Dog-Eared Delinquent

Chapter Seventeen

We were held in the fishbowl for a couple more hours while everyone waited for peak criminal hours to approach. Nan must have been going crazy with worry. I could only hope we’d be back to her soon.

First, we just had to commit one teensy, little burglary, then Octo-Cat and I would be home free. Once Octo-Cat was feeling like himself again and ready to help, Peter walked us through what he expected of us, step by excruciating step.

Apparently, this plan had been in the works for quite some time. It made me wonder if Peter would have abducted us, had we not followed him downtown to begin with.

The burglary would go down like this…

I’d enter through the back door with the key they’d filched and had copied earlier that week. Next, I’d deactivate the alarm with the code they’d give me, then open the door for Octo-Cat who would slip in and begin knocking all the jewelry from the cases out onto the floor.

When he gave his signal, I would rush in wearing a crazy green bodysuit that covered everything, including my face, and Octo-Cat would stand guard while I shoved our bounty into the oversized purse the good folks at the lair had provided me with.

Once I returned to the street, one of them would use their glamor to hide me from view—apparently that was easier to do with me already wearing a walking green screen get-up—and we’d all run back toward our underground hiding spot. As soon as Moss and Peter confirmed that I’d completed the job to their satisfaction, they’d wipe our memories and release us back to our ordinary, everyday lives.

This, of course, was provided that everything went perfectly.

And also that Peter wouldn’t trick me into helping him again in the future. And, well, I trusted him just about as far as I could throw him.

Oh, how I hated everything about this night.

Mr. Gable, the old man who owned the jewelry store, had always been kind to me whenever I’d passed him on the street. He’d even helped to pick out the heart-shaped locket my parents had purchased as a gift for my eighteenth birthday. Whether or not he had the right kind of insurance to deal with getting robbed blind, he still didn’t deserve for this to happen.

No one did.

Now, obviously, Mr. Gable had to be magical, too. Otherwise he wouldn’t have known to add a magic-seeking alarm to his store’s security system. And that made me wonder… could he transform into an animal, too? Use glamor to hide both thoughts and things?

The old shopkeeper had been a part of this town for as long as I could remember, and it unnerved me to think that magic had always been so close by without me ever even suspecting it. So, was he one of the good guys or the bad guys? And did it even matter which side he ascribed to if the two opposing teams always worked together anyway?

I felt so lost in this strange, new world.

I really just wanted to get back to my normal life as soon as possible.

By the time, Moss returned to let us out of the fishbowl, I was ready to do whatever they said if it meant freeing ourselves faster. Octo-Cat was in a better mood now and actually seemed a bit excited about the mission that we’d been forced into carrying out.

“I’ve always suspected they call it cat burglary for a reason,” he quipped as Moss joined up with Peter, and together they escorted us toward the jewelry shop.

I wanted to run but knew it would be useless. We didn’t have a level playing field here, and the only way I could emerge safely from this situation was to do exactly as I had been told.

“Are you ready?” Moss asked, tightening his hold on my arm as we peered around the corner. “You understand the plan?”

Peter gripped my other arm just as tightly. I would definitely have bruises the next morning, provided it ever came. “If you try any funny stuff, we’ll know. And I promise that I will personally make your life a living hell after that.”

I nodded glumly. “Understood.” I did not doubt the sincerity of that particular statement. Peter had been gunning for me ever since that first awkward morning in the office. Probably even before then, too.

“The cat stays with us until you’ve deactivated the normie alarm,” Moss said. “Got it?”

Octo-Cat struggled underneath Moss’s arm but had no words of encouragement to offer me as I readied myself for action.

“Yes, I’ve got it,” I said with an angry stare.

Finally, both Moss and Peter let me go and shoved me down the alley.

The little metal key burned in my palm, the only witness to my sad fall from grace. These people had hurt me and my cat. They’d hurt others, and still they weren’t finished. They’d probably never be finished.

Was it really worth continuing that chain of destruction and greed?

And what if I did everything they said, but they kept us prisoner, anyway?

Anything was possible, I supposed. Nothing was guaranteed in life, especially when working hand-in-hand with such unsavory characters. Still, I had to at least try to get myself home in one piece. After all, it wasn’t just me they held captive. Octo-Cat was firmly in their clutches as well, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to take four more lifetimes of being told he was nothing special.

I’d reached the door now. This was really happening, and it was happening now. The key slipped seamlessly into the lock, and I sucked in a deep breath as I twisted the knob open. Inside the doorway, the alarm sounded with a warning chirp. I had ten seconds to punch in the correct code, just as Peter had instructed.

I closed my eyes and saw the numbers appear before me. Feeling my way around the pad, I found the first number and pressed it inward.

With another deep breath, I punched the second digit. I opened my eyes again. I could do this. I was doing this. Doing something bad didn’t make me a bad person, not when I’d been threatened and tricked into helping commit this crime.

I was halfway through my first task. Just two more buttons and only a handful of seconds left.

By the time I pressed the third button, my hairline had moistened with sweat. My breathing slowed not because I was calm, but because every single inhalation became more and more difficult to take. My head spun and vision blurred as I regarded the keypad before me.

Only one more digit, then this—or at least this part—would be over.

I raised my index finger, trying not to focus on the way it shook as I moved it toward the array of buttons.

I closed my eyes and pressed it down hard…

On the panic button.

An ear-piercing siren sounded overhead, but I made no effort to get away. Let them find me here.

A voice sounded over the speakers, but I was too clammed up to say anything. I only hoped that Moss and Peter hadn’t punished Octo-Cat for my insubordination, that he still believed in himself enough to fight back.

It only took minutes for a battle-ready Officer Bouchard to arrive on the scene. When he saw me waiting with my hands held in the sky, he took a step back in surprise. “Angie. What are you doing here? Did you see who broke in?”

I nodded stoically. “Yes, me.”

“You?” He stopped to scratch his head and wrinkled his nose. “That’s not possible.”

“I willfully entered with this key.” I tossed the illegal copy his way.

He pulled it closer with his foot but didn’t bend down to pick it up. “Then why did you hit the panic alarm?”

“I didn’t have a choice,” I sobbed. “They threatened me and my cat.”

“I figured it was something like that,” Officer Bouchard said, worry lining his brow. “Put your hands down. I’m not going to arrest you.”

I took a deep breath and let my hands fall to my sides. Tears had snuck up on me again. But I didn’t care about me. More than anything, I was desperately worried about Octo-Cat. Had I just signed his death warrant by refusing to play along with the magicfolks’ devious scheme?

“Who made you do this, Angie?” the officer asked kindly.

I took a deep breath. This was it. Peter had promised to make my life hell. What he didn’t know is that stooping to his insidious level would have done the exact same thing. I’d never be able to live with myself knowing I’d done something so wrong. Whether or not he wiped my memory clear, my heart would always know that something was wrong.

This was the time to make sure that the bad guys went down for their crimes. Even if Officer Bouchard didn’t understand the full extent of how they’d carried out the burglaries downtown, I hoped my testimony would be enough to get them arrested—and punished.

“Peter Peters and Moss…I don’t know his last name,” I told him, my voice clear and sure as a bell.

“It’s okay, Angie,” he said, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “You’re safe now.”

Maybe I was, but I still had no idea what had happened to my poor cat.