Victor Van der Voss called while Mina's coffee was still brewing. Wrong morning for that. What little sleep Mina had managed after Diego’s call wasn’t going to take her through the day. Caffeine was a must. But her sense of responsibility to her business compelled her to answer the phone. That, and her compulsive nature.
“Miss Calvi, how many cats do you generally board in a week?”
Not even hello. “That’s a strange question. Are you asking me how many cats the cottage is designed to handle simultaneously?” She waited. She could hear that strange wheezing of his at the other end of the line.
“Uh-huh, that’s exactly what I meant.”
“It could handle ten without trouble, but unless we get several siblings or felines living together at home, we keep it to around six. Why? How many cats do you have?”
“Oh, no, no. That’s not it. I only have the one cat. So if I were to pay you in advance for, let’s say, what you would receive for boarding six cats for one week, I could count on Princess being the only cat there? Well, except for the calico of course, but it hardly counts.”
What an ass. And he never said a nice or sweet thing about his cat. Not my baby or my little Princess, nothing. Mina seriously wanted to tell him to go to hell, while at the same time dying of curiosity in regard to this Princess. What was so special about her? “It’s tempting, very tempting, but as you know, Millie runs the B&B most of the time so it’s only fair I consult with her.”
“What for? She would be paid the same salary if she took care of six cats or only one. It’s not a hard one to figure out.”
The coffee machine dinged. Coffee, yes. “I’ll call you back in thirty minutes.”
“I will call you.” And he was gone.
How about that? He made a good point with the full pay for one sixth of the work. Still, she wanted to run it by Millie. Mina poured herself the coffee that reminded her that she hadn’t fed her cats yet. Oh, okay, feed the cats. It was only fair. She tended to Aria and Houdini with the coffee cup never leaving her hand.
Soon after, Mina walked through the garage holding her refilled steaming coffee mug as if her life depended on it. She was cranky for lack of sleep, but also because this was the first time since they’d met that Diego had kept her up in the middle of the night just to talk. The memories of the talkless nights made her smile. Was that what married couples did? Talk? Not that she anticipated marrying Diego of course. Neither of them were much of the marrying type. Were they?
Mina was still considering the pro and cons of marriage when she reached Millie’s place. The door opened before she had a chance to knock.
“Good morning, dear. You’re already working? Oh, no need to bring your coffee along. Come have some of mine. It’s a special blend I get from Kona, Hawaii and—but I talk too much. You probably want to discuss business. Is it that awful Mr. Van der Voss again?”
“How did you guess?”
“Oh, I think it’s part of his M.O., to keep charging like a bull until he gets what he wants. Without turning off the people he’s trying to win over, of course.”
The aroma of freshly baked rolls or buns or something reached Mina’s nostrils, and with her mouth drooling, she had trouble thinking of anything else. She had to buy groceries, she just had to.
“Would you like some biscuits? They aren’t from scratch but…”
Mina was already sitting at the breakfast table spreading butter on a biscuit, so no offer was necessary. Zeus, who was slouched on a large towel, apparently laid on the table by Millie, interrupted his own moist food gulping to cock his head to look at the unexpected guest.
“God, Millie, this is sooo good. I must buy you some groceries. I feel like I’m eating more of your food than you do. And yes, you’re right about that man. Here’s his last gimmick. I’m tempted to say yes, since I haven’t contacted anyone on our waiting list yet and, okay, I have to tell the truth, I’m curious about this cat, this Princess. If by some farfetched reason he was mistreating the poor thing and she would get hurt because we didn’t take her in I—you know what I’m trying to say, right? Here’s the deal he proposed: he pays us the amount we would get for boarding six cats for a week, but we would only have his cat instead. Oh, he doesn’t count Zeus. The jerk.”
Zeus looked at Mina again when he heard his name. Millie nodded. Mina could tell she was giving a lot of thought to the idea.
“Of course you would be paid like you were caring for five cats and—”
“It’s not about the money.” Millie frowned.
“I know, same here. We’re both suckers.”
“No, we’re good people.”
“Okay then, I’ll let Mr. Van der Voss know we’re accepting his proposal, as long as he doesn’t come waltzing in here three times a day to check on his Princess.”
“I have the feeling he won’t.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’ll tell you as soon as I figure it out.”
Mina wiped her mouth, feeling like a moocher. She patted Zeus who again looked at her, with a sense of superiority, as if he owned the place. Well he certainly owned Millie’s heart. Better not forget to take the dirty mug back home.
“Okay, be back soon and I’ll tell you what’s happening up in Hermosa Beach country. Ah, that Margo. She’s better than a soap opera, I swear.”
Millie gave her a knowing nod, and Mina left.
By the time Mina closed the door from the garage to the laundry her business phone was ringing. Speak of the devil. It had to be Margo.
“We will be arriving at eleven,” Van der Voss said.
No sense in arguing with him. “We will be waiting,” Mina mimicked his tone. They both hung up at the same time.
She had two hours to drive to the shelter and get back, to welcome Princess and the dumbass owner. Mina got ready to leave.
“Bye, kids,” she called out to her cats on her way to her car.
Mina realized that all the rushing around was the best way for her to cope with the events taking place at the Hermosa Beach house. Undoubtedly Diego’s bedtime story was a glossy rendering of the facts. She was dying to know the truth, but perhaps it was better to wait until after the Van der Voss Princess event took place.
Why she felt so invested in this unknown cat was behind logic. Control your emotions. It was a mantra she had to repeat several times a day working at her shelter. She hadn’t even asked what breed Princess was. Mr. Van der Voss’s behavior suggested the cat must be pure bred, perhaps a champion? Best in Show, she seemed to recall. In a few hours the mystery would be revealed.
Leigh was minding the front desk of the shelter. Linda didn’t work on Wednesdays because they weren’t open to the public on that day, and her forte was working with people, face to face. Mina could hear young voices in the back, and the dogs seemed to be rather quiet.
“Hi, Leigh, anything need attention? I have to be back at the B&B by eleven. We have a—I’m not sure how to describe it—difficult intake?”
“The cat or the owner?” Leigh laughed.
“Owner, of course. Isn’t that always the case? But saying no to him is like penalizing the cat. Ah, people. Anything I should know about? Who do you have in the back? Sounds like young girls?”
Leigh nodded. “You’ve met them. We call them The Twins because they always work the same shift?”
“Oh, got it. I’ll be here most of the day tomorrow. I need to check invoices. And I’ll try to stay until Roger does his regular rounds. Seems like I’ve been gone forever even if it’s only been a few days.”
“Your face is healing well.”
“Oh.” Mina patted her cheeks with both hands. “I sort of forgot about that. I have another hour to spare if you need to grab something to eat. Damn, I forgot. I must get some groceries. I have zero food in the house. I’ve been mooching from Millie. So embarrassing.”
“How is Millie?”
“Great, she’s great. Hope to be like her when I get old. Let me take a look around.”
She sighed. “I’ve missed this place. Did Linda get any new applications for adoptions on Sunday?”
“No, but she was able to leave some of our fliers at the library.”
Mina smiled. “That’s great. She sure has a way with people. They turned me down twice.”
At five minutes to eleven, Mina drove into her garage and, miracle of miracles, she had not one but two full bags of groceries. She rushed to get her frozen items into the freezer, nearly trampling over Houdini who, as usual, was lurking by the door.
Mina was dying to know what was happening with Eva and Kalinda. Yesterday she had been ticked off at Margo for the phone calls. Today she was concerned about the lack of phone calls. Ah, life. Houdini’s ears perked up, and that told her Van der Voss and his precious cargo had arrived. Mina rushed to welcome her new boarder.
But the owner got out of his car alone and walked to the cottage entrance, carrying only a file. “Here you go, all the information, and everything is signed. And here is the check, paid in advance for one week. I may be back a day earlier, but a deal is a deal,” he said.
Mina took the papers held together by a paper clip. A cashier’s check from a local bank topped the paperwork. “Where is Princess?” she asked.
“In the car. Let’s take care of business first.”
He followed Mina inside the cottage and they stopped in the small front room used to greet clients dropping off or picking up their cherished pets.
Millie came in, the picture perfect cat-keeper if there ever was one. Mina sat down and began to look through the forms he had insisted on taking home with him. A quick glance, and they all appeared properly filled out. Why worry? He had just given her a nice check, and in a few minutes he would also hand over his precious Princess. She sighed.
“Looks fine. You seem in a hurry. Let me come and help you with your pet. Okay, so this is the phone number where you can be reached? Good, good.”
He didn’t answer, but headed for the door instead. Mina followed him to his car. The man sure walked fast. He opened the rear passenger door, bent down to scoop up a rather fluffy faded reddish colored cat, and handed it to Mina, along with a small envelope.
“Here, this is Princess. All her records with vaccination dates and such are in this envelope. I’ll be back in a week.”
He slammed the door shut, got in the driver seat, started the engine, and was on his way out the gate before Mina could say a word. Princess lay in her arms like a rag doll.
“Well hello, sweetie, are you scared? Don’t be. We’ll take good care of you, I promise.” She spoke baby talk to the cat while walking to the cottage, where Millie waited by the open door. “This poor cat doesn’t look too happy.”
She entered the cottage and set the cat on a large cushy pillow on the rug. The first thing Mina did was check the cat’s paws. All the claws were there. Mina sighed with relief. “If those self-centered people knew what declawing really did to their cats, hopefully they would stop doing it. It should be outlawed. It’s animal abuse. Sorry, Millie, I’m preaching to the choir, like Americans like to say, right?”
Millie didn’t answer. She squatted down to stare at the cat’s unusual face.
“It’s a Persian,” Mina said. “Pure bred if I had to guess. See those big, round eyes? Can’t decide if they are green and golden, or just green.”
“Doped,” was Millie’s statement.
“Huh?”
“The cat’s eyes. Look at them, she’s under the influence of something. The irises look bigger than a normal Persian. And the cat reactions are slow, very slow.”
Mina scratched the cat behind the ears, but there was no purring. “You think that Mr. Van Der Ass gave her a tranquilizer? I didn’t see any cat carrier in his car, now that I think about it. Let me take a better look at the forms he filled out for Princess. Maybe she needs meds, and he didn’t tell us, afraid we wouldn’t take her.”
She sat on the low sofa and pulled out the few papers that were inside the envelope the owner had handed to her before getting back in the car and driving off like an army of tugs was in pursuit. One page listed the age. Three years old? She would have guessed Princess to be older, but maybe Persians aged differently? Pure bred cats were rather scarce at the shelter, and she was no expert. Most odd was that the cats she boarded almost always came with long lists of likes and dislikes on top of the basic info, but there was none of that here.
“Millie, all these papers look like they were typed yesterday. Am I being paranoid, or does something feels funny here?”
“Something feels funny, like you said, but rather than jumping to conclusions I think we should give Princess a day to get acquainted and see if it’s just a reaction to an unfamiliar place.”
“Good idea. And I think I’ll ask Roger the Vet to swing by after he’s done at the shelter. What do you think?”
Millie nodded and motioned for Mina to look. Zeus had quietly entered the room and was sniffing around the fluffy mound on the pillow. Somehow, the lethargic cat responded by nuzzling back. The calico stepped onto the big pillow and made himself at home. A few minutes later they both looked asleep.
“How about that? A Princess and her God of Olympus.” Mina smiled. “My job here is done for now. Time to go home to my own cats, who are going to give me hell as soon as they smell the Persian on me. I’ll be back later, and I’ll bring a bottle of Prosecco and tell you what I discover about the latest episode of the Hermosa Beach saga.”
Chapter Thirteen
The groceries Mina had purchased were long on convenience, short on nutrition. Nothing new there. But they sufficed for lunch. Then Mina went to her home office to check her messages.
Three of her regular clients wanted to book future dates. That she could do, since the Princess deal was only for a week. There was a repeat customer inquiring about dog boarding because she didn’t want to separate her two pets, a cat and a dog. Mina had been getting a lot of requests for dog boarding, but she simply wasn’t equipped or ready for that. Someday, maybe.
She paused and reflected how odd it was that Margo hadn’t called at all, nor Diego. Okay, Diego was just behaving like Diego. But Margo? Should she call her? And say what? Asking about other people’s misfortune felt like gossip. Oh, so what? Nothing wrong with well-intentioned gossip. Mina dialed Margo’s cell. It went to voice mail.
A lingering edginess kept Mina from being productive. She sat looking out her office window, appreciating the relaxing atmosphere of the older, settled neighborhood. What would it be like having Diego there with her? Images of couplehood bliss flashed though her mind. Other images intruded: growling Harley engines, black leather, and deadly guns.
Stop it Mina.
She got up and went to check out her back yard, still verdant and luscious in spite of so little rain. Southern California was so hard to explain to people back home in Italy. You said California, and all they thought of was Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Her house phone rang. She wished it to be Diego.
This time around Margo wasn’t whispering, “Eva is under house arrest,” she stated.
“House arrest? I’m not even sure I know what that means. Where is her house?”
“Ah, that’s just it. She doesn’t have one, at least that I know of. So she is in our—I mean, here.”
“Ouch, that must be so uncomfortable for everyone involved. What is house arrest? They chain her to a door? A bed? What?”
“That’s what I thought. Nope. She wears a thing around her ankle, the size of a pack of cigarettes, attached to a band. You know, like a watch. And, apparently, if she leaves the house it alerts the authorities. She sits around crying and moaning saying how sorry she is and didn’t know what she was doing and on and on and on.”
“Wow. What’s Gino saying?”
“Nothing. He isn’t here. He’s at the restaurant all day. The grand opening is only a week or so away. How convenient is that? I wasn’t brought up to be a prison warden.” She sounded bitter and angr
y. Very angry.
Mina liked her better when she was whispering. “How is Kalinda holding up?”
“I don’t know.” Now she pouted.
“Is Kalinda not there? Where did she go?” Could she be with Diego?
“She’s in her room, where do you want her to go? Eva was supposed to assist her and drive her places. Now she’s stuck, just like I am.”
“How so?”
“What do you mean how so? Have you not been listening? Is your boyfriend there? Well tell him to get the criminal out of here. He can get her in his fancy jet and take her where she belongs, to prison.” Her labored breathing was hard to miss. Margo was pissed to the max.
Aye. “Okay Margo, listen up. My boyfriend is not here. I don’t know where he is, and that’s the way I like it because I have nothing to do with his business, never have, never will. Now, regarding Kalinda, why can’t she get in your Camaro, and you two come down here, and we have some fun?” She waited. And waited.
“What’s wrong with you?” We were back to whispering. “Where am I going to put her wheelchair? Or did you forget about her—condition?”
“Did not forget, but she can rent or lease a traveling wheelchair. It’s much lighter and while it won’t make her as self-sufficient as the fancy one she uses now, it will fold and fit nicely in the back of your car or mine. And you two can drive down here, and we can hit the old fun spots and have some good times. What do you say?”
“You sure about that?”
“You mean the wheelchair? Yep. Tell Kalinda to search for a traveling one, leased or for sale. She’ll know what to do. Get something that will fold nicely and fit in your car. Now stop complaining and get going. Just out of curiosity, where is Eva from? What country?”
“What do you mean what country? She’s from the United States of America. You ask the silliest questions.”
“Okay, genius, so why does she speak with an accent?”
“She does?”
“Seriously Margo? I thought she had a slight British accent.”
“I thought she was from back east. Let me go find Kalinda. Orange County, here we come.”
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