All in all, it could have been worse. The boat could have capsized, and we could all have been fed to the sharks—of which I had a sneaking suspicion there were plenty.

  “I hope our humans are all right,” said Shanille. “I’d hate for something to happen to Father Reilly. He’s such a good person.”

  “Pray for him,” said Clarice as she smacked her lips and licked her paws. “Someone told me that prayers can work wonders. Oh, now I remember—it was you, wasn’t it?”

  “Well, my prayers did pay off, didn’t they?” Shanille retorted. “We’re all still alive, we found the treasure, and we even found a ride off the island.”

  “I guess,” said Clarice. “And I found a nice meal to tide me over, so maybe you were right.” She glanced over the edge of the boat. “Don’t look now, you guys, but there’s a little fishie who’s taken a special interest in us.”

  Of course we all looked where she was pointing—and lo and behold: a fin was following us.

  And if I wasn’t mistaken, it was a shark’s fin.

  Oh, dear!

  CHAPTER 54

  Anthemia must have seen it too, because she started paddling like crazy, hoping to get away from the shark before it decided to devour us.

  “Looks like we need a bigger boat,” Brutus remarked dryly.

  “Okay, wise-ass,” said Shanille. “Where are we going to find a bigger boat?”

  “Just kidding,” said Brutus.

  “This is not the time for jokes, Brutus,” said Kingman. “This is the time to start praying!”

  “Just trying to ease the tension,” Brutus muttered.

  I know I shouldn’t have stared at the shark, as sharks are probably like the rest of us—they don’t like being stared at. But I couldn’t help it. It’s not every day you’re being followed by a great white shark. So I kept on staring at the beast as it kept tracking us.

  “He’s going to eat us,” said Harriet with a quiver in her voice. “Just when we escaped those weird vortexes and the dead pirates, we’re going to get eaten by a shark! This isn’t fair. I didn’t even get to pick out a diadem. And I never got to balance a ball on the tip of my nose like Fifi does!”

  As I watched the shark, I had the impression it was watching me. I could see its eyes as it moved beneath the surface.

  And that’s when it happened: all of a sudden it broke the surface and opened its jaws wide. And they were probably the widest jaws I’d ever seen!

  “Now that is a fish!” said Clarice appreciatively. “Though I don’t think I’ll be able to swallow it whole.” She paused. “Do you think I made it mad by eating its friends? Should I apologize?”

  But just as we all closed our eyes to wait for the inevitable, suddenly the shark spoke.

  “Max, isn’t it? I remember you. It’s me—Bruce. We met that one time at the Hampton Cove Resort & Spa.”

  “Bruce!” I cried, a wave of relief washing over me. “Of course I remember you! You helped us out so well that time.”

  “Max the cat detective,” Bruce said in that deep rumbling voice of his. “What are you doing here, Max? These are shark waters.”

  “I didn’t know that,” I confessed. “We were looking for a treasure, but then we got sucked into a vortex and ended up in a cave with a pirate ship. And now we’re just trying to get home.”

  “Good thing you found me,” said Bruce. “My friends would’ve seen you as a nice little snack. Not me, though. I like you guys. You treated me with respect when no one else did.”

  “I was wondering,” I said, “could you possibly point us in the right direction? Anthemia isn’t very experienced at navigating a boat, and I’m afraid we’ll get drawn deeper into the ocean and farther away from shore.”

  “Absolutely,” said Bruce. “But can you tell that woman to stop hitting me with her paddle? It’s annoying.”

  We tried to explain to Anthemia that Bruce was a friend, and I thought she finally understood, because she stopped using her paddle to scare him off. Not that it would have worked. You don’t scare off a shark simply by tapping him on the nose.

  Before long, Bruce had grabbed a piece of rope dangling from the boat and said, “Hang on. This is going to be fast!”

  And he wasn’t lying. As he took the rope between his mighty snappers, he proved that sharks are among the fastest fish in the seven seas—and probably the seven oceans too—as he sliced through the water like a high-speed motorboat, dragging us behind him.

  “What is happening!” Anthemia cried as she held on for dear life.

  “Bruce is giving us a ride,” I told her. “Don’t be scared. He’s a friend.”

  Of course, she didn’t understand what I was trying to tell her, but that didn’t matter. Soon we saw the shoreline loom up in the distance, and we knew we would be home again soon.

  And we had Bruce to thank for it!

  “I like this fishie,” said Clarice. “And you’re saying he’s a friend of yours, Max?”

  “We met him when we were staying at the Hampton Cove Resort & Spa,” I explained. “He was a witness in a murder investigation. A hotel guest had been murdered—his body found on the beach—and everyone thought Bruce had done it. So we talked to Bruce, and he told us he had nothing to do with it, and put us on track to finding the real killer.”

  “He’s a sweetheart,” said Harriet.

  “You guys lead interesting lives,” said Kingman appreciatively. “And now I have another great story to tell.”

  “See?” said Shanille triumphantly. “My prayers helped us yet again! They drew Bruce to us!”

  And I had to admit that so far we had enjoyed a remarkable string of good fortune. Now I just hoped that our humans were as lucky as we were.

  “Okay, this is where I say goodbye,” said Bruce as he slowed down and let go of the rope. “If I get too close to the beach, the locals will go nuts. They’ll start yelling ‘Shark! Shark!’” He shook his head. “Shark-shaming is real. I mean, I’m just a fish trying to make a living, you know? Just like every other fish out there. So I’m a little bigger than most fish—is that so bad? I mean, gimme a break.”

  “Thank you so much, Bruce,” said Dooley as he touched Bruce’s fin with his paw. “You’re the nicest shark I’ve ever met.”

  “It was great to see you guys again,” said Bruce. And with that, he gave us a final wiggle of his fin and disappeared back toward Devil’s Island.

  Anthemia took up her paddle duties once more, and before long she had expertly steered the little dinghy to the beach. When we finally jumped out of the rubber boat and felt the sand under our paws, I think it’s safe to say our hearts rejoiced.

  And then the long trek home began. We said goodbye to Anthemia, thanked her for the ride, and started off in the direction of Harrington Street, where we hoped to find Odelia, tell her all about our harrowing adventure—and get her to stage a rescue mission to get Gran and the others off the island.

  I just hoped we wouldn’t be too late.

  CHAPTER 55

  By the time we arrived home, I was quite eager to find Odelia and tell her what had happened. We should have known that we wouldn’t find her on the premises, as she is a busy woman with a thriving career. Who we did find was Marge, who was quite pleased to see us—even more than we were to see her.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you’re back!” she cried the moment we walked in. She proved to be great at math, for she immediately noticed that there were more cats now than had left. “There’s seven of you,” she said after a quick head count. “Why are there seven of you?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said. “But the main point I want to get across right now is that Gran and the other members of the Neighborhood Watch are in danger. The last time we saw them, they were in one of the caves on Devil’s Island that was about to be flooded. So we need to get out there right now with a big rescue crew and get them out.”

  “Minnie Mouse is also out there,” said Dooley, who had taken a liking to the tiny Chihuahua. “Oh, and also Ida Baumgartner, Minnie’s human.”

  “Ida went to Devil’s Island with Gran and the others?” asked Marge, sounding surprised. “I hadn’t pegged her as the adventurous type.”

  “She isn’t,” said Brutus. “But she made an exception for Devil’s Island since she wanted to find that treasure and save the pugs.”

  “Treasure? Pugs?” asked Marge, looking confused.

  “We’re wasting time here,” said Shanille. “My human is out there and he’s in danger. You have to save them, Marge—you have to!”

  “And I will,” said Marge. “I just need to process this.”

  “I’ve been praying!” said Shanille, wringing her paws. “And praying and praying and praying, but I’m starting to think that it might not be enough.”

  “Father Reilly will also be praying,” Harriet pointed out. “And if all of us pray, I’m sure that they will be saved.”

  “I hope so,” said Kingman. “I like Wilbur. I don’t know what I’d do without him. He has his flaws, sure, but he’s a good person, and he’s been taking great care of me over the years.”

  “I hate to say this, but I’d miss Scarlett if she didn’t make it out of there alive,” said Clarice. “I don’t know what it is about humans, but don’t you find that they grow on you? At first you don’t think they will, but somehow they sneak past your defenses, and before you know it, you actually like them. That’s what happened with me and Scarlett.”

  “Okay, let me call my brother,” said Marge, “and see what we can do. So they’re all on Devil’s Island, right?”

  “Right,” I said. “And also Mick Harper and Smilla, his girlfriend.”

  “And Smilla’s dad, Mr. Pinkerton,” said Dooley. “But he’s dead, so he doesn’t count.”

  “I’m sure he does count,” I said. “Since he was murdered, and the police will want to try and find his killer.”

  “A man was murdered?” asked Marge.

  “He was,” said Brutus. “Though there was some discussion whether he was killed by being shot, or after being bitten by a giant snake.”

  “He was murdered, though,” I said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

  “Okay,” said Marge. “Interesting information. I’ll have to relate all of that to my brother. Anything else that might be important?”

  “Well, as Dooley already indicated, Mr. Pinkerton was Smilla’s dad,” said Shanille as she thought back to the events as they had transpired. “Which means he was Mick’s father-in-law.”

  “I don’t think Mick and Smilla are married,” said Kingman. “So technically Mr. Pinkerton wasn’t Mick’s father-in-law—yet.”

  “Point taken, Kingman,” said Shanille. “What else? Oh, Anthemia Eiderduck was also there. She’s the one who saved us by taking us aboard her dinghy. And then when the shark threatened to attack, Max talked to him, and he turned out to be an old friend and even helped us get back to safety.”

  “Bruce is a very nice shark,” Dooley agreed. “Without him, we’d have been lost at sea.”

  “Oh…kay,” said Marge as she blinked. “That is a lot of information. Anything else?”

  “Can we just get a move on, please?” asked Clarice. “Our humans are dying, so there is no time to waste. Let’s go already!”

  And so Marge finally picked up her phone and called her brother. After she was done explaining all of the events as they had transpired, I got the impression that Uncle Alec wasn’t going to twiddle his thumbs, but that he was going to get the ball rolling on a rescue mission. Marge’s next words confirmed this.

  “Alec is on it. He’s going to alert the Coast Guard, and he’s organizing a rescue mission. And since this is my family we’re talking about, I’m going to head out there as well.”

  And since Marge is one of those can-do people, she got busy talking on the phone to Odelia, to Chase, and to anyone who would listen, and started organizing her own rescue mission.

  When she was done, it wouldn’t have surprised me if all of Hampton Cove was going to start heading to Devil’s Island to look for our humans.

  That’s the beauty of living in a small town: people all know each other, and they care about one another. And so the moment Marge gave us the sign, we headed out with her.

  Looked like we were heading back to the island—only this time we were prepared to deal with any contingency.

  As we traveled in the car with Marge, I said, “Did we mention that we found the treasure, Marge?”

  “You did,” she said. “So what treasure is this?”

  “Captain Quidd’s treasure,” said Brutus.

  “We also found Captain Quidd’s pirate ship,” said Dooley. “With lots of skeletons. I didn’t like the skeletons, but I did like the treasure. And the ship. It’s a very nice ship. Old, but still nice.”

  “Skeletons, huh?” said Marge. “How about that?”

  “Yeah, it was a little scary,” Dooley confessed.

  “And disappointing,” Clarice added. “No meat on those bones,” she explained when Marge gave her a questioning look. “Someone must have picked those skeletons clean, and that someone wasn’t me. Oh, and Max wouldn’t let me have a nibble of the dead man, even though he was obviously dead and no good to anyone.” But then she cheered up. “I did manage to catch a couple of fish, so the trip wasn’t a complete waste of time.”

  CHAPTER 56

  Ahuge rescue attempt had been staged, and everyone who had a boat got into that boat and took it to Devil’s Island. I’m not sure if their motivation was pure, though. Did they take their boats out because they cared about Gran and the others and wanted to save them? Or did they want to try and get some of that treasure? Hard to know.

  But it was still very good of them, I thought.

  Charlene had called in the National Guard, though I wasn’t sure if that was strictly necessary. It has been said that the more people get involved in a rescue mission, the more they start trampling all over each other and make it hard for the professionals to get the job done.

  Then again, I was sure that Gran would be happy to know that people were looking for her and her friends.

  And then of course there was the Mick Harper fan club, who decided to get out there in force. I hadn’t even known that Mick Harper had a fan club, though it shouldn’t have surprised me. He is very handsome, and the stunt he pulled when he arrested Brendon Hetman and his girlfriend Christi Windley at the Star Hotel had been much publicized.

  Marge had also managed to rent a boat, along with Odelia and Chase, and she had even roped in Tex, who would supply medical assistance if and when it was needed.

  And so we all traveled back to the island. It was a strange experience going back there after we had managed to escape, but I was still determined to do whatever I could to find our humans.

  “Last we saw them they were in a big cave that was about to be flooded,” I said in answer to Odelia’s question. “There were all these geysers and also these holes. We were sucked down into one of them and then spat us out into a different cave. And then the whole thing started over again before we finally ended up in the really big cave, with the pirate ship.”

  “Sounds like this cave system is affected by the pressure of the water streaming in and out,” said Chase, after Odelia had translated my words. “Like a network of interconnected chambers—but under high pressure—which makes for a very dangerous environment.”

  “I don’t understand why no one has discovered this treasure before,” said Odelia. “Especially since the treasure map has existed.”

  “There is more than one map in circulation,” I said. “The one Gran had—or rather the one that you had—was a fake.”

  “I got it from Anthemia,” said Odelia. “Are you telling me she purposely gave me a fake map?”

  “Possibly,” I said. “Especially since she was on the island, and she had no trouble finding the cave with the pirate ship. Oh, and I think I also saw her in the earlier cave—the one where Pinkerton’s body was.”

  “Do you think there’s a connection to the murders of Anthemia’s parents?” asked Odelia.

  “Not sure,” said Chase. “If it’s true that Frick Pinkerton killed Anthemia’s parents, then who killed him?”

  Odelia had told us about the relationship between Anthemia and Frick Pinkerton. It got me thinking again about the break-in at Bramwell Eiderduck’s house, the theft of the treasure map from his safe, and the murder of Frick Pinkerton. I had to admit, I still didn’t fully understand how all the pieces fit together—but I was starting to get an idea.

  When I told Odelia, she said it would have to wait until after we had managed to save Gran and her friends. One thing was for sure: Mick Harper had messed up big time when he coerced Brendon Hetman into giving a confession. But then, we’d already known that he wasn’t the ace detective he had made himself out to be.

  When we finally arrived on Devil’s Island, after carefully navigating those cliffs that I had warned Chase about, we landed on the same beach where we had arrived the night before—even though it now seemed as if it had been much, much longer ago.

  Our tents were still there, but when we checked, there was nothing inside them.

  “All of our gear has been stolen!” I reported to Odelia.

  “Oh no,” she said. “Looters, you think?”

  “Or the same person who stole all of our food,” I said. “Pinkerton, according to his daughter.” And I was starting to suspect Pinkerton had been the one to cancel our boatman Rees Levenson, too. Anything to sabotage our mission and keep the treasure for himself.

  We set off in the direction of the entrance to the cave system, and it wasn’t long before we arrived. We weren’t the only ones there, and the people who were now officially in charge had blocked off the entrance so no one would accidentally get stuck down there—the way we had almost been stuck.

  “Nothing much we can do here,” said Chase, sounding disappointed.