“Um.” Polo made ayikes face at Marco, who made one back.
“I’m guessing it was not convincing,” the white cat said softly.
“In a word, no,” Oscar said.
“Was that acting?” Walt said. “Because I don’t think any of us were getting a ‘good’ vibe there.”
The white cat slumped against the couch.“Oh misery! This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me! Even I, with my amazing talents, can’t manage to make those disgusting treats look yummy. What am I going to DO? HELP ME!”
“But…” Polo looked confused. “Help you… how? Make them yummy?”
“Make them LOOK yummy,” Marco whispered to Polo. “I think?”
Oscar cocked his head.“Wait, this is it? This is the big problem? This is what you think is worse than the raccoon situation?” Oscar jumped against the bars of his cage. “Cat, we’ve got real problems here!”
“MY PROBLEM IS REAL,” the white cat wailed. “I CAN’T MAKE THOSE TREATS LOOK YUMMY! I’m a FAILURE.”
Walt sniffed at the bag.“Cat, I don’t think anybody can make those treats look yummy. They smell like sewage.”
“I could lose my JOB!” The white cat moaned. “I have to eat these for a COMMERCIAL!”
Polo and Marco exchanged a significant glance. Then Polo stepped forward.“Um, I was just kidding earlier. Those looked DELICIOUS. Right, Marco?” She nudged Marco in the ribs with her elbow.
“Um. Yes, yum yum.”
The white cat narrowed her eyes.“Really? I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true. We were making a bad joke,” Polo said, crossing her fingers behind her back. “Right, Walt? Because I was…”
“Jealous. We’re just jealous of your success,” Walt said in a flat voice. “Aren’t we, Oscar? Tell the cat how good those treats looked.”
“So good,” Oscar said. “Now can we get back to the raccoons?”
The white cat sniffed.“I did try to make them look tasty. It’s a hard job.”
“Your performance was… stunning,” Oscar said. “Indescribable. Really. We can help you practice more later if you want. But first, raccoons.”
“Well, there are rats all over the vents,” the white cat said. “So you’d better get that sorted out fast.”
“Yes. Thanks for your input,” Oscar said, clenching his beak. “Now, if you would just—”
He stopped midsentence. A key was turning in the lock. Madison.
“Get out! Go! You too, Wallace. She can’t see either of you!” Walt hissed. Wallace ran for cover while the white cat rolled her eyes and sauntered behind the couch. She disappeared just as Madison opened the door.
“Madison…” Oscar said slowly. Then his face lit up. “Walt, that’s it!” he crowed happily. “Madison’s our solution.”
Walt frowned in confusion.“Madison?”
Oscar hopped gleefully on his perch.“Of course! When she goes to the storage unit, maybe she’ll see the raccoons! And if not, at least we’ll get a status report. If we’re lucky, we might not need to do anything. Heck, Bob might have already chased those raccoons away on his own.”
“Maybe?” Walt said. She wasn’t convinced. But at least they had a plan. Even if the plan was only waiting to see what Madison said.
Oscar nodded.“If I were a raccoon, I’d think twice about raiding Bob’s building.” He clicked his beak. “Let’s make it official. Operation Raccoon is now Operation Wait and See.”
Operation Wait and See took a lot longer than they’d expected.
Madison didn’t seem to feel any urgent need to rush down to the storage area, no matter how many times Butterbean barked the words “storage area” at her. (And it was quite a few times. Oscar finally had to ask her to stop.)
She didn’t go downstairs until after she and Mrs. Food had finished dinner.
“Oh shoot!” Madison said, making a face as she picked up pieces of squeaky-lamb fluff. “I’m sorry, I totally forgot to check the storage area. I’ll go now.”
“THANK YOU,” Butterbean said. “FINALLY.”
“You know the code?” Mrs. Food asked.
“Of course,” Madison said, putting her shoes on. “I’ll just be a sec.”
“I’ll go with her,” Butterbean said, heading after her. But Madison was too quick for her. Butterbean almost got her nose caught in the door. (She had done that once and never wanted to do it again.)
Madison was back exactly seventeen minutes later. (Oscar had watched the clock. It was a very long seventeen minutes.)
“Anything missing?” Mrs. Food asked when she got back.
“Nope,” Madison said, taking off her shoes and heading back to her room. “Everything looked just the same as always. There was just one unit that looked like it had been messed with. Probably the one that belongs to that lady on six. Ours looked fine.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Mrs. Food said, picking up her book. “I’ll let Bob know tomorrow.”
“Maybe the raccoons really did leave,” Walt said quietly after Mrs. Food had gone to bed. “Could it be that easy?”
“Bob probably scared them away,” Butterbean said. Bob could be pretty intimidating sometimes.
“So Operation Wait and See continues,” Oscar said.
“Operation Wait and See, Part Two,” Butterbean said softly. She lay her head down on her feet. She had a lot of experience with waiting.
They didn’t have to wait long.
The knock at the door came the next morning while Mrs. Food and Madison were eating breakfast.
Oscar dropped his piece of fruit onto the floor of his cage.
Butterbean dribbled kibble out of her mouth.
Walt looked up from her grooming in alarm.
“Well, here we go,” Oscar said quietly. “The moment of truth.”
Madison opened the door to find Bob standing in the hallway, solemnly holding his clipboard.
“Oh, um, hi,” Madison said. “We checked the storage area, and everything looked good.”
“Did it?” Bob said, taking a step inside. He didn’t smile. “Because I checked this morning too. We’ve had another breakin. Vandalism. You know what vandalism is, Madison? Theft? Burglary?”
Oscar gripped his perch tighter.“Uh-oh.” He shot Walt a panicked look. The raccoons were not gone. Operation Wait and See was turning into Operation Disaster.
“Um, yeah.” Madison gave Bob a weird look.
“What’s all this about, Bob?” Mrs. Food said, getting up from the table.
Bob smoothed the front of his shirt.“After we discovered the thefts this morning, we checked the security cameras. Looks like only one person went in last night. One.” Bob tapped his clipboard against his hand. “Seems like we’ve got a pretty clear suspect.”
“And who would that be, Bob?” Mrs. Food had a hard note in her voice.
Bob’s face was grim. “Madison.”
— 11 —
“I DID WHAT?” MADISON LOOKED outraged. “You think I vandalized the storage area?” She looked from Bob to Mrs. Food and back again.
“She did WHAT?” Butterbean yelped. “It wasn’t Madison! It was the raccoons, right, Oscar?”
“Right,” Oscar said in a low voice. “Oh, this is bad.”
Mrs. Food put her hand on Madison’s shoulder. “That’s a very serious accusation, Bob.”
Bob raised his hands defensively.“I don’t like it any more than you do. But you can take a look at the surveillance video. Madison, you were the last one to go in last night. The ONLY one to go in. There was no damage before you went in. I had just checked it myself.”
“But it wasn’t me,” Madison said. She turned to Mrs. Food, her voice pleading. “I didn’t touch anything. I just went to our storage area. I told you, everything looked fine when I left.”
“But can’t they see it was the raccoons?” Butterbean whispered.
“Those cameras, they only show the humans—isn’t that what Dunkin said?” Walt said softly. “They’re positioned too high to show the floor.”
“Right. And the raccoons wouldn’t be coming in through the door.” Oscar clicked his beak in frustration.