Authors: Peg Kehret
“
That’s right!
”
Pete cried.
“
I’ll howl so loud the police will think someone’s being murdered. You’ll get pulled over. You’ll get charged with kidnapping.
”
“
Shut up
,
cat
,”
the bearded man said
, “
or I’ll give you a good reason to howl.
”
He grabbed Pete by the scruff of the neck and hauled him onto his lap.
“
You’ll regret this
,”
Pete said.
“
My claws are sharp
,
and my teeth are sharper.
”
The other man started the engine.
“
Put the cat outside
,”
he said.
“
No. I’ve decided to keep him.
”
“
Suit yourself.
”
The driver released the emergency brake and stepped on the accelerator. The van moved forward.
“
Let me out!
”
Pete shrieked. He scrambled across the man’s leg and pawed at the window.
“
Help! Let me out of here!
”
* * *
Benjie finished scratching the last letter in the dirt. He heard the doors of the van slam shut.
The engine started.
Benjie dropped the twig and got ready to run. As soon as the van left, he would race inside, call 911, and tell the police about the bad guys. Then he’d go to Mrs. Sunburg’s
house. He listened carefully for the van to pull away, not wanting to waste a second.
When the van started to move, Benjie scrambled out of the bushes, climbed onto the porch, and yanked at the door. The knob didn’t turn. The door was locked. He would have to go to Mrs. Sunburg’s house to call 911.
As he turned away from the house, he heard a cat shrieking.
Pete! Pete was in trouble.
Horror brought goose bumps to Benjie’s arms as he realized that Pete’s cries came from inside the van.
The bad guys were stealing Pete!
Benjie ran down the porch steps and raced after the van, but it was already halfway down the long driveway.
Pete howled louder. When the bearded man picked him up and tried to shove him into the rear of the van on top of the bicycle
,
Pete bit him on the hand.
The man cursed and let go. Pete jumped to the back of the man’s seat and clawed at the man’s shoulder
,
ripping holes in his T-shirt and scratching his back. The man yelled and swatted at Pete.
The driver slammed on the brakes.
“
I can’t drive when you’re wrestling with a cat
,”
he said.
“
I’ll go off the road and hit a tree.
”
“
The cat bit me!
”
the bearded man said.
“
He broke the skin. Look
,
I’m bleeding.
”
“
And I’ll bite you again if you don’t let me out
,”
Pete screamed.
“
Then put him outside
,”
the man in the plaid shirt said.
“
I told you we shouldn’t take him with us.
”
“
I’m not putting him out here. I’m going to throw him in the river when we go across the bridge.
”
He turned
,
reached behind the seat
,
and grabbed Pete’s tail.
Pete clung to the spokes of Alex’s bicycle when the man tried to pull him by the tail to the front of the van.
“
Help!
”
he screeched.
“
Somebody help me!
”
Benjie saw the brake lights go on. The van had stopped. He ran faster, gravel from the driveway kicking up behind his feet. He no longer cared if the bad guys saw him. He didn’t care about calling 911. He didn’t care about anything except getting Pete back.
He rushed to the door on the passenger’s side of the van and tugged on the handle. It was locked. He could see Pete inside. The bad man was pulling Pete’s tail.
Furious, Benjie pounded on the window with both fists.
S
top that!”
Benjie yelled.
Startled, the man let go of Pete’s tail.
Pete crawled farther into the rear of the van
,
squeezing between the clock and the TV set until he reached the floor. The men couldn’t reach him there without unloading everything.
Benjie banged on the window again. “Open this door!” he shouted. “You can’t have Pete!”
The bearded man looked out the window at Benjie. “It’s a kid,” he said.
“Oh, great. Now he’s seen us, and he can describe the van. I knew we should have gotten out of here sooner.”
Benjie pounded harder. If they wouldn’t open the door, maybe he could break the window. “Give me back my cat!” he yelled.
The bearded man rolled the window down a couple of inches. “What cat?” he said. “We don’t have any cat.”
“
Yes
,
they do
,”
Pete hollered.
“
I’m here
,
Benjie
,
in the back of the van.
”
“Well, what do you know,” the tall man said, turning to look over his shoulder. “There IS a cat in the van.” He opened his door and got out. “He must have sneaked in when we were parked at this house,” he said.
“He didn’t sneak in,” Benjie said. “You stole him.”
“We’re a delivery service, kid. We were supposed to drop off a TV set, but nobody was home. We didn’t know your cat got in the van.”
Tears coursed down Benjie’s cheeks, and his breath still came in gulps from running so fast. “You didn’t try to deliver anything. You broke into our house and you’re stealing Dad’s clock and Alex’s bike and Mom’s good dishes, and you’re trying to kidnap Pete and sell him for a lot of money, but you won’t get away with it!”
The two men looked at each other. The driver held his door open wide. “Come on, cat,” he said. “Get out of there.” He raised his voice higher. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.”
Pete wanted to jump out
,
but he was wedged so tightly between the TV and the clock he couldn’t turn around.
“What makes you think we stole anything?” the bearded man said.
“Because I’m a spy and you’re bad guys. I took down your license number and I know what you look like, and I’m going to call the police, and they’ll catch you, and I hope they lock you up in jail for the rest of your lives!”
The bearded man got out of the van, too. “We don’t want the cat,” he said. “I tried to get him out, but he won’t leave.”
Benjie looked in the van. “Pete?” he said. “Where are you?”
“
Go home, Benjie!
”
Pete said.
“
Call the sheriff!
”
The tall man leaned toward his partner across the top of the van. “We’ve got a big problem,” he whispered. “Only one way out, as I see it.”
“We can’t leave him here to spill the beans,” the bearded man said.
“No. We can’t.”
The bearded man motioned for Benjie to get in. “The cat’s hiding from us. He’s on the floor, in back. You’ll have to go in there and catch him.”
“
Don’t do it
,
Benjie
,”
Pete called.
“
I’m coming as fast as l can. I’ll jump out.
”
“Here, Pete,” Benjie said. “Don’t be scared. I’ll save you.”
“That cat’s wilder than a hoot owl,” the tall man said. “You’ll have to get in the van and coax him out.”
Pete stood on his hind legs and hooked his front paws over one of the tires on Alex’s bike. If he could pull himself up
,
he would be able to turn around and crawl to the front of the van.
“
I’m coming!
”
he yelled.
“
Don’t get in the van!
”
Benjie climbed into the van and knelt on the passenger’s seat, facing the rear. He stretched his hands over the back of the seat toward Pete.
“
I’ll be okay
,”
Pete told Benjie.
“
They’ll let me go now. Don’t wait for me. Run to Mrs. Sunburg’s house
,
as fast as you can
,
and call the police.
”
“I see him!” Benjie said. He stood on the seat and leaned over the back, trying to reach Pete.
“
Get out of the van!
”
Pete said.
“
I don’t trust them. Run
,
Benjie! Run away from them!
”
It was too late. As Benjie extended his hands toward Pete, the bearded man shoved him, knocking him sideways to the floor between the two seats.
As Benjie tried to scramble back onto the seat, the bearded man got in and closed the door. The man shoved him down. “Stay where you are,” he said, “and don’t make any noise.”
Pete reached the top of the bike and jumped to the back of the driver’s seat. The driver’s door was wide open. Pete could easily have catapulted out and landed on the driveway by the tall man’s feet
,
but he didn’t do it. He couldn’t jump to safety until Benjie was out of the van.
The tall man reached in and tried to grab Pete.
Pete hissed and slashed at the man’s hand with his claws.
“
I’m staying with Benjie
,”
he said.
“
He needs me to protect him.
”
The tall man drew his hand back.
“
This cat is a savage
,”
he said.
“
He probably has rabies.
”
Pete jumped to the floor beside Benjie. He arched his back and puffed his fur out as far as he could. He gave his most
ferocious growl.
“
Lay a hand on Benjie
,”
he roared
, “
and you’ll wish you hadn’t.
”
Benjie reached for the door handle, with his other hand on Pete. “I have him now,” he said. “He’ll let me carry him out.”
The bearded man opened his door. He reached down and tried to pick Pete up.
Pete bit the bearded man in the leg
,
but he got mostly a mouthful of the man’s jeans. As his teeth sank into fabric
,
the tall man grabbed him from behind. The hand closed on the back of Pete’s neck and yanked so hard that a clump of fur came out.
Pete clamped his teeth tight on the man’s pants and dug in with his claws
,
but the jeans tore and Pete was lifted across the steering wheel toward the open door
,
with a piece of denim in his mouth and his four paws dangling helplessly downward.
“
Get out
,
Benjie!
”
he howled.
“
Run!
”
The tall man held Pete at arm’s length for a second. Then he flung the cat as hard as he could throw. Pete landed in the gravel behind the van and lay still.
Benjie struggled to get up, to see what the tall man had done with Pete, but the bearded one put his hands on Benjie’s shoulders and held the boy on the floor next to his boots.
“Don’t move,” he said.
The tall man slid behind the steering wheel, slammed
his door shut, and started the engine. The van careened out the end of the Kendrills’ driveway and sped up Valley View Drive, with Benjie on the floor between the two burglars.
“Stay by my feet,” the bearded man said as he held Benjie down with both hands. “Don’t make any noise.”
The will to fight drained out of Benjie as he realized he couldn’t get away. He collapsed by the man’s shoes like a piece of cooked spaghetti and lay there, crying quietly. Some spy he was. Not only had he failed to alert the police, he had let the bad guys trick him into getting in their van.
I never should have blurted out that I knew they were crooks, Benjie thought. If I hadn’t done that, they might have given Pete to me and driven away. Then I could have called the police. A good spy keeps his mouth shut, but I blabbed everything I knew to the wrong people.
At least I saved Pete, Benjie thought. I did that one thing right.
From a hazy corner of his mind
,
Pete heard the van drive away. He lay in the gravel
,
too sore to get up. The fur was scraped off one ear where he had slid on it when he landed
,
and his head throbbed. He hoped he didn’t have any broken bones.
Pete flexed one leg at a time. All four still moved. He slowly sat up
,
then licked one front paw and dabbed carefully at the scraped ear
,
washing off the blood.
He had to stop those men. He had to free Benjie. But
how? There was no use running after the van. He would never catch it.
He had to get help. He must let the people know where Benjie was.
Alex would be home soon
,
but Pete couldn’t wait. Benjie needed help right away.
Pete had not yet met Mary’s grandmother
,
but he knew that Benjie and Alex liked the older woman. If they liked her
,
Pete knew he would like her
,
too
,
and he was sure she would help.
He was too sore to run
,
but he walked as fast as he could toward Mrs. Sunburg’s house. Maybe he could get her to follow him home
,
where she would notice that items were missing from the house.
* * *
Mrs. Sunburg finished her coffee, dialed the Kendrills’ number again, and got the answering machine. This time she left a message.
“Benjie, are you there? It’s Mrs. Sunburg. If you’re home, pick up the phone.” Nothing happened.
She put on a sweater and turned off the coffeemaker.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Rufus,” she said. “I’m going over to Benjie’s house.” Locking the door behind her, she left the house and started toward the Kendrills’.
She was partway there when a big white-and-brown cat trotted toward her, yowling loudly. The cat’s eyes looked wildly from one place to the next, and his long dark tail thrashed like a whip. His left ear was bleeding, and he
looked as if he had been rolling in the mud. Although the rest of his fur was thick, there was a bald spot the size of a half-dollar on the back of his neck.
“Gracious, kitty,” Mrs. Sunburg said. “What happened to you?”