Cat Seeing Double (30 page)

Authors: Shirley Rousseau Murphy

BOOK: Cat Seeing Double

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“Tomorrow,” she said, “I'll go into the library early.” She gave him a guilty look. “I've made myself too scarce.” She was, after all, official library cat, and she had let her chosen work slide. “Tomorrow is story hour. I'll snuggle on the big window seat with the children, let them pummel and pet me.” She smiled. “Too bad I can't read to them, Wilma says I have a lovely reading voice.”

“The kids would love it. Probably triple attendance.”

But then she shivered. “I keep thinking about the bombing. And about those drug labs that might have killed as many people as the bomb would have done.”

“It's over, Dulcie. Everyone's safe. Those people are locked up.”

“And I was thinking about MariannaâMartie Holland. About her cruelty to Rock, to that sweet silver hound.” Dulcie turned to look at Joe, her green eyes wide and dark. “That woman cares for no living thing. She cares for nothing but her own destructive schemesâas if she's linked to all cruelty in the world. As if hate and cruelty are one massive force that she's part of, a force that can shape itself into a million faces.”

Joe Grey licked his whiskers. “But there's more that's
good
in life, Dulcie. Clyde and Ryan down there, so right and comfortable with each other. Charlie and Max at home together, safe and happy. The ladies of senior survival tucked away in their new home. Wilma, and our good police and detectives.” Thinking about their human friends, he grew almost mellow. He looked hard at her, the starlight catching a gleam across his pale whiskers and dark eyes. “What
they
have, Dulcie, is way more powerful than evil.” And the tomcat looked, not predatory then or teasing as he so often looked, but only wise. “The force of goodness is stronger, Dulcie.”

“Goodness,” she said, “and the little droll things, the humorous turns of life.”

“Such as?”

Dulcie laughed. “Silver tomcat and silver dog like mirror images.”

Joe Grey smiled. He guessed, in this case, comparison to a dog wasn't an insult. He purred deeply. “Despite bombs and lethal drugs, despite all the evil, there's far more that's good. The humorous things,” he said, smiling. “The positive things.”

And it was true. At that particular moment, their own bit of the world was safe and right. They were all together in their small village, the three cats and their friends. Those who would harm them were otherwise occupied, and no matter what disasters might visit among them in future, they were there for each other. Nothing, Joe Grey thought, nothing even in death could separate their closeness, could change the fact that they were family.

About the Author

SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY has received five national Cat Writers' Association Awards for best novel of the year for the Joe Grey books, and five Council of Authors and Journalists Awards for previous books. For more information on her books, visit
www.joegrey.com
, or you can email her directly at
[email protected]
. Shirley and her husband live in Carmel, California, where they serve as full-time household help to two demanding feline ladies.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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Purrs and
Praise
for Shirley Rousseau Murphy's Joe Grey Mysteries

“WARM AND FURRY.”

Publishers Weekly

“M
urphy is in a class by herself.”

Cat's Library

“M
urphy successfully walks the line between maintaining the cathood of her felines and endowing them with sentiency. Round up the readers; they will be delighted.”

Booklist

“A
must-read for those who enjoy the feline side of sleuthing.”

Romantic Times

“MAGICAL.”

Cats Magazine

“F
un fare for cat fans.”

Library Journal

“S
avoring Murphy's clever plots and writerly machinations that allow secretly talking cats to pass along clues and inside information to the police is a delight for Murphy fans.”

Carmel Pine Cone

“M
urphy has not only captured the essence of feline behavior in Joe Grey and Dulcie, she has also given them believable personalities that are completely in keeping with an âattitude' that any cat owner will immediately recognize.”

Monterey Herald

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C
AT
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AT
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PITTING
M
AD

C
AT TO THE
D
OGS

C
AT IN THE
D
ARK

C
AT
R
AISE THE
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EAD

C
AT
U
NDER
F
IRE

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AT ON THE
E
DGE

Coming soon in hardcover

C
AT
F
EAR
N
O
E
VIL

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CAT SEEING DOUBLE
. Copyright Â© 2003 by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ePub edition September 2007 ISBN 9780061740244

Version 08092013

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