Chapter Five

“So, which is it?” Shilo demanded. “Is it a dog or a cougar?”

“Maybe both,” Cricket said. She was lying on Shilo’s bed, searching for cougar videos on her mom’s phone.

“Well, Mrs. Steeves is convinced a cougar took Socks.”

“Socks is missing? When did that happen?” Socks was an orange-and-white cat that lived next door to Shilo. Nothing scared Socks. The previous summer Cricket and Shilo had watched him win a staring contest with a porcupine.

“Sometime after lunch yesterday, I think,” Shilo said.

Cricket frowned. “That’s a weird time for a cougar to be hunting. Are there any tracks?”

“I don’t know.”

Cricket sat up and put the phone in her pocket. “Let’s go check it out.”

Mrs. Steeves didn’t shovel the snow off her deck very often. “This is perfect,” Cricket said as she knelt in the snow.

“That looks just like the paw print Jeremy has!”

“Almost. But those are claw marks.” Cricket took off her mitten and with her finger traced an X through the print. She dug the phone out of her pocket and took a photo. “That’s not a cougar print. It’s not Elvis.”

“What’s that in the snow?” Shilo pointed to a pile of something in the yard.

The girls followed the tracks.

Shilo wrinkled her nose. “Ew, it’s poop!”

“That’s great! Do you have a bag?” Cricket asked.

“What?” Shilo’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “I’m not picking up that poop! You pick it up.”

“Fine. Let’s just take a picture.”

“Taking pictures of cougar poop is kinda weird, even for you, Cricket.”

“It’s called scat when it’s from an animal, Shilo, and I don’t think it’s from a cougar,” Cricket said as she knelt down to take a close-up photo. “A cougar is a cat, right? Cats usually cover their scat.”

“It’s not from a bear—they’re all asleep.”

Cricket nodded. “They should be.”

“So what do you think it’s from? Do you think it could be a wolf or a dog?”

Cricket paused. The back door of the cabin opened, and a gray head bristling with green curlers poked out. “What are you doing, girls? Have you found Socks?”

“Not yet, Mrs. Steeves. We’re looking for some evidence,” Shilo said.

“Well, you be careful now. I hear that cougar’s been prowling around the café and nearly destroyed the garbage bin in the lane. Nothing’s safe, not even poor Socks.” Mrs. Steeves sniffled. “I sure hope your dad tells us his plan at the town meeting tonight, Cricket. Everyone wants to know what he’s going to do about this cougar.” Mrs. Steeves went back into the cabin and shut the door with a bang.

The girls looked at each other in dismay.

“It sounds like everyone thinks the cougar’s to blame,” Shilo said.

“Not me.” Cricket pulled her mitten on. “Let’s go check out the café.”

Pearl’s Café was right in the middle of town, and it was one of the few businesses that stayed open all year long. The girls followed the sound of hammering around the side of the building and into the back alley. Mrs. Chen was struggling to hold a board while she nailed it to the fence around the café’s garbage bins.

“Can we help?” Cricket asked.

Mrs. Chen looked up in surprise. “You girls snuck up on me! I guess I’m a bit jumpy with a cougar wandering around. Just look at all the trouble he’s caused.”

She stepped back from the fence so the girls could see the dented garbage can.

“Are those teeth marks?” Shilo squeaked.

“Oh yes.” Mrs. Chen nodded. “He’s vicious, this one. And strong. Look what he did to my fence—and down at the Pizza Palace too.”

Cricket looked down the alley and frowned. “The cougar knocked these fences down?”

“Why didn’t he just jump them?” Shilo asked. “Jeremy said cougars can climb trees and stuff, so a fence shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What does a cougar think when he’s hungry?” Mrs. Chen shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve been here fourteen years and never had this trouble. He’s a bad one.”

Cricket took her mom’s phone out of her pocket and snapped pictures of the fence.

“This is really weird,” she said, “but we can help you fix it.”

Mrs. Chen smiled and gave Cricket the hammer. “You are very helpful, girls. Thank you. When you’re done, come in for a cup of cocoa with marshmallows.”

While they worked, Cricket worried about Elvis. Was everyone convinced that a cougar was causing all this trouble in the town? Would they even consider another possibility—that Elvis might be innocent?