Donally, Claire - Cat Nap (A SUNNY & SHADOW MYSTERY)

Letting it chase me around my house! The memory still burned. If the beast had been older, a little bigger, he might have let the claws come out. But doing that to a little one, that was a sure way to get tossed out of the house. So he’d been forced to the top of the chair, like a stray chased up a tree, not by a real Biscuit Eater, but a toy one. And all the two-legs had made happy noises!

He hadn’t seen much to be happy about. Oh, Sunny had come to him after the pup had left, but Shadow had had no intention of being second best. He had avoided her hands.

And then Sunny had just left him! She’d run out and hadn’t even bothered to close the door. When he saw it standing open in front of him, Shadow had taken the hint. He’d left, too.

Not the best planning. If he’d been smart, he’d have eaten something first. It would have been too much to hope that he could bring his pleasant bed or the furry thing that gave him comfort. He’d found shelter under the deck, a place he’d used before. There were still leaves to curl up under, and most of the wind hadn’t been able to get in at him.

So, now . . . from his wandering days, he knew a couple of houses where the two-legs inside left out food for traveling cats. It would be cold, and he’d have to keep an eye out for competition, but he didn’t think he’d starve. He’d need to find a warmer place to sleep. The deck was all right for an emergency, but it wasn’t a long-term proposition.

Besides, it was too close. When he’d wrapped his tail around his paws and settled himself as comfortably as possible, he’d spotted a light dancing in the darkness outside. And he’d heard Sunny calling his name. For a wild moment, he’d considered bursting out of his hiding place and running to her.

Instead, he’d kept silent and lain quietly. He’d had disagreements with humans before, and they’d made up and been happy . . . for a while. Sooner or later, though, Shadow had ended up looking for a new home.

He just couldn’t stand to do that with Sunny, to hope that things would be better and then have them not be better . . . No. He had gotten by without her before, and he could do it again.

A truck came by, sending a thin spray of slush that Shadow dodged.

He just wished it had happened in spring, not in the middle of winter.

*

Sunny went into work, but luckily, winter Mondays were pretty light, because not much MAX business got accomplished that morning. She ran through the incoming e-mails with half an eye and made a few notes for later. Then she used the office resources for her own project.

Before she left the house, Sunny had transferred several photos of Shadow from her laptop to a flash drive. Now she moved the pictures to her work computer and started composing a poster. LOST CAT, the headline read in nearly two-inch-tall type. Then she inserted Shadow’s picture, one where the stripes showed through on his gray fur. Then, GRAY TIGER-STRIPED CAT. ANSWERS TO THE NAME SHADOW. IF YOU FIND HIM OR HAVE ANY INFORMATION, CALL 207-555-4841.

And after considerable thought, she centered a final word at the bottom of the page: REWARD.

How much that would be, she couldn’t be sure. It would depend on whatever information she got, what condition the cat turned up in.

God, she thought, I hope he turns up all right.

She’d raided some of the boxes from her old apartment. The one holding stationery had the remains of a ream of fluorescent orange paper that she’d used for party invitations. If nothing else, it would catch people’s eye. Sunny printed out the finished poster, proofread it one last time, and then ran off copies on the office copier until she’d exhausted her paper supply.

The pile of posters went on one corner of her desk with her stapler on top. She’d start putting them up around town during lunch hour. Now it was time to tap into the Kittery Harbor Gossip Hotline. Sunny had already asked her dad to spread the word, although she hadn’t mentioned the idea of a reward to him. Mike might find that just a bit too much.

Sunny managed to time her call to Helena Martinson just right. Her neighbor was home and awake, but hadn’t gotten the news about Shadow yet.

What Sunny hadn’t planned on was how upset Mrs. M. became when she heard. “He ran away? I know he got a little annoyed when Toby tried to play with him, but I didn’t think he’d run off.”

“We’re not sure what happened,” Sunny said. “Things were pretty confused.”

“You and Mike came out to help when I fell down.” Helena’s voice only got more distressed. “And you left the door open. Is that when he got out?”

Maybe this was a bad idea, Sunny thought as she tried to calm her neighbor down. “We really don’t know,” she said. “Speaking of that fall, how are you doing?”

“I’m a little stiff,” Helena replied. “But that won’t affect my dialing finger! I’ll get the news out.” She paused for a second. “Are you putting up posters?”

“Just made a bunch of them,” Sunny said.

“Don’t waste time trying to put them all up yourself,” Mrs. Martinson advised. “Have your dad pick up some—he can post them around the neighborhood. I’ll take a few as well, to get them up in some other areas.”

If she wants to turn into Cat-Finding Central, okay. Sunny’s hard-bitten reporter alter ego sounded a little rueful today. It’s better than having her blame herself.

When Sunny estimated her father had finished with his three miles of hiking off in outlet-land, she called him at home. “I’ve got some posters to put up,” she told him. “And Mrs. Martinson asks that you bring her some.”

“Always glad to see Helena,” he said. “I just hope that puppy of hers doesn’t try to chew on them.” He promised to be in shortly. Sunny set aside half of her pile for him.

Even as she waited, Mrs. Martinson’s telephone tree began to bear fruit. First came a call from Ken Howell. “I hear your cat has gone missing,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s front-page news,” Sunny told him.

“No, but I think we could run a notice in the community bulletin board on the back page,” Ken replied. “Do you have a picture?”

“Yes, but—”

“It’s not an ad,” Ken told her. “It’s just professional courtesy.”

“It’s darned nice,” Sunny corrected. “I’ll e-mail you a picture right away.”

“Got an office cat, you know,” Ken said. “In an old building like this, you sort of need one.”

Sunny blinked in surprise. “Really? I’ve never seen him.”

“He hides whenever people come in,” Ken explained. “And there are a lot of places around here for a cat to vanish himself.”

“That’s true,” Sunny had to admit.

“I call him Harvey, because people think he’s my imaginary friend.” Ken paused for a second. “I’d sure hate it, though, if he started hiding from me.”

No sooner did Sunny hang up the phone than Zack Judson appeared at her door. “I heard about Shadow,” he said. “You know, before he went to live with you, he’d stop by the store sometimes.”

Sunny sat straight in her chair with surprise. “Really?”

Zack nodded. “If he turns up, I’ll try to keep him there—and at least let you know.” He looked down at her pile of posters. “And I’ll put one of these up in our front window. If you can spare a few, I’ll give ’em to my delivery guys to post farther out of town, get those Piney Brook people looking for him, too.”

Sunny peeled off a sheaf of posters for him. “I really appreciate—”

Zack shrugged off her thanks. “Your dad and I go way back. Happy to help.”

He left, and Sunny sank back in her seat. Maybe I’m not as much of an outsider as I imagined, she thought.