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Chapter 7

Tabitha went to #DDDDC HQ to give her boss the latest on the case. She needed to bounce some ideas off Bella, as the Bassett hound was a detached entity in this case.

Tabitha sat across from Bella. Before any information was shared they were joined by a familiar cat.

“Skittles?!” Tabitha meowed

“Where have you been?” Bella asked the obvious question.

“Chasing rabbits!” Skittles answered. Then she went into more detail, “I’ve been giving the third degree to Reginald. That is one cagey bunny. Eventually, he got distracted by a number of female rabbits and escaped. I tried to follow but I lost him.” Skittles frowned at the disheartening results of the last couple of days.

“What direction was he headed?” Tabitha wanted to know.

“Where the sky is blue.” Skittles replied enigmatically.

Bella turned her droopy eyes on the detectives and barked, “Huh?”

“When last I saw him, he was headed towards the waterfront. A very smoky waterfront.” Skittles answered.

“Sounds to me like he was using #DDDDC as a dating service!” Bella growled. She ran a serious detective agency. She did not want clients abusing the services.

Tabitha ignored the boss and enquired, “Were you near the ship ‘Muskrat’s Revenge’?”

“As a matter of fact . . .” Skittles began but was interrupted by the boss.

“Never mind about all that. I want to know what this case is about! The rabbit can find his lady love on Twitter, for all I care. But there is a mystery here and in order to solve it, we have to know what we’re looking for!” Bella seethed.

“I’d be guessing but I think this case is about all the missing cats jumping over to Blue Sky. And how even Tibbs is there. But he has something that’s keeping him close to The Blue Bird, too.” Tabitha conjectured.

“If this Tibbs is guilty of something, don’t for Cat’s sake get caught obstructing justice!” Bella warned.

*********

Tabitha went back to the office with Skittles. She filled her partner in and called Whiskers at his hotel but got no answer. So she sent Skittles down to the pier to find out what happened to the ship Muskrat’s Revenge.

Tabitha tried to get in touch with both Magic and ‘The Tail’ but it seemed no one was available at the moment. Very strange. She joined Rocky in the outer office.

“Are you going to look for Tibbs?” Rocky asked.

“Nope.” She answered.

“You have to. You can’t leave him to get into more trouble.” Rocky was worried about the big, dumb Tom.

“I don’t have to do anything. If he wants to switch social media platforms, that’s up to him.” Tabitha answered coolly.

As Rocky pouted, Tabitha swore and left the office.

Half an hour later, she returned. Entering the office just after Skittles, Tabitha had a great big smile on her face like the cat who got the cream.

Skittles asked, “What are you so pleased about?”

“Nothing.” Tabitha answered untruthfully. “Did you find out what happened to Muskrat’s Revenge?”

“Yep. Tibbs met with the Captain. So did Whiskers, Pumpkin (aka ‘The Tail’) and Magic.” Skittles opened her notepad and continued, “Apparently, ‘spitting and hissing’ was heard but the Captain told the harbour police that ‘everything was fine!’ All the suspects left and 5 minutes later the ship caught fire. The harbour fire brigade managed to put it out. No one was hurt.” Skittles finished her report.

“Just as I thought.” Tabitha claimed. She got no further before Boots staggered into the office. Rocky, Tabitha and Skittles all looked at each other.

“The Captain, I presume?” Tabitha deduced by the hat he wore.

Captain Boots seemed to be nipped to the gills. He lurched forward and did not meow a thing before he dropped to the floor. A package slid across the floor.

Rocky meowed in terror. Skittles leapt to her paws, ready to bolt. Only Tabitha had enough wherewithal to chase the package.

“Is he . . . ?” Rocky wanted to know.

“Yep. Nipped to smithereens!” Tabitha answered as she moved from the Captain. She placed the package on the desk.

“What do you think is in there?” Skittles asked eagerly.

Tabitha began to unwrap the package slowly. As she peeled away the packing bubbles, Rocky got distracted and started to pounce on the bubbles, popping them one by one. Then the phone rang and at Tabitha’s low growl, he went into the outer office to answer it.

“What is it?” Skittles asked again. The curiosity was driving her mad.

Tabitha got to the centre of the package and pulled out a statue of The Blue Bird. Tabitha began to laugh.

“What?” Skittles didn’t get the joke.

“Of all the luck . . .” Tabitha began.

Rocky rushed into the office and said, “That was Tibbs. He sounded desperate, like he was being tortured!”

“He, probably, hasn’t eaten today.” Skittles remarked.

“You have to go save him!” Rocky insisted.

Tabitha and Skittles looked at each other in resignation. Tabitha handed Skittles The Blue Bird which she placed it into the office safe. Then she told Rocky, “Phone Bella. Tell her everything that happened but don’t mention The Blue Bird. Bella will know what to do.”

“Come on, Skittles . . . Let’s go solve this crime.”

********

Tabitha and Skittles made their way to Whisker’s Hotel. They formulated a plan and discussed all the possibilities. As they waited outside room 345, no one answered so they made their way to Rocky’s place to keep him in the loop about the plan.

Rocky answered his door and let them in. He gave them a couple of saucers of milk. Skittles drank hers down but Tabitha could not bring herself to partake of the beverage after her recent experience. Skittles tucked into Tabitha’s drink.

“How’d it go with Bella?” Tabitha asked.

“All fine.” Rocky answered.

“You didn’t mention the parcel, did you?” Tabitha knew their plan revolved around this.

“Of course not! I’m not a big ‘fluff ball’!” Rocky used the slang expression for eggs whose brains were a tad scrambles. He had picked up such language from his idol, Tibbs. He continued, “I did see ‘The Tail’ in the hallway office, nebbing on us, though.”

“Did he follow you?” Tabitha looked through the curtains.

“No. He got a phone call on his iPhone and he left right away.” Rocky recounted the events.

“You’re very lucky. ‘The Tail’ is a loose canon. It could have ended very badly for you.” Tabitha added.

“I can look after myself.” Rocky’s show of bravado fooled no one.

“I think we should all go home and we’ll put our plan into action tomorrow.” Tabitha suggested.

“Good idea.” Skittles agreed. “I’d like some dinner anyway. I’m starving.”

“What plan?” Rocky asked.

Tabitha and Skittles explained the plan to him and left his apartment.

********

Tabitha went back to her place. She let herself in and turned on the lights. To her surprise, Tibbs sat on the chair facing the front door. His ears twitched furiously, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

Before Tabitha could react, Whiskers, ‘The Tail’ and Magic all sauntered into the living room from the kitchen.

“I think we need to have a meow.” Whiskers announced.

Almost immediately ‘The Tail’ neared Tabitha and attempted to frisk her for any hidden weapons. She batted at him and hissed, “Put your paws on me again and you’ll never be able to eat a Lick-e-lix again!”

“Never mind, Pumps. Sit.” Whiskers defused the situation by ordering the fluffy tailed Persian about.

“I don’t trust that fluff ball!” Tabitha seethed. She made her way to the sofa and sat next to Tibbs. Meanwhile ‘The Tail’ took a position behind them so he could keep an eye on Tabitha.

“Have you got the Bird?” Whiskers began right away.

“Naturally.” Tabitha rubbed an ear. “You have the treats?” She continued. It appeared that their plan was about to be put into play.

Whiskers threw a huge package of Dreamies onto the coffee table. A few treats spilled out. Tibbs pounced on them and began scooping them up before the others had a chance. The table creaked and groaned under his weight.

Tabitha pulled him off before the table broke as Whiskers demanded, “The Bird?”

I think the price just went up. I need more treats.” Tabitha boldly insisted.

Magic stepped forward and hissed, “Let me remind you, Tabitha . . . you may have the Bird but we have you!”

“Let them have the stupid Bird. We’ll take the rest of the treats and get out of this mess.” Tibbs kept his eyes on all those treats.

“We’ll need a ‘Fall Tom’!” Tabitha was one step ahead of everyone else.

“Huh?” All the others returned in unison.

“Bella will want someone to pay for the mess this has caused. You can’t just come into #DDDDC and catnap one of our operatives.” Tabitha explained their plight.

Tibbs looked to Magic. Magic looked to Whiskers. Whiskers looked to ‘The Tail’. ‘The Tail’ licked his enormous tail and looked up at them all.

Tabitha continued, “Someone will have to take the rap for the disappearance of Skittles . . . and Reggie, the bunny.”

‘The Tail’ may have been slow but he understood that he was expendable. He made a dash for the door but Magic wrestled him to the floor. The fur flew as they tussled until Tibbs intervened and sat on the both of them. Magic was allowed to squeeze out from under the big, black cat.

“There’s your Fall Tom.” Whiskers stated. “Now, where’s the Bird?”

‘The Tail’ hissed and spit. He pleaded, “Teddy?!!! Mum will not be happy that you’ve framed me. I’m her favourite!”

Whiskers growled at ‘The Tail’ and whacked him on the head. “You are not Mum’s favourite, Pumps! I am!”

Magic butted in and claimed, “Neither one of you are. I am!”

While the Persians argued amongst themselves, Tabitha pulled out her iPhone and meowed, “I’ll make a call and get the ‘Bird’ here. She pushed a button and spoke into the phone, “Pick up the package and bring it to my place.”

*Make sure you read next week’s Finale!!!

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