Саманта Сильвер - Just Horsing Around

I followed Sophie out into the waiting area, where Bee and Buster had jumped on top of the tall cabinet at the back of the clinic where we stored all the specialized dog and cat food that we occasionally sold.

“Buster, get down from there!” Gloria was scolding, one hand on her hip.

“I’m not. You can’t make me.”

“We really need to put something on top of there,” I muttered to Sophie as I walked over to the bookcase.

“Bee, I don’t know what kind of dumb joke you’re doing, but you need to stop. Buster needs me to look at his leg. He’s licking at it.”

“You don’t need to look at his leg, he’s fine.”

I glared at my cat. Obviously in front of Gloria and Karen, I couldn’t reply.

“Come on. Come on down now, this isn’t funny.”

“We’re not coming down. Tell Gloria to come back later.”

I grabbed Karen’s chair in response and stood up on it, bringing me up to eye level with the two most mischievous cats in Willow Bay.

“I have just about had it with the both of you,” I muttered, and the two of them exchanged a look. As I reached for Buster he made a leap for it, hitting the corkboard with all the photos on it and making it crash to the floor with a loud bang, then bouncing off from there and landing on the counter before swiftly running along the back of the chairs in the waiting area and jumping on top of the door leading to the exam areas. It swung towards the wall from the force of his landing on it, but of course, being a cat, Buster kept his balance perfectly. A split second later Bee also tried to jump for it, but the difference was, I knew my cat too well. I knew exactly how she jumped, and I caught her in mid-air, resisting her swipes as she hissed at me. I carried her under the armpits, at arm’s length as she struggled. This was good, I had a hostage. I couldn’t believe I was actually to the point where I was holding my cat hostage.

“Now Buster, get down from there and go into the exam room, or Bee gets it,” I told him. What exactly “it” was, I hadn’t thought of yet. I thought Buster could probably tell, since he tilted his head to the side.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about little lady.”

“She’s bluffing!” Bee told him. “She’s just bluffing! Don’t let her win!”

“No sushi for Bee for a month if you don’t go into that room right now,” I finally threatened. Bee howled and struggled once more, trying desperately to get away. She managed to scratch me on the wrist, but I held strong. Finally, Buster sighed.

“Don’t do it!” Bee cried. “I can survive without the sushi! Don’t let the humans get away with this! Don’t negotiate with the terrorists!!”

Trying hard to resist rolling my eyes at Bee’s histrionics, I gave Buster a good, hard look.

“No, Bee, it’s not worth it. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I was the reason you didn’t get any sushi for the next month.” And with that, he hopped off the door frame and went into the exam room. Sophie rushed in behind and closed the door after him, locking him in there until we were ready to look at him.

“I’m so sorry!” Gloria said. “He’s always been a little bit of a bugger, but he’s never been this naughty before! You sure have a way with animals though, getting him to go in like that.”

“It’s alright, as you can see I also have a cat, and I understand that sometimes they can be a handful,” I told her as I went and helped Karen put the corkboard back up quickly. I grabbed some of the pictures and cards off the ground and put them on the counter. Suddenly, I saw something I hadn’t noticed on the photo of Touch of Midnight. His eyes seemed lighter than they should have been. I suddenly had the feeling that there was something about that, that my brain was trying to tell me something, but before I could figure out what it was, I had to go tend to Buster’s paw.

I followed Sophie into the room, with Gloria on our heels, where Buster was now sitting on the exam table, swishing his tail softly as if nothing had happened.

“Hello,” he greeted us chirpily as we entered the room.

“Alright, Buster,” I told him. “I hear you’ve got a bit of a licking issue.”

“Yes, it’s his front left paw, there,” Gloria told me, pointing out a little patch of raw skin. “He’s been licking at it like that for a few days, and the coat’s been wilting away there.”

I had a look at Buster’s paw. Sure enough, the skin was red with irritation where he’d been licking.

“Is he on flea medication?”

“Oh yes! Every month, like clockwork.”

“Do you give him drops, or a pill?”

“A pill, definitely. My old vet recommended it.”

“Your old vet was smart, pills are the best way to give pets their flea medication,” I told her with a smile. It was unlikely to be parasites, but I still ran my hands through Buster’s coat, giving it a careful look, just to be sure.

“Has he ever had any allergies to anything?”

Gloria shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I don’t understand why he’s doing this now. For the last three days Buster’s just been licking and licking, and I haven’t been able to stop him. And yet now, he’s just sitting there.”

“Kind of like how you take your car to the shop because it’s making a weird noise, then you get there and the noise stops,” I joked with a smile.

“Exactly like that!” Gloria said.

“Hey!” Buster protested, unhappy with my comparison.

I looked at Buster, and suddenly realized. I laughed out loud.

“I know exactly why he’s licking!” I said suddenly. “Buster wanted to come here to see his girlfriend!”

“What?” Gloria and Sophie asked at exactly the same time.

“The first time Buster came here, he and Bee were hanging out together, which Bee never does. And then today they were together again, and it wasn’t until I’d caught Bee that Buster calmly came in here. I bet you a few days ago when Bee ran away for a few hours she wasn’t out terrorizing wildlife like I’d thought, she went to find Buster.”

There was silence for a minute, and then Sophie burst out laughing. “That’s amazing! It makes perfect sense. So Buster licked himself so his fur would come off so Gloria would have no choice but to bring him back here to see Bee again!”

“Well aren’t you a cheeky little fellow,” Gloria said to Buster. “Is that true?” Buster meowed and gave his best kitten-eyes to Gloria.

I laughed. I was never, ever going to let Bee live this down.

“If you’d like, or if Buster would like, you’re welcome to stop by anytime,” I offered. “If you want to bring him in when you do your groceries, for example, then come pick him up on your way back, he’s more than welcome to hang out with Bee in our lobby.”

Buster’s ears perked up at that. “Really? Awesome!” he said, and I shot him a smile.

“Well, if Buster’s girlfriend lives here, I suppose coming over for a playdate a few times a week wouldn’t be trouble, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” I replied. After all, I made fun of Bee a lot, but if she legitimately had found herself a friend, well, I was happy for her. I was also going to tease her mercilessly about it, but I was definitely happy for her.

Chapter 16

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully. Bee was secretly thrilled that I was letting her boyfriend come by whenever to see her, even though she pretended she never cared about Buster. But by the time we finally closed the clinic doors I was exhausted, and I barely remembered to grab the picture of Touch of Midnight before we left. There was something there I wanted to check when we got home.

We stopped and grabbed a veggie supreme pizza on the way to have for dinner, and as soon as we got home I went into my room to use my computer. Looking carefully at the picture of Touch of Midnight, I confirmed that the picture definitely showed that his eyes looked fairly light. It was barely noticeable. In fact, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it wasn’t just a little bit of a glitch in the photo. But if I was right, then this could turn the whole murder case against Caroline Gibson and Corey on its face.