The Perilous PURRsuit (Klepto Cat Mystery Book 26)

by Patricia Fry

  “Yeah,” Keith said, “they probably don’t think it’s an important clue.”

  “Do you think it is?” Savannah asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” He let out a sigh. “Well, shall we keep a move on?”

  Michael turned away. “Sure.”

  Before they could return to the Jeep with the cat on the leash, Savannah let out a yelp. “Rags! What are you doing? Come on, buddy. Time to go.” She trotted in the direction he had darted, picked him up, and started to walk away, when she heard something in the brush. Savannah listened for a moment. Before she could stop him, Rags jumped from her arms and disappeared into the brush. “Rags!” she shouted. She turned toward the others and frantically called out, “Michael, something’s over here. Rags went after it.”

  The brothers trotted in the direction Savannah had indicated and Holly hung back a little. When she saw the men disappear over the side of the road and into an overgrowth of brush, she rushed to catch up to Savannah and the two of them stood all but paralyzed with fear. Finally Savannah called out, “Michael, what is it? What’s going on? Is Rags with you?”

  “Yes. Savannah, bring some water, will you?”

  “And my first aid kit!” Keith shouted. “You know where that is, Holly.”

  Savannah covered her mouth with her hands. “Michael, is he hurt?” she asked, her voice barely audible.

  “The cat’s fine. We need that water,” he called, “and the first aid kit.”

  When Savannah and Holly reached the men with the supplies, the women were shocked to see the brothers crouched next to a human body, almost hidden by the shrubbery. Keith turned to face them. “Holly, would you get my machete out of the back of the car, please? I’m reluctant to move him until we can evaluate the situation, and this brush is in the way.”

  “I agree, doctor,” Michael said, tongue in cheek. He addressed Savannah. “Come get your cat, would you?”

  “What’s going on, Michael?” Savannah asked, as she moved toward Rags. “Is he…?”

  “He’s awake. Probably dehydrated and kind of scratched up. We’re about to find out if he has any broken bones.”

  Once Holly had retrieved the machete and given it to Keith, he took off his shirt, laid it across the victim, and instructed, “Here, hold this over your face while I cut away the brush.”

  Michael moved closer to the injured man to help deflect the brush. Once Keith had cleared the thickest of the undergrowth, Michael removed the shirt, shook it, and gave it back to his brother. He addressed the man. “So what happened? How’d you get out here like this?”

  By then, Savannah had a secure hold on Rags’s leash and a clear view of the victim.

  Holly moved up next to her and whispered, “Hey, I thought they’d found…”

  “I know,” Savannah said.

  “Who is that?” Holly asked.

  Savannah shrugged. She noticed that he was young—probably in his early twenties and slight, with dark-blond hair cut in a shaggy surfer style.

  Michael helped the young man take a couple of sips of water, then asked, “How long have you been out here like this?”

  “A couple hours, I guess. Maybe more.”

  “What happened?” Keith asked. When the kid hesitated, Keith said, “Listen, we need to know what your injuries might be before we decide the best way to help you.” He looked back at the disabled vehicle. “Is that your truck?”

  The young man started to answer, but stopped. He squinted intently at Keith, then at Michael. “Hey, am I seeing double or…?”

  Michael winked. “Glad to see that you’re alert. Yeah, we’re twins. I’m Michael and this is my brother, Keith.” When he saw the young man looking behind Michael, he glanced back and said, “Oh, these are our wives—Savannah, in the visor and ponytail, and Holly, wearing the red baseball cap.”

  The young man nodded. “I’m Evan.”

  “So, Evan,” Michael said, “can you tell us what happened?”

  “Yeah,” Keith said, “is that your truck there?”

  Evan shook his head. “Not mine.” He hesitated, then said, “My buddy and I came up to fish. We hear two men arguing—man, were they mad about something. We didn’t want to get involved, so we just went on past them, upstream, to our favorite fishing hole.” He frowned. “Never did see the two guys, just heard them—that’s all.” He took another sip of the water. “Next thing we know, we hear a shot—you know, a gunshot. Ryan and I agreed that it sounded like it went off right about where we’d heard those guys arguing.” He took another sip of water.

  Keith asked, “So what did you do?”

  “We got ready to drop our lines.”

  Keith looked at Michael. “You mean, you just went on fishing? You didn’t go back to find out who fired the shot?”

  “No. But later when the helicopter began hovering and rangers were all over the place, we decided to leave.” He coughed. “Well, a couple of rangers came along and asked us to leave. So we walked out to where we’d left our truck. That’s when we first saw that truck right there.”

  Bewildered, Michael asked, “In that ditch?”

  “Oh, it wasn’t in the ditch then. It was parked not too far from where we were parked—about a quarter-mile upstream from where those guys were, I’d say.”

  “So it was parked? Do you know how it got here, in this predicament?” Keith asked.

  Evan nodded, his eyes wide. “Yeah. Ryan and I walked on past it to where my truck was parked—just around a couple of bends. But before we reached it, some guy came along driving that pickup. He stopped and said, ‘Hey, didn’t I see you two walking along the river earlier?’ We told him that yeah, we were down at the river. He asked us what we saw. We told him we didn’t see anything—that we didn’t know what he was talking about. But I guess he didn’t believe us.” Evan took a breath and coughed before continuing. “The creep tried to run us down with that truck.” He looked up at Michael and Keith. “Well, I guess he did hit me. I don’t remember much about that. Next thing I knew, Ryan’s trying to help me stand up. He’d gone over the side and played dead until that guy left—without his truck. I guess he got it all stuck like that trying to run us over.” He closed his eyes for a minute before saying, “I was too dizzy to try walking, so Ryan left me here and went for help.”

  “What happened to the guy who was driving this pickup?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess I was knocked out for a while. When I woke up, he was gone. It was after that that Ryan found me and he took off to go get my truck. I don’t know what’s taking him so long.” He grabbed Michael’s arm. “Do you suppose that guy did something to him? Otherwise he would have been back before this. My truck was parked just up the road a little ways.”

  Keith winced. “So you think you’ve been here for a couple of hours?”

  “Maybe. I’ve lost track of the time.”

  “Do you know what time it was when you left the riverbank?”

  “Oh, that must have been around nine, I’d say.”

  Michael looked at his watch. “That was nearly three hours ago.”

  Keith grimaced, then asked, “Well, Evan, do you think you can stand up now? You seem to check out okay. I don’t feel any broken bones. Do you have any pain?”

  “My head hurts. As I told you, I was dizzy. I can try to stand up.” He looked at Keith. “Are you a doctor?”

  Keith grinned. “A veterinarian.”

  “Say, what did the guy look like who tried to run you down? Did you get a look at him?” Michael asked.

  “Yeah. A quick look. As I recall, he had an… um… a shaved head. He looked like a kind of big guy. He had one of those chin beards—sort of a small one. I’d say he was around forty-five or so.”

  Holly and Savannah looked at each other and Holly said, “Sounds like our tablemate, Brad.”

  ****

  “Got a customer for you,” Keith said as he and Michael helped Evan wal
k into the mountain infirmary nearly an hour later.

  “What happened?” a pert blond wearing scrubs asked.

  “Says he was hit by a truck,” Michael said. “… a hit-and-run.”

  She tilted her head. “Oh, that’s odd. We have another victim here who says he was hit by a truck, then pushed down a hillside. His name’s, Ryan.”

  Evan’s face lit up. “That’s my friend. Can I see him?”

  “Sure.” She motioned to Michael and Keith. “Bring him in here.” She looked at Evan. “Were you hit by the same truck?”

  When Evan hesitated, Michael said, “Maybe not the same truck, but most likely the same driver.”

  The young woman frowned, then led them into a room full of cots.

  When Evan saw his friend lying on a cot against the wall, he called out, “Ryan!”

  The young man turned and his face contorted into a pained smile. “Evan. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t get back there. That crazy dude…”

  When the boy seemed to become upset, the technician soothed, “It’s okay, Ryan. Evan’s here now. You’re both safe, okay?”

  “What happened to your face?” Evan asked.

  Before Ryan could answer, the young woman helped Evan to lie down on a cot near his friend. “The doctor will be here in just a few minutes. You rest, now.” She ushered Michael and Keith toward the exit, saying, “Thank you for helping the boy. I hope they catch the guy who hurt them.”

  Michael nodded and said under his breath, “Yeah, I think he’s guilty of more than just using vehicles as assault weapons.”

  Just then the men heard Evan call out, his voice still weak. “Excuse me.” When Michael turned, he said, “Do you think you could check on my truck? I mean, don’t go to a whole lot of trouble, but if you’re driving around in the area where we were fishing, could you check on my truck—make sure it’s still there and all?” He coughed a couple of times. “I can give you my keys and maybe you could bring it down here so we’ll have transportation when we’re released.” He turned to his friend. “Ry, do you have the keys?”

  He shook his head. “No, bro. That slime bag took off in your truck. I was just about to drive over and get you when he caught up to me, shoved me down an embankment, and took off. I told the ranger who found me staggering along the road, so they’re on the lookout for it.”

  “Dang,” Evan said. “Talk about insult to injury.”

  “Yeah, that dude said his car went over the side and caught on fire.” Ryan smirked. “He sure has a problem with vehicles.”

  “It went over the side?” Keith asked. “Do you know where? Have they retrieved it? I didn’t see any smoke—did you guys?”

  Ryan shook his head. “I don’t know, man. But I told that to the ranger so they’d know to watch for it.” He thought for a moment, then said, “Actually, the ranger said they were aware of a small fire that was extinguished fairly quickly by that squall that came through here earlier this morning. That might be where they’ll find the guy’s car.”

  “Squall?” Michael repeated to Keith as they walked out of the infirmary.

  “Yeah, they come and go up here,” Keith explained. “We probably missed it by minutes. I did notice that the ground was a little wet around the Ridgecrest when we arrived this morning.” When they joined the women and the cat at the Jeep, he asked, “So, what do you think? Shall we head back up to the lodge?”

  “I’m ready,” Savannah said.

  “Me too,” Holly agreed. She turned to Rags. “What do you say, boy?”

  “Oh, he doesn’t care one way or another,” Michael said. “He can sleep under any conditions.”

  “And he seems to love a good adventure,” Keith remarked.

  Savannah smiled and petted Rags. “That he does. That he does.” She then leaned forward and pointed. “Looks like someone missed one of those gnarly curves.”

  “I’d say so,” Keith said when he saw the wrecked car on a flatbed tow truck parked alongside the road. “Wait!” he shouted as he stepped on the brakes.

  “What?” Holly said, turning to look out through the back window.

  “Let’s go back and check it out. It could be—you know, Brad’s car—the one that went over the side this morning.”

  “His car went over the side?” Savannah asked, frowning. “Yeah,” she said, “let’s go snoop.”

  “Where do you suppose he’s taking it, anyway?” Michael asked, after they’d climbed out of the Jeep and approached the scorched vehicle. “Is there a junkyard up here somewhere? Looks like he’s heading up the mountain with it.”

  “That does seem odd,” Keith agreed.

  “Not if they believe it was involved in a crime,” Savannah suggested. When the others looked at her, she said, “Maybe they’re taking it to the ranger station.”

  “Not much left of it, is there?” Holly said.

  Savannah shook her head. “I wonder what kind of car it is.”

  “Yeah,” Holly said, “you can’t even tell what color it was.”

  “It’s black now—charcoal black.”

  “Seen enough?” Keith asked.

  Holly nodded.

  “Sure,” Savannah said. She then shouted, “Wait! Rags, what are you doing?”

  “What, for God’s sake?” Michael asked.

  Keith chuckled when he saw the cat standing on the bed of the tow truck. “Looks like he wants a ride.”

  Savannah grinned and reached for the cat, but before she could put her hands on him, she exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! Look, you guys.”

  “What?” Holly asked, moving closer.

  “Rags is trying to show us the license plate.” When no one responded, she pointed. “Look at the frame. It looks to me like it says La Linda Realty, Denver, Colorado.”

  “Oh!” Holly said, knowingly. “Yes, it does. I can make out the first L and another L and part of the word Realty.” She brought her hands up to her mouth, her eyes wide. “Wow, that is too weird.”

  “Not so weird,” Keith said. “Brad had the matchbook advertising that real estate company and this is most likely his car—the one he told Ryan went over the cliff and burned.”

  “No,” Savannah said. “That can’t be right. He told everyone in the Ridgecrest that his truck was missing. This is definitely a car, not a truck.”

  Michael thought for a moment, then said, “Oh, we probably misunderstood. This has got to be his car. How many vehicles up here go over the side, anyway? Yeah, he must work there at that real estate office.”

  “He looked more like a bouncer to me, or a construction worker,” Savannah said chuckling.

  Just then, they saw a man walking toward the tow truck. “Must be the driver,” Keith said under his breath. He addressed the man. “Hey, you’ve got quite a mess there. Was anyone hurt?”

  The driver looked Keith over and said, “Nope, not that I heard. But I’m pretty sure the fire was intentional. It ain’t all that common to have a car roll down a hillside like that and catch fire. See, it really isn’t damaged all that much—just burnt to a crisp. But no; there was no bodies in there, thank heavens. I hate those cases.”

  “Do you know who the car belonged to?”

  “What’s your interest, mister?” the driver asked. “Is it your car?”

  “No. It’s just that we helped to rescue a young man earlier and we think this car might belong to the person who hurt him.”

  He looked intently at Michael, then at the others. He pulled a clipboard out of the cab of the tow truck and looked at it. “It’s registered to a Mr. Clarence Pratt of Denver.” He tossed the clipboard back on the seat and stepped up into the cab. “Gotta go. Time is money in this business.”

  “Thanks. Good luck.”

  “Well?” Savannah said once everyone was seat-belted into the Jeep.

  “Well, what?” he teased.

  “Who’s Clarence Pratt?”

  ****

  “Ahhh, it’s nice to be home,” Kei
th said once he’d sat down in the withdrawing room with a bottle of water and had removed his boots.

  Savannah unfastened Rags’s harness and asked her mother. “How’d it go today?”

  “Yeah,” Holly said, picking up Bethany, “we didn’t expect to be gone for so long.” She shook her head. “It’s been a long day.”

  Gladys frowned. “You all sure look tired.” Then she smiled. “The kids were great. Teddy had a little fussy spell, but Aggie used her magic to make him comfortable.”

  “Her magic, huh?” Savannah smiled at Aggie. “You’ll have to share that with us.”

  Gladys ran her hand over Adam’s hair. “This guy was a big help with the girls.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” Michael said, squeezing the boy’s shoulder.

  “Any news?” Aggie asked, eagerly.

  The men glanced at each other. “Well, yes,” Michael said. When he saw that the children were busy showing something to Holly and Savannah, he moved closer to Aggie and said, “There’s a posse out after Scott because they think he killed someone.”

  The elderly woman gasped and clutched her chest.

  Michael kneeled next to her. “We’re pretty sure we know who did it. If we can find out who that guy is, we think we can clear Scott.”

  “What do you mean, you know who did it?” she asked.

  “We think it was a guy who tried to run over two young men. Hopefully, authorities will set their sights on him after they’ve talked to the two injured boys, Evan and Ryan.”

  Keith jumped in. “That burned-out car might have been his, Michael. If so, they should be able to trace him pretty quickly.”

  “But whose truck do you think that was—the one that he assaulted the boys with initially?”

  “He ran over some boys?” Gladys gasped.

  “They’ll be okay,” Keith said.

  Just then Cassie ran up to the men. “We’re having candles tonight. Grammy and GranGran said we can eat with candles.”