When the Cat's Away

by Molly Fitz

  He lifted his head only slightly, and then I heard him let out a large yawn. Not that I could get a real answer out of him anyway.

  With the two of us settled, I dove into my photos once more, starting where I’d left off when I’d been with the investigator and grateful I no longer had to have him see my food selfies.

  About an hour had passed when there was a knock on the door to the exam room.

  “Come on in,” I called as I grabbed my coffee cup to take a sip to discover it was nothing but water now. Super disappointing, and it was not the first time I’d done this with this cup.

  “Oh, my goodness. I’m so sorry. I should have thought to grab you a chair from the café. That’s what we do when we have people come in here. Guess I was so frazzled after the escape attempt that it slipped my mind.” Gemma scanned the room, and a concerned look crossed her face. “Where’s Trouble?”

  I thumbed over my shoulder behind me. “Right here.”

  She snorted. “Didn’t even see him behind your hair. What a nut.”

  “What’s up?”

  “They’re wrangling everyone from the bus together. Guess they have an announcement to make.”

  I perked up at that. Had they figured it out? Were they letting us finally go home?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Did they let on to what they were going to say at all?”

  Gemma shook her head. “Nope. Everyone is coming over from Dawg Pound so you can hear it all at once, though, so I figured I’d come get you.”

  I gently placed my laptop onto the floor, then tried prying Trubbs from his spot. It was either my inability to get a good hold of him at this arm angle or his stubbornness, but he didn’t budge. Eventually, I had to lean forward to let him slowly slide into the wedge my movement was creating between me and the wall. Once he plopped to the floor, I grabbed my coffee cup and then pulled myself up using the exam table.

  “You. Do. Not. Leave. This. Room.” I stared at the tabby cat hoping with all my might that he understood me and would listen to what I’d said. He didn’t need to prove to me that he could live up to his name. He’d done so—a couple times—and I didn’t want to come back and find him gone once more. What if we weren’t able to find him next time?

  Trubbs gazed back as if he was trying to think of a comeback. His face was tight, intense, as he focused on me. Finally, he squinted, releasing his hold on me, and I followed Gemma back to the café.

  People who had been in the café since the beginning remained seated, but they’d turned their chairs to face Officer Duvall and the two investigators from the bus. They stood in the open space where café patrons would usually mill about as they waited for their food and coffee.

  Those coming from Dawg Pound had filled in the once-open seats that were scattered about or stood waiting for the announcement. Robin, however, had her back turned to everything going on, focusing instead on the cats in the catio. Ben was doing his best to turn her around and get her attention off the cats. He was failing miserably, as she continued to wave him off, much to Mrs. Hopkins’ amusement as she sat at the table where we had shared lunch. She caught sight of me, pointed at Robin, and winked. I quirked a grin. Robin really was a cat lady. Maybe she could take Trouble home.

  I approached Robin and her husband, then placed a hand on her upper arm to get her attention. At first, she waved me off, likely thinking I was Ben.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Oh, Meredith. It’s you,” she said, still looking at the cats through the glass. “Yes, dear. I’m feeling fine now. Thank you so much for checking in on me. And how are you doing? I haven’t seen you in a little while.”

  I told her that I’d been in the back with one of the cats.

  She nodded. “The escape artist you saved, hmm?”

  “Yes, that one. How did you know?”

  “He may have run out of here in a blur, but I saw him as you brought him back in. Unique cat. Easy to see he’s not in there.” She pressed the tip of her finger against the glass. “Such funny critters, aren’t they?”

  “They really are. But in this case, he’s complicated his chances of getting a home.” I explained how his escape meant he’d be going back to the rescue and that he’d be the only cat there.

  She turned to me, a sly grin on her face. “It doesn’t have to complicate him getting a home.”

  “You in the mood for another cat?” I lowered my voice to whisper. “The mayor tells me you have ten.”

  She laughed. “Only ten? Well, what she doesn’t know, doesn’t matter.”

  My mouth dropped. “More than ten?”

  She held her index finger up to her mouth. “Our secret. And that doesn’t count the ferals that I feed.”

  “So do you think that you could take Trouble home?”

  “Oh goodness, no. Dear, I wasn’t talking about myself. I was talking about you.”

  “Me? I can’t have a cat.”

  She turned to me. “Can’t? Or don’t think you can? I think you found the perfect cat. And let me tell you. Despite all the ones I have, the perfect cat does not come around all that often.”

  “Okay, let’s say he is perfect. How am I supposed to get him home?”

  She leveled her gaze, lowering her chin and raising both eyebrows. “How were you expecting me to get him home?”

  Touché. “I figured you’d come up with something.”

  “As I’m sure you will. You’re a smart girl, Meredith. Always have been. If you want this cat, and it’s obvious to me you do, then you’ll find a way.”

  I opened my mouth to say something to refute her statement but closed it again. She was right. I did want Trouble.

  But it wasn’t like he could ride my shoulders and take the bus back home with me. So how was I going to pull this off?

  Chapter Fifteen

  I stepped back from Robin and took up a spot against the wall several feet away so I could pull out my phone and not feel rude. People were still wandering in from Dawg Pound, so I figured I had a few more minutes to start my research.

  How to adopt Trouble.

  How to get him home.

  By the time one of the investigators was clearing his throat to get our attention, I had the shelter’s animal adoption form downloaded.

  “We thank you all for your patience as we conducted our investigation as to what happened to your traveling companion,” the investigator said. “We are happy to report that we have concluded the investigation portion that involves all of you.”

  “What does that mean for getting home? It’s been hours,” a man from one of the other towns asked. “You said done with us, but that would mean that you’re not done with… I don’t know… the bus that’s supposed to get us home.”

  “That’s correct. All of you are free to leave, but we’re going to need the bus for a little while longer to process the remaining evidence. What that means for you is you will be transferred to another bus to go home. There will be a systematic unloading of your things from the bus, starting with your belongings from the lower compartment, which have no bearing on this case, followed by the things on the bus that you had in your possession during the time of Mr. Meyers’ unfortunate death.”

  “And what about those of us who aren’t so keen on getting on a bus again really anytime soon?” a woman who I couldn’t see asked.

  “We will not be forcing anyone to get on the bus, so if you prefer to stay in town a little longer now that you’re here, you’re free to do so, or if you would like to find alternative arrangements to get home, you are more than welcome to. The bus terminal is located on the other side of this building along with several car rental facilities.”

  That must have been why we were directed to park here when our bus driver made the call, but finding out that car rental places were right here as well gave me an idea.

  “However, should you not return to your homes by the tour bus as originally planned,” the investigator continued, “the cost will be your resp
onsibility.”

  The woman I couldn’t see huffed. “You mean to tell me that we have to spend even more money to get home because we don’t want to go back on a bus that will remind us of what we’ve just been through?”

  The investigator nodded. “I understand that many of you may not find it ideal, but it certainly wasn’t ideal for the poor man to die either. We’re providing you with a new bus, so anything above and beyond that is on you, yes.”

  The woman huffed once more but said nothing else. She probably could have used some time in the catio to help calm her down. Cats were known to help reduce blood pressure. Well, except for maybe Trouble.

  Standing, Mrs. Hopkins cleared her throat, drawing attention to her. “When can we expect to get back on the road?”

  “We will be parking a new bus behind this one so we can begin transferring your things as soon as possible. For those of you who be making alternate travel plans to go home, please come see Officer Duvall so your things do not end up on the bus.” Officer Duvall lifted his hand in a partial wave. “If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them now.”

  “I have a question,” the man who’d spoken earlier said. “How did Mr. Meyers die?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.” The investigator continued to speak for another moment about how he couldn’t say anything regarding the man’s manner of death, and I tuned him out for the most part, opting to pull my phone out once more. I brought up my go-to discount travel site to look up car rentals. Now that we had the green light to not take the bus, this was going to be how I could get Trouble home.

  Movement temporarily drew my attention away from my phone. People were returning to their tables or walking outside. Robin must have seen me looking confused and approached me.

  “What did I miss?” I asked her.

  “We can’t get our stuff off one bus and onto another when the second bus isn’t here yet, so we’re stuck waiting some more.” I nodded in understanding. She held up a coffee cup I hadn’t noticed before. “But at least now we have time to finish our drinks.”

  Smirking at her comment, I looked back down at my phone. My grin rapidly fell. Even with all the travel discounts, including some I learned through my degree program in travel and tourism, the car rental was going to be expensive. So much for that extra five hundred dollars, but thank goodness I had it to use.

  “What’s wrong?” Robin asked.

  “Why are one-way rentals so expensive?

  “Does this mean what I think it means?” She smiled, her eyebrows raised in delight.

  “You’re right. I can’t leave Trouble. So now I need to figure out how to get him home. I expected to have to pay something extra, but I never would have thought there would be such a heavy fee to rent a car to go only one way. Three hundred dollars? Oof.”

  Robin’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “And what if you had some help with the cost?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “What do you mean?” Was there some sort of animal adoption grant I wasn’t aware of? I doubted it. And that was another thing I hadn’t even thought about. The adoption fees. I’d downloaded the form but hadn’t had the chance to read the terms yet. Then there was the carrier to take him home in. And cat food. And what if he needed to use the litter box during the drive? This was becoming more expensive by the minute. I’d be able to redo my budget to afford Trouble’s care once we got home, but if I hadn’t won that money in the casino, I wouldn’t have had enough to get him there in the first place.

  “While the man’s death is unfortunate,” Robin began, “I’m not so traumatized that I couldn’t get back on the bus. However, I’m not really feeling the cramped space. I’ve enjoyed this time stretching my legs, so Ben and I are renting a car to go back home. If you and Trouble want to come along, you’re more than welcome.”

  “Really? That would be amazing, and I’d be more than happy to pay you my share of the rental fee. It isn’t cheap, you know.”

  She held up her hand to stop me. “Oh no, that’s quite all right. I already talked it over with Ben. Had a feeling you’d take Trouble home. We have plenty of travel miles that we can use to redeem a car, even one going only one way. We put everything on our credit card and pay it off each month so that we can get the bonus miles. Besides, you need to save your money for things that Trouble is going to need.”

  I was so happy I could have hugged the woman, but although I knew her from town, I didn’t think that I knew her that well. “Please let me at least pay for snacks for the road or something. And you’re sure you don’t mind traveling with the cat?”

  “Do you think this is the first cat I’ve ever been a part of rescuing while on a trip? I should tell you about my Luna sometime.” She chuckled. “It will be fine.”

  At that moment, the new bus pulled up in front of the café. There was an immediate rush to the door, but I wasn’t going to fight the crowd. Instead, I went to the counter to tell the baristas the good news.

  After several minutes, I made it outside and beelined to Officer Duvall to say I would not be getting back on the bus and gave him a description of what my suitcase looked like. A lime-green suitcase would be hard to miss as everything was transferred from one bus to another.

  While I waited, I filled out the application to adopt Trouble, clicking Submit right when one of the other officers wheeled my suitcase toward me. I scooted it up against the building to get it out of the way, then continued to wait for the one bag that was still on the bus.

  When everything was out of the lower compartment of the bus, the responding officers set up a bucket brigade through the aisle of the original bus. They systematically removed our bags, starting with those at the back. As things came off, the line grew shorter with each row they moved closer to the front.

  After a few more minutes, Grant approached me with my tote full of regional and specialty foods, including some samples to take back to my boss.

  “I’ve already put in the order for the replacement of your candy. It should get to your house in about ten days.”

  My spine prickled at the statement. I hadn’t given him my information. “How?”

  “I have good investigational skills.” He cracked a smile. “You gave us your name and address getting off the bus, remember? And I looked at the candy label to find out what they were. Figured I’d take care of it in case it got forgotten because of the cat.”

  As my shoulders relaxed, I said, “Right. Thank you. I was looking forward to trying those.”

  “And you will. A bit delayed is all. Thanks for turning them over.”

  “Not that you’ll find cyanide in them, I’m sure.”

  He pressed his lips together. “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  I squinted at him. “You wouldn’t have ordered them for me if you thought they might be contaminated.”

  “You’ve got some good reasoning skills there. Maybe you should think about becoming an investigator. Need more of that.”

  “Me? Ha! No, I’ll stick to my baking and blogging.” I held up the tote he’d passed me. “Thanks for taking care of the replacement candies. Looks like we’ll be going our separate ways soon. I’d say it was nice to meet you, but given the circumstances, maybe it was weird to meet you would be better.”

  He nodded, and with that, I turned around, grabbed my suitcase, and walked back inside.

  Gemma looked up from the counter as I entered. “We put a call into the rescue to speed things along. They’re reviewing your application now and will have an official answer soon. But really, it’s all a formality at this point. They’re relieved he won’t have to go back to the shelter. So I guess I should say, congratulations!”

  “We usually do mousse mice to celebrate, but since you already had one, is there something else you’d like?” Amy asked.

  “How about another iced coffee?” I glanced at the menu. “A cookies and cream latte this time. Gotta stay hydrated for the trip home!”

  “Great!” Gemma grabbed a p
lastic cup from the stack.

  “Thanks. I’m going to go tell Trouble the good news. Back in a few minutes.”

  I pulled my suitcase across the café and down the hall to the exam room where Trouble was.

  Fortunately, this time, he was in the room. Asleep. On the keyboard of my laptop.

  “Trubbs,” I whispered loudly. His ear twitched, and I tried again. This time, he looked up. “Great news! You’re coming home with me!”

  He slid his front paws off my laptop in a long stretch before fully standing and then walked off the keyboard. I winced at the noise of my keys being pressed, but that was what I got for leaving it open. Trubbs ambled over to me and sat at my feet, looking up at me then giving me a slow blink as if to say “Good.” Then he stretched up onto the suitcase next to me, extending his claws and digging them into the bag. Thank goodness it was old, but I’d have to consider getting hard-sided luggage whenever I had to replace this set.

  “All right, let’s see what trouble you may have caused.” I picked my laptop off the floor and set it on the exam table. My heart fell to my stomach as I saw the pop-up window asking if I was sure I wanted to delete the photo. Had he deleted any before this one?

  I clicked the No button, and the pop-up vanished, revealing my smiling face. It was the selfie I’d taken while sitting at the casino after I’d won my $500 at the slot machine. But that wasn’t what I was focused on.

  I had to show this to the police.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Stay right here,” I ordered Trouble, pouring every ounce of seriousness into my voice. The last thing I wanted was for him to get out again when he was so close to being mine. I’d never be allowed to take him home if I let him escape.

  He thumped hard onto his bum, finally releasing my poor suitcase. Pulls from his claws were already evident in the fabric. Not important. What was important was getting this photo to the cops and Trouble staying put.