Рита Браун - Cat's Eyewitness

Alicia Palmer, in her mid-fifties, had been a huge star in film. She retired in her middle forties, having married well on a few occasions; divorcing well, too. But the great love of Alicia's life had been Mary Pat Reines, a kind, generous, and fabulously wealthy woman who'd died when Alicia was in her mid-twenties. Alicia had inherited Mary Pat's estate. Over the years she'd visit the place once or twice a year, but she finally came home from Santa Barbara to settle in last year. She wondered why it took her so long to return to Virginia, only realizing once she came home that she had never laid Mary Pat's ghost to rest. Once this emotional milestone was crossed, Alicia's heart lightened.

BoomBoom, an avid golfer and rider, found Alicia a warm and understanding friend. As both women were stunning beauties, they had spent their lives fending off men or, in BoomBoom's case, toying with them. Alicia didn't do that. She had tried to love her two husbands. The strain proved more than she could bear as she never felt deeply close or connected to either man.

When BoomBoom hung up the phone she turned to Alicia, who was throwing cherry wood on the fire in the huge kitchen fireplace.

"Harry is stopping by."

"Good. She's a tonic, that one." Alicia smiled her dazzling smile.

Older people said she looked like Hedy Lamarr, younger people said she looked like Catherine Zeta-Jones, but, really, Alicia looked like Alicia.

"Wonder what's going on? Not like Harry." BoomBoom had heard a note of urgency in Harry's voice.

"You two have made up."

"Pretty much." BoomBoom, blond hair curling around her shoulders, inhaled. "I was an ass. I could have slept with a lot of men. I didn't have to pick her husband, even though they were separated."

"He's uncommonly handsome. And nice. Fair is a genuinely nice man."

"Six months is my limit." BoomBoom tossed this off as she confronted the enormous espresso machine. "Espresso with cream and a curl of orange rind would be perfect on a day like this. You know, I need an engineering degree to work this thing."

"Mocha latte with lots of cream." Alicia watched as BoomBoom's two rescue kittens charged into the kitchen, tumbling over each other. "Cream. I swear they know the word."

The two women laughed as BoomBoom knelt down to scratch the cats' ears, one black and white and the other a red tabby.

"Hard to believe they came from the same litter."

"I know." BoomBoom again faced the espresso machine. "Since I can work this, I have full confidence I could work for NASA. Have you ever seen anything so complicated in your life?"

"Yes, the iDrive on the seven-series BMW Worst piece of you-know-what to come down the pike. And that ugly sawed-off truck lid—the designers have lost their minds, screwing up a fabulous machine like that."

"Heard BMW has gotten so many complaints they'll simplify the iDrive soon."

"Not soon enough. The unflattering design has now carried over into the five-series, the five-series!" Alicia threw up her hands, the large diamond on her ring finger catching the light. "How could they?"

Both women were motorheads, as was Harry, and the three could blab for hours about cars, trucks, and tractors. BoomBoom didn't like the changes made by BMW either so instead of trading in her four-year-old 7-series for a new one, she traded it for a Mercedes S600.

Alicia drove a Porsche C4 911 in good weather. She also owned a Land Cruiser, a spanking-new F-150, and an older F-350 dually. With her wealth she should have just bought a dealership.

The deep-throated rumble of the old Ford truck alerted them and the kittens that Harry had arrived.

"This isn't the day, but we'll have to get Harry in a corner about the redesigned F-l50. You know she'll know everything about it." BoomBoom peeled rind off an orange as Alicia set out large mugs.

"I could make my famous chicken potpie. Given the weather I'm not sure I want to drive over to the club. I can live without turkey and sweet potato pie."

"Doubt she'll stay that long," BoomBoom replied.

"Actually, I shouldn't, either. I'd better get home before it turns pitch black." Alicia noted the ever-darkening skies.

BoomBoom, walking toward the mudroom where the back door was located, stopped and surprised herself by turning to Alicia and saying, "I miss you when we're not together."

"BoomBoom, that's the greatest compliment you could give me." Alicia beamed at her.

"Knock, knock." Harry opened the back door a crack.

"Come on in." BoomBoom peered out into the snow. "Bring in the kids. They won't want to sit in the truck."

"You don't mind? I heard you found two kittens." Harry loved kittens better than anything on earth and had just spied the black and white one, four legs spread out, looking up at her from under a kitchen chair.

"Lucy and Desi will have to get used to other animals. Yours are so well behaved."

"Most times."

Within seconds Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker marched through the mudroom into the kitchen, the delicious smells curling into their nostrils.

Desi, the black and white kitten, and Lucy, the red tabby, puffed up like blowfish.

Tucker ignored them as they spit at her.

"Worms," Pewter said.

"Oh, Pewts, they're scared enough."

As the kittens crouched low and crept forward toward the visiting animals, Harry sat down and took a sip of her espresso, whipped cream swaying on top. "God, this is fabulous." She then relayed Susan's fears.

"She could ask him," Alicia kindly said.

"Susan won't. She's kind of paralyzed," Harry observed. "Also, she doesn't want to hear a lie."

"She's feeling left out. Overreacting. Right now he can't spend a lot of time with her," BoomBoom remarked. "And he never flirted with me. She has nothing to worry about."

"That puts him in a special class." Alicia ate some of her whipped cream with the small demitasse spoon. "I don't know Ned as you all do, but, without intending to stray, people do fall into one another's arms." Alicia turned to Harry, who never could get used to looking into those fabulous violet-tinged eyes. "And Susan is ninety miles away, beginning to worry about turning forty, I expect. I'm not saying Ned is having an affair, but sometimes it just... happens."

"It never happened to me."

BoomBoom couldn't resist. "Put on a little makeup, hike up your boobs in a lace lift-and-separate bra, and, Harry, it will happen."

The two women laughed as Harry, face red, looked deeply into her cup. "I can read whipped cream. Did you all know that? Other fortune-tellers read tea leaves or tarot cards, but I read whipped cream, and this whipped cream tells me there are two bad girls tormenting a saint. Karma! Beware of karma." As they laughed, Harry's mind flashed back to the statue. Since she had grown up with BoomBoom, she knew the blonde was accustomed to her hopping from subject to subject. "Susan and I saw the Virgin Mary cry blood! Today. Weird. Scary, actually."

Harry filled in BoomBoom and Alicia about this strange event as well as why both she and Susan were at the monastery grounds.

The kittens became emboldened enough to slink toward the grown cats.

Little Lucy, belly flat on the heart-pine floor, reached out and batted Pewter's fat, fluffy tail.

"Hey." Pewter flicked her tail.

"Its alive!" Lucy shrieked, jumping back.

Desi, rocking back and forth, eyes wide, couldn't believe Pewter's tail.

"It's too short. Now, my tail is the proper length for my body." Mrs. Murphy slyly thrashed her tail a bit.

"My tail is not too short. It's full. I have Russian blue blood. My bones are big."

"Oh, la." Mrs. Murphy rolled her lustrous eyes.

"What's a Russian blue?" Desi squeaked.

"A figment of her ever-active imagination." Mrs. Murphy rolled over, displaying a creamy beige tummy.