The Wicked Cat Read Free Page A

in, I don’t go in?”
    â€œYou don’t exactly have a lot of leverage in that statement,” Watch said.
    â€œWhy don’t you just come in for a little while?” Adam suggested, always trying to compromise. “The cat seems to like you a lot. It should wait for you on the porch.”
    â€œAll right,” Sally said reluctantly, “but we have to feed her soon.”
    â€œShe can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That’s all we have,” Cindy said, going inside.
    They were in the middle of making the cat a sandwich when they smelled smoke. At first Cindy thought something was burning in the kitchen. But then they all realized the smell was coming from the front of the house. Peeking out the front door, they were horrified to see the porch was on fire!
    â€œI’ll get the hose by the garage!” Adam shouted. “Watch, you get the other one in the backyard! Sally, Cindy, try to smother the flames with an old blanket or sheet!”
    The porch was old and made of wood, very dry wood after a whole summer of hotdays—perfect burning material. But even though the flames were growing and licking the roof of the porch, none of the house proper had been touched. The girls beat at the flames with blankets while Adam turned on the garage hose. The water pressure was excellent, and two minutes after turning the hose on the flames, the fire was out. When Watch returned from the backyard with the other hose, he insisted they water down the entire roof.
    â€œYou never know,” he said. “A cinder may have flown up and it could be smoldering, ready to ignite.”
    The porch was badly damaged, and Cindy stared at it in horror. “My mother’s going to kill me,” she said.
    â€œBut you didn’t do anything,” Adam said. “In fact, if we hadn’t been here the fire might have taken out the whole house.”
    â€œYeah,” Sally agreed. “Spooksville’s fire department sure wouldn’t have been able to put it out. If you have a fire in this town you have to fill out six different forms and get each one notarized before they’ll come out. They’re so paranoid about getting sued.”
    â€œBut I was here when the fire started,” Cindy said. “It has to be my fault.”
    â€œI don’t know about that,” Watch muttered. “This is the second fire we’ve seen today.”
    â€œWhat second fire?” Sally asked. “There was no fire at Mr. Coat’s house.”
    Adam and Watch hadn’t mentioned the strange black marks on the tree. But they did now and Cindy became immediately suspicious.
    â€œIt’s too much of a coincidence that these two things should happen in the same day,” Cindy said.
    â€œWhat are you saying?” Sally demanded.
    â€œAt both places where there was a fire the black cat was nearby,” Cindy said.
    Sally snorted. “How can a cat start a fire?”
    â€œThe fire that knocked the tree down was not an ordinary fire,” Watch said. “It looked as if the tree had been blasted by an energy beam. I suggest we study the porch to see if it has similar markings.”
    â€œThat would be a waste of time,” Sally protested.
    â€œWe have time,” Adam said.
    But it wasn’t as easy to examine the porch as the tree since so much of it had been burned. They weren’t even sure what part of the porch hadstarted burning first. But after a time Watch found a spot down near the steps where he thought it had begun. He pointed out a set of four black lines, each one an inch thick and separated from the next one by a couple of inches.
    â€œIt looks to me like someone carefully swept this spot with whatever they were using,” he said.
    â€œThat makes sense,” Sally said. “With ‘whatever they were using.’ What were they using and who were they?”
    Watch frowned. “These marks could have been created by a