Софи Райан: The Whole Cat Аnd Caboodle

I didn’t talk much about my former late-night syndicated radio show. When the radio station had changed hands I’d been replaced by a music feed from California and a nineteen-year-old with a tan and ombré hair who gave the temperature every hour. Or, as my brother Liam derisively called it, Malibu Ken and a computer.

There was an awkward silence, and then Michelle fished in her pocket and held out a business card. “If you think of anything else, please call me.”

“I will,” I said, taking the little card stock rectangle without even looking at it. I glanced toward the truck. “What about Charlotte and Maddie?”

“They can go, as well,” she said. She turned toward the back of the house.

“It was good to see you, Michelle,” I said.

She stopped and looked back at me over her shoulder. “Yeah, it was good to see you, too.”

I stuffed my hands in my pockets and walked across the front lawn to my truck. Nick was standing by the curb, talking to his mother. Maddie was in the cab of the truck, talking to Elvis and stroking his ebony fur. Her color was better. Elvis was giving her his full attention and, knowing the cat, probably making little murps of acknowledgment from time to time. I figured that whomever the cat used to belong to had talked to him a lot. Somewhere Elvis had learned the art of listening, cocking his head to one side, focusing his green eyes on the speaker’s face and making encouraging sounds to keep the conversation going.

Nick and Charlotte both turned as I approached them. “We can go,” I said. I gave Nick an inquiring look. “Is Maddie okay?”

He nodded. “I think so, but keep an eye on her.”

“We will,” I said. I looked at Charlotte. “Would you like to go to your house?”

“Please,” she said.

“I’ll take them,” I said to Nick. “I’m guessing you have work to do.”

He nodded. “Thanks.” He put one arm around his mother’s shoulders and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Call me if you need anything. Otherwise I’ll be in later.”

Charlotte laid a hand against his cheek and gave him a small smile. “I’m just fine,” she said.

Nick smiled back at her. “I never doubted it,” he said. He straightened up and turned the smile on me. “You have my number now. If they need anything—or if you do—call me. Please.”

“I will,” I said. I sensed another awkward moment coming on.

“I’m so glad I finally got to see you,” he said. “Even if it had to be like this.”

“Me too,” I said.

He was gone, cutting across the lawn with long steps, before we got to the awkward part. I watched him pull a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, thinking that he was a very good-looking man. I gave a little shake of my head. And that was a very inappropriate thing to be thinking with Nick’s mother standing beside me, not to mention Arthur Fenety’s dead body still in the backyard.

I put one arm around Charlotte’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell me Nick was working for the medical examiner?” I asked, keeping my voice light.

She pursed her lips and sighed. Then she looked at me. “Because I was hoping he wouldn’t take the job.”

I could tell from the expression on her face that she was serious. “Why?” I said.

Her gaze slid off my face. She looked across the yard. Nick was just disappearing around the side of Maddie’s house. I waited in silence until Charlotte looked at me again. She answered my question with a question. “What did Nick say to you?” she asked.

“Just that he was working for the medical examiner’s office and he turned down the job teaching the EMT course.”

Charlotte nodded. “We had . . . words.” Her mouth moved but she didn’t say anything else.

“You wanted him to take it.”

“Do you know how many close calls he’s had in all the years he’s been an EMT?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“I’m proud of him for wanting to help people. I just thought maybe he could do it in a classroom for a change.” The color rose in her cheeks. “And I thought maybe being in a classroom might inspire him to think about medical school again. It doesn’t make me a very nice person, does it?” she said.

I gave her shoulder another squeeze. “Don’t talk like that,” I said. “You’re one of the nicest people I know.”

“I know Nicolas is a grown man, more than capable of taking care of himself.”

“But he’s still your baby,” I finished.

She nodded again. “And I don’t think this is going to be easy. Nick has some strong opinions. Not everyone is happy he got this job. And while I think everyone has a right to express their opinion, if your opinion is critical in any way of my child, well, let’s just say we’re going to have a little problem.”

“Nick is a lovely, lovely man,” I said, deadpan, to lighten the mood.

Charlotte smiled at me then. “He is,” she said, “and, you know, he’s not seeing anybody.”

“Don’t start,” I said, with a mock glare. “You sound like Gram.”

“That’s because she wants great-grandchildren before she’s too old to enjoy them.”

I shook my head. “She told me she wanted them before she was too dead to enjoy them.”

“Yes, well, that too,” Charlotte said. Her expression grew serious. “We should get Maddie away from all of this.” She gestured with one hand.

“Michelle said we could all leave,” I said. “I’ll run you over to the house.”

“If it’s not too much trouble. Maddie and I could walk.”

“It isn’t,” I said. “Let’s go.”

I walked around the front of the truck. Through the windshield I could see Elvis sitting on Maddie’s lap while she stroked his black fur. It looked like she was talking to him as well. She seemed more like herself.

I climbed into the driver’s side of the cab and Maddie turned to me. “We can’t stay, can we?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’m sorry. We can’t,” I said.

Charlotte had gotten in on the other side. “You can stay with me,” she said.

Maddie took a deep breath as though she were going to say something, argue maybe. Then she let it out and all she said was, “Thank you.”

I drove around the loop and out to Charlotte’s little yellow house at the bottom end of the court. Elvis stayed on Maddie’s lap and when she climbed out of the truck she carried him with her. I’d been planning on leaving Elvis in the truck, but Maddie seemed to be finding some comfort in the cat and I didn’t think Charlotte would mind.

As soon as we stepped through the door Charlotte headed for the kitchen and Maddie and I—and Elvis—trailed behind her. “Sit,” Charlotte said. She washed her hands at the sink and filled the kettle, setting it on the stove with one hand and lifting down a canister that I knew held tea bags with the other.

“Charlotte, you sit,” I said.

“I’m just going to make the tea,” she said over her shoulder. Like my grandmother, Charlotte thought tea fixed everything from a broken bracelet clasp to a broken heart.

“I’m capable of making a cup of tea,” I said, pulling off my jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. Charlotte gave me a skeptical look. “I am,” I insisted. “Gram may not have been able to teach me to cook but I can make a decent cup of tea, so sit.”

“Don’t fuss over me, Charlotte,” Maddie said. She’d taken a seat at the table. Elvis was on her lap, head cocked to one side as he took in all the scents of Charlotte’s kitchen.

Charlotte opened her mouth to say something, and there was a knock at the front door.

“It’s only me,” a voice called. Liz appeared in the doorway. “I heard what happened,” she said. She leaned sideways to look in Maddie’s direction and held out a small white bakery box to me. “I cooked,” she said, her blue eyes flicking momentarily in my direction. “Are you all right?” she asked Maddie.