Shirley Murphy - Cat Raise the Dead

"She's not that old. Just frowsy. And what difference does it make? Old or young, she's a thief."

He fixed a piercing yellow gaze on Dulcie. "This morning you were plenty hot to nail the old girl. You're the one who always wants to bring in the law. 'Call Harper, Joe. Give the facts to Captain Harper. Let the cops in on it.'

"So why the sudden change? You're really getting soft."

"But she's so… They wouldn't put her in jail for the rest of her life? How could they? To be locked up when you're old, maybe sick…"

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell Captain Harper. Maybe not just yet."

"Dulcie…"

"They wouldn't keep her in jail until she's feeble? Maybe in a wheelchair, like the old folks at Casa Capri?"

"I have no idea what the court would do. I don't see what difference." He looked at her a long time, then turned his back and crept out of the bushes. Of course they were going to tell Harper.

He heard Dulcie crawl out behind him. They crouched together, not speaking, looking down the hill where the blue Honda had driven away. Just below them, the little family was still planting their trees and bushes. Neither the two adults nor the children seemed to have any notion that their house had been burglarized. That made him smile in spite of himself. The old girl was pretty slick.

But slick or not, she was still a thief.

Dulcie didn't speak for a long time, but at last she gave him a sideways look. "I guess, with the number of burglaries that old lady has pulled off, and all the valuable things she's stolen, I guess maybe jail will be the last home she ever has."

"Can it, Dulcie. Let it rest. One look at the old lady mooning over that glittery little dress, and you sell out."

He looked her over. "Sisters under the skin, is that it? You and that old lady, two of a kind, two avaricious, thieving females."

Her look was icy. "It was a lovely gold dress." Her green eyes stared him down, her glare as righteous as if he were the criminal.

Dulcie wasn't much into cars, but she had a keen eye for luxury. The sleek red convertible that slipped by, moving like a whisper down the westbound lane of Ocean, left her gawking, her green eyes wide. The tip of her pink tongue came out, ears and whiskers thrust forward, and she took a little step along the sidewalk, twitching her tail, staring after the car's beautifully molded rear and sleek black convertible top.

"It's a Bentley Azure," Joe whispered against her ear He twitched a whisker and pretended to lick his paw; there were people around them on the sidewalk, pedestrians, shoppers. "To quote the publicity, 'the newest, fastest model in the Rolls Royce line' "

They watched it turn at the corner and head back up the eastbound lane of Ocean. Joe's yellow eyes widened. "That's Clyde driving. Clyde. Driving that silky beauty. Look at him tooling along-as if he owned the world." Passing them, Clyde turned into the covered drive of the automotive shop, beneath the wide tile roof of the Mediterranean building that housed Beckwhite's Foreign Car agency.

Near the cats, several pedestrians had paused, gawking, as the lovely red car slid by. Joe ducked his head, pretending to nibble another flea. "That color's called pearl red. That's Adelina Prior's new car. Three hundred and forty thousand bucks, paid for by the old folks up at Casa Capri."

Dulcie's eyes blazed in disbelief.

He gave her a narrow leer. "You hadn't thought of that, had you? You don't know anything about how rich Adelina Prior is. That car just arrived from the factory. White leather upholstery, CD changer, inlaid walnut dash, a bar in the back, the works. Clyde was supposed to install her phone; that's probably why he has it." He led her toward the shop, adroitly dodging pedestrians, then, crossing Ocean, dodging slow-moving cars.

But as they trotted into the covered drive, a Molena Point police car turned in, parking just behind Clyde. The static of the police radio made their ears twitch.

Max Harper stepped out of his patrol unit, leaned into the Bentley's open window. Neither man saw the cats. The engine of the red Bentley Azure idled as softly and luxuriously as the purr of a jungle cat.

"Nice wheels," Max said. The police captain's scent drifted to them pleasantly on the little breeze that sucked in through the open drive. He smelled of horses and cigarettes, with a hint of gun oil. His thin hands, resting on the car door, were as gnarled and dark as Clyde's old hiking boots.

"Adelina Prior's." Clyde leaned back into the soft upholstery and grinned, stroked the steering wheel. Harper looked the car over, took out a pack of cigarettes, then changed his mind and put them back in his pocket. As if he didn't want to smoke up that pristine beauty. His thin, lined face was drawn into a scowl. "Got another line on that green truck that hit Susan Dorriss. Not much. And not much chance it'll show up here, but thought I'd pass the word.

"Man came in the station yesterday. Seems our last newspaper article jogged his memory; he recalled an old green truck cruising the hills about the time Susan was hit, says he saw it three times that week, up around his place." Harper nodded vaguely toward the hillside residences. "Green step-side. He thought it was a Chevy but wasn't sure, didn't know what year, didn't get a plate number.

"Didn't know it was important until he read yesterday's paper. He was out of town when Susan's car was hit, and he didn't see the original newspaper story."

Again he took out a cigarette, slipping it from the pack in his pocket in an automatic reflex. He started to tamp it on the door of the Bentley, then put it back again. "Why the hell does an accident like that happen to someone like Susan?"

Clyde turned off the Bentley's engine. "I'll watch for the truck, though not likely we'll see it at Beckwhite's. Green. A step-side. Not much to go on."

Harper nodded. "Likely it's down in L.A. by now with a new paint job, new plates, or it's been junked."

"And no idea of the year?"

"None. And Susan only got a glimpse before it hit her. She thought it was American-made, a full-sized pickup, not new. Faded green paint, and with fenders, she thought. Those models can fool you, can look older than they are."

Harper eased his weight, as if perhaps his regulation shoes were uncomfortable. "I hate a hit-and-run, that was too damn bad. Susan's a really nice woman; she used to walk that big poodle all over the village- before that guy put her in a wheelchair. You'd see her go by the station, Susan and the dog swinging along happy as a couple of kids.

"Tell you one thing," Harper said. "That daughter of Susan's isn't going to give it up. One way or another, Bonnie Dorriss means to nail the guy that busted up her mother." He managed a lean, leathery smile. "Bonnie's really on my back, calls in every couple of days. Have we got anything new? Just what are we doing?"

He glanced up, saw Joe and Dulcie sitting in the wide doorway to the automotive shop. "You're bringing your cat to work?" He raised an eyebrow. "I'd think you'd keep him out of here, after he nearly got himself blown into fish bait."

Joe and Dulcie glanced at each other, and Joe watched Harper carefully. Max Harper never could figure out why his old beer-drinking buddy, his ex-rodeoing buddy, was so dotty about a cat. And he knew he made Harper nervous; twice this past year he and Dulcie had upset the police captain pretty badly.

Though whatever suspicions might needle Harper, they could be no more than suspicions.

Highly amused, laughing inside, he gave Harper a blank and stupid gaze. He loved goading Max Harper. On poker nights he always tried to have some new little routine, some subtle new irritant to taunt the captain- not because he disliked him, only because he enjoyed Harper's stern discomfiture.