Emily pulled papers out of the safe. “I suppose it’s time to read this,” she said.
“Absolutely. He might be dead in fifteen minutes,” Jack said.
Zeus and Tatania helpfully put their paws on the paper. Grace pulled Zeus towards her.
“He leaves everything to me.”
Tatania lept off Jack’s lap and ran from the compartment. Jack followed her.
Alerted by Tatania’s meows, Grace found them in a bedroom compartment.
Jack was inspecting a tiny shower. Small in size, but large in luxury. The shower faucet was gold plated and the tiles looked like black granite.
“I can’t believe they even have Tiffany lamps on this train.” Grace ran her fingers lightly over a Tiffany lamp on a rich oak table.
“Do you want a Tiffany lamp?” Jack asked.
“No. All I want is you. And our cats.”
“You seem so different from Emily. It’s hard to imaging you two as best friends in Finishing School. The french tiles on this fireplace look like ours. I delivered everything you wanted in out bedroom,” Jack said.
“What is going on here? Why is Grace blushing?” Emily stood in the doorway.
“Nothing. We were just discussing the design of our home.”
“We need to talk to Bridget again. Are you sure no one else on this train has been sick?” Jack asked.
“Yes. I am sure.”
Bridget was still standing at the kitchen counter when Grace and Jack came back to talk to her.
“I don’t trust Consuela. She insisted on helping me prepare Wade’s burgers. I’d come back from getting vegetables out of the ice box. And she’d be mashing the burgers with her hands. She acts like she owns the train.” Bridget snapped the pods out of fresh green beans with her fingers.
“Did you eat the burgers?”
“No, Ted and I just eat vegetables and fruit. And Consuela insists on bringing her own food with her. Consuela takes up space with her things in my ice box. She doesn’t respect anything.”
Belle ran through the train with Olga right behind her.
“I got scared. I couldn’t find Belle. I thought she might be onboard.” Olga clasped her hands in front of her.
“I’m sorry. I panicked. I can’t lose this cat.”
“That’s alright. We’re just waiting to see if Emily’s husband gets better. The doctor from the Hotel del Coronado is coming back later,” Grace explained.
“How old are you?” Emily asked Olga.
“Very.” Olga put a cigarette in her mouth.
Belle batted the cigarette out of Olga’s mouth.
“Emily how long had you known Wade when you got married?” Jack asked.
“At least a couple days. I was all set to marry Dickie from the Yale Club. Then Ruth died. And I wondered if I was wasting my life. I wandered out to Fifth Avenue. I didn’t stop walking until I found a speakeasy. And Wade was in there. He was in New York to talk to his broker. I think I passed out. I woke up on the train. I was nearly to his ranch in Texas. And the scariest part was how happy I felt to be traveling away.” Emily twirled her long pearls.
“Away form Dickie?”
“Yes. When Wade asked me to marry him, I insisted he stop at the next station. I had to send my Daddy a telegram. About my change in plans. And I never looked back. It just felt right.” She put her hands over her face. “I knew he was older. And he would probably die before me. But I thought he’d make it through the honeymoon.”
“Are there any burgers left?” Jack asked.
“I’ll get you one.” Bridget went to the ice box and came back with a burger on a china plate.
Jack put a napkin over it. “Thanks. I’ll enjoy it outside,” Jack said.
Chapter Three
“If I live to be one-hundred and two, I’ll never see a face as cute as you,” Grace cooed to Zeus.
“What about me?” Jack asked.
“You’ll never see a face as Zeus again either, Jack.” She held Zeus, and Jack stood next to her on the train platform, looking out a the ocean lapping up against the beach.
“I need to get this burger tested for rat poison at the lab in downtown San Diego. I’ll fly over.”
Grace watched him walk away from Tent City. Towards his plane. He liked to park it next to their house.
He turned around.
“Why isn’t Tatania coming with me? She’s been flying with me since she was a kitten.”
Tatania sat next to Grace, with her paw on one of Grace’s Mary Jane pumps.
“Jack, you don’t need to fly to downtown San Diego right now. We can get a messenger to take the meat to the lab for testing. The messenger can just pop over on the ferry. When was the last time you even had the plane serviced? I don’t if it’s safe. I’d better talk to Emily about Wade’s condition.”
“Good luck finding her sober enough to understand. You know that story they tell in the Army?”
“Only if you told it to me.”
“About the coyote one night stand? When a soldier gets soused on leave and wakes up with a woman so awful he gnaw off his arm to get away?”
“Yes.”
“I think Wade’s whole marriage is going to be like that. I think he will wake up each morning and want to gnaw his arm off to get away.”
“Jack, that’s terrible.” Grace went back inside the train. Jack followed her.
“Is Emily around?” Grace asked Bridget.
“I’m sure I’ll find her drunk somewhere. Let me go check the bar carts. And they say Irish cooks are drunk all the time. I’m sober day and night.” Bridget walked away from them.
“I can’t believe the things Bridget says, Jack.”
Jack made a motion like he was knocking a chip off his shoulder.
“It’s like she feels she has to refute a stereotype everyday of her life. Irish drunks.”
“She’s not the only one who is refuting a stereotype everyday. Is she Grace?” Jack sounded annoyed.
Grace felt queasy. She was way too dependent on Jack. She knew that if she lost the one person she truly loved, the math would be simple to compute. One minus one.
Emily poured herself another glass of champagne.
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” Grace asked, concerned her friend might drink herself sick.
“No, I don’t think I’ve had enough.”
Zeus lept up and knocked over Emily’s champagne glass.
“Zeus!” Emily took the feather out of her headband and brushed it against the champagne spots on her dress.
Zeus lept up and pawed the feather that Emily held in her hand.
“Don’t worry. It won’t stain. Would you like another Marlboro cigarette? The red filter will match your lipstick.” Annie pulled a red pack of cigarettes out of her black garter.
“These cigarettes are the berries. Filters that match lipstick.” Emily pulled one out of the pack.
Tatania swivelled her ears three times, became invisible, and perused the papers that Emily and Wade had on board. There was a newspaper article that looked interesting. She chewed it off the page and slipped it in Jack’s pocket. Jack didn’t blink. He was used to Tatania’s eccentricities. Tatania ran back for the newspaper article she’d left under Consuela’s bed and put it in Jack’s pocket too.
“I don’t want anyone to get hungry.” Bridget wheeled out a rolling glass cart with a soup tureen and bowls on it. She began serving like nothing unusual had happened.
“Bridget, you’re amazing. Delicious soup.” Grace savored the hint of dill in the soup. The cats liked their chicken prepared with dill so Grace used it a lot.
Zeus was batting something around on the floor. Grace picked it up.
“Emily, is this another one of your wedding photos?”
“Absolutely. It was probably the best attended elopement ever. Wade got a photographer there. He developed the photos just in time. Before we left for Coronado.” Emily knocked back another glass of champagne.
In t
he photo, Wade and Emily stood in front of what looked like a meadow of baby’s breath flowers.
Emily looked radiant, albeit a little tipsy, as she took her vows in a dress a seamstress had probably sewn on her that morning.
“Where were Wade’s parents?”
“I think Wade’s parents died a long time ago.”
“I like to keep things pretty.” Consuela startled Grace by leaning over her shoulder, and arranging yellow roses and what looked like more baby’s breath flowers in Baccarat vases on the table right in front of Grace.
“I made more cold cucumber soup.” Bridget put another bowl in front of Grace.
“Beautiful. Thank you. We love cold cucumber soup. Jack and I always say we’re ready for an earthquake in California because we have our emergency stash of cold cucumber soup, cat food, bottled water, and wine.”
“Cat food? I keep thinking about The Great Gatsby,” Grace said.
“I don’t think it’s as good as Fitzgerald’s first one. What was that called?” Emily asked.
“This side of Paradise.” Grace paused. It felt like Tatania had just brushed her legs under the table. She surreptitiously reached in her purse, felt for a tuna treat in a jar, and knocked it under the table.
“It’s the scene of Gatsby that always gets me. The way that Gatsby liked to look at the green light at the end of the dock towards Daisy’s house. And the narrator said that the dream of being with Daisy must have seemed so close to him. He didn’t know it was already behind him.” Grace had a gnawing feeling that one day, Jack would be behind her before she even knew it. She looked down under the table. The treat was gone. Tatania was exploring the train invisibly. Being invisible never stopped Tatania from eating.
Zeus meowed and batted what looked like a silver locket across the floor. Emily reached for it.
Grace leaned over when Emily opened the locket.
Consuela gasped. “That’s mine.”
“Cute boy. Cute photo,” Grace said.
“Thank you.” Consuela grabbed the locket out of Emily’s hand.
“Where did you find it?”
“It was on the floor.”
Tatania lapped up the bouillabaisse sauce Bridget served her.
“I studied cooking in France one summer. Before I came to America. I learned to make bouillabaisse sauce. I practiced with the cats that hung around the chef school. We would present our fish dishes to the cats to see if they were any good.”
“Bees knees. That’s a demographic with impeccable taste.”
Bridget lightly patted Tatania on her rear end. And stroked her tail. Tatania only allowed her favorite humans to do that. It must be really good bouillabaisse.
“Tatania, you’re lovely. But I expect you’ve been told that before.”
“Tatania must be really vain,” Emily said.
“If cats could publish a travel guide, what do you think they’d say?” Grace asked.
“That they’d rather stay home,” Emily said.
“Tatania will even fly on Jack’s plane. Since she’s deaf, the noise doesn’t bother her.” Grace lightly touched Tatania’s tail.
Chapter Four
Grace waited outside the bedroom compartment while Emily checked on Wade.
“Wade is still sleeping,” Emily said quickly.
“That’s probably good. Maybe it’s part of the healing process.”
“I loved telegraphing my Daddy that I eloped. He didn’t even tell me he was marrying my stepmother until the day it happened. And then he sent me to Finishing School.”
“Emily, you and I were angry for a long time. Your dad’s wife didn’t like yo. My uncle’s wife didn’t like me. There were a lot of ways my uncle and your father could have responded to their wives not liking us. They us to the best Finishing School in London. Jack and I talked about it a lot when he was investigating my uncle’s murder. They made the most expensive and painful choice for them. And the best one for us. It’s too late for me to talk to my uncle. Your father is still alive. It’s not to late to tell him you appreciate the choice he made for you.” Grace paused. Emily hadn’t said anything.
While Grace was beginning to bare her soul, Emily passed out and began snoring lightly. It looked like she’d stay put for awhile. Bridget and Consuela didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere either.
Tatania meowed, rubbed chins with Zeus, and then jumped off the train.
“If he’s still sleeping, lets get out of here for awhile.” Jack was right behind Tatania.
Tatania led them to the Coronado Beach Library next to the tracks. Zeus stopped outside the library to watch a hummingbird dip its beak into a flower.
Tatania jumped on a library shelf and tapped the book she wanted with one paw. It from its shelf.
There was a mirror along one wall inside the library. Jack watched Grace in the mirror.
“You look good from the back,” he said.
“Flatterer.”
“From the front too,” he said.
Tatania rolled around on her book.
“Abraham Lincoln’s biography. Tatania loves American history.” The librarian immediately knew what book was missing from the shelf.
“Consuela and Bridget both seem disgruntled malcontents. What do you think that means?”
“They’re servants.”
“That train is the cat’s pajamas. If we didn’t love being home in Coronado so much, we’d probably want to stay on a luxury train for the rest of out lives, Jack.”
“We wouldn’t be the first.” Jack pulled out the newspaper article Tatania had put in his pocket. He spread the pieces on the library table.
“It’s about Wade. He drove a tractor when he was drunk. He killed a boy but was never charged.”
“Consuela is obsessed with Wade.”
The librarian peered over the article. “That looks like the Houston Dispatch. We have more copies here. We love to see our oilmen come for the season.” She smiled.
“Is that Belle?” Jack could recognize the sound of the silver tabby meowing from Olga’s cottage. No cat’s meow is the same as another’s.
“Lets check on Olga and Belle before we go back to the train.”
“Go ahead and take Lincoln’s biography with you. I trust you. You are Tatania’s humans,” the librarian said.
Olga waved to them from her cottage with the sign that proclaimed, “Your Hand is Your Destiny”.
“My destiny may be calloused,” Jack joked.
“Don’t listen to him, Olga.” Grace lightly touched Jack’s hand. The radio speakers that hung at the top of the poles were broadcasting a series about a romantic couple who lived in a New York penthouse.
“I’m sorry about your friend’s husband getting so ill.” Olga stared out the window at the train that brought Emily and Wade to Coronado.
“I think he’ll be okay,” Jack said.
It was the first time Grace had noticed the deep wrinkles on Olga’s face.
“I miss my son. He died in the Great War. I feel like my happiest times are in the past. And my job is to give people optimistic news about the future.”
Grace bristled. She always worried about Jack feeling survivor’s guilt for coming home after the Great War.
Tatania purred and gently put her paws on Olga’s leg. Olga reached down and picked up the fluffy kitty. Her gnarled hand sank through Tatania’s fur. She bent her head closer to Tatania to listen to her purring. Tatania patted a cloth bag that hung from Olga’s neck.
Olga pulled out a ceramic plaque from the bag where Jack had always thought she kept coins or a flask. Or both. She put her hand on a baby hand print indented in the plaque.
“My son. When he was a baby, his godfather got his right hand imprinted on this clay plaque. He told me that when my son grew up, he’d be my right hand man. Now, I still pull it out and put my hand on it. He is my right hand.”
Tatania meowed and put her paw on the print. Olga smiled. Tatania always knew what to do when Grace and Jack were
speechless themselves.
“With Belle, I began to feel happy again. It was such an unfamiliar emotion that it was startling.” Belle put one of her paws on Olga’s hand.
“Mark Twain said, ‘If you could cross a man with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat,” Jack said.
“Mark Twain’s a smart one.” Olga nodded yes.
“Why did you stay friends with Emily? A goldfish has more depth.” Jack said quietly when Olga got up from her chair.
“Jack, we were like a family at school together. She’s the only person left who has known me most of my life. It’s continuity. Emily is practically my last link to the people who have known me the longest. Unless you count Aunt Alice.”
“We don’t want to count Aunt Alice. I’m glad she moved abroad after your uncle was murdered. And I’m glad that you stayed here, Grace.”
“I feel the same way.” She’d only known Jack since they’d met on a train from New York a few years ago, but it seemed like she’d known him since the beginning of time. She felt the comfort of someone from the past accompanying her into the future with Jack.
Tatania looked between Grace and Jack and sighed. She knew when she met a Jack, and he spoiled her, a human female would show up and want to live with him too. She decided she could tolerate Grace. Sometimes, she even felt fond of her. Like when she pulled tuna treats out of her purse.
“I know Emily’s a little vapid,” Grace said.
“A little?”
“She’s borderline shallow.”
“What part of it is borderline?”
“Inheritance and marriage. The old fashioned ways of making money.” Grace sighed.
Grace watched Olga serve Belle fresh anchovies on a crystal plate. Belle ate the anchovies in an unrushed manner. Belle didn’t devour food. She savored her meals as if she had a sophisticated palate.
“As long as you have a cat, you’ll never be alone, Olga. We’ll come back with some treats for Belle later.” Grace reassured Olga.
Tent City’s manager was at the door of Olga’s cottage.
“Mr. Brewster, there’s a call for you at the office.” Tent City’s manager liked Jack from the days he worked for Pinkerton keeping Tent City safe. He never questioned why Jack still got call on Tent City’s office phone.
Magical Cool Cat Mysteries Boxed Set Volume 3 (Magical Cool Cats Mysteries) Page 17