“When was the last time you saw Cupcake Kitty?”
“It’s been about a week. She’s a Moll. But you don’t fool around with the Big Cheese’s girl. I don’t want to get bumped off over a dame.”
The kitten had splatters of blood on her. She clung with tiny claws to Grace’s dress.
Tatania and Zeus weren’t sure if they liked her.
“Jack, we have to take care of this kitten. We can’t leave her here. The kitten blinked in agreement.”
“Have you seen the kitten before?”
“No. But the whole room smells like Cupcake Kitty. She always goes by the name Cupcake Kitty.”
“As opposed to what other name?” Grace asked.
He shrugged. “All these dames that come to California. Want to be in the movies. They shed names as quickly as the rattlesnakes in the dessert shed skin. She may not have made it to the movies. But she made it to the big leagues.”
“Big leagues of what?”
“Gangsters. Bootleggers. Nico has a racket that makes more money each year than most small countries.”
“Did the band play in TiJuana?”
He nodded. “Nico keeps Cupcake Kitty in a penthouse by his casino. She loves the bullfighting matches. Eddie said Nico was like Jake in The Sun Also Rises. You know Hemingway?”
“Not yet. We read the book.” Grace and Jack looked at each other. Jake, the protagonist, in The Sun Also Rises, was impotent after the Great War.
“Thank you for helping us, Chap.” Jack patted his shoulder. “We’ll stay in touch.”
“Is it too much to ask to have an engagement party without a dead body?” Grace mused when they walked out the door.
“There’s a dead one in every marriage,” Annie said.
“Thank you for your cheer.”
“I’m just saying be realistic. Marriage isn’t romantic.”
Chapter Five
Grace woke when Tatania swished her tail towards her face. Tatania comfortably enjoyed about seventy percent of Jack’s pillow. From time to time, she would swish her tail in Grace’s face, perhaps to remind her that she’d met Jack first.
Jack snored through it all. Zeus rolled around a map of Coronado open on the bed. Tatania lept off the pillow and put her paw on Orange Street on the map. The white kitten clung to Grace’s hand with both paws.
“Why is she putting her paw on Orange Street?” Grace nudged Jack awake.
“She knows her home.”
“Lets go get a cup of Joe at the Cafeteria.”
“Do you want me to order it up instead?”
“No. Lets not get too pampered. We’re going to be in our home soon. Who is going to bring you your coffee there?”
“You.”
Tatania began meowing early. She had a big day planned and required a prompt breakfast.
When they left the room, Tatania and Zeus insisted on leading the way, with occasional sudden stops and stares ahead. Outside, each paused to sharpen claws on a tree. First thing in the morning, Tatania and Zeus liked to sharpen their claws for the day ahead. The kitten imitated Tatania.
“Maybe we should pick up some cupcakes and take a trip to Tiajuana to see Cupcake Kitty.”
“As long as we don’t go in your plane.” Grace remembered the plane noise scaring Zeus, and watching helpless as he ran away, only to return days later and act like nothing happened.
“We’ll slip on the train,” Jack said, rubbing Zeus under his chin. The cat licked Jack’s hand in response.
The cats led the way to Coronado Tent City’s Bakery and Sweet Shop. Jack opened the door.
“Oh a kitten. And the cute little strays!!” The clerk noticed the cats before them. Grace and Jack were used to it. Tatania and Zeus were better known around Coronado. The kitties ignored the giant glass jars of Penny candy and looked expectantly up at her. Then they jumped on the counter.
“Oh, I have just the thing. My husband caught a mackerel two days ago. I dry it out for the cats. I’ll bring you a jar.” Grace and Jack stood staring at the baked goods under the dome counter while the baker hurried to get mackerel for the cats.
They jumped down from the counter to follow her. Sometimes it seemed the cats were as loyal as their last meal. Tatania turned around and looked at Grace with an expression like, What have you fed me lately?
“We’ve been experimenting. Treating the iced topping like it was an opportunity to build a sand castle.”
The cupcakes looked like works of art. They recognized Coronado Tent City’s attractions: the children’s bullfights, the Merry Go Round, the Rifle Range, the arcade games, the bathing pools, and the Dance Pavillion.
“Bees Knees. I’d love all these cupcakes.”
“She’s not going to eat all these cupcakes,” Jack said hurriedly, “or we won’t get married.”
The baker shook her head and handed Grace a package of dried mackerel.
“The cats love it,” she explained.
Chapter Six
They left the Sweet Shop with cupcakes. Grace slipped the dried mackerel in the jar of Spratt’s treats she kept in her purse.
“Why a letter opener?”
“Maybe someone got angry when he didn’t open her letters.”
“Zeus gets scared by the plane noise. Thank you for taking the train to TiJuana instead, Jack.”
“I never knew Eddie drank until I saw him sober.” Annie waved to them from a table outside Tent City Cafeteria. She sipped a cup of Joe.
“It’s a shame that he got killed during his gig at the Hotel del Coronado.”
“Do you want to take the kitten we found?”
“I don’t know, Dear.” Annie drew on her cigarette. She was smoking Marlboros with red filters sometimes now. The red filter purportedly disguised lipstick.
The kitten jumped up her shoulder. He reached to put his paw on Annie’s cheek.
“Only till you get back from TiJuana. I just know you’re going there next.”
“We may need her. She’s an eyewitness to the killing.”
Annie laughed when the kitten played with her blonde bobbed hair.
“Just do some betting for me. And I may need tequila.”
“Aren’t you still a patient of Dr. Daniels?”
“I always get that for Martin. He loves whiskey. I’m more a champagne girl who sometimes changes things up with tequila. The train will take you to the race track and casino.”
“Who thought of that? John Spreckels?”
“Of course. John Spreckels thought of everything but Coronado beach. God built that.”
The red Coronado laundry truck rumbled by to a stop. The driver opened the back doors to pull out Tent City Cafeteria’s clean laundry. Zeus lept in and rolled around on linens.
“Come here, Fluffy,” the driver said.
“It’s Mr. Fluffy to you,” Zeus meowed.
“Zeus,” Grace called.
He ignored her.
She opened the jar of treats in her purse. Zeus ran to her outstretched hand and helped himself to mackerel.
“We’re going to look for Nico at his casino and bootleg distribution center in TiJuana. Nico may be a gangster, but I’ve heard he has quality controlled hooch. It can be a disaster to have a bootlegger without quality control.”
“I know. I remember Jake Leg.”
“Who is he?” Annie asked.
“It’s a disease caused by Jamaican Ginger. Neurological problems. Incurable. Comes from drinking bootleg laced with Jamaican Ginger. When Grace and I solved a missing jewelry case, we found out the thief had Jake Leg from drinking bad hooch.”
Tatania meowed.
Grace picked her up. “We couldn’t solve a case without Tatania.”
Tatania blinked in agreement. She was the brains and the beauty in this detective agency.
Chapter Seven
Jack and Grace got on the train. Zeus and Tatania lept in front of them to lead the way.
Grace remembered meeting Jack for the first time on the
20th Century Limited from New York to Chicago. When she’d discovered her uncle was murdered, Jack helped her investigate and then quit his job at Pinkerton Detective Agency when they refused to hire women. They established Wentworth and Brewster.
All Grace wanted was her own little part of Coronado. She twisted the ring on her finger. It made her happy but a little anxious. She sometimes felt afraid Jack would disappear. She looked down at Zeus. He reached up with a paw towards her.
“Don’t worry. David will keep supervising our house while we’re gone.”
“It’s not a house yet.”
“It will be our home.”
Grace smiled. “With the little paw prints of Zeus and Tatania in the foundation, it is home.”
Zeus opened the train curtain and admired the coastline view. “Thanks for taking the train. I don’t want Zeus scared by the plane again. And he looked like he wanted to go too.” Zeus sat on Grace’s lap, paws up at the window. Annoyed by the screen, he clawed it slightly.
“Why do they have screens on this train, Jack?”
“Sometimes people across the border say hello to American trains by throwing rocks.”
Tatania blinked. She hadn’t completely adjusted to the human’s need to have Zeus. He was a cute enough tomcat but truly her magnificent self should be enough for any humans.
“Don’t worry. It’s safe. The majority love our American dollars. American prohibition means a lot of American dollars in TiJuana. And they may not love Americans but they love American dollars.”
The train passed by pristine, unspoiled land.
“Poor Eddie. No one is worth dying over.”
“I’ll reserve judgment on that until I see this dame.”
“And then, if you think she’s worth dying for, I’ll kill you, Jack.” Grace would have slapped him but she didn’t want to disturb Zeus on her lap.
“Understood. Can I get you something to drink?”
“Do they have drinking service here?”
“As soon as we cross the border. I brought champagne for my girl.” He pulled French Champagne and two Hotel del Coronado champagne glasses from his rucksack. Jack could do more with one hand than most men could do with two.
“To our new case,” Jack said, clinking his glass to hers.
She savored the effervescence on her tongue. She wasn’t entirely convinced that a murder during the engagement party bode well for the marriage. But there was no place she’d rather be than with Jack.
There was a poster of Gloria Swanson in the compartment across from a poster for fresh California oranges.
“I don’t want to sound mean but Nico doesn’t sound like the type to get attached to any woman in particular. I’m surprised he’d kill over anyone. I mean, over a feeling to the extent he’s capable of having one.”
“Even if she’s a disposable blonde to him. That doesn’t mean he wants anyone else fooling around with her.”
“Is that rational?”
“Of course not.”
“She just sits here, waiting for him to appear, nibbling on cupcakes until the day she gets too fat for him to want any more. And if he doesn’t want anyone else to have her, what happens to her next?”
“They have a pension fund for gangster mistresses.”
“Seriously?”
“No”
“Are you okay? Grace,” He leaned closer to her.
“I just feel so sad thinking about it. What if she loved someone else but couldn’t leave Nico any way but dead?”
“And if she keeps eating cupcakes, she’ll weigh more than men.”
“Jack stop it.” She hit his arm. Wow. That was all muscle.
“You know I’ve told you not to hit me, Grace. You could hurt your hand. Good thing you weren’t aiming for my stomach.”
Grace checked her appearance in the train’s mirrors. Dark bobbed hair, red lips, and porcelain skin that remained unfreckled by her new found slavish devotion to skin creams.
Chapter Eight
The train came to a halt and they could hear the horses clattering on the race track next to it. Tatania and Zeus stretched languorously on the seats.
They saw people pulling huge bags down from the overhead storage shelves.
“What they lose in dollars, they bring back in booze,” Jack said.
“Everyone’s making money from Prohibition.”
“Go figure.”
Grace pulled out her jeweled compact and applied red lipstick in a shade that matched her red cloche hat. She considered pulling out her opera gloves but decided it could be too dusty.
“Whatever happens at the track, you look like a winner,” Jack said.
“Bees Knees.”
“And you’re with a winner.”
“Look at the cute kitties!” Tatania and Zeus evoked their usual reaction.
The horse hooves sounded louder. The crowd was filled with Americans.
“Do you think the kitten is okay?”
“Of course. Annie’s probably taking her out for a cocktail and hors’devours at the Del Coronado now.”
“I wish we could find out what the kitten saw.”
“Mysterious creatures. Lovely.” Tatania brushed against Jack’s dark jeans. The magical cats never shed fur.
If anyone could figure out what the kitten saw, it was Tatania, with Zeus’s help.
They strolled towards the casino resort. A uniformed doorman opened the entrance.
Women serving drinks wore gold necklaces with miniature American thousand dollar bill replicas for charms.
“The high rollers are American. They like us because we tip well,” Jack said.
“We’ll say were delivering roses. No one will question it. I’m sure she gets a lot of floral deliveries.”
Getting to Cupcake Kitty’s room was surprisingly easy. They found a bellman who answered to Benjamin Franklin. Grace got the feeling Jack wasn’t the first good looking guy to ask for her.
Chapter Nine
Cupcake Kitty loved company. She smiled when she heard the knock on her door. She opened it and felt disappointed to see Grace and Jack. Then, she noticed the cupcake box.
“Delivery for you. May we come in?” Jack asked.
“Whoopee. Lets have a party.”
She settled on her comfy chair with kittens around her. Grace noticed the kittens matched the one they’d found in Eddie’s room. They looked like the same litter. Cupcake Kitty picked up a cupcake with butter cream frosting.
“Is she Persian?” Cupcake Kitty asked.
“She’s of Persian origin. She’s now an American Feline Princess. I support her Feline Princess lifestyle,” Jack said.
Cupcake Kitty vamped in a red robe, leaning over in front of Jack.
She yawned. “What time is it? I forgot to get dressed.”
“It’s 2:00 p.m.”
Cupcake Kitty reached towards a heart shaped box of chocolates on her end table, bit into one, made a face, and threw it back in the box.
She looked like the berries. With a charisma all her own, it was easy to imagine her catching the eye of wealthy bootleggers.
Tatania watched Cupcake Kitty applying eyeliner oblivious to everyone in the room. Human females were born without any natural eyeliner. Tatania saw them apply fake eyeliner and take it off everyday.
“Sometimes I forget to get dressed,” she said, leaning back and exposing her breasts when her robe popped open. Silk pillows were propped around her.
There was a scent of oranges in the room. A bowl of fresh oranges was on the table. Underneath a poster of Clara Bow for the movie, It.
A man appeared. He looked like a miniature Nico. Same dark eyes, dark hair – only shorter, smaller, and lean. No pock marks.
“I’ll get back to you about the leaky faucet, Miss,” he said, opening the door.
Cupcake Kitty threw back her head when he left. Grace noticed two bottles of hooch on the end table. It seemed like Jack and her never met sober people.
“I found him
at the track,” she said.
Tatania swivelled her ears three times, became invisible and followed him out the door.
“I watched him mount a thoroughbred. The horse reared and he hung on, and then he leaned down saying something to the horse that soothed. He’s Joey the jockey. After he won the race, he looked up at the stands, and saw me walking towards him. The reporters recognized me from Nico’s casino. I didn’t care. Joey and I began messing around.” She waved a cupcake in the air. Zeus watched, entranced by the butter cream frosting. She put a dab of frosting on her finger and held it out for Zeus.
“How do you get away with it?” Grace asked bluntly.
“Ego. Nico’s ego. I tell him I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else. And he believes it. Or his ego does. Good enough.”
She played with the frosting on another cupcake. Zeus kneaded her robe, purring for the cupcake lady.
“Nico thinks only of his business. He doesn’t really get me.”
“And that’s what drew you to Eddie? He got you? He’s not doing well.” Jack gambled she was too drunk to lie.
She blanched.
“Eddie noticed me first. He sang directly to me. What’s wrong with him?”
“Well, he’s not feeling any pain where he is now. He got killed with a letter opener. Do you think it was Nico?”
“Oh please. That is not the way a professional does it. With Nico, it would have been one clean shot to the head. It’s terrible the way his henchmen sometimes waste machine gun bullets though. On my parents’ farm, every bullet counted. Gangsters aren’t what they used to be.” She shook her head.
“When did you leave your parents farm?” Grace asked.
“When they died.”
Grace understood. She felt an ache for everyone she’d loved who’d died. She didn’t believe Jack would leave her intentionally, but she knew happiness and love were elusive, moments of happiness like a butterfly alighting on your hand, or a humming bird hovering nearby, and should be cherished. They disappeared quickly. Her parents were great people but the flu epidemic took their lives early. She forever took snapshots of Jack in her mind, his strong jaw, and fierce intelligent green eyes, knowing she would retrieve the memories later if he was gone.
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