A Picture-Purrfect Christmas (A Klepto Cat Mystery Book 13)

by Patricia Fry

  “I don’t think so,” Savannah said. “It doesn’t seem like rabbit-induced excitement. I think he’s on to something, Craig. Let’s follow him.”

  “I’ll try to keep up—man, he’s really focused, like a bloodhound. A feline bloodhound,” he said, chuckling.

  “Sure is. Easy Rags, it’s brushy out here—and rocky.”

  The couple continued following the cat as he tugged and pulled them into the dense brush. Savannah could see a cluster of small trees off in the distance. As they drew near, she said quietly, “Craig, there’s a cabin. Someone must live out here.”

  “I doubt it—could be a hunter’s cabin. I think that’s where he’s taking us.”

  Suddenly, they heard a voice. “What’re ya doin’ out here?”

  The couple turned and found themselves facing the two grubby men Savannah and Shelly had seen before on dirt bikes.

  “Oh, it’s you, girlie. Come back to party?” the taller man said, leering at her. He looked down at Rags and frowned. “What’s that?”

  “Never mind,” Craig said, revealing his badge. “Who are you and what are you doing out here?”

  “Uh, nothin’. We work out here, ya know.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Sam.”

  When Craig looked at the shorter man, he quickly responded, “Red.”

  “What kind of work do you do?” Craig asked, glancing around the area.

  “Whatever Scaif needs,” Sam said.

  Red nudged his partner as if to quiet him.

  “Who’s Scaif?” Craig asked.

  After hesitating, Sam said, “Our boss. We do odd jobs, that’s all.”

  “Have you seen a girl out here?” Craig asked.

  Sam motioned toward Savannah. “Yeah, we saw her and another gal just last week.”

  “I mean a little girl.”

  “No, uh-uh, no little girls out here,” he said.

  “Mind if we look around?”

  Suddenly, Savannah felt Rags tug at the leash. She looked in the direction he pulled and said, “Craig, he wants to go to that shack.”

  Craig spun around and looked at the cat. “Let him go.” He then said, “Here, give him to me, I’ll go. Savannah, you stay here.”

  “I don’t think so,” Sam said, gruffly. “You’re not goin’ ta snoop around on our watch.”

  When Savannah looked in Sam’s direction, she saw that he held a gun, which was aimed at them. She gasped.

  “Sam, what’re ya doin’?” Red hissed. “You know Scaif don’t want no trouble.”

  “Yeah, but he don’t want no trespassers, neither.”

  Savannah struggled to hold the cat back, when she noticed that he had changed his focus and she panicked. “No Rags,” she said, when she saw him staring at the gunman from a crouch. “No.” she repeated, but he ignored her commands, leaped into the air, and latched onto the man’s arm with all four paws.

  Craig immediately jumped into action, taking the gun from the man and cuffing him. “Control the cat!” Craig shouted to Savannah, as he held the gun on Red. After cuffing the second man, he patted them both down. Finding nothing, he pulled two pairs of plastic restraints out of his pocket and secured the men’s ankles, easing them down to the ground next to a large shrub.

  “Is anyone else here?” Craig asked the men. When they each shook their head, Craig said, “You’d better not be lying.” He turned to Savannah. “Okay, give me the cat, and stay behind me.” As the couple approached the shack, Rags pulled harder and harder. He began sniffing the air. Instead of stepping onto the tiny porch, however, the cat led the pair around to the other side of the small building.

  “Wait there, boy,” Craig said, pulling back on the leash. “Savannah, pick him up. Hold onto him.”

  She did as Craig asked, but Rags was not having it. He struggled to get loose. “He wants down, Craig,” she said breathlessly. She grasped the back of his harness with one hand, supporting him with the other arm, but he continued to thrash about. “I can’t hold onto him much longer,” she said, lowering him to the ground and holding tight to his leash. She knelt and began scratching the cat’s neck as she and Rags both watched Craig disappear around the side of the shack.

  Suddenly, Craig came back into view and motioned for Savannah to follow him. A shiver of fear and dread consumed her as she turned the corner and glimpsed what he had discovered—a small underground cellar. Craig keenly watched the cat’s reaction and was surprised when Rags walked past the cellar and continued pulling on the leash. “Where’s he going?” he asked. “I thought I found something here, but he doesn’t seem interested in it.”

  “I don’t know. There’s nothing out here but more brush,” Savannah complained.

  “Could he be on a rabbit’s trail?” he asked, sounding somewhat agitated.

  Rather impatiently, she said, “He is a cat, after all. You never know what he’s thinking or what he’s going to do.”

  Craig shook his head. “Well, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, shall we? Come on, Savannah.”

  “Okay,” she said, heading after Rags as he pulled on the leash. “Slow down, will you?” she demanded.

  But the cat had his own agenda. He pulled and tugged and kept Savannah moving until he reached a large dry shrub, where he stopped. He began turning in place, his nose in the air. He let out a couple of meows and scratched at the loose dirt on the ground.

  “You’d better get that damn cat away from there,” Sam called out. “We’ve got bear traps set. He’s gonna get caught in a bear trap.”

  “Bear traps?” Savannah said, freezing.

  Craig glanced at the two men who sat cuffed about fifty yards away. He then stared down at Rags. “Damn cat…looks like a rabbit hole to me.” He scratched his head. “But how did he find this one so far from where we started. Isn’t that kind of odd?”

  “Yeah, I saw rabbits out there and I think he did, too, only he wasn’t interested in them. No, Craig, he’s onto something; I just know it.” She looked down at the cat as he continued to claw at the dirt. “Oh my gosh,” she said quietly. “Look at this, Craig. He’s uncovered something, and I don’t think it leads to a rabbit hole.”

  Craig, his jaw set, walked determinedly to where Savannah stood, and watched the cat rather frantically dig in the soft dirt. “Well, I’ll be…” he said. “What’s this?” He kneeled down and began brushing dirt away, revealing a piece of corrugated tin. He grabbed at the dried shrubs, obviously used to camouflage the area, tossing them aside. “There’s something under here!” Craig shouted. “Help me uncover it.”

  Savannah dropped Rags’s leash and began moving brush and scraping dirt away with her bare hands.

  “I’m looking for something to grab onto,” Craig said impatiently.

  Bolting into action, Savannah picked up a shrub and used it as a broom to remove the light layer of dirt.

  “Here it is!” Craig said, grabbing an edge of the tin and attempting to lift it.

  In the meantime, Rags became even more agitated. He began dancing around, keeping his eye on the tin covering that Craig struggled with.

  “Oh my God!” Craig said when he lifted the first piece of tin. Before he could react, Rags jumped down into the pit he’d uncovered. And that’s when Savannah glimpsed what lay just beneath them.

  “Marissa, oh my gosh, Marissa. Nooooooo,” she wailed as she fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

  Craig immediately lowered himself into the shallow cavern just as the child moaned.

  Savannah looked up. “She’s…”

  “Yes, she’s alive!” he shouted. When he saw the fear in the girl’s eyes, he spoke more quietly. “Marissa, it’s okay,” he crooned. “We’re here to help you.” Fighting the urge to weep, he said, “It’s over now. You’re safe.”

  She moaned and asked, her voice strained and hoarse, “Am I dreaming?”

  “No, hon, this is not a dream. The nightmare’s over.” He
began removing bindings from her arms and legs. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Anything broken? Do you hurt anywhere?”

  “I don’t think anything’s broken. Just get me out of here.” She tried to take a breath and began coughing. “I need some air, please.”

  Craig carefully lifted the girl in his arms and handed her up to Savannah. He then climbed out of the pit, pulled off his jacket, and laid it on the ground. After hugging the girl to her for a few moments and murmuring words of comfort in her ear, Savannah placed Marissa on the jacket, then draped her own jacket over the child’s quaking body. But the child continued to shiver, so Savannah lay next to her and held her in her arms.

  “Rags,” Marissa said weakly as he lay down on the other side of her, his paws on her chest. “Oh Rags, I dreamed…about you. I dreamed…you were…my hero.”

  Savannah smiled at the girl. “It was a true dream, honey. He is your hero. He found you. He led us to you.”

  Marissa pulled one hand out from under the jacket and ran it across Rags’s fur. She then lay still, tears creeping from under her eyelids.

  Just then, Craig kneeled near the girl and said quietly to Savannah, “Medic helicopter and police on ATVs are on the way.” He asked, “How are you, Marissa?”

  She smiled weakly, tears causing muddy ridges down her dirt-encrusted face. “Better now,” she said. She tilted her head a little and squinted at Craig. “I’ve seen you before.”

  “Hon, this is Detective Craig Sledge,” Savannah said. “He’s been leading the search for you. He has searched day and night to find you.”

  “Thank you,” she said quietly. “You came to my house…when Jeremy and Dave were…in trouble. I was outside playing. You stopped…and talked to me.” She smiled a little. “I thought you were…a very nice man.”

  Craig ran his hand over the child’s hair and smiled. “I thought you were a very nice young lady, too.” He pulled a water bottle out of his backpack. “Do you think you can drink a little water?”

  She nodded and he raised her up so she could sip from the bottle.

  “Ever been in a helicopter?” he asked, smiling.

  Marissa shook her head slowly, still squinting as she became accustomed to the light.

  Savannah chuckled a little. “Well, let’s clean you up for your first helicopter ride, shall we?” She removed the bandana from around her neck, wet it, and began dabbing at the girl’s forehead and cheeks.

  Marissa stretched and flexed some of the muscles in her face. “Awww, feels better,” she said, managing a feeble smile.

  “What about the horses?” Craig asked Savannah.

  “I’m not sure how they’ll react to the helicopter. I was thinking about that. I guess we’ll have to hope for the best. They’re both pretty calm animals.”

  “Peaches is here?” Marissa asked, lifting a little and trying to look around.

  “Yes, she brought us out here so Rags could find you,” Savannah explained.

  “Wow! Cool,” she whispered.

  Craig turned to the girl. “Marissa, how did you end up out here? Can you tell us?”

  “Well, my father…” she started. She then began to cry. “I guess he needed me again.” She swallowed hard. “He sold me to someone with a camera. He…took a lot of pictures…”

  “Do you know who the man is?”

  She shook her head slowly. “He covers his face. Sometimes he blindfolds me. I…I think he made me drink medicine.” She blinked. “…you know, sleeping medicine. It made me kinda dizzy and fuzzy-thinking.”

  Craig scowled and gritted his teeth. He then patted the girl’s arm and said, “Well, you’re safe now—there will be no more abuse.”

  “In fact, we have a wonderful surprise for you, Marissa,” Savannah said, when Craig interrupted.

  “Here they come.”

  Marissa took Savannah’s hand. She petted Rags with the other as he continued to lie close to her. “Will you stay with me, Ms. Savannah?” the child asked.

  Savannah looked at Craig.

  He nodded. “I’ll get the horses home. Don’t you worry. She needs you.”

  “What about the cat?” Savannah asked.

  “I’ll let the medics know he’s flying with you. Call Michael and have him pick Rags up at the hospital.”

  Within a scant few minutes, the medics had surrounded the girl, and Savannah stepped a few feet away to make the call. “Michael, we found Marissa. We’re flying her out of here by chopper. Can you meet us at the hospital to pick up Rags?”

  “Rags is riding in a helicopter?” he asked. “What about the horses?”

  “Craig thinks he can handle them—get them back home.”

  Michael was quiet for a moment, then said, “Maybe I should go help him with the horses. I can send your aunt to get the cat.”

  “Okay, whatever you think. Oh, Michael, we’re having a house guest. In fact, I’ll need someone to meet me at the hospital to bring us home this afternoon.”

  “Marissa will be released today?” he asked.

  “No, not Marissa. Erin. I’m bringing her home for a few days to heal. It’s been cleared with the hospital social worker. Without our help, she would have to stay in the hospital for another several days. Michael,” she said quietly. “She has no place to go.”

  “Okay hon. One of us will meet up with Craig and help with the horses and I’ll have someone at the hospital to give you girls and the cat a ride home.” He hesitated, then asked, “How is Marissa?”

  “Hard to tell—nothing seems to be broken. Even her spirit’s intact.” She laughed a little. “We’ll know more once the doctors get a look at her.”

  “I’m so glad she’s…okay,” he said.

  “Michael, you’re crying.”

  He took a deep breath. “Well, it just hit too close to home, hon, know what I mean? She’s such a good kid, she’s a sweet little girl like our child, and she’s Adam’s age. Yes, too close to home.”

  Savannah pressed her lips together in an attempt to stop her own flow of tears when she heard Marissa speak. She saw the paramedics lift the girl onto a stretcher, an IV dripping into one arm and an oxygen mask in place when the child struggled to say, “Wait! The boy. Save the boy!”

  Craig quickly approached her. “What boy?”

  One of the medics responded. “She keeps talking about a boy. I think she’s delirious; we’d better get her on the chopper.”

  “No, wait, let me hear what she has to say,” Craig instructed. He then asked gently, “There’s a boy out here someplace, Marissa? Where is he? Do you know?”

  “I…I think he’s in the cabin. They let him stay in the cabin sometimes.”

  “Is anyone in the cabin with him?”

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t hear much from…” She began to weep.

  Craig patted the girl’s arm, flashed a look at Savannah, and then motioned toward the officers who had just arrived on ATVs. The trio walked, weapons in hand, toward the cabin. “Come out with your hands up!” one deputy shouted.

  They waited, then he called again, “If you’re in there, come out with your hands up!”

  After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the cabin creaked open and a small boy stepped out onto the porch holding his hands up in the air.

  “Is anyone else in there?” Craig asked, quietly.

  The boy shook his head.

  The officer asked the boy to walk slowly toward him and when he was close enough, Craig grabbed him and rushed with him toward the helicopter. The officers, in the meantime, searched the cabin and the cellar and found no one else on the property.

  After several minutes, a medic announced to Craig, “The boy checks out okay. Can you take him in a black-and-white? We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

  Craig thought before saying, “Well, we have a police chopper coming to take the two prisoners. We’ll put the kid on the back of an ATV and I’ll have a car meet them at the main road.” He smiled down at the boy. �
�There’s gonna be one happy family reunion tonight.”

  ****

  “Hi, Erin,” Savannah said, entering the teen’s hospital room a couple of hours later and finding her sitting on the bed fully dressed. “Looks like you’re ready to go.”

  “Sure am,” she said. “Did you find Rissy?” she asked eagerly.

  Before Savannah could respond, the nurse named Diane walked into the room pushing a wheelchair. “All ready, I see,” she said smiling at Erin. “Let me help you slide into this chair and then I want to go over a few things with Mrs. Ivey.”

  “A wheelchair?” Erin complained. “I don’t need a wheelchair; that’s silly.”

  “Regulations—you know—hospital policy,” Diane said, smiling.

  Erin slumped. “They made me walk up and down the hall every day, now they want to wheel me out in a chair?”

  “Come on, it’ll be fun.” The nurse smiled impishly. “I’ll do wheelies down the hall if you want.”

  Erin laughed a little, then held her side and coughed.

  Once Erin was settled in the wheelchair and the instructions had been given for her home care, Savannah whispered something to the nurse, who nodded and smiled.

  “Where are we going?” Erin asked, when she noticed they’d passed the exit on the ground floor. “Not the cafeteria, I hope. I’m not very fond of the hospital food.”

  Savannah and Diane grinned. “No, not to the cafeteria,” the nurse said. She quipped,

  “Now you see why I bring my lunch every day. That cafeteria food could make a person sick.”

  Diane wheeled Erin into a room with several beds all in a row and only a few patients. The teen looked around. “I remember this place. This is where they brought me after the…accident. It’s the Emergency Room, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Diane said as she continued to wheel Erin past the row of beds.

  Then Erin saw something familiar—a pair of crooked little legs. “Rissy!” she screeched.

  “Surprise,” Savannah said quietly, moving aside so Diane could roll the teen close to the small bed.

  Erin lifted herself out of the chair and laid across the young girl. “Rissy, they found you!” She pulled back. “How are you? Where were you? Oh my gosh,” she hugged her again, “I’m so happy to see you.”