Клэр Донелли - Catch As Cat Can

Finally, Sunny couldn’t stand it anymore. She used her computer to get the live stream from the local all-news channel.

Might as well hear it as it happens, she thought.

But there was no news. Oh, there were politics and sports, traffic and weather, and a feature on Seasonal Affective Disorder, but no reports of police activity in downtown Kittery Harbor.

The sky was beginning to darken when Will reappeared at the office door.

“Thank God!” Sunny jumped up from her desk and went to him. But the look on his face stopped her. “The tactical team moved in perfectly. They woke Jasmine out of a sound sleep and probably scared her into a lot more gray hair. But Yancey Kilbane wasn’t there, and Jasmine doesn’t know where her Bear could be. He was in bed when she came off her shift at O’Dowd’s and went to sleep. But he and his stuff were gone. So was her car, by the way.”

He smacked a frustrated fist onto the top of a desk. “I couldn’t keep the place under surveillance without tipping off that we were interested. So while I was doing a lot of paperwork, Kilbane—or whoever—skipped.”

Will took a deep breath. “I apologize, Sunny, but there’s no one else I can talk about this with—at least no one that I’d want to. I’m off to headquarters with the head of the tac team to give a report to Ingersoll and Lenore Nesbit.” He managed to summon up the ghost of a smile. “At least nothing else can go wrong today.”

As if on cue, his cell phone began ringing. Will took it out and brought it to his ear. “Price,” he said. “Hi, Val. I guess news about our foul-up must have traveled fast.” His expression changed as he listened. “What? When? Is there anything we can do? Yes. Yes, I can see that. Keep me posted.”

He clicked off his phone and looked at Sunny. “I know it’s no fun listening to only one side of a conversation. Trust me, you wouldn’t have enjoyed the whole thing. I was wrong. Things could get worse. Val Overton just told me that Neil Garret has disappeared from the motel where the marshals were keeping him under wraps. Apparently he got a text and a little while later was in the wind.”

18

“Neil ran off?Why would he do that?” It didn’t make sense to Sunny. Neil hadn’t been happy when Val told him he had to go. But he had to realize that with Yancey Kilbane out there, he wasn’t safe. “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing much we can do. WitSec is a voluntary deal. People leave it all the time.” Will shook his head. “Of course, that decision doesn’t help their life expectancy. And practically speaking, putting a BOLO out on Neil would just make him more conspicuous.”

“What does he think he’s doing? Did he take his bag?”

“No, he left that. Used the old out-the-bathroom-window routine,” Will said.

“So he’s got the clothes on his back and whatever money is in his pockets.” Sunny frowned in bafflement. “I know Neil didn’t want to let his investment in the shop go. But I don’t think he can arrange a quick turnover sale late on a Friday.”

“Val said she was going to check out his house and the store,” Will said. “For the rest . . .” He shrugged. “This is one I’ll happily pass along to the decision-makers in Levett.”

He gave Sunny a perfunctory kiss on the cheek. “I’ll catch up with you later this evening. After all this stuff has been hashed out.” On that melancholy note, he left.

Sunny plunged back into the rush for last-minute reservations on quaint Maine bed-and-breakfasts. When she surfaced, it was time to close down the office. She drove home to find a welcoming committee by the door—Mike as well as Shadow.

“What’s the matter, Dad?” She could tell Mike was worried—he couldn’t stand still. And his mood had communicated itself to Shadow, who stayed so close underfoot, Sunny was in danger of tripping with every step she took.

“We don’t want to sound like jittery old people, but—well, Helena gave me a call. She took a nap this afternoon, and when she got up, Abby was gone, and so was the car.”

“She could have gone shopping—getting something for supper,” Sunny suggested. The sky had been fully dark when she walked from her Wrangler to the house, but that was just Maine in winter. It wasn’t even six o’clock yet.

“Maybe she’s making a big fuss over nothing, but Abby’s been gone—” He looked at his watch. “Almost an hour and a half. And usually she leaves a note.” Mike bit his lip. “I was wondering—maybe if you gave Will a call—”

Yeah, that would be just about the topper for his day. His third missing person, this one gone an hour and a half. But she kept that thought to herself.

“I think it’s a little, um, premature to go to the police quite yet. And I know Will is tied up right now.” She looked at her father’s worried expression. “But I bet that Mrs. M. is pretty upset, too. What do you say we go over there and keep her company?”

She turned to get Mike’s coat off the peg by the door and encountered a furry body just about wrapped around her ankle. Shadow’s gold-flecked eyes met Sunny’s in a full-on guilt stare, sending the message You’re not leaving me again, are you?

Sighing, she reached down and picked up the cat. “We’ll all go. Maybe Shadow can distract Helena until Abby comes home.”

Soon, I hope, she silently added.

They walked the few blocks to the Martinson place and rang the bell, eliciting some disconsolate woofs from the basement. Mrs. M. opened the door. “I put Toby downstairs in his crate. He was getting a little—let’s call it high-strung. And what’s worse, he was getting it from me. I hope you don’t think I’m being a silly old woman, Sunny.”

Mike stepped forward and took Helena in his arms for a comforting hug. “Nobody’s saying that.”

“Well, I’m certainly thinking it.” Helena Martinson stepped back to usher them into the house, finally noticing the additional member of the group. “Well, hello, Shadow. What brings you over here?”

“I’ve been running around a bit lately, and I didn’t want Shadow to think I was ignoring him again.”

Helena brought her hand forward for Shadow to sniff. “It should be safe,” she said with a crooked smile. “I washed up after getting Toby settled.”

Shadow lay quietly in Sunny’s arms while Mrs. M. gently stroked his fur. “Abby would probably say you’re spoiling that cat, but I think it’s all right.”

They moved into the living room, seating themselves on the couch. Sunny arranged Shadow in her lap so that Helena could keep petting. “It’s better with company,” Mrs. M. said, relaxing a little. “Waiting alone, all sorts of things pop into your head.”

Sunny nodded, remembering her unpleasant daydreams about Will throughout the afternoon.

“It’s just that Abby is more thoughtful about letting me know where she’s going. At least she has been since coming home on this visit.”

And discovering that her mother is a bit older and, yeah, frailer than she remembers her being, Sunny thought. Been there, done that.

“I’m sure she just popped out to get something, and then—maybe she met a friend from the old days,” Sunny said.

Although most of the people our age left town to find careers somewhere else, that annoying reporter who lived in the back of Sunny’s brain commented.

“Or if not a school friend, there are plenty of parents around who might recognize her. Especially after that nice story Ken Howell put in the Courier .” Maybe Sunny was grasping at straws, but Helena Martinson nodded.

“Yes, we have a couple of people—parents of schoolmates—who commented on that. They said how nice it was to see her around town.”