“MRRR!!” he said, which I took for agreement.
I lifted up my coat, unbuckled my belt, pulled it off, and pushed the belt’s length though the buckle, creating a loop. I stepped forward and bumped into Allison, making her scream just a little louder.
Grabbing one of her arms, I looped the belt around her wrist and pulled it tight. She struggled, but I held hard and reached around for her other arm. “Now would be a good time,” I panted to Eddie, “for you to help out just a little more.”
He scrambled up off Allison’s back and onto her shoulder, where he gripped hard and yowled like the hounds of hell. Even I was a little startled by the volume of noise coming out of my thirteen-pound cat.
Allison sank to her knees, whimpering.
I took hold of her free arm, pulled it behind her back, and wrapped my belt tight around both wrists, looping and tying it firm.
“Get him off,” she whispered, tears in her words. “Please, just get him off.”
And after a minute, I did.
Chapter 19
“Minnie?” Denise’s shout came from far below. “Are you all right up there?”
Me and Eddie both, thanks. “We’re fine,” I called. “You can tell the dispatcher that I have the shooter disarmed and—” And what? Saying Allison was in custody wasn’t accurate. “Disarmed and incapacitated. Send the police up here, okay?”
“Incapacitated” still wasn’t quite right, but I’d come up with the right word eventually. Probably at three in the morning, as Eddie was deciding that the top of my head was the best place for him to sleep.
At this particular moment, however, the cat in questions was nestled in my arms and purring like a champ. I patted my furry little friend on the head.
“Mrr,” he said sleepily.
“Get that cat away from me,” Allison said. “This is all her fault, you know.”
I frowned. “Eddie is a boy.”
“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped.
Eddie gave a low growl and, in the dark, I felt Allison shrink away.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “What I mean is, it’s all Denise’s fault.”
“Really?” Though he’d seemed light enough a few minutes ago, Eddie was gaining weight rapidly. I felt around with my feet, found a good-sized rock, and sat down. I’d stand up with a wet rear end, but it would be nice to rest for a little. I rearranged Eddie on my lap. “What did Denise do?”
“It’s all so stupid.” Allison said.
She had a thing for that word. “What is?”
“I wasn’t trying to pass off someone else’s speech as my own,” she explained in the patient voice that grated on me like nothing else—far worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. “I just forgot to make an attribution that day I talked to the Friends of the Library. A simple mistake, that’s all. I can’t believe that Denise was trying to ruin my career over it!”
Eddie shifted, lost a little of his balance, and dug his claws into my thighs. Ow. “She told me all she wanted was a letter to the editor correcting the mistake.”
“It would have ruined me! They would have said I was a liar, a cheat! Every time anyone Googled me, it would come up, again and again. I’d never be able to escape it. All because of one stupid speech.”
“And you have plans,” I said. “For the future.”
“Exactly.” Allison sounded satisfied. Why, I couldn’t imagine, but the tone was unmistakable. “A term on the city council, a couple of terms as a county commissioner, and eight years from now I’ll run for the state legislature. One term there and I’ll be forty-nine, the perfect age for me to run for a national office.”
Assuming she won all those elections, of course, but I decided not to mention that small detail. “That’s quite a plan.”
“Yes,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s time for a female president?”
I blinked in the dark. “Of the country?”
“Why not go straight for the presidency from a state seat? Why taint yourself with the inner machinations of Washington? Why not go straight to the top? Take you. Why don’t you angle to get Stephen’s job? Or work at the State Library? Even better, the Library of Congress? Think of the things you could do. Why are you limiting yourself?”
I could think of a lot of reasons, but the primary ones were that I liked my current job, that I loved where I lived, and that Eddie wouldn’t like living in a city. He was a small-town cat, just like I was a small-town girl. Why would I want to fit myself into a square hole when I was a round peg?
“Ah,” Allison said, even though I hadn’t said a word, “you’re just like everyone else in this town. Stuck in a rut. Happy with the status quo. Living with blinders on.” She made a rude noise. “Not me. I’m going places. I’m not going to let someone like Denise ruin my life. I’ll get out of this—just wait and see.”
Though a good defense attorney could do wonders, I wasn’t sure how being on trial for murder, even if she was found innocent, could help her political career. Then again, who knew? It was a weird, weird world and stranger things had—
A swooshing noise startled me and I felt instant intense pain. I fell back, rolled to the ground, and curled into a fetal position, cradling my forehead. Allison had jumped to her feet and whacked me in the head with her own noggin.
“Mrr!”
“Get out of my way, you . . . you cat! Get away from me!”
More swooshing noises. Allison was trying to kick Eddie, and here I was, lying like a lump. I tried to scramble to my feet, but dizziness sent me back to the ground. Eddie was hissing and growling and yowling.
“Leave him alone!” I got to my hands and knees and crawled to the nearest tree. “Don’t you dare hurt my cat!” I grabbed the rifle I’d propped up and stood. Swaying, I staggered forward toward the scuffling and swung the rifle around by its barrel. “Leave him alone!”
The heavy stock of the gun thumped against something softish. Allison yelled, and I whacked again. She fell to the ground and stayed there.
In the distance I heard slamming doors, male shouts, and Denise’s voice directing them up the hill. Never had I been so happy to hear that penetrating sound.
Feet thudded in our direction. The glare of bright flashlights skittered over the trees and reached our group of two humans and one feline. “Got them!” someone called.
Allison tried to get up again, but I flipped the rifle around and pointed the business end at her. “You killed Roger,” I said. “You tried to kill Denise, and just now did your best to kill my cat.” Which was boiling my blood something fierce.
“What if I did?” she spat. “Shooting Roger was a mistake, but they’ll understand. I have answers. I have ideas, excellent ideas. I have plans!”
The feet and the lights reached us.
Willingly, I surrendered the gun, and as soon as I detached Eddie from Allison’s leg, I let them lead me away.
* * *
Denise was already gone by the time I reached the road, taken away in one of the three patrol cars that had arrived one after the other.
As I watched, Allison was brought down, her hands in front of her, wrists together. She didn’t look at me as a deputy put her into the back of the second patrol car and didn’t speak until the deputy started to close the door.
“I’ll get out of this,” she said to the air over my head. “Just you wait and see.”
The deputy shut the door, went around to the driver’s side, and started the engine. He made a three-point turn and accelerated, the car’s taillights winking out of view as it went around the curve.
“Minnie, are you okay?”
I turned. Ash Wolverson, a flashlight in hand, stood nearby.
“Fine,” I told him. “Really. The rain stopped a few minutes ago.”
“The rain did, yes. But precipitation didn’t. You’re covered in snow,” he said. “Let’s get in my car.”