"It's those first words that scare me," I said. "They're so threatening. If you want to see your cat alive again . . .' It sounds like, well, if anything goes wrong, then Tigger will be . . . will be ... Oh, I can't say it. Or maybe he already is ... dead." My tears started to fall again and I glanced hopefully at Logan, but he was staring off into space.

"Well," said Jessi, "the handwriting on the envelope and on the note are the same." "But is this the real thing or some kind of trick?" asked Claudia, our mystery expert. "Any time there's a missing person, it seems as if about a million ransom notes suddenly turn up." "Yeah," agreed Mallory.

"It seems to me," Dawn spoke up, "that if the kidnapper wanted us to know he was the real one, he would have given us a better clue.

For instance, an actual photo of Tigger - you know, a Polaroid - to show he's alive now. Not just his picture cut from the poster we made. Anyone could do that." "Also," said Mallory, "the posters have been up for two days. If someone really was going to take advantage of them, he - or she - could have written the note Saturday afternoon and delivered it to Mary Anne yesterday morning. Why wait?" "Was that note mailed or just stuck in your box?" Logan asked me suddenly.

"Just stuck in the box," I replied. I handed him the envelope. "See? No stamp." He nodded.

The phone rang again. Dawn saw that I was still a wreck, so she took the club record book out of my lap and scheduled what might well be the one and only job she'd ever schedule.

While the others were busy with the call, Logan looked over at me and whispered, "Mary Anne, would you calm down? You are being so ... sensitive. You're acting like such a girl." For a moment, I just glared at him. "There's nothing wrong with being sensitive," I told him, "and besides, lam a girl." Claudia hung up the phone then, so Logan and I fell silent.

"The question is," said Kristy, "what are we going to do? I don't think we should worry about whether the note is a hoax. I think we should just follow up on it. It's our only lead." "Right!" agreed Logan. "We should go to Brenner Field and get this jerk who took Tigger. We'll beat him at his own game." "But how?" asked Dawn.