Spy Cat (3 page)

“This morning.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Mrs. Kendrill asked. “Were Rocky and his parents at home?”

Alex told his shocked family what had happened. When he finished, he heard a sniffling sound and saw a tear roll down Benjie’s cheek.

“What if the burglars come here?” Benjie said.

“
They’ll regret it
,”
Pete said. He went to his scratching post and began sharpening his claws.

“Oh, honey, they won’t come here,” Mrs. Kendrill said.

“How do you know?” Benjie said. “They went to Rocky’s house. They might come to our house and try to steal Pete.”

“
Let them try
,”
said Pete.

Mrs. Kendrill went to Benjie and hugged him.

“The burglars might come to my school,” Benjie said.

Mr. Kendrill pointed the remote control at the TV and switched to a channel that played cartoons.

“If burglars come to Hilltop School,” Alex said, “the whole sixth grade will catch them and tie them up.” He flexed his muscles and made a tough-guy face.

Benjie started watching the cartoon, but Alex caught
the worried glance that his parents exchanged and knew these burglaries were making them anxious, too.

“
If the burglar comes here
,”
Pete said
, “
I’ll chase him away. I’ll sneak up behind him and bite him in the rear. He won’t be able to sit down for a week.
”

“Alex,” Mr. Kendrill said, “did you remember to feed Pete this morning?”

“Yes. I think he’s meowing because he wants to go out.”

“
I’m not meowing
,”
Pete said.
“
I’m speaking perfect English.
”

“Want a cookie?” Benjie offered the package to Alex.

Alex shook his head. “No, thanks.”

He wasn’t hungry anymore.

He got Pete’s harness and leash. It was time for what Alex called “cat meditation hour.” Maybe if he stood around outside while Pete ate grass and watched the birds, he would feel less jittery.

The purpose of Pete’s outings was to give him exercise, but Pete, after begging to go out, often sat in one spot the whole time he was outside. Usually, when Alex stood quietly in the grass beside Pete, he felt calm. The rustling of the wind in the trees, the movements of the birds, and the sun on his shoulders were soothing and made any problems seem less urgent.

Not today. Today the world seemed less safe than it had been yesterday. Even the trees seemed to whisper ominous
warnings, and the sudden flights of the birds hinted at danger. Instead of closing his eyes and letting the sun warm his face as he usually did, Alex found himself looking over his shoulder.

Benjie is right, he thought. The burglars could come to our house next.

W
hen the cartoons
ended, Benjie put two cookies in his jacket pocket and hung his binoculars around
his neck. He walked to his secret hideout, which was a clump of huckleberry bushes on a vacant corner lot. He dropped to his hands and knees, then backed into the bushes until only his face stuck out.

He pressed his binoculars to his eyes and turned his head slowly from side to side. He had a good view of Valley View Drive, the main street into the housing development where he lived. He could see any vehicles that turned onto his street, Elm Lane, and any that went past Elm, toward Rocky’s street.

He had planned to watch for flying green panthers today, but that was before he found out that Rocky’s house had been burglarized. Now Benjie was watching for burglars or kidnappers or other bad guys.

Benjie knew Mom and Dad were upset about the burglaries.
They had warned him twice not to talk to strangers, as if he didn’t know that already, and had made him promise not to go beyond the corner.

Dad had even dug in the junk drawer for the whistle that he used when he coached Alex’s basketball team and had insisted that Benjie wear the whistle around his neck when he was outdoors alone.

“You can blow it if you ever get lost,” Dad had said.

Benjie knew Dad really meant, you can blow it if you ever need help. Those burglars were bad guys. If they were bad enough to kick in Rocky’s door and steal things, and to hit that man on the head, maybe they’d do other bad stuff, like blow up houses or kidnap children. Benjie intended to stay watchful.

Every time a car drove down the street, Benjie looked at it through his binoculars. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, since Valley View Estates was several miles from any city. Only the small town of Hilltop was farther up the road. After Hilltop, the paved road ended. A narrow dirt road continued for a time, then quit altogether.

Benjie saw an old dented truck turn down Elm Lane. It said
MUSCLE MEN MOVERS
on the side. Good, he thought. Mary’s furniture is here. He saw two neighbors who lived on Alder Court, the next street over from the Kendrills’. They were both driving down Valley View, headed for the highway; half an hour later one of them returned.

Next he spotted a vehicle he did not recognize: a mudsplattered pickup truck that sat up higher over the tires than it was meant to. The truck turned onto Elm but made a U-turn right away. It stopped at the corner and sat there with the engine idling. Benjie fiddled with his binoculars, focusing on the truck.

The driver was a young man wearing a red baseball cap. The woman who sat in the passenger’s side had long hair pulled back into a ponytail. Both of them looked around, peering over their shoulders as if they wanted to be sure they were alone.

Benjie glanced up and down the street. He saw nobody. As he looked at the truck again, the woman opened her door and leaned out. Benjie wondered if she was carsick. As he trained the binoculars on her, she sat up again and slammed the door shut.

Instantly, the tires squealed. The driver took off as if he were in a race, leaving a black puff of exhaust fumes behind him.

As the truck turned the corner and sped away, Benjie looked back at where the truck had stopped.

A brown cardboard box about a foot square sat in the street, right beside where the truck had been.

The woman wasn’t carsick, Benjie thought. She leaned out to put that box on the street, and then they drove away fast and left it behind.

Possibilities flew through Benjie’s mind like a video on fast-forward. It’s a bomb, Benjie thought. It’s a bomb on a timer and it will explode. He looked at the box again. But why would anyone blow up an empty street? Benjie had seen enough news broadcasts to know that terrorists who set off bombs always chose crowded places where they could do as much damage as possible.

Benjie started to crawl out of his secret place. He would run home and tell Mom and Dad about the box. They could call the police and let them come and get the box.

He stopped as a new idea occurred to him. Maybe the box was filled with illegal drugs. The people in the truck are drug dealers and this is how they distribute the drugs. Probably another car would drive up soon and take the box away. If so, Benjie needed to stay in his spy place and watch so he could give the police a description of the car and the people who picked up the box.

He crawled back in the huckleberry bushes and waited. He opened his backpack and removed the notebook and pencil. Although Benjie knew how to read, he didn’t write very well yet, so he couldn’t write down a description of the truck; he would have to remember what it looked like.

He knew his numbers, though, and he knew the alphabet. If a car stopped near the box, Benjie would get the license number and print it in his notebook.

Even without the number he could give the police a good description of the truck. While he waited for another car to come he practiced what he would say.

He focused the binoculars on the box again.

The top of the box moved! Benjie leaned forward.

The box moved again. One of the top flaps, which was tucked inside the other flap, kept going up and down as if something alive was inside the box trying to get out.

Benjie crept out of the bushes. He looked in all directions and saw no vehicles. He ran to the box and crouched beside it.

“Mrow.”

The sound was so soft that it took a second for Benjie to realize what he had heard.

“Mrow.” A tiny paw poked up in the space where the edges of the flaps were folded together.

Benjie opened the box and looked inside.

A small black-and-tan-striped kitten clambered up the side of the box and toppled into the street. Benjie scooped the kitten up and held it close. “It’s okay, kitty,” he whispered. “You’re safe now.”

Outrage flooded through Benjie. Those people had deliberately shut the kitten in a box and left the box in the street. What if a car had come along and run over the box? What if Benjie hadn’t seen the box? A big dog might have smelled it and gotten the box open and killed the kitten. If
no one had seen the box, the kitten could have starved to death!

He held the kitten close and ran for home, carrying the empty box in his other hand.

*   *   *

As soon as Alex finished Pete’s outing, he called Rocky. “Did the sheriff learn anything?” he asked. “Did the new neighbors see who was at your house?”

“No. The new people weren’t home when it happened. The sheriff thinks the burglar drove up our driveway, loaded our stuff out, and was gone in less than ten minutes.”

In his mind, Alex saw Rocky’s driveway, which curved around to the back side of the house. A car or truck parked at the end next to the kitchen door wouldn’t be visible from the street.

All of the houses in Valley View Estates were on large lots, most of them wooded. People here liked their privacy, but the secluded homes made things easier for burglars.

“We heard on the news that another house in Hilltop got burglarized in the night and the thief knocked out the man who lived there.”

“I know,” Rocky said. “The sheriff told us about it.”

“Do you want to sleep over at my house tonight?” Alex asked. “Mom and Dad said you can come anytime and eat dinner with us.”

“Hold on a minute. I’ll ask.” A few seconds later, Rocky
said, “I’ll be there in a little while, but I have to come home early in the morning. We’re going skiing in the mountains tomorrow.”

“Bring your sleeping bag; it’s my turn to have the bed.”

Rocky and Alex often spent the night together, and since both boys had only a single bed, they took turns sleeping on the floor.

Half an hour later, they were shooting baskets in Alex’s driveway when Benjie dashed toward the house.

“I found a kitten,” he yelled. “A truck came and I spied on it and the people put a box in the street and left it there and the box was moving and when I looked inside, there was a kitten!”

“A purple-and-gold kitten,” Alex told Rocky as he dribbled toward the basket.

“One that plays the clarinet,” Rocky said.

“While it flies over the trees.” Alex shot, missed, and got his own rebound.

“Hey!” Rocky said, pointing to Benjie. “He really does have a kitten.”

Alex dropped the basketball and looked at his brother. He and Rocky followed Benjie inside, where Benjie was telling his parents what had happened.

“Can I keep it?” Benjie said.

“We already have a cat,” Mrs. Kendrill said.

“
That’s right
,”
said Pete.
“
You already have the perfect
cat
,
who deserves to be the only pampered pet in the family
,
so don’t even think about keeping that one.
”

“Pete is really Alex’s cat,” Benjie said. “Alex got to choose him at the humane society, and Alex got to name him, and Pete always sleeps with Alex. I want a pet of my own that I get to name.”

“Pete is your cat, too,” Mr. Kendrill said. “He’s a family pet.”

“Pete runs away or hides under the table when he sees me,” Benjie said.

“Pete only hides when you shout or slam the door,” Mrs. Kendrill said.

Which is most of the time
,
Pete thought.

“Please?” Benjie begged. “The kitten is so cute.”

“All baby animals are cute,” Mr. Kendrill said, “but they grow up quickly.”

“
I’m plenty of cat for two boys
,”
Pete said.
“
Look at me!
”
He flopped on his side
,
then stretched out to his full length.
“
I could easily be two cats in one skin.
”

“Alex, did you take Pete for his walk?” Mrs. Kendrill asked.

“Yes. I had him outside for nearly an hour.”

“Then why is he meowing?”

“Maybe he wants to see the kitten,” Benjie said. He walked to where Pete lay and set the kitten on the floor.

Pete jumped to his feet.

“Oh, it is adorable,” Mrs. Kendrill said. “Look at those tiny paws and that sweet face.”

Pete looked. Then he sniffed. Pe-uw! The kitten was seriously in need of a good bath. Pete sighed. Knowing how inept the humans were in such matters
,
he supposed he would have to do it himself. He put one paw on the kitten’s back
,
to hold it still
,
and began licking its ears.

L
ook,” Alex said.
“Pete’s grooming the kitten.” “He likes the kitty,” Benjie said. “He wants us to
keep it.”

“
I didn’t say that
,”
Pete said.
“
I’m only washing her so she won’t stink.
”
He continued licking the kitten’s ears. When they were clean
,
he licked the kitten’s face and chest.

The kitten held still, with its eyes closed. It didn’t purr, but it kneaded its tiny claws in and out, the way Pete always did when he was happy.

“I wonder if it’s a boy or a girl,” Rocky said.

“
It’s a girl
,”
Pete said.

Mrs. Kendrill picked up the kitten and looked under the tail. “It’s a girl,” she said.

“
I told you that
,”
Pete said.
“
Nobody listens to me.
”

Mrs. Kendrill didn’t put the kitten down right away. Instead, she held it up under her chin and cuddled it.