by Molly Fitz
Thankfully, it only took five minutes for the twins to return.
“The occupant checked out,” Cal explained with a sad shake of his head. “And we were so close, too. I’m sorry, Angie.”
Nan patted Cal on the bicep. “That’s okay, dear. Did they give us a name?”
“No, they wouldn’t,” Bree seethed. “Some ridiculous code of privacy or something.”
Angry tears burned at my eyes and throat. “Now what?” I screamed at the closed door.
Charles and Nan hugged me from either side, which apparently was enough to send Bree tip-tapping out of there on her impossibly high heels. “It’s been swell,” she said, waving as she walked away. “Keep me posted. Or, you know, don’t. Whatever.”
“What a piece of work, that one. You know I never did much care for her,” a smooth, haughty voice informed us from below.
“Not now, Octo-Cat,” I murmured. “We have to figure out what we’re going to do next.”
Wait… Was that…? Oh!
My head snapped up, and I ran to the edge of the outdoor hallway so fast I practically tumbled straight over the edge.
“Watch it there,” Charles cried, looping his arms around my waist and catching me just in time.
But I didn’t care about the fact my crush held me tight or that I’d almost fallen a full story. All I cared about was the blurry, brown-and-black-striped figure that sat in the small courtyard below, regarding me irritably.
“You know…” Octo-Cat said slowly, his way of making sure I understood. “I’ve been gone for three whole days. That’s three whole days drinking tap water and choking down store brand cat food. Three days without my iPad or cat door. Do you know how much I’ve suffered? Honestly, Angela, what took you so long?”
I choked on a sob and jabbed Charles with my elbow. “Give me twenty bucks,” I said, holding out my hand.
“Are you going to take me home now?” Octo-Cat demanded. “I’m not stepping paw on that dirty cement again, and I’ve had more than enough of an adventure for this week, thank you very much.”
I wiped my nose on the back of my arm and ran down the stairs. When I reached Octo-Cat, I scooped him up into my arms and squeezed him to my chest.
“Gross!” he protested. “I just finished my mid-day ministrations, and now you’ve gone and wiped your germs all on me. Unhand me, you filthy human. Unhand me right now.”
I set him back on the grass and laughed like a crazy person. I didn’t care what anyone thought. This was one of the very best days of my entire life. Octo-Cat was here, and he was no worse for the wear—no matter what he claimed. I did wonder, though…
I stared into his glinting amber eyes as I asked, “How are you here on your own? Where’s the person who took you?”
My tabby jumped up onto a nearby bench seat and waved his paw around dramatically. Whatever he was about to say, it was sure to be entertaining and to overexaggerate his importance. Ahh, it was so good to have him back.
Octo-Cat smiled as he launched into his harrowing tale. “Well, she was leaving in a hurry a couple hours back. She tried to take me with her, but I let these babies out, and—”
Schwink. His claws popped out in all their menacing glory.
“Let’s just say I won that particular fight.” He laughed in that favorite villainous way of his.
“You said she. Do you know who took you? Was it a woman?”
He shrugged his adorable little kitty shoulders. “It was definitely a person I’ve seen before. I’m pretty sure it was one of Ethel’s relatives, and I am at least sixty percent sure the person was a female.”
I patted him between his ears. “Good work.” He still had a hard time telling humans apart, but he was getting better. Slowly but surely, he was getting better, and he was back with me where we belonged.
“Um, Angie?” Charles said, approaching with Nan and Cal at either side. “We can still make the arbitration, if you want to—”
“Let’s do it,” I said.
Now that I had my best friend at my side, there was no way I would let anyone hurt him ever again. We were back together, and that’s how we would stay.
Chapter Twenty
“I object!” Nan cried when the five of us burst into the county court roughly twenty minutes later.
The nearest clerk waved us over to her window behind a thick layer of plexiglass. “Hello, there. What are we objecting to today?”
Charles pushed himself in front of Nan. “Hi, yes. We’re here for the arbitration hearing regarding Ethel Fulton’s estate.”
The woman nodded her permed head and continued to smile brightly at all of us. “Oh, lots of folks have come in for that one. Room B-2. You’re right on time. Good luck.”
Before we could stop her, Nan ran down the hall and flung open the door to Room B-2. “I object!” she cried.
The rest of us ran after her and popped in a second later.
“Longfellow,” the person who sat at the front of the room said, fixing Charles with a stern look. “Control your client, and do it now.”
We all sat in the back of the room, careful not to make direct eye contact with any of the other heirs. I did a quick scan and saw that Anne was nowhere to be found.
Drats! I still desperately wanted proof that it had been her, and I wanted to make sure she understood the lengths I would go to in order to protect my cat from any future shenanigans on her part.
“Now,” the arbiter said, “there have been several challenges to the will of Ethel Fulton, particularly in regards to one Octavius Fulton. Is he here today?”
“Yes, your honor.” I rose to my feet with my furry friend in my arms, not sure whether I was addressing the arbiter correctly since this was all a huge first for me.
“Let me guess. Octavius is the cat. Isn’t he?” the man asked with a bored expression.
“Yes, but Ethel loved him like a son and wanted to make sure he was cared for in the manner to which he’d grown accustomed,” Charles explained.
“I can see that.” The arbiter flipped through the copy of the will in front of him and cracked his neck to either side. He glanced up at us again a few minutes later with a tight-lipped smile. “There are precedents for this. Ethel could have left the entire state of Maine to her cat for all I care. It’s not up to the court to question that. So, why are we here?”
“The house,” a scratchy voice wheezed from near the door.
Everyone turned, and I about lost my lunch when I saw who was standing there.
Anne Fulton was every bit as frumpy as I remembered. Her gray hair had been cut short, and her arm was freshly bandaged but still bleeding heavily.
“Is that your work?” I whispered to Octo-Cat.
“You bet it is,” he answered proudly, then narrowed his gaze on Anne and let out an impressive hiss.
“The house wasn’t specifically in the will,” the arbiter said.
“Maybe not,” Anne said, keeping a great deal of distance between us as she approached the front of the room. “But somehow the cat’s still managed to inherit it.”
“Actually, the house is mine,” I said.
“And mine,” Nan added.
“My clients purchased the house from the open market. Their ties to Ethel Fulton’s estate are irrelevant,” Charles added helpfully. My hero.
“I agree,” the arbiter said. “Anything else to contest?”
Nobody said anything, but Nan wore a giant, sappy grin. Octo-Cat had hopped into her lap, and she was petting him with slow, leisurely strokes—just the way he liked.
“Then the terms of the will stand as written,” the arbiter said. I expected a gavel to bang, but it didn’t. Oh, well.
We remained seated until all the Fultons had shuffled out of the room. I was sad to see that my old boss, Richard, hadn’t been able to make the trip up from Florida, but happy that this was finally over.
Only Anne remained behind.
“I know it was you,” I hissed.
Octo-Cat ba
cked me up with a hiss of his own, too.
“Why did you take my cat?” I demanded, gripping the edges of my chair so I wouldn’t be tempted to charge straight up to her and give her the beat-down she deserved.
Anne didn’t even look sorry. “That’s my aunt Ethel’s cat. He should have stayed in the family after she’d gone.”
“Him or his trust fund?” Nan shot back. “Because judging by that open wound on your arm, our dear Octavius doesn’t want anything to do with the likes of you.”
“You can’t prove anything,” Anne spat. “And you can’t do anything, either. So I took a cat for a few days. It’s not like I committed murder.”
“You’re walking on really shaky ground,” Nan warned as Octo-Cat jumped off her lap and trotted over to the villainess of the hour.
“I’m going to get that house,” Anne mumbled, then grabbed her injured arm and fled through the door right as Oct-Cat was getting ready to take a fresh swipe.
Nan and I exchanged a quick glance, then she tucked her arm into Cal’s and said, “C’mon, you handsome thing. I want to thank that kind lady who helped us when we first arrived.”
They left through the same door Anne had. Now only Charles, Octo-Cat, and I remained in the arbitration room.
I sighed and laid my head on Charles’s shoulder.
“I’m glad you got him back,” he said.
“Me, too.”
“Are we going home now?” Octo-Cat whined, waiting for somebody to open the door for him. “I’m absolutely dying for some Evian.”
“Soon,” I said after making a brusque hushing noise.
Charles shook his head. “Is he seriously complaining again?”
“Yup,” I answered with a chuckle, pulling myself back into a full seated position.
Charles turned in his seat to face me more directly. “Well, now that he’s back, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say to you for a while now.”
I gulped hard as blood rushed through my veins. He had something to say.
Did that mean…?
Was he finally going to…?
Would we…?
He placed a hand on each of my shoulders and tried to hide his widening smile. “Now I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but…”
“Yes?” I asked, lowering my eyelashes to show him I was ready for his kiss. Heck, I was pretty much ready to marry him on the spot, and we were kind of already at the county court. I do. I do!
“Angie,” he said softly, then waited for me to re-open my eyes. “You’re fired.”
My heart dropped all the way down to the floor. He was supposed to kiss me, not fire me!
Charles pressed his forehead to mine, and his warm breaths landed near my nose. “I told you not to take it the wrong way. I’m doing you a favor here. Actually, I’m doing both of us a favor.”
“Come again now?” I mumbled, wishing I had something more intelligent to say in that moment.
“I’ve known you wanted to quit for weeks now. Maybe months. What’s stopping you?”
“I didn’t want to let you down,” I admitted.
He tucked a stray tendril of sandy brown hair behind my ear. “You could never let me down, but I don’t want you putting your dreams on hold because of me, either.”
He was so impossibly close that it made it hard for me to focus. I still wasn’t sure exactly what was happening and whether or not I should be happy about it.
“You’re a great P.I., and it’s time you went into business for yourself. You can’t do that if you’re still spending half your days at Longfellow and Associates, so… You’re fired.”
“Thank you?” I said, guessing at the appropriate response. There may have been precedents regarding Ethel’s estate, but what was happening between me and Charles right now was completely and totally new.
He laughed softly. “Don’t thank me. I’m doing this for selfish reasons, too.”
“Oh?” I asked on a soft exhale. Still so uneasy about how close we were. Still wanting that kiss.
“Yeah, because when I was your boss, I couldn’t do this.”
I sucked in a deep breath, but before I could let it out, Charles’s lips were on mine. Oh my gosh, I was kissing Charles!
And it was everything I’d ever dreamed it would be.
“Humans are disgusting,” Octo-Cat complained, taking a swipe at my arm. Thankfully, it was much gentler than the number he’d done on Anne.
Charles laughed as he pulled away. “Let me guess, he didn’t like that.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “But not because he’s jealous, because he thinks it’s gross.”
Charles rolled his eyes, which just so happened to have happy sparkles in them at the moment. “Whatever, cat. I know you call me UpChuck behind my back.”
“Boys, boys,” I said, smiling so hard that the corners of my mouth hurt. “You’re just going to have to find a way to share.”
I stood, and Charles immediately laced his fingers between mine, leaving Octo-Cat to follow behind on foot.
“I can’t believe you’re choosing to focus on this needless romance when you should be focused on getting me Evian as soon as humanly possible,” my cat grumbled predictably.
I scooped him up in my free arm and held him as we walked out of the courthouse. “When we get home, there’s someone very special I want you to meet.”
“Ugh, why? I’m so tired,” he whined.
“He’s the president of your fan club,” I revealed, picturing how insanely happy Pringle would be to meet his idol.
“Can I be the president of your fan club?” Charles asked, giving my hand a squeeze.
I pretended to think about this for a moment. “I don’t really need a fan club, but you can be my boyfriend. That is if you—”
Charles stopped walking, pulled me close, and kissed me again.
I took that to mean he agreed.
What’s Next?
My crazy old Nan loves making decisions on a whim. Last week, she took up flamenco dancing. This week, she’s adopted a trouble-making Chihuahua named Paisley. This wouldn’t be much of a problem, were it not for the very crabby tabby who also lives with us.
Man, I never thought I’d miss hearing Octo-Cat’s voice, but his silent protest is becoming too much to bear, especially since we just opened our new P.I. business together.
Things go from bad to worse, of course, when Nan and I discover that someone has been embezzling funds from the local animal shelter. If we can’t find the culprit soon, the shelter may not be able to keep its lights on and those poor homeless pets won’t have anywhere to go.
Okay, so I just need to find the thief, rescue the animals, and save the day—all while trying to find a way for Octo-Cat and Paisley to set aside their differences and work together as a team. Yeah, wish me luck…
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Sneak Peek: Chihuahua Conspiracy
Hi, I’m Angie Russo, and this last year has been quite the wild ride for me. Yes, it’s been exactly one year since my entire life changed for the better.
Sure, I’ve come face-to-face with a lot of dangerous characters lately—murderers, kidnappers, creeps, you name it—but I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone else’s.
Here’s the deal… It all started at my former job as a paralegal.
A wealthy old woman had just died, and her heirs had gathered at our office for the official will reading. I was instructed to make coffee, and, well, that was the last time I ever attempted such a dangerous feat.
You see, I got electrocuted and knocked unconscious. I woke up with a wicked fear of coffee makers and, oh, also the ability to talk to animals. At first, I could only talk to this one cat named Octavius Maxwell Ricardo Edmund Frederick Fulton. He was one of the primary beneficiaries of his late owner’s estate, and I now call him Octo-Cat for short.
> Long story short, he told me the old lady was murdered and begged me to help him catch the killer. We did, and we pretty much became best friends in the process. Now he lives with me, and I oversee his care and also his generous trust fund.
And because I accidentally made an open-ended deal with him when I needed to get him to wear a pet harness, we now reside in his former owner’s exquisite manor house. Yes, a ten-dollar neon green harness ended up costing me a cool million.
At least most of the money was my cat’s, anyway.
Yeah. A lot has happened over the last year. My cat and I solved three more murders together. He got catnapped. I finally quit my paralegal job so we could open up a private investigation firm together, and oh, yeah… I got a boyfriend!
My nan might be even more excited about that one than I am. She’d been trying to matchmake me for years, and now that she’s finally succeeded, she’s not quite sure what to do with herself.
Yes, she continues to bake up a storm in the kitchen and take her community art classes, but lately she’s also been flipping through new hobbies like they’re going out of style. There’s been flamenco dancing, learning Korean as a second language, even Pokémon Go. She claims Pikachu understands her on a spiritual level. Personally, I don’t get it.
My mom and dad are busy with their jobs as Blueberry Bay’s local news anchor and designated sports guy. Nan and I have them over once per week for a nice home-cooked meal. Did I mention my grandmother and I live together?
It’s not weird. She’s not just the woman who raised me, but she’s also my best friend and the most amazing person I know. She even helps with Octo-Cat’s lavish demands and rigorous schedule.
And between the two of us, we keep him dining on only the seafood flavors of Fancy Feast and drinking Evian from his favorite Lenox teacup.
Most recently, he’s demanded a brand new iPad Pro. His reasoning? That he needed a professional upgrade to go along with our new business venture. Never mind that he uses his tablet primarily to play various fish tank and koi pond games.