Милдред Гордон - Undercover Cat

He saw his assassin wandering around down there, and the hair from his neck straight down his backbone stood on end.

As a fireman reached for him, D.C. hissed and backed further out on the limb. He never permitted strangers to touch him. Besides, it was a long way down if he were dropped, and his springs were not exactly factory new.

The fireman beat a retreat when he saw an intent in D.C.‘s eyes that could be catalogued only as murderous. On the ground below, Greg said, “Let me up there. I’ll get the little fiend.”

“Don’t,” Patti half screamed. “He’ll murder him. He’s al­ready tried once tonight.”

Greg started up, moving fast and with the agility of an athlete. From his eyrie above, D.C. watched fascinated. With each rung Greg took, D.C. whisked his tail a little more in anticipation.

At last Greg took the final step on the ladder, which swayed in the wind. He drew a deep breath, steadied himself, and stared into D.C.‘s eyes, which observed him with a hunter’s instinct for timing. That was the secret, timing. If he were off even a second

.

Greg reached for him, which was a gross mistake since it put on display one long, narrow arm. D.C. would have sworn from a cursory examination of the exposed part that Greg was thick-skinned, but he drew blood easily in one knifelike swipe that began a little above the elbow and ran to the wrist. Greg almost backed off the ladder. Below, a fireman yelled in alarm. Greg groaned and swore, and D.C. smiled.

Greg returned to earth with the suggestion that they should fire a tranquilizer into D.C., the way humane officers do when they trap an escaped wild animal. “It’s the only way you’ll ever get him down without somebody losing an arm.”

Ingrid proved him wrong. After much pleading she was permitted to climb the ladder. D.C. followed her progress with an expression on his little face of consummate happi­ness. He had known all along that eventually she or Patti would come for him. They spent their lives protecting and caring for him, and in this crisis they would not let him be carried down in ignominy by the enemy.

He leaped to her shoulder and licked her on the cheek. He kissed her not only because he loved her but because he had the largest audience of his career. People relished little gestures like that. It simply got them deep down.

And it did. Watching below, a woman tugged at her hus­band’s robe. “Did you see that, Joe? He kissed her for saving his life.” Joe grunted.

Holding his arm, which a fireman had bandaged, Greg said to Joe, “Cats! They’ve got everybody in Hollywood beaten seven ways to kingdom come for acting. They’re all fiends in baby clothes.”

Once on the ground, D.C. reached over from his perch on Ingrid’s shoulders to lick Patti, and then the three, Ingrid, Patti, and Mike, thanked the officers and firemen profusely.

In her good nights, Patti reluctantly included Greg.

19

The next morning at breakfast Helen Jenkins remarked quietly, “I heard you talking last night.”

Sammy choked on his bacon and Dan became a study in still life. “Care for more coffee?” she asked, and when Dan nodded by rote, she poured with hands steadied by a will she never knew she possessed.

She had stayed awake the entire night. The two men had finished their discussion around 2 a.m. by setting her stran­gulation murder for the next evening. They wanted time to notify the landlady they were leaving town to take jobs elsewhere.

For several hours she had been too panicked to think but shortly before dawn she organized her thoughts like so many figures on the report sheet at the bank. After consider­ing the pros and cons, she decided on a frontal attack. If she revealed she knew their plans, she would throw them off balance and perhaps gain an advantage. More important, though, she might talk them out of their plan temporarily, and win an additional day or two.

Sammy said, “I told you she wasn’t asleep, that she was faking.”

Dan turned to her, his face devoid of expression. “If you heard us, you know we don’t want to do it.”

“You don’t,” she said, pressing the attack, “but Sammy does.”

Sammy grinned. “Nothing personal.”

Strangely, his sadistic jibes no longer disturbed her, now that death was so close. “That’s reassuring,” she retorted, determined to match him. He glanced sharply at her, sur­prised that she no longer cringed under his verbal torture.

A shaft of sunlight fell on her to warm her and renew her courage. The sunlight and the normalcy of breakfast about the kitchen table, pouring coffee and serving bacon and eggs, tended to destroy reality. It was as if she had seen a play and was discussing it with a couple of the actors.

She continued, “You might as well know that I’m not going to bed tonight, so it won’t be as easy as you thought. When you try it, I’m going to scream so loud I’ll bring half the neighborhood down on you before you finish. I’ve been quiet and done what you said because I wanted to live, but if I’m not going to . ..”

“We don’t want to,” Dan repeated. He finished the coffee with one gulp, like a man who needed it. “But we’ve got a problem. Nobody on earth knows we did the bank job but you.” He studied her sidewise, never moving his head, seek­ing to capture and analyze her thoughts.

She said, “If you let me go, and I said anything, you could get my father. It’d be the same as if I killed him. Do you think I’d do that?”

Sammy dropped his fork. “Hey, what do you know, she’s a con woman. Here we thought we picked up a dame who was legit and we got ourselves a con artist.”

Dan never took his gaze from her. “That’s enough, Sammy.” He switched back to her. “What do you take us for? A couple stupes? You’d run babbling to the cops the minute we turned you loose. Maybe you wouldn’t want to, but you would. It’s human nature. We all got to talk – Sammy here, and me, and you. We all got to spill everything we know.”

She forced some coffee down. “You think you won’t be caught but you’re smart enough to know, Dan – “

Sammy interrupted. “Hey, Jenkins, that’s good. The old buddy, buddy approach.” He mimicked her. “Dan.”

She ignored him. ” – You’ve got to figure on it. So far you’ve held up a bank but if you add murder to it now

“

Sammy said, “Do you hear that, Dan? She thinks we’re amateurs. Jenkins, if Forest Lawn paid us for every time we sent them a customer

hey, Dan, that’s an idea. We ought to get a commission.”

“Don’t try to be funny,” Dan said. He rose, folded his napkin, and turned toward her. “If you’ve got any other ideas, I’m listening.”

Sammy pretended to shudder. “Gripes, gives me the creeps sitting around with the victim talking about it.” He came up with a nasty little laugh. “Doesn’t seem like good sports­manship.”

He added, “You and your big ears, Jenkins. Now you’ve got to suffer until we put you out of your misery. And here I had it all figured out so you’d never know about it.”

Dan said, “Get lost, Sammy. Just get lost.” He added, “How about tuning in on the news?”

Sammy shrugged and rose. As he was leaving, he said to Dan, “Don’t let her con you into anything.”

Dan waited until he heard Sammy turn the radio on, then said, “You’re working on me because you think I’ve got feel­ings. No, sweetheart, no feelings. They’re something I can’t afford. Might cost me my hundred grand and my neck. The only reason I hesitate about putting you away, I don’t know what to do with you afterward that’d be a hundred per cent safe. You see, I don’t believe in playing the odds. I go only for a fixed winner. So I’ve got to figure it out. Something to do with you afterwards that’s a sure bet or something with you on the hoof that doesn’t get us into trouble.”