Chapter 1

C. Auguste Dupin’s nose itched. He twitched a couple whiskers, but he really didn’t want to move. After over an hour of careful adjustments, he had found the perfect position to sprawl across the concrete park bench and soak up as much of the sun’s rays as possible. The heat soaked through his fur into his bones. Perfect, except for that itch.

It smelled of chamomile tea and sardine crackers.

Dupin’s amber eyes snapped open. The only other muscle that twitched was the tip of his tail, lifting and falling back to the concrete bench. From his current position, he saw all the way up the green swath of lawn to the massive log house at the top of the hill, the Reed Moore Library.

The green metal roof glistened in the light. A couple small white butterflies flitted above bright yellow dandelions dotting the lawn. He heard the quiet drone of traffic on the roads at the bottom of the hill. Humans coming and going in Poeville’s downtown district.

Not too busy on this sunny afternoon. Even closer he heard the tap, tap of short heels against the concrete path that wound around the bubbling fountain. A few more steps and the human who smelled of chamomile tea and sardine crackers would reach his bench.

With a teeth-revealing yawn, Dupin rolled smoothly onto his feet and stretched into a deep bend. The possibility of treats, especially sardine crackers, was enough to motivate him into motion. Besides their thumbs, treats were one thing good about the humans he saw each day.

He knew this human. Age might have shrunk her and turned her hair gray, but she wore a bright yellow jacket, frilly white lace down the front, a matching skirt and two matching shoes with short heels. For humans, clothing took the place of fur, poor creatures that they were. She looked very neat, as neat as her niece or a cat, for that matter. On one arm she carried a bright green purse that bulged in an interesting fashion. In her other hand, she pulled a wheeled suitcase, shining a bright artificial green like a legless beetle.

It was Penny’s aunt, Tabitha Dido, his human’s sole surviving relative. She was no doubt on her way to see Penny now, the librarian up at the Reed Moore Library. The suitcase bothered him, but he dismissed it. There were more important considerations.

First, there was the matter of sardine crackers.

Dupin arched his back and padded silently to the edge of the bench. He raised his head, his mouth opening slightly and inhaled deeply. The deep fishy odor of sardine crackers coiled along the roof of his mouth, lingering before passing on.

Auntie Dido laughed and pressed her hands together as she stopped by the bench. “Dupin, you rascal. Out here enjoying the sun are we?”

Yes, and sardine crackers would fit very nicely now, a few hours after his morning serving of tuna.

Auntie Dido reached out with a liver-spotted hand, her skin so transparent and hairless that he could see right through it. Her hand smelled of chemical flowers that made his nose itch more. Out of the hope of sardine crackers, Dupin tolerated a few scratches on his head, and under the chin, before lifting a paw and batting at her purse.

She laughed. “I know what you want, rascal.” She rummaged in the purse and pulled out a crinkling sandwich bag filled with golden sardine crackers. She shook the bag above his head. “This is what you want? Isn’t it? Isn’t it?”

Dupin rose up slightly on his hind legs and swapped playfully at the bag — but with his claws carefully retracted. He knew the game. If he ripped it out of her hand, tore it open and feasted on the crackers, he wouldn’t get another chance. Patience was required when dealing with human rituals.

Satisfied with his half-hearted effort, Dido tipped the bag and shook three of the golden triangle-shaped crackers out onto his bench. Then the bag disappeared quickly into her purse. Three? Dupin looked up at Dido and yowled his protest.

“You’re welcome!” She said brightly. “Now I’ve got to get to the library. I have a book in to pick up, and I need to ask that niece of mine to do me a little favor. You behave, you rascal.”

Dido set off on up the path, with her precise tap-tap steps. Dupin watched her for a second but the odor of those crackers, right beneath his nose, couldn’t be denied. He lowered his head and inhaled deeply. The scent of fish, garlic, and oil nearly made his knees give out. He bit the first one, crunching it in a most satisfying way between his teeth. Two bites and it was gone. His tiny pink tongue picked up the few fragments remaining. Only two remained. He looked up, watched Dido’s progress and came to a decision. If he finished these quickly, he could catch up to her and maybe get even more sardine crackers before she left.

With that in mind, he finished the other two in short order. It was a shame not to savor them longer, but against the possibility of more he could savor, what was he going to do? Dupin took a moment to lick down the long fur at the back of his leg and wiped his face. He repeated it on the other side. Presentable enough, he sprang down from the bench and trotted up the path after Dido.

Dido’s stride remained short, precise and slow, a fact that Dupin appreciated as he hated to hurry. Especially after having eaten.

So it was not difficult to time his arrival at the front doors to coincide with Dido’s. He slipped beneath the wood bench on the left side of the doors, tiptoeing through the ash and fire smell of the cigarette butts that stained the concrete, and popped out around the pillar right at the moment Auntie Dido opened the door. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he slipped around her legs and walked, slowly, into the building.

Dido chuckled. “There you are, you rascal! I thought you might sneak up on me.”

Dupin sat down, curled his tail around his feet and looked up at her with bored expectation. His appearance might result in more sardine crackers, but usually not without more reminding.

Dido stepped to the side, clearly meaning to go around him. Dupin uncoiled like a spring and leaned against her legs. There was an oily medicinal smell coming from her feet that he didn’t like, but was willing to tolerate for the moment. She stepped around him.

“I can’t play now, I must talk to Penny.”

Play? This wasn’t play, it was starvation. She had tempted him with three morsels when she carried an entire bag of sardine crackers in her purse. Dupin caught up with her in a few steps, timing perfect, to twine between her legs.

“Dupin!”

Penny Copper’s cry made Dupin’s fur stand on end. His ears flattened as his head snapped around and he saw his human staring at him, hands on her hips. As humans went, he thought she looked quite nice. Trim from her mountain climbing, long hairs all neatly in place, with a sharply cut suit that showed her sleek lines. In some ways, she looked like a more modern, and much younger, version of Auntie Dido. But right now her eyebrows were drawn together, and she wasn’t smiling. Her hand snapped out, and a red-tipped finger pointed at him.

“You could have tripped her! Bad kitty!”

Dido chuckled and put one hand on Penny’s arm. With her other, she dug into her purse and pulled out the bag of sardine crackers. “He just wants more crackers, dear.”

Torn between Penny’s disapproval and the fact that the crackers were out of the bag, literally in this case, there was only one thing to do. Dupin sat up and started licking one paw. He didn’t even look at the two humans.

“Don’t encourage him, Auntie,” Penny said. “And don’t fall for his tricks. He’s just trying to make you feel sorry for him. It isn’t as if he’s starving.”

Dupin paused in his cleaning. Not starving? Not starving? How could Penny say that? He stopped cleaning his leg and walk slowly over to the two humans. He didn’t look at Penny as he reached Dido and rubbed his fur against her legs. He smelled ozone and a faint crackle of static electricity.

“Oh, but he’s such a dear,” Dido said.

“Yes, such a dear,” Penny said. “And you spoil him. You and everyone else.”

“I don’t know about that.” Dido dug into the sardine cracker bag. “How can I resist?”

She bent down over him and scattered three more crackers on the floor in front of him.

“Auntie!” Before Dupin could do more than inhale the delicious aroma, Penny was there scooping up the crackers with one hand while the other snaked around his middle and hoisted him up into the air. “He has a bowl for food.”

Dupin suffered being carried because he knew the outcome. Penny would carry him back behind the circulation desk, through the workroom to the staff break room. Then she’d put him down and drop the crackers in his bowl. His legs swung in small arcs as she walked. Even though her steps were muffled by the carpet, Dupin heard Dido following them past the circulation counter.

“I need to pick up my book,” Dido said. “And I wanted to ask you a favor?”

“Yes?”

Dupin recognized the caution in Penny’s voice. He’d been along for the ride before when Penny had to do a favor for Dido. Sometimes her favors turned out to be much bigger tasks than they seemed at the start. Like that one time when she wanted her dog, Patches looked after for an afternoon. He shivered just thinking about the long-haired monster. Focusing on the sardine crackers was a much better idea. He inhaled deeply and caught the scent of the crackers from Penny’s other hand. It was oily and fishy with olives. Fantastic.

“It’s only a little thing,” Dido said.

Penny stopped walking and turned around. Dupin let his head dangle. Why stop now when they were so close? He practiced letting every muscle in his body go limp. Sometimes that worked to make it hard for Penny to hold onto him even with her thumbs. Sure enough, he felt himself starting to slip across her fingers.

“Really,” Dido insisted. “I just don’t have time to do it right now. I’ve got to get to the airport. Where is it?”

Dido dug around in her purse. Dupin resisted the urge to raise his head and see what else she might pull out of the bag, or she might even take out the whole bag of sardine crackers! Maybe she’d even spill them on the floor! Dupin’s eyes widened at the idea of it, all those crackers tumbling down onto the floor. The humans wouldn’t want them once they were on the floor. Then they would be his!

He didn’t move a muscle. He let everything stay limp and bit by bit he slipped farther across Penny’s fingers. His back legs and tail were now much lower than his front legs and head. Any second the drop would accelerate.

Penny hoisted him up, somehow jogging him forward in the process and rebalanced him across her hand. “Airport? Where are you going?”

“Here it is,” Dido said, pulling out a small rectangular box covered in velvety black cloth.

Dupin didn’t care about the box. He was concentrating on staying limp in Penny’s grip. Already he had started sliding backward again. As disappointing as it was that Dido hadn’t dropped all the crackers there were still the three in Penny’s other hand. Three that had been on the floor. Three more crackers for him! He had to get Penny moving again instead of standing in the workroom.

Penny couldn’t take the box, not with her hands full. Dupin slipped a little farther, and that was enough.

“Honestly,” Penny said, lowering him to the ground. “I pick him up, and he goes all rag doll on me. Let’s go talk in the staff room.”

Triumphant Dupin rubbed against her legs and trotted on ahead into the staff room.