Блейз Клемент - The Cat Sitter And The Canary

At the first stoplight, I put the car in park and felt around under the passenger seat. Just as my fingers closed on something, my feeble brain sat up and shouted, Watch out! That gunman had been hiding in my car not much more than twenty-four hours earlier. There was no telling what he might have left behind …

My rational self whispered, It might be another note!

My inner child added, Or a snake!

Luckily for me, we were all wrong. As carefully as possible, I pulled it out and held it up in front of me.

It was Charlie’s yellow giraffe, the one he’d brought with him that fateful evening we’d discovered Sara Potts’s body. Immediately, my mind pitched back. I saw myself sitting in the Bronco in Caroline’s driveway before I went into her house, when I still thought I was having just another perfectly normal day. I could see Charlie too, curled up in the seat next to me with his giraffe between his paws.

While I was thinking about how much he probably missed it (and how happy he’d be when I brought it back), the light turned green and the car behind me honked, scaring me so bad I let out a yelp not unlike the high-pitched yodel of a mountain goat. I threw the Bronco in gear and lurched forward, clutching the steering wheel with both hands while still holding on to Charlie’s giraffe. Something about the whole situation struck a chord in me, and I started giggling like a schoolgirl.

“Well,” I said to myself. “Either you’re really good at surviving stressful situations, or you’ve gone completely bonkers.”

Myself replied, “Watch the road, you moron.”

The car behind me moved into the oncoming lane a couple of times, trying to get around, and then as soon as there was an opening it revved its engine and sped by on the left. It must have been a sight to behold—a grown woman with wild hair, clinging to her stuffed giraffe, giggling and talking to herself.

But I didn’t care.

After what I’d been through, it felt good to laugh. Nothing restores the mind and body more, except maybe a nice long shower, which I planned on taking as soon as possible. I pulled into the winding lane that leads to our house and held my breath as I sped past the magnolia tree. I parked in the empty carport and carried Jane’s cage up the steps as smoothly as possible, and then as soon as I opened the door to my apartment, I put her down on the coffee table and started peeling off my clothes. Less than twenty seconds later I was in the shower, letting the hot water stream over my body and doing my best impersonation of Billie Holiday.

The way you hold your knife,

the way we danced till three.

The way you’ve changed my life …

No, no! They can’t take that away from me!

The longer I stood there, the better I felt. All the terrible things I’d seen, all the sadness over Sara Potts and Edith Reed, all the guilt and fear and worry (not to mention the perfume) washed away, disappearing down the drain and leaving me feeling like a new woman. I must have been standing there singing at the top of my lungs for at least ten minutes when I thought I heard something on the other side of the shower curtain.

I froze.

“Dixie?”

“Ethan! Oh my gosh, you scared me to death.”

He parted the curtain just wide enough to poke his head in, grinning from ear to ear and raking his eyes up and down my body. In a husky, mock soap-opera voice, he said, “Well, hello there.”

Nobody likes being surprised in the shower, but all it took was one look at Ethan’s beaming face to make my heart go all warm and fuzzy—I couldn’t imagine being happier to see anybody else on the planet. In fact, looking back, I must have been pretty swept up in the moment. I leaned in and gave him a wet kiss on the lips, leaving a few drops of water dripping off his cheeks, and then before I even knew what I was saying, the following words came spilling out of my mouth: “Hey, do you think we should get married?”

He blinked a couple of times. “Umm … what did you say?”

I raised my eyebrows. “Okay, let’s not jump to any conclusions, but I think I just proposed to you.”

“Yeah. I just wanted to hear you say it again.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

He grinned. “That’s what I thought. You better get out of that shower. I think your brain may be waterlogged.”

I stared at him. At that moment, I could easily have shrugged it all off and turned it into a joke, but something was urging me to keep going.

I said, “Maybe, but you know, this whole thing … it’s got me thinking. I mean, life is just so short, you know? Ever since Todd and Christy died, I think I’ve been walking around afraid—afraid to move forward, afraid to think about the future, just … afraid . But now…”

His eyes were hopeful and searching, but now they seemed to darken. “Yeah…”

“What’s wrong?”

He said, “Look, Dixie. I love you. You know that. I basically loved you the minute I met you, and I’d marry you in a heartbeat, but…”

“But what?”

“I just think maybe there are a couple of reasons we shouldn’t be talking about getting married right now.”

“Why? What reasons?”

He let out a long sigh. “Well, for one … Guidry .”

“Guidry! What does Guidry have to do with anything?”

“Well, you have to admit, the timing is a little weird.”

“What timing?”

“Umm, who got married today?”

I blinked. “Oh. That timing.”

“Yeah.”

I nodded hesitantly. “Okay. I see your point.”

And I did. The timing was a little off. Maybe he was right. Maybe I was just being overly emotional, reacting to the stress of everything that had happened, on top of thinking about Guidry’s wedding. But honestly, just between you and me, it didn’t feel like that at all.

Ethan leaned in and gave me another kiss. “Let’s just talk about it later.”

I nodded, letting the lingering sensation of his lips on mine travel across my body like a wave. “What’s the other reason?”

“Huh?”

“You said there were a couple reasons we shouldn’t talk about getting married. What’s the other one?”

There was a gleam in his eye. “Well … the singing.”

I gave him a half grin, half grimace. “Yeah, sorry about that. How long were you listening?”

He winked. “Long enough.”

“Long enough for what ?”

“Long enough.”

He pulled the curtain aside and stepped in, completely naked.

Now, normally, just the sight of Ethan’s big brown eyes is enough to make me feel a little light-headed. I was thinking I should probably grab on to the towel bar just in case I keeled over, but before I got the chance, he pulled me close and wrapped his long arms around me. I melted into him, reveling in the warmth of his body against mine.

He whispered in my ear, “By the way, last time there was a rabbit by the bed. Now there’s a canary on the coffee table.”

I pulled back. “Yeah, wait ’til you hear what happened. I took Franklin and Gigi back home to Caroline’s, and while I was there, Detective Carthage came over. He asked me if I’d walk through the Kramers’ house and tell him everything I saw. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t exactly say no, so then when I went over there…”

My voice trailed away. I noticed Ethan had lowered his chin and was staring at me with a slightly annoyed look on his face. I immediately knew what he was thinking: “Dixie, shut the hell up.”

Well, maybe not exactly in those words—he’d never speak to me like that—but I could tell he was thinking there’d be plenty of time for talking later. The most important thing was what was happening right here … right now …