Cats in Cahoots (A Klepto Cat Mystery Book 18) (15 page)

“I doubt it. Hey, how would you like to go with us to the park for Rags’s ceremony? I think he’d like it if you were with him on his special day.”

“Yeah! I’d like it, too. I’ll go ask my mom. What time? What shall I wear? Should I come over here or will you pick me up at my house? Will I need money?”

Savannah smiled at Kira’s enthusiasm. “How about if I walk home with you and talk to your mom about it?”

“Okay,” she said, leaping out of her chair. “Can Rags come?” She frowned. “What about Lily?”

“Oh, her grandmother’s with her. She’s fine. Yeah, bring Rags, if you want. Come on. Let’s go see if we can get permission.”

“This has turned out to be a good day,” Kira said as she skipped alongside Savannah. “I’m not so sad about losing my flute now.”

“Oh, it’ll show up, don’t you think?” Savannah said.

“I guess. As my mother says sometimes, ‘anything’s possible.’”

****

“So Kira’s excited about going with us to the event at the park tomorrow?” Michael asked later that afternoon.

“Yes. I’m kind of surprised she wants to go; she’s so shy and tends to keep to herself. Did I tell you she has an imaginary friend?”

“How do you know that?”

“Tiffany told me. She’s not very happy about it and tries to discourage her. She wants Kira to give up the imaginary friend and make real friendships, but Kira insists her friend is real.”

“What do you think?” Michael asked. “Has she opened up to you?”

“No. We haven’t discussed that issue—not yet, anyway.”

Just then, Gladys called from the kitchen. “Ready to eat?”

“Oh good,” Michael said. “I sure am ready for some home-cooking. What did you make for us, Gladys?”

She smiled. “Meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a nice salad from your garden.”

“My favorite,” he said.

Gladys tilted her head. “I thought my stuffed pork chops was your favorite meal, Michael.”

Savannah laughed. “Whatever’s being served is his favorite.”

“Well, isn’t that a nice attitude? Makes you want to cook for him, doesn’t it, Vannie?”

She nodded. “Yes, he knows how to stay in my favor, that’s for sure.” She hugged her mother. “Thank you for taking over tonight, Mom. I’m beat.”

“I know you are, honey. Now, eat something. Maybe you’d like to go to bed early. I’ll get Lilliana ready for bed.”

“Michael might arm-wrestle you for that privilege tonight,” she said, smiling.

He picked up the toddler and gave her an airplane ride into the kitchen. “You got that right,” he said, laughing. “I sure missed my girls.” He placed the baby in her high chair and ran his hand gently over her head, then turned toward his wife. “Hey, I meant to ask, have you noticed anything else missing from around here since you told me about my tools walking away?”

Savannah chuckled. “And walking back.” She shook her head. “No, I haven’t noticed.”

“Well, remind me to go take a look around the shed after dinner.”

“Sure.”

Once the trio had cleaned their plates, Gladys offered, “Berry pie, anyone?”

“Pie?” Michael said, enthusiastically. “Did you make it?”

“No, your wife did,” Gladys admitted. “It was in the freezer.”

“Yeah, I’ll have a small sliver.”

When Gladys looked at Savannah, she said, “Thanks, Mom; I’ll save mine for breakfast.”

“Pie for breakfast?”

Savannah nodded. “People eat fresh fruit, fruit turnovers, and fruit-filled sweet rolls for breakfast. Why not fruit pie?”

“And fruit on our cereal,” Michael added.

Gladys cocked her head and laughed. “Yes, I guess you’re right. Why not pie for breakfast?”

Once Michael had finished his pie, he found a damp cloth and wiped Lily’s hands and face. “I want to take a look around while it’s still light.” He held his hands out to the baby. “Want to go outside with Daddy?”

When Savannah saw Lily eagerly reach out to Michael, she left the room. “I’ll get her jacket.” She smiled at the two of them as they headed out the kitchen door. “They’re quite the pair, aren’t they?” she said to her mother.

“Yes, they remind me of you and your dad when you were that age. You were the apple of his eye.”

Savannah cleared a few dishes off the table and set them on the sink counter for Gladys to rinse. “What happened when Brianna came along, Mom?”

Gladys looked into her daughter’s green eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, did Dad treat her like a princess, too? Did I resent her for taking some of his attention? Or did the new baby become yours and Dad still favored me?”

“Oh Vannie, where do you get this stuff? What kind of a question is that, anyway?”

“Um, well, I’ve been wondering what it’s like for a second child coming into a family when the first child is so…special. We love Lily so much, I can’t imagine there being love left over for another child.”

Gladys turned to Savannah. “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”

Savannah shook her head. “No. Well, I know how you feel about Lily. Can you imagine yourself loving our second child as much?”

“Absolutely,” Gladys said, laughing. She put her hand on her daughter’s chest. “Oh, honey, you have so much love in there…it’s an endless, boundless love that will come tumbling out of you the minute you set eyes on your next child and the next and the next.”

“Whoa. Let’s don’t get carried away. I’m not planning to have a flock of kids, you know.”

Gladys winked. “Just making a point.” She added, “To answer your question about your dad and Brianna, it was love at first sight for him, just as it was with you. She became his precious baby girl and you maintained your throne as his treasured firstborn. Nothing changed for you, and, no, you weren’t resentful, because no one showed favoritism to either one of you.” She put her arm around Savannah’s waist and leaned against her shoulder. “Just remember, Vannie, parents always have enough love to go around.”

Savannah hugged her mother and smiled. “Thanks, Mom. That’s one concern I guess I can cross off my list.”

Gladys pulled back and looked up at her daughter. “You’re such a worrywart. Where do you get that from, anyway?”

Just then, Michael stepped into the kitchen carrying Lily, who was pointing and chirping, “Oof-oof, goggie, ho!”

Savannah laughed. “That’s quite a story you’re telling there, sweet pea.” When she turned to Michael for an interpretation, she noticed he seemed distracted. “Something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” he said, placing Lily on the floor and removing her jacket. “Maybe you can tell me.”

“What do you mean?”

He ran one hand through his straight dark-brown hair. “It looks like someone’s been using some of my tools. Everything seems to be in place, but there are traces of sawdust under the vise.” He squinted in her direction. “Did you give someone permission to use my tools?”

She shook her head, saying, “Oh, Michael, you probably left the dust from your last job.”

“I don’t think so,” he said adamantly. “I haven’t used the vise in months.”

“But you must admit you aren’t very good about cleaning up your sawdust. Remember when we were doing that big renovation and I had to keep cleaning up after you?”

He grinned at her. “You didn’t have to, you just did it—usually before I was even finished making sawdust for the day.” He became more serious. “Hon, someone has been using my vise—I’m sure of it. You said Craig used some of my tools to board up the broken window before you got it fixed.”

She nodded.

“Did he do any sawing in the shed?”

She thought for a moment. “No. He found a piece of wood that fit and just nailed it up there. No one has been doing any wood work while you were gone.”

He held something up to show her. “Then where did this come from?”

“What is it?” Savannah asked, peering at what he held in his hand.

“Looks like sandpaper to me,” Gladys said.

“Yeah, micro-grit. I haven’t used sandpaper this fine in years.”

After standing in silence for a moment, Savannah said quietly, “So you think someone is coming over here and using your tools…in your shed…without us knowing it? Darn, that’s unsettling.” She gazed through the window toward the Cranes’ home. “I just wonder if it’s the kids’ uncle. According to what I’ve heard, he’s pretty much a ne’er-do-well.”

Gladys began to laugh. “Now there’s a term I haven’t heard in a while.”

“Is he interested in building things?” Michael asked.

Savannah shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Michael looked down at Rags, who appeared to be sitting in on their conversation. He petted the cat and scratched him behind one ear. “Has he kept his mitts off neighbors’ things since you grounded him?”

“Yeah,” Savannah said. “He hasn’t been out and about since my cousin and her kids left. After spending time with Aaron, I learned that five-year-olds can sure be forgetful and careless.” She looked at Lily, who was pushing her popping lawnmower toy around the kitchen. “I hope we can teach Lily to close the doors behind her by the time she’s tall enough to reach the doorknob.”

“But Rags didn’t actually run off while they were here, did he?” Gladys asked.

Savannah shook her head. “No, but I was pretty busy monitoring the doors and I had to drag him back inside a few times.”

“Maggie says neighbors are still upset with the cats,” Gladys said. “But it appears they’re blaming them for things they aren’t actually capable of doing.” She quickly steered the toddler away from the dog’s water bowl. “Your aunt must have gotten three or four calls from those neighbors while we were together yesterday.”

Savannah winced, then let out a sigh. “That’s what happens when you develop a reputation. It follows you for a while.” She turned to her husband. “So, Michael, did you lock the shed?”

He nodded, stretched, and yawned. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m beat after that long drive. I’m going to relax for a bit before I get Lily ready for bed.”

Savannah rubbed his arm. “Yeah, me too.”

“Well, I’m going upstairs and see if I can finish the book I started on the plane,” Gladys said. “We’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to do much reading. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“’Night, Mom.”

“Good night, Gladys. Thanks for the great meal,” Michael said, patting his stomach.

Once the couple was sprawled out on the sofa, their toddler playing nearby, Savannah asked, “By the way, how are things at the clinic? Everything go okay while you and Bud were gone?”

Michael nodded. “Rick did a fine job; seems as though everything went smoothly. It got busy this afternoon, though. By the time I got there things had calmed down, but when I started to leave, we got another emergency. I decided to stay and take it.”

“Gosh, no rest for the weary. So what happened?” Savannah asked.

“Well, a kid brought in a cat with an abscess. He seemed so upset, I didn’t want to make him wait.”

“A kid?”

“Yeah, probably sixteen or seventeen—maybe younger; he seemed a little immature. He sure loves his cat. He evidently found her in a cat colony. He says she told him she didn’t want to stay there anymore.”

Savannah chuckled. “A talking cat, huh?”

“Yeah, he said that he understood her desire to leave the colony more than most people might and he took her in. I guess he doesn’t have any money. He asked if I had an indigent fund. Or he said he could trade me something for treating the cat. He makes things. I guess he’s an artist.”

“What kind of things?”

“I didn’t get into that with him. I told him not to worry, that we would take care of his cat.”

“Nice of you.”

“What time’s the thing at the park tomorrow?” he asked as he accepted a block Lily offered him…and another…and another.

“Eleven thirty. I think I’ll sleep until ten.”

“Yeah, that’ll be the day that you sleep in,” he said, leaning over to stack the blocks on the floor. “You don’t even stay in bed when you’re sick.”

“Yes I do,” she said.

“When?” he challenged.

“Well, when I had chicken pox or measles or something, Mom made me stay in bed.”

Michael smirked playfully at his wife just before the toddler ran her push-toy into his block tower and laughed when blocks toppled in every direction.

****

The Ivey household was quiet that night until just before the clock struck two thirty.

“No! No! Stop! Please stop!”

It took Michael a moment to realize it was his wife calling out in the night. He gently shook her. “Savannah, wake up. You’re having a bad dream.”

“Huh?” She opened her eyes and glanced frantically around the room. “Oh Michael, I had a bad dream.”

“I know, hon,” he said, still sounding groggy.

She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around him, holding on tightly for a few moments before resting back against her pillow. “That was frightening.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Well, it was weird.” She squinted into the darkness. “It didn’t actually make much sense. There were all these hands reaching out toward Rags and I was trying to fight them off.”

“The hands?”

“Yes, only hands. Everything was in slow motion.” She paused before saying, “…except the hands. They were, like, frenzied…and they were all trying to grab Rags. Poor cat. He was so scared, but he didn’t seem to be able to move. I don’t know why. And I couldn’t get to him. The harder I tried to reach him, the farther away I got.”

Michael chuckled a little. “So what did he do to make the hands so mad?”

Savannah thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. He was being accused of something. It’s not clear what. I just wanted to grab him and carry him to safety, away from all those evil hands. Michael, they were going to tear him apart. It was like a mob.”

He grinned. “A mob of hands?”

“Well, yeah.” When she realized he was making fun of her, she let out a sigh. “Oh, I guess you just can’t understand someone else’s nightmare.” She reached up and turned on the bedside lamp. “Hi Ragsie,” she cooed when she saw their large grey-and-white cat sprawled out in his bed across the room. “Everything okay, boy?”

“He looks okay to me,” Michael said. “I guess he doesn’t know he was in your dream.”