“I do not like the direction these pranks are taking,” he said. “First someone puts a surfeit of skunks in a highly unsuitable environment, where they are in serious danger of being harmed by hysterical people—”

How like Grandfather to side with the skunks.

“—and now someone has quite irresponsibly removed an innocent reptile from its habitat and exposed it to weather that could be injurious to its health. When will people learn—”

“Let’s tell the chief.” I pulled out my cell phone and dialed 911. “I have no idea if this is in any way related to the skunk thing, but he will want to know. Hello, Debbie Ann? I’d like report a missing snake.”

I wouldn’t have thought the words “snake” and “skunk” were that easily confused, but it took us a while to sort out the mix-up. Debbie Ann relayed the stolen snake report to the chief, along with a warning to keep an eye open for Cleopatra in the church.

“She wouldn’t be the least bit bothered by the skunks’ spray,” Grandfather said. “And it’s been a while since she was fed, so one of those smaller, adolescent skunks might look rather tempting to her. Have the chief put out an APB.”

I relayed this suggestion—though coming from Grandfather, it sounded more like an order.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Debbie Ann said. “After all, it wouldn’t be the strangest APB we’ve put out here in Caerphilly. But is there any particular reason to think it’s in the church?”

“No,” I said. “Except that it seems a little far-fetched to think that there would be two people—or groups of people—pulling animal-related pranks on the same night. What if whoever put the skunks in the church also turned Cleopatra loose there?”

“Oh, my.”

Debbie Ann hung up, presumably to put out a snake alert to those working in the church.

“We must go down there and look for her,” Grandfather said.

“What about the skunk habitat?”

Grandfather hesitated.

“It will only take me a little while to show Victor what I have in mind,” he said finally. “You wait here.”

He and Victor bustled off. I called home to make sure the boys were okay and after Rose Noire assured me all was well, I stretched out on the couch in Grandfather’s office and closed my eyes. If my luck held, once they got started, Grandfather would insist on supervising every detail of the skunk habitat, and I could get a nap.

I managed an hour before Grandfather stormed back in, intent on returning to the church.