“My parents died in the flu epidemic. If I’d been told at birth, do you want other parents for a longer time? I would have said, No. They were wonderful, kind, smart people. They touched the earth too briefly before heaven claimed them,” Grace said
Zeus lept effortlessly from sofa to chair to sit with Grace. He rolled over and showed his white tummy. Purring, he nudged her hand with his head.
“Where did you go?”
“To Finishing School. My uncle and former Aunt Alice sent me there. My uncle was murdered. I met Jack during the investigation. Then, I met Julia. She was my late uncle’s mistress. I suppose Julia, their child, my little cousin Charlotte, and Jack and I are a kind of family.”
Cupcake Kitty nodded. “Don’t let anyone else define your family for you. I would have chosen other parents because mine were incorrigible drunks. But Nico changed my life.”
Grace thought the only way Cupcake Kitty would ever get away from Nico was in a coffin but decided not to say it. The room smelled like orange blossoms.
Chapter Ten
Tatania wanted to inspect the jockeys’ quarters without drawing attention to herself. A beautiful cat couldn’t walk through life unnoticed. A dog wouldn’t understand.
There was a Cupcake Kitty smell in the jockey changing area. She saw someone leaning over a bucket, sticking his tongue down his throat, and vomiting. She’d thrown a few hairballs in her time but she never stuck a paw down her throat.
It smelled of booze, sweat, vomit and horses. Tatania didn’t plan on staying long. There was a row of lockers along the back wall. She waited on the bench for Joey the jockey to open his. He carefully opened it facing out so the other jockeys couldn’t see the contents. He needed a cat to let him know that with the mirror behind him, the other humans could see everything but she had her hands full with her own humans.
Oh no. There was a picture of Cupcake Kitty taped on the inside of the locker door, and what looked like another one in his hand. The locker was filled with towels and papers and what could be a train ticket. She jumped in for a closer look, dispersing papers on the floor. Joey yelled and jumped back. Tatania didn’t mean to startle people with invisibility. She just couldn’t help it.
He looked around, a little alarmed, jumpy. Then he kissed the photo of Cupcake Kitty. Tatania felt his hand on her. Still invisible, he kept rubbing the towel she was on with a bemused look. Tatania spotted a train ticket to San Diego and a ferry ticket to Coronado.
With a shaky hand, he took several drinks from a silver flask with the initials CK.
Tatania picked up the tickets in her mouth and ran back to Cupcake Kitty’s room. People turned and stared, mouths open, at what look like tickets flying through the air on a day that wasn’t especially windy.
She paused and hunkered close to the floor instinctively when she recognized Nico. He stood in an entryway and put face powder over his pock marks. When another man approached, he surreptitiously put the compact powder in his pocket.
“Come on, lets get going,” Nico barked. “Payments are due. And those legs aren’t going to break themselves.”
Tatania got in their car with them. She watched a passenger open up a compartment on the floor. It was full of guns. She shuddered.
The sides were metal too. Where the windows would have been, there was a small opening big enough only to slip a machine gun through.
No orange scent here. That seemed unusual. It seemed like she smelled oranges whenever Cupcake Kitty was nearby.
“What are those tickets doing here?” Nico asked.
Tatania lept out the car.
“They blew away Boss.”
Chapter Eleven
In Cupcake Kitty’s room, Grace flipped through an issue of The New Yorker. She spied an ad for OBESI-TEA that promised you could drink it off as you take it on.
“Jack,” she said, showing him the ad, “it says OBESI-TEA is available on hotel menus. Do you think when people order OBESI-TEA, waiters ever say, looks like you already have it?”
“Not if the waiter wants a good tip.”
Cupcake Kitty laughed. She didn’t seem upset about Eddie’s demise. Cupcake Kitty pulled a lipstick out of her wrist purse. It had a mirror on the side and she put on more red lipstick.
“I love that. A mirror on the side. What will they think of next?”
“Sliced bread and mirrors on lipstick. We’ve got it all.”
“What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?”
“Your birth,” Jack said, squeezing Grace’s hand.
You two are a giggle,” Cupcake Kitty said. “One time in a speakeasy, I saw a woman walking around with a sign that read ‘Lips that touch liquor will never touch mine.’ I thought that would limit her chances of meeting someone.
Hemingway says he drinks to make other people more interesting. I’m reading the Sun Also Rises. Nico has the same problem Jake had in The Sun Also Rises.”
“Jake didn’t have pock marks.” Grace remembered reading stories of women small pox survivors who used wax to conceal their marks before they put on powder. It worked great. Unless they sat too close to the fire, then the wax melted.
Cupcake Kitty told them what it was like for her when she met Nico.
“I came to California because I wanted to be a movie star after I saw Clara Bow in It. And my high school guy told me I could be an It girl too. Trouble is when I got here I couldn’t find a job. Have you ever been hungry without money for food?”
Grace nodded yes. Jack said, “We were in the trenches without food for awhile during the Great War.”
“I had gone for days without eating. I had no dough. When I met Nico, I was in a speakeasy in downtown L.A. It’s easy to find guys to buy drinks. I hoped they’d have peanuts or something too. But there wasn’t anything to eat in the speakeasy. I kind of passed out at the bar. Nico carried me out and asked, “Are you in the movies?”
I said No, and he said you should be. You have a movie star look. As soon as Nico gets out of bootlegging and buys a movie studio, I’m going to be a movie star.”
“I like your dress,” Grace said, recognizing true Chanel haute couture from visits to Paris during her Finishing School days, and uncertain what to say to Nico’s claims he’d put Cupcake Kitty in the movies.
“Nico bought it for me. He picks out all my clothes. Decides what I’m going to wear everyday. He goes through my closets and drawers.”
Jack caught a moth with his hand.
Then, he released it out the window.
“Papillon de nuit.”
“What?”
“Butterfly of night. Moth.”
“Nico had a vasectomy. Not that it matters,” she laughed, “If I had a diaphragm, he’d find out. He knows all my possessions. He knows what’s in my closet. He knows what’s in my purse. I threw away the train ticket to San Diego but one of his henchmen may have found it going through the trash. If Nico cut me off financially, I don’t what I’d do. But he doesn’t help in other ways.” Cupcake Kitty kept talking, biting into a coconut cupcake at the same time.
“Once, in a speakeasy, I met a woman who’d been in California a long time. I don’t want to be mean but lets just say she looked better in the dark. She told me that when she came to California, without money, she didn’t want to get pregnant, by any of the men buying her drinks and dinner, so she learned to cut off the end of the orange and create her own diaphragm. The orange’s acid acts like a spermicide.”
“Does it work?”
“I’m not pregnant,” Cupcake Kitty said, licking the frosting on another cupcake. Zeus leaned up and put his paw on the cupcake. Cupcake Kitty smiled, and pet Zeus.
Zeus put his paws around Cupcake’s Kitty’s neck. Grace was surprised. He usually only did that with her. The fidelity of a tomcat.
Grace looked at Jack’s profile and strong jaw. She had a habit of taking mental snapshots of him. In case he wasn’t around later, she wanted to retrieve an image of him. It wasn’t that she thoug
ht he’d disappear willingly. Being orphaned early had taught her that life was temporal and everyone you love is gone much too soon. And conversely, people you don’t care about seem to never go away.
Cupcake Kitty pulled a gold plated flask out of her garter, tilted her head back, and drank
Tatania meowed at the door.
“Kitty,” she said drunkenly, open my door for her.”
Jack got up. Tatania swivelled her ears three times and became visible again. She dropped the tickets when Jack opened the door.
Jack picked up the tickets. With his back to Cupcake Kitty and Grace, he pulled his fingerprint kit out of his rucksack.
“If Nico keeps such close tabs on you, why aren’t you worried one of his guys will see you slip away and tell him?”
“They’re afraid he’ll kill the messenger. Since I found Joey, I haven’t been missing Eddie.”
“Grace we need to go.” Jack pulled Grace up from the settee.
“Can I get you something else to drink?”
“We’re swell. Thanks for the hooch.” Jack said.
Chapter Twelve
“The fingerprints match,” Jack said when he shut Cupcake Kitty’s door.
“Match what?”
“The letter opener and these tickets have matching fingerprints. I want to talk to Joey.”
Tatania sensed Jack’s urgency and hurried. The sounds of horse hooves exploded when they exited the casino resort.
“Cupcake seems too drunk to hold a letter opener steady. It had to be Joey. Jealous. Not of Nico. But of Eddie. I’d feel badly for Nico but he’s evil.”
“Evil men never recognize evil in themselves. Nico thinks he’s a good guy,” Jack said.
“The bootleggers throw around their thousand dollar bills. They think they can buy anything.”
“They can’t buy everything,” Jack reminded her.
They could hear the song, “I found a Million Dollar Baby” playing on someone’s Victrola.
“If you don’t go to a bootlegger, you could buy Veri-Glo. You supposedly just add water and sugar to it and it turns to wine.”
“Christ turned water to wine, It was a pretty big feat.”
Tatania led Zeus, Grace, and Jack to the jockeys’ quarters.
Joey tried to shake off the weird sensation that someone was watching him. He thought Nico might send a goon after him. He held a note from Cupcake Kitty in his hand. One she’d sealed with lipstick. He recognized her writing.
He’d thrust the letter opener quickly into the band singers gut, his hands muscled and strong from years of holding the reins of 1000 pound animals he rode. Blood spurted out. He ran from the room. He might be small but every inch of him was compact muscle. He ran out the back of the hotel by the help’s stairs. He’d escaped a drunk mother by going to the race track everyday when he was a kid. He’d traded the drunk mother for a drunk mistress.
The only time he felt his life mattered was during the mere minutes he was guiding a horse through a race. And then he met Cupcake, and it felt like Christmas morning.
“Have I seen you at the Hotel del Coronado?” Grace asked.
Joey turned around and recognized the cats he’d seen on the Crown Room’s window ledge.
He was short in stature yet very good looking. Muscular. Still he couldn’t be a good provider and that would ultimately doom him with Cupcake Kitty.
“That’s a fine hotel. The Del,” he said finally.
“Eddie thought so,” Jack said.
Joey reached behind him for the jockeys’ quarters light switch. The room went dark.
They heard him shut the door and lock it.
Heart pounding, Grace called out, “Zeus”. The cat ignored her. She reached for her purse and pulled out the treat jar. When she put dried mackerel bits in her hand, both cats came swiftly. She knew they could lead the way out with their keen eyesight. Picking them up would be pointless because they couldn’t give direction. She unspooled a beaded thread on her dress and wound it lightly around Zeus’s neck.
She couldn’t find Tatania. Grace panicked. “Jack, where’s Tatania?”
Joey’s grunting answered. Tatania found him in the darkness with an eyesight made keener by her deafness. She clawed his face until he toppled over.
Zeus led Grace to the door. She felt for the latch and opened it to the sunlight and sounds of horse hooves.
And U.S. Marshals. One recognized her.
“We got a call after you and Jack left. A drunk Moll. Said Joey the Jockey bumped Eddie off.”
Joey was on the ground with Jack’s knee holding him down. He waited for the U.S. Marshals to handcuff Joey. Then he reached for Grace.
Chapter Thirteen
As expected, the hooves pounding on the racetrack didn’t faze Tatania who looked blissfully deaf at any loud noise.
“Adored the Mariachi Band.” Grace heard a familiar voice behind her.
Annie Knickerbocker, resplendent as always with matching cigarette holder, feather headband and blush. Martin was with her, dutifully carrying a picnic basket that clinked with the sound of champagne bottles and glasses on ice.
“We missed you. Had to see what we were missing here. You’ll never guess who came with us.”
“Okay. I’ll never guess. Who?”
“Julia and Charlotte. And your brother. He wants to update you on the house.”
“Where are they?”
“In our private railroad car. Dear, the U.S. Marshals were asking questions in Coronado. Seems this Nico is a big deal. He makes more money than most small countries. Doesn’t choose women well. Neither does Joey the Jockey. Cupcake Kitty reported him for killing Eddie. She follows the money.”
Their private car, named Annie, sat on the railway tracks next to the casino. A sign next to the tracks touted fresh California Orange Juice.
“Jack, I’ll never look at an orange the same way again,” Grace said.
“California, Here I come,” Jack began singing.
“Jack, stop it.”
“Beauty before age,” Martin gestured for Grace and Annie to go first. Tatania lept ahead of them. Zeus followed.
Annie and Martin’s private railway car was filled with dark wood paneling, comfy brocade chairs, and Tiffany lamps. Julia tried to restrain Charlotte, but she broke free of her Mom, and ran to Grace.
David was smiling. He looked different. In some way. Ah, Grace thought, he’s wearing a suit. There was another man on the train.
Grace looked at Annie.
“Did you know a Justice of the Peace can perform a wedding ceremony? Marriage on the train is perfect for you and Jack. I have a feeling you two will always be in motion,” Annie said, lifting up her glass.
“Met on a train. Married on a train. To my brother and the sister I always wanted.” David raised his glass.
Jack smiled when the train started moving.
Grace watched Zeus and Tatania make themselves comfortable on silk pillows. She looked at Jack, Charlotte, Julia, David, Annie and Martin. She said yes.
Meow or Never
Mary Matthews
For PJP who taught me that sometimes the stars align and the moon illuminates your way.
“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Everything is better with cats” @CatFoodBreath
Chapter One
Cats truly live their nine lives at night. Zeus, a cute and mischievous tomcat, kept following the tide in and out, letting the water sprinkle his nose, and acting surprised when the tide chased him back to shore. Wet, he shook like a puppy. Then, he sniffed each front paw carefully. Tatania, a magical white Persian, looked away. She was terribly fond of Zeus. But sometimes he was just a tad unseemly.
He scampered excitedly towards their favorite humans, a slender woman in a sparkling dress, and a muscular man with black hair and skin kissed brown by the sun. Zeus rolled around on the sand. Maybe he had dog b
lood in him. Tatania shuddered at the thought of that mating.
“Jack, he thinks this beach is the cat’s pajamas.” Grace’s rouged knees intrigued Zeus and he reached up to tap one with his paw.
“Zeus, you’re all wet.” Grace removed her feathered boa and gently dried Zeus.
Tatania stood up and meowed. Sometimes she had to remind them who was the rightful center of attention. Tatania walked closer and meowed again. When Jack moved towards her, she stepped back slightly, so he’d have to work a little to reach her and pet her. She purred when Jack found the spot behind her ears she liked.
They could hear jazz playing from Tent City Dance Pavillion. Behind them, the Hotel del Coronado stood, as it had since 1888, in regal splendor. Tent City was a misnomer. Its abodes were cottage style. Coronado Tent City was a playground for anyone who wanted to share the Del’s view on a tent budget. This Tent City had its own shops, an arcade, bathing pools, children’s bull fights, bands, a palmist who proclaimed that your hand was your destiny, and its own newspaper. The Merry Go Round caught the light of Grace’s sequined dress and head band when they walked by. Tatania admired her own reflection in the Merry Go Round’s mirror.
Tatania smelled doughnuts and homemade chocolates from Coronado Tent City’s sweet shop. Tatania preferred bacon and seafood. She spotted one of her favorite fishermen cleaning up after a day’s catch. Tatania had cultivated her relationships with the best fishermen for months and went over to give him some attention. Zeus followed her.
A burly man with mustache and a beard, he was hanging impressive looking three to four feet fish on a rope in front of the Del when Tatania greeted him by rolling over and extending a paw towards him. Zeus put his paws down and rear end up in the air.
The fisherman laughed.
“Let me get you some sea bass. I saved it for you. Worried you weren’t going to appear. Where do you cats go when you’re not dining with me?”
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