pete said.
“
I thought you wanted to pet me.
”

Alex picked up Pete. “I’m going to put Pete in the house,” Alex said. “I’ll be right back.”

“
Is this the thanks I get for helping?
”
Pete said.
“
Put me down!
”

As Alex carried a struggling Pete out of the trees and across the grass, he heard voices. The police had arrived at Mary’s house. He hoped they would catch the burglars soon.

Alex had planned to open the door, dump Pete inside, and return to Mary and Rocky, but when he opened the
door, he saw Benjie sitting at the kitchen table, sobbing. The knot in Alex’s stomach tightened.

“He woke up,” Mr. Kendrill said. “I told him what happened.”

“If the bad guys stole Pearly, they might come and steal Lizzy, too,” Benjie said, “or Pete. Or one of us.”

“Pete’s right here,” Alex said. “He’s fine. I brought him home.”

“Nobody’s going to steal Lizzy or Pete,” Mr. Kendrill said. “Burglars steal things they can sell. There are ‘free kitten’ ads in the paper all the time.”

“The police are at Mary’s house,” Alex said, hoping that would make Benjie feel safer.

Benjie didn’t answer. He wiped his nose on his pajama sleeve and cried harder.

“I need to go back and help Mary and Rocky,” Alex said. “We think Pearly is hiding in our brush pile.”

“
She is
,”
Pete said.
“
I could smell her.
”

“Be careful,” Mr. Kendrill said. “That possum is a wild animal, and it’s probably scared.”

“Mary has a pet carrier like Pete’s to put Pearly in when we find her.”

Pete ran to the door and got ready to bolt, but this time Mr. Kendrill held Pete while Alex went out.

“
This is an outrage
,”
Pete said as he tried to wiggle out of Mr. Kendrill’s grasp.
“
I’m the one who found Pearly
;
I should get to see her.
”

As Alex hurried back toward the trees, he felt angry and frustrated. Those burglars had no right to break into houses and steal things and let animals loose and frighten little kids.

Until today, when there was news of any crime, Benjie had wanted to grab his spy kit and go hunt for the bad guys.

Now Benjie was scared. He had cried when he heard about the burglary at Rocky’s house, and he had been watching for criminals rather than flying green panthers when he found Lizzy. These break-ins had been too close to home.

Alex hurried toward the brush pile.

“I think I see her,” Mary said. “While you were gone, we could hear rustling right about there.” She pointed to the center of the brush pile. “We waited for you to get back so that the two of you can guide her into the cage while I hold it open.”

“Let’s take the branches off the top and work our way down into the center,” Rocky suggested.

“I’ll go on the other side,” Alex said. “We can prop our flashlights on the ground so they’re aimed where we’re working.”

Alex went to the far side of the brush pile. He put the handle end of his flashlight on the ground and stuck a small stone under the wide end to aim the light toward the center of the pile. Mary did the same on her side, and Rocky aimed his light at one end of the pile.

They began pulling branches from the top of the heap, and tossing them aside.

“I hope we aren’t destroying any bird nests,” Mary said. She tugged at a large branch whose twigs were twined with the branch beneath it like clasped fingers.

“The police are at your house,” Alex said.

“They don’t need to talk to me,” Mary said. “Gramma knows as much about what happened as I do.”

They pulled more branches off the pile. “We should have worn gloves,” Rocky said. “We’re getting all scratched and cut.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t say anything,” Mary whispered.

Alex and Rocky nodded agreement.

A light rain began to fall. Alex shivered as a raindrop hit the back of his neck. He heard rustling in the brush pile and saw Mary move the carrier closer.

Alex peered down through the branches toward the sound. He saw a patch of gray fur. He waved to get Mary’s attention, then pointed. Rocky pointed, too.

Mary pulled two more branches off the pile.

Alex looked down at a triangular-shaped white face with a pink nose and small dark ears. He had never seen a live possum. The rest of the fur looked light where it was close to the body and silver-gray at the edge.

She had whiskers, much like Pete’s. Not counting her tail, Pearly was about a foot long. Her pink feet scrabbled in the leaves as she tried to burrow into the brush pile.

Mary grabbed the pet carrier and held the open door toward Pearly.

Alex clapped his hands and shouted, “Run, Pearly!”

The startled possum turned back toward Mary and waddled out of the brush pile. Mary positioned the carrier so that Pearly went straight into it.

“I got her!” she cried as she latched the carrier door shut.

“Is she okay?” Rocky asked.

Mary shined her flashlight into the cage. “She looks fine. Let’s take her home.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow and put the brush pile back together,” Alex said.

“I’ll help,” Mary said. “Thanks for coming with me to find Pearly. I don’t think I could have caught her by myself.”

“I’m glad we found her,” Alex said.

The boys went to Mary’s house, where Alex and Rocky answered questions from the sheriff about the van. They told exactly what they had seen, which didn’t seem like much.

“How did you happen to look out the window at two in the morning?” Mrs. Sunburg asked.

“My cat woke me up,” Alex said. He looked at Rocky and Mary, who both nodded as if to say they knew Pete had awakened Alex because of the van, but they weren’t going to say that.

When the sheriff left, Alex, his mom, and Rocky ran through the rain to Alex’s house. Mr. Kendrill had hot chocolate ready for them.

Benjie had stopped crying and was petting Lizzy. “Did you find Pearly?” he asked.

“Yes. She’s back in her cage.”

“
Thanks to me
,”
said Pete.

“I’m going to bed,” Mr. Kendrill said.

“So am I,” Alex said.

“Me, too,” said Rocky. The boys finished their hot chocolate and rinsed their cups.

“I’m going to stay up and play with Lizzy,” Benjie said.

“You are going to bed,” Mrs. Kendrill said.

“Lizzy wants to play.”

“You can take Lizzy upstairs with you, but leave your door open so she can get out if she wants to.”

“She won’t want to,” Benjie said as he carried the kitten up the stairs. “She needs me to protect her if the burglars come here and try to steal her.”

Alex noticed that his parents didn’t try to convince Benjie that this wasn’t possible.

Alex flopped into bed, and Rocky crawled back into the sleeping bag. Tired to the core, they lay listening to the rain on the roof.

“It’s raining hard now,” Rocky said. “I’m glad Pearly and Pete are both safely inside where they belong.”

Alex was glad of that, too, but he couldn’t relax and fall asleep. Even after he heard Rocky’s soft, even breathing, Alex thought about the burglaries, and about Benjie. He heard the grandfather clock downstairs strike four, then five. The knot in his stomach didn’t go away.

First Rocky’s house and now Mary’s. What was next?

T
he next morning
after Rocky left, Alex started into the bathroom. He stopped when he saw his
brother. Benjie was so absorbed in what he was doing, he didn’t notice Alex watching him.

Benjie had six envelopes lined up on the bathroom counter. He had printed on them in black marker, with a single word on each envelope:
MOM DAD ALEX BENJIE PETE LIZZY
.

Benjie ran a comb through Mom’s hairbrush, removed the loose hair, and stuffed it into the envelope that had her name on it.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked.

“I’m collecting DNA.”

“What?”

“DNA. The police can identify people that way. It’s like a fingerprint, only better. I read about it in one of my spy books. They can tell from a bit of skin or blood or hair which person it came from.”

“I know what DNA is,” Alex said. “Why are you collecting it?”

“I’m getting some DNA from everybody in our family,” Benjie said, “in case the burglar kidnaps one of us. Then the police can check the clothes of any suspects for hair or blood or skin, and if the DNA matches, they can prove he did it and that will help find the kidnapped person.”

Using tape, Benjie carefully sealed the envelope marked
MOM
. Then he returned the hairbrush to its drawer.

“The burglar isn’t going to kidnap any of us,” Alex said. It made him sad that Benjie was so worried. Although Benjie already knew how to read well, he was only seven years old; he should be outside riding his bike or looking for one of his imaginary flying animals. He shouldn’t be gathering evidence to trap a possible kidnapper.

“How do you know he won’t kidnap us?” Benjie said. “He’s a bad guy, isn’t he? Bad guys do lots of terrible things.”

“The burglar only takes items he can sell,” Alex said. “He steals television sets, cameras, jewelry—stuff that he can get rid of in a hurry to raise some cash.” Alex tried to make a joke of the situation. “He won’t kidnap one of us because who would pay the ransom? Mom and Dad are always complaining that they’re short of money.”

Benjie took an electric razor out of the cupboard. He opened the
DAD
envelope, held the head of the razor inside, then tapped it against the side of the sink.

“I’d pay,” Benjie said. “I’d give my allowance and everything in my piggy bank and all my birthday money to get you or Lizzy or Pete or Mom or Dad back.”

Fondness for his little brother filled Alex. Benjie could be a real pain sometimes, but down deep he was a good kid.

“Hey, I’d pay for you, too,” Alex said, “but it won’t be necessary.”

“Do you have a hairbrush?” Benjie asked, after he taped the
DAD
envelope shut.

“No, but you can empty my razor.”

Benjie gave him a disgusted look. “You don’t shave yet.”

“I was kidding. I don’t have a hairbrush, either. I use a comb.”

“Would you comb your hair and give me what comes out?”

Alex sighed. He could tell he’d never convince Benjie that his DNA project was unnecessary. Once his brother got started on a spy activity, there was no stopping him.