“I don’t get it. How did Walker end up with her?”
“The local news ran a story on her. LaBryce saw it. He called and asked if he could adopt her.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered.
“Why would you go into LaBryce’s house anyway?”
“We have a search warrant.”
“You think LaBryce had something to do with Mark Richardson’s murder?” It was hard to imagine. I’d known LaBryce for years; he’d never shown even an ounce of temper, especially to his friends.
“You look shocked,” Kai said.
“I am.”
“Can’t picture LaBryce as a killer?”
A yes or no would be too simple. I thought for a moment and asked, “Why do you think LaBryce wanted a jaguar? Aside from it being his team’s mascot.”
Kai lifted a shoulder. “Because he’s a macho football player who wanted a cool status symbol?”
I shook my head. “I thought the same thing when I heard he wanted her, but no.”
“To get chicks?”
That made me smile. “Maybe some. But truth is, he cares.”
“Are we talking about the same guy?” Kai’s voice was dripping with skepticism. “The LaBryce Walker who stars in gangsta rap videos and hangs out with thugs?”
“That’s just publicity stuff. He sells a lot of merchandise based on an image that isn’t real.”
Kai scoffed. I ignored it. “The first time he came to see Charm, I knew his thug persona was just an act. You should have seen him.” I smiled, remembering how enamored the giant running back had been with the sickly cub. “He didn’t want to make a big deal of it. Didn’t want a lot of people to know he had adopted her. LaBryce wasn’t just thinking about how cool it would be to own a pet jaguar. He was moved by the whole situation, donated thousands to the ASPCA. He went to extra lengths to make sure Charm had an enclosure that mimicked her natural habitat. He spent months learning how to handle her. If you own an exotic pet, the USDA has the right to inspect your home. It’s not like having a big tabby cat. Not even close.”
Kai pulled onto J. Turner Butler Boulevard, where several billion-dollar subdivisions had popped up during the building boom. He seemed to be mulling over this new information as he drove.
He looked at me. “Okay, so if LaBryce is so enamored with this animal, why would he leave her out? He must have known that there would be a chance one of the officers would shoot her.”
I frowned and shook my head. He wouldn’t. There was no way. “It must have been an accident. I think you should find out who was supposed to be taking care of Charm tonight. I know you believe that LaBryce left her out on purpose, but I don’t think so. “
Kai scoffed. “Right.”
“I’m serious. LaBryce has to have someone care for her when he’s out of town.”
“We have people who will be looking into it. Believe me, we’re investigating everyone who might have been involved in the murder. But right now, we have to concentrate on our most viable suspect.”
We turned off JTB and sped toward the end of a cul-de-sac, finally pulling up to a long drive. Kai turned off his light and held up his badge as we slowly passed two officers in a squad car. We rolled to a stop about fifty feet from the front of the house.
I slid out of the truck and my sister’s high-heeled sandals sank into the grass. I noticed Jake Nocera eyeing the front windows of the house as he talked on his cell phone. “Yeah, we got someone on the way. No one was hurt. I opened the door, nearly shit my pants, and closed it.” He noticed me and Kai and walked toward us. “You make sure Walker stays in custody until I get back. We’re gonna have a little talk. I’ve gotta run.” He slapped the cell phone closed and paused to look me up and down. “Not quite dressed for big-cat wrangling.”
I felt heat creep into my cheeks and noticed more than a few pair of eyes focusing on my cleavage. Inwardly, I cursed Emma’s fashion sense and sent Jake a frigid glare. The rest of the oglers didn’t warrant a glance.
I held up my cell phone and turned to Kai. “What’s your number?” He told me, and I programmed it into my phone. “I’ll call you when I get her secured.”
I hurried quietly toward the large, ultramodern house. It was angular and sleek with a lot of glass and dramatic lighting. Of course, I’d been there plenty of times. I’d made it my personal mission to make sure LaBryce was living up to his promise to learn how to handle a big cat. I was the person who’d taught him those techniques. At first, I hadn’t liked anything about the big, cocky football player. Except that he clearly wanted to care for an animal that might have had to be euthanized otherwise.
But much to my surprise, and I’m sure his, LaBryce and I had become friends. We didn’t agree on everything. I refused to help him with photo shoots where he wanted to use Charm as a prop, and he couldn’t understand why I was such a hard-ass when it came to not feeding her people food. Ever. But we both cared about Charm, and when she was still a cub, I’d bring Moss over and they would play.
During those visits, LaBryce and I would chat. I learned he wasn’t the brainless football player I’d thought, and he really did love his jaguar. There was no way he’d endanger her by allowing her out of her enclosure unsupervised. He wouldn’t just set her loose, though she clearly was.
Through the massive front window, I could see movement, a hint of gold, speckled with black. Charm was in the living room to the right of the front door.
I heard Kai’s quiet footsteps in the grass. I looked at him—he didn’t look happy.
“Is the door unlocked?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
I nodded and tried to come up with a plan. It had been a while since Charm had seen me. Though I couldn’t tell from this distance, she might be highly upset about all the commotion. Or she might not.
Only one way to find out. “Okay, I’m going to go in. If she jumps me, shoot through the glass window. It might distract her, scare her off.”
I knew instantly that I shouldn’t have said that.
“If she jumps you?” Kai whispered as we crept up the front steps. “I thought you helped raise her.”
“Well . . .” I paused, feeling a sudden twinge of nerves. “She might not remember me.”
Kai followed close behind me as we made our way onto the porch. “But you walked up to a snarling Doberman without batting an eye.”
“This is different. Dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years.” I inched up to the huge picture window and peered inside. “It may be hard to believe, but that is a wild animal.”
We both gazed into the room. The jaguar lounged benignly on a black leather sofa. Her tail flicked up and down, and her attention was fixed on the entryway to the room.
I could hear Kai’s breath next to my ear. “Grace, I can’t let you do this.”
I turned and asked, “You have a better idea?”
“Yes, we get someone from the zoo to dart it and you don’t risk your life.”
I reached up on impulse and patted his cheek. “You’re cute when you’re worried.”
His eyes hardened. “You won’t think I’m so cute when I toss you over my shoulder and haul your ass away from here.”
From the look in his eyes, he meant it. If he really thought I was in danger and I resisted, he would fireman-carry me back to his truck. Usually, I’d be irritated by the caveman machismo, but coming from Kai it was . . . sweet.
“Look, I’m sure she’ll remember me, okay? And if someone from the zoo came to tranq her, they’d have to go inside. I have a much better chance of ending this peacefully. Trust me.”
Kai seemed to think about it for a long time. Finally, he nodded. “So what are you going to do?”
I shrugged and moved quietly to the riveted metal front door. “Talk to her.”<
br />
I began to turn the handle. The cat tensed on the other side of the door.
My stomach tightened nervously in response. I focused on remaining calm. It’s okay, Charm. It’s me, Grace. I opened the door slowly and stepped inside. The living room was to my right. I tried to conjure up as many memories of the jaguar as I possibly could. Starting from the time I had cared for Charm for those weeks as a cub. She had been so small and bony. I always worried she’d get cold. So I’d piled blankets around her, just in case. She loved for me to cover her with them, with just the tip of her spotted tail sticking out. With those images firmly in place, I walked cautiously into the room.
Charm had abandoned her perch on the sofa and was now standing, facing me.
I kept my voice level and quiet. “Hey, pretty girl, remember me?”
The jaguar let out a low growl. Her pupils dilated and she lowered her head, focusing intently on me.
I knew what Charm was doing; she was getting ready to pounce. I felt her pulse quicken. I took a deep breath to steady myself and concentrated on strengthening my memories of her, and bringing them to the front of my mind.
No fear, just thoughts of the jaguar’s time with me as a cub—sleeping on the rug under all those blankets, wrestling around the house with Moss, the way she would beg for bottles of milk even when she wasn’t hungry.
The growling slowly subsided. Charm’s head and tail lifted in recognition. She sniffed the air. Bottle?
Relief flooded through me, and I let out the shaky breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding. I grinned at the big cat. “Oh, so you remember your bottle, huh?”
Charm loped forward and wound her sinewy body around my knees in indisputable feline welcome. Bottle!
I knelt and took hold of the big cat’s round head in both hands. I looked into the green-rimmed golden eyes, one slightly clouded. “I don’t have a bottle for you right now.”
Charm butted my head with hers. No bottle?
I laughed. Maybe later. I remained on the floor, stroking the cat. I glanced at the window. Kai stood outside, gun drawn, watching intently. I nodded to him, and he slowly holstered the gun.
I turned my attention back to Charm, who had stretched out on the floor so she could lick the scented lotion off my leg. “Ouch! Sandpaper Tongue.” Quit that!
Charm looked up at me and plopped a giant paw on my bended knee.
“Quit begging. Haven’t you been fed tonight?”
In answer, Charm sprang up and loped across the room. I followed. The big cat led me into LaBryce’s spacious stainless-clad kitchen. Charm pawed at the refrigerator door that I knew was reserved just for her food. Fish.
“Tonight is fish, huh?” I opened the wide fridge. Charm paced in anticipation as I searched the shelves.
No fish. In fact, except for a small container of ground beef, there wasn’t much in the fridge at all.
I glanced at Charm.
“Who’s supposed to be feeding you?”
Fish!
Something wasn’t right. If the police had brought LaBryce in for questioning and he hadn’t warned them she was out of her enclosure, he must have thought she was being fed and cared for. Which wasn’t the case.
Charm rubbed her head against the back of my knee, making me stumble forward. She pawed at my ankle and began licking my calf. Hungry.
Okay, I could ponder the hows and whys later. I needed to offer the jaguar something other than my leg to munch on.
Opening the freezer, I found a bag of whole herring—but it would take too long to thaw.
“No fish tonight, girl. We’re moving on to plan B.”
Charm followed me around as I rummaged through the cabinets.
Finally, I came up with an acceptable amount of canned tuna, added it to the ground beef, and mixed the two together to make a lumpy, fishy meat loaf.
I dumped the concoction onto a stainless tray and said, “Okay, you can eat in your enclosure, let’s go.”
Charm padded beside me looking up at the tray like, well, like a hungry jaguar. Go on. I shooed her forward with my mind. I was sure Kai was wondering what was taking so long, and I wanted to get her secured as quickly as possible.
She bounded past me out of the kitchen. I hurried behind. The house was dark, and I had to flip on lights as I went. It had been a while since I’d seen the addition LaBryce had commissioned to be Charm’s room, and I’d never been there in the evening.
It was a bit eerie at night. In the day, the room appeared to be part sitting area, part jungle. In dim light, all I could make out was the large couch and exotic stone coffee table. The far side of the room seemed to be swallowed by the blackness of a thick tropical forest.
I took a step toward the thicket of trees to my right, looking for a light switch. After a moment I found one and clicked it on. A gentle glow lit the room. And somehow didn’t take away from the wild feel. Though I knew the sitting area was separated from the jungle by a wall of thick glass, it didn’t look like it. The room just melted into forest. The illusion was aided by several large potted trees and ferns that were grouped in front of the glass and along the perimeter of the room.
Charm stood at the far end of the room near a clump of banana trees and grumbled impatiently.
I walked toward her. “Who let you out?”
Open. Charm slinked behind the giant banana tree and vanished.
I moved to where the large guillotine door was tucked behind the thick foliage of the trees. The rope holding it open was wrapped tightly around a metal cleat. I ducked inside and hunch-backed through a short tunnel.
When I emerged on the other side, I straightened and drew in a deep breath. The air was humid and thick with the scent of moist earth and exotic plants.
A waterfall trickled into a shallow pool. Through the thick canopy, stars sparkled down through the glass ceiling. Moss-covered logs and orchid-draped trees surrounded us. I smelled the sweet scent of a night-blooming cirrus and saw a giant one in one corner. LaBryce had added some great touches since I’d been there last. “I need to come see you more often.”
But Charm was interested in one thing. She butted her head against my thigh. Fish!
“Here you go.” I chuckled. “We should have named you Piglet.” I set the pan of fish-meat down and Charm grumbled contentedly.
“Oh, shit.” In my admiration for the enormous enclosure’s improvements, I had forgotten that Kai and the others were waiting out front. I walked to the second guillotine door on the inside wall of the tunnel. I freed its ropes from the cleat, allowing the door to slide down into place.
I dialed the stored number to give everyone the green light.
Kai answered on the first ring. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are we clear?”
“Come on in. We’re in the enclosure in the back of the house. It looks like someone left the door open.”
“Walker?”
“No. LaBryce wouldn’t be that careless. Whoever should have been taking care of Charm screwed up. She wasn’t fed.”
I glanced down at the jaguar, who slurped happily at her dinner.
“Maybe he wanted her to be hungry.”
“I know you don’t believe it, but LaBryce wouldn’t do that.” I looked up and saw Kai enter the sitting room, still holding the cell phone to his ear. He walked over to the glass partition and said, “We’re going to be here awhile . . .”
I shrugged. “That’s all right. I’ll stay in here with Charm.”
Kai looked over at the crouching feline, who hardly responded to the men clambering into the sitting room. “I guess she remembered you.”
“Luckily.”
“You sure you’ll be all right?”
“I will, though I’m not sure my sister
’s shoes will survive.” I glanced down at the dirt-caked sandals and shook my head. “Emma’s going to flip.”
“Are you actually more afraid of your sister than of being mauled by a three-hundred-pound cat?”
“Cats I can handle.” I looked down at Charm, who had finished her meal and was looking up at me hopefully. When I glanced back at Kai, he caught my gaze and held it.
“I’m beginning to think you could handle just about anything,” he said.
I flushed at the compliment and the intensity of his gaze. Could I handle loose jaguars? Yes. Wild horses? No problem. Hot cops? Not so much. Thankful that Kai had turned his attention to Jake, who had just entered the room, I focused on forcing the blush out of my cheeks. Kai spoke to Jake for a moment then turned back to me.
“I’ll call you when we finish up.” He was all business now. “Don’t touch anything in the enclosure. We’ll have to search it, too.”
I nodded and then flipped the cell phone closed. I watched as Kai joined the other investigators. Damn it, despite my best efforts, I was beginning to like him.
And that scared the hell out of me.
If I liked him, that meant I cared. If I cared, I could get hurt.
I shoved away the thought. I would be able to freeze Kai out. I’d done it before.
I was grateful that, for the moment, I had a distraction. And it would serve as a reminder why I couldn’t care about Sergeant Kai Duncan. My friend LaBryce Walker was suspected of not only endangering the lives of police officers by leaving his jaguar out, but murder. I didn’t believe he was guilty of either.
As luck would have it, I knew someone I could ask.
“Come here, Charm.” I led the cat away from the glass. I picked up the steel tray, flipped it over, and set it on a log to use as my seat. At least it kept Emma’s dress from getting any more grime on it.
I took the cat’s head in my hands and looked straight into her large, intelligent eyes. “Now, tell me what happened last night.”
CHAPTER 6
Woof at the Door Page 6