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  THE CELEBRITY CAT CAPER

  created by

  GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER

  Illustrated by

  Anthony VanArsdale

  ALBERT WHITMAN & Company, Chicago

  Contents

  1. Walter the Cog

  2. The Beresford Will

  3. The Late Mrs. Beresford

  4. Cog Training

  5. A Jewel Thief

  6. Paw Print Photos

  7. The Funniest Cat

  8. The Cat Burglar

  9. WalterTruthTeller

  10. The Clues Add Up

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  Walter the Cog

  “It’s Sunday!” Six-year-old Benny Alden bounded into the boxcar where his brother and two sisters were waiting. A few kernels of popcorn fell out of the large bowl he carried and landed on the floor. “Oops,” Benny said. Balancing the bowl in one hand, he bent to clean up the mess, but Watch, the family’s wire-haired terrier, got there first. He gobbled up the popcorn then looked up at Benny expectantly.

  “No people snacks for you,” Benny told Watch. “It’s Sunday! Popcorn is the second-best part of Sunday nights.”

  “What’s the first best part?” asked Violet as she gave Watch a dog treat. Her brown pigtails bounced as she held back a laugh. She was just teasing Benny. She knew watching funny videos was her little brother’s favorite part of Sunday night.

  The four Alden children were very close. When their parents died, they had been on their own. They had found an old boxcar in the woods and made it their home instead of living with Grandfather Alden. They had heard he was mean. But when Grandfather finally found them, the children quickly realized they’d been wrong—he wasn’t mean at all. Now the children lived with him in Greenfield and their boxcar was in the backyard for a clubhouse.

  Benny grabbed a big handful of popcorn before passing it to his fourteen-year-old brother, Henry, but lost a few more kernels. “Oops,” Benny said again as Watch ate the fallen kernels and lay down at their feet, waiting for anything else that dropped.

  Jessie opened up her laptop. At twelve years old, she had a knack for finding interesting and useful information on the Internet. It was Jessie who’d first discovered the Walter the Cat videos and shown the others.

  Benny took another handful of popcorn, “I can’t wait to find out what the cog was up to this week!”

  “Cog?” Violet asked. “Did you make up a new word?”

  Benny just grinned.

  “I get it,” said Henry. “Cat plus dog equals cog!” He reached over to ruffle Benny’s short dark brown hair. “And Walter is a cat who acts like a dog. That’s very clever,” he said.

  “I know!” Benny said, “But…I didn’t make it up.” He unzipped his sweatshirt jacket to reveal a new T-shirt underneath. It was bright blue with a big picture of Walter, a sleek brown and beige Bengal cat. Under the picture was a single word in gold letters: “COG.”

  “It’s from the mall,” Benny said. “I picked it out and bought it with my birthday gift card.” He puffed out his chest so the others could see.

  “Walter is a cog!” Benny laughed. Soon he was laughing so hard he nearly fell into the popcorn bowl. Henry playfully pushed him into a beanbag chair instead. Benny flopped over and continued to laugh, holding his belly. “Cog, cog, cog…”

  Henry shook his head. “Come on! Save some laughs for Walter.” He dragged the beanbag with Benny still on it over to where his brother could see the screen. Violet pulled another beanbag over and made room for both Henry and herself.

  Jessie typed in the web address for Walter the Cat’s page and looked through the list of videos. “Here’s a funny one,” she said. “But we’ve seen it before.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Benny said. “We’ll see a new one next. Play it, Jessie! Pleeease…”

  Jessie clicked on the video so that it filled the screen.

  The video began with Walter the Cat walking across an expensive-looking rug in a large living room. He appeared very royal with his gleaming coat. On his forehead, between his eyes, the coloring in his fur formed a W.

  A woman’s voice came from offscreen. “Bang! Bang!” she called.

  Walter dropped to the ground and played dead.

  The woman commanded, “Roll over.” And Walter rolled over and over.

  “Up,” said the voice, and Walter stood on his back legs and walked like a circus dog.

  “Good, Walter,” the voice said. Then the video ended.

  “That’s one of my favorites!” Benny said. “Play another, Jessie. A new one.”

  Jessie was scrolling though the list of videos. “I don’t understand what’s going on here,” she said. “We’ve seen these all before.”

  “Mrs. Beresford always posts new videos on Sundays,” Henry said.

  The children had seen many Walter the Cat videos. They knew the videos were always posted by Walter’s owner, Mrs. Beresford, even though she never appeared in them.

  “Some of those other cat videos have their owners in them, but she’s a mysterious woman,” Benny said. “That makes me like her even more!”

  “Nothing like a good mystery,” Violet agreed with a chuckle.

  “Hmmm…” Jessie muttered to herself as she stared at the screen. “Walter’s new videos usually make Pick of the Week on this website, but he’s not on the list this time. That’s odd. There must be a new video in here somewhere.”

  “Could you play an old one while you’re looking?” Benny asked.

  Jessie opened another window. “Here’s the latest one. But it’s from two weeks ago. There wasn’t a new video last weekend either.”

  She searched the list while her siblings watched the two-week-old video in the other window.

  In this video, Walter panted like a dog and made a barking sound. It must have sounded like a real bark to Watch, who stood up and stared at the screen with his tail wagging.

  “Fantastic!” Benny clapped when it was over. “Will you play the one where Walter shakes paws?”

  Jessie loaded the video with a sigh. “Why can’t I find anything new?”

  Henry offered to look over the list. He took Jessie’s spot at the computer while Violet and Benny watched the shaking-paws video.

  “Strange,” Henry said, pushing his brown hair off his face. “Mrs. Beresford has posted a Walter video every Sunday—until last week. She’s been doing it for almost a year.”

  Jessie reached over to the keyboard and typed “Walter the Cog” into a new search window. “I wonder why she stopped.”

  “Maybe she’s on vacation,” Violet offered.

  “Hey, look!” Jessie said. “I found something.”

  Violet and Benny leaned closer to the screen. Jessie had opened up a new browser window to a page called Cog Chat. It was a message board for people who wanted to talk about Walter the Cat.

  “Now that we know that Walter’s nickname is ‘Cog’ we can find more stuff about him online,” Jessie said. “Look at this…”

  She pointed to a message posted by someone called “WalterTruthTeller.”

  Henry read it aloud. “Walter does not perform his own tricks. The videos are all fake.”

  “No way!” Benny said.

  Jessie found several more online discussions about Walter the Cat. WalterTruthTeller had posted the same message in each one. “The name is everywhere with accusations all over the place, but I can’t figure out who it is
.”

  “How could anyone say Walter isn’t doing his own tricks?” Violet asked. “It’s right there in the videos.”

  Henry read some of the posts over Jessie’s shoulder. “WalterTruthTeller says that the videos are manipulated with film software,” Henry explained. “Like Hollywood moviemaking.”

  Benny moved closer to the screen. “WalterTruthTeller is wrong.”

  “So many strange things are going on,” Jessie said as she read. “No new videos for two weeks and now these terrible comments meant to ruin Walter’s reputation.” She looked at some of the newest messages. “This one says that Walter should go back to the animal shelter where he came from!”

  “What do you think it all means?” Violet asked.

  “Sounds like the beginning of a mystery,” Henry said.

  “I think we should investigate,” Jessie said. “But where do we begin?”

  “I don’t know,” Henry said. “Anyone have an idea?”

  Just then the boxcar door opened.

  “Benny…” Grandfather stepped inside. “This came for you in the mail today.” He handed Benny an envelope. “Remember how we signed up for the Cog Fan Club when you bought your T-shirt? This looks like the welcome letter.”

  “It has my address on it!” Benny waved the envelope around. “I got mail!” He opened the letter and handed it to Grandfather. “Can you help me read it, please?”

  Grandfather pushed his reading glasses up on his nose and scanned the text. “Well, now, there’s a surprise.”

  “What?” Henry and Benny asked at the same time.

  “This is a list of fun facts about Walter. He’s four years old, chases mice, and”—he paused dramatically—“Mrs. Beresford lives here in Greenfield.”

  “Really?” Violet asked.

  “In an old mansion at the edge of town.” He rubbed his chin. “I know the house. I just never knew who lived there.”

  “Walter lives in Greenfield!” Benny said, clasping his hands to his heart. “This is the happiest day in my whole life!”

  “And now we know where to begin our investigation,” Henry said.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Beresford Will

  Benny was awake before the others the next day. Henry found him sitting in the kitchen eating cereal and reading something on their tablet.

  “It’s the Cog Newsletter,” Benny said, between bites of crispy corn flakes. “But it’s from two weeks ago.” He sighed.

  “Maybe we’ll learn something new about Walter today,” Henry told him. The children planned to ride their bikes by the Beresford mansion to see if they could spot any sign of the cat. “Maybe he’ll be sitting in the window and we’ll know everything is fine.”

  “Can we go now?” Benny asked his brother. “I woke up with a weird feeling in my belly. I thought it was hunger, but now I think it’s worry.” He pushed his bowl aside. “We should wake up everyone and go over there as fast as we can. I’ll go get my bike out of the garage.”

  “Aren’t you going to wait for us?” Jessie said as she and Violet entered the kitchen. Jessie was holding a notebook and pen.

  Violet wasn’t quite as prepared for the day out. Her hair, usually tied back in pigtails, was long and messy. She yawned. “Jessie woke me up.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” Jessie said. “I can’t stop thinking about who would post such mean things about Walter on the Internet, and why.” She held up her notebook. “We are going to find out!”

  “Can we go now?” Benny asked. His hand was on the knob to the back door.

  “It’s too early,” Henry said, checking the clock. “It’s Saturday morning, and only seven o’clock!”

  Benny’s shoulders sank. “I bet Walter is up though. He’s a busy cat.” He glanced at Watch, who was sleeping under the kitchen table. “Unlike this sleepyhead.”

  “Watch isn’t a sleepyhead.” Jessie laughed, then corrected herself. “He’s awake sometimes.” At that, Watch raised his head, yawned, then went right back to sleep. Jessie said, “Let the rest of us get breakfast, then we’ll go.”

  Watch let out a big snore.

  “I suppose I could eat breakfast again,” Benny said. He sat back down in his chair and poured himself another bowl of cereal.

  The bike ride to the Beresford mansion seemed short compared to the ride up the big house’s driveway. The children went through the ornately carved open gates and rode for what seemed like forever to get to the enormous house at the top of the hill.

  Benny huffed as his short legs struggled to move the bike uphill. Henry asked if he wanted to take a break, but Benny was determined. “Walter needs us,” he said between big gulps of air.

  It wasn’t Benny who was the slowest. Violet was having trouble with her bike chain. It kept skipping and made a strange rattling noise. She pulled to the side. “Hang on. I’ll be right there,” she called to the others.

  Jessie nodded in reply as she, Henry, and Benny rode around a bend in the driveway. “We’ll wait over here,” she called to Violet.

  Violet was fiddling with the chain when a noise behind her made her turn. A black limousine was moving slowly up the driveway toward the house. She moved over onto the grass to let the limo pass, but instead it slowed and stopped beside her. The back window rolled down and a young woman peered out. She was in a black dress and hat with a matching dark veil. “Are you here for the reading of the will?” she asked.

  Violet, still sweaty from the bike ride, glanced down at her T-shirt and jeans. It seemed pretty obvious to her that she wasn’t headed to anything that required nice clothes. “The will?” Violet repeated, confused.

  The woman raised her veil. She was very pale and Violet wondered if she’d ever been in the sun. She had light skin, light hair, and narrow eyebrows. Violet guessed she was about college age. “My aunt’s will, of course,” the woman said. “Mrs. Beresford. She passed away two weeks ago.”

  “You mean…died?” Violet whispered. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

  The young woman nodded. “She simply died of old age. The doctor said her time had come. She lived a long and happy life, you know.”

  Violet felt a little better hearing that. And now she knew why there hadn’t been new Walter videos. But now she wondered about Walter. Who was taking care of him?

  The young woman interrupted Violet’s thoughts. “Well, if you aren’t here for the reading of the will, why are you here? There’s only one house at the end of this driveway.”

  Violet didn’t know what to say. “We…we came about Walter,” she stammered.

  “That’s good news. That cat must leave the house,” the woman said. “I assume you’ll be taking him away with you today then.”

  “We aren’t planning to—” Violet started when Henry interrupted.

  “Violet!” He was biking back toward her. “Do you need help? The others are waiting to—” Henry stopped pedaling and stared at the limousine.

  Violet quickly explained that today was the reading of Mrs. Beresford’s will. “This is her niece,” she told her brother.

  “Natalie,” the woman said to them both. “Natalie Beresford. I’m the daughter of Beulah Beresford’s brother.”

  Henry nodded and said politely, “Nice to meet you.”

  “Well,” Natalie said, suddenly becoming impatient. “Come along then. If you are here to take the cat, I definitely won’t stop you. I’ll gladly help pack his stuff up! Leave the bikes and I’ll have Geoffrey return to collect them.” She opened the limo door to the children. “Get in.”

  Henry and Violet exchanged confused glances.

  “Thank you, but we’ll ride our bikes,” Henry said. “Our brother and sister are just ahead.”

  “Suit yourself,” Natalie said, closing the car door with a bang. “But you’d better hurry. The reading of the will begins in fifteen minutes.” The limo sped off, leaving Violet and Henry by the side of the road.

  “She’s odd,” Henry said, as they watched the limousine disappear. “An
d she seems to hate that cat.”

  “Do you think she’s WalterTruthTeller?” Violet asked with a frown. “Not that it matters anymore. This mystery is solved. Mrs. Beresford died, so that’s why there are no new videos, right?”

  “I guess so,” Henry said. He got off his bike to walk with Violet. “And WalterTruthTeller might be trying to make Walter look bad, but if there won’t be new videos, there’s no point anymore. And no use trying to find out who he is.” He sighed. “Benny is going to be so upset that there aren’t new Walter videos. What will we do on Sunday nights?”

  They met Benny and Jessie at a cement bench beneath a large shade tree not far from the house. Henry told them the news about Mrs. Beresford and about meeting Natalie.

  Benny’s eyes widened. “Oh no!”

  “I’m sure Walter will be all right,” Jessie sighed. “But we shouldn’t be here.”

  Violet agreed. “We should go home,” she said. “The reading of the will is for family.”

  They were about to start walking home with their bikes when a figure appeared in front of them on the driveway. It was the driver of the limousine, an older man wearing a chauffeur’s cap and a black suit with a narrow bow tie.

  “I believe we’ve met before,” he said. “Your grandfather is James Alden, yes? I’m Geoffrey Bigg.”

  “Oh…hello,” Henry said, shaking the man’s hand. He knew Mr. Bigg was a school friend of Grandfather’s, because he had come to a party at their house. Jessie recognized him too. Sometimes it seemed like everyone in town knew Grandfather.

  “I’m glad you’re here, and I hear you have come for Walter,” Geoffrey said, giving the children a look of great concern.

  “Well,” Jessie tried to explain. “We were just riding by to see if he was all right, but—”

  “Then you must hurry,” Geoffrey said. “Walter is in trouble. You must save him!”

  Henry and Violet looked at Benny and Jessie.

  “Walter needs us!” Benny said. He pointed to the mansion, which was just ahead. “Call Grandfather, Henry. Ask if we can go inside.”

  Henry called Grandfather and then handed the phone to Geoffrey. Grandfather agreed to let the children visit the mansion for a few minutes to meet Walter. Then he would come to pick them up since Violet’s bicycle wasn’t working. Soon Geoffrey was leading them to the front steps of the mansion, which sat behind a tree-lined circular driveway.