Authors: RM Alexander
Chapter Nineteen
Regellius rested in the vet clinic, machines monitoring the large cat which looked smaller than a hamster lying on the metal table. Five other cats rested in the small room, and, after a morning of testing, Jessica ascertained what was making the cats sick wasn’t natural.
Pesticide.
Intentional.
Cami stood looking down at the cat’s body, fur raising and falling with shallow regularity. She reached out and touched a massive paw, holding it like she imagined she’d do with any relative lying sick in a hospital bed. His mouth hung open, a tube feeding down his throat, eyes closed. The free hand rested against her lips as she glanced at the monitors, only faintly aware of Jessica and Alyssa buzzing from cat to cat.
Alex walked up behind her, wrapped an arm around her waist. “How’s he doing?”
“Have you heard the news?” Her head dropped against his chest.
“About the pesticide in the blood?”
Cami nodded. “Tommy is on his way.” She touched the cat’s tremendous head. “It’s funny, standing over him like he’s a child or something. I’m sure I look ridiculous.”
He kissed her forehead. “You look amazing, like you always do. What can I do for you?”
“Find me the bastard who did this.”
“Any thoughts on who it is?”
Cami heard the words and swallowed hard, fighting the words blaring in her head. Her head moved in small motion, lips clamped tight.
No proof. There’s no proof. Don’t voice the accusations.
“But you have suspicions?”
She turned to him. “You know me too well.”
Alex reached out, fingertips brushing a few strands of hair to trace Cami’s cheek with a feather touch. She lifted her eyes, studying an expression she didn’t understand. She held it for a moment, felt her cheeks flush beneath his lingering fingers curled in a broad arch, turned away. Focus adjusted back to Regellius.
Alex rested his hands on her shoulders, massaging the painful tightness. “He’s going to be okay. All of them will be.”
Cami dropped her head against his chest, the woodsy smell of Alex’s cologne capturing her, letting her go.
Never realized how good he smells
. “I hope so. Beside the cats, this could attract attention. We just opened, and already to have a major issue like this, it could shut us down.” A stray tear escaped, and she wiped it away, hard. No tears. Crying didn’t accomplish anything, and she didn’t have time for waterworks. “Someone wanted us shut down. That’s the only reason to do something like this.” Cami closed her eyes, the pressure of strong hands bearing against exhausted muscles reaching deep within her. She rolled her head, side to side in rhythm with Alex’s hands, then opened her eyes and pulled away.
This was Alex, not some boyfriend, some lover. What was she doing?
“Tommy will be here soon, I better get out front.” She looked up at him, glanced away. Stretched her shoulders, she brushed away the remnants of Alex’s fingers pressing against her shoulders, “Yeah, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Alex turned to catch Cami by the hand, but she brushed away too quickly.
He glanced at Jessica as she moved to Regellius’ side wearing a small smile. “What’d I do wrong now? I’m telling you, lately, I’m not getting it right with Cami no matter how I play it.”
Jessica tucked a pen in the pocket of her lab coat, unwrapped the stethoscope from around her neck. “A little too close for comfort with that massage there, Alex.”
He watched as she listened to Regellius’ breathing, and traded the stethoscope for a needle resting on a nearby tray. “She was tense.”
Poking a needle into the cat, she drew blood and wiped the area with a sterile pad. “And you’re finally making a move. We’re all glad to see it, but don’t think Cami’s going to come around overnight.”
He reached for Reggellius’ forehead, scratched the feline’s head, something he knew he’d never able to do if the cat was awake. “I guess I’m just going to have to keep trying then. How is Reggy?”
A heavy breath and Jessica shrugged. “He’s steady, and that’s the best we can hope for right now. He was given a huge amount of pesticide, and only his sheer size saved him from being like Cato right now.”
“The others?”
Jessica glanced around the room. “All different amounts of poisoning. There’s no rhyme or reason. It looks like random dosages.”
Alex rubbed his chest. “Maybe someone who didn’t know what they were doing?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Or someone in a rush. Either way, we’re lucky so far, that it was only Cato we’ve lost at this point. But Alex, there may be more. You’ll need to be ready for that, because Cami’s not.”
He nodded and turned away.
If more tigers were lost, and especially Reggy, there wasn’t enough preparation to help Cami.
In the driveway, Tommy held a notepad, aviator glasses covering his eyes, royal blue uniform and car completing the scene of a professional call rather than a personal one. Cami stood in front of him, hand clasped over her shoulder, head bowed.
Alex trotted next to her, offered a hand to his friend. “Hey, Tommy.”
He shook Alex’s hand, smile absent. All business. “Hey there, Alex. I was just about to come looking for you. Quite a mess you all have here.”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so, buddy. Thanks for coming out.”
“It’s the job.” He scribbled something onto the notepad, looked up. “I’d be here anyway. Cami tells me it’s pesticide?”
“Looks like. She knows more than I do. I arrived after the fact.”
“Did you notice anything yesterday, Cami, any of your volunteers acting funny, someone strange hanging around beyond the gates? Something you might have brushed aside, but looking back, it seemed unusual?”
She shook her head, “No, nothing Tommy. Honestly. With everything that’s been happening, I’ve been watching. We all have. I don’t risk my animals.”
He nodded, made another note. “I know that, but I have to ask. I want to find out who’s doing this, before something worse happens.”
Cami shook her head, sucked her lips over her teeth. “They got to my cats Tom, killed one, maybe more if Jessica can’t help them. There’s nothing more serious than that.”
Alex and Tommy shared a glance.
“Cami, if something happening to you, or one of the ranch hands –"
She held a hand up, stopping Tommy from going further. “You don’t have to say it. But they’re not after me, or my people. They’re after my cats. I took these cats in to watch out for them. I want you to take this as seriously as if they had attacked any one of us humans.” She rolled her eyes. Alex knew to her, there was little difference. “You are going to get whoever’s doing this, right Tommy?”
“Look Cami, if you have to ask me that, you and I’ve got a problem. I’m here because I care, not just as law enforcement, but as a friend. You got that?”
She nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. I just, I can’t believe someone did this. And if I lose more cats, if the public finds about this, it’s going to become a media circus around her. Everyone who wanted to shut me down is going to shut me down. You know that.”
“Yes, I do. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m going to go there and look around. Are any of the cats in their cages now?”
She raked a hand through her hair. “Just Shakir and Neptune. She didn’t get sick. The rest of them are in the vet building.”
He tucked the notepad in a pocket, took the glasses off and hung them at the top of his shirt. “Alex, can you show me around, make sure I don’t pay a visit to Shakir?”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, come on, man. This way.”
As they drew further away from Cami, Tommy asked, “How’s she doing, really?”
“You know Cami.” He guffawed. “All fire and passion when it comes to the cats. She was shattered when I got here this morning. With Cato dead, and Reggy being so sick. And the rest of them. These cats are everything to her.”
“A dream turned reality. How many times did all of us hear the stories of what she was going to do? To see she’s done it, I won’t let anyone take that from her, Alex.”
“Neither will I, Tommy. You can believe that.”
Tommy smiled, slapped Alex on the shoulder. “I don’t know who has more devotion – Cami to these cats or you to her.”
“The cats are winning, bro. The cats are winning.”
They both chuckled and turned to Cato’s pen.
Chapter Twenty
Cami paced across the living room, unable to settle, or concentrate on the pile of bills strewn across the couch. The office hadn’t given her the focus it usually did, so she’d moved out there hours before, hoping it’d help. It didn’t. Two days had passed since the tigers had been poisoned and Regellius was no better. No worse, but no better. Cassius was awake, and nearly ready to move back into his pen, once he began eating regularly again, Bianca was barely holding on. One win, but that wasn’t enough. She stopped, stared at the telephone, fighting the urge to call Tommy for the hundredth time. He’d been patient, but she knew the constant nagging wasn’t helping.
A low, exasperated scream pitched into the air. “I want answers. Now,” she growled, and a vague relief swept over her. At least she was alone. At least no one was witness to the craziness.
Storming out of the house, Cami got in the truck and headed to the station. One stop light away, she u-turned and headed to her parents instead.
The audacious brick two-story home built ten years earlier was meant to update the home Cami grew up in. She had laughed when her parents built it, and chuckled again as she pulled into the driveway. At more than four thousand square feet, the house doubled the size of the one she’d lived in, and was, by far more ostentatious. Especially for two people without children who seldom used the majority of the space. A showpiece for her father’s money, a museum to her mother’s indulgence in shopping. At twenty-seven years old, Cami still felt like breathing was a crime in the house too spotless to look lived in. Don’t touch this, don’t go in there. Out of bounds areas in the home she become an adult in somehow carried the regulations to this house, and she rarely visited.
Cami walked up the carefully landscaped red brick walkway to a front porch guarded by two enormous painted concreted vases. Staring upwards at the looming bricks and sticks, she sucked in a breath and rang the doorbell.
The housekeeper, Georgette, a stout woman with well-seasoned hair and matching weathered skin, answered the door. “Ms. Lockhart. It’s a pleasure to see you.”
Cami smiled softly at the woman she’d known most of her life. “Hi, Georgette. How are you?”
“I’m doing well. It’s so lovely to see you, we don’t see you often enough around here, you realize.”
She nodded. “No, I’ve been busy.” Stepping around the housekeeper, Cami entered the two-story foyer, feeling very much like a guest instead of a child returning home. This was the wrong place to come. “Mom and Dad home?”
Georgette wiped a side table, more of habit than need, and smiled. “No, neither. Your father is at work, I believe, your mother with her social club. She expected to be back by two, just a few hours from now.” She turned towards the hall that led to the kitchen. “Can I get you something? Cookies and milk? Something heavier?”
Cami smiled. “No, that’s okay. Thank you. Just let them know I stopped by. I better get back to the sanctuary.”
“If you must. I’d love to visit with you sometime. I miss seeing your smiling face.”
“Thank you Georgette. Please stop by sometime, I can give you a tour.” She winced as she turned her back to the woman, wishing to take back the words.
“Maybe I will, Ms. Lockhart. It was nice seeing you again.”
“You too, Georgette.”
Cami stepped out of the house, closing the door gently behind her, looking out over a lawn stretching far in front of her. “Where can I go to blow off some steam?”
One name came to mind, and Cami returned to the truck, pointing it home.
Cami searched the sanctuary for Alex, gave up after traipsing past empty enclosures and silence. So much for encouraging words and a shoulder to cry on. She stood, fingers gripping Regellius’ fence.
Shouldn’t be using Alex like that, anyway. Stiffen up, Cami-girl.
A soft nod and she headed out the stables, ready to take Nugget out.
Cami turned the corner into the brown building, heart skipping to see Alex, one boot against the bottom rung of Tradewind’s stall, stroking the horse’s muzzle.
He turned as her boots scoffed the stable tiled floor. “Cami?”
She hung her head, walking, trotting, then running into his arms. Arms wrapped around Alex’s neck, she sobbed into his chest.
He held her tight, stroking her hair, silent.
Slowly she pulled away, closing her eyes and head turned, wiping away the remnants of pain and desperation. Her shoulder to cry on. Cami looked into his gaze, the sparks disconcerting. Friends don’t feel those, and he was just a friend. Her mouth curved downward, tongue pushed against her cheek. Nothing was making sense.
His hand gently grabbed hold of her wrist. “Cam, you okay?”
A lopsided smirk met him. “No, but I’m sorry. I can’t keep running to you.”
“You can always run to me.” An arm reached for her shoulders and pulled Cami against his chest, hand rubbing up and down her arm. “You’ve visited Jessica? You’ve heard?”
Bricks weighted her shoulders, palms pushing against him, eyes growing wide. “No. What are you talking about?”
“Regellius took a turn for the worse. He’s-"
Shaking her head, she turned, slipped against the barn floor and stumbled to her feet.
And I’m thinking about misplaced sparks. What is wrong with me?
“Cami, wait.”
His voice was drowned by fears as she raced back to the clinic, vaguely aware of Alex running after her. He kept talking, calling, saying words she didn’t hear.
Regellius.
Cami pushed the door open and stepped into the clinic, Jessica lifting her head from the paperwork.
“Regellius?” she breathed.
Jessica stood and walked out from behind the desk. “You talked to Alex.”
He jogged through the glass door, stopped at Cami’s side. “No, she rushed out before I had a chance to tell her anything.”
She nodded and looked back to Cami. “He’s hanging on, but it was close this morning. We almost lost him.”
She sighed, relief and frustration ripping her apart. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. He convulsed, heart rate dropped dramatically. We stabilized him, but I don’t know for how long.”
“Can I go back there?”
“It’s your place, Cami. You can go anywhere you want.”
She nodded and passed the desk, feeling Alex behind her. “You don’t have to come with me.”
“Yes, I do.”
Without a word, she passed the cages for Bianca and Xena, to where Regellius lay, her big beautiful cat unconscious.
Alex drew next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. “Are you okay?”
“I could still lose him, Alex. Tommy is no closer to finding out who did this.” The distance in her voice sent a chill down Cami’s spine. “Maybe I know who did this.”
She spun and marched out of the clinic, leaving Alex behind, jaw gaping open.