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

“They weren’t at all prepared when I brought up the connection between Martin and Christine Venables, and I think the political side of it really knocked them for a loop. They’ll have to do a bit of homework before they even start thinking of questioning Jane again. Thanks, Sunny.”

Mike opened his window and leaned out. “I guess I should say congratulations,” he said. “You don’t usually see people coming out of a police station looking so jolly. What had you laughing like that?”

“Hi, Mr. Coolidge.” Jane took a moment to introduce Tobe. “It’s nothing, really. I was just so sure when they took me in here that I wouldn’t be coming out. And then, as we were walking away, I began to tremble. I guess Tobe must have realized it. He took my arm and mentioned something silly from school.” A giggle escaped her at the memory. “It’s something I probably hadn’t thought about in twenty years. Next thing I know, I’m laughing, and so is he.”

“I guess that’s a good thing to get your spirits up,” Sunny said. “But did you realize that Detective Trumbull was on the other side of that glass door watching you?”

Hearing that sobered Jane up pretty quickly. She shot a glance at the door, but the space was empty now.

“Maybe that wasn’t such a good thing,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t want him to think we were laughing at him.”

Tobe got a bit more serious, too. “Well, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back inside and try to tell him,” He sent a considering gaze over Sunny and her dad. “I’m pretty impressed that you two showed up so quickly. Did Rita call you also?”

“Oh, Kittery Harbor has the fastest gossip service on the whole East Coast,” Sunny assured him, without giving her source. “That’s lucky. Also it’s lucky that we happened to be nearby. If we’d been a little longer hearing about Jane, you’d have gotten her out before we even arrived here.”

Jane, in the meantime, had finally taken in the way they were dressed. “You were at the memorial.”

“Briefly,” Sunny said. “Dad thought that making an appearance was the right thing to do. We were just on the way out when we got the call.”

“What memorial?” Tobe asked.

Jane explained about allowing Dawn to run a service for Martin.

“You didn’t do her any favor with that,” Sunny told her. “Martin’s snooty clients, or associates—I don’t know if you’d really call them friends—were treating her like one of the servants.”

“I didn’t twist her arm,” Jane said. “She wanted to do it.”

“Looks to me as if she was regretting that.” Sunny gave Jane a sidewise look. “Especially when Christine Venables showed up. A little bit of tension in the air.”

“Really?” Tobe spoke up. “Christine Venables is at this memorial?”

Jane shot him a look. “Before you ask, I don’t want to go there, even if I am on this side of the river.”

Tobe shook his head. “The thought never crossed my mind. I think you should go home.”

“We could give you a lift,” Mike offered.

At the same time, Tobe said, “I’ve got my car here.”

Jane had the grace to look embarrassed. “I don’t want to put you out.”

“It’s no problem, really.” Tobe smiled.

“And I suppose you guys have legal things to discuss,” Sunny added, thinking, Sheesh, it’s like high school all over again. All the guys want to go with Jane.

Tobe led Jane off to his Lexus, and Sunny got back behind the wheel of her Jeep. “Okay, Dad,” she said, pulling on her seat belt. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Are you going to call Will and let him know how things turned out?” Mike asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “When we get home. I don’t like the idea of yakking on the phone while I’m trying to drive.”

Tobe and Jane pulled out of the parking lot ahead of them, and Sunny didn’t see the dark blue Lexus on her way home. The drive was uneventful. They arrived in time for Mike to catch his nine o’clock shows. Both of them changed out of their good clothes. Sunny pulled on a set of old sweats and went up the stairs to her room and the phone.

When she got Will, he already knew what had happened at the station. “So Phillips did a good job of getting Jane out, but Trumbull is furious. Apparently, they were laughing their heads off at him as they left.”

Who is he tapped into, Sunny wondered, the Mrs. Martinson of the police force?

“That’s not quite true,” she told Will. “Jane was wound pretty tightly after being hauled down to the station and questioned again. Tobe tried to loosen her up by reminding her of something silly that happened back in school. She sort of overreacted, and so did he.”

“And so has Trumbull,” Will said grimly. “He’s riding everybody to eliminate this Venables woman as a suspect so he can go back to concentrating on Jane.”

“Okay, not the best result, but that means he’ll be concentrating on somebody besides Jane—at least for a little while.”

“How was Jane?” Will’s voice got a little awkward as he asked.

“After she stopped laughing, she seemed like her usual self,” Sunny reported. “She declined to go to Martin’s memorial service, even though she wasn’t all that far away. And then she turned down my dad’s offer of a lift to go home in Tobe’s Lexus.”

“Did she?” Will was a good cop who didn’t give much away. But Sunny was willing to bet right now that he was wondering if he’d created a monster.

*

Shadow slammed intothe window, bouncing off painfully and falling to the floor below. He tried to shake the pain out of his shoulder and grimly trotted to a new angle, running, leaping, slamming into the glass, and rebounding again. The problem was there was no place level with the window, no place that allowed him any chance at a running start.

He sighed and sprang to the windowsill. Even if he could run straight at the glass, he wasn’t sure he could break it. Certainly, it had held up against his best efforts so far.

Shadow leaned down to lick at his shoulder. But that wouldn’t make the dull ache go away. He tried to distract himself by taking in the view. Outside, a big, snow-covered lawn stretched to a line of trees far away. Shadow pressed a paw against the glass, feeling the chill from outside work its way into the pads of his foot. It must be freezing out there for that much cold to come through the window.

But being out there would still be better than staying trapped in this place, he thought.

The rattle of a key outside the door stirred him to action. He dropped to the floor and scurried to the cavelike bed against the wall.

Shadow hunkered down in the semidarkness, trusting in the color of his fur for concealment. He lay quietly as the One Who Reeks came in, quickly closing the door behind her with a heel. Again, she carried food and water in her hands. She peered around, trying to find him.

It would have been easy to leap out of hiding and frighten her. But it would be useless. As long as the door to the room remained closed, Shadow knew he had no escape.

The One Who Reeks came closer, filling the bowls against the wall. Tensed in the darkness of his artificial cave, Shadow held his breath as waves of scent poured off her. He wanted to make a noise of protest, but that would involve inhaling. He didn’t want a lungful of that stink.

Having arranged the food and water, the human retreated to the chair. Even though he’d slashed at it with his claws, it was still sturdy enough to sit on.

The One Who Reeks sat quietly, glancing in various directions. But Shadow saw that sooner or later, her eyes would flick over to the opening to this bed.