by Patricia Fry
Everyone laughed when they saw Rags jump up on top of a desk and peer into a partially open drawer. Before Christie could close it, he reached one paw in, then quickly removed it before jumping down onto the floor.
“Oh, you are a thief aren’t you? What did you take?” Christie asked good-naturedly as she reached for the cat, missing him.
“What’s he got?” Rob asked. “Maybe we ought to get a shot of that.”
“I don’t know,” Christie said. “I didn’t see what it was. He took off too fast.” She opened the drawer again and studied the contents for a moment, then shouted, “My ring!”
“He has a ring in his mouth? Hey, start shooting!” Rob instructed. “I want that shot.”
“And I want my ring,” Christie whined.
“We’ll get it from him after you take a few shots. He can’t go anywhere.”
After snapping some pictures, Christie frowned. “Hey, where is it?”
“Are you sure that’s what he had?” Rob asked. “I couldn’t see whether he had anything or not.”
“Yes, he must have taken it. I put it in that drawer yesterday.” She studied her camera screen. “Well, I don’t see anything in his mouth.” She swept the floor with her eyes. “Maybe he dropped it,” she said, retracing Rags’s steps.
The others joined her in the search. When no one could find the ring, Savannah put her hand up to her mouth. “Oh no.”
“What?” Christie asked.
“Did he swallow it?”
“Swallow it?” Christie shrieked. The photographer looked as if she would burst with anger. After a few moments, she asked quietly, “Does he really eat things like that?”
“Um, I’ve never known him to, but,” Savannah said more meekly, “there have been times when we couldn’t find something and suspected he swallowed it. If it was a small ring, I guess he could have gotten it down.” When she saw the anguish on Christie’s face, she said, “Let’s take a closer look around, shall we? It’s probably here someplace.”
“And, if we don’t find it?” Christie challenged.
“Well, then I guess we’ll take Rags to the clinic and have him x-rayed.”
Christie became more agitated. “What if it’s in him? How will you get it out? I need that ring. I’m breaking up with my fiancé tonight and I really have to give it back.”
“Holy cow,” Margaret exclaimed, “it’s an engagement ring?”
When Savannah noticed Christie still waiting for an answer, she explained, “Um, well, normally, we would just wait for a swallowed object to come out of a cat. But, depending on how large the ring is, if it’s actually inside him, we may have to remove it surgically so it doesn’t tear the intestines.”
Savannah heard her aunt snicker and mutter, “Unbelievable.”
At the same time, Rob grinned from ear to ear and shook his head. When he saw Savannah looking at him, he said, “There’s another storyline. Man, we’ve got a goldmine in that cat.”
“Okay,” Savannah said with a sigh, “let’s take another look around. If we don’t find it, we’d better get him to the clinic.”
“He doesn’t look like he’s in any sort of discomfort,” Rob observed. “Can’t we do the photo shoot, then take him to get x-rayed?”
Savannah looked at Rags, then Christie. “Are you sure you saw him with the ring?”
“Well,” she stalled, “not exactly. But the ring was right there where he was pawing and it’s not there now.”
“Let’s look on the floor around the desk,” Savannah suggested. “Maybe he pulled it out and it bounced underneath.”
After everyone had participated in another thorough search, Savannah studied Rags. “He looks okay. Rob, how long do you think the session will take?”
Rob looked at Christie. “An hour?”
“There abouts, I imagine,” she agreed.
Savannah nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.” She looked sternly at Christie. “If you find it, please let me know. Here’s my number,” she said, reciting it and watching Christie punch it into her cell phone.
Rob clapped his hands. “All right, what I want is much the same as the last photo shoot. I want the cats to wander through the props. Savannah, did you bring the feather toy thing?”
“Yes, it’s in the car. I’ll get it.”
“Maggie, want to let the black cat out of the cage?” Rob asked.
“Yes.” She unlatched the door with one hand. “Shall I put Layla on the floor?”
Rob nodded. “Yes, there’s no way for them to get out, so we’re cool. Just let them do what cats do and we’ll match the photos to the storyline.” Once Savannah had returned with the wand toy, Rob said, “Jiggle that thing over the dinosaur, would you? I want one of the cats or all of them to acknowledge the dinosaur. Also the elephant. Good!” he said when he saw Layla walk up and sniff one of the props. “There!” he shouted. “Shoot the cats walking through that grassy plains area. That looks way cool.”
Nearly forty-five minutes later, after looking at some of the shots Christie had snapped of the three cats, Rob said, “I think that’s it. Great job, everyone. I do believe we have our next series of books in the bag.”
“Good. I’d better get the star to the clinic for his procedure,” Savannah said.
“Procedure?” Margaret questioned.
“The x-ray.”
“Oh that. Okay, come on Jack, let’s get you back into the carrier,” she said, picking up the large cat. “Now where’s Layla?”
After glancing around the room, Rob pointed. “There!”
“Awww. Isn’t that cute?” Margaret said. “She’s curled up on your jacket, Vannie.”
Savannah smiled. “Almost hidden. She must be cold.” Suddenly she looked concerned. “Is she okay? She’s not sick, is she?”
“Oh no. She’s just my delicate little girl,” Margaret explained. “You know Layla, she doesn’t move around much to get warm.”
Savannah gently petted Layla’s silky fur. “She was pretty active earlier—checking out the ladybugs, snails, flowers, and all.” She put Rags’s harness on him and took hold of his leash. “Well, let’s go. Thanks Rob and Christie. I’ll call and let you know what we find in the x-ray.”
“Hopefully, it’s there,” Christie said. “I mean, where else could it be?”
Savannah started to respond. Instead, she turned to Rob, who was holding Jack’s carrier. “We’ll see you and Cheryl at Lily’s birthday party, right?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “Cheryl’s looking forward to shopping for her birthday gift.”
Savannah frowned. “You guys don’t need to bring a gift.”
“Oh, yes we do. You don’t want to disappoint Cheryl, do you?”
“That’s nice of you. Okay, we’ll see you in a few weeks.”
Once in the car, Savannah suggested to her aunt, “I’ll take you and your cats home before I go to the clinic. You don’t want to go with me, do you?”
“Well, I’d like to take the cats home.” Margaret chuckled. “But no way do I want to miss seeing the x-ray with that ring inside your cat.”
Savannah looked at her for a few moments and shook her head before driving off.
****
“Hi, Scarlett,” Savannah greeted a little later when she and Margaret arrived at the clinic. “We have Rags here for his photograph.”
The receptionist looked confused. “Photograph?”
“Yeah, x-ray. Some gal downtown thinks he swallowed her engagement ring.”
Scarlett looked at her and started laughing. “You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“No,” Margaret said. “And I don’t know why the gal’s so eager to have it back; she’s breaking up with her fiancé tonight.”
“For real?” When Michael walked into the reception area, Scarlett said, “Oh, Dr. Mike, I guess you’re expecting your cat.” She squinted at Savannah, who held Rags in her arms. “He really swallowed a ring?�
�� She reached up and petted Rags. “I thought he was smarter than that.”
“According to the photographer, he did,” Margaret said. “But no one saw it happen.” She narrowed her eyes in contemplation. “I don’t think anyone actually even saw a ring, did they?”
Savannah shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Michael stood staring at the cat for a moment. “Do we need to take x-rays or not?”
Savannah sighed. “Well, according to Miss Christie, the photographer, he ate her ring. Frankly, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t do that.”
“On the other hand,” Margaret said, trying to conceal a snicker, “you may find all sorts of things inside that cat—your missing earring, one of Lily’s shoes, some of his toys…”
Michael winced. “Well, let’s hope not. I sure don’t want to do surgery on a healthy cat.”
“Can’t you just let it take its course?” Margaret asked.
“Depending on the size and style of the ring, Maggie, it could be dangerous.” Michael picked up the chart Scarlett had placed in the caddy for him and led Savannah down the hallway with Rags.
Fifteen minutes later, Savannah emerged into the reception area leading Rags on his leash and with a big smile on her face. “No ring,” she announced.
“Oh,” Margaret said.
“Auntie, you sound disappointed.”
“Well, I guess that’s good, but dang, I wanted to see the x-ray. Are you sure the ring isn’t hiding behind something in there? His lunch, maybe?”
“He hasn’t had any lunch,” Savannah said. “No, Michael was very thorough—he took pictures from all angles. There’s no ring inside Rags.”
“You don’t suppose one of my cats ate it, do you?”
“When would they have done it? They weren’t anywhere near Rags when he…allegedly…took the ring. It probably dropped out of the drawer and is hiding out someplace. She’ll find it.” She nudged her aunt. “Come on, I’d better get home to Lily.”
The women had just slipped into Savannah’s car when her phone rang. “Oh, it’s Christie, I’d better take it. Hi, Christie,” she said, “I was just going to call you.”
“Yes, I was wondering how the x-ray session went. Will poor Rags have to have surgery to remove the ring?”
“He doesn’t have the ring.” All she heard was silence. “Christie, are you there?”
“Well, where is it, then?” the photographer asked, an edge to her voice. “I saw him pick it up with his paw and run off with it. You all saw that, didn’t you?”
“Not really,” Savannah said. “I saw him reach into the drawer, but I didn’t see what he pulled out, if anything and I never did see anything in his mouth. I don’t think you did, either, did you?”
“Well, no. But that’s where I put the ring and now it’s gone. It had to be the cat. What am I supposed to do now? I have to give it back tonight. How can I break up without the ring? How do I explain this, Savannah?”
“I don’t know. All I can tell you is that Rags doesn’t have the ring. You might look around your studio again.”
“Or you ripped me off,” Christie said defiantly.
“What?”
“You found the ring inside your cat and you’re keeping it.”
“Oh my gosh,” Savannah said to Margaret. “She hung up on me. She’s accusing me of stealing her ring.”
Margaret laughed. “How are you ever going to get your children’s picture taken by a professional in this city?”
“What?”
“You’ve made every photographer in town mad at you.”
“Oh, I guess I have.” Savannah rested her head in one hand for a moment and muttered, “Oh no, what’s Rob going to say?”
“I hope he can get the photographs from her.”
“What do you mean? There should be no problem. He’ll pay for them, of course.”
Margaret faced her niece. “There could be a problem if she chooses to hold the pictures hostage until you return her ring.”
“I don’t have her ring,” Savannah insisted.
“People get punished for things they didn’t do all the time,” Margaret reminded her. “I’d say Rob’s going to be mad at you.”
After thinking about it for a few moments, Savannah asked, “What should I do, go out and buy another ring?” Letting out a deep sigh, she started the car and drove out of the parking lot. “Hey, maybe she’s a scammer, just pretending she had a diamond ring when she really didn’t.”
“Oh, Vannie, you have such an imagination.”
****
“She accused me of stealing her ring, then hung up on me,” Savannah told Michael later that afternoon.
He thinned his lips. “She can’t be serious.” Before Savannah could respond, he said, “Your phone’s chirping.”
After looking at the screen, she slumped. “Oh gosh, it’s Rob. What am I going to tell him? What has she told him?”
“Answer the call and find out,” Michael suggested.
“Hi, Rob.”
“Hi. How are you?”
“Well, pretty good, except that I think I’ve ticked off another photographer.”
Rob laughed. “Yeah. Your cat seems to be pretty good at that.”
“She thinks we found her ring, took it out of Rags, and are keeping it.”
“I know,” Rob said. “I told her that was preposterous—that you and Michael are honest people, but she’s on a rant. Cheryl says there’s probably a lot of emotion around that ring and she’s just not thinking rationally.” He hesitated before saying, “She wants to have you arrested.”
“Arrested!” Savannah shouted. Before she could speak again, she began to cry. “Oh, Rob can she do that? That’s awful. I haven’t done anything wrong. We can show her the x-rays. Rags did not swallow that ring. It’s nowhere in his system.”
“I’m not sure she can be convinced. But, yeah, get those x-rays in case you need them for some sort of proof.”
“But how will we prove the ring didn’t pass through his system before we took the x-rays?”
“Come on, Savannah,” Rob soothed, “let’s not borrow trouble. We don’t even know if Rags ever had that ring. The burden of proof is on Christie, not you.”
Before she could respond, Michael appeared in the doorway a solemn look on his face. “Deputy Ben’s here. He wants to talk to you.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Savannah said. “Rob, the police are here to see me. What am I going to do?”
“Calm down, Savannah. Just tell the truth; that’s all,” Rob said gently. “Call me back, will you?” He then asked, “Michael’s there with you, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s here. I’ll talk to you later.”
After ending the call, Savannah took a deep breath, dabbed at her eyes, and walked into the living room where Deputy Ben and Deputy Franco stood. “Sit down, won’t you?” she invited. “I hear my cat has gotten me into some real trouble this time.”
Ben nodded. “But I don’t think it’s anything we can’t disprove.” He cleared his throat. “Where is your cat…Rags?”
“Um…” she looked around the room. “I’ll go find him.” She turned to Ben and asked, “Why?”
“He’s evidence,” Deputy Franco said.
“Evidence? You’re not going to impound him, are you?”
“Just go get him, would you?”
“Sure,” she said, heading toward their bedroom. She returned with the cat in her arms.
“Hold him there, so I can look at his underside,” Ben instructed.
Savannah winced. “We did not do surgery on him, Ben.”
After examining Rags, Ben looked her in the eyes. “I can see that. Okay, you can let him go.” He then asked, “Dr. Mike, how long does it take for a cat to—you know—eliminate a foreign object?”
“As soon as six to eight hours of ingesting it and up to two days. Savannah brought him in for x-rays…” he looked at Savannah, “…how
soon after he was accused of eating the ring, hon?”
She lowered herself onto an overstuffed chair. “No more than ninety minutes—two hours max.”
Michael grinned. “The x-rays showed no foreign objects anywhere in his system. Rags is not the culprit in the case of the missing ring.”
“Can we see the x-rays?”
“Certainly,” Michael said. When he noticed Ben staring back at him, he asked, “Do you mean now?”
“If you don’t mind. The woman has demanded we arrest Savannah. So I think it would be to your benefit if we saw the x-rays now.” He glanced at his partner. “Franco and I will go with you to the clinic, if that’s okay.”
“Sure thing.” Michael glanced at Savannah, who had a look of terror on her face. “We’ll be right back,” he said, leaning over and kissing her on top of the head.
When he returned nearly twenty minutes later, the deputies accompanied him into the house.
“Now what?” she asked in a panic.
“We just have a few more questions before we talk to the photographer again.”
“Sit down, gentlemen,” Michael invited.
“Thanks. Now Savannah,” Ben said, “tell me exactly what you observed this morning when you were at the photographer’s studio—I mean with relationship to the drawer where the ring was allegedly kept.”
“Well,” she said, “Rags was snooping around like he always does when we go somewhere new. He jumped up on her desk and found this open drawer.”
“So the drawer was standing open when you first saw it?” he asked.
“Yes, it was open just a little and Rags stuck his paw in there.”
“Did you see the ring?”
“No.”
“Not loose in the drawer or in the cat’s mouth or paws or anywhere else?”
“No, I never saw a ring at all,” she said. “Neither did my aunt or Rob. I don’t think Christie did, either. I mean, she said she didn’t actually see him with the ring, she just noticed it was missing and figured he must have taken it. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find it.”