Cat Among the Fishes

by Louise Clark

  Chapter 21

  The sun shone ridiculously bright the next day, luring everyone down to the beach, including Heather and Greg and the two Farnsworth kids.

  The tide was far down the beach, leaving the usual quota of tidal pools behind as it retreated. Quinn and Sledge got busy setting up the umbrella, while Ellen and Tamara placed chairs and laid out towels. While Noelle held Stormy’s leash, Christy put up his small tent, adding a bowl of water and some kibble snacks.

  Over at the tidal pool where Noelle intended to start building her sandcastle for the day, Christy noticed Haley and Dylan were already there, at work on the landward side of the pool. Haley was hunched over a bucket, filling it with wet sand, her face turned away from her brother, who was building a tower on the other side of the construction. As they watched, the upper edge of the tower started to crumble. Dylan made a guttural sound of anger and kicked the base. Sand flew as the tower crumbled into a shapeless mound. Haley looked over, her face a wide-eyed picture of dismay.

  What’s eating the kid?

  “He’s probably upset because his father has disappeared and his mother won’t explain where he’s gone.” Heather Farnsworth had decided to tell her kids their father was helping the police, but Christy believed it was too much and not enough information. Kids heard and saw more than adults thought they did. Dylan was probably worried and scared, and he was acting out.

  Not far from the Farnsworth castle construction, Greg and Heather had set up chairs. At Dylan’s angry growl, Greg came over to try to smooth over the problem, but Dylan didn’t look as if he was buying into Greg’s attempt at positive thinking. Not surprising. To Christy’s mind, Greg looked grimly worried. He was managing to hide his emotions, but it had to be hard knowing the lives of everyone in the Farnsworth family might very well have changed forever. His quiet calm was a direct contrast to Heather, who was barely holding it together. Patterson was nowhere to be seen, probably off doing what she could for her brother-in-law, just as Trevor was.

  Roy set one of the folding chairs up not far from the sandcastle and gallantly offered it to Ellen. She smiled at him as she sank gracefully into it. “Thank you, Roy. Christy, do you have my book?”

  “I think so.” She dug through her tote. “Yup, here it is.” She handed it to Ellen who took it with a smile as she settled comfortably in her chair. Slipping on a pair of sunglasses, she opened her book.

  The cat wants a towel to sit on. The sand’s still wet and he doesn’t like how it feels on his haunches and tail.

  Ellen slipped her sunglasses down and peered at the cat. “You have your tent.”

  Christy cleared her throat as she pulled out a towel, which Roy laid beside Ellen’s chair. Stormy sat on it in his tidy way, back straight, tail curled around hind and front legs, ears pricked forward, as he watched the sandcastle construction. Tamara observed the interplay with her usual frown until Quinn distracted her by asking her if she wanted to go for a swim. She agreed and they headed off, along with Sledge.

  Noelle decided she’d start building her sandcastle for the day, so she headed over to the tidal pool. She was careful, though, to pick a spot away from the castle Dylan and Haley were working on.

  The ocean reached its nadir, then began its slow, steady return up the beach. The sun beat down. Though it was hot, there was enough of a breeze off the water that the warmth wasn’t unpleasant. Christy pulled Noelle away from her building duties to lather her up with more sunscreen, then did the same for herself. The cat sat by Ellen and watched the construction with his usual fascination.

  Dylan had another meltdown, this time demolishing half of the Farnsworth castle in the process. Haley started to cry.

  Noelle went over and took the little girl’s hand. “Come help me with my castle.”

  “She’s my sister!” Dylan said, instantly. He was standing with feet wide apart and his hands on his hips. There was a dangerous flush on his cheeks.

  Noelle and Haley froze.

  The cat leapt to his feet, as did Christy. Ellen dropped her book and Roy sat up.

  Leave my daughter alone! Stormy set off for the scene of battle at a gallop.

  “Oh, dear heavens,” Ellen said.

  Roy clambered to his feet, while Christy chased after the outraged cat.

  Greg reached the scene moments before Christy and the cat. “Dylan, hey buddy, it’s okay if Haley plays with Noelle.”

  “No, it’s not,” Dylan said as Christy and the cat drew near. “She’s my sister. She stays with me.”

  Haley shrank closer to Noelle. Sniveling, she said, “I don’t want to play with you. You’re so grumpy. You’ve been yelling at me all day!”

  “Have not!” Dylan said, yelling.

  Haley began to cry in earnest.

  “Stop being mean,” Noelle said. Her chin jutted out and she shot Dylan a disdainful expression she must have learned from Ellen, who had perfected the art of depressing the pretentions of those she considered lesser beings with nothing but a look.

  “Who are you to call me names? You’re just a stupid girl!”

  “So is Haley,” Noelle said. There was high color in her cheeks now and her eyes flashed. “Stop being such a jerk, Dylan!”

  “I’m not!” He took a step toward her.

  “Dylan, stop right now,” Greg snapped.

  Let the leash go, Chris. I’m going to take him down.

  Christy didn’t let go. Much as she didn’t want to see her daughter in a physical tussle with Dylan Farnsworth, she also didn’t want Heather Farnsworth demanding Stormy be put down because the cat attacked her son. The leash was long, however, and the cat was racing forward at top speed. The handle jerked from Christy’s fingers, freeing the cat. He bolted between Noelle and Dylan.

  Out of the way, kiddo. There’s going to be fallout. With a final flying leap, Stormy landed on top of the last remaining tower, his front paws digging furiously, his hind legs kicking away sand. He moved from there to the retaining walls, and effectively demolished them. In moments, the sandcastle was nothing more than a mound of sand, which was rapidly flying in every direction.

  Noelle stepped backward, drawing Haley with her out of the danger zone. Greg Farnsworth reached his nephew in time to take the full brunt of the flying sand. He jumped back too, while Dylan shouted, “Hey! That stings!”

  Tough! Sand flew harder.

  Relieved Frank had chosen to divert Dylan by demolishing his castle, Christy regained control of the leash. She advanced on the former sandcastle, shortening the leash as she went, with the idea of scooping Stormy up and removing him from the scene.

  But hostilities weren’t over.

  “Stupid cat!” Dylan shouted. He pulled away from Greg, and headed for Stormy, who was still having a lovely time sending sand in every direction.

  “Leave my da—him alone!” Noelle cried as Dylan grabbed for Stormy.

  The cat twisted out of his grasp, leaping backwards. He retreated back to Christy, who stopped. There he shook his sand-covered body, before he sat down, wrapping his tail around his paws in his usual way.

  I did good.

  “Your stupid cat needs to go away,” Dylan said, hands on hips, a scowl on his mouth.

  Noelle was having none of that. “He does not! It’s a free beach. He can do what he wants.”

  You tell him, kiddo. Frank sounded ridiculously pleased by his daughter’s defense of the cat.

  Ellen and Roy reached the battleground. “You’re not helping, Frank,” Ellen said, just as Heather came over to intervene.

  Heather frowned. “Who’s Frank?”

  Ellen colored. Christy said hastily, “It’s another name for the cat.”

  Heather accepted that without comment. It was soon evident that her goal was to stop the shouting. “Can you control the cat?” she said to Christy. “Put him into his little tent and zip up the opening, maybe? Take him back up to your camp and lock him in the car?”

  Noelle’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not fair,�
�� she said. “He was only protecting me from Dylan.”

  “Protecting!” Heather didn’t quite say, ‘what nonsense,’ but the words were there in her tone of voice. “Dylan has done nothing wrong. The children have been traumatized by—” She broke off and sniffed. “Their father has done nothing wrong. That horrible policeman thinks he has evidence against Adam, but it’s all a misunderstanding.” Her voice was shaking. She stopped, swallowed hard. “It must be.”

  Both her children looked at her. Haley whimpered. Dylan set his jaw and his mouth turned down in a frown. He looked angry, but miserable at the same time.

  Haley wailed, “Mommy!” and reached for Heather.

  “Oh dear,” Ellen said.

  Greg glanced around, discomfort and apology in his expression. Roy clamped a hand on his shoulder in masculine solidarity.

  Christy scooped up the cat. Time to move away and let the Farnsworth family sort out their tangled emotions in private.

  “Oh, my darling! No, it’s all right. Mommy’s here.” Heather scooped up Haley and hugged her, stroking her hair as she consoled her. Haley continued to howl.

  Dylan pulled away from Greg. His hands were balled into fists and his thin body positively quivered with tension. “It’s my fault!”

  Heather blinked. “What is, dear?”

  “He’s going to go to jail because of me!”

  Christy froze. She glanced at a startled Ellen, then saw that Roy’s brows were raised and his eyes bright.

  Greg stepped forward and Roy dropped his hand from his shoulder. “Why do you think that, Dylan?” Greg asked.

  “Because it’s true! The cop thinks he used Mom’s pills to kill someone. But he didn’t. It was me. I did it!”

  Well, that’s interesting.

  “Isn’t it?” Ellen said. “He couldn’t possibly be the killer though.”

  Heather put Haley down. She was staring at her son. “What are you talking about?”

  Wild-eyed, Dylan looked from Ellen to his mother. “Your pills! You and Dad had a fight about them when we were setting up the tents the day we arrived. I wanted to know what they were and why Dad was so mad.”

  “Dad wasn’t mad,” Heather said. She put her hand to her throat. Haley was forgotten. She sat down on the sand and cried for a minute, but no one was listening. She fell silent.

  “Sure he was. Then Uncle Greg and Aunt Billie came and you guys pretended nothing was wrong. That just made it worse! I went into your suitcase and found the bottle, then I snuck into the trees where you wouldn’t see me so I could look at them.”

  “You took my bottle of sleeping pills… But— How would looking at them make any difference?”

  “Because I was going to dump them so you couldn’t use them and you and Dad wouldn’t fight about them anymore! Only the top wouldn’t come off and I had to figure out how to make it work. Then I got it open and started to pour them out, but Haley came along and wanted to know what I was doing and I had to stop! I put the lid back on and put the bottle in my pocket. I figured I’d finish up later, but there was no time that day, so I had to put it back into your suitcase, so you wouldn’t know what I’d done.”

  “Oh, my dearest child,” Heather said. Tears trickled down her cheeks. “Oh, how upset you must have been.”

  Greg shot an impatient look at his sister-in-law, then said, “You poured out half the bottle?” His tone was firm, his delivery brisk. He’d obviously picked up questioning skills from his wife. Or maybe he just seemed authoritative in comparison to Heather, who used sympathy and indulgence as the solution to every parenting problem.

  Dylan nodded.

  “You said you wanted to get rid of all of them. Why didn’t you dispose of the rest later?”

  “Too much was going on and there was always someone around. And, well, Mom and Dad weren’t fighting anymore, so I thought…” He shrugged and seemed to wilt under Greg’s frown. “So I didn’t.”

  “You’d better show me where you dumped them.” He looked up at the sky. “It’s rained since, but maybe there’s some evidence left.”

  At Greg’s matter-of-fact tone, Dylan brightened. “Yeah, sure, Uncle Greg.” He scampered away to get his flip-flops.

  “I’ll come with you,” Heather said.

  “You stay here and look after Haley.” Greg held up a hand, palm out. I’ll deal with this, the gesture said. He turned away, following Dylan who was waiting by their beach chairs.

  Heather looked bewildered.

  “Mommy?” Haley said.

  Heather sank down onto the sand and hugged her daughter, who began to cry again.

  “I think I’ll take Stormy down to one of the tidal pools closer to the ocean. He can go fishing,” Ellen said.

  Good idea. The cat isn’t comfortable with tears.

  Roy’s gaze was fixed on Heather and Haley. He cleared his throat uneasily. “I’ll come with you.”

  “How about you, Noelle?” Christy said. “Want to go down to the water and have a swim?”

  Noelle had watched and listened wide-eyed. Now she looked at her mother and nodded eagerly. Christy held out her hand and Noelle slipped her smaller one into Christy’s.

  As they all moved away, Ellen said, “Well done, Noelle.”

  Christy didn’t think the praise was for her decision to head down to the water.

  Chapter 22

  Noelle and Christy stayed at the second tidal pool with Stormy and Ellen for a few minutes, watching Stormy pounce on tiny crabs—missing each time—and getting very wet. Then Noelle tugged Christy’s hand and pointed to the ocean. “Let’s go in the water.”

  “Race you,” Christy said, and Noelle squealed and started to run. Christy gave her a moment’s head start, then she said, “See you later,” to Ellen and Frank, and loped after her daughter.

  Noelle didn’t stop running, even after she arrived at the water’s edge. When she reached the point where the water was above her knees, she dove in. She came up further out just as Christy splashed up beside her. As she was scraping wet hair out of her eyes, Christy flopped down, splashing water everywhere. Noelle giggled and shouted, “Mom!”

  The water was shallow enough for Christy to kneel and only have it up to her chest. She rested there, wiping her own wet hair away from her face as the swells rose and settled around her. The water was clear so they could see the sandy floor. For a minute, they watched a tiny crab rushing about in an apparently random way, then Christy said, “Are you okay with what went on at the sandcastles?”

  Noelle floated on her back and stared at the sky. “Dylan was pretty upset.”

  “Yeah, he was.”

  She righted herself and stood up. Christy noted the water was above her waist, though not by much. Her daughter was growing up.

  “I didn’t like him yelling and threatening Haley, but…” She scrunched up her face. “I understand, I think. His daddy’s important to him and…” She shrugged. “He doesn’t have Stormy.”

  Christy’s breath caught and all she could do was nod. “His dad’s not dead, though, just under arrest. Detective Patterson and Mr. Three are doing all they can to make sure he doesn’t go to jail.”

  Noelle nodded solemnly, then she grinned. “And you too, Mom. Dylan is dumb. He’s got lots of people helping. He doesn’t need to freak out.”

  Christy smiled at that, but she said, “Dylan loves his dad and he thought he’d done something to hurt him. That’s a pretty good reason to freak out.”

  Noelle thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “I suppose.” She flopped back into the water, splashing as she went under. When she came up, she said, “Let’s go out to where Sledge and Quinn are. I’ll swim!” She put action to words by doing an energetic, although somewhat erratic, crawl. She had a tendency to veer right when she swam, so Christy paddled alongside, giving her tips to keep her straight.

  Quinn, Sledge, and Tamara—Noelle had developed a tendency to ignore her—were further out than it seemed from the height of the water coveri
ng their bodies. By the time Noelle and Christy reached them, Noelle was huffing with exertion, but very pleased with herself. Though the water was deeper here, because of the shallow slope of the beach, it still wasn’t above Noelle’s head. She abandoned her swimming to float on her back beside Quinn, who sank into the water to bob along side her. Christy tucked her legs under her and floated in place.

  “I thought you were building sandcastles,” Quinn said to Noelle.

  She righted herself to drift in the gentle swells like Christy and made a face at Quinn. “Dylan Farnsworth got upset and yelled, and Stormy dug up his sandcastle, then Dylan’s mom started to cry, so Aunt Ellen took Stormy to chase minnows in one of the other tidal pools and Mom and I came down to the water.”

  Quinn raised an eyebrow at Christy, while Sledge laughed and said, “Sounds like pretty good reasons to leave the scene.”

  Christy grimaced as she shrugged. “There are a lot of emotions floating around the Farnsworth family this morning.”

  “Heather must be devastated,” Tamara said. “I think I’ll go up and see if I can help out.” She looked at the two men as if expecting them to join her, but they both just smiled. She shrugged and set off, splashing through the water on the long walk back to the beach and beyond.

  When she was out of hearing range, Sledge shook his head. Water sprayed everywhere, like a shaggy dog shaking himself. “I may be a selfish bas—er, guy.” He glanced uneasily at Noelle and Christy, “No way am I going anywhere near Heather Farnsworth in the middle of a meltdown.”

  Quinn laughed, his eyes on Tamara’s retreating back. “I’m with you there.”

  Sledge dove into the water and came up on the other side of Noelle, spouting like a whale. Noelle giggled and dove down, swimming underwater through Sledge’s open legs. Quinn and Christy clapped, so she did it again. She dove and swam for a while, then bobbed on the surface. A larger wave washed over her head, submerging her. Quinn grabbed her around the waist, and she came up sputtering. Unfazed, she giggled. He tossed her into the water, and she surfaced spewing seawater and laughing harder.