Puzzle Cat and the Cursed Book
"You can look it over to your heart's content, Dr. Velikovsky," said Dean Feed, "but it's not going to change the situation.”
Velikovsky ignored her, licking his finger as an aid to turning the page, and reading slowly and carefully. Finally, he raised his eyes from the document Feed had brought earlier that evening to his home. "So I'm being replaced due to this dust-up over that damned book.”
Dean Feed reddened: "Well, that's not all of it, but it's a large part.”
"You know that the guy who's replacing me, that Borden character, is the one who gave me that book—well, he and his wife did, which struck me as odd, after I sneaked in and stole that job out from under him." Velikovsky coughed, swallowed deeply, and placed his hand over his left chest, as if in pain. "That was pretty clever, no? As revenge, Borden slips me a Medieval book under the table that turns out to be stolen, and as an added bonus, has a curse—"
"Well, obviously, the curse doesn—"
"Oh, yes? Have you read it? How's it go, 'He who takes the book, may his hands shrivel, and his sight fail him, may he have no progeny, nor wife, nor surcease for eternity.'" Velikovsky coughed again, this time more forcefully.
"All right, so it's unusual—"
"No, that's the point, it's not that unusual. Lots of ancient historical texts had curses like that, usually part of the colophon, to discourage book thieves or even delinquent borrowers."
"Well, the Provost said to get that severance document to you personally and now that's done," Dean Feed said, standing and walking to the door. "Give it time, Manny. It's just academic politics. You'll be fine."
But about 2:30 the next morning Feed was awakened by a call from Detective Gutterson, her ex-student and great fan of Puzzle Cat. "Can you get the guys together and meet me at Velikovsky's apartment? He's dead, apparently poisoned." To Feed's stunned silence, Gutterson asked, timidly, "Sorry about the late hour, but, uh, could you and the guys get here soon?"
Feed put the cats in their specially designed dual carrier and drove to Velikovky's place; Gutterson and his chief, Theodolinda Bonner, were already there. Velikovsky's body had been removed and police tape put up, but Olivia Moore, an assistant M.E., filled the Dean in. "This is truly odd, Dean Feed. When you were here with him earlier, did you notice anything out of the ordinary?"
"Not really. I mean, he was upset about his dismissal and Borden taking his job away from him—or actually taking it back from him—but that was to be expected. I was as diplomatic as possible and I think it worked, but who can say?"
"Well, I can tell you for sure there's one thing he didn't expect. From my preliminary analysis, it looks like he's the victim of a very slow-acting poison that's been afflicting him for weeks. But, I mean, that's crazy—how is that possible?"
"Well, maybe the curse worked," ventured Gutterson, grinning half-heartedly. All three women glared back at him, clearly not amused.
During all this, Puzzle Cat and Kiki had been touching noses, with Kiki giving repeated tiny "mews." Puzzle Cat listened intently, then turned to look at Velikovsky's bookshelf, and began singing loudly in Cat.
"Maybe I should take a look at that book," Feed began, but as she reached for the bookshelf, Kiki's ears shot back in battle mode and he leaped to place himself on top of the shelf, standing in guard position with his tail fully fluffed and extended.
"I think your cat takes that curse more seriously than anyone," Gutterson said.
Puzzle Cat leaped to join Kiki on top of the bookshelf and nosed over a framed, standing photograph to fall on its face. In two quick steps, Chief Detective Bonner crossed to the bookshelf, turning the picture upright. At the sight of the figures in the picture, she nodded with slowly dawning understanding: it was Professor Borden and his wife Elizabeth, taken some years earlier on the occasion of the opening of Liz's gift shop in the renovated Bucktown area. Mrs. Borden was holding one of the shop's best-selling items, their scented stationery, along with a copy of a Sun-Times that ranked the fragrance one of the ten most captivating scents in the city.
Bonner stared at the photo and then began to laugh: "You incredible, incredible cats, you did it again, didn't you?" Whipping open her phone, she issued crisp instructions to Gutterson to go downtown to seek out an arrest warrant and get the toxicology unit over to the apartment as quickly as possible.
As they waited, Chief Detective Bonner explained the situation to Dean Feed, and as she caught the implications, she too began to nod. A little over an hour later, they were interrupted by the arrival of Detective Gutterson, who delivered the news that Elizabeth Borden had been taken into custody and, offering virtually no resistance during initial questioning, freely confessed to the murder of Velikovsky.
"So did you work this out all on your own, Chief?" Gutterson asked mischievously.
"Let's just say that I worked it out on my own as much as you do, when they"—she nodded at Puzzle Cat and Kiki—"are around!" All laughed and Detective Gutterson surrendered to Puzzle Cat, who rolled over on his back, presenting his stomach for an expected vigorous massage.
So the two detectives and the professor were sharp enough to figure out whodunit and how—but are you? How do you measure up when we come to that question we always get to...
How did Puzzle Cat know?
