Софи Келли - A Midwinter's Tail

“Would you like to stay for the class?” Maggie asked him.

“No,” I said firmly.

“Merow!” Owen said at great volume.

“He won’t hurt anything, Kath,” Maggie said.

“Yeah,” Ruby chimed in. “He doesn’t want to be stuck back in the office all by himself.”

Rebecca caught my eye and just smiled.

Owen—who knew how to play to an audience—tipped his head and gave them his most abjectly lonely look.

“Don’t encourage him,” I said with a sigh, but it was already too late. Maggie dragged over a chair, setting it just beyond the edge of the circle. She patted the seat and looked at me.

“You’re still in trouble,” I hissed as I set Owen down on the chair. I had a little bag of organic cat kibble in my other jacket pocket. I fished it out and made a pile of it on the chair.

I straightened up and turned around. “Everyone, please don’t try to pet him,” I said. “Owen was feral and he doesn’t like being touched.”

Owen was looking at Maggie with kitty adoration as she pointed out the different flavors in the little heap of dry food in front of him.

“Not even by Maggie,” I added.

Maggie gave Owen a big smile and moved back to the circle. I slid into place next to Taylor King.

Mags worked us hard. Owen stayed on the chair and seemed to be watching us with interest, although most of that interest was focused on Maggie. By the time we’d finished the complete form at the end of the class, there were damp patches of sweat on my T-shirt.

“Hey, Kathleen, your push hands are getting better,” Ruby said as she came to stand beside me. She used the edge of her baggy tee to wipe the sweat off her neck.

Taylor was still standing next to me. Her red hair was coming loose from the messy bun she’d pulled it back into. She reached one arm over her head and looked in Owen’s direction. Maggie and Rebecca were talking to him.

“Kathleen, what would happen if someone did try to pet your cat?” she asked. “Would he really not like it?”

Ruby laughed. “Oh yeah, he’d really ‘not like it,’” she said before I could answer. She stretched one arm across her body and pushed gently on it with the other hand. “Kathleen was hurt last winter and while the paramedics were taking care of her, a police officer tried to pick him up.” She gestured at Owen, who at the moment really did look like a sweet cuddly ball of fur sitting on that chair.

“What happened?” Taylor asked.

“Owen has claws and he knows how to use them.” Ruby grinned at me. “I’m surprised they didn’t put little kitty shackles on him for assaulting a police officer.”

I smiled then because I couldn’t help thinking about Marcus. He’d come to Owen’s defense that day after I passed out. He was pretty much the only reason Owen hadn’t ended up as a guest of animal control for the night.

I pulled my shirt away from my sweaty body. “Before I forget, we have the tree almost decorated,” I said to Ruby. “Come see it when you get a chance.” I turned to Taylor. “I know you like vintage things. Come see our tree at the library. We’re decorating it with Ruby’s collection of Christmas ornaments.”

Taylor smiled. “I’d like that. I will.”

Ruby bent from the waist and put her hands flat on the floor. “I’ll try to come see the tree tomorrow,” she said.

I walked over to Maggie. “It’s snowing. Do you need a ride?”

She shook her head and pulled a hand over her neck. “Thanks, but I have to stop at my studio.”

“Time to go home,” I said to Owen. I leaned over and picked him up. “Say thank you to Maggie.”

“Mrrr,” he said, looking up at her, eyes narrowed almost into slits.

“You’re very welcome,” she said.

I leaned over and hugged her. “Thanks, Mags,” I said.

“You can bring Owen to class anytime you want to as far as I’m concerned.” She gave me a teasing smile. “I’m pretty sure he was doing cloud hands with us. You should get him to help you with yours.”

I made a face at her. “Okay, I’m taking my cat and going home,” I said. Then I turned and headed for the door. Owen twisted in my arms so he could look back over my shoulder.

“Hey, Kath, don’t forget about lunch tomorrow,” Maggie called after me.

I waved two fingers at her over my shoulder to let her know I’d heard and I hadn’t forgotten.

It took me a while to get my coat and boots on and get down the stairs. Rebecca had to say good-bye to Owen, and then Ruby and finally Taylor wanted to see him. If talking to the cats meant I was crazy, then pretty much everyone I knew was crazy, too.

Finally we got back to the truck. Owen yawned and stretched out on the passenger side. Being charming was tiring, it seemed. I really wanted to be mad at him, but indirectly he had gotten me the information I’d wanted from Nic Sutton—although I wasn’t sure how it was going to help. I didn’t believe Nic had had anything to do with Dayna’s death. What would he have gained?

I rolled my neck from side to side. I was tired. And hungry. I hadn’t gotten the cinnamon roll I’d wanted from Eric’s.

I looked over at Owen curled up on the seat. If I went back for one, was I setting myself up for getting locked out of the truck again? I wasn’t completely convinced that my keys had “accidentally” fallen out of my pocket earlier. I decided I’d drive around the block and see if I could find a parking spot close to the café. Then I remembered that was what had gotten me into trouble in the first place.

“Do you know what Einstein allegedly said the definition of insanity was?” I asked Owen. He lifted his head and yawned again. Clearly he didn’t care. “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

I stopped at the stop sign and had flicked on my blinker to turn left when I saw Maggie walking up the sidewalk in the opposite direction from River Arts and her studio, as if she were headed to Eric’s Place herself. The collar of her coat was turned up against the cold and a long multicolored scarf was wrapped around her neck.

And Brady Chapman was at her side, their two heads bent together in what looked like an intense conversation. It also looked as if they were a lot more than friends.

19

Marcus picked me up in the morning and I set the cat cage on the backseat of his SUV before I got in.

“Do you think this is going to work?” I asked as I slid onto the passenger seat.

“I think if anyone can catch this cat, you can.”

I rolled my eyes. “You sound like Maggie,” I said.

“You really do have a rapport with all of the cats,” he said as he backed out onto the road. It was cold but the sky was clear. It was going to be a nice day.

I patted the bag I was carrying. “I think that rapport might just be the fact that I smell like sardines a lot of the time.”

He shot me a quick look and smiled. “No, you don’t,” he said. And the look in his eyes made my heart beat faster.

As we drove out to Wisteria Hill, I told Marcus what I’d learned from Nic Sutton the night before.

“He’s right,” Marcus said. “The prosecutor was looking for Dayna Chapman. She’d stopped cooperating with them.”

“Do you think he’s right about the why?” I asked, putting the bag of cat dishes at my feet on the floor of the SUV. “Could someone from the shooter’s family have gotten to Dayna?”

As soon as the words were out, I realized that was probably a question he couldn’t answer.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “You can’t answer that.”

He shook his head. “It’s okay. It’s not exactly a secret. They don’t know why Dayna suddenly became so vague and evasive. If somebody from that kid’s family got in touch with her, no one seems to know who it would have been. The kid’s parents are dead. So are his grandparents. His girlfriend disappeared after he was arrested. All he has is a sister who seems to have pretty much washed her hands of him.”