Meow Mayhem

by Lickel, Lisa;

  “You have a place to stay tonight, Adam?” Hanley eyed his business partner.

  “I’ll check back into the Prairie Center.”

  Neither of them looked at me. I was exhausted, as if I had been fighting the fire myself.

  Smoke hung heavy everywhere.

  “Why don’t you stay with my wife and me?” Hanley offered. “Our son’s gone for the weekend, a camp outing, so you can use his room. In the morning, we’ll figure out what to do.”

  Cal Stewart dashed up.

  Just in time to save the day, I thought sourly.

  “Hey! What’s going on?” Stewart asked.

  Apparently, the quality of the conversation, like the smoky air, was not about to improve any time soon.

  “Thompson’s coming home with me tonight,” Hanley told him. “Why don’t you stop in for a while, too?”

  “Uh…sure.” Stewart said, his attitude eerily similar to Hanley. They were plotting something.

  I could tell.

  “Can I drop you off at home, Ivy?” Hanley asked.

  Adam stared at me, as if willing me to do something. But what?

  “No thanks. I walked here. I’ll just walk back. Clear my head. Good exercise.” Adam nodded ever so faintly, so I had guessed the right answer. Goody for me.

  “Can you take Isis for me?” he asked. “She knows you and you have food and supplies.”

  “Sure. Fine.”

  Adam came close, transferring the uncooperative feline from inside of his vest to me.

  She settled under my chin, dug her claws in enough to make me wince and growled low, just to make sure we understood she was upset.

  “Don’t believe everything you see,” Adam whispered while he kissed me on the cheek, his touch lingering in my hair.

  “Good night, Ivy,” Hanley said, leading Adam and Stewart toward his SUV. Stewart waved, while Adam walked sideways so he could keep an eye on me a little longer.

  As soon as the three of them drove off, I puttered toward home. A second later I realized Adam was not the only person with an eye on me.

  “Psst!” A raspy voice coughed once, twice.

  What was that?

  “Psst! Ivy! Over here!”

  I looked around furtively to see who else might notice if I tiptoed toward a dark alley. Wait a minute! Was I nuts? I stopped moving and peered into the dark as best as I could. What was that? Another cat? Bob’s tenant, I think I heard they call him Toad, must have had a pet cat, too. I squinted. I could barely make out the shadow of a hunched figure against a brick wall. In the light a cat with patchy spots posed. Like Memnet. Or…

  “Ivy!” Hoarse-sounding voice. Sneeze.

  Tut.

  And his keeper’s cousin?

  17

  “God bless you, Mr. Grimm. Ronald.” I moved closer, leaning to my left to observe the crouching figure in the alley. “Is that you? And Tut?”

  “Shh!” The man hissed, finger to his lips. “Just—Just c’mere, will ya?”

  I advanced another step, careful not to get too close. After all, Adam had just told me—

  “Toad? Are you Toad? Here, Tut. Come here, boy.” As if a cat would obey me. It must be the smoke.

  “Tell the others, I stopped it, won’t you?” The raspy voice captured my attention again. “I saw what they were doing, and I chased ’em out. Sorry about the damage, but it could have been worse, see?” Another sneeze.

  “Chased who? Ronald, if that’s Tut….” I clutched Isis until she frantically wiggled and got her paw loose. I managed to avoid her swipe at my cheek, but then I lost sight of—Ronald? Had that really been him? Or Toad? I saw no cat now, either. A wave of smoke blew across the alley. The scene was surreal.

  Isis let out one of those ripping yowls that about gives a person instant gray hair and bit my hand.

  “Isis! Calm down,” I tried to soothe her.

  She’d had enough excitement for the night and wriggled until she dropped through my arms. She shook herself, swiveled her head for one recalcitrant hiss at me, then trotted in the direction of my house.

  “All right! Just a minute, I’m coming! But for a cat who doesn’t get out much—wait!” I turned toward the alley once more, just hoping. Don’t believe what you see. But who was that man in the alley? He’d had Tut with him, hadn’t he? Unable to decide between making sure Isis was safe or following a stranger in a dark alley, I opted for Isis’s owner, who’d already lost enough.

  “Isis, wait!” I caught up to her. She allowed me to pick her up and carry her the final five blocks.

  When we arrived home, I saw a puffy envelope on the rubber mat by my screen door. “Ivy” was typed on a white generic label. I probably should have been nervous about it, but right now Isis and I were tired. If someone wanted to hurt me, he or she had ample opportunity during my walk home.

  I unlocked the door and went into the house.

  Isis hit the floor running, claws clattering on the linoleum as she bounded toward what I assumed was the scent of fresh Memnet in the living room. The yowl and a corresponding hiss confirmed my suspicion. I waited for a couple of seconds. I heard some low-throated growling. If they got rough, I could separate them.

  I turned to examine the package. I tried to pull on the tab but found it stuck fast. I got out my kitchen shears to cut it open, hoping to avoid damaging the contents. I shook the items onto the table. A shiny gold-wrapped package of Featherlight Confections chocolates—the same kind that were left for me earlier. They were the ones Adam offered on his sales counter as samples, so that’s why I assumed he had sent them. What followed the package of chocolates stole my breath. My missing coin purse.

  Rather, my stolen coin purse. I wondered if I should touch it. There might be fingerprints. The purse was made out of a couple of small squares of woven cloth sewn together with a zipper. The thought of calling the police yet again made me shudder, but I needed to.

  Larken answered the phone at the station.

  I told him about the package on my doorstep.

  He sounded tired. “Miss Preston, are there any other items in the package? Any strange odors or powders or liquids of any kind?”

  “No, nothing like that. I didn’t open the wrapped box, so I don’t know for sure what’s inside. I did touch it, though. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s all right. I’ll round up someone to stop over to pick it up and get your statement. Quite an evening, doncha think?”

  “You’re not kidding,” I replied and hung up. I knew better this time than to mention my strange encounter with the guy in the alley.

  “Yow!” Memnet raced into the kitchen, barely halting in time to avoid a head-on collision with the back door.

  Isis prowled behind sedately. She swung her head from side to side while her hind quarters swaggered. If she’d been my daughter I would have had to come up with a suitable punishment to wipe that smirk off her face.

  “OK, guys and girls. That’ll do.” I opened the basement door for Mem, who made a beeline and pattered down the steps. I closed it to protect him from further annoyance from Isis. “You can stay up here tonight, Isis,” I told her. I’d have to get another litter box set up, but I could live with that. “I hope you eat the same kind of stuff Memnet does,” I told her.

  She offered me her version of a purr.

  About fifteen minutes passed before Officer Dow knocked on my door.

  “Nice to see you again,” I said, hoping it didn’t seem like I enjoyed having on-duty cops visit my house all the time.

  She jotted down my very brief comments regarding the latest offering from the anonymous chocolate giver.

  I had eaten the contents of the other box and thrown the wrappings away, so there was nothing left from the earlier gift. I hadn’t gotten sick.

  “I need to take this box as evidence. Someone will be in touch, Miss Preston. Good night.” She went out the door, carting my coin purse and the pretty box of candy.

  I chained and bolted the door, then check
ed the locks on the front. If Adam was not gifting me with chocolate, then who was? And why? What about the little matter of seeing Ronald Grimm? I had not mentioned that to the officer, as it didn’t seem real, and that certainly wasn’t pertinent to her reason for coming. Was it? Adam told me not to believe what I saw. But what had he meant? I wandered restlessly, pacing the rooms of my house, checking under beds, in closets, behind the shower curtain.

  Isis came to check on me every once in a while.

  I’m sure she wondered what kind of a nuthouse she’d landed in. After an hour, I had exhausted myself enough to sleep.

  ~*~

  I awoke the next morning to the buzz of my phone. Sunlight streamed in ribbons across my bed. Smoky-colored ears twitched in the valley of the rumpled quilts down toward my knee, I noted, as I reached for the receiver. “’Lo?”

  “Ivy! You’d better come downtown to city hall as soon as you can.”

  “Good morning to you, too, Adam. What’s all this about? And are you OK?”

  “Sorry. Good morning. Um, I guess I’m OK. Just come quickly, all right?”

  “Got it. Give me—oh, fifteen minutes.” I hung up.

  A disembodied tail rose from another valley in the covers. This one was silver. What? Memnet heaved himself up and high-stepped toward my head.

  I pulled myself into a sitting position, so I could see Isis lolling on her side, whiskers flickering in the sunlight. I scrubbed at Mem’s ears. “How did you get up here? And why aren’t you guys trying to kill each other?”

  Mem chortled in my ear and licked my hand.

  “Well, I wish I could stay and chat, but I gotta scoot, my friends.” After a quick shower, I fed the cats and checked my board before grabbing toast and juice. “Be good,” I admonished the kids before I carefully locked the door behind me. I barely made it in my promised time limit.

  Something big was happening. I had to park three blocks away on Lombardy, down past Tiny’s.

  People were standing outside of city hall where a loudspeaker cranked out some kind of speech. From this distance, the words were jumbled.

  I had slept late, and it was after 9:00. I counted three media vans set up for business. Someone alerted them far enough in advance for them to get here.

  Mrs. Lichtner stood vigil on the sidewalk, hunched over her cane, the ever-present rain bonnet tied over her head.

  “Mrs. Lichtner, what’s happening?”

  She waved a knobby hand. “I heard someone say there’s to be an announcement from the mayor’s office, so I came to see. I was at the drugstore, you know, to pick up my pills.”

  “Thank you. How are you today?”

  She only got to the second of her woes before the loudspeaker blatted again. “Good morning. Thank you all for being here. This is a press conference called by the office of the mayor, Apple Grove, Illinois.” Letty Grimm’s voice.

  Oh, boy.

  Mrs. Lichtner and I shared worried glances. I supposed Adam to be inside the building, but I still searched the crowd, picking out people I recognized. A trench-coated man, whom I guessed to be a reporter, wandered, stopping to ask questions and make notes.

  “Citizens of Apple Grove, Mrs. Bader-Conklin,” Letty announced.

  A harshly curt voice followed. “Good morning. First of all, thank you for your prayers and support these past weeks. It’s been a trying time for all of us.”

  I stared at the loudspeaker tied in a horse chestnut tree outside the front door, as if I could see Margaret’s face in it.

  A few uniformed officers worked the crowd, eyes alert, hands on radios.

  “I’m sorry to have caused so many problems with my unexplained absence. The truth is, my husband’s health had deteriorated. I did not want to worry anyone, not my family, nor you good people, with our troubles. After his terrible and tragic death, I took time to get away and formulate plans of my own.” The unpleasant tinny wired voice of Margaret Bader-Conklin went on. “I was the deputy mayor, as you all are aware, and will now carry out my new duties as your…regular mayor. The first order of business is that we must find my poor late husband’s precious kitty, whom I’m certain did not mean to kill him. Letty will organize a search party immediately. That is all for now.”

  A squeal made us cover our ears. After the click, I wandered over to the west corner of city hall and the big municipal parking lot. Donald had been perfectly healthy, mentally and physically, the last time I saw him. And now she was blaming Tut? Even though the autopsy report confirmed death by cat scratch fever, we’d have to test Tut to see if he was the carrier. I couldn’t shake the sensation that Margaret wanted Tut for other reasons. After all, she had called him “precious.” I didn’t believe a word Margaret said. Shakespeare said it best: this was much ado about nothing.

  Adam appeared, coming from the direction of the front of the building. “Ivy! There you are.” He caressed my shoulders “How’s Isis?”

  I ignored his question. “What did you mean last night when you said ‘don’t believe everything you see’?” I demanded.

  He grimaced and looked at our shoes.

  “What’s going on here? I saw Ronald Grimm last night behind your store. With Tut. He said—”

  “Shh!” Adam held out a hand to someone behind me. “Doctor Bailey, hello. Quite a ruckus. What do you think about all of this craziness?”

  I didn’t turn around. I folded my arms. “Addy is Margaret’s best friend,” I heard my voice say in an acid tone I hardly recognized. “I’m sure the doctor is pleased.”

  “Actually, I’m not,” Addy said. “I came here to tell you that I want to help. My confession may hurt me and my daughter in the long run, but it’s the right thing to do.”

  Adam’s wide-eyed expression would have made me laugh in any other circumstances.

  “Help what?” he asked the doctor.

  “You didn’t tell Mr. Thompson my story?” Addy asked me.

  “Your story is none of my business,” I told her stiffly. “You didn’t give me permission to share. Besides, I don’t know how much to believe. You seem to have waffled there toward the end. I don’t have any proof of what you said, and frankly, now I don’t care.” I turned around to stare at her defiantly.

  “I—I’ll tell you all about it,” Addy said. “But maybe now’s not the best time.”

  Marion, with Bob’s arm around her, walked up to us, followed closely by an animated Jeff Hanley and his sidekick Cal Stewart.

  Rupert Murphy, the hopefully temporarily deposed acting mayor, stormed out of the front doors of city hall trailed by several council members. From my vantage point at the side of the narrow building, I saw Murphy’s jacket flying around him, making him look like some overgrown buzzard. His mouth gaped, but from this distance I couldn’t hear what he said. He drew the crowd in our direction.

  “What’s your next move, Mr. Murphy?” A reporter from a high-profile local television program hustled in Murphy’s wake, microphone held out.

  “She’ll never get away with this. NAM is on my side. We’ll just see!” He slammed his car door and rumbled off, slowly threading through packets of lingerers.

  18

  Hanley invited us to the conference room at State’s Bank. He acted keyed up and kept strutting back and forth at the head of the table. If he’d flapped his arms, I expected feathers to fly out from under his tweed jacket. “The first order of business,” he finally said, when we all were seated, “is to protect those funds. Marion, can we move the money into a sheltered account where Margaret, acting as the mayor, can’t touch it?”

  “Excuse me!” I piped up. “I strongly advise that we include Officer Ripple in this discussion!”

  Everyone stared at me. Everyone, that is, except Adam.

  “What are you talking about, Ivy?” Addy asked.

  “Aren’t you in the least bit concerned about what happened to Donald’s murderer? For all we know, he could still be lurking, waiting to kill again. Except…” I trailed off and clammed up.


  “Murdered? Donald was...but I heard the cat got him,” Cal Stewart said. “He wasn’t well.”

  “He was fine, Cal, and everyone knew it,” I growled back.

  Hanley frowned and folded his arms. “The case is open, and the police are working hard to uncover the truth. But we have to move quickly on the money for the best interests of Apple Grove.”

  “Except what, Ivy?” Addy Bailey was the only one in my corner at this point.

  I was not sure I wanted to trust her. I hated feeling so insecure. Adam still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I talked to Ronald Grimm in the alley,” I said. “Donald’s cousin. After the fire at Mea Cuppa was out last night. He knows something, I’m sure of it. He had Tut with him.”

  Adam’s shoulders slumped. His whisper from last night echoed: “Don’t believe everything you see.” I still couldn’t understand what he meant. Why wasn’t he saying anything?

  “Sorry I’m late!” Yolanda rushed in, shutting the door behind her. Hanley must have invited her to join the party at some earlier point. A buzz out in the lobby indicated that business had picked up at the bank after the commotion of the press conference. “What’s happening?”

  “Ivy says she talked to Ronald Grimm last night,” Marion said.

  “He had Tut with him,” I added. Yolanda would understand that we thought Tut was a key witness to murder.

  “Donald’s cat? The one Margaret was wailing about?” Hanley asked.

  “Toad Rumble, my upstairs renter, has a brindle cat. They look a lot alike, Ivy,” Bob said. “Some folks confused Toad’s animal with Isis. I used to get a lot of calls from folks worried that Adam’s valuable cat was loose. Didn’t you, too, when you first came?”

  He nodded silent agreement, ignoring my pleading gaze.

  “But Ronald said...he told me…to tell you, Adam, and Hanley…and Stewart, that he saw the arsonists and stopped them.”

  “Arsonists?” Hanley asked me.

  “Those men in the shop. ‘It could have been worse,’ he said. He told me to tell you that.”