Молли Фитц - Kitty Confidential

His words were oddly comforting and just what I needed.

“Okay,” I said, letting out a slow, shaky breath. “Okay.”

Octo-Cat nodded. “We need to go back in,” he informed me. “We still haven’t found everyone who was there that night.”

“I think I already know who killed Ethel,” I confessed. “All signs point to Mr. Fulton.”

“The man. My boss,” I clarified when I noticed he still looked confused.

As it turned out, what my kitty companion said next shocked me with its wisdom and depth.

“Look,” he said. “He could very well be the one, but we can’t know for sure until we rule the others out. It’s like how sometimes you might think that the chicken pâté is your favorite flavor of Fancy Feast, but then the next day you have the salmon and shrimp blend and it tastes even better than the chicken. When you think about it some more, you may have just been extra hungry before which made the inferior flavor of the chicken seem extra delicious, or you mistakenly thought chicken was best only because you hadn’t tried all the other wonderful flavors yet. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Strangely, I did. “That Mr. Fulton could be our salmon and shrimp blend, or he could simply be chicken pâté, but we won’t know until we’ve finished our meal?”

“Exactly.” He seemed to glow with pride, but maybe that was just his eyes glinting in the waning sunlight. “This meal’s only just getting started, so make sure you save some space in that belly of yours.”

“Thanks, Octo-Cat. I needed that.”

“And I may need you to swing by the store after this and grab some chicken pâté. I know, I know. I usually don’t eat the poultry flavors, but suddenly I find myself with a craving.”

I scratched him between the ears. “You’re a good cat.”

“And you’re a very good human. Yes, you are,” he told me in a goochie-goo voice that made us both smile. “Now let’s get back inside and see who else we can find.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Even though Octo-Cat convinced me to go back into the funeral home for the viewing, we were too late to do any meaningful sleuthing. The close family and friends had already departed for a private function, leaving only distant acquaintances and curious casket-gawkers to mingle in the parlor.

Unsurprisingly, Bethany had left, too, only further supporting my suspicions.

Octo-Cat and I were among the last to remain behind, which gave him a chance to surreptitiously poke his head out of the bag and speak his goodbyes to Ethel.

“Oh, Ethel,” he cried without a trace of his normal over-the-top theatrics. “You were my whole world, and you didn’t even know it. I know we had our disagreements on occasion, but you were truly the best thing that ever happened to me. The world won’t be quite as bright without you in it. I’ll always think of you when drinking Evian or stretching out in a sun spot. I love you and am so happy you were my human.”

I teared up a bit as I listened to his heartfelt goodbye. “That was beautiful,” I told him, searching around for one of the box of tissues I’d spotted earlier, but coming up short.

“Yeah,” he said with a sniff and a twitch of his whiskers.

“By the way,” I said, settling him back into the bag with the utmost care. “She knew how important she was to you.”

His voice came out muffled. “How can you be sure?”

“I just am.”

After that, we drove home, and I briefly stopped off at the supermarket to purchase fresh shrimp for our dinner. Octo-Cat had kept it together when I couldn’t. As far as I was concerned, he’d more than earned this special treat. Seeing as it would be impossible for me to prepare such a nice meal without also indulging, I bought enough to feed me, too.

Octo-Cat didn’t eat as much as he normally did, which worried me. “Is your dinner okay?” I asked regarding the morsel on my fork suspiciously. Could he sense something I didn’t? My mind briefly flitted back to smelling dishes in Ethel’s kitchen in an ill-fated attempt to detect poison.

He sighed. “I just miss Ethel.”

“Of course you do. I’m so sorry you had to see her like that.”

“It’s just…” He sniffed as he padded his paws on the table anxiously. “It’s just, I thought we’d be together forever. Then suddenly she was gone.”

“Life works like that sometimes,” I admitted, never having felt this acute sense of loss myself but hoping I could still offer some measure of comfort.

“If you want, maybe…” I hesitated, something new and most definitely unexpected overtaking me.

“Yeah?” he asked sadly, when I didn’t continue.

“Maybe after this is all said and done, I don’t know…”

Just say it!

“Well, maybe I could be your human.”

His eyes widened with surprise, and then a rumbling purr filled the silence between us. “I’d like that,” he said.

“I mean, it’s better than having to break in another new human.” He dropped his head and nibbled on the largest and most succulent shrimp I had placed before him.

Now that he was otherwise occupied, he was unable to see the tears welling in the corners of my eyes.

What could I say?

That ornery tabby had really grown on me the past few days. Maybe I was a cat person after all.

The next morning, I woke up before Octo-Cat could rouse me—and unbelievably I felt refreshed and ready to go. Excited for the day ahead, even. It was such a drastic change from how I’d felt upon going to bed that it couldn’t have been anything other than a gift from above.

Rather than questioning it, I decided to pay it forward.

“I have a present for you,” I told Octo-Cat after he’d finished his breakfast.

“Not another foul-smelling bag, I hope,” he complained, but I could tell he was excited. Something about the twitch of his tail and the perkiness with which he trailed me back toward the bedroom suggested he was in just as good a mood as me that day. Perhaps how we’d bonded over our shrimp dinner last night had something to do with it.

“Hop up,” I told him as I took a seat on the bed and rooted around in my night stand.

He joined me, padding across my lap to sniff at the drawer.

When I pulled out what I was looking for, he leapt back with a start. “What’s that thing?” he said between quick, panicked breaths.

“This is my iPad,” I explained, pushing the power button to wake the screen then setting it on the bed between us. “Well, actually now it’s yours.”

“It’s shiny,” he commented, sniffing it hesitantly.

I nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, and I think you’ll really like what it can do.”

“Oh?” Now I had his interest.

“I’m guessing Ethel didn’t have one of these,” I said, presenting it once again with a flourish.

He shook his head in confirmation.

“Well, we can install apps for you to play with when you’re bored, like a virtual fish tank or a keyboard or even the radio, and we will… But the main reason I’m giving this to you is for FaceTime.”

“FaceTime?” He laughed after trying the name aloud for himself. “That’s an odd mash up of unrelated words.”

“Yeah, but they already had iPhone, so they had to come up with something else to name this app. Look.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called the tablet using FaceTime.

Oct-Cat swished his tail as he watched me reach over to answer the call. “Whoa,” he murmured in awe when my face popped up on the screen, followed by his own when I pointed the phone on my camera toward him.

“Cool, right?” I gushed. I loved teaching others new things just as much as I loved learning them for myself.

“What else can it do?” he asked, spinning in an excited circle before settling back down before the iPad.