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“Just a regular hole,” said the cat with a shrug. “You know, like, a hole?”

“Can you show us this hole?” I asked. This was a disturbing development. Humans usually don’t go around digging holes in woods, unless it is for the purpose of burying things. And if this was the same person who’d been catnapping these cats, the only thing I could think of that he might have buried was… another cat!

The cat led the way to a nearby spot, where indeed the earth had been disturbed, a clear sign that someone had been rooting around there with the assistance of a spade.

“Was this the same person who kidnapped you?” I asked as we all stood around the spot. It even smelled of freshly disturbed earth—and worms, of course.

“I don’t know,” said the cat who’d witnessed the digging. “I didn’t dare to come close enough to get a good smell of the person.”

“What did they look like?”

The cat merely shrugged.“Like any human. You know. With hair on top of a large head, a nose in the middle of a round face, two eyes and ears, and standing on two legs.”

“Really narrows it down,” Clarice muttered.

I took a sniff at the recently disturbed soil, and indeed detected a whiff of human.

“Do you want to dig?” asked Clarice. “Cause if you want to dig, go right ahead, but I’m not going to dig. No way.”

I hesitated.“Do you think this person might have buried…” I cut a quick glance to Dooley, who stood eyeing me with wide-eyed concentration, “…something here?”

Clarice also took a sniff, then said with a frown.“All I can smell is human, not cat, so whatever is buried here is definitely not of a feline nature.”

“Phew,” said Chouchou. “For a moment there I thought our catnapper was also a cat killer.”

“A cat killer!” Dooley cried.

“Not a cat killer, Dooley,” I said. “The emphasis is onnot.”

“But then what did he bury, Max?”

“I don’t know, Dooley,” I said. “

Why would a human head so deep into the woods, dump a couple of cats, then dig a hole? Assuming, of course, that this was the same person. It could very well have been two different people. At any rate, it all seemed very strange indeed. Now we all know that humans are a little strange, and that sometimes they do things for no discernible reason. But still, even by human standards this behavior was way out there.

But since I felt that our mission was completed, I decided that it was time to stage the happy reunion between Chouchou and Mrs. Kathleen Bunyon, so we gave a reluctant Clarice the go-ahead to act as our guide once more, and all eight of us made our way out of the woods, and consequently back to civilization. And when finally we arrived on the outskirts of town, we were all famished—except, of course, Clarice.

“This is where I leave you,” she said. “You can find your way home now, right?”

“Thank you so much, Clarice,” I said. “You did a good thing today.”

She eyed the five cats a little bleakly, and grumbled,“I’m not so sure about that.”

And before I could say any more, she suddenly disappeared into the undergrowth, presumably to see if James Patterson had found some more liver p?t? he had no use for.

Chapter 6

Odelia felt happy that she was finally in a position to bring a ray of sunshine into a person’s life. And that was exactly what she anticipated to do just now, as she parked her car outside the home of the Bunyons, their precious fur baby in the backseat next to Max and Dooley, who were as proud as she was feeling that they’d made the impossible possible: in the space of only a couple of hours they’d found the missing cat and were about to deliver the missing Chouchou back to her proud owners.

“Great job, you guys,” said Odelia, not for the first time. “I’m pretty sure you just broke some kind of sleuthing record. I’ll have to call the Guinness Book of Records.”

“It wasn’t really us,” said Max deferentially.

“Yeah, Clarice did most of the work,” said Dooley.

“Who’s Clarice?” asked Chouchou.

“The scary cat who was with us when we found you,” Max explained.

“Oh, right,” said Chouchou, but clearly had no idea what he was talking about.

“This is a great day,” said Odelia, “and even though I can’t tell the Bunyons about the exact role you played in finding Chouchou, I’ll make sure they know you were involved.”

“You really don’t have to do that,” said Max. “I understand that you need to keep Mrs. Bunyon in the dark about us.”

“No, but I will tell her that you’re actually the ones who found Chouchou.” She turned to the Maine Coon. “Can you tell me again how you got out there?”

“Well, first I was snatched,” said Chouchou, “by some terrible catnapper person, and then I was put in a large bag, and then I was left in those woods to fend for myself.”

“That’s so terrible,” said Odelia feelingly. “Absolutely awful, Chouchou.”

“And then there was another person—or it could have been the same person—who was digging a hole and burying something.”

“I won’t tell Mrs. Bunyon about that,” said Odelia. “She might start to worry, and we don’t want her to worry unnecessarily.”