by Sheila Agnew
I wasn’t sure if she was talking about the cat or his alcoholic owner. Maybe both.
I saw Joanna mentally counting to ten, something she’s taken on with lately to deal with stress.
After a deep breath, she said, ‘Mrs Rubenstein, Muffles is about to bring her first set of babies into the world and I think she’ll need all the help and support she can get from you at this time.’
Mrs Rubenstein looked stricken.
‘Muff,’ she said weakly, and then visibly pulling herself together, she began screaming for her housekeeper, ‘Moola, towels, bring lots of towels.’
‘No,’ said Joanna calmly, ‘best to avoid towels because the new kittens could easily get their claws caught on them. Do you have any old newspapers or even a sheet?’
‘Call Scott,’ Joanna said to me, ‘and tell him we’re going to be here for a while. I think Muffles is going to have a very large family.’
An hour later and two kittens had already arrived. The third was stuck. Joanna, very gently pulled the kitten out with a forceps, timing her pulling to coincide with Muffle’s contractions. It was my job when the kittens were born to wipe their tiny little mouths and noses clear of mucus so they could breathe more easily. Five hours later, the last kitten, number six arrived.
‘The other kittens are all bright orange but this one is black and white; he doesn’t look anything like Muffles,’ I said.
‘Umm,’ said Joanna, busy clearing up the rather disgusting mess of cat childbirth, ‘a cat can give birth to kittens from different fathers in the same litter.’
Mrs Rubenstein reached out a hand to steady herself on a side table. ‘I’m having palpitations,’ she said weakly.
‘But that’s probably not the case here,’ Joanna said hurriedly.
Chapter 27
Nothing good ever happens on a Tuesday. I dawdled on my way home from school that Tuesday. Lorcan walked part of the way with me and we stopped for a slice of pizza. I wasn’t even hungry. I was alone when I reached the corner of our block on Columbus and West 77th. There were two police cars outside our building and a bunch of cops milling around. A small crowd had gathered to watch, mainly doormen from the buildings along our block, a couple of security guards from the Natural History Museum across the street, the Mexican bus boys who worked in the kitchen at Scaletta and some excited looking tourists snapping photographs. They were blocking the sidewalk and I threaded my way through them feeling a bit of a thrill. Ours is a pretty quiet block. Not a lot of exciting stuff happens. Deirdre and Cate, my friends back in Dublin were kind of disappointed. At last, I’d have something to report. ‘Oh yeah,’ I would say casually, ‘we had the police at our building arresting someone. They had their guns out. There was nearly a shoot-out.’
I squished my way near the front of the crowd just in time to see two cops push a handcuffed man into one of their cars.
‘SCOTT,’ I yelled and frantically began to fight my way through crowd.
‘LET ME THROUGH, LET ME THROUGH,’ I screamed, pushing as hard as I could.
By the time, I wriggled through the rest of the crowd; the police car had taken off, heading west. I could see the back of Scott’s head. A cab on my side of the street with its light on was heading in the same direction. I flagged it down, yanked open the door, and nearly fell onto the black rubbery seat.
‘GO,’ I said and the taxi took off.
We reached the corner of the block. I could see the police car a couple of cars ahead heading south on Columbus.
‘Downtown!’ I said and we went around the corner and headed south.
There was a glass security partition between the driver and me. I rapped on it.
‘Follow that police car in front,’ I directed.
The taxi came to a halt so quickly that I banged my mouth against the glass and bit my tongue.
‘Why are you stopping?’ I gritted through the pain, ‘keep following. We’re going to lose him.’
‘Get out kid,’ said the driver, ‘I’m not getting messed up with following no po-lice.’
‘Pleaaaaaaaaase,’ I said.
‘Get out now before I call the police,’ said the driver.
I jumped out of the cab and tried to flag another taxi down but none of them stopped. The police car had disappeared. I rubbed my swelling bottom lip. With shaking hands, I pulled out my cell phone and hit ‘J’.
‘Please answer,’ I whispered to myself.
‘Hi, Evie,’ said Joanna.
‘It’s me,’ I said, ‘It’s Scott. The police have taken him. I don’t know where. I don’t know why.’
‘What?’ said Joanna.
‘The police, they’ve arrested Scott.’
‘When?’ asked Joanna.
‘A few minutes ago. I don’t know where they’re taking him.’
‘Evie, calm down, listen to me, I’m going to make a few calls. Where are you now?’
‘74th and Columbus,’ I said.
‘Go to the clinic and stay there. I will call you as soon as I find out where Scott is and what’s going on. Send whatever people are waiting to Peter’s clinic and tell Holly to close down the clinic for the rest of the day.’
‘Ok,’ I said and she hung up.
Chapter 28
I helped Holly close up the clinic. She couldn’t tell me much except that the police had turned up with an arrest warrant for Scott. She had no idea why. Kylie called but I let it ring through to voicemail because I didn’t want to risk missing Joanna’s call. She did some pretty fast work because in about half an hour, she called. Scott was being held at the police precinct on West 35th Street between 8th and 9th. Joanna was there now. She had been in touch with Scott’s lawyer, Rob, who had jumped in a cab and was on his way to the station.
‘How is Scott doing?’
‘They won’t let me see him yet,’ said Joanna.
‘But why was he arrested?’ I asked.
‘It doesn’t make sense,’ said Joanna, ‘something to do with supplying illegal drugs. Apparently, the detectives traced painkillers and sedatives back to our clinic. It has to be some huge mistake. The drugs cabinet hasn’t been broken into and the only people who have keys are Scott and me. We don’t even let Karen or Holly have a key.’
‘I’ll meet you at the station. I’ll be there in ten minutes,’ I said.
‘No,’ said Joanna, ‘it’s no place for you. Stay at home and I’ll call as soon as I have more news.’
‘No, I want to go.’
‘I know you do, sweetheart,’ said Joanna, ‘but Scott wouldn’t want you to be here.’
‘But I have to be there,’ I wailed.
‘It will be harder on Scott if you’re here,’ said Joanna.
I felt like kicking something because I knew she was right. Scott would hate to have me in the police station. It can be so frustrating sometimes being a kid.
‘Ok,’ I said grudgingly, ‘please call me as soon as you know anything. ANYTHING, even if it’s something really small.’
‘I promise,’ said Joanna.
As soon as I’d hung up, I turned to Holly and told her about the drugs charge.
‘Evie, I know what you’re thinking but it couldn’t have been Karl. He couldn’t have stolen the drugs. I don’t have a key to the cabinet.’
I felt a little guilty because as soon as Joanna had mentioned the word ‘drugs,’ I’d instantly thought of Karl but Holly was right. She didn’t have a key.
I went up to the apartment. Holly insisted on coming along and keeping me company but I wasn’t in the mood for talking. I went into my room to be alone, leaving her in the living room, watching TV. I wished Mum were here. I kind of half-wished Finn was here but I banished that thought.
I tried to keep my mind focused on the crime. There were only two keys to the drugs cabinet. Joanna always kept hers on her. So did Scott except sometimes, at night, he left it out on the kitchen table. Holly’s never here at night and there’s no way someone could have come into the apartment and
stolen the key. Even if he or she had a key to the door and got past the doormen, they’d never get around Ben. He was an amazing watchdog. He’d bark the whole building awake if a stranger came into the apartment.
A person could go totally crazy thinking, I thought. I called Kylie but she was at ice-skating practice. I called Greg next and explained everything. He insisted on coming over straight away. It was only much later that I realised it had never occurred to me to call Lorcan.
Greg brought some burritos with him, but I couldn’t eat. We sat cross-legged on the floor of my room, trying to figure out how someone could have stolen drugs from the clinic. Greg asked me to think back on any suspicious characters hanging around the clinic but I couldn’t think of any. We had some highly eccentric people coming in and out all the time but criminals, no. I kept coming back to Karl and finding him in the apartment that time.
‘Tell me again what happened. Leave nothing out,’ said Greg.
‘I’ve already gone through this with you twice. Nothing. I came in. Holly and Karl were kissing. They got up. Karl said ‘hi’. He did this kind of half-salute thing and he left. There was nothing more to it.’
‘Are you sure,’ said Greg, ‘think again.’
I frowned at him but I obediently closed my eyes. I could see Karl’s mullet and the space near the front of his mouth where a tooth was missing. I could smell the faint trace of gasoline from his clothes and from Holly’s.
‘OH MY GOD,’ I said opening my eyes, and hitting Greg on the shoulder much harder than I intended.
‘Owww,’ he said, rubbing his arm, ‘take it easy, what is it?’
‘Ben! Ben was there. In the apartment. Karl was being really nice to him. He even gave him some treats.’
‘So. Karl likes dogs. So what?’ said Greg.
‘Karl could have used Holly’s key to get into the apartment. He could have easily slipped it out of her purse, even had a copy made. If he came in here, Ben wouldn’t bark because he wouldn’t think of Karl as a STRANGER. And God knows how many times Karl was here before I caught them. So Ben was used to him being around.’
‘Come on,’ I said to Greg.
I dashed out into the living room.
‘Holly,’ I said, ‘Is Karl a dog person?’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked looking bewildered.
‘Is Karl into dogs?’
‘No, he doesn’t like dogs or cats or any animals or … children or old people. They’re not his thing.’
I turned triumphantly to Greg. ‘We’re gonna get that guy!’
The hardest part was convincing Holly to go with us to the police station. At first, she kept insisting that Karl was innocent. After a little while, she said, she didn’t know anymore.
‘You DO know,’ I said forcefully, ‘deep down somewhere inside, you know that Karl did this. You have to come with us and tell the police about him and where he lives.’
Holly got this stubborn look in her eyes and I felt a rush of anger with her.
‘Oh my God, Holly, think of everything Scott has done for you! He gave you a job and a place to hang out and he paid you your salary in advance lots of times when you were broke. Are you really going to let him rot in jail for years to save a loser like Karl?’
‘People don’t rot in prison anymore,’ said Greg, ‘they have all kinds of stuff like creative writing programs and cooking classes.’
I glared at Greg.
‘Sorry,’ he mumbled, ‘I was just saying––’
‘I’ll do it,’ said Holly, ‘I’ll tell the police about Karl and where he lives. Maybe they will find that he had nothing to do with this.’
Well, that didn’t happen because when the police searched Karl’s apartment, they found drugs from our clinic in his bathroom.
But that happened later, after the police had released a very subdued Scott. He’d only been under arrest for about six hours but it felt like days. His homecoming wasn’t as joyous as I thought it was going to be. He looked tired. So did Joanna. They both stood around awkwardly in the living room as if they’d never been here before. Scott reached out and touched Joanna’s face.
‘What is that?’ he said holding up a finger covered with some kind of green mushy cement.
‘Oh,’ said Joanna looking embarrassed, ‘I was having a facial in Ling down by Union Square when I got Evie’s call. I splashed some water on my face, but I guess I must have missed some spots.’
‘Joanna,’ said Scott, ‘I don’t know how to thank you. I––’
‘No need to thank me. No big deal,’ said Joanna hurriedly. ‘Get some sleep, I’m helping you with Missy’s operation first thing in the morning, remember.’
After Joanna left, Scott had the longest shower of his life. Afterwards, he said he still stank like a police cell. Smelly or not, I was relieved to have him home. If I had told Scott about finding Karl in the apartment that time, none of this would have happened. I tried to apologise to Scott but he wasn’t mad with me. He said he was equally to blame for being so cavalier about hiring Holly and giving her a key to our home. I don’t think either of us felt very good about ourselves.
I felt even worse the next day when I turned up at school to find out that Camille had posted on her blog that my uncle had been arrested for drug dealing. I blamed Greg. He had gone straight to his Young Film-Makers of Tomorrow class the night before and used Scott’s arrest as a plot for his screenplay. Writers have no shame. His screen-writing buddy, Luca, had told someone who told someone who told someone until eventually it ended up on Camille’s blog. I felt all agitated and panicky. I couldn’t sit still and conjugate Spanish verbs. I thought about what I should do. I could go to the school principal and report Camille. I was pretty sure the principal would make her take down the post and she’d get into a lot of trouble. But so far, the kids at school hadn’t shown much interest in checking out Camille’s page. If the principal made her take it down then EVERYONE would want to know about it. Sometimes, I thought, it’s better to do nothing. I’m not scared of Camille. She’s just a kid. But I might be a little scared of Leela. She is an adult. She has power.
Chapter 29
It’s bizarre how one week your life is so overflowing with people and pets that you barely have time to live it and the next, they are gone and you don’t know how to fill the spaces they have left behind.
Three days after Scott’s prison break (well, that’s what we called it), when he and I returned to the clinic after a trip to visit a penguin at the CPZ, we found Holly in the waiting room surrounded by two suitcases and two black garbage bags overflowing with her possessions. Buddy lay beside her on the floor snoring. He’d picked up Ben’s enviable knack for having a snooze anytime anywhere.
Scott and I stared at the packed suitcases in surprise.
‘What’s going on here? You’re leaving?’ asked Scott.
Holly’s face turned a little pink.
‘The teacher of my improvisation class thinks I’ve got great comic timing and he’s arranged an audition for me with an improv group in Chicago. He thinks I have a real shot at it.’
‘Of course you do. You’ll be terrific,’ said Scott.
‘But why can’t you do improv here! Who would want to leave New York?’ I wailed.
‘You did. Last summer. You wanted to go back to Ireland,’ said Scott.
Scott always has a perfect memory at the most inconvenient times.
‘Yes, well, I do love Ireland equally, but we’re talking about HOLLY now, not me.’
Scott turned back to Holly.
‘Holly, we’ve talked about this. Of course, I was furious with you for having Karl anywhere near Evie and our home. But I appreciate the courage it took for you to turn him in. You’ve become part of our family here at the clinic. Stay with us!’ he said and he gave that little smile that all women (except for Joanna and Mrs Rubenstein, oh and his bookkeeper Virpi), seem to find so irresistible.
Holly smiled back. ‘Thank you,’ she said, ‘but I�
�m not part of the us. Not really. I don’t belong in a veterinary practice. I don’t belong here the way Joanna does. I need to go find my life.’
Scott went to say something but Holly put her finger to his lips and kissed him softly on the cheek. Then she hugged me. I got down on my knees and gave Buddy a big hug.
‘Gonna miss you,’ I said, ‘both of you.’
And I do. I miss them both … Ben only misses Holly.
So, boom! Just like that. Holly and Buddy were gone. The next boom sounded two days later while I was stretched out on the couch playing a game battling a team of evil, giant-sized hares who try to take over LA. Eurdes was in the kitchen and I overheard her say,
‘Dr Brooks, I need serious talk with you.’
My fingers stilled on the control pad and I lifted my head to listen. I didn’t like the sound of this.
‘What is it Eurdes?’ asked Scott.
‘I can’t take it no more,’ wailed Eurdes, ‘it’s not natural. In my country, we do not live like this with those dirty things in our houses, only clean ones, like chickens and we eat them.’
‘Excuse me?’ said Scott.
‘I am always work, work, work and it’s not easy but I never complains,’ said Eurdes in a complaining tone, ‘and you, Dr Brooks, you are a good employer, my best employer. I can’t thank you enough for the ticket home to Brazil for Christmas. Such generous of you and you have no moneys. Of all the people I work for you, you have the most littlest moneys.’
‘Good to know,’ said Scott dryly.
‘Mrs Bradford, you know what she geeves me for the holidays?’
And before allowing Scott time to respond, Eurdes continued, ‘I work for her and her cheeldrins and her husband three days a week for fifteen years now. At Christmas, does she give me moneys? No, she gives me a present all wrapped up in a box. I say, thank you and I think maybe it will be ok. Do you know what she geeves me?’