A Mew Beginning

by Kathi Daley

  “I can do that,” Tara said. “I’ll call them today and make an appointment to speak to someone.”

  “And I have a couple of buddies who are contractors,” Danny said. “I’ll see if they’d do a rough workup of costs to rebuild. It won’t be exact at this point, but we should be able to get a number to shoot for.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the look of adoration Tara sent Danny. Oh yeah, things were definitely back on.

  “I guess we should bring both Cassie and Willow up to speed,” I said. “I know Cassie will be at the bar later, but I’ll call Willow and explain the situation.” Willow was our part-time employee.

  “What are we going to do if the bank won’t give us a loan to rebuild?” Tara asked.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess for now all we can do is gather all the facts and all the numbers, and then take it from there.”

  The five of us spoke a while longer, and then Cody and I headed back toward the newspaper. He had some work he needed to finish up before we left for the day. I had to admit I was having a hard time really grasping the situation. From the moment the bookstore had blown up, I’d just assumed that we’d repair it and get on with our lives. Never once had I considered that Coffee Cat Books might be gone for good.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Cody said, pulling me into his arms once we’d arrived at his truck. “We’ll figure something out.”

  “I know. I’m not worried.” I paused. “Well, I guess that isn’t true. I am worried, but it’s early, and I know we really have no reason to give up hope. I just feel bad for Tara. Coffee Cat Books was our joint idea, but it has always been her baby. She’s the one who put the most work into it. She’s the one who made it successful. I actually love coming to work with you at the newspaper, probably even more than I enjoyed working at the bookstore, but Tara doesn’t have anything to fall back on the way I do.”

  “She seems to have Danny,” Cody pointed out.

  I nodded. “Yes. She seems to have Danny. At least for today. But given their past…”

  “Yeah,” Cody said. “I know what you’re saying.” He opened the door to the truck and helped me in before going around to the driver’s side. “Whatever happens with the loan, we’ll make sure Tara is okay,” Cody said. “She’s family, and family takes care of their own.”

  Chapter 5

  I called Willow as we drove back toward the newspaper. She lived with a man named Alex Turner who was the son of a very rich man named Balthazar Pottage, so she wasn’t worried about the loss of income, but she did say that she missed Tara and me, and she really missed hanging out at the bookstore three days a week. I promised we’d do a better job of getting together for lunch every single week and then encouraged her to hang in there.

  Cody pulled up in front of the newspaper, and we both got out. I was the first to arrive at the front door. I expected it to be locked and was surprised to find it open.

  “Cody, did you forget to lock the door?” I asked.

  “No. I specifically remember checking the doors and windows before I left.”

  “Well, it’s unlocked.” I looked at the local sheriff’s office next door, which is where Finn kept an office. “I think we should get Finn. The last time I found the door open and went in anyway, it didn’t turn out so well.”

  “Yeah,” Cody said. “I agree that we should get Finn before going in, but I don’t see his car. Let’s check his office. If he isn’t there, we’ll wait in the truck until he can get back here.”

  As it turned out, Finn wasn’t in his office, but he was only about ten minutes away. He told us not to go in and to wait in the truck, which we already planned to do. Cody had ordered an alarm and upgraded security system for the newspaper, but we were weeks away from anyone being able to install it. If these break-ins were going to continue, however, I guess we’d need to find someone who could do it sooner.

  Finn pulled up on the street behind us. He pulled out his gun, told us to wait, and then went inside. He came out a few minutes later and told us the coast was clear. He gave us each a pair of gloves, and then the three of us went inside to see what was missing.

  Cody and I slowly walked through each room, opening drawers and cupboards. We checked the computers and files and did a brief examination of the newspapers in the morgue.

  “I don’t see anything missing,” Cody said after we’d walked through the entire building.

  “Are you sure?” Finn asked.

  “As sure as I can be without more time to go through everything,” Cody said.

  “Why would someone break in here not once but twice and not take anything?” Finn asked.

  “I have no idea,” Cody admitted. “Cait and I can take a better look around later, but based on a cursory investigation, I really don’t see a single thing missing.”

  Finn went to the door and looked at the lock. “We really do need to get your security system upgraded.”

  “I have a guy coming by to do just that, but he couldn’t come for a few weeks. I guess we can add deadlocks to the doors in the meantime.”

  “I think that is a must at the very least.” Finn looked around. “This isn’t a hard lock to pick, and this isn’t a busy street. Both times the newspaper was broken into, the newspaper and my office next door were empty. The building that used to house the post office is empty as well now that the post office moved, so I can see how someone would be able to get in without being seen, but again, I’m back to why.”

  “I have no idea,” Cody said.

  Finn picked up his cell and made a call. After he hung up, he looked at Cody and me. “I’ve got someone coming over to dust for prints. The two of you may as well go on home. We’ll be working in here for at least several hours.”

  Cody grabbed his laptop and some files he needed, then the two of us headed back toward Mr. Parsons’ house. When we arrived, I found Mystique sitting on the front step.

  “I’m so glad you showed up,” I said, picking the cat up and scratching her beneath the chin. “I was worried about you.”

  “Meow.”

  When I opened the front door, my dog, Max, and Mr. Parsons’ dog, Rambler, greeted us. Mystique didn’t seem frightened by the dogs. She glanced at them with a look of superior disdain and then basically ignored them. Once we were safely inside, I set her down. She continued to ignore the dogs as she trotted down the hallway like she owned the place.

  “Who do we have here?” Mr. Parsons asked when I entered the room. Mystique was already settled onto his lap, and both cat and homeowner looked content.

  “That’s Mystique. She’s the cat who found Finn for me when I was tied up.”

  “Well, thank you very much, little lady.” Mystique looked thrilled to have Mr. Parsons’ attention. “She is, of course, welcome to stay as long as she wants, but I’m afraid I don’t have supplies for a cat.”

  “I’ll go next door and get everything we need,” I offered.

  Finn and Siobhan, as well as my younger sister, Cassie, lived on the adjoining estate, which was also home to the Harthaven Cat Sanctuary. When I’d lived in the cabin currently occupied by Cassie, I’d always had cat supplies on hand, but we hadn’t had any visiting cats since Cody and I had moved in full-time with Mr. Parsons, so I hadn’t brought anything over yet.

  “This little lady and I are happy to hang out together while you get what you need,” Mr. Parsons offered.

  I decided to walk next door to get a cat box, a small bag of litter, and a small bag of cat food. If I needed additional supplies, I could get them later. As I entered the cat sanctuary, I was greeted by some of the current residents. The sanctuary was founded by my Aunt Maggie after the mayor at the time, Mayor Bradley, pushed through a law that made it legal for residents to use any means necessary to remove feral cats from their property. Mayor Bradley hated the island’s feral cats, and I think he hoped the residents would join him in his campaign to exterminate the felines, but Maggie had another idea and provided the reside
nts with a humane option.

  Initially, the cat sanctuary was full to capacity with both those cats who were deemed untamable and would need to be lifelong residents and those cats who were strays but had the potential to be rehabilitated and rehomed. I spent a lot of time taking those we hoped to find homes for to clinics in Seattle until the cat lounge in Coffee Cat Books opened, providing us a much easier way to showcase the cats.

  Additionally, since the inception of the cat sanctuary, Mayor Bradley had passed away, and Siobhan had taken over as mayor. She’d repealed the laws enacted by Bradley, which put safeguards for the feral cats on the island back into place. Now that the cats were once again protected, most of the cats roamed the island freely, some cats just couldn’t seem to coexist with humans, so the sanctuary continued to play a vital role for those cats who became a nuisance and needed to find a home.

  As of the time of the bombing, the cat sanctuary had been empty except for those cats we’d deemed lifelong residents. I was actually importing cats and kittens from other shelters to feature in the lounge until the moment a madman decided to end everything.

  I knew that without the cat lounge to drive adoptions, the sanctuary would eventually fill back up, and I’d be back to transporting cats to Seattle to find homes. I supposed in my mind, reopening the cat lounge was an even more urgent need than reopening the bookstore.

  Once I had greeted all the cats and cuddled those who would let me, I took my supplies and headed back to Mr. Parsons’ house. I set up the cat box in the laundry room Cody and I shared with Mr. Parsons. I also made sure Mystique had free access to the entire house so she could visit with Mr. Parsons and have access to her cat box, food, and water. Then I grabbed both dogs and set out for a long run, which I hoped would chase away the anxiety that was continuing to build in the back of my mind.

  Running had always been my escape; my release from the stressors in my life. I’d been a runner since I was a teen and supposed I’d continue to be one until I was no longer physically able. I was lucky to have a beautiful beach and gently rolling waves as my companion as I settled into a steady rhythm with the dogs running side by side just in front of me.

  I took several deep breaths and tried to focus my mind. I still wasn’t sure exactly what it was that had me the most bothered. I supposed that I did have reason to be stressed given the fact that I’d been knocked unconscious and tied to a chair, and I’d found out that the bookstore and cat lounge Tara and I had built with pure grit and determination might not be reopened as I’d expected, but I felt that my anxiety was related to something other than either of those events.

  I glanced down at my feet as they made contact with the damp sand. Left, right, left, right, I thought to myself as I tried to quiet my mind. It was a beautiful sunny day. The seagulls were milling around, looking for an afternoon snack as an eagle sat in a nearby tree, watching everything that was going on. The waves gently rolled to the shore, barely causing a ripple. I used to love to sit on the deck of my cabin and watch the sea as it changed its mood and tempo with the tide. I supposed part of my emotional duress could be because of my change in residence, which had brought with it a change in everyday patterns and habits. Cody had offered to build me a small cottage with a deck on Mr. Parsons’ property where I could watch the sunrises and sunsets and listen to the steady rhythm of the waves. Maybe a small cottage at our new residence wasn’t all that bad an idea. Our apartment in the mansion was really gorgeous, but somehow, with the house set back from the sea, it really wasn’t the same. Of course, once we had children, we’d need the extra rooms we had in the big house, but for now, a little getaway for just Cody and me sounded like the exact thing I needed to really feel at home.

  I had slowed to a walk when my phone buzzed. I took it out of my pocket and answered. “Hey, Cody. What’s up?”

  “Finn called, and he found a few things he wants to ask us about. He wondered if we could head over to the newspaper to talk with him.”

  I looked behind me. “I’m about fifteen minutes from the house. I’ll head back. I’ll need to shower and dress, so you might let Finn know it will be awhile. If he needs someone to come by right away, you can go on ahead, and I can meet you there.”

  “Okay, I’ll call him back and see what he thinks. I’ll text you after I speak to him.”

  I slipped my phone back in my pocket, called to the dogs, and headed back in the direction from which I’d come. I really hoped Finn could figure out who had been breaking into the newspaper. I was certain I wouldn’t feel safe until this particular individual was behind bars.

  Chapter 6

  Finn was sitting at the reception desk waiting for Cody and me when we arrived at the newspaper. The men he had taking fingerprints and looking for physical evidence had all left by this point, so other than the crackle of Finn’s radio, the place was quiet.

  “You found something?” I asked as soon as we walked in the door.

  Finn stood up. “I’m not sure. Maybe.” He walked down the hallway, and Cody and I followed. Once he’d entered the morgue, he stood looking at the walls of shelves. Each shelf was divided into cubbyholes of sorts, and each cubbyhole held six months-worth of newspapers. Each section was labeled as January to June or July to December, followed by the year. “So each of these little sections of shelving holds twenty-six newspapers?” Finn asked.

  “Approximately,” Cody answered. “Orson did a special edition a few times, and depending on how the day of the week fell, there are a few sections with twenty-seven newspapers. Why do you ask?”

  Finn walked over to the back wall. “All the shelving holding the older editions of the newspaper are pretty dusty. Didn’t you have to remove the newspapers when you checked to see if any were missing?”

  “No, we didn’t need to remove them. We knew how many newspapers were supposed to be on each shelf and then just counted them, but I guess we should have taken the time to dust. It really does need to be seen to at some point.”

  “It may be a good thing that you hadn’t actually dusted or removed the newspapers,” Finn said. “He pointed to a section of the wall about halfway up on the right side. “The dust in front of the newspapers stored in these three sections of shelving has been disturbed. The dates listed on these shelving sections are January to June nineteen ninety-six, July to December nineteen ninety-six, and January to June nineteen ninety-seven.”

  “So you’re thinking that whoever broke in was looking for something relating to an event that occurred between January of nineteen ninety-six and June of nineteen ninety-seven,” I said.

  “It’s a theory, assuming, of course, that one of you hasn’t removed the newspapers from these sections in the past few weeks.”

  “I haven’t,” I said. I looked at Cody. He shook his head.

  “Is one of the newspapers missing?” Cody asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Finn said. “I checked, and there are twenty-six in each section, so unless there was a special edition, they should all be here.”

  “So someone just wanted to look at the newspapers,” I said.

  “It seems that way,” Finn confirmed.

  “If someone wanted to look at one of the newspapers from this period, why didn’t they just come to the front desk and ask to look at them?” Cody asked. “We do allow people to look at them as long as they do so here on the premises.”

  “I don’t know,” Finn admitted. “That would make more sense than breaking in to take a look, but to this point, all we have is the disturbed dust to go on. We haven’t found anything else that would explain why someone would break in.”

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked.

  “I guess we look at each and every page in each and every newspaper on those shelves and try to figure out what it was this person was after,” Cody suggested.

  I had a feeling we were in for a long night, but if going through all the newspapers with a fine-tooth comb would give us a clue as to why someone might have wanted to break in,
I was up for it. I still wondered why the man or woman who’d broken in hadn’t just asked to look at the newspapers, but perhaps they hadn’t wanted anyone to know about whatever it was they were interested in. I also wondered why they didn’t just take whichever newspaper they were after rather than putting everything back, but I supposed they had their reasons for doing that as well. For all we knew, they hadn’t even been after the newspapers and moving them was just a coincidence or done to mislead us.

  “How are we supposed to know which article this person was looking for, assuming someone had been looking for something specific?” I asked as I began my page-by-page inspection of the first newspaper in my stack.

  “I have no idea,” Finn said. “I guess we can eliminate ads as well as articles about bake sales, kiddie league games, and arts and crafts fairs. We should make notes if we come across anything really newsworthy such as a murder, suspicious auto accident, burglary spree, that sort of thing.”

  “The body of a man named Garwood Fielder was found on the side of the road along the old sawmill road on the north shore in August of nineteen ninety-six,” Cody said. “The man had been shot, but as of the time this article was written, the person who’d shot him had still not been identified.”

  “That seems like the sort of thing we’ll want to take a closer look at,” Finn said. “Let’s start a stack of editions to revisit. Once we go through everything, we can take a second look at the newspapers in that stack.”

  I was only seven years old in nineteen ninety-six, so chances are I wouldn’t remember anything about any of the incidents we ended up finding. I wondered if it would be worthwhile to bring up the time frame to someone older who might remember if there had been anything significant going on. Perhaps my mother or Aunt Maggie, who’d both always been very involved in everything taking place on the island.