Shirley Murphy - Cat in the Dark

Bernine Sage swung out and came into the patio, her high heels clicking sharply across the worn bricks. Pausing, she glanced through the open doors of the two first-floor apartments.

In the back apartment Charlie had stopped work. She stood quietly on her ladder watching Bernine, but she did not call out to her. Not until Bernine headed purposefully in her direction did Charlie come down the ladder. "Looking for Clyde?" Her tone was not cordial.

"I have an appointment with Winthrop Jergen," Bernine said cooly. "Is it upstairs? How do I…?"

Charlie pointed toward the stairwell. Bernine said nothing more but headed across the patio.

Behind her, relief softened Charlie's face. And from an upperfloor window, Pearl Ann stood at the glass watching the little scene with a dry, amused smile.

The cats listened to the clink of Bernine's heels on the stairs, then her soft knock.

"She doesn't waste any time, does she?" Dulcie said with a cutting little mew.

Joe shrugged. "She'll start off talking investments, then come onto him. The woman's a leech." He curled up in the sunny weeds, yawning.

Dulcie curled up beside him, watching and listening. And it wasn't half an hour later that they heard the upstairs door open and heard Bernine say softly, "Twelve-thirty, then. See you tomorrow." And she clicked down the steps and left the patio with a smug, self-satisfied expression. Her fast work, even for Bernine, piqued Dulcie's interest like the sound of mice scratching at a baseboard.

She watched Bernine drive away, then looked up at Jergen's apartment. "Does he realize she's a little gold digger? He seems smarter than that."

"Maybe he's playing at some game-maybe he sees right through her."

Dulcie smiled. "I want to see this. I want to see how he looks when he leaves to pick her up, what he's wearing…"

"That's incredibly nosy. What difference…"

"What he's wearing," she said with patient female logic, "will indicate what he has in mind-what he thinks of Bernine."

And Dulcie's curiosity drew them back the next day to the patio, where they lay napping in the sun as Winthrop Jergen left his apartment. The sight of him made Dulcie laugh.

"Just as I thought. Trying to look like a twenty-year-old."

He was dressed in a black turtleneck sweater that set off his sleek silver hair, tight black slacks, a tan suede sport coat, and suede boots. "Right," Dulcie said, smirking. "Bernine made a big impression. Don't be surprised if she takes him for a nice sum- she has a way with her lovers."

But Joe was watching Pearl Ann gathering up her cleaning equipment as Jergen's Mercedes pulled away. Joe rose as she headed for the stairs.

"This isn't Jergen's regular cleaning day," he said, as Pearl Ann slipped quickly inside. "Come on."

In another minute they were crouched beneath Jergen's sink, waiting for the customary cleaning sounds, for Pearl Ann's vacuum to start. They heard only silence, then the jingle of keys and a file drawer sliding open.

Slipping to the kitchen door, they watched Pearl Ann sitting at Winthrop Jergen's desk examining the hanging files in an open drawer. Her keys dangled on their familiar gold chain from the drawer's lock.

Searching through the files, she removed one occasionally and laid it on the desk, paging through. Then she turned on Jergen's computer. She seemed quite at home with the machine, scrolling through vast columns of numbers. But every few minutes she rose to lean over the desk, looking down at the street below, her jumpsuit tight across her slim rear. The scent of her jasmine cologne was so sharp that Dulcie had to press her nose against her paw to keep from sneezing. After a long perusal of both hard copy and computer files, she removed a floppy disk from her pocket and slipped it into the machine.

"Copies," Dulcie breathed against Joe's ear. "She's making copies. She's using a code. How does she know his code?" At night in the library, after some instruction from Wilma, she found the computer a challenge, though she still preferred the feel of book pages beneath her paws. She knew about codes, Wilma had shown her that; Wilma kept a few things on her computer she didn't want the whole library to know.

When Pearl Ann seemed finished with the financial sheets, she pulled up a file of Jergen's business letters, quickly read through them and copied them, then dropped the disk in her pocket and turned off the machine. As she turned to put away the files, a whiff of her perfume engulfed the cats, and without warning, Dulcie sneezed.

Pearl Ann whirled and saw them.

"Cats! My God! Get out of here! What are you doing in here! He'll have a fit. How did you get in here!"

Crouching, they backed away. Neither Joe nor Dulcie cared to run beneath the sink and reveal their secret entrance. And the front door was securely closed.

"Scat! Go on, get out!" She snatched up her mop, shaking it at them.

They didn't move.

"You nervy little beasts! Go on, get out of here!" Her voice was hoarse with impatience.

They turned toward the front door, hoping she'd open it, but they weren't fast enough. She shouted again and lunged at them, exhibiting a temper they hadn't guessed at.

They'd never gotten friendly with Pearl Ann, nor she with them. She did her work, and they went about their business, all perfectly civil. But now that they were in her way, they saw a more violent side to Pearl Ann Jamison. Swinging her mop, she advanced on Dulcie, trapping her against the file cabinet. "You nasty little beast."

Dulcie fought the mop, enraging Pearl Ann, who swooped and grabbed her, snatched her up, avoiding her claws, and shook her hard.

Joe leaped at Pearl Ann, clawing her leg to make her drop Dulcie. Gasping, she hit him and swung Dulcie up. "Damn cats! Damn!" she croaked. Jerking the door open, she pitched Dulcie down the stairwell.

Joe barely skinned through as she slammed the door; below him Dulcie fell, unable to find her footing. He flew down the stairs, ramming against her, pushing her into the baseboard to stop her headlong tumble. Pressing against her, he could feel her heart pounding.

"You okay?" he asked, as they crouched shivering on the steps.

"I think so. I couldn't get my paws under me."

"What was she so angry about? What's with her?" He licked her face, trying to calm her. "Do you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm all right. I guess she doesn't like cats. I never saw that side of her before." Her voice was shaky. She licked hard at her left shoulder.

"Whatever she was doing in there, she was nervous as a rat in a cement mixer. Come on, let's get out of here."

They beat it out through the patio, didn't stop until they were across the street on their own turf, hidden in the tall grass.

"So what was she doing?" Joe said, nosing at Dulcie's hurt shoulder. "Is she trying to rip him off? First Bernine came onto him, and now Pearl Ann's nosing around." He looked intently at Dulcie. "What, exactly, was she doing at the computer?"

"I couldn't make much of it, all those numbers make my head reel. You'd have to have an accounting degree."

"Maybe she's running a scam. Hire onto a job, look for something to steal. But what would she…?"

"Could she be the law?" Dulcie wondered. "Or a private detective? Maybe checking on Jergen?"

"Checking on him for what?"

"I don't know. Or maybe investigating one of his clients?"

Joe frowned, the white mark down his nose squeezing into a scowl. "Anything's possible."

"Whatever she was doing, and in spite of getting sworn at and tossed downstairs, I'm as much on her side as Jergen's. Sometimes that man makes me twitch. Always so smooth and restrained-and always so well-groomed."

Joe grinned. "Not like Clyde-earthy and honest." But then he sat lost in thought.