Софи Келли - Faux Paw

He stood up and put the chair back in one smooth movement, raised a hand and made his way over to the counter.

Marcus’s mouth moved but he didn’t say anything. I took a bite of the last bit of my sandwich and waited.

“A cat burglar,” he said finally.

I nodded. “Uh-huh.”

His eyes flicked over to the counter where Gavin was talking to Nic. “Okay, even I have to admit this whole thing is starting to seem a little . . . out there. A cat burglar for hire, female no less, ends up here, in Mayville Heights. She climbs up onto the roof of the building, gets inside via a skylight no one knew was working, and makes it down to the floor like some kind of ninja.”

I reached across the table, took another forkful of macaroni and ate it before I answered. “Number one. Women can be cat burglars. What we lack in upper-body strength we make up for with persistence.” Marcus opened his mouth and I waggled a finger at him. “I wasn’t finished.”

“I’m sorry. I should have known that,” he said.

I held up another finger. “Two. It certainly looks like someone did get into the building via that skylight that Will Redfern left unsecured. Whoever it was probably didn’t somersault down onto the stairs like a ninja, but they did get inside. And that at least partly explains how they managed to circumvent the alarms on the windows.”

I picked up my fork again, speared the last chunks of ham and tomato in Marcus’s dish and ate them.

He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. “There’s no number three?” he said.

I held up three fingers. “And number three: Again, you’re jealous.”

His blue eyes narrowed. “I’m jealous? Of Gavin Solomon?”

I reached for my cup and when I realized it was empty leaned sideways and caught Eric’s eye at the counter.

I turned my attention back to Marcus. “You get a little caveman when he’s around.”

“I don’t get a little caveman,” he protested, “and what does that mean?”

“It means you want to throw me over your shoulder, beat on your chest and then carry me back to your cave.”

“I’m not jealous and I’m not going to beat on my chest,” he said. Then he raised an eyebrow. “Although throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you back to my cave does have a certain appeal.”

I was saved from having to answer by Eric with fresh coffee. “Any idea when the library is going to open?” he asked as he filled my cup.

“I don’t know for sure,” I said. “A couple of days at least, if everything goes well.”

Eric reached for Marcus’s mug. “Susan and the boys made Gak yesterday. Do you know what Gak is?” he asked.

“It’s like Silly Putty, isn’t it?” Marcus said. He looked around as though he couldn’t quite figure out what Gak had to do with when the library was going to reopen.

“Yes, it is. It’s slimy and stretchy and it will stick to the ceiling if you throw it high enough, where it will then remain until there is a lemon meringue pie cooling on the counter.” Eric looked from Marcus to me. “Susan needs to come back to work. She really needs to come back to work.”

“Oh, Eric, I’m sorry,” I said. I couldn’t quite swallow a grin.

“Go ahead and laugh, Kathleen,” he said darkly. “Maybe I’ll send all three of them up to visit you.” He moved to another table with the coffeepot.

Marcus smiled at me across the table. “Poor guy.”

“He loves every minute of it,” I said. Eric had had some tough times growing up, and I knew that having a family meant the world to him. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say they were his life.

Marcus looked at his watch.

“Are you heading over to the library?” I asked.

He nodded. “You and Maggie are going out to Wisteria Hill to have supper with Roma, aren’t you?”

I stood up and reached for my jacket. “We are. Which reminds me, I should stop in at the co-op store and let her know the local artists aren’t going to be able to pick up their artwork for a few more days.” I glanced in the direction of the counter, where Nic was handing a take-out order to Ella King.

Marcus put a hand on my arm. “I’ve got this.”

“You got the last one,” I said.

“And I have this one, too.”

He gave me a look that made my knees turn to pudding, and I held on to the back of my chair for a moment. “Um . . . thank you,” I said after the silence had lasted just a little bit too long.

“Are you staying downtown for a while?” he asked as he pulled on his own jacket.

“I am.” I fished my keys out of my purse. “Is there any chance I could get a few things from my office with an official police escort? I kind of got sidetracked when I was there with Hope yesterday.”

He nodded. “I don’t see why not. Call me when you’re ready.” His hand trailed down my arm.

“Okay, I’ll talk to you later,” I said. I was so busy looking at him, I walked right into a table. I gave him an embarrassed smile and managed to get out of the restaurant without running into anything else.

9

When I stepped inside the artists’ co-op building, Maggie was just maneuvering her way down the stairs from the second-floor studio space, clutching two large cardboard cartons by their flaps in one hand and three in the other.

“Hey, Kath,” she said and at the same time lost her grip on one of the boxes. It careened down the steps and landed at my feet. I picked it up and reached up for one of the others before she dropped it, too.

“Maggie, what are you doing with all these boxes?” I said.

She came the rest of the way down the steps and headed into the co-op store, and I followed her. She set the three cartons she was still holding on to down by the counter, where Ruby was on the phone. Ruby waggled her fingers at me. I put the other two boxes down next to Maggie’s three.

“Thank you,” she said, smiling at me. She swiped a hand over her neck. “We’re starting to pack up things so Oren can start working.” The artists’ co-op was adding a small space for demonstrations and workshops to the store. Oren was going to be moving a wall, among other things. Maggie’s plan was to keep the store open for as much of the time as she could during the renovations.

“But I thought Oren wasn’t starting until next month,” I said.

“That was when we thought—hoped—that we’d get more traffic in here from the exhibit. Since it’s not happening anymore, there didn’t seem to be any reason not to get started. Oren has the time in his schedule.”

“I’m sorry that all of you lost the chance to be part of the exhibit,” I said with a sigh.

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” Maggie said. “Oren has the time, and now the work will be done before the peak tourist season.” She smiled at me again. “In the grand scheme of the universe I think it balances out.”

That was Maggie. She had a deep belief in the ultimate balance and fairness of the universe.

“Would you like some help getting things packed?” I offered.

Her blue eyes narrowed. “Don’t you have things to do at the library?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Not right now. I’m going to meet Marcus there later. “

“Good dog!” Ruby said behind me. “What’s taking so long?”

“The police are still collecting evidence,” I said.

“Whoever broke in to the library? What did they do? Rappel down from the roof? Use giant suction cups and walk down the wall like Spider-Man?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure,” I said. “But if I had to guess, I’d say whoever it was used rope, not giant suction cups.”

Ruby gave me a smirk. “Yeah, people always make the conventional choice,” she said.