The Cats that Stalked a Ghost (2 page)

Cokey’s face dropped in shock, then he quickly recovered.  “I had no idea.” 

Katherine noticed the change in expression and tried to steer the conversation somewhere else.  “So how are the bookcases coming along?”  Cokey was building bookcases for Jake’s large book collection. 

“Here, I’ll show you,” Cokey said, motioning her back to his work area.  Katherine followed him.

“I’m using premium, quarter-sawn oak,” he said, picking up one of the boards.  I have one more bookcase to build, and then Margie and I are going to stain them.”

“That will be perfect.  Jake’s using this part of the basement as his office.”

“Oh, I should let ya know, we’ll be using an oil-based stain, so you might smell it upstairs for a few days.”

Katherine eyes widened.  “Seriously, Cokey?  I don’t want the house to smell to beat the band during my wedding.”

“I’ll have the windows open down here.  Plus I’ll run a fan.  Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Okay, thanks,” Katherine said, turning to leave.  “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

Chapter Two

Katherine breathed a sigh of relief that her busy weekend was over.  Last-minute wedding plans were getting on her nerves. 

She walked out the basement exterior door and marveled how blue the sky was, with not a cloud in sight.  The trees hadn’t turned yet, but the air was getting colder. 
Perfect weather for a short bike ride around Erie
, she thought. Heading to the carriage house, she unlocked the padlock and slid the door open.  Inside, she lifted her Huffy cruiser bike off the wall-rack and wheeled it to the driveway. 

Stevie Sanders, son of Erie’s crime boss, drove up in a shiny black Dodge Ram and parked.  The logo “Stevie’s Electrical” was painted on his driver-side door.  He’d put the same logo on a front vanity plate.  He got out and walked over.  With a seductive glint in his eyes and a handsome smile, he said, “Long time, no see, good lookin’. I’ve been meanin’ to stop by and say howdy, but most of my work has been out in the boonies.”

“Hi, Stevie,” Katherine said, surprised to see him.  “I seem to remember the last time I saw you, you helped me plant daylilies.”

“Did they make it?” he snickered.

“Yes, but they didn’t flower.”

“They will next year.  Hey, I’ve got a job next door at Mrs. Harper’s.  Is it okay if I park here?  I’m rewiring her basement for a new furnace.”

“Yes, of course. Nice seeing you,” she said, getting on her bike.

“Wait, can I have a word,” Stevie said, striking a match and lighting a cigarette.  He threw the match on the drive, then picked it up.  “Sorry, didn’t mean to be a litterbug.”

“Okay,” Katherine said, getting off her bike.  “What is it you want to talk to me about?”

“I’m truly sorry about the events last July at Leonard’s place.  I’ve been meanin’ to tell ya, and you probably heard this from my sister, Barbie, but we
were
tryin’ to help you, but we didn’t know you were stayin’ at the cabin.  Cousin Jimmy was armed, and because of the storm and stuff, it was too dangerous.”

“I know.  I understand,” Katherine smiled. 

Stevie said with a flirty tone, “I can’t think of anyone else I’d like savin’ — ”

Katherine cut him off.  “It’s been nice to see you, Stevie, but I’ve got a meeting to go to, and I need to drop off some letters at the post office.”

“Ma’am, you take care now.”  He tipped his ball cap and walked back to his truck.

***

Several hours later, Katherine returned and walked her bike into the carriage house.  She was happy Stevie’s truck wasn’t in the parking area.  His flirtatious manner made her uncomfortable. 

She extracted her cellphone from her jeans back pocket and sent Jake a text.  “Where are you?”  Jake was a half hour late.  He was teaching at the university and his last class was at one p.m.  Her cell rang and she hurried to accept it.  “Hi, Jake,” she said.

“Hey, Sweet Pea.  I’m about a mile from Erie.  Have you had lunch?”

“No, not yet.  I just got back from my meeting with Dr. Goodwin.”

“Who?”

“The new director of the Erie Animal Rescue Center — ”

How’d it go?” Jake interrupted.

“Great.  Dr. Goodwin has excellent credentials and is very personable.”

“How personable?  She or he?”

“He,” Katherine giggled.  “No worries, my love.  He wasn’t blessed in the looks department, but he’s an excellent veterinarian.”

“You mean he can eat apples through a picket fence?”

She laughed.  “Where do you come up with these things?”

“I’m a natural-born Hoosier.”

“Speaking of apples — food — the meeting ran a bit late and I had to bicycle back, so to make a long story short, I’m starving.”

“I’ll pick up some fried chicken at the deli.  Mashed potatoes and coleslaw sound okay?”

“Yes, my mouth is watering.  Could you do me a favor?”

“I’m always at your beck and call,” he said playfully.

“I like that,” she answered affectionately.  “When you get here, can you park behind the mansion?  I thought it would be fun to eat at the picnic table.  I know it’s a bit nippy today, but soon it will be too cold to be outside at all.”

“Sounds good to me.  I’ve been cooped up in a classroom all morning, and I’m a little stir crazy.  Being outside sounds like a mighty fine idea.”

“Great!  See you in a minute.”

“Sure thing,” he said, disconnecting the call.

Katherine walked to a bank of storage cabinets that lined the south interior wall of the carriage house, and pulled out place mats.  She headed to the picnic table and set them down.  The wind picked up one and blew it across the yard.  “Dang it,” she said, chasing after it.  It landed on the ground outside the classroom.  Overhead, on the all-season sun porch, she felt eyes staring at her.  She looked up to see seven curious cats looking down.  Dewey, a seal-point kitten, began climbing the screen.

“Stop that!” Katherine scolded. 

Crowie, the other seal-point kitten, did the same.

“Get down,” Katherine said in her I-mean-business voice. 

“Mao,” Dewey cried with surprising volume.  The kitten had the voice of a baritone.  He unhooked his claws and fell to the windowsill.  Crowie did the same.  Iris jumped up between the two and began washing Dewey’s ears.  Miss Siam had finally found a buddy. 

Katherine returned to the picnic table and set the place mat down.  She grabbed the second one and held both of them down with her elbow while she waited for Jake.

After fifteen minutes, Jake drove up in the Jeep.  He parked and climbed out.  Walking over to the passenger side, he took out a large bag. 

Katherine put her hand over her mouth to cover a laugh.  Jake was wearing his John Dillinger’s outfit.  He taught a history course on Prohibition, and whenever he got to the part about organized crime, he dressed up like the famous 1930s Indiana gangster.  “Teaching about the bad boys today?”

Jake winked.

“Did anyone at the deli notice your attire?”

“If they did, they didn’t say anything.”  He leaned down and kissed Katherine on the top of her head.

“Actually, I never told you this before,” she began, “but I think you look more like Johnny Depp in the movie than Dillinger.”

“Yep, I’ve been told that.  But I think you got it backwards.  Johnny Depp looks like me,” he said with a mischievous look in his eyes.

He tried to set the carry-out bag on the table, but a gust of wind prevented him from letting go of the handle.  “Wow,” he said, clutching it.  “It’s gotten really breezy out.  Want to go inside?”

“I have a cool idea.  Let’s eat in the carriage house.  We’ve never done that before, and I wanted to talk to you about something without the cats overhearing.”

“What?” he asked curiously.  “You think your cats understand us when we talk?”

“Um, yes, my cats do.  See them,” she said, pointing up at the sun porch.  “They’re listening right now.”

“Ma-waugh,” Scout agreed. 

“Hi, kids,” Jake called up to them.

Katherine got up and grabbed two nearby plastic lawn chairs.  Jake moved over, “Here, you take the sack and I’ll carry the chairs.”

“Okay, but it’s a bag, not a sack.”

“Maybe in New York, but not here.”  He took the chairs inside the carriage house and positioned them near an overturned empty crate. “We can use this as a table. What about forks and knives?”

“Got that covered, too,” she said, returning to the storage cabinet and removing a picnic basket.  “Within this basket is everything you’d ever need in a picnic emergency.”  She pulled out plastic forks and knives, and set them on the crate.

“Emergency picnic basket,” he chuckled.  “That works.” From the carry-out bag, he lifted two Styrofoam food containers.  He handed one to Katherine, as well as a stack of napkins.

Katherine immediately got the joke.  She was notorious for spilling things on her clothes.  “Very funny,” she commented.

Jake opened his container and dove in.

Biting into the chicken, Katherine said, with her mouth full, “The cats have been busy surfing up scary things on the computer.”

Jake laughed.  “This ought to be interesting.  Like what?”

“The hotel I booked in Chicago is on multiple floors, starting on the seventh.  Their website was down, so the cats heard me making the reservation on the phone.  Less than a half hour later, guess what was up on my computer screen?”

“Let me guess.  Knowing your cats, something about hotel fires.”

“Sort of.  How about the old movie trailer for
The Towering Inferno
?”

“I take it you cancelled the reservation,” Jake said, amused, but in awe of the extraordinariness of Katherine’s cats.

“So, I searched on the Internet for a place we could stay, which wouldn’t involve a super-long drive,” she said in-between bites of coleslaw.  “Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is about eight hours from Erie.  I was just about to book a mountain-view cabin that is so awesome, it even has a Jacuzzi.”

“I’ve been to Pigeon Forge when I was a teenager.  There’s an amusement park nearby that’s really fun.  Lots of down home cookin’ and music.  We’ll have to check that out.”

Katherine shook her head.  “Ah, not thinkin’ so.  The cats heard me talking about it to Margie, and guess what?  A few hours later, I walk into my office and there on the screen was a gruesome photo of a mother bear protecting her cubs.”

“Gruesome meaning a human was getting mauled?”

“Yes, afraid so.”

“They’re definitely bears in that neck of the woods, so let’s nix that one, too.  Besides, I don’t relish driving eight hours there and back.  That would really cut into our together time.  Any other suggestions, or do we spend our honeymoon at the mansion with the cats, because I think that’s what they want us to do.”

“I’ll try and locate a hotel near Chicago that’s only a few stories high.  Or should we stick with our original plan and stay near the Navy Pier?”

Jake shook his head.  “No, if the cats surfed up those pages, we ought to heed their warning.”

“Agreed.”

“Listen, let me call a colleague of mine who teaches at the University of Chicago.  Maybe he can suggest a hotel with lower floors?”

“And fire escapes,” Katherine added, tearing off another piece of chicken. 

Changing the subject, Jake asked, “Did you make the appointment with Dr. Sonny to neuter the kittens?”

“I didn’t call from inside the mansion.  I came out here and called him.  Lord knows what would happen if the cats overheard
that
conversation, especially Iris.  She’s bonded so much to Dewey, I can imagine there will be a bit of separation anxiety.”

“I’m so glad they hit it off.  It’s funny that Scout and Abra are littermates and best friends, but Dewey and Crowie aren’t.”

“That’s okay, because Lilac and Abby have adopted Crowie.  The climbing cat club has to stick together,” Katherine laughed, remembering how at first the kittens thought Jake was a tree.  Then she added, “Dr. Sonny is keeping Dewey and Crowie for several days, so we don’t have to worry about them while we’re gone.  Plus, it will be two fewer cats for our pet sitter to take care of.”

“I just saw Elsa at the deli.  She was chatting up the Erie reporter guy, what’s his name?”

“Russell Krow.  He’s our wedding photographer, silly goose, and you can’t remember his name?”

“I do now, ‘silly goose’ right back at ya.  Elsa is good at cat wrangling, but she’s barkin’ up the wrong tree with Russell.  Folks at the diner said he’s Erie’s new Casanova.”

Katherine made a face.  “Yes, and everything the diner folks say is true.”

Jake teased, “Just like the Internet.”

Chapter Three

Sitting on an Eastlake side chair, Katherine sat in the atrium, studying the guest list for the wedding reception.  A few minutes earlier, Jake’s mom, Cora Cokenberger, had hand-delivered the list.  She didn’t stay long because she was allergic to cats.  The kittens — Dewie and Crowie — didn’t get that memo, and kept jumping on her lap, while Iris tried to steal things from her Vera Bradley bag.  Between sneezes, Cora raved that most of the invitees had RSVP’d, and were delighted to attend.

The previous month, Katherine had given her future mother-in-law free rein to host the reception, as long as she had nothing to do with planning the wedding itself.  However, she did convince Cora to invite guests the couple knew, and not everyone in the State of Indiana.  Katherine could count on two hands the number of people she was acquainted with in town, but Cora seemed to know every single man, woman, and child in Erie and the surrounding counties. 

The reception was being held in the armory that had been built in 1931 with WPA funds.  It was the site of the famous cake auction where Lilac — flying Siamese — leveled the cake table, including Cora’s famous volcano cake.  Back in December, the committee for the annual charity event had sent Katherine a snippy letter stating both Lilac and she were banned from attending another function.  Katherine wondered how much Cora paid the committee under the table to allow Jake and her to have their reception there. 
Probably plenty
, she surmised, e
ither in money or cakes
.  If it were left to the happy couple, they’d prefer a less-conspicuous setting with fewer people, but Katherine wanted to please her future mother-in-law, so she acquiesced.