“Then I can continue the work we began with Better Homes in America.” Lucia wiped the tears from her eyes.
“We need to get home to our other cat,’ Grace said.
“If I can help you with your investigation in any way, please call me. I meant what I said about what’s it’s like to truly love only one thing in your life. And to be without the one thing you loved. That is what everyday without Marco is like for me.”
Grace and Jack hugged Lucia goodbye while Tatania wound through her legs.
Chapter Fifteen
Seeing Lucia’s raw, aching grief made them appreciate each other more. Grace kept touching Jack as if she needed the tactile reassurance of his presence.
“Want to get home quickly?” Jack asked.
“I don’t have to be asked twice.” Grace and Tatania ran to the plane.
Grace closed her eyes, suddenly feeling very tired in the plane, and lulled to sleep by Tatania’s purring. She didn’t wake up again until they were flying over North Island.
Grace looked up at the stars, and thought of cupcakes, and Clara Bow, and all the firmament of Hollywood from Charlie Chaplin to the poor souls on a downward trajectory who live in a homeless camp two feet away from where the movie studio owner parks his Bentley.
Jack was right. Lauren was too self-absorbed to give another person enough thought to kill him. Jack turned left, flying lower over Tent City, dipping a wing to his buddies, and landing the plane next to their home. He cut the engine. Zeus came bounding up to greet them. Zeus didn’t object to being near a plane if it wasn’t making any noise and was on the ground.
“Zeus, I missed you.” Grace sat in the passenger seat and Zeus jumped on her lap. She pet him while she removed Tatania’s scarf and goggles and her own.
“Welcome home,” Annie said, pausing to light another cigarette, on the deck next door, “would you ever live in Hollywood all the time?”
“There’s no place like Coronado. I feel like I come home here.”
“I feel like you do too. You and Jack and the cats seem like you belong here. Like Martin and me. Sometimes, you just feel it and know it. It doesn’t have to be the place you were born. It doesn’t even have to be the place your parents were born. You see home. You know it. And you claim it.”
Hollywood had been interesting and she always felt satisfied after giving the humans clues but now Tatania wanted only to be home, relaxing on one of Grace’s cashmere sweaters, and sharing cat secrets with Zeus. She’d grown fond of him. A tomcat with brains albeit a short attention span. But no tomcat was perfect.
When they went inside, Grace looked at the bounty of food in their pantry and remembered that some of the actors in the homeless camp looked like they were starving. How often did she and Jack throw things out? She didn’t want to live a profligate lifestyle.
“We’re not profligate.” He stood behind her, his hands on her hips. She breathed quickly, startled that he could read her mind sometimes.
“Their lives don’t look as bleak to them as they do to us. They’re exactly where they want to be and trying to do exactly what they want to be doing.” Jack kissed her neck and she felt electrified and stood rooted against him.
“And now I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing,” he whispered.
“Jack, we need to look for Nelly. See if she’s still around.”
Tatania meowed. Grace had expected to see Zeus next to her.
“Tatania, where did Zeus go?” Grace asked.
“We’ll find him,” Jack said.
They walked over to Marco’s former office and showroom.
Chapter Sixteen
Nelly seemed to choose shoes that could make the most irritating noises possible when she walked and they could hear her walking around the former dormitory’s slab floor with her sandals hitting her heels before they approached. When Jack opened the door, she heaved herself into a chair. She kept tapping her nails on the table next to the chair between her incessant lighting of cigarettes.
“Don’t come in without knocking.” She wagged her finger at Grace and Jack.
Jack knocked his fist on the wall. “Did you hear that knock?”
“What do you two stupid people want? Tuna for your cats? Balls of yarn? Have you idiots figured out that I bumped off Marco yet?”
Grace’s heart pounded fast. “Have you seen Zeus?”
“Oh, he’s been enjoying a little tuna.” Nelly pointed at Zeus on the floor.
“Does he look okay to you, Jack?”
Jack threw Nelly against the wall.
“Did you give my cat poisoned tuna?”
“You two act don’t give a damn about people. You care when animals are hurt. You’re like Marco. He loved models. Men are pigs. He loved cats. He didn’t love me. Bastard.”
Grace knelt next to Zeus. She picked him up. His body felt limp. “Jack, we’ve got to get him to the vet.”
“They’ll be closed.”
“Maybe the Hotel del Coronado physician could help us.”
They heard meowing and looked up to see Tatania jumping on a doorknob to open a closet. A golden lab puppy ran out.
“Get that puppy!” Nelly yelled.
And then Nelly was chasing the puppy, who ran out the open office door and into the street. A car swerved and missed the puppy. It hit Nelly and kept going. It was a long Studebaker, shiny white with big Michelin tires.
The puppy stopped and looked back at Nelly. He ran over to her and licked her face, tail wagging, forgiving her.
Nelly’s body looked bloodied and pummeled by the car. Jack felt her wrist for a pulse.
Silently and swiftly, he pulled his Army knife out of his belt and cut her neck. Only Grace, with Zeus in her arms, and Tatania standing next to them, could see him do it.
Chapter Seventeen
The puppy followed them to the entrance of the Hotel del Coronado. On the deck, a little boy was crying.
“Rover, where were you?” He hugged the puppy.
“He’s been crying since that dog disappeared this morning. Where did you find him?”
“He found us, Ma’am”
“Is your cat okay?”
“He will be.”
They knew where the Hotel del Coronado’s physician’s office was located.
“Help,” Grace said.
The door opened, and the receptionist stared at them.
Zeus meowed in an unfamiliar way. He was making sounds Grace and Jack had never heard either cat emit. He was foaming at the mouth.
“It’s after business hours. And this isn’t a vet’s office.”
Grace and Jack ran around her. They’d been friends with the hotel’s doctor for years.
“It’s Zeus. I think he’s been poisoned. Probably rat poison,” Grace said, remembering the comment Nelly had made about rat poison.
“I have an antidote. And I considered going to vet school. Do you know what they call a vet who treats only one species? A doctor.” He waved Jack and Grace into his examining room.
Grace held Zeus while the doctor opened Zeus’s mouth and injected liquid. Zeus barfed all over her. She didn’t care.
“What happened?” The doctor asked.
A siren wailed outside.
“You heard about the designer who was bumped off? The dame who bumped him off was poisoning animals. She poisoned Zeus.”
“Bitch belongs in hell,” the doctor said.
“I think she just went there. She got run over by a car in the street chasing a puppy she probably wanted to poison. There weren’t any skid marks. I don’t think she had a pulse.”
Tatania wouldn’t leave Zeus’s side and crowded Grace’s lap. Grace loved Jack, Tatania, and Zeus. And not always in that order. If she lost Zeus, it would be as if a quarter of her was missing. Tatania groomed Zeus’s ears.
“He’s going to be okay. He’ll be weak for a day or two. But he’ll be climbing trees, chasing rabbits, and waking you up for breakfast again.”
“You hav
e cats,” Grace said.
“I’m sorry I was rude.” The receptionist stood in the doorway, listening to them.
“Do you want to borrow one of my tops? I keep extras here for emergencies.”
“Thank you.” Grace handed Zeus to Jack.
She changed from her cashmere sweater to a shirt that said, “Drink Healthy Budweiser.” She’d ask later if doctors were allowed to prescribe beer for medicinal purposes during Prohibition. She wanted only to be home again now.
“No charge,” the doctor said to Jack.
“Thank you. He’s our little guy. We’d do anything for him,” Grace said.
“My wife and I have cats. I’ll be a hero when I go home tonight.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Nelly was right about one thing.” Grace walked next to Jack, who held Zeus close to him.
“That men are pigs?”
“That too. I know I love animals more than people sometimes. Present company excluded. I became who I am because it was the only way I could survive everything that happened to me,” Grace confided.
“We all do. And Grace, you couldn’t lose me if you tried,” he said, reading her mind again.
“All this time, I was feeling upset with Tatania. She’s always the good one. And she was acting like an errant kitten. And now I know, she was trying to tell us about Nelly all along. She was trying to warn us. She wasn’t eating tuna to make us think about Nelly offering tuna. She kept pawing tobacco because Nelly is a chain smoker. She tapped her claws on things because Nelly constantly, irritatingly raps her nails on every surface.”
“Don’t feel bad. No mere human could be as smart as Tatania.”
“It happens in stages.” Cornelius pulled a cigar out of his pocket. He’d been on the hotels’s veranda with a model from the fashion show when the car hit Nelly. He suspected that Grace and Jack had confronted Nelly when he saw Nelly running on the street.
“I’ve seen bitches like Nelly before. First, she claims she does everything and tries to assume the boss’s persona, expecting everyone to respond to her like they respond to him. When they don’t, first stage bitterness sets in. Next, it escalates to second stage bitterness when they assume that someone else, like Lucia, is assuming the boss’s persona successfully, and then the bitterness escalates to stage three, and the sabotage begins, and if you get all the way to stage four, you have a malignant tumor on the boss, from which he may never recover. Fortunately, the wreckage can usually be cleared away with them. But Nelly killed Marco before he could clear the wreckage.” Cornelius picked up a carafe of wine.
“Care for a drink?”
“Thank you, Cornelius. We need to be home. Nelly poisoned Zeus. We just got out of the doctor’s office.”
“Nelly was garbage. When the ambulance took her away, no one looked unhappy,” Cornelius said.
Chapter Nineteen
Jack opened the door of their home and gently put Zeus on sofa.
“It’s true, isn’t it, Jack? It’s the one thing Nelly got right. We sometimes care more about harm to animals than humans.”
“Of course we do. Animals are the most vulnerable ones in the world. They need our protection.” Tatania nestled between Grace and Jack. She paused and looked out at the bay for an instant. After years with Jack, Tatania’s fear of water from being nearly drowned as a kitten was receding, and she knew she was with the humans she was meant to be with for this lifetime. She turned and looked at Grace and Jack, reaching one paw out for Grace to hold in her hand.
Grace kept touching Jack and Zeus, and Tatania, reassuring herself that everyone was alive.
“You can touch me wherever you want,” Jack said.
The Coronado Tent City Band was playing Home Sweet Home: “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
“We should feel sorry for someone like Nelly,” Jack said.
“Oh, please.” Grace and Tatania looked at each other.
“We should feel sorry for someone who doesn’t get that animals are one of life’s blessings. This world is better without Nelly in it. But hell just got a lot worse for the people there.” Jack said.
“The Better Homes in America movement is right. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be beautiful,” Jack said, watching Tatania bat around the band from a cigar after he unfurled it.
“Please don’t light that, Jack. I don’t want Zeus to be around cigar smoke now.” She remembered his labored breathing after the poisoning. How fragile life could be for a twelve pound tomcat. Twelve pounds of energetic, playful tomcat could be reduced to a limp, barely moving body. She said a silent prayer that she, Jack, Zeus, and Tatania had long lives ahead of them. The alternative was too painful to think about.
“They’re just like people. You don’t know how long you’re going to have them.” Jack lightly stroked Zeus. Grace watched the masculine hands that she knew could be so gentle.
Tatania thought of Fluffy, the ghost cat who refused to leave Coronado. She’d have to go back and thank him for alerting her to the puppy in the closet. They might be able to work together on another case.
Zeus, still weak from the poisoning, managed to roll over and begin kneading Grace’s leg. She felt his claws but didn’t mind.
“Perfect cats.” Grace sighed.
“They don’t make them any other way.”
Tatania purred in agreement.
“I guess the car was in a hurry to get to Mexico or something. It didn’t stop.”
“The only good view of Nelly was from the rear view mirror.” Jack got up and opened a bottle of wine. He leaned over and handed Grace a glass of red wine. She took a sip. Jack stroked her arm.
“I’m never going to be like anyone else you ever met,” she said.
“That’s why I chose you.”
Zeus meowed. She smiled at the little boy cat she adored. Maybe it was possible for people to be happy without pets but she didn’t want to ever have to find out. She wanted to savor every moment with Zeus and Tatania before they went on to another one of their nine lives.Jack looked at her like he knew what she was thinking again. “Life gets even better with cats,” he said. They watched the bay illuminated by the moon and the stars.
Grace touched Jack’s cheek, feeling strength in his jaw. She moved slightly, a jeweled stone on her skirt was jabbing her side. “I love this skirt. Except for the one stone that’s jabbing me.”
He slid a hand around her, unzipping her skirt with one fluid motion. “That skirt would look good on the floor,” he said.
THE FUR WILL FLY
“And when he shall die,
take him and cut him out in little stars,
and he will make the face of heaven so fine,
that all the world will be in love with night,
and pay no worship to the garish sun.” William Shakespeare
Chapter One
“Why are you always wearing clothes now, Grace? What is wrong with you?”
“I’m just tired, Nudie Boy.” It seemed like Jack was always walking around nude at home. Grace was usually wearing clothes. She looked out the window and saw someone from Western Union walking towards their door.
“We’re getting another telegram. I’ll get it.” She picked Jack’s pants up off the floor and took a tip out of his pocket. She put his pants in the hamper and ran downstairs to the sound of the doorbell ringing.
He was getting dressed when she ran back upstairs with the telegram. Their cats, Tatania and Zeus, watched Jack from the bed, as if they were supervising him.
“The cats slept in late today,” he said.
“No, they didn’t. I got up twice to feed them. You slept through it.” She looked out the window again. She felt exhausted and the day was just beginning. She smiled when she saw their friends, Martin and Annie, across the street at Tent City Cafeteria.
“What was in the telegram?” Jack stood by their fireplace. Jack negotiated a deal for the french tiles with an old Army buddy of his who helped rebuild Fra
nce after the Great War.
“Emily’s husband isn’t feeling well.” She rubbed her shoulders. Jack rubbed her shoulders too.
“Are you cold?” He asked.
“I’m okay.” She waved to Annie. They could see most of Tent City from their window. Tent City was a misnomer. There hadn’t been any tents in it for years. It had well-built cottages, shops, swimming pools, and a Dance Pavilion that led out to a pier. On nights when the Tent City Band played well, it wasn’t unusual to see dancers on the pier.
The cats led the way to Tent City Cafeteria. Zeus jumped on Annie’s lap.
“A cup of joe would be sublime. I haven’t had any yet today,” Jack said.
“One of my Finishing School roommates just got married. And one just got buried.”
“I won’t joke that it’s the same thing. Which one got buried?” Annie asked.
“Ruth. I can’t believe Ruth died from polio. She was only twenty-two years old.”
“Ruth gave you a hard time when you lost your money.” Jack reminded her. Tatania jumped in the chair next to Jack and wrapped her tail in front of her, so everyone could better appreciate its beauty.
“That doesn’t mean I wanted her to die.”
“Absolutely. She died without knowing how sweet your life is now.” Annie Knickerbocker dragged her cigarette from a black rhinestone embedded holder, threw back her head, and managed to smoke and exhale smoke at the same time.
“Emily will be here soon,” Grace said.
“Which one is Emily?” Annie asked.
“My other best friend from Finishing School.”
“That’s right,” Annie said, as if Grace needed confirmation from her.
“I remember meeting her. She could drink. I respected her.”
Magical Cool Cat Mysteries Boxed Set Volume 3 (Magical Cool Cats Mysteries) Page 15