Molly Fitz - The Cat Caper (Pet Whisperer P.I. Book 5)

He nodded, then rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Okay. Then what?”

“Get her to invite you inside. Excuse yourself to use the bathroom. Then see if you can find him.”

“That’s all a good plan, but…” He sighed and stretched his legs out in front of him, then turned back toward me. “Don’t you think it will be suspicious that we’re doing all this before six a.m.?”

“Yeah, probably,” I admitted. It looked like we’d just fallen into a hurry up and wait trap. I hated those.

Charles seemed unbothered by the inconvenient hour. He smiled over at me and asked, “Don’t you think it would be better if we grabbed some breakfast first and then came back at a more reasonable hour so we can sell our story better?”

“Yeah, probably,” I agreed.

His smile widened, and he pointed at a big, bright sign diner just down the road. “Then, c’mon. Let’s load up on eggs and bacon. My treat.”

I nodded and turned into the parking lot, wishing we would have timed this a little better but happy we were at least making some form of progress.

Charles held open the door for me, which was a small thing but felt monumentally huge. “Ladies first,” he said.

And I blushed.

Me and my stupid crush.

Chapter Eighteen

Breakfast was slow, leisurely, and full of unspoken angst on my part. At around seven thirty, Charles handed the waitress his credit card and asked if I was ready to head over to Anne’s place.

Oh, was I ever.

“Thanks for the hot meal,” I mumbled shyly. “I needed that.”

He looped an arm over my shoulders as we made our way through the mostly empty diner. “No thanks needed between friends.”

Friends, right.

“How do you think Octo-Cat will react once we find him?” I asked, once again trying to pull my head back into the game we were actually playing here.

Charles smiled and widened his eyes. “My money’s on one very grateful kitty. There may even be licks and scritches involved.”

I giggled as he held the door open for me on the way out. “I’ll take that bet, because I’m pretty sure he’s going to demand a proper meal and then chastise us for taking so long to find him.”

“Oh, c’mon,” Charles said, joining me in my laughter. “Of course he’s going to be grateful. Why would he complain after all we’ve been through?”

“First agree to the bet,” I insisted, not making eye contact with him as we crossed through the parking lot. “Twenty bucks?”

“You’re on.” Charles slid behind the steering wheel, and I climbed into the passenger seat. “Now explain yourself, Russo.”

“Let’s just say that I’m the only one who can actually understand him, and well… I might just censor out his catittude when translating for you and Nan.” I just couldn’t stop smiling. I missed Octo-Cat and his grandiose way of doing absolutely everything.

“Wait!” Charles shifted in his seat and faced me head-on. “Has he been saying awful things about me all this time? And here I had no idea.”

I laughed again. It felt so good to laugh. Almost like Octo-Cat was here with us now. “Not lots of bad things. He does call you UpChuck, though.”

“What a bratty cat!” Charles cried. “First, let’s get him home safe and sound, and then I’m going to come up with an equally disgusting nickname for him.”

“You’ve got it,” I said between laughs.

Oh, I couldn’t wait to see how this played out.

We reached Anne’s bungalow about five minutes later. We were early, but some of the neighbor kids were already milling around at what appeared to be the local bus stop.

“I’ll wait here. You go ahead.” I gave Charles a little push, then watched as he marched confidently up to Anne’s front door, briefcase in hand. Despite the five o’clock shadow and noticeable bags under his eyes, he certainly looked the part of a lawyer visiting on official estate business.

Let’s just hope Anne would buy it.

He pressed the doorbell and waited.

When nothing happened, he pressed again.

“Maybe it’s broken,” I texted rather than calling out, just in case Anne remembered me and chose to hide for that reason alone. “Try knocking.”

Charles knocked several times, but nobody came. If Anne was inside, she clearly refused to answer the door.

I scrambled out of the car and joined Charles on the porch. “Open up, Anne Fulton!” I shouted into the hard wood of the door. “We know you’re in there!”

“Um, excuse me,” a woman’s voice called from the next condo over. “Are you looking for Anne?”

Well, it looked like I wasn’t the only one with ace detective skills around here. Charles and I both backed down off the porch and came to join the woman where her yard met up with Anne’s.

“Yes,” he said with a nod in greeting. “We’re from the firm representing her late aunt’s estate and have some very important developments to discuss.”

The woman frowned and shook her head. “I’m so sorry. You just missed her. Well, missed her by a few days actually. She’s on vacation this week. I’ve been collecting her mail and watering her flowerbeds. Can I take a message for you?”

“Thank you, but that’s all right,” I said, forcing a smile. It wasn’t the neighbor’s fault that Anne was nowhere to be found. It was, however, her fault that we couldn’t break in to explore the premises.

“Do you know what day she left?” Charles asked intelligently.

“Tuesday morning, bright and early.”

“Great, thanks. You’ve been a huge help,” he said with another nod to say goodbye.

I followed him back to the car. Neither of us spoke until the neighbor woman gave us one final wave and walked back into her condo.

“The timelines match up perfectly,” he said, his hands shaking with excitement. “Anne left Boston early enough to take Octo-Cat. For all we know, she’s had him this whole time.”

“Do you think she’s hanging out somewhere in Blueberry Bay?”

“Call Nan. She’ll know what to do on her end. We can discuss the rest on our way back home.”

Sure enough, Nan picked up on the first ring, then immediately launched into her plan of attack once I’d caught her up on what had gone down in Boston. “If that wretched woman’s staying anywhere near here, I’ll find her. I have the perfect costume for this role.”

“What role?” I asked.

“Why, of the forgetful but well-intentioned elderly aunt, of course. Nobody ever suspects the little old lady, you know. They’ll hand over her room number in a heartbeat, and when I find her, I’ll—”

“You’ll wait for me and Charles,” I interrupted. “Promise me, you’ll wait for us.”

“Fine. I’ll find her and then I’ll stake things out until the B team can arrive.”

“So we’re the B team now?” I asked with a chuckle.

“We can’t all be the A team, dear. Now get that man to drive fast, so we can bust in on the bad gal and take back what’s ours.”

After hanging up with Nan, I turned to Charles with a giant grin and asked, “How fast are you willing to book it back there?”

He pressed down a bit harder on the accelerator, and we were off.

I felt confident we’d find Octo-Cat before the day was through, but I still had questions. Mainly, if Anne was staying locally, why would she have hired Breanne to hand-deliver her ransom notes? And also, why do all this now when the arbitration for Ethel’s estate was already scheduled for tomorrow?

Charles didn’t have any good answers, either, which meant the best we could hope for was a crazed confession when we caught Anne red-handed later that morning—or afternoon, depending on the traffic we had to fight coming back home.

We were still a couple hours outside of Glendale when Nan called. I put the phone on speaker so Charles could hear, too.