Leann Sweeney - The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon

We walked around back where I could disengage the security alarm.

And realized it wasn’t set.

Tom stood right behind me and knew this instantly.

“Open the door,” he said, the urgency in his voice alerting Candace.

She grabbed Tom’s arm. “Stand down, Tom. I’ve got this.” She took my keys and unlocked the door—the dead bolt wasn’t locked, just the door—and then Candace went into my house with her weapon drawn.

I saw lights go on in the kitchen and heard Candace calling Finn’s name.

Hilary had been standing a few steps back from the rest of us, but moved closer and said, “Does she think Finn is hurt? I don’t understand.”

Tom turned and glared at her, his mouth white-ringed with anger. “Keep out of this.”

Sounding conciliatory, Liam said, “He may be asleep. This is just a precaution.”

He isn’t asleep, I thought. Not with the security system disarmed. Before Tom and I left, we’d made sure he’d armed the system and knew how to work it if he had to take Yoshi outside. He’d picked up the directions easily and wouldn’t have forgotten.

Candace returned a long minute later, her face impossible to read. How she managed not to share so much as a morsel of emotion always surprised me. She said, “Come on in.”

Chablis was the first to greet me, so I knew immediately Yoshi wasn’t here. And if Yoshi wasn’t here, Finn wasn’t either. I picked my cat up and held her close.

All the lights were on, thanks to Candace’s search. Once we’d all stepped into the kitchen, she said, “He’s gone.” She glanced back and forth between Hilary and Tom. “Either of you know where he might be?”

“How would I know? I’ve been talking to you about a dead guy I didn’t even know from Adam for the last two hours,” Tom said.

Syrah arrived to greet us, but stopped before reaching us. Tom’s raised voice made him wary. Neither I nor my cats had ever heard Tom sound so upset.

Syrah hissed, turned and raced out of the room past Merlot. My biggest boy hadn’t even bothered to come close. He was sitting on the tile near the breakfast bar, his gaze trained on Hilary, his nose in the air trying to catch her scent. Chablis snuggled into my neck and began to purr. She knew I was troubled and wanted to comfort me. How I wished my cats could tell me what had gone on here in my absence.

“Maybe Finn took Yoshi for a walk,” Hilary said, a tinge of panic in her voice. “If he went out this back door, I wouldn’t have seen him leave.”

I said, “Even though the security system was disarmed, the door was locked. You can lock it from the inside and leave. If he went to walk the dog, he may have accidentally locked himself out.” Why was I being such a Pollyanna? In my heart, I knew Finn was gone, reverting to what he’d done before. He’d run. Unless, I thought, someone lured him outside and snatched him and his dog. Something pretty darn hard to do with Hilary parked out front. Besides, who would do such a thing?

Just then Tom spotted a Post-it note stuck on the fridge door. He took it down and read aloud, “Thanks for everything, Mrs. Hart. Finn.”

Hilary looked over Tom’s shoulder at the note. “Oh no. I recognize his handwriting.”

Tom bolted for the back door and Candace called, “Where are you going?”

“To find him,” he shouted.

“Let him drive around,” Liam said. “Maybe he’ll cool off, and who knows? He might just spot the kid.”

The helplessness I felt at watching Tom run out the door made it impossible to speak. He wanted to do right by Finn and, after all he’d told me about his past, I was sure Tom believed he’d failed.

Liam said, “Did you notice if Finn left anything behind, Deputy Carson?”

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t see anything that might have belonged to him in the guest room,” she said solemnly.

I blinked hard, feeling the unexpected sting of tears. Worry for Finn and for Tom, plus the night’s horrific events finally converged. But I managed to fight back the tears and said to Candace, “You’ll put out one of those BOLO things for him?”

“If he were simply an adult runaway, I couldn’t. But since he’s wanted for questioning anyway, I’ll do just that.” She took her cell phone from her utility belt. “But not out on the radio for the whole town to pick up on their scanners. Don’t want the do-gooders in town to spook Finn if he’s just walking around, thinking about what he heard his mother say. What was he wearing last time you saw him?”

I described the jeans and shirt Kara had bought. While Candace called in the “be on the lookout” alert with Finn’s description, the rest of us listened in silence. I was stunned by the evening’s events and I’m sure Hilary and Liam were, too.

After she hung up, Candace looked at Hilary. “We need to talk to everyone who knew Mr. Gannon. You can follow me to the police station.”

She pointed at herself with a manicured nail. “Me? There’s nothing I can tell you about Rory aside from the fact he’s battled mental illness most of his adult life. I mean, he did. Before he—he… died.” With the money troubles she had, she still got her nails done. Not unusual, I decided. Denial was a huge issue in a country where people hurt by the downturn in the economy still wanted all the perks they were used to.

“I just need to write down everything you know about Mr. Gannon for the chief. Paperwork never goes away. Let’s go.” She started for the door and Liam got behind Hilary as if to herd her out.

I stood at the back door and watched them leave, but before Candace disappeared around the side of the house, she turned and said, “I know you’ll call right away if Finn shows up.”

I shut the door and locked it, making sure the dead bolt was fastened, too. Setting Chablis down, I turned on the deck lights in case Finn decided to come back. Gosh, I hoped he would.

As I walked back into the kitchen, I remembered Candace’s words when we were talking about her job once and got a shiver up my spine. She’d said, “The innocent? They just stick around. Guilty folks run.”

I opened the fridge and took out the sweet tea. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten, but I wasn’t hungry. I poured a glass and went into the living room, grabbed a lap quilt and curled up in John’s recliner. All three cats soon surrounded me.

I stared out through the picture windows, the deck lights casting faint glimmers on the black lake. Stars shone like brilliant specks through the trees and I hoped one of those stars would lead Finn back here. Why did he feel the need to run away? He seemed to understand we all wanted to help him. The thought puzzled me, and deep down I feared that maybe he didn’t run away after all. Maybe someone made him write the note and leave it for me to make it seem like he ran. I shook my head. No . I couldn’t dwell on dark thoughts. There was an explanation. Finn would come back and he would tell us why he left. I was sure of it.

My phone rang and the sound made me jump. Maybe it was Finn. Instead it was Kara, making sure I was all right after what had happened. I told her I was okay and before I could even mention Finn’s disappearance, she said she was in a hurry to get a headline in for tomorrow’s Mercy Messenger . She disconnected.

My eyelids felt weighted and, with Chablis resting on my chest, I closed them. Next thing I knew, a knock at my back door awakened me. I’d dozed off. I rose from the chair so quickly I frightened poor Chablis and she leaped from my arms and scampered off down the hall. But Merlot and Syrah were already waiting in the kitchen ready for me to answer the door.