The Magnificent Cat by Nadia Ramadan (early reader chapter books .TXT) 📕

time for this…I should be going now, I am already late”

“You are not going anywhere” Bacilli continued annoyingly “I can’t take this anymore!”

James stopped walking straight and turned back to look at Bacilli “take what?”

“Everything” Bacilli continued “can’t you just stay one place at least for once!”

“What’s this?” James said as he walks closer to Bacilli “I have had it with you…anywhere I go I see your damn face! I think it’s time you should leave me the hell alone!”

“I’m afraid I can’t” Bacilli said as he looked at James straight in the eye

“What?” James asked angrily and surprisingly 

“You Scorpions are very annoying indeed” Bacilli said as he smokes “you never change…its very genetic”

James looked at Bacilli for some few seconds and then says “I am out of here”

“Do you want to know when my favorite day was?” Bacilli said as he smiles

“I don’t have time for this shit” James said as he walks away to head to the bar.

“The day I saw your father dead, stabbed on his bed” Bacilli shouted

James stopped walking and turned slowly to look at Bacilli 

“What did you say?” James asked nervously “you can’t be saying that”

“But I just said it” Bacilli said as he laughs 

 “You can’t possibly know that!” James shouted as he approaches Bacilli again “I was the only one who saw him that way…I remembered it as if it was yesterday…I was 7 years old and I was the only one who saw him that morning”

“Don’t be silly, James!” Bacilli said as he continued to smile “you should be wise enough to know that the killer was the one who saw him first before you!”

James froze for a moment or two without speaking; he was speechless and shocked before he finally said “you killed him?”

“You got that right” Bacilli answered annoyingly “I had to do it”

“What do you mean by that?” James said while still in shock

“The Magnificent Cat is mine! Not his or yours! I have to posses it before he does!”

“The Magnificent Cat is ours?” James said hectically 

“Of course it’s yours” Bacilli said as he laughs “but it was supposed to be mine! I was the one who work all day with your idiotic grandfather…I should keep it after his death but all he cared about was his son…who was indeed-”

Before Bacilli could finish his sentence, James took out his protection gun and fired three shots.

 

Lisa wore her favorite outfit and was finally ready to perform.

“Lisa!” Jessica shouted through the door “are you ready?”

Lisa opened the door and saw Jessica standing right in front of her.

“There you are” Jessica said happily “you look stunning”

“Thank you” Lisa said happily “is there lot of people downstairs waiting for me?”

“You can’t even imagine” Jessica said as she laughs “oh and that guy came too”

“Which guy?” Lisa asked “is it James? Did James come?”

“No silly!” Jessica replied “the other guy came”

“Wade? You meant Wade?”

“Yeah Wade” Jessica said happily “and he is sitting at the front row!”

“What about James” Lisa asked nervously “did you see James anywhere?”

“No honey I am sorry, but you should forget about him, focus on your performance that’s all!”

“Yes I should” Lisa said sadly “but I reminded him this afternoon!”

“Don’t you talk about James now?!” Jessica said angrily “go, go now! The people are waiting for you downstairs”

 

Lisa walked with Jessica down the stairs where Jessica later goes to the kitchen to inform Mr. Lennox that Lisa was ready.

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome my own waitress who dreamed of being a singer…Lisa Watson!”

Everyone in the room start clapping happily as Lisa walked into the small stage. It was barely a stage; it was just one of the bar’s chairs with a short microphone in front of it.

 

Lisa walked to sit on the chair, but before she sat down she took a glimpse on all the people that arrived, she could see Wade sitting at front seat clapping happily as he gives her a smile, she also saw some of the regular customers who came there all the time, and at the back of the room there were some new faces she haven’t seen before. Lisa saw all of these people but did not see James; she was just wondering why didn’t he come? Why wasn’t he there…she reminded him three times. But Lisa doesn’t want to take it seriously and ruin her performance thinking about James; instead she just grabbed the microphone and started to sing.

It was an amazing moment, not just for Lisa but for the entire bar, everyone in the room was astonished and surprised for they were not expecting any of this, she actually sang marvelously. 

Lisa sang for almost 4 minutes but the people wanted it to last even longer, it was this very moment that  Collin Lennox believed his bar was going to be a better one than the ghoul’s bar.

Lisa puts down the microphone and stood up. Everyone else in the room gave her a standing ovation. She was surprised when they did that for she was never sure she had a good voice.

Wade went closer to her and said “you were amazing, amazing as I thought you were” 

“Thank you” Lisa said happily as she looked at Wade “thanks for coming too”

“It’s my pleasure to be here” Wade said happily “trust me”

“You are great!” someone shouted from the back of the room

“Thank you!” Lisa shouted “thank you everybody!”

Lisa felt that this day was one of the most amazing days of her life! She sang beautifully and Wade was by her side.

 

James didn’t know exactly what really happened, it was so sudden. All what he could see was Bacilli’s dead body lying in a pool of blood and a gun on his hand!

James dropped the gun on the floor without realizing anything.

“Oh my God..!” James shouted “Oh my God..! What have I done?”

James stood there shockingly; he had no idea what to do. How on earth can he clean this mess! 

James went to the back store as quickly as he could. He took a big barrel of kerosene and ran out of the store. The night was dark and no one knew where James was, everyone at the building finished their work and its time they all have dinner.

 

It was very dark when Ray finally arrived. He knew everyone were at the kitchen having supper, he quickly took the elevator to the secretive room.

 

Armand turned towards the door when he heard the second iron door opened.

“Hello Armand” Ray said as he closed the door behind him.

“Finally” Armand said annoyingly “what took you so long?”

“I just went to see Patricia that’s all” Ray said as he sits on the opposite side of the desk.

“We have a lot of work to do, why don’t we get started” Armand said as he hands Ray a thick bundle of files.

“What is this?” Ray said lazily “am I suppose to read all of this”

“Of course” Armand replied sharply “this is the information about our next client…he is willing to pay 5,000,000 to rent the Magnificent Cat, I want your decision on whether he is allowed to rent it”

“Aha” Ray said as he looked through the files slowly “I thought we are done working now…can we just have dinner like the rest of the crew?!”

“No we can’t” Armand replied seriously “we have to know about this person at least tonight, for I have a meeting with him at noon tomorrow”

“Great” Ray said sarcastically as he began to look through the file.

 

James dragged bacilli's corpse to the back of the building and then poured the kerosene on Bacilli as fast as he can, he then lights a match, threw it on Bacilli and walked backwards. The flames were blazing stronger and blistering. 

 

Ray looked at Armand weirdly and said “did you smell that? I smell something burning” 

“Ray!” Armand said angrily “we have to finish this work by tonight!”

“Sure” Ray said angrily as he continued looking through the file.

 

James stood there silently and watched as Bacilli burned into ashes.

“What have I done” James said lowly to himself “this is horrible”

The flames were getting bigger and the fire even hotter and violent.

James looked at it as it grew bigger, he cannot remember how all of this happened but he can never forget what Bacilli said to him

James turned away from the fire and said “the Magnificent Cat is mine?” he said over and over “the Magnificent Cat is mine!”

 

Chapter 14 - The truth, only the truth, and nothing but the truth

The night in Bevin did rain that day it was a shower rain, the rain was very weak that it was barely noticed by anyone. The rain started at midnight, it was a non-stop showery rain which lasted till dawn, and this was the reason why Bevin is always wet in the morning. 

 

It was a fresh day for everyone to start a new day. Everyone woke up at their usual time to start working. Some of the crew will go to have breakfast at the pastry bar which is not far away, while some will just eat at the building and get to work directly.

Picklock woke up early as well and stood at the verandah, he was surprised when he didn’t see James, for James is always the one who woke up early and goes to the pastry bar to get his usual.

“Where is he today?” Picklock asked himself.

 

Armand and Ray just got 2 hours sleep last night at the secretive room, Armand slept on his gigantic chair, while Ray slept on the couch.  

“Wake up Ray!” Armand said as he wakes up from his seat “I have to call Jumbo today”

Ray woke up lazily from his couch and said “who is Jumbo?” 

“That’s the code name for the guy who is renting the Magnificent Cat…were you sleeping last night? I thought we already talked about this!”

“Aha yes, yes” Ray said lazily as he yawned “he seems like a good person…he can use the Magnificent Cat for 3 days, its approved…No, no,  wait…,wait... he cannot borrow the Magnificent Cat because we don’t know anything about this guy! He could be a cop or worse of all a thief!”

Armand looked at Ray weirdly and said “I gave you an entire file about this guy last night, did you read anything?”

“Of course I did” Ray said dryly “but I prefer to see him first, you know for me I have to see the person to tell if he is a good one or not…”

“So I should call him!?” Armand said as he continued to look at Ray in a strange way.

“Yes” Ray replied “a meeting can be held by noon”

 

It was 10:00 A.M and Picklock did not see or hear anything from James. He was somehow starting to get worried, for James is an unstable guy.

Suddenly out of nowhere Picklock saw James walking very fast and angrily, almost running and approaching the building.

“Where were you James?” Picklock questioned as James approaches “I was worried”

“I have to do something very important right now!” James said as he continued walking and entered into the building.

“What?” Picklock asked “where are you going?” 

James walked straight and was heading to the stairs to the secretive room.

“James!” Picklock shouted “James, where are you going?”

“I am