Calamity @ the Carwash (Parson's Cove Mysteries) (16 page)

“How do you propose I do that, Calvin?”
I yelled back.

“I don’t care how you do it. I don’t
want that cat on my bus.”

Suddenly the busload of seniors came to
life. Everyone started shouting at once. If I hadn’t stood up and told them to
shut up and sit down, I think Calvin might have been injured. Not that it would
bother me too much but throwing things like books at someone who’s driving a
fast moving vehicle isn’t too wise.

“Don’t worry,” I told them. “We won’t
throw Sammy off the moving bus.” I turned to Calvin. “And, Calvin, you don’t
have to worry because I’ll look after the cat while we’re at the mall.”

He didn’t say anything after that and
the rest of the drive was quiet. Sammy moved over to Miss MJ’s lap and sat
there until we arrived.

After unloading us and grumbling about
how long it was taking Calvin took off, screeching the school bus wheels. I
never even knew you could do that. He was obviously in a rush to go somewhere.

MJ was watching the bus too. “See,
Mabel,” she said. “That man is up to something.”

“I don’t understand why he’s the one
taking you to the city anyway. Whatever happened to Bill Williams? Why’d he
quit?”

Miss MJ shrugged. “I don’t know but I
sure wish he’d come back. Maybe it was getting too hard for him, driving the
school kids and then us too. I’m sure we’re harder to handle.”

“I’m going to talk to Flori again and
see if she can’t get Jake to do something. She was going to but probably
forgot.”

“We’d be eternally grateful.” She’d been
holding Sammy while I helped Flori getting people off the bus and now she
handed him back. Sammy looked at me with a very smug look on his face. Well,
we’d see how smug that look would be when I bought a collar and leash for him.

To my surprise, my cat took to a collar
and leash like Reg to cinnamon buns. Of course, he was getting the attention of
every shopper. It was a good thing that he was so well behaved because the
security guard came around twice to check us out. The second time, Sammy was
sitting in the cart as if he owned it. We did discover, however, that the
restaurant wouldn’t let us in so we bought some food at the food court and
found a bench. MJ stayed with me this time. I don’t think it was my company but
Sammy’s that drew her.

This time again, Calvin was late. Ten
minutes. Once again, we had to coax him to help. He mumbled and grumbled but
finally agreed to put some packages in the compartments on the outside of the
bus.

“Look,” MJ whispered in my ear. “See how
he’s walking?”

Sure as anything, the bus driver walked
as if he had blisters on the bottom of his feet.

“When we get back to the Home, I’ll ask
him what’s wrong with his feet.” I told her.

She nodded and grinned. “Best not to get
him upset before we get home.”

Sammy sat on my lap and since he was
being so good, I removed the collar and leash. Before I could stop him, he was
down on the floor and up by the driver’s seat. Fortunately, Calvin didn’t
notice. Flori was calling my name from a seat close to the back of the bus.

“Mabel,” she said. She started waving
her hands and arms and pointing towards Calvin. Then, she whispered very
loudly, “Get that cat out of there.”

“I know.” It was easier said than done.
I called Sammy but not too loudly because I didn’t want Calvin to hear me and I
didn’t want him to see the cat. If I snuck up to the front and startled the
driver, who knew where we would end up? We’d turned onto the freeway now and
there were four lanes of traffic travelling from fifty to eighty miles an hour.

Sammy was so preoccupied with Calvin’s
shoe that there was no way I could get his attention. If Calvin looked down he
couldn’t miss seeing a white cat sitting there sniffing his boot. Twice Calvin
lifted his foot off the gas and stepped on the brake. I held my breath as Sammy
followed his foot from the gas pedal to the brake. Fortunately, traffic was
heavy and Calvin didn’t dare take his eyes off the road. Perhaps, if he didn’t
notice Sammy, he wouldn’t notice me grabbing Sammy. Perhaps.

The bus became very quiet as everyone
watched me lower myself to the floor and crawl on hands and knees to the front
of the bus. I crouched down behind the driver’s seat and waited. Sammy took his
nose off the shoe for a moment to look at me. I have no idea what he was
thinking but he quickly went back to sniffing Calvin’s size twelve shoes. What,
on earth could Calvin have stepped in that made my cat so attracted to the
bottom of his boot? Calvin, I noticed, was watching the traffic coming up on
the left. There were several semi trailers trying to get by. It was now or
never. I reached out, grabbed Sammy, and scrambled backwards to my seat. The
busload of seniors burst into cheers and clapping. Calvin looked back and gave
all of us a dirty look. By this time, I was safely back in my seat, trying to
hang onto my cat. He definitely wanted to get back to smelling the driver’s
clunky brown work boots.

The only way I could keep that fanatical
cat from jumping off my lap was to put the leash back on. I held him tight all
the way back to Parson’s Cove. As soon as the bus rolled to a stop in front of
Parson’s Cove Restful Retirement Retreat, I loosened my grip on Sammy’s leash.
He bolted off my lap and ran up to Calvin’s shoes, sniffing and pawing.

“Get that dang cat away from me,” Calvin
yelled as he kicked at the cat with his steel-toed boots.

Never kick an animal in front of anyone
over seventy.

“What’s the matter with you?” one old
woman screamed as she hit Calvin over the head with her purse. “How would you
like it if I kicked you?”

With that, a chorus of protests went up
and Calvin actually looked at me for help.

“You should be ashamed,” I said and
grabbed Sammy. “What have you got on your shoes anyway that drives my cat
crazy?”

“Nothing. You can look. I don’t have
anything on my shoes. You’ve got one crazy cat, that’s all and you make sure he
never comes on this bus again or I’m going to report you, Mabel.”

“Don’t worry, I will never be coming on
this bus again and if I have anything to do with it, you won’t either, Calvin
Koots. You are the last person who should be put in charge of elderly people. I
hope someday when you’re old and decrepit that you get treated just like you
treated these people.”

“You tell him, Mabel,” Sam Dudley said
when he walked by, making sure to give me a little pat where he shouldn’t have.
Thankfully, Flori was right behind him and gave him a good slap on his arm.

I let Sammy down and he went right for
Calvin’s feet again. Before Calvin could kick, I yanked on the leash and pulled
a very uncooperative cat out of the bus. Calvin shut the door and away went the
little yellow school bus down the road.

As soon as Mr. Kinney walked out the
door, the returning travelers surrounded him. Everyone was talking at once and
everyone talked about Mr. Koots kicking the cat. The bewildered manager
couldn’t make any sense of it until someone pointed to me – me and my cat.

Flori (because she insisted on
accompanying me) and I spent the next ten minutes in the manager’s office
trying to explain what happened. Sammy sat on my lap and gave himself a sponge
bath with his tongue and paws. When he got a little too carried away, I pulled
his leg down and held it. Flori did most of the talking and by the time we
left, she’d convinced him that Calvin should not drive the bus anymore. When
Mr. Kinney opened the door, four people almost fell into the room. A couple of
them were too deaf to hear anything but when the other two started to cheer,
they clapped their hands.

Koot’s days were kaput.

In a manner of speaking, so were mine. I
told Flori my decision as we walked home. I waited for the tears and pleading
but none came.

“Mabel,” she said. “Even when Calvin is
gone, I don’t think I could do another trip with you anyway.”

“With me?”

She nodded. “You are a terrible shopper
and it seems that when you’re around, there’s always some kind of trouble. You have
a way of getting all those old people in an uproar. My nerves can’t take it
anymore. No, they’ll have to find someone to replace you.”

“Replace me?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry, sweetie. You
know I love you to pieces but there are some things you shouldn’t do and one is
go to the city with elderly people.”

As I said, my days were also kaput and I
was very happy about that.

Chapter
Twenty Four

Thursday morning was hot again. There
was no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. My window air conditioner at my shop
droned on, nonstop. I pulled down the blinds in my front windows and trusted
that everyone would realize I was open and trying to stay as cool as I could.
Even in the heat, however, I still brewed some coffee and kept a supply of
muffins in my little fridge in the back room. Not that I did it for Captain
Maxymowich exactly but in case he did happen to drop by, I would be prepared.

Flori came over about ten and we had
coffee in front of the a/c unit. She left early because she says that she
sweats like a pig when it’s so hot. I have no idea about pigs’ sweat but I took
her word for it so didn’t argue. Ten minutes after she left, Reg arrived.

“Boy, it’s a hot one today, Mabel. How
about a cup of coffee?” He took off his cap. There was a rim of sweat all around
it.

“You wear a cap on such a hot day?”

“It keeps the sun out of my eyes.”

“And you want a cup of coffee?”

“Not if you’ve got a nice cold beer in
your fridge.”

“Well, sorry about that. You sure you
want coffee on such a hot day?”

“Not unless you have cold beer in your
fridge.”

“All right, I get the picture. Sit down
in front of the air conditioner and I’ll pour you a cup of coffee. I’ll grab
you a muffin too if you like.”

Reg was sitting in the wicker chair, his
eyes closed with his face to the wind. He didn’t even hear me. I fixed his
coffee and buttered some muffins for him. He looked grateful when I handed it
to him. Since there’s no point in talking while he’s eating, I waited
patiently. Mutt, my neighbor from the hardware store next door, popped in and
grabbed a coffee.

“You’re drinking coffee on a hot day
like this too?” I said.

He glanced over at Reg who didn’t even
notice Mutt. On the other hand, perhaps he didn’t want to speak with his mouth
full.

“Just an excuse to come in, Mabel. Have
you heard anything more about Prunella? I hear she’s really into drugs and
booze now. You always think it’s the kids who are foolish.” He took a swallow.
“Just goes to show that older ones can get hooked on them too.”

“Mutt, we don’t know if she was hooked
on drugs. Someone could’ve put something in her drink, you know. Don’t jump to
conclusions.”

“You say someone slipped something into
her drink? Oh man, that’s awful. Do you think the same person who killed
Bernie, tried to murder Prunella?”

“I don’t know. If it is, then there’s
only one killer out there.”

His eyes widened. “You’re right. If it’s
someone different, that means there are two killers at large. I don’t know
about you but I make sure my house is locked up at night. The wife and I were
thinking of investing in a guard dog too. Course, one dog was already killed so
don’t know if it’s worth it.” He glanced over at the sheriff who was now on his
third muffin. “Doesn’t seem Reg is getting too stressed-out about it, does it?”

I lowered my voice, although I was sure
Reg couldn’t hear over the noise anyway, “Don’t worry, Mutt, I’m sure Captain
Maxymowich is on top of everything.”

He nodded. “I suppose. Actually, there’s
quite a few of us who wish Sheriff Smee could find the killer. Be nice just to
show that Parson’s Cove has a real police force too. Know what I mean, Mabel?”

It was my turn to nod. “Well, don’t give
up on us. Reg and I are checking a few things out, too.”

He drained his cup and handed it to me.
“Atta girl, Mabel. We were hoping you could help out.” He patted my arm and
left the building.

Before I could wash out Mutt’s cup, Reg
handed me his for a refill. I was going to have to start setting a few rules
about coffee mugs. My only problem with making the men wash their cups is that
I have to wash them over again most of the time anyway. I’ve noticed too that
they don’t have much respect for tea towels. After they finish with the washing
and drying, I usually find the towel all bunched up in a ball and stuck on some
shelf.

I handed Reg his fresh coffee and was
about to say something about not being anyone’s slave when I glanced down and
saw his brown leather sandals.

“Reg,” I said. “Are you supposed to be
wearing sandals? Aren’t police officers required to wear boots? I’ve never seen
you in sandals before. What if you had to run after a crook?”

“If I had to run after a crook, I’d hope
to be wearing sneakers.” He reluctantly pulled himself off the chair. “I’d also
hope to be ten years younger and twenty pounds lighter.”