Рита Браун - Catch As Cat Can

“Dammit.” Harry felt the cool night air, wishing she had a wrap. She trudged in her high-heeled shoes, those instruments of torture, to the caboose.

Tucker and the cats pushed open the door, driving Pope Rat back into his hole one more time.

“Nipshits,” he taunted.

“Who cares about you?” Tucker's voice carried great self-importance.

Harry slowly climbed the steps, walked into the caboose. Her eyes took a moment to focus, adjusting to the dim light. She then saw the opened sack. Kneeling down, her knees cracked. She winced, reached in, retrieving a neatly bound stack of one-hundred-dollar bills.

Holding them close to her eyes, she whistled. “The fakes? Jesus.”

Slipping one fake bill into her cleavage, she hurried back to the ball. She had sense enough not to burst in. A few people called to her, she smiled and called back. Her entourage followed behind her, Murphy in the lead.

Fair came up. “I've been looking for you.”

“Fair, Cooper is on the dance floor. You can push through that throng better than I can. Will you bring her to me? It's important.” She lifted the hundred-dollar bill from her cleavage.

“I guess it is.” His long strides carried him to the dance floor in a second, although he had to dodge an amorous nymph.

Cynthia Cooper, dancing with the Reverend Herb Jones, kept Lottie in her field of vision. Rick, dancing with his wife, did the same with Sean.

Fair whispered in Coop's ear, she hesitated, he whispered again, she thanked Herb for the dance, disengaged as subtly as possible, then joined Harry, who showed her the money.

Coop tried to catch Rick's eye but he was glued to Sean. “Fair, ask Lottie to dance. Keep her tied up,” Cooper ordered the vet. “Tell Rick I'm going to the caboose.”

“I'll go with you,” Harry happily volunteered.

“You keep Lottie tied up.” Fair didn't want Harry in danger. “Coop, I'd better go with you.”

“I'm not asking her to dance,” Harry stubbornly said as she pushed a none-too-compliant Fair toward the dance floor.

The two women hurried out, the animals again going with them, but before Fair could reach Lottie she had quietly disengaged from the Marine, walked behind the band, and walked out the back door. She saw the animals and humans going to the caboose. Looking over her shoulder, Lottie walked to her car.

“Over here.” Tucker excitedly circled around the gunnysack in the caboose.

“What is this, Grand Central?” the rat complained from his quarters. As he had finished the popcorn his mood was improving considerably. The only reason he was taking the popcorn to the caboose in the first place was that he was tired of the music, of hearing the humans. He had resigned himself to staying in the caboose until the obnoxious pet threesome left him in peace.

Harry, a step behind Coop, knelt down beside her. Neither one had a flashlight but Coop fished a lighter from a small hidden pocket on the side of her dress. She clicked it on and the cheap plastic light shot out a long flame.

“It's our little bag of tricks all right.”

“You think he knows it's fake?” Harry asked.

“I don't know but whoever threw it in here didn't lock the door, either because they knew this money was worthless or because they didn't have the key.”

Moving at a slow trot, Fair came out of the main building. He scoured the parking lot, finding Lottie as she opened the door to her car.

“Lottie.”

“Fair, you getting your exercise?” She smiled.

“I was hoping you'd dance the next dance with me.”

“Of course.” She put a fresh pack of cigarettes in her evening purse, closed the door, and walked back with him.

Back at the ball they started to dance when the band stopped. Jim Sanburne strode up to the raised dais, taking the offered microphone from the lead singer.

Thomas groaned in BoomBoom's ear, “Spare us a long-winded speech. I hear enough of them.”

“As mayor, I will say a few words. I'm never too talky. Now if Little Mim, as vice-mayor, gets the mike we might be here for a while.” He winked at Little Mim as everyone laughed.

“I'm going to slip out for a smoke.” Thomas kissed her on the cheek, stood up, then adroitly moved along the edges of the crowd until he walked out front. He inhaled the cooling night air and reached in his pocket, pulling out an aromatic Portages cigar.

He could hear Jim laud the charity's director, then continue. “I am grateful for so many of you coming to support Building for Life. Those of you who have attended the Wrecker's Ball in the past know that anything is possible . . .”

“Footsteps,” Mrs. Murphy warned.

“Come on.” Tucker nipped Harry's ankle.

Harry opened her mouth to chastise the corgi when she, too, heard the crunch of footsteps on the pea gravel. Putting her finger to her lips she motioned for Cooper to follow her. They quickly opened the door on the coupling side of the caboose, grabbed the long iron handrails, cold now as the temperature continued in its plunge, and swung themselves out, Harry flat against the caboose on the right side, Coop on the left.

The footsteps passed them, the metallic steps vibrating as the individual stepped up onto the back platform, then opened the door to enter the caboose.

Mrs. Murphy and Pewter jumped down with ease. Tucker hit the ground with an oomph, rolled over, scratched to her feet, and followed the cats under the caboose as Harry and Coop dropped to the ground. The two women quietly crept along the side of the caboose opposite from the main building. It was even darker on that side.

They heard someone else walk toward the caboose, coming from the direction of the party.

Both women looked at each other. They hoped their feet wouldn't show.

Mrs. Murphy peeped out from under the caboose. “Sean.”

“I knew it,” Pewter crowed.

Not a moment later, Lottie's voice called out, “Sean, where are you going?”

Whoever was in the caboose froze.

“For a smoke. Thought I'd walk around the yard.”

Fair walked out trying to shadow Lottie, but it's difficult for a six-foot five-inch man to be unobtrusive.

Lottie turned toward him, “Fair, what's going on?”

“We never had our dance.”

“Oh.” She faced Sean. “For some inexplicable reason I've become attractive to Fair.” This was said with irony.

“May I have this dance then?” Fair persisted.

“Let me smoke a cigarette with Sean and I'll be right back in.”

Fair beat a retreat toward the ball, all the while racking his brain for a place to hide so he could spy on Lottie. Rick, meanwhile, leaned against his car for a smoke, his eyes darting back to Sean from time to time. Diego came out, asked Fair where Harry was. Fair shrugged. He had no intention of helping Diego. Diego returned inside.

“Would you like to walk with me?” Sean evenly asked Lottie. “My first stop is the caboose. I don't believe I've ever showed it to you.”

“That would be lovely.” She raised her voice in that falsely feminine way.

Cooper and Harry heard whoever was in the caboose tiptoe to the coupling door in the back, the same one they used. The door opened and closed but no footfall followed. Whoever it was was hanging on the handrail. The two women looked at one another. Cooper silently cursed herself for leaving her evening purse in Rick's car. A small pistol was in it.

Just as Sean and Lottie reached the caboose steps, Lottie said, “Sean, I'm just freezing. Let me run back to the car for my wrap.”

“I can go faster than you can. High heels.” He smiled, pointing to her feet, then headed toward Lottie's car about one hundred yards away.