Cat Breaking Free

by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

  Ryan gave her a stern look in the mirror, trying not to laugh.

  "Well she is. She's there when we go down, real early before school, and she's there when we come back. Once was later, Saturday. We were in the library." She glanced at Dillon, who grinned sheepishly.

  Dillon's current English teacher was assigning long, detailed papers, and would not let the kids go online to do their research. It had to be from books, with the sources properly noted, all footnotes in correct form-and no adult help.

  Dillon had never worked this way, she said all the kids complained. Two dozen parents were so angry they were trying to get the teacher fired. But a dozen more applauded her. Dillon found the new method very hard and demanding. She didn't care, at the moment, that the training would put her in the top ranks when applying for college. She didn't care that she was learning to do far more thorough and accurate research than anyone could ever do online, or that you couldn't do adequate college work without those basics. But while Dillon wasn't happy with the assignments, Lori was having a ball.

  Two years younger, Lori tried not to be smug that she knew her way among the reference books. Before Lori's mother died, she'd often taken Lori to work with her in the library, and had often let her help with reference projects.

  No one had said Dillon couldn't have help from a younger child. Surely her teacher had never imagined that a twelve-year-old would have those skills. And while Lori was hugely enjoying the challenge, and Dillon was learning, the situation deeply embarrassed the older girl.

  Below the highway, the sea gleamed in the brightening morning, the little waves flashing silver up at them. The tide was in, the surf pounding high against the black rocks, the smell of the sea sharp with salt and iodine and little dead sea-creatures. Ryan glanced at the girls. "So what do you think she was watching?"

  Dillon shrugged. "Hard to tell. I didn't see anything very interesting. A man from the shop across the street watering his garden. Cars creeping by. Couple of tourists walking their dogs."

  "Which shop, Dillon?"

  "That posh leather one," Lori said. "With the Gucci bags."

  "And the other times?"

  "Dormeyer's Jewelry once," Lori said. "When we took the dogs down before supper, and were coming home. Sunday night, gray-haired man closing up, locking the door."

  "That was Mr. Dormeyer," Dillon said. "He owns the shop."

  "Was anyone with him?" Ryan asked. "His wife?"

  "A woman left about an hour before," Lori said. "Gray hair, a long skirt and sandals. He left last, locked the door."

  Ryan nodded. Gray-haired Mena Dormeyer usually wore long, flowered skirts, and sandals, even on cold winter days, varying her wardrobe only with a heavy, hand-knit sweater. And maybe with wool tights under the skirt, she thought. She slowed for a car to pass in the opposite direction, then turned left onto the Harpers' lane. Moving slowly between the white pasture fences, approaching the barn, she studied the new end walls of the second story, their skeletons pale in the early light. The side walls had been stripped of the old roofing shingles but were still covered with age-darkened plywood. Scotty's truck was parked in the yard. She caught a flash of his red hair and beard as he disappeared around the back of the barn, where they had stashed their ladders and equipment out of the way of the horses. Parking the truck, she watched the girls head into the house to get permission before they saddled the horses.

  Ordinarily, Dillon would have been welcome to work on the construction, doing odd jobs, but Ryan didn't want her on the second floor, balancing on open joists. Dillon's work permit spelled out clearly the safety precautions Ryan would take. Ryan had not only signed the agreement but had of course promised Dillon's parents that she would be closely supervised. This was not medieval England, where a fourteen-year-old was expected to do adult work and was paid a bit of stale bread and a lump of coal.

  Swinging out of the truck, she gave Rock his command to jump out behind her; and as the girls hurried out, she headed for the barn.

  She was up on the beams when the Greenlaws' car pulled in. They were gone again when, at midmorning, she went in to have coffee with Charlie and Wilma. Sitting at the kitchen table, she mentioned the two girls watching Chichi and commenting on Chichi's early-morning vigils. On the window seat, Wilma's tabby cat lay stretched among the pillows, next to Wilma's overnight bag. Like a patient traveler waiting to depart, Ryan thought, amused. Wilma was going home this morning, after several days' pampering, but how could the cat know? The familiarity of the overnight bag? Knowing that where it went, Wilma went? That had to be the explanation.

  Though this cat often gave Ryan a sense of the unreal. All three cats did. Well, but cats were strange little creatures, she didn't understand cats.

  Yet even Rock seemed to view these particular cats in a strange way. With unusual respect? Yes, that was it. And often with a puzzled look that seemed almost to be amazement.

  Maybe the cats had clawed Rock at some time, had put him in his place, and he was unusually wary of them. Rock was, after all, a very big dog. He was daunting to most cats, so maybe it surprised him that these three would stand up to him-as they surely had, in the beginning. Now they were the best of friends.

  "But what do you think she was doing, what was she watching?" Wilma said.

  "Chichi?" Ryan shook her head. "I haven't a clue." She grinned. "The girls decided she was spying on the shopkeepers. Leave it to kids to find the most dramatic spin."

  Charlie said, "Maybe what Slayter told you wasn't so far off, what he said when you had dinner with him last night-or started to have dinner."

  When Wilma looked inquisitive, Ryan told her what Slayter had said about Chichi running from the scene of the burglary. "That could be a figment of his imagination," she said carefully. "Or could be a lie-Slayter's the kind who would lie for no good reason, just to entertain himself." She glanced out the window, saw that Scotty was back at work carrying two-by-fours up the ladder, and she rose, hurrying out.

  She was on the roof again when Charlie and Wilma came out, Charlie carrying Wilma's overnight bag. She watched Wilma's cat gallop by them, heading straight for Charlie's SUV The minute Charlie opened the door, the cat leaped up onto the seat in what, Ryan was certain, was surely not normal feline behavior.

  But then, what did she know? Maybe cats were as smart as dogs.

  The kit, full of Charlie's lovely mushroom omelet and warm milk, prowled the empty house ahead of Lucinda and Pedric, far too impatient to give the old couple a chance to show her around. Leaping to every sill to look out, nosing into every corner lashing her tail with interest, leaping atop every bookshelf catching cobwebs in her whiskers, she decided she liked this house. Liked it quite a lot.

  The two-story dwelling was on such a steep hill that, even after the Greenlaws had made their offer and given the agent a check, the conscientious agent was uncertain about the old couple living on such a slope. But to Lucinda and Pedric, the house was perfect.

  The high rafters of the great room filled Kit with delight as she leaped from one to the next. But where was the surprise? She could not ask in front of the real estate agent. Even if Mrs. Thurwell was a friend, she didn't know Kit's secret. The old couple had chosen her because she was Dillon's mother, and had decided to work with her exclusively because she was a quiet, sensible agent who didn't push. Who had, during all their weeks of searching, left them alone to prowl each house as they pleased, without comment. Unless of course, they asked a question. Neither one of the Greenlaws could abide a pushy Realtor, and neither could Kit.

  Now, even though she must remain mute, she raced about eagerly looking, her tail lashing, drawing Luanda's frown because she was not behaving like a normal cat, making Mrs. Thurwell glance at her, puzzled.

  "She's always been like that," Lucinda said. "As hyper as a terrier. The vet says she has a thyroid problem. Makes her wild. We worry about her, we keep hoping she'll settle down. She's such a dear, when she's quiet. But anything new sets her off- new
people, new places…"

  Lucinda laughed, as guileless as a cat herself. "I guess everyone thinks their pet is special. Do you have figures on the utility costs?"

  Managing to divert Mrs. Thurwell, going over the utility figures and then leading the slim brunette into the kitchen to discuss the dishwasher, Lucinda freed the kit-and freed Pedric to lead Kit to a dining room window and open the latched shutters.

  Leaping up to the sill of the open window, Kit looked and looked, then she turned to look at Pedric. The thin old man held his finger to his lips. Kit stared at him, then sailed out the window into the oak tree-into a realm that took her breath. Into a little house right among the tall branches. This was the surprise! A little house, hugged within the branches of the oak.

  Scorching from the branch in through a small, open door, Kit was beyond speech. Lucinda and Pedric had never hinted that there was a tree house! She looked back to the window, to Pedric. Her tall, wrinkled friend grinned, his eyes sparkling. "It's yours," he whispered, mouthing the words. "Yours, Kit."

  Oh, the wonder!

  Joe Grey had a tower on his roof but she had a tree house! A tree house sturdily made of thick cedar boards, a beautiful tree house with its own little deck and door and windows. She imagined beautiful India cushions inside, a tumble of pillows in which to snuggle; it was a retreat far cozier and more elegant even than Joe Grey's wonderful tower.

  At the moment, there was a lovely pile of dry oak leaves that had blown into the corner. Flopping among them she rolled and wriggled, lay upside down purring, looking up at her own raftered ceiling. She prowled her own deck, sniffing the salty sea wind and looking away to the hills where scattered cottages rose, half hidden among pines and oaks. She looked down to the south, to Wilma's house, and could see Wilma's roof! When she looked to the center of the village, she could pick out Joe Grey's tower. She looked through the branches down into the window of the dining room where Pedric stood looking up at her, his eyes bright, his wrinkles curved with pleasure. "Yours," he mouthed again. He turned away as Mrs. Thurwell joined him.

  21

  In her cozy living room, Wilma paused from serving drinks, set her tray on the desk, and placed three saucers of milk on the blotter. Beyond the open shutters sunset stained the sky, as bright red as the rooftops in the painting hanging above the fireplace behind her. A reflection of sunset played faintly across her long, silver hair. As she passed drinks to Lucinda and Pedric, the three cats set to lapping warm milk, their own version of before-dinner cocktails.

  Charlie had brought Wilma home at midmorning and ordered her to rest. Wilma, after a half-hour nap, had grown so restless she began to call her friends to tell them she was home and on the mend, ready to go back to work. Now, this evening, an impromptu dinner to celebrate her homecoming, as if she'd been gone for months. The Greenlaws had brought a salad, and Clyde was picking up takeout on his way to get Ryan. Charlie had promised a dessert.

  Joe Grey had left the station before Harper did, galloping across the rooftops burning with information on the Rivas brothers, with statistics from arrest sheets and reports that had just come in by fax. He was tense with news to share; but with Kit so excited, he hadn't been able to get in a word.

  "It's a real tree house, it was a child's tree house and it's so beautiful all hidden in the tree and it's mine! Wait until you see!" She was lapping milk and talking so fast that she spluttered most of the milk across the blotter and on Dulcie's ears. Joe waited patiently. With Kit's nonstop narration, Dulcie and Joe and Wilma soon knew more about the Greenlaws' new house than the real estate agent who had sold it.

  "There will be cushions," Lucinda said. "And a water bowl on the windowsill that Kit can easily reach. We thought maybe Lori or Dillon would take the pillows up, with a sturdy ladder. That is," she said, "if they understand that the tree house belongs to Kit."

  Kit purred with contentment. Life was indeed wonderful. But beside her Joe Grey fidgeted and laid his ears back until at last she paid attention and shut up and let him talk before he exploded like a wildcat.

  "Faxes are coming in, on the Rivas brothers," Joe said, twitching an ear. "Twenty-seven burglaries and street robberies in two years, and those are just the arrests. Who knows how many when they weren't caught? Luis has a rap sheet long enough to paper this room, and so did Hernando.

  "Most of the time, Luis and Hernando worked together, apparently kept Dufio out of the way." Joe licked his paw. "Poor Dufio. By the time Dallas finished reading off the details of his arrests, half the department was standing around the fax machine, grinning. I had to crawl under Mabel's counter to keep from breaking up laughing.

  "Dufio's full name's Delfino. I guess he's been clumsy like this all his life. Last year he robbed an Arby's in Arcadia, two o'clock in the afternoon, got out with the money okay. But for the second time, he locked his keys in the car. Can't the poor guy learn? When he couldn't get in, he dropped the paper bag full of money and took off running.

  "Two blocks from Arby's, three patrol cars were on him, bundled him off to jail. But, as they recovered the money, the judge went easy on him. He did seven months, got out, his brothers wouldn't have anything to do with him. On his own again, he broke the padlock on a storage locker in Anaheim, backed his truck up to it, and somehow in the process he set off the alarm. Chain-link gate swung closed, and he was trapped."

  Lucinda and Pedric looked a bit sorry for Dufio, but Wilma was laughing. Whatever embarrassment Dufio Rivas had suffered at his own mistakes, the entertainment he afforded those in law enforcement was deeply satisfying.

  "When he got out of L.A. County jail," Joe said, "he pulled a holdup on a 7-Eleven. He had his keys in his pocket this time. But he flashed a holdup note at the guy. He got away all right, for six blocks, then a customer ID'd his car. A patrol car stopped him, asked for identification and registration." Joe purred, twitching a whisker. "I love when humans do this stuff. He opened the glove compartment, handed them all the papers in it, including the holdup note."

  This made Lucinda and Pedric chuckle, too. They were still smiling when Clyde and Ryan pulled to the curb out front, Clyde's yellow Model A roadster gleaming in the falling evening. Charlie's new, red SUV parked behind them, then Max's truck. They all crowded in through the back door, setting their bags of takeout on the kitchen table.

  Now, with Ryan and Max present, the cats must remain mute; they turned their attention to supper, committing themselves fully to a dozen Oriental delicacies that Clyde and Charlie served for them on paper plates. The highlight was the golden shrimp tempura. Clyde had brought three extra servings. Kit ate so much shrimp that everyone, human and cat alike, thought she'd be sick. She slept so soundly after supper that when Pedric lifted her up into a soft blanket and carried her out to the car to head home, she didn't wiggle a whisker.

  And it was not until Joe and Dulcie had wandered away to the rooftops, alone in the chill evening, that they discussed the Rivas brothers again. Then they laid out a businesslike schedule for shadowing Chichi Barbi, to discover what she found of such interest during her long, solitary vigils.

  Joe could see her leave the house in the mornings, so he would follow her until noon. Dulcie would prowl the rooftops in the evenings when most of the shops were closing. Kit would be going back to Charlie's in the morning for a few more days of storytelling; she had no desire to accompany Lucinda and Pedric on a spree of furniture shopping, any more than she'd wanted to look at houses. She might revel in a velvet love seat or a silk chaise, but she didn't care for the shopping.

  The Greenlaws had no furniture, they'd sold everything before they moved into their RV to travel the California coast. After the RV was wrecked and burned, the old couple, though safe, had owned little more than the sweatshirts and jeans they were dressed in; plus their ample bank accounts. The task of furnishing a whole house seemed monstrous to Kit; the only shopping that interested her was a nice trip to the deli. Besides, she was so looking forward to sharing more of her adventure
s with Charlie. Charlie's book about her was far more exciting than furniture stores and pushy salesmen.

  "She's getting big-headed," Joe told Dulcie as they wandered the rooftops. He rolled over on a patch of tarpaper that still held the heat of the day. "You think it's a good thing, for Charlie to be writing about her?"

  "Charlie's not putting in anything she shouldn't. No talking cats." Dulcie twitched her whiskers. "Kit'll calm down. How many cats have their life story written in a book for all kinds of people to read, and with such beautiful portraits of her? You wouldn't spoil that for the kit."

  "I guess I wouldn't." Joe nuzzled Dulcie's cheek. "But you have to admit, she does get full of herself."

  Dulcie shrugged. "That's her nature." And the two cats trotted on across the rooftops, thinking about Kit's mercurial temperament as they headed for the courthouse tower-until Joe came suddenly alert, stopping to watch below them.

  Some of the restaurants and shops were still open, the drugstore, the little grocery that catered to late-shopping tourists. From the edge of a steep, shingled roof, they looked across the street to the grocery's side door. "That's…"Joe hissed, and the next instant he was gone, scrambling backward down a thorny bougainvillea vine and racing across the empty street. Dulcie fled close behind him.

  Slipping into the shadowed store, they followed the short, stocky Hispanic man along the aisles, their noses immediately confused by a hundred scents: onions-coffee-oranges-sweet rolls-raw meat-spices, a tangle of smells they had to sort through to pick out the man's personal scent-which, at last, was recorded in their scent-memories: a melange of Mexican food, sweat, and too much cheap aftershave. They flinched as an occasional tourist glanced down and reached to pet them; though the locals paid no attention. This family grocery store had cats, it was not unusual to see a cat in the aisles. Quickly down past cereal and bread they followed Luis, then down between shelves of canned vegetables and canned soup and then soft drinks. At pet food, Luis stopped. Pet food?