“I have a…contact with the GIPPD,” I explained. “He’d have let me know if I was.”
Artemus tilted his head to the right as he pursed out his lip and nodded. “That would make you a…I believe it’s called ‘person of interest’?”
“If that means someone between innocent and guilty, then yeah,” I said with a nod.
“Well…if your status does go to full-fledged suspect than just let me know,” he said. “I happen to know some excellent attorneys in Talisman.”
I noticed the tea was starting to get cold as I took another sip…better hurry. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate the thought,” I said. “But how could someone in your apparent dire straits even know about an attorney in Talisman?”
“Because they are relatives of mine,” he explained. “It might take some persuasion—and, I’m sorry to say, money—to get them to come out to represent you. But I’d be more than willing to talk to them for you on your behalf.”
Gabrielle came back to the counter at this point, a plate with a croissant on it in one hand with a teapot in the other.
“No Ria for this one?” I asked, arching my eyebrow at her again.
“She…is otherwise occupied,” Gabrielle explained, setting down the plate before reaching under the counter to get another tea cup.
The smell of that new treat that she had placed in front of Artemus was making my mouth water all over again. It was all I could do to not snatch it off his plate to eat it myself. Thankfully, Artemus saved me the trouble by grabbing it and taking a good sized bite. He hummed in appreciation and declared, “Perfect…like always.”
I felt a familiar spark in the air as he said it. Gabrielle’s usually steady hand wavered just a little as she poured him his cup of tea.
Looking at me, she asked, “Care for a refill, Hattie?”
“That any extra?” I asked.
“For you, it is what they call ‘on the house,'” she declared before pouring out the tea.
After she had poured her own cup of tea, we chatted for the next few minutes about unimportant things. I kept noticing that Artemus’ eyes were glued to Gabrielle and Gabrielle herself did everything short of blushing to reveal that she was flattered and uncertain.
As Artemus drained the last of his tea, he said, “As much as I would like to stay here for the rest of the day, I’m afraid that I need to get to the green grocer’s while I still have daylight.”
“Careful if you’re looking for carrots this week,” I warned him. “The batch from Phlange Isle don't have many days before they go bad.”
Artemus gave a little shrug. “Nothing new…I have a little charm that might help with that problem. Until next time, Gabrielle…Ms. Jenkins.”
With that, the writer took his leave with a noticeable spring in his still-limping step. Gabrielle waited until he was out the door before saying, “I am actually glad he came by when he did. It was much easier to show you than it was to tell you.”
“It usually is, honey,” I said with reassurance. “The impression I got from all that is you’re not quite sure what to think of it, but it’s not unwelcome either, right?”
“Exactly,” the ex-golem said with relief. “I know what I feel but…I was not sure if I could put those feelings into the right words.”
“And now you don’t need to,” I said right after another sip. “I have a pretty good idea what’s going on.”
She looked at me as if I had more to say. When I didn’t elaborate, she asked, “And that is…?”
I couldn’t be too hard on her for not knowing. After all, she didn’t have that much exposure to this particular experience while under Nebula Dreddock’s roof.
Looking her straight in the eye, I smiled a little and said, “He’s in love with you, sweetie.”
David made the call to Celestial Cakes an hour later. He spoke to Gabrielle first, to get the official confirmation of my presence there, and then requested to speak to me.
"Hat? All done here, the cats were cooperative. I, er, brought ping-pong balls in case I had to bribe them. Sorry."
In fairness, he sounded genuinely sheepish. I guess he knew that he'd just given me at least a week of sleepless nights. I imagined those midnight hours with a shudder. I knew I’d be listening to the cats wallop those balls around, followed by heaps of clattering, pouncing, jumping, running, and scratching. Ugh.
“I have to say thanks because it's the polite thing to do, but, ping pong balls? Really?"
“Look, for what it’s worth, the testimony does exonerate you for now,” David said. “My constables will have to keep an eye on you as a matter of due diligence. But as long as you stay off the radar—“
“What do you mean ‘stay off the radar’?” I asked. First, he brings me in for questioning. Then he acts like it’s just another case that I’m consulting him on. Then he kicks me out of my own shop so he can verify what he already knows is the truth. Telling me to stay out of this case would be just the final insult.
“I mean, lay low,” he explained. “Go about as much of your routine as you can and have plenty of witnesses that will testify to you doing nothing suspicious for the next few days. It’s the best way I know to get suspicion off you quickly.”
I rubbed my face at this game plan. Did he even know how much he had just insulted me and my discretion?
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I did say that I’m going to need to catch up on my work today, right? So we’ll do it your way.”
“Outstanding,” he said. “Hope I see you under better circumstances the next time.”
I hung up the phone and noticed Gabrielle was looking at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You were acting the same way towards him that I act towards Artemus,” she said plainly.
“Not getting into this today,” I said, holding up my hand.
“Sorry,” Gabrielle said. “But I know self-consciousness when I see it.”
I could just make out Gloom’s voice as I got near the door of the shop. I could tell it was Gloom because of the sour tone in the indistinct words I heard on the other side of the glass. The last time she had sounded that pissed, I’d just finished giving her a flea bath.
As I walked in, I saw her and Onyx on the counter talking things over. “Please, Gloom,” Onyx was saying. “CPI Trew knew good and well that Hattie had nothing to do with—“
He stopped talking when he heard the tinkle of the door close behind me. Millie was standing behind the counter, looking unhappy about this turn of events.
“How much of that did you hear?” she asked in a tone that was unhappy as her face.
“Enough to know that Gloom is less than pleased about the questioning,” I said.
“There’s an understatement,” Gloom scoffed as she jumped off the counter to get near the fire. My fire-loving cat Carbon was curled up in front of it and purring contentedly.
“All those nice things I’ve ever said about David?” Millie added. “I’m officially taking them back right now.”
“Oh, Millie, not you too,” I said, walking up to the counter. “We both know that David wouldn’t be doing his job if he DIDN’T question me and all of you on this. I’m not happy about that any more than the rest of you. But I understand why.”
I omitted the fact that I was still seething from my treatment by David so far. Venting wouldn’t help me solve this case or calm anyone in the shop down.
Turning to Onyx, I asked, “Seeing as you’re the only one of my kitties who is keeping a cool head, let me ask you this: how did the questioning go?”
“Routine,” Onyx said. “Or at least as routine as I imagined such a thing would be. All of us who were home last night were questioned, and we gave corroborating statements which place you here all night and at your various delivery spots during the day.”
“What about my customers who took the deliveries?” I asked, looking to Millie.
“Gave them the complete list,” Millie said sourly. “Also told David that he’d better
come back here with a warrant if he ever wants to get more than those records from the shop.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Millie was no witch, merely one of the Aware. Grandma Opal had tried to teach her to be the former but she just never took to it. But she was still this shop’s Sentinel and naturally had ideas on who should have access to what, actual legal authority be damned. How could I not love her for that?
“That’s okay, Millie,” I said, stepping behind the counter. “I think we can all agree that the best way to get through this situation is to find the actual culprit who killed Druida.”
“Umm, are you sure that’s safe?” Fraidy asked, peeking around the corner in his usual timid manner. “Why not, you know, let the constables…do their job for once?”
“Wait, did you actually say that?” Gloom asked with a derisive laugh, now curled up next to the fire herself. “If we trusted the constables to ‘do their job’ on a couple of occasions, the real murderers would have gotten away with it.”
She then added, “Hmph…not that I think any of the victims didn’t have it coming anyway…”
“Well, Hattie didn’t have THIS coming,” Millie shot back at my cynical kitty. “So what do you say we make some extra effort to find out who’d not only want to kill Druida—“
“A rather extensive list,” Onyx quipped under his breath.
“—but who would also have the opportunity to do it,” Millie finished.
“Which has to be much shorter,” I agreed with a nod.
“All things being equal,” Gloom rumbled. “I’d start by looking at the mayor.”
I gave Gloom a look. “Not that I don’t disagree, but what makes you say that?”
Gloom gave a cat pose yoga stretch, “You saw that little freak when he came into the shop yesterday—totally uninvited, I might add—acting like he was here because of your meaningless efforts at a Strands cure.”
“Careful, sister,” Onyx said with a warning tone in his voice.
“My point is,” Gloom said, ignoring his advice. “What if he came in here to size up Hattie’s potential to be a patsy? And don’t get me started on all that bizarre, puppy-love defending of Druida that he kept spouting off.”
“Well, I’m not supposed to know this,” I said, giving Gloom’s theory some thought. “But Druida was actually part of the Ministry of Justice’s Witness Protection Program. So maybe that’s why—“
“Give me a break!” Gloom snapped. “That stuff isn’t a two-way street. The protectors usually have more pull than the protectees. Yet, here is His Dishonor doing his best to defend the indefensible, so she had more of a hold on him than anyone’s saying.”
Fraidy whined at all this talk. “Hey, uh, I just want to point out,” he said with hesitation. “Our mayor might be the classic ‘big fish in a little pond, ’ but in this pond,…we’re the minnows. Or, maybe even plankton. Are we REALLY sure we want to make him mad?”
A coal next to the fire suddenly sparked a quick flame before dying out, making us all jump. Carbon had opened his eyes and had uncurled his body a little. His eyes were burning as hot as the fire next to him.
“Mr. Mayor might be a political bigwig,” he said with conviction. “But I doubt he’s fireproof.”
He finished with a mighty yawn and flexed his paws. His mouth snapped shut at Shade’s interruption. “Why’d you want to set the mayor on fire, my pyro bro?”
Shade had wandered in, obviously having tired of his latest squeeze. He was our resident dude. Confident, had the gift of the gab, laid-back, good-natured, and very, very likable. You couldn’t help but admire his confidence when it came to his courting of female felines. For some reason, they swarmed around him.
“Where the Duat have you been?” Gloom grumbled.
As Shade was opening his mouth, Gloom said, “No, don’t answer that. Respond to this one instead: where were you while Hattie was being accused of a murder she didn’t commit?”
“Whoa, what?!” Shade said in shock.
“It’s a long story, Shade,” I explained. “Let me give you the highlights.”
While I was telling him the major events that had went down, yet another of my cats came from the back to jump up on the counter. Eclipse strolled up next to Onyx and watched the door. He watched it the way a soldier watches the front line from his post, almost daring someone to come through the door. I glanced at the door myself nervously as I talked. Eclipse meant well. But the last thing the shop needed today was for his over-zealous use of Obliviscatur to hamper our sales. Obliviscatur was a kind of built in charm he held. Our little fellow could literally wipe the mind of any human; Awakened or otherwise with just the will of his own mind. Eclipse was a good name for our little protector — as that is what he did to anyone worthy of his attention. He eclipsed all memory from their unsuspecting minds.
Thankfully, no one came in before I finished my story. Shade blew out a breath and said, “Damn, that’s cold, boss lady. Makes me kind of glad that I missed that circus. Miss Poof wasn’t happy I had to leave, but …”
“Is this another of your ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter’ remarks?” Gloom cut off her brother’s love story abruptly.
“Whoah, what’s up with sour-puss today?” Shade’s eyes were in wide surprise; his ears flattened to his sleek head. “Maybe you should think of getting a little more action yourself, sister. Because then your puss might not be so sou —“
“Alright, alright, let’s reel this in shall we?” I held up my hands.
I admit I did my best to hold back a chuckle at the obvious pun our Romeo cat shot back at his sister. God and Goddess knew that I needed something funny and light to think about just then.
“Come to think of it,” Shade continued, walking behind the counter. “My current lady, Miss Poof, as I just told you, has a human who is part of the mayor’s staff. In between rounds—“
“So did not need that image,” Millie said, holding up a hand, speaking of Shade’s attempted insult of Gloom. I noticed Millie’s shoulders shaking as she tried to contain her laughter. Gloom was rigid, swishing her tail in hard and fast arcs on the floor. She looked completely pee’d off.
Shade, wanting to be heard, let out an almighty meow. We all looked at him. “Ahem, ok, so, Miss Poof talked about how her human is always complaining about what His Honor puts her through. It’s a real drag for my squeeze to listen to day after day…probably why she’s always glad to see me.”
He flashed a toothy smile, his eyes dreamily half closed at some recent memory that I didn’t want to hear about.
“What kind of complaints has she heard, Shade?” I asked, getting on my haunches to be nearer to him.
“Nothing concrete,” Shade admitted. “But, you know, if I put the question to her during the pillow talk phase next time I see her, I think I could pull something out of her.”
Millie groaned. “What is it with you and the bad puns today?”
“We can agree on that much,” Gloom said. “Sounds to me as though Shady here is just looking for an excuse to keep relieving his girl’s…tension.”
“Hey, not like I need an excuse,” Shade protested. “Just figured I’d help the boss-lady while I was having some fun at the same time.”
I sighed as I got back on my feet. “Your motives are as screwed up as ever,” I said. “But yeah, it’s a good lead to chase down. Care to make that visit sooner rather than later?”
Shade rubbed against my leg and purred. “Oh, my lady won’t mind another visit from me, I’m sure. She really didn’t want me to go when I did this morning. Be a real nice surprise if I pop up on her doorstep tonight.”
“We have another possible lead we could run down through Midnight,” Eclipse said, his eyes still fixed on the door.
“The least you can do when you’re giving useful suggestions is to look at me, kitty,” I said, rubbing my hand across his back.
He arched his back slightly and turned around. “True…it’s just I’d rather nip any potential rum
or mills about what is going on in the bud.”
“And how is erasing the memories of customers going to help us get business again, ‘Clipsy?” Millie asked.
Eclipse started purring under my touch and admitted, “Fair point, Millie.”
“Now what were you saying about Midnight? That lead?” I asked, getting the conversation back on track.
“Well, we all know how much of an inter-dimensional gossip Midnight is,” Eclipse began.
That was the second understatement of the century. Midnight would talk to any beast, ranging from pognips to minor functionaries of the djinn courts to find out what was really going on throughout the Coven Isles. Most had never heard of the entities that Midnight befriended. How many dimensions that wanderer crossed in one night was anyone’s guess. A lot of his information was borderline insanity, but every once in awhile he heard something that was useful.
“So, you think that something like this would get the attention of his usual circle of acquaintances?” I deduced.
“No guarantee, of course,” Eclipse admitted, slipping free of my hand, and abruptly rolling over to show me his belly. This was a rare occurrence for Eclipse. He wasn’t the most affectionate of our clowder, but from time to time, he demanded belly rubs. I, of course, obliged.
“But it couldn’t hurt to ask him about it,” He continued, legs akimbo, and a contented smile on his face. “Even if he doesn’t know something straight away, he will make every effort to find out more, given the current situation.”
I trusted him on that statement. However much my cats might drive me crazy, one line none of them would ever cross was my safety and protection. Anyone wishing to do me harm would have to contend with them first and they had a lot of resources to help with that. Even assets from Midnight’s night-world.
“It’s…sort of a good plan,” Fraidy admitted. “But he doesn’t wake up usually until his namesake.”
“Maybe he’ll feel a grave disturbance in the Kitty Force and wake up early today,” Millie said, half-joking, half-hopeful.
“That’s not something we can count on,” I said, slapping the counter for emphasis. “We still have a business to run which the events of this morning have put a severe cramp on. Got the list of deliveries ready, Millie?”
The Infiniti Investigates: Hattie Jenkins & the Infiniti Chronicles Books 1 to 5 Page 43