Misty Hollow Cat Detective (Darcy Sweet Mystery) (A Smudge the Cat Mystery Book 1) (11 page)

"Stop that," I say to her, with no real desire for her to stop anything.

"What's the matter?" she says teasingly.  "Can't do two things at once?"

"Try me."

I kind of surprise myself with my boldness.  It wasn't all that long ago that Twist wouldn't give me the time of day around town.  It took a while for her to warm up to me.  Saving her owner from a scam that would have stolen his house out from under the two of them really helped, and the rest was all effort and hard work.  Just like with any relationship.

Kind of like Darcy trying to cook a meal for Jon Tinker when she usually just orders take out.

Okay, fine, I get the point.  Twist gave me a chance, so I should give Jon a chance.  Whatever.

My point is, now that Twist has warmed up to me, I enjoy having that heat in my life.

She rubs her face along mine one last time—the cat equivalent of a kiss—and then steps back from me.  Just a little.  I have the greatest urge to bite her neck and roll around like kittens, but now isn't the time.  Probably.  Maybe?  I guess I wouldn't know until I tried, right?

Just as that thought is gaining momentum I hear
Twistypaws gasp.  "What?" I say, a guilty twitch running down my spine.  "I wasn't…"

"
Shh," she hisses.  "Look!"

I do, and what I see is a dark shadow slinking around the back of the house. 
A man.  A large man, with hands the size of, well, me.  I can't see anything else about him other than how big the bottom of his feet are.

Did I mention this guy is big?

"He's going around back!" Twist nearly shouts, forgetting that we were supposed to be hiding.  "Is he going to break in?  Steal Heidi?"  The way she asks that makes it clear that even she hadn't really believed Jocko.  Not until now.

I suppose the guy could be a pizza delivery man or one of those people who go around staring at those electronic boxes on the outside of a house.  I mean, anything is possible, right?  But I really doubt this guy is delivering pizza. 

"Okay, here's the plan," I start to tell Twistypaws.

She doesn't wait to hear it.  Off across the street she runs, heading straight for Heidi's house.

Just one of the reasons I love her, I guess.

I bolt after her just as quick as I can, but she still disap
pears around the back before I get to her, trailing after the hulking shadow we had seen moving between the garage and the house.  Concern for her makes me pour on more speed and as I come around the corner I nearly ram head first into her back legs.  I dig my feet in and tumble sideways, sailing past her in an uncontrolled slide in the grass.

She narrows her eyes at me in amusement.  "Cats are supposed to be stealthy."

"I thought you were going after this guy on your own," I pant, getting my feet back under me.

"Are you crazy?  I'm not stupid."  She jumps past me with a little flick of her tail that's sassy and flirtatious all at once.

It takes me a second or two to realize I'm staring.  "Um, right.  Hey, wait, where's the guy?"

"He went inside already."

As if on cue, we heard screaming from inside.  A little girl.  Heidi.  Then, the raised voice of her mother calling her name.  Something falling to the floor and shattering. 

And then the big guy
comes flying out of the back door and jumps over the steps landing hard on the ground not five feet from me and Twist.  I got a better look at him this time, in the instant before he ran for the fence line.  Dark clothes.  Dark, deeply tanned skin.  Shaggy black hair sticking out from the bottom of a black knit cap.  The guy was dressed like the cover of Cat Burglar Weekly.

Pun intended.

Then, just as quickly, he was throwing his feet up and over the picket fence and landing in the neighbor's yard, and he was gone.

A woman stepped just outside the back door,
raised fist waving.  "Don't you dare come back here!  I'll call the police if you do!"

She wore
a violet covered top and beige khakis.  Her long brown hair hung in ringlets past her shoulders, and her facial features left no doubt that this was Heidi's mother.

I studied the anger and fear on her face.  Her lip quivered.  Her eyes were wet with tears.  It was obvious how scared she was.  It was just as obvious that she knew the guy who had just slipped into her house to try and steal Heidi away from her.  If I could speak human, I'd just ask her to tell me who it was.  Unfortunately, every time I talk to people all they hear is "meow" or "
mrowl" or some such thing.

I wish people would just learn to speak cat.  It would make everything so much easier.

Now I'd have to do it the hard way.

***

Jocko didn't have any idea who the guy was.  In that hyper-nervous and incredibly annoying way of his he explained that he'd never seen him before.  When I asked him for a description, all I got was "Big!  Didn't you see him!  He was
so so so so big you had to see him!"  Which, as descriptions go, wasn't very helpful.

Heidi didn't know who it was either, according to Jocko.  He told us that Heidi had cried after the man was gone, stroking Jocko's fur and asking him to tell her why this was happening to her.  Jocko actually stopped talking when he said that, squeezing back into his little plastic igloo until all I could see was his butt. 
Again.

When I heard him sobbing, I motioned to
Twist that it was time to go.

To find someone who doesn't want to be found, you need to know where they will be.  Once you know that place, you sit there and wait. 
For as long as it takes.

We knew that the guy coming after Heidi was going to come back to her house.  Neither of us believed he would just give up now that Heidi's mother had scared him off.  He'd be back.  We'd be waiting.

I just didn't know we'd be waiting this long.

After sitting all the next day and all night with Twist, watching Jocko's house, I fell asleep.  Hey.  I'm only feline.  I get tired.  I woke up Sunday morning with my head pillowed on Twist's side.  She was
laying down with me, warm and tender and purring gently.  I may have pretended to be asleep long after I was really awake so I could stay just like that.

"Comfortable?" she asked me at one point, obviously knowing I was awake.

"Very," was my sleepy reply.  "I could get used to this."

"Down, big boy.
  We're dating.  That's all.  I don't let any cat share my pet bed until I'm ready."

I have to respect a cat who knows what she wants.  Reluctantly, I sit up, yawning widely, my tongue curling and my muscles stretching.  "Did you see anything last night?"

"Not a thing," comes the disappointed answer.  "Heidi and her mother stayed inside all night.  Nobody came close.  How long should we keep watching?"

"As long as it takes.
  Um.  Why don't you go home for a while?  I'm sure Benton is missing you."

Benton
LaCroix, Twist's owner, is a nice old man who dotes on her something fierce.  He must be beside himself wondering where she is.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right.  You'll come and get me if anything else happens?"

I rub my face along hers.  "Of course.  I promise."

She purred into my ear until it twitched and then she ran off, laughing.

A long, slow breath helped clear my head and allowed me to focus back on the house across the street.  What was going on in there?  What could possibly drive someone to steal a little girl and all of her stuff?  Who would want to do that?

This is people stuff.  I can't always understand people.  I can sense what they're feeling, sometimes.  More so with good people like Darcy.  Not always with strangers.  But I felt something from the big, dark and scary man when he ran out of Jocko's house. 
Anger.  A lot of anger.

I need help from someone who understands people.  I need help from Darcy.

***

Darcy's at home again when I get back there, on the phone with Jon again.  I really don't have time for this.  It's bad enough that I left Heidi's home unguarded.  If I can't get Darcy to pay attention to me then my little jaunt home has been pointless.

I wait, twitching my tail impatiently while they talk about ordering pizza.  That reminds me.  When did I eat last?  It's been a while.  My stomach growls and I ignore it.  Still I wait, listening to Darcy talk all cute to Jon.  Finally I can't take it anymore.

Jumping up on Darcy's shoulders, gently balancing myself on her, I lean down close to her phone.  "Jon, go away," I say.  "I need Darcy for something important."

Of course, people don't speak cat.  So what Jon heard was "meow
meow, merrow."  Or something like that.

“Aw,”
I hear Jon say through the receiver. “Smudge loves me, too?”

Oh, for the love of catnip.  That is so not what I said.

Darcy looks over at me and I take the hint.  Jumping back down to the floor of the kitchen, I wait while she ends the phone call.  “Uh, sure he does. What’s not to love?  Look, I'd better go.  I think Smudge needs some food.  Hm?  Oh.  I love you too, Jon.”

After she puts the phone back, she turns to me, one hand on her hip,
a stern look on her face.  “Well," she says to me, "you’ll just have to get used to him, Smudge.  This one is here to stay.”

She actually sounds annoyed with me.  Have I been that hard on her about Jon?  I guess I have. 
Sort of.  A little.  It doesn't feel good, knowing that I've upset her.  As much as it hurts to admit, I know she needs more than me in her life.  Just like I need Twist in mine.

Fine.
  I'll learn to compromise.  Just not right now.  Right now, I need Darcy's full attention.

Mewling, asking her to follow me by dancing closer to her and then away again, over and over until she catches on, I lead her outside and down the road.  "What is it, Smudge?" Darcy asks as she keeps up with me through town.  People say hello to her and she waves or says a quick greeting as we keep going. 

Darcy understands me really well.  How many owners would trust their cats enough to follow them across town to one particular house where I need her to ask just the right question?

When we get back to Jocko's I lead Darcy up the stairs and scratch at the door.  She knocks without any hesitation.  That's my girl.

The door is opened by Heidi's mother.  She looks at Darcy, obviously surprised to see her here.  Before she could say anything, though, Darcy asks the right question.

"Hello.  I'm Darcy Sweet.  What kind of trouble are you in?"

***

I curled into Darcy's lap at the small, square kitchen table.  Heidi's mom, Eva, had told Heidi to stay in her room while she chatted with Darcy.  If it seemed odd to have someone show up on her doorstep with a cat and ask about her life, she didn't say so.

"I don't know how you knew about this," she said to Darcy.  "And I don't think you can help.  I know who you are, Darcy, and I know you're dating that
police detective.  It doesn't matter.  No one can stop him.  Not you, and not the police.  Just, please let it go."

Now we were getting somewhere.  I rub my head into Darcy's hand.  I don't know what I'd do without her.

"Look, Eva," Darcy says, "Jon is investigating…something else right now, but he'd definitely take the time to help you.  That's the kind of man he is.  You need to tell us what's going on, though.  You said this man broke into your house, and stole some things.  Why?  Who is he?"

I sit up, listening closely.

Nervously, Eva pulled at her fingers where they rested on the tabletop.  "This really isn't your problem.  Why are you here?"

Darcy smiled at her.  "I'm here because neighbors help each other.  That's how we do things in Misty Hollow.  Please, let me help you.  Who is this man?"

Eva closed her eyes tightly for a moment before answering.  She looked pale.  "It's my husband.  He's trying to take my daughter away."

***

Okay.  I have to admit that I didn't see that coming.

Only a few hours after Darcy convinced a shaky Eva to accept her help, she and Jon were watching Heidi and Eva's house from a car parked nearby.  I was doing my own surveillance.  None of us were sure Eva's husband would try again tonight, of course, but I figure the guy is desperate.  Desperate enough to steal a little girl from her own house.  He won't be able to wait forever.  Or even two days, for that matter.

Eva had explained how Zane, her estranged husband, had left her right after Heidi had been born.  He'd been gone ever since.  Eight years.  Heidi had never known her father.  There were no pictures of him in the house, and there hadn't been any contact from him at all until Eva had filed for child support two months ago.  After that, angry phone calls had turned into him showing up in the middle of the night and demanding visitation with a daughter he didn’t even know.

And then things got worse.