The Telltale Turtle (The Pet Psychic Mysteries) (12 page)

"They've come to an agreement, I guess." He shrugged. "As long as they don't press charges against each other, there's not much I can do."

"Is it possible Mr. Tate was involved with Ferndelle's murder and that's why he came after Colin?"

"Not unless he killed her long distance. He was at a sales seminar in Texas."

"And you let Charlie and Danny go?"

"Quit asking questions and go home. If you ever think of doing something stupid like this again, go talk to the turtle or something."

She smiled as she walked past him. "I thought you'd forgotten."

"That you talk to animals?" He grinned. "That doesn't come up around here too often. Actually I heard a repeat of one of your shows on the Internet. People really seem to like you."

"I've been doing this a long time, Detective." With a rare understanding of the human mind, she asked, "Do you have something you wanted to talk to me about? A pet problem?"

Two officers walked toward them and Angellus blew her off. "I don't think I have any problems you can help with, Mary Catherine. Just go home, huh?"

She left him with the sure knowledge that he was lying. Baylor was right for the most part. Humans were deceptive creatures.

Danny, Colin, and Charlie were standing in front of the station, arguing. Tate was nowhere to be seen. She went down the steps quickly when a group of officers turned their heads to listen to the three men argue as they went into the station.

"The three of you better pipe down," she warned. "My car is right over there. I'll take you back to your cars." "

I don't want to ride with this man." Colin pointed a long slender finger at Charlie. "He set me up! Charlene's husband could've killed me!"

"There was no way for me to know he'd come after you," Charlie argued. "I didn't tell him where you lived, just your name and what you looked like."

"That sounds like enough to me." Danny pushed his chest into Charlie. "You're a rotten apple. You need to get out of the barrel."

"That's fine with me." Charlie turned and started to walk away. "You guys are crazy. What did you think was going to happen when Charlene's old man found out who was raiding his henhouse? You better start thinking about that kind of thing."

"Colin?" Mindy called as she got out of her Volkswagen at the curb. "You're not in trouble again, are you?"

"Not if you don't find out." Charlie mumbled the words beneath his breath as he walked by the young woman.

"What?" She ran to Colin's side. "Is everything all right? I got your call. I was so worried after the murder thing and all."

"I didn't call you." Colin looked at Mary Catherine, who quickly denied calling the girl as well. "Was it a man's voice?"

"Yes" Mindy wrapped her arms around her fiance. "What's going on, Noodles?"

Danny smirked. "Noodles? Is that in reference to his brain or the way he punches?"

"I was thinking lower," Charlie yelled back to the group.

Colin ignored him. "It was probably Uncle Bob. Let's go, Sweet Feet. My car is at the apartment."

When the two had climbed into her car, Danny laughed out loud. "What a pair! Noodles and Sweet Feet! If a chica ever called me Noodles, I'd wonder what my problem was."

Mary Catherine watched Charlie's rapidly disappearing back. She would've liked to talk to him about the voices Angellus said he heard. She supposed she'd have to save that for another time. She had no doubt Charlie was far from out of her life. "Let's go. I'm tired and Baylor is hungry."

Danny climbed in on the other side of the Mini Cooper. "Can you imagine the nerve of that guy? He sets up a trap for Colin, knowing that Tate guy was hanging around, waiting to kick his ass. I'm sorry I didn't get another punch in on him."

"He might be telling the truth. Maybe he didn't think Elmore would come after Colin with the information he gave him."

"MC, you always think the best of everyone, but I don't think it's true in this case. You should steer a wide path around that guy if you see him again."

She didn't agree with him, but she was too tired to argue about it. She drove back to Colin's apartment and dropped Danny off at his taxi. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Hey! I almost forgot! How's that handyman working out? He seemed like a nice old guy. I found him wandering around in the street outside the clinic. I knew he must live close by and he'd be perfect for your curioso jobs."

"He's doing a good job. Thanks, Danny. I really appreciate all your help."

"De nada, MC." He hugged her. "See you later."

The night was softly perfumed around her as she got home and climbed out of the Mini Cooper. The lights on the river seemed as prolific as the stars in the sky above her. The only difference was that many of them on the water were moving as ships headed for the ocean and boats returned to their berths. The river scent was heavy in the air tonight, pungent with the smell of diesel from a big ship going by.

Mary Catherine sat outside with Baylor beneath a spreading oak tree that had probably seen its fair share of duels between pirates and gentlemen as it grew along the Cape Fear River. She and the cat both loved to sit outside at night and listen to the owls call and the doves murmur softly in the shadows. Frogs and crickets added their own symphony punctuated by horns tooting on large and small river vessels.

"I know you're hungry." She stroked Baylor. "You said you wanted to sit outside for a while too."

The only sound audible to most human ears was the rush of the breeze from the river and the raucous cries of a few pesky gulls. But she heard the cat as he thought about the food that awaited him upstairs in their apartment and the softness of the red velvet chair beneath his claws.

"All right. Let's go up. I've heard enough complaining out here anyway. Those river rats never get enough to eat!"

Mary Catherine got up slowly, easing out the kinks in her legs as she moved. Baylor dropped to the ground at her feet, waiting impatiently for her to get to the door. She felt around in her pocket and found the key. There was a scratching sound on the building wall close by and Baylor hissed, turning to face the sound. He couldn't identify the perceived threat and she couldn't make out anything except the shadows.

"It's just the old tree branches," she said out loud for her benefit as well as the cat's. "We've stayed outside so long we're getting spooked."

But her pleasant conversation avoided the slight edge of fear that tugged at her heart as Baylor hissed and growled in the direction of the strange sound. Mary Catherine managed to get the key in the lock and open the door, but her hands were shaking. She urged Baylor to get in the building, but he'd gone into some kind of defensive mode. He still couldn't tell her what the problem was, even though he definitely saw it as a threat.

She looked out into the darkness and wished she had the cat's keen night vision. Many times he could make something out in the blackness she could never see. It was too bad he couldn't always tell her what he saw. Baylor was as close as any animal she'd ever known to articulating human thoughts, but he still saw things as a cat.

Mary Catherine reached down to pick up Baylor and bring him inside when he darted away from her and disappeared into the night. Her heart stopped for an instant then picked up a rapid, uncomfortable beat. "Stop playing games," she said for the sake of hearing her own voice. She could certainly tell the cat in a much more efficient manner to get his butt in the building. But just then, she needed to hear another human voice and hers was the only one available.

The cat didn't appear. She wasn't sure if she should go out after him or if she should let him find his own way back. She certainly couldn't follow him into all the nooks and crannies his agile body could find. If it hadn't been for the way he'd left her, she wouldn't even consider it. They were as close as a human and a cat could be, but she tried to give him his space when she could.

"Baylor?" She peered out into the night. "I'm going to bed. If you don't come in now, there won't be any food until breakfast."

There was a loud hissing and sudden howl she had no trouble identifying as his. She put down her purse and picked up the broom that was near the door to the clinic. Baylor was in trouble and she was going to find him.

MARY CATHERINE HELD HER broom out in front of her like a sword. She could hear Baylor's frantic yowls with her ears and his angry thoughts in her mind. Something was definitely wrong. Behind the anger, she sensed his fear of what he didn't understand. He couldn't get free of something; she had to find him.

She tried counseling him to calm down so he could help her, but there was no reasoning with him. Animals reached a point where there was no rationalizing their fears, like humans, and they panicked to the point of mindlessness. She tried to get him to consider where he was, but it was no use. He was beyond understanding her.

"Baylor!" she whispered his name as she skulked along the edges of the building in the shadows. "Stop fighting and answer me!"

His silence was more unnerving than his howls for help. Where was he? What was wrong with him?

She wished she'd brought a flashlight. She wished she'd called the police. Neither one of those luxuries belonged to her at that moment. Her back was starting to ache from leaning over looking for the cat.

Her broom handle hit the metal structure of the outside stairs to her apartment. She saw a shadow move across the stairs, too big to be Baylor, and swung at it as hard as she could. The shadow yelped and swore. This was a human animal.

"Watch it with that thing!" Charlie yelled as she lifted the handle to swing it again.

"What are you doing out here? Where's Baylor?"

"I was going up to your apartment to talk to you. I don't know where Baylor is. I thought you could communicate with animals."

She held the handle like a baseball bat. "Don't get cute with me! What have you done with my cat?"

"Nothing. Really. I just got here. I wanted to apologize again for what happened tonight."

Mary Catherine didn't know if she believed him or not. It was much harder to tell with people than with animals. In any case, he was standing close enough that she could tell he wasn't holding Baylor. "He's trapped out here somewhere. I have to find him."

"Let me help you. I'm a private detective. That's what I do, find lost things."

Something in his tone of voice distracted her from Baylor's plight for a moment. "That is what you do, isn't it?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Detective Angellus told me you were kicked off the force because you said you heard voices that helped you solve your cases. You find things because they call to you. You're psychic too."

"I don't know what he's talking about," he argued. "Angellus can kiss my-"

"Shh! Did you hear that?"

He looked around. "Hear what?"

"That scratching sound."

"All these old buildings have rats." He took a step toward her. "Look, I've never had a cat but I've known plenty of cat ladies. Sometimes cats go off on their own. I'm sure Baylor will be fine."

"I think it's over here." She brushed past him with her broomstick in the lead again. He followed behind her until she reached the other side of the metal stairway. Mary Catherine's broomstick hit something metal that didn't resound like the heavy stairs. She knelt down in the rabbit grass and gravel, feeling around until her hands came in contact with a cage.

"Baylor!" She tried to find some way to open the cage, but without a light, it was impossible. Her hands were bruised and cut from trying to force the lightweight metal mesh open. "We have to get him inside. He's trapped in this cage."

Leaving the broomstick where she dropped it, she picked the cage up in both arms. Baylor made no response to her calls. Terrified that he was dead, she rushed back into the clinic, ignoring Charlie as he followed her and closed the front door behind them.

In the overhead fluorescent lights, Mary Catherine could see Baylor in the cage. She couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead. She fought with the cage again, trying to force the door open. It was wired shut.

"Let me in there!" Charlie brandished a pair of pliers that came out of his Swiss Army knife. "You're never going to get it open with your hands."

"Hurry!" she urged. "I think he may be dead. Why would anyone want to kill my cat?"

Charlie cut the wire that kept the cage door from opening and pulled the cat's inert body out of the cage. "He's still warm. I think his heart's beating."

Mary Catherine gathered Baylor in her arms and rocked him like a baby, her tears falling on him. "I think you're right. I think he's alive. I don't understand how this happened."

Charlie picked up a small colored dart from the cage floor. "I think someone tranquilized him. This looks like one of those darts zookeepers use."

She looked at the projectile. "Someone shot that into Baylor? They wanted to trap him out there?"

Charlie's brown eyes narrowed as he watched her. "Maybe they were trying to trap someone else."