Miu sighed in exasperation. “All right, then. I’ll do it myself.” She darted out of our hiding place, twined around the Director’s legs, and started to purr.

  The Director brightened. “Oho! It’s the Beloved One, yes? You’re still here?” He reached down and stroked the back of her head.

  Miu’s purr grew louder.

  “It’s not a good day for me, cat,” the Director told her. “Not a good day at all. Everywhere I see trouble.” He looked as if he were about to cry.

  Miu stretched out under his hand, purring and twisting and generally acting like a half-grown kitten. Honestly, I was embarrassed for her.

  “I’m not supposed to go around talking about it,” the Director whispered, “but I guess you won’t say anything, will you, cat? The Overseer says I have to act quickly, but he doesn’t understand what’s involved. I feel so guilty—” He pulled back his hand. “Uh-oh, you’d better disappear, cat. I think someone else is coming after me.”

  After Miu raced back to us, Lady Nefrubity came in to talk to the Director. As usual, her eyes were so deeply rimmed in kohl that she looked half raven. She whispered in the Director’s ear. I couldn’t make out a single word, but he looked more troubled than ever as they passed out of the room.

  “That looks suspicious to me,” Miu said. “Let’s follow them!”

  I skulked behind the statue. “Wait a minute, Miu. I hear marching. And clanking. Something’s going on.”

  “He’s right,” Khepri agreed. “It sounds like Pharaoh’s guards. And they’re coming our way.”

  Echoing against the brick walls of the palace, the clanking grew louder. Moments later, the guards jogged past us, spears in hand, their sandaled feet dark with dust. In their wake several scribes followed, talking excitedly.

  “Is it true the guards have found the thief?” one asked.

  “That’s what I heard,” another scribe replied.

  “May it be so,” a third added.

  Miu gasped.

  Khepri heaved a tiny sigh of distress.

  I stopped in my tracks. Were they talking about Tedimut?

  Uh-oh.

  “We must go quickly,” the first scribe said, clutching his writing tablet. “They’re going to report to Pharaoh in the audience hall, and he may want us there to take notes.”

  They hurried down the hall. As soon as the coast was clear, we raced after them, moving so fast that our paws hardly touched the ground.

  When I attend one of Pharaoh’s audiences, I usually go in style. Once the lamps are lit and the horns are sounded, I mount the dais with Pharaoh and pose on the top stair. That way the crowd gets a chance to admire me before I take my place under the throne. It’s just how we do things around here.

  But not today.

  By the time we got to the audience hall, it was already full of people, and none of them noticed me. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed. But a Great Detective is great whether people notice him or not—and I suppose sometimes it’s best if they don’t.

  My main worry at that moment was Tedimut, and I was relieved not to see her as Miu and I pushed our way to the front of the crowd. A few people shuffled back when we skirted past their ankles, but no one looked down. They were too busy listening to Pharaoh.

  Not that you have to listen too carefully. Pharaoh has a voice as deep and loud as a lion’s. “Where is the amulet?” he demanded of the guards. “Where is the thief?”

  The chief of the guards flinched and dropped to his knees. “O Ruler of Rulers, Keeper of Harmony and Balance, Lord of the Two Crowns, we have searched half the town, but we have not found them—yet.”

  High on his throne, glittering in his golden collar and double crown, Pharaoh frowned.

  I’ve had the chance to observe many of Pharaoh’s frowns up close. The ones I know best are of the “Ra-you’ve-been-a-naughty-cat” variety—where you meow once or twice, and everything’s fine. This one went well beyond that. This one meant business.

  “You have failed me,” Pharaoh said, grim as the Nile before it floods.

  The officer turned a shade of gray. “O Ruler of Rulers, we live only to serve you. We will find the amulet, I promise—and the thief. We have guards stationed at every door and wall of the palace, and all around the town. We will search every hiding place. She cannot escape us.”

  “See that she does not,” Pharaoh said, still grim. “That jewel is a treasure of our royal house, and we are pained by its loss. Its theft is not only a betrayal. It is treason. The thief shall be punished accordingly.”

  With his powerful arms, he lifted the crook and flail of royal office—a signal that the audience was over. To show their respect, the crowd prostrated themselves on the floor. It felt strange not to mount the dais and enjoy their admiration as I usually did. But I was a Great Detective now, and I had a job to do. When Miu shot out of the hall, I followed her.

  “Did you hear that?” she said to me as soon as we reached an empty room. “Pharaoh said the theft is treason. And the punishment for treason is death.” Her eyes were wide with panic. “It was just a piece of jewelry, Ra.”

  “Not to him,” I said, but I shuffled my paws uncomfortably. Truth be told, I agreed with her. A piece of jewelry wasn’t worth someone’s life.

  The trouble was, when Pharaoh first came to the throne, he’d been determined to be merciful. (This was a change from his father, who’d been about as merciful as a pillar of granite.) Unfortunately, some noblemen had taken Pharaoh’s mercy for weakness, and they plotted to overthrow him. Since then, Pharaoh had taken a harder line, starting with the noblemen themselves. He was determined to keep order, whatever the cost. Quite right, too: a Pharaoh who can’t keep order can’t serve Ma’at.

  But I wasn’t too happy with him right now, even if I didn’t want to say so to Miu. Tedimut wasn’t a powerful nobleman or a fearsome enemy. She was just a child. Even if she was guilty, she didn’t deserve to die—and I was ready to stake my royal honor that she was innocent.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, as much to myself as to Miu. “It won’t come to that. We all know Tedimut didn’t steal anything.”

  “But Pharaoh thinks she did.” Miu glanced at Khepri and me with imploring eyes. “You two have to solve this crime. Do you hear me? You have to keep Tedimut safe.”

  Who was Miu to command me to do anything? I scratched my right flank. “Well, we’ll do what we can—”

  “You have to,” Miu repeated. “Start by investigating the Director of the Royal Loincloths. He’s up to something. I know he is.”

  I didn’t move so much as a whisker. Pharaoh’s Cat doesn’t take orders from anyone.

  “And what about you?” Khepri asked her.

  “I need to get back to Tedimut,” Miu said. “If she wakes and I’m not there, she might be afraid. And with all those guards looking for her, I have to make sure she stays quiet. But if you ask me, the key to this mystery is that Director. He even said he was guilty, remember?”

  “He said he felt guilty,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.” At least, I hoped there was.

  “You’re splitting cat hairs.” Already Miu was pulling away from us. “Don’t let him go!”

  * * *

  I didn’t like the idea of taking orders from Miu, and I really didn’t think the Director of the Royal Loincloths had stolen the amulet. Yet I was uneasy with what we’d seen and heard earlier. What exactly did the Director feel guilty about? After a little persuasion from Khepri, I agreed to investigate further.

  When we found the Director, he was by himself in Pharaoh’s robing room, kneeling by an open chest.

  “Oh, dear.” He rubbed his shaven cheeks. “Oh, dear.”

  “What’s he so upset about?” Khepri whispered.

  “Let’s find out,” I said, and bounded over to him.

  At the sound of my paws, the Director slammed the chest closed and turned. He relaxed when he saw it was just me. “What are you doing in here, Ra? Looking for your Beloved One?” He rose to his feet. “I saw her a little while ago, back near the feasting room.”

  I rolled my eyes and padded over to the chest. Why had he slammed the lid down? Was there something inside it?

  “You should go out to the pool,” the Director said, straightening his sash. “Maybe that’s where your Beloved One has gone.”

  Hmmm….Was he trying to get rid of me?

  Before I could figure out the answer, several young servants walked in, and the Director went off with them. I decided to stay with the chest.

  “We’re not going to be able to open it, Ra,” Khepri said.

  “You just watch,” I told him.

  I pushed at the chest. I clawed at the lid. When that didn’t work, I started to yowl.

  Two servants came running.

  “It’s Pharaoh’s Cat,” the taller one said as I stood on the chest. “He sounds upset.”

  “Maybe there’s something wrong with that chest,” the smaller one said. “A mouse inside it, perhaps? We’d better take a look.”

  While Khepri and I watched, they opened the lid. When I walked toward them, they backed away, bowing. With Khepri holding on tight, I jumped into the chest.

  It held half a dozen of Pharaoh’s second-best loincloths. And absolutely nothing else.

  * * *

  After that, Khepri and I found a quiet corner. I stretched out on the tiles, and Khepri jumped down, looking discouraged.

  I was feeling a little discouraged myself. I’d spent hours running around the palace, missing a whole afternoon by the pool, and for what? I needed a break. “Hey, Khepri, what do you say we go get some snacks?”

  “Snacks?” Khepri looked at me in disbelief. “Ra, we just ate. Over at Bebi’s, remember?”

  I did, but remembering only made me hungrier. “That feels like a long time ago.”

  “Well, it’s not. And anyway, we can’t afford to take a break,” Khepri said. “There must be about a thousand people in this palace, and I don’t see how we’re going to investigate them all. It’s hard enough checking up on our chief suspects.”

  The way Khepri was talking, our investigations were going to last for days. But I wanted this case solved fast. Preferably before suppertime. And judging from the angle of the light coming through the windows above us, suppertime was almost here.

  Suddenly an idea came to me—a truly great one, if I do say so myself.

  “I know just what to do,” I told Khepri.

  He looked surprised. “You do?”

  “Yes. Climb aboard.”

  With a small sigh, Khepri sidled onto my back. “Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”

  “Hold on tight,” I said. “We’re going to visit the biggest gossips in Egypt.”

  It was a good thing Khepri did hang on tight, because I was moving fast. We needed to get this case solved quickly, so I took every shortcut.

  As I pulled through a gap that wasn’t much bigger than I was, Khepri shouted, “Hey! You nearly knocked my head off.”

  “Sorry,” I said, but I didn’t slow down. My gossips kept early hours. If I didn’t hurry, they’d be bedded down for the evening, and we wouldn’t get a word of sense out of them.

  When I came to a halt outside a half-open door, Khepri moaned and dropped down dizzily onto the floor. “Next time remind me to skip the ride,” he said. “I’ll use my own six legs.”

  “Don’t be silly,” I said. “It would’ve taken you till tomorrow to get here.”

  “Maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad.” Khepri gazed at the door in front of us. “Where are we, anyway? Have we been here before?”

  “We’re just outside the schoolroom,” I said. “The place where they tutor the royal sons and their companions. Well, the older sons, anyway. The youngest is only a baby.”

  Khepri looked confused. “Is that who your gossips are? The children?”

  “Oh, no.” I marched through the open door and past a row of benches. “The children are done with their lessons by now.”

  Khepri scuttled behind me. “Then why are we here?”

  Instead of answering, I sat myself down next to a stack of stone tablets and gazed up at a wall decorated with paintings of baboon-headed Thoth, the god of writing and knowledge. “Yoo-hoo! Ini, Ibi, are you here?”

  My caterwaul echoed in the quiet room, but everything remained still.

  “Looks like they’re not at home,” Khepri said.

  “Wait!” I pointed with my paw. “Look up there.”

  Two heads peered down from an opening halfway up the wall, right above Thoth’s head.

  “Who-oo is it?” Ini called back, and then she saw me. Her beak flashed as she turned to her brother. “Ibi, it’s Ra the Mighty.” She sang down to me, “We’ll be right with you-oo.”

  “Yikes!” Quick as a whistle, Khepri dashed under my belly. “They’re birds! Why didn’t you tell me, Ra?”

  “Does it matter?” I said.

  “Yes,” he hissed. “Birds eat beetles.”

  “Not these birds,” I assured him. “They’re the Prince’s pet turtledoves, and they get all their meals on a tray. They’d never go after a live beetle—especially not my friend.” I thought this over. “Well, Ini wouldn’t, anyway. She has very nice manners.”

  Khepri didn’t move away from my belly. “What about the other one?”

  “Ibi?” I said. “I wouldn’t worry about him, either. After all, you’re a bit too big for a turtledove beak.”

  “Good to know,” Khepri said, but he stayed where he was.

  “Really, Khepri, you’re fine. I’m a cat, remember? Ini and Ibi are friends of mine, but they tend to keep their distance all the same. You’re perfectly safe.”

  “I hope you’re right about that.” Cautiously, Khepri emerged into the open, just in time to see Ini spread her tan-and-black wings and flutter down to the bench above us. Ibi was right behind her.

  “Greetings, Ra the Mighty!” Ini bobbed her gray head at me, motioning to her brother to pay his respects, too. “What brings you-oo here? We usually only see you-oo at the pool.”

  I was about to answer when I noticed that Ibi’s amber eye was fixed on Khepri.

  Khepri noticed, too. He drew back with a nervous click.

  Ibi’s beak opened wide. “Who-oo’s that?” he asked me.

  “This is Khepri.” I put one paw on either side of him, just so Ibi knew where we stood. “He’s a friend.”

  Ibi snapped his beak shut. “Too-oo bad,” he sighed.

  “He’s helping me out,” I went on.

  “Helping with what?” Ini ruffled her feathers in curiosity. “What’s going on, Ra?”

  “It’s about the amulet that was stolen from the Great Wife,” I said.

  “Oo-oo,” cooed Ini excitedly. “We’ve been talking about that all day. The humans say the girl Tedimut took it, but Ibi and I don’t think so.”

  “You don’t?” I said. “Why not?”

  “She’s a good girl,” Ini said.

  “We used to watch her when she worked in the kitchens,” Ibi added, finally taking his eye off Khepri. “She always gave us crumbs.”

  “We never once saw her take something that wasn’t hers,” Ini said. “And we see a lot.” She fluttered her tail feathers proudly. “Please, tell us everything you-oo know.”

  I didn’t want to tell the biggest gossips in the palace that we knew where Tedimut was. One word to them, and before long everyone from the Princesses’ caged canaries to Pharaoh’s hunting dogs would know Tedimut’s hiding place.

  “Well, actually,” I said, “I was wondering what you know. You hear everything, don’t you? And you’re always up early. Maybe you even saw the whole thing happen?”

  “No,” Ibi said regretfully. “We missed it.”

  “But only just,” Ini said. “We were out and about then. In fact, I was perched right by the treasure room when the Eye of Horus went out to the Great Wife.”

  Khepri jumped up with excitement, though he was careful to stay close to my paws. “An eyewitness at the treasure room! That’s just what we need.”

  Both birds stared at him.

  “You-oo do-oo?” Ini said in surprise.

  “Yes,” I said. “Do you happen to know if the treasure room guards sent the Eye of Horus by mistake? Or did Lady Shepenupet ask for it specifically?”

  “Oh, it wasn’t Lady Shepenupet who-oo went to the treasure room,” Ini told me. “She made Lady Nefrubity do her fetching and carrying this morning. But I did hear Lady Nefrubity say that Lady Shepenupet wanted the Eye of Horus.”

  Hmmmm, I thought. Were we after the wrong person? Was it Lady Nefrubity who had hatched a plan to steal the amulet?

  That would be an unexpected development. After all, except for her kohl-laden eyes, you wouldn’t look twice at Lady Nefrubity. Not only did she have no real power, but she also never called attention to herself, and nobody had much to say about her. But then, wasn’t that the hallmark of the greatest master criminals—their ability to look perfectly harmless?

  “I was so surprised to hear Lady Nefrubity ask for the Eye,” Ini went on. “It belonged to the Royal Mother, and she and the Great Wife don’t get along.”

  “You-oo can understand it on the Royal Mother’s side,” Ibi put in. “Think of all she had to give up—those beautiful rooms and some of her servants and so much of her jewelry. But I don’t understand why the Great Wife couldn’t be more gracious. She never says anything nice about the Royal Mother. She even makes jokes about her.”

  It was true. I’d heard those jokes myself. But the Great Wife joked about everybody—except Pharaoh, of course.

  “And I saw with my own eyes how the Great Wife wrinkled her nose the last time her ladies dressed her in that amulet,” Ibi went on.

  Ini nodded. “She made such a fuss about it. Between you-oo and me, I thought her ladies would never bring it out again.”

  “Maybe Lady Nefrubity forgot what she was supposed to ask for,” Ibi suggested. “She has a terrible memory, you-oo know.”

 

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