George threw open the door to her mom’s car and hopped to the curb. “Nancy knows who has been taking the kittens,” George announced.
Nancy had already told George her theory, so she let Bess guess by way of a game:
“Who knows her way around the shelter?” Nancy asked.
“Ms. Berman,” Bess replied.
“And who is tired all the time, a clue that she is up all night with baby kittens,” Nancy asked.
“Ms. Berman?” Bess replied, sounding less certain as she began to grasp where Nancy was headed.
“Baby kittens are fed formula, not milk. Spilled formula dries white, while milk dries mostly clear … so … who had speckles of spilled formula on her jacket?”
“Suzie Park!” Bess said as all the clues came together.
“Suzie fits all the clues,” George agreed.
Bess told Mr. Seilsopour that she’d be back later. Then the Clue Crew walked quickly toward Suzie’s house.
On the way Bess told Nancy and George about the work she was going to do on Mr. Seilsopour’s truck. “He said I can help install the windows. How cool is that?” Bess also mentioned that she couldn’t seem to stop sneezing at Mr. Seilsopour’s house. “I think I better go to a doctor and have my nose checked,” she said with a laugh. “Now I sneeze even when there aren’t any cats around.”
When they got to Suzie’s house, George knocked on the door, and Suzie opened it. She was wearing a bathrobe and yawning, like she’d just woken up from a nap.
Nancy pulled out her detective’s notebook and said, “Suzie, you know that mystery we’re investigating? Well, we’ve come to the conclusion that you’re the one taking the shelter kittens.”
Suzie’s eyes grew really wide. “I …,” she sputtered. “I mean, I …,” she sputtered again. Finally, Suzie sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping. “Okay, I admit it. I took the kittens.” Suzie looked like she was about to cry.
“Why?” Nancy asked, stashing her notebook back into her pocket.
“Well,” Suzie said, wrapping her arms around herself, “I took them because I was worried. Ms. Berman was too tired—she’s always complaining and stuff.”
At that, George nodded. They’d heard Ms. Berman complain too.
“One morning, I saw her carrying a Kind Kittens box into the shelter, I thought she was going to put the kittens in that box and give them away.” Suzie looked really serious. “Kittens can’t be adopted until they can eat and drink on their own.” Suzie led the girls through her house to the garage. “So, I’ve been taking care of them myself. I could only bring home one or two at a time, because that’s all I could fit in my coat sleeves.”
Nancy recalled how Suzie had been wearing her shelter coat even when it was hot outside.
“Taking care of all those kittens is really making me tired,” Suzie said with a stretch and a yawn. “But it’s worth it,” she said, opening the garage door. “They are really cute and growing stronger every second!”
“Do your parents know?” Bess asked.
“Oh gosh, no!” Suzie replied. “I put the kittens in a box in the garage, and I tiptoe out every few hours to take care of them. I planned to sneak them all back into the shelter for adoption in a few more weeks.”
“Achoo!” Bess began to sneeze again, so only Nancy and George went into the garage with Suzie.
“I made a nice warm bed under the window for the babies. I left the window open for fresh air and gave them my old baby blanket to keep warm,” Suzie flipped on the light switch as she said, “All six little babies are right—”
Suzie screamed. Bess came running into the garage with her nose plugged.
“They’re gone!” Suzie shrieked. “All the kittens are gone!”
CHAPTER NINE
Cat Caper Closed?
Nancy whipped out her purple notebook. Apparently, she’d put it away too soon.
At the top of a blank page, Nancy wrote: Clues. Then she made a list of things that might apply to the case. What else had they learned over the past two days that might be important? Nancy thought and thought and thought.
Then, she wrote:
1) The candle maker heard meowing behind Mrs. Simon’s bookstore.
2) The candle maker was missing his white rags.
3) Deirdre was feeding a stray cat, maybe even the mama cat.
4)
She left number four blank for a minute, while she wandered around the garage. The garage door had been closed, so how had the kittens escaped? Was someone else taking them? Nancy shook her head. There were no other suspects. And no one else knew that Suzie was hiding them.
Hmm. Nancy rubbed her chin. She was thinking hard.
Nancy looked at the cat bed again. Suzie really had made every effort to take good care of the kittens. Taking them from the shelter was wrong, but she’d done it only to protect them. The bed looked warm and comfy and there was a nice breeze coming through the open window. Nancy looked up at the window.
“Wait!” she said suddenly.” What’s outside this window?” she asked Suzie.
“Just a tree,” Suzie replied.
“That’s a clue!” Nancy shouted. On her clues list, under number four, she wrote: Open window.
Nancy looked at her list and said, “It’s just like in the movie. The mama cat rescued the baby by carrying it off in her mouth, though in this case she’s not saving a beagle puppy. She’s taking her own kittens.”
“Are you sure?” Suzie asked, sniffling a little still but looking relieved that the babies weren’t wandering around by themselves.
“I’m positive.” Nancy shook her head firmly. “She must have left them alone for a moment, maybe to find herself some food, and when she got back, Mrs. Simon had already called the shelter. The babies were gone!”
“So, the cat has been looking around town for her babies?” George added questioningly. “We know she’s been eating lunch at Deirdre’s but doesn’t stay long—it must be because she’s on an important mission.”
“And she found the kittens here!” Suzie exclaimed. “The mama cat must have taken them out the garage window, getting in and out by climbing the tree. But …” Suzie’s voice got real soft as she wondered, “Where did she take them?”
“The mama cat has been living somewhere while she searched for her babies,” Nancy said, considering the possibilities. “It had to be somewhere warm. Sheltered, in case it rained. A place where she could bring the kittens once she found them all.”
“Maybe in a box? Or under a bridge? Or—” George began to make a list.
“Achoo!” Bess interrupted with a loud sneeze.
“That’s it, Bess!” Nancy exclaimed. “Bess’s nose knows where the kittens are.”
CHAPTER TEN
The Nose Knows
Suzie quickly got dressed and slipped on her favorite jacket. Then all the girls followed Nancy home.
“The kittens are at your house?” George asked, curiously, not understanding what Nancy had already figured out.
“Nope,” Nancy passed right by her house and turned into Mr. Seilsopour’s driveway. “The kittens are in Mr. Seilsopour’s truck.”
As if to prove it, Bess immediately sneezed.
Nancy explained her reasoning as the girls approached the truck. “Bess told us that Mr. Seilsopour’s truck has no windows,” Nancy said.
“Easy for a cat to climb inside,” George said, nodding in agreement.
“The mama cat needed the candle maker’s rags to make a nest—that’s why they were missing,” Nancy explained.
“Achoo!” Bess sneezed.
“And Bess, your sneezes are the most important clue of all!” Nancy said, opening the back door to Mr. Seilsopour’s truck. There, on the backseat, snuggled up, toasty warm in the candle maker’s clean rags, were all six baby kittens, happily sleeping next to their mama.
Ms. Berman and Chief McGinnis arrived at the house immediately after Nancy called them.
“The Clue Crew solved the case
.” Nancy explained how they’d worked together to follow the clues to Suzie’s house and then again to the truck.
“Good work,” Chief McGinnis said, shaking each of the girl’s hands.
Ms. Berman looked at Suzie Park and said, “Suzie, if you felt like the kittens needed more attention, you should have talked to me about it.”
Suzie lowered her eyes. “I’m so sorry for what I did,” she replied sadly. “I bet you won’t let me work at the shelter anymore.” She took off her shelter jacket and handed it to Ms. Berman.
Ms. Berman refused it, saying, “Keep it Suzie. Even though you took the kittens when you shouldn’t have, I know your heart was in the right place. I’d be happy to have you continue volunteering.”
Suzie’s eyes brightened. “I’ll be the best worker you ever had,” she said.
“I’m counting on it.” Ms. Berman said with a small smile.
From her car, Ms. Berman pulled out an empty Kind Kittens box to place the babies in. “Yesterday, I delivered another bag of formula to Mr. Jones at his cat farm. Good thing I still have his empty box in my car.”
Nancy nodded toward her two friends, now understanding what Ms. Berman’s phone call at the shelter had been about. Then Nancy pulled her friends into a hug, “We’re an awesome team! The cat burglar caper is solved.”
“I can’t wait until we have another Clue Crew mystery,” George said.
“Achoo!” Bess sneezed in agreement. “Achoo! Me too. Achoo!”
A Purr-Fect Puzzle
Finding the six kittens was a puzzle for Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew. In the end, they put together all the pieces to solve their mystery. Now you can make and solve your own purr-fect kitten puzzle too!
You will need:
White printer paper
Cardboard
Pencil and eraser
Markers, crayons, colored pencils
Glitter, stickers, and other decorations
Glue
Scissors
Pounce on these instructions:
First use the pencil to draw some cute kittens on the white paper. Draw as many playful kittens as you like, and use the eraser if you want to change them along the way.
Once you are set with your illustration, color it in with markers, crayons, and colored pencils. Add stickers, glitter and other decorations to bring the drawing to life. Use your imagination!
When the drawing is done, and any glued on decorations are dry, glue the paper onto the cardboard. Be patient while this dries. If you do the last step too soon, your beautiful drawing could get messy.
Finally, use your scissors to cut the picture into eight or ten pieces. Make the cuts wiggly in some places and with sharp-angled turns in others. Try not to cut only straight lines. Think about ways to make your puzzle challenging to put back together.
Now your puzzle is ready to be solved! You can make one with a friend and try to solve each other’s kitten puzzles too.
Carolyn Keene, Cat Burglar Caper
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