I’m sitting in the living room watching Pandora type away on her laptop when something catches my eye. She has a mug of coffee beside her, but it is not the coffee I made this morning. I know that because my mug had a giant glob of milk floating in it after I got distracted halfway through pouring. This mug looks clean. Suspiciously clean. Like it came straight out of the cupboard.
Immediately, questions begin forming. Maybe John made another cup without me noticing, but why would he do that now? It is not even close to his usual coffee time. Maybe Karen stopped by with her own coffee, but Pandora has been focused on work all morning, and she normally would not stop for visitors. None of it makes sense, which means, naturally, I need to investigate.
Meanwhile, Mr. Whiskers, is stretched out in a sunbeam on the couch, being extraordinarily lazy. Almost too lazy. Then I remember Mrs. Jenkins mentioning yesterday that her cat had gotten into trouble. At first, that seems unrelated, but the longer I look at Pandora’s mysterious coffee, the less unrelated it feels.
What if John borrowed Karen’s coffee and somehow Pandora ended up with it? No, that makes no sense. Unless it does. I stare at the mug again. I know I made fresh coffee this morning, and there is still coffee in the machine. Yet somehow Pandora has this mysterious second mug. Maybe John was in the kitchen rearranging things. He would not normally do that without telling me, unless he was trying not to be noticed.
Then another possibility occurs to me. What if Mr. Whiskers got into the cupboard last night and knocked over a box of coffee packets? That would explain everything. Well, almost everything. Coffee packets probably would not have been in the cupboard, and I am fairly sure we do not even have coffee packets, but the important thing is that I am making progress.
But if Mr. Whiskers got into something, why did John not mention it when he came downstairs? Unless John already knew. Unless he was covering for someone. Things are starting to get complicated, and the more I think about it, the more suspicious everyone seems.
John has been acting strangely lately. He is normally easygoing, but today there is something off about him. Maybe he is avoiding me because Pandora and I had some disagreement I forgot about. Or maybe Karen is not here at all. Wait. Karen has been gone all day. Mrs. Jenkins mentioned Mr. Whiskers yesterday. John has been acting odd. Pandora seems unusually calm. Too calm. That is exactly how someone acts when they are hiding something.
Now I am starting to think Pandora made herself coffee without telling me and somehow hoped I would not notice. But why hide it? Unless Pandora and John are working together. I suddenly remember seeing Mr. Jenkins talking with John in the backyard yesterday afternoon. At the time, I assumed they were discussing gardening. Now I am not so sure.
What if Mr. Jenkins is involved too? The thoughts begin connecting faster than I can organize them. Karen is missing. John is suspicious. Pandora is unusually relaxed. Mr. Jenkins was talking to John. Mrs. Jenkins keeps bringing up cats. Mr. Whiskers has been acting strangely. Too strangely. In fact, now that I think about it, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Whiskers seem unusually familiar with each other, almost coordinated.
I look over at Mr. Whiskers sleeping peacefully in the sunbeam. Or pretending to sleep. Suddenly, everything becomes horrifyingly clear. This is not about coffee. This is bigger. There is a network. A secret network involving Pandora, John, Karen, the Jenkinses, possibly Dave, and somehow Mr. Whiskers.
They are all connected. They are all working together. They are all hiding something. And apparently, I am the only person not in on it. Just then, Mr. Whiskers opens one eye and looks at me. Then he closes it again, which is exactly what someone with something to hide would do.