Клеа Саймон - An Incantation Of Cats

“Murder?”

“Infidelity,” Becca corrected her. “But, yeah, maybe this is a case of two sisters looking out for each other. Besides, don’t you have to get to work?”

Maddy was silent for a moment as she struggled to come up with a response to that. When she finally spoke, it was with resignation. “Promise me that if you do find out anything, you’ll bring it to the police and call me, too. And promise me that you won’t drink anything she gives you. Okay?”

“I promise.” Becca knew she had won.

Maddy, visibly restraining herself, took her friend’s hands in her own and clasped them hard for a moment before turning to walk away.

“Remember, Becca,” she called as the bus pulled up, “nothing to drink!”

Becca smiled and waved as her friend’s bus pulled away with a sound like a disgruntled pug.

“Nothing to drink?” She whirled around to see Tiger, on his bike. “Are you having a procedure?”

“What? No.” Becca, flustered, laughed in a kind of confused, embarrassed way. “I’m—no. Tiger, you startled me.”

“Sorry.” He tilted his head as he grinned, making him seem more boyish. “It’s none of my business anyway. I couldn’t help overhearing.”

“No, she was talking about…about something else.” Becca took in the tall, dark-haired man as he dismounted, and Clara waited to see if she would mention their last interaction. “Oh, you must be here to visit Gaia.”

“Yeah.” He uncoiled the heavy chain that had been draped over his shoulder. “Are you going in?”

“We just came from there.” She watched as he paused, open lock in hand. “Have you had a chance to talk with her yet?”

He bent over, focusing on the lock. “Not yet,” he said, his voice strangely muted. “It’s been weird.”

“Because of Frank?” She spoke quietly, and Clara knew her person only meant well. Still, the cyclist seemed to shudder slightly.

“Yeah,” he said after a moment’s pause that might have been attributed to problems with the lock. “Maybe.”

Becca turned away, giving him privacy. She was embarrassed, Clara knew. Her person had a tender heart and disliked causing pain.

“She wasn’t serious about him, you know.” When she started speaking again, she might as well have been addressing the no parking sign. “She said it was ending. In fact, I’m wondering if it was a bit of a rebound. You know, after you two…”

The exhalation could have been a laugh or it could have been a sigh. “Right. She wasn’t serious.”

“No?” She was giving him permission, Clara knew. Room to vent about his ex.

“I think she loved the idea of a sugar daddy. An older man with money to burn. You know they were planning on running off together, right?”

Becca bit her lip as Tiger turned and stood, the lock still in his hand. “Whatever she says now, don’t believe it.” He frowned at the lock, like it was to blame. “I’m not saying she loved him, but the idea of him? Or maybe it was just rubbing their affair in her boss’s face.”

“You think she intentionally let Margaret know?”

His dark eyes burned. “Is she playing all innocent now? She hates that woman. I mean, not that she deserved what happened.”

“But Margaret didn’t…” Becca caught herself. “I mean, we don’t know what happened.”

Tiger’s eyes went wide and for a few seconds, he was silent. “You know she had access to wolf’s bane.”

“I heard that she recognized it. Or, well, her sister did.” Becca looked around, as if she would see where to begin. “Gaia brought a plant in, but Elizabeth—that’s Margaret’s sister—got rid of it. Or made her get rid of it. That’s a little unclear.”

“Elizabeth.” He said the name like it tasted sour. “Yeah, I know her, and she would say that.”

“What?” Becca had to be thinking of her friend. Maddy’s face had puckered up the same way at the mention of the widow’s older sister.

“You just said it—Gaia brought in a poisonous plant and it disappeared. Right?” Tiger brushed his hair back as his tone changed to something softer. “Gaia never could resist picking up whatever she wanted, whether it was bad for her or not.”

Becca had no response, and the cat at her feet felt for her. The cyclist’s outburst was both too personal and too specific to ignore. The tension broke, though, as Tiger suddenly burst into a laugh, his teeth flashing in a wide grin.

“Listen to me!” He smiled at Becca. “I’m sounding like the wronged spouse, and I’m the one who thought we should split up. Maybe I’m dreaming up this whole conspiracy, and it’ll turn out that she ate a bad chicken wing or something.”

He sighed as he shook his head and then looked again at the lock in his hand. “But maybe this isn’t the best time for me to visit Gaia,” he said. “Anyway, I’m here, and it’s a gorgeous day. Would you want to take a walk by the river?”

Clara waited for her person to say no. Becca had an investigation to pursue, after all.

“I was going to head into Central Square, if you’d like to join me.” Clara whirled to look up at her person. “I don’t know if that’s what you were thinking of.”

“I think a walk would do me good.” He slung the chain over his shoulder. “Let me guess, you’re going to interrogate Margaret?”

“Actually, I want to talk to Elizabeth,” Becca confided. “Not about the wolf’s bane, or not only, but she said some things the other day that I want to follow up on.”

“Ah, now I understand why your friend was so worried.” Tiger reached for his bike, holding its handlebars in one hand. “But never fear,” he said, the smile audible in his voice. “You’ve got a tiger by your side.”

“Don’t you have to work?” Becca couldn’t resist grinning back. Tiger’s smile was contagious now that his dark mood had lifted. “I mean, I’m happy for the company and all.”

“You mean these?” He motioned to his bike’s panniers. “Nothing in there but my tools. I don’t have any deliveries or pickups scheduled for today. Besides, I was planning on taking a break.”

As if on cue, the device clipped to his belt flashed. With barely a glance, he thumbed a switch and it went black. “See?”

“If you’re sure.” Becca was smiling in a way that Clara didn’t fully understand. “But what if you get other calls?”

“Not to worry. I only work for one client, and they know whatever it is, I’ll get to it.” He leaned in. “I’m kind of on call twenty-four seven.”

“Maybe Gaia wouldn’t be a great choice, then.” The words slipped out, and Becca bit her lip, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. That was rude,” she said.

His face was blank. “Gaia?”

“She told me that she might be coming to work with you, but with her habits…” Becca shook her head, flustered. “Anyway, I guess that’s no longer an option.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Tiger looked down at his hands, like they could give him an out. “Not that she wouldn’t be welcome, of course.”

“Of course?” Becca was examining his face. For what, Clara couldn’t tell.

Tiger’s smile was back, as broad as ever. “Hey, the more the merrier, right?”

With that, they started out, Tiger walking his bike and Becca strolling beside him. Once the uncomfortable topic of Gaia was behind them, the two humans chatted casually. Becca, who seemed determined to avoid any mention of Tiger’s earlier declaration, focused on her work and had explained about her coven by the time they passed through Harvard Square.

Becca showed no interest in catching a bus, not with Tiger asking for reading suggestions. And so the two kept walking, while Clara, unseen beside them, dodged the busy foot traffic as she did her best to tune into their voices. Laurel, she knew, would be better at reading the signals between these two. Yes, they were interested in each other. Yes, the young man was being respectful. Any male human who asked Becca about herself was an improvement over Becca’s cheating ex, she figured. It was only her own memory of Becca’s previous heartbreak that made her nervous, Clara told herself. That made her wonder that his interest was so sudden and seemed so intense.