by Molly Fitz
I reached over and stroked Pringle’s fur. If I closed my eyes, it almost felt like he was my missing friend. Instead of purring, he made a soft chattering noise.
“You know,” he said after a while. “I’ve been thinking that perhaps we should start planning Octavius’s welcome home party now. That way we’re ready whenever he turns up.”
“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you think it over and then get back to me with what we need?”
“It would be my pleasure.” Pringle showed me his toothy, slightly scary smile and then hobbled out through the cat door to begin his preparations.
I clutched the ransom note to my chest and sent up a prayer for Octo-Cat’s safe return. There were so many people—and animals—who loved him, who missed him, and needed him home.
Chapter Thirteen
I couldn’t sleep for the rest of that night. Instead, I hung out in the living room with all the lights off as I watched the yard, hoping our mystery ransom note writer might make a second appearance.
I must have nodded off at some point, because the next thing I knew, Nan was pressing a warm mug of coffee into my hands and telling me to “Sit up and catch me up on whatever it is I missed.”
“What? Oh.” I struggled to straighten myself on the stiff couch, but everything hurt. If the catnapper had made another appearance last night, then I’d surely missed it. Darn me and my biorhythms.
“Someone slipped this under the door,” I informed Nan after finding the letter on the floor near my feet and handing it to her.
She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Well, someone isn’t playing very fair. Are they?”
Suddenly, I couldn’t keep it in any longer. I’d tried so hard to be strong, and for what? My stiff upper lip wasn’t bringing Octo-Cat home.
And so I cried.
Nan took my coffee mug away and set it on the end table, then wrapped me in a hug and made soft shushing noises.
“Do you think they’d really do what they’re threatening?” I sobbed, letting all my worry and anxiety overtake me at last. “That they’d kill Octo-Cat?”
Nan stroked my hair as she spoke. Her words came out soft but determined, true. “In my many years on this earth, I’ve learned one very important lesson, and I’ve learned it more than once, I’m afraid.”
She sucked in a deep breath, and I pulled away from her embrace so we now sat face-to-face.
“Crazy people will do anything if they think it will help them reach their crazy goals,” she said sagely.
This was not the answer I’d wanted to hear.
Nan reached forward and brushed her wrinkled fingers against my cheek, picking up a tear on one of her fingertips. “I’ve learned another thing, too. People will do anything to save their own hides. And I bet that goes for cats, too. Don’t count that cat of ours out yet. He’s a survivor.”
“Yeah, and he still has four lives left. At least according to him,” I added with a sad chuckle, pressing my face against her soft sweater and allowing it to offer some measure of comfort in this painful moment.
“That he does,” Nan said as she squeezed me with surprising strength. One day I endeavored to be as fit as my nan. Just maybe not today. “So what’s the plan? What do we do next?”
I’d had a lot of time to think about our next steps as I staked out the living room last night. Ultimately, I realized that even if the forest animals didn’t know what had happened to Octo-Cat, they might still be our best chance of finding him again. Whoever had taken him probably didn’t know I could speak with animals, so they wouldn’t be on the lookout for my special crew of furry helpers.
“I know that look,” Nan said with a huge, relieved grin. “You already have it all worked out. So go ahead. Catch your dear old nan up.”
“I haven’t worked everything out yet, but I do have a pretty good idea,” I said, twisting my back to try to rid it of the kinks I’d developed last night. “C’mon, I’ll tell you all together.”
We both slipped on shoes and charged out of the house toward the forest. Nan didn’t even question it. Perhaps a part of her already knew what I’d decided.
Maple found us as soon as we reached the tree line. “Hey, it’s the peanut butter lady!” she cried from her perch on a low tree branch. “Hi, peanut butter lady!”
I bit my lip and widened my eyes, then exchanged a look with Nan while waiting for Maple to calm down enough to talk to her.
“Hi, Maple,” I said with a quick, friendly wave. “My name’s Angie by the way. You know, in case you forgot. Have you seen Pringle around this morning?”
Her little squirrel nose twitched and then she hopped onto another nearby tree branch. “Pringle!” she screamed. “The peanut butter lady needs you! Maybe she has more peanut butter to give us.”
Maple raced back toward the thick tree trunk and scampered down to the ground at lightning speed. “Do you have more peanut butter?” she asked, pushing both hands down onto my shoe again and again, almost like she was performing CPR on my toes.
“I might,” I answered in a sing-song voice. “But first bring me Pringle, please.”
“Roger that!” Maple bounded into the woods, leaving me and Nan waiting at the edge of the forest.
“What did that cute critter say?” Nan whispered once Maple was out of view.
I chuckled. Despite her faults, Maple was growing on me as well. If she actually managed to carry out this plan and help us get Octo-Cat back, then I’d make sure I hooked her up with free peanut butter for life. “She wants peanut butter,” I explained, “and everything she says pretty much traces back to that one thing.”
Nan gasped affectionately. “Oh, then why didn’t we bring some with us?”
I shook my head and kept my eyes focused on the trees before us. “Believe me, I’ve already made that mistake once. As soon as she has her peanut butter, she forgets everything else in the world. I need her to focus long enough to help with our plan. She can have her treat after.”
Sure enough, Maple appeared again and zipped past us, running back toward the house. “Be right back!” she cried in an excited squeak.
We watched as Maple approached our front porch and then stopped right in front of it. A big gray fluffball climbed out from underneath and blinked in the sunlight.
“I didn’t realize he lived so close to us,” Nan said as we both watched the wily squirrel lead the dazed raccoon over to us.
“Neither did I,” I grumbled. He must have chewed a hole somewhere to get under there, and I was not happy about the unexpected damage to my already hard-to-maintain house.
“Blessed morning, Lady Angela,” Pringle crooned once he and Maple had made their way back to us. So we were still doing the whole medieval thing. Okay.
Even though I preferred reading mysteries and true crime, I’d worked my way through enough fantasy novels to emulate his grandiose speaking patterns.
“And good morrow to you, Sir Pringle.” I paused and gave a quick curtsy. Oh, brother. “We come to you today with a most noble quest.”
“Why is the peanut butter lady talking all funny?” Maple squeaked but was quickly shushed by the raccoon who was still doing his best to remain in character.
“Yes. Octavius.” Pringle confirmed his understanding with a nod.
“It’s time we brought him home. Are you and your squire up to the task?” I shifted my gaze toward Maple. As flighty as the little squirrel had proven to be, I was hoping Pringle could do a good job keeping her in line. We’d need both animals to carry out my plan.
“Might I choose my own squire?” Pringle asked with a faltering grin. I couldn’t say I blamed him. The raccoon appeared to be of near human intelligence, while the squirrel… well… She sure was cute!
“Goodly Maple will serve you well,” I said with a curt nod, then brought one hand up to my mouth and whispered, “Besides, I happen to know she’ll do anything for peanut butter.”
The squirrel’s ears perked up at this, but she remained ble
ssedly quiet.
Pringle bowed his head, whether in defeat or humble acquiescence I couldn’t quite say. But he said, “Then reveal your plan to us, and we shall make it so.”
Okay, it was show time.
Let’s hope my harebrained plan was enough to bring our boy home safe.
Chapter Fourteen
Nan and I sat down cross-legged in the grass, and the two animals settled down across from us.
“Okay, here’s what I’m thinking…” I said, then launched into a winded explanation of my new plan.
“Oh, we should get a pet GPS tracker,” Nan added. “I’ve heard, uh, good things about them.” She beamed at me as if I’d just crowned her Ms. Maine. Weird.
“Sure, we can pick one of those up this afternoon,” I conceded. It was a good suggestion, but also pretty high tech for a woman who’d only just begun to send and receive text messages.
“Also get some peanut butter while you’re out,” Maple suggested rather unhelpfully.
“First results, then rewards,” Pringle scolded his squirrel squire. Yup, this raccoon was definitely a keeper.
I reached out and gave him a high five, and thanks to his constant human surveillance, Pringle knew just what to do. He may have worshipped Octo-Cat, but he clearly knew more than the idol of his affections.
“That’s right,” I said, exchanging my goofy grin for a granite jaw and narrowed eyes. “Nothing is more important than bringing Octo-Cat home. Nothing. Not even peanut butter.”
Maple gasped.
Pringle cheered.
Nan looked confused but still quite enthusiastic. “What’s my role in all this, dear?” she asked, once everyone had quieted again.
This was the tough part. I didn’t technically need Nan to carry out my plan, but I knew better than to exclude her.
“You’ll keep running command central, and you can help me stay awake tonight, too. Also wardrobe. You’re definitely in charge of wardrobe.”
She appeared pleased by this. “I’ll make cocoa and call the guys.”
Ugh, not this again. Why couldn’t she have become obsessed with my lack of a love life some other time? It’s not as if I were newly single. It had always just been me against the world.
I shook my head emphatically. “The guys? No. We don’t need Cal and Charles for this.”
Nan elbowed me in the ribs. “They’re nice distractions, though. Eh?”
I just rolled my eyes rather than dignify her ill-timed matchmaking efforts with a response. “Does everyone understand what they need to do?”
“Yes,” Nan and Pringle said in unison. Both looked ready for action.
Maple, however, raised her tiny brown hand. “Um, I forgot,” she squeaked meekly.
“It’s okay, kid. Come with me and I’ll catch you up.” Pringle stood on all fours and motioned for the squirrel to follow him back to his under-porch apartment. It looked like we were done playing knights of the round table now—and for that, I was very thankful, indeed.
“I do love a good stakeout,” Nan confided in me as we made our way back to the house. “You get the GPS tracker, and I’ll head to the supermarket to pick up some snacks and drinks for our little get-together tonight.”
I stopped walking and stared at my grandmother. “Are you really going to invite the guys? This isn’t exactly a social event. At least it shouldn’t be.”
Nan traced her way back to me and wrapped me in a hug. “I know that, dear, but it helps to have good friends by your side when the going gets tough.”
Well, I couldn’t exactly argue with her there. “Okay,” I said, hoping I wouldn’t be too embarrassed by whatever she had planned for the evening.
Then again, this was Nan we were dealing with…
Of course I was going to be embarrassed.
Our stakeout party began at ten that night. Pringle had explained the plan to Maple at least a couple dozen times, and they’d even run test drills both with and without the pet GPS.
Charles and Cal came over right at ten, taking care to hide their vehicles around back. Our entire plan hinged on the ransom note writer coming back that night, and we needed him to assume that the house lay quiet and empty, which meant our party was now taking place in the pitch dark without even a candle to light the room.
We kept our voices low, too, as we whispered and conversed with each other. The whole thing was strangely intimate. We all wore comfortable black sweats—provided by Nan, of course—and sipped warm thermoses of hot cocoa—also provided by Nan.
“Are you sure the person is going to come back tonight?” Cal asked from my left.
“He has to, since he didn’t leave any way for Angie to get in touch,” Charles answered from my right.
They both sat close enough for me to feel their body heat as it crashed into mine. It didn’t escape my notice that these were the two most handsome men I knew now—or had ever known, really. One had brains for days while the other was all brawn. Both had huge hearts, but there in the dark, without their good looks to distract me, I knew there was only one man my heart craved.
And he was the one who was already taken.
Because that’s how my life worked. Darn.
“Are you nervous?” Charles whispered in my ear.
“More excited than nervous,” I answered, wondering if he felt little zips of electricity jump between us, too.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. We were so close that I felt the vibrations, too. “It’s Breanne,” he said, pushing a button to send the call straight to voicemail.
A small, petty part inside me did a cartwheel. He was choosing me over her. At least for this. At least for right now.
Around eleven thirty, a sound from outside drew everyone’s attention toward the window.
“Shhh,” I reminded them all. “We have to hang back, stay out of sight, and trust in the plan now.”
“Yes, the plan will set us free,” Nan whisper-yelled.
Poor Cal still didn’t know I could talk to animals. He thought the plan involved high-tech video cameras and a sophisticated booby trap. Little did he know that one nocturnal raccoon was watching carefully from his spot beneath the porch, and one forgetful but lithe squirrel was already equipped with a GPS and ready to hurl herself into our mysterious catnapper’s car the moment the raccoon gave the okay.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, Pringle charged through the cat door to alert us that the plan was underway.
“C’mon, Cal. Why don’t you help me in the kitchen?” Nan guided him away before he could set sights on the newly arrived raccoon visitor holding a second ransom note between his paws.
“Good work, Pringle.” I grabbed the note and patted him on the head, then Charles and I burst out into the night. We’d already agreed that he would drive, and I’d navigate by following the tiny tracking dot attached to Maple, who had already stowed away in the car and was now being driven to who knew where.
As curious as I was, I didn’t even glance at the new ransom note. Instead, I focused on following that blinking dot, hoping it would take us to Octo-Cat and end this whole terrible ordeal once and for all.
Charles drove effortlessly as I called out each turn. We weren’t far behind the catnapper now. Soon the three of us would come face-to-face, and I’d be able to demand answers to my many, many questions.
“This is weird,” Charles muttered as we pulled into a sleepy suburb. “I know someone who lives here.”
“Yeah, well, Glendale is a pretty small town. Most of us do,” I said, staring at the phone so that I wouldn’t miss a single beat.
“Charles,” I shouted in excitement. “The dot stopped!”
This was it. We were getting our boy back, and we were getting him back now.
“Where?” he asked, a darkness I didn’t understand overtaking his features.
“Just a few driveways ahead. Looks like it’s the—”
“Yellow Cape Cod?” he asked at the same time he pulled into the driveway and transitioned us to
park.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” I asked in shock. Was he just a good guesser, or—?
“This is Breanne’s house,” he revealed with a low growl from deep in his throat.
Uh-oh.
Chapter Fifteen
I jumped out of the car before Charles even had time to put it fully in park. I caught up with the red-headed realtor on her porch step and yanked on her purse strap until she was finally forced to turn around and face me. “Where’s my cat, you…? You… You… Breanne!”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped back, foisting her designer purse from my grip.
Oh, I wanted to do a whole lot more than touch her. I wasn’t really a slapper, but I would have happily ground her expensive, showy purse into the mud. I only held back due to the urgent need to get to my cat. Was he inside? Had Breanne had him this whole time? So many questions.
“Where is he?” I boomed, taking great satisfaction in how rattled my nemesis looked in that moment. If I kept pushing, she’d crack, easy. “Give him to me right now and nobody gets hurt.”
She took a step back and pressed herself against the door. “What are you talking about?” she ground out, looking at me as if I’d gone crazy even though all of this was most definitely her fault and not mine.
I took a step closer and got right in her face, so close I could smell her cloying lip gloss. Gross. “Don’t play dumb. I know it’s you who’s been slipping ransom notes under my door. We followed you here, too. Didn’t we, Charles?” I turned back toward my friend, who remained standing by his car, seemingly unable to speak.
“Let me in!” I screamed. “Let me in right now!”
But Breanne stood firm with both arms crossed over her chest. “No. Go away!”
Thankfully, Charles finally snapped out of whatever funk he was in and marched right over, then stepped around us and pushed the door open.
“How could you?” he asked his horrible, no-good girlfriend, but I didn’t stick around to hear her answer.