by Amma Lee
****
“Now even I can see that there was a struggle here.” Wendy said as she looked at the dark markings on the ground when they arrived at the second site.
“Yes” Black said and jumped out of Wendy’s arms. The shoeprints indicated that Michelle, the woman who was kidnapped, was wearing heels and the possible aggressor was wearing sneakers. “The kidnapper is a man.” Black said after careful consideration. Wendy moved closer and looked at the shoeprints and nodded her head.
“That shoeprint is much wider and larger than the typical female’s.” Black nodded his head again.
“Very good, that’s the reason that I think so as well.” Black turned around and looked at Wendy then. “Get out your swab and plastic bag. I want to get a sample of this.” Wendy reached into her too large purse and pulled out the swab and Ziploc bag. She looked all around her trying to make sure that nobody was watching them. “It’s okay.” Black said. “I don’t feel anybody watching us.”
“Okay,” Wendy said and bent down and swabbed the ground. The white cotton swab turned black as she rubbed it on the ground. When she was finished she placed it into the zip lock bag.
“This’ll do today.” Black said and Wendy looked at him in shock.
“Are you sure? We’re not going to check for hair or anything?” Black shook his head no.
“No, this is good enough. We’d definitely be able to find something out with this.” Wendy thought that they should at least look for some type of hair sample, but she shook her head. She was sure that Black knew what he was doing.
“So did you want to go back to the dorm?” Wendy asked and took the fluffy cat back into her arms. He nodded his head.
“Yes, I want to get a better look at the print sample.” Wendy turned on her heels and walked towards the direction of her dorm. It was relatively hot that day and she couldn’t wait to get back to her room and turn on the air conditioner. She reached her hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone and she was surprised to see that it was almost three! She didn’t know that time had passed them by that quickly.
“Wendy!” Wendy turned towards the voice that called out to her. She grinned when she saw that it was Keith, her friend since elementary school. “What are you doing?” Keith said as he stopped in front of her. Wendy was happy to see him because they hadn’t hung out in weeks.
“Hey Keith, I’m on my way back to my room.” Keith smiled revealing deep dimples in his tanned face. Keith reached down to rub Black but pulled his hand quickly away when the feline began hissing at him.
“Always the friendly cat,” Keith said sarcastically and Wendy laughed.
“Oh, he’s just tired. We’ve been out in this sun for hours.” Keith raised his eyebrow.
“What were you doing?” Wendy paused and thought about what she should say. Black told her early on in their career to keep her detective background a secret because one never knew who was telling who what.”
“Don’t.” Black said and Wendy was glad that she was the only one who could hear him. The way Black said “don’t” sent shivers up and down her spine. She mustered her most sincere smile and Keith couldn’t help but to think about how beautiful she was.
“We were just walking around, that’s probably why he’s so irritated. Don’t mind him too much,” Wendy said and forced out a laugh. “He’s mean to me sometimes too.” Keith nodded his head.
“Did you want to hang out for a little while or do you have other plans?” Wendy enjoyed the times she spent with Keith, but now wasn’t the time for fun.
“I can’t today; I have some business I have to take care of.” She could tell that Keith’s mood had gone south, but he walked alongside of her once Black told Wendy to start walking again.
“Okay, I’ll walk you back to your dorm then.” Wendy smiled and Black hissed. He really wasn’t fond of Keith because there was something about him that Black didn’t like. He couldn’t place his paw on what though. “You hear about those kidnappings?” Wendy was shocked when Keith brought it up. She didn’t know whether to tell the truth or not so she decided to do the latter.
“No, what’s going on?” Wendy asked appearing to be completely oblivious to the news that Keith shared.
“Apparently business women have been coming up missing. I’m concerned about it because of my father. You know that he just opened up a business right?” Keith said and Wendy could hear the worry in his voice. Wendy’s voice quivered as she spoke.
“Yeah, but I’m sure that your father would be fine.” Keith shook his head.
“I don’t know about that though.” Keith said and lowered his voice. “I know that the only people that have been kidnapped so far have been women, but my dad’s becoming more and more successful.” Black raised his head and stared at Keith and considered what he had said.
“Ask the human if his father’s success has occurred recently.” Wendy jumped at the sound of Black’s voice, but relaxed when she reminded herself that Keith could not hear Black.
“Oh, is he getting more business now?” Wendy asked and Keith nodded his head.
“Yeah, recently his business has really expanded. That’s why I think he might be next.” Wendy wondered why Black asked her to ask Keith that, but it wasn’t like she could ask Black that now.
“Hmmm…” Black said and Wendy was dying to know what he was thinking.
“Well you said that women are the only ones being targeted at the moment right?” Wendy looked over at Keith. Keith’s hazel eyes caught her green ones.
“Yeah,” he said with a frown on his face.
“Your father is going to be fine.” Wendy said again, but now she was getting worried. Maybe the kidnapper hasn’t decided to kidnap men yet so there was a possibility that it might still happen.
“I hope you’re right.” Keith said as the three of them made it back to the campus. Keith walked with Wendy until she was safely at the entrance of the dormitory. “When you’re not busy give me a call sometimes.” Keith said with his bright smile returning to his face. Wendy placed Black down on the ground and she walked over to Keith and embraced him.
“I will. I’m sorry I haven’t been calling you as much. School’s been real busy.” Keith tightened his grip and then let her go.
“It’s fine, but make sure you make time for me soon.” Wendy said okay and watched Keith as he walked away. She stared after her friend lovingly until Black made an irritated hiss. Wendy looked down at her fuming cat in agitation.
“Let’s get to work before you two start licking each other’s faces.” Wendy laughed at Black’s comment and cuddled the irate cat in her arms. She walked up the stairs cradling Black like he was her baby.
Chapter Three
“Hmm…” Black said for the eighteenth time that day as he looked at the dirty cotton swab.
“Come on! Tell me what you’re thinking.” Wendy said as she shuffled from foot to foot. Black was making all of these observations and wasn’t telling Wendy what he was thinking.
“Silence child.” Black said with authority and Wendy crossed her arms. She couldn’t understand how a little cat had the nerve to call her a child.
“Sorry, but I don’t know any children in college and living on their own.” Wendy didn’t let Black’s words bother her. If they did bother her, then she would have proved his statement right and she would have been a child.
“Is that so? I’m talking to one right now.” Black countered and Wendy stuck her tongue out at him.
“Whatever old man,” Wendy laughed and Black turned around and glared at her. Black was so adorable when he was angry. Black focused his attention back on the swab.
“Turn off the lights for a moment.” Black said and Wendy walked over to the light switch and turned off the lights.
“How peculiar,” Black said after a while. Wendy turned back on the lights and walked over to Black.
“What are you seeing that I can’t?” Wendy asked confused. Was it because Black was a cat that he s
aw so much more than Wendy did? Or was it because her eyes weren’t as trained as Black’s eyes were?
“It’s not so much of what I see, it’s more so about what I understand.” Black said and Wendy scratched her head. That made absolutely no sense to her. Black sensed Wendy’s confusion and turned and looked at the sweet girl that he loved so much. “Such a beautiful and foolish girl” Black purred out. Wendy rolled her eyes. The only time Wendy felt like a child was when Black spoke to her that way.
“Can you explain a little more about what you mean?” Wendy thought that she’d never learn the true ways of a detective if Black kept each and every one of his finds to himself. Black smiled wider than the Cheshire cat.
“I didn’t find anything.” Wendy’s eyebrows raised then.
“Then what are talking about?” Wendy asked as she threw her arms in the air.
“I was just remembering what your little human friend was saying.” Wendy thought back to what Keith had told her.
“You mean about him worrying about his father being kidnapped?”
“Precisely” Black said and scratched his ear. He then walked over to his water bowl and licked at it. When he had his fill he turned around and looked at Wendy again. “It appears that women are on the rise when it comes to owning popular businesses.” Wendy gave Black her undivided attention. “Women are starting to best men when it came to business.” Black looked at Wendy to try to see if she saw what he was getting at. He sighed when she didn’t chime in.
“Come on Black. I’m trying to understand, but I need a little bit more information.” Black sighed again but nodded his head. Black had to keep reminding himself that Wendy was still young.
“Don’t you find it odd that the human’s father’s business started to flourish once these women were out of the picture?” Wendy thought about what Black said for a few moments.
“It probably started to do well because of the lack of competition.”
“Bingo!” Black said and stared at Wendy trying to get her to see the big picture. “Wouldn’t these business women’s disappearances appear to benefit Keith’s father?” Wendy nodded her head but then she widened her eyes almost in horror.
“Are you suggesting that Keith’s father had the women kidnapped?” Wendy asked and jumped to her feet. “That’s preposterous! Mr. Johnson is a very kind man and would never do anything as horrible as that.” Wendy was quick to defend the man who was almost like a second father to her.
“Wendy…” Black said in his warning voice. “Don’t you remember the saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’? Well that’s what you’re doing now.” Wendy has heard the saying before, but she found it hard to believe that Mr. Johnson would do something like that.
“But why would Mr. Johnson be the only one who benefits from them being kidnapped? I’m sure someone else would benefit as well.” Wendy thought that Black was jumping to conclusions a little too soon.
“I’ve considered that and I looked up Mr. Johnson’s rank.” Wendy was surprised by how fast Black moved. She finally realized why Black wanted to look at the top fifty rated businesses in the area. “His business was actually listed right under the last woman that was kidnapped and without the women on top running the office the way it was supposed to have been ran…” he paused trying to allow Wendy to figure it out.
“Sales must have decreased because of the lack of management.” Wendy said as she finally began to understand. “People would have wanted to go somewhere that they felt was managed appropriately.” Wendy grinned when Black began nodding his head, but her grin quickly fell. “But that still doesn’t mean that Mr. Johnson had anything to do with their disappearance.” Wendy said.
“It doesn’t mean that he didn’t.” Black said plainly. “He has a motive, which would be to gain more business.” Wendy could understand that considering his sales went up a lot after the women were kidnapped. “But I do agree that we’d need a little more information before I’m one hundred percent sure, but I have a feeling that I’m right.” Wendy frowned. She hated that Black always thought that he was right and she hated that the majority of the time he was right.
“So what do you need me to do?” Black was the boss in this case so she had to follow his orders if they wanted to save the women.
“You’ll do what the human asked of you.” Black’s teeth gleamed as he grinned. “Give him a call and ‘hang out’ with each other.” Wendy picked up her phone and dialed the familiar number.
“Hey are you free?” she asked once Keith had picked up the phone.
****
“The way you were speaking earlier I thought that you had a lot of work to do.” Keith said as he ushered Wendy through his house. It still looked like it did when she was a young girl.
“I got finished with what I was doing sooner than what I initially thought.” Wendy smiled and walked through the long hallway that led to Keith’s bedroom. “Where’s everyone at?” Wendy asked as she walked into Keith’s room. Keith slumped down on a seat and Wendy kicked off her shoes and plopped down on his bed.
“My father is at work and I have no idea where Lisa is.” Lisa was Keith’s stepmother and he made it obvious that he wasn’t a fan of hers. Lisa was only several years older than Keith and incredibly younger than his father. When Lisa and Keith’s father had first started dating, Keith just thought that his father was going through a midlife crisis by dating a much younger woman. He was proven wrong when his father up and married Lisa.
“How does it feel to have a new woman around the house?” Keith’s mother had died when he was ten years old so it was rough growing up without a mother.
“I swear you’d think that she was younger than me and not older.” Keith said and turned on the TV. He asked Wendy if she wanted to go to the movies or the museum or something but she politely declined. She wanted to be at the same place with Mr. Johnson so she could see if he was acting suspicious or not. It was unfortunate for her that he wasn’t there, but she felt if she stayed long enough Mr. Johnson would eventually get there before it got too late.
“How old is she?” Wendy asked Keith as she willed her body to relax.
“Twenty-five,” Keith said in disgust. “But she acts like she’s still in high school and she’s constantly conning my father into buying her expensive things.” Keith pushed play on the DVD and walked over to Wendy and joined her on the bed. She scooted over so that Keith would have enough room. “I don’t see why my dad doesn’t understand that she’s a gold-digger.” Keith shook his head. “Let’s watch the movie. This conversation is putting me in a bad mood.
Wendy tried to concentrate on the movie but she couldn’t. She kept thinking about what Keith said. Is it possible that Mr. Johnson got the women kidnapped so that he could make more money? If Lisa was as money hungry as Keith seemed to have thought, then she could see why Mr. Johnson would have done it. Regardless of the reason, kidnapping women to benefit oneself was wrong and if Mr. Johnson did do it, he’d have to go to jail for his crimes. Wendy sighed inwardly because she honestly didn’t know what to think. Deep down Wendy hoped that Black was wrong because Mr. Johnson was the only family that Keith had.
“You want something to eat?” Keith’s voice surprised Wendy and she jumped.
“What?” she asked alarmed. Keith looked at her and smiled.
“I said do you want something to eat?” Wendy blushed in embarrassment and nodded her head. She hadn’t eaten much that day because she and Black were discussing their plan to get more information about Mr. Johnson. “You want some lemonade or something?” Wendy smiled. She’d kill for some lemonade at that moment.
“Yeah, I’ll help you carry something.” Keith shook his head and smiled.
“Relax, you’re my guest. I’ll get it for us.” With that said Keith got up and walked out of the room. Wendy figured that it would probably take Keith a while to get back, so she decided to sneak into Mr. Johnson’s room for a few minutes. Lucky enough for her, if she was caught coming o
ut of the room she would just saying she wasn’t paying attention. She could say that she thought that was the door to the bathroom and had walked in before she realized that it wasn’t.
She looked down the long hallway and noticed that the door to the kitchen was closed. With the agility of a cat, she crept down the hallway till she was in front of the familiar door. She looked down the hall and opened the door. The room was dark but she didn’t want to risk someone noticing the light was on in Mr. Johnson’s bedroom. She walked over to the massive bed and pulled out her cellphone.
“This should give me just enough light.” She pushed the button on the side of her phone and a light radiated from it. She shone the light under the bed, but saw nothing but women’s shoes. She walked over to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s oversized dresser and looked on top of it. Wendy found nothing but designer bracelets and earrings. She opened the drawer and came across a small envelope and jumped in surprised when she heard Keith talking.
