Anna shook her head. “Did you take it upstairs?”
“Could Quincy have done something with it?”
“It’s awfully heavy for him. It weighs at least five pounds.”
“He weighs a lot more than that.”
“Yes, I know. And I’m not slipping him treats anymore, if that’s what you were going to say. I do think that, if you’d listened to me and trained him to walking on a leash, like Sophie Winston, the Domestic Diva, suggests in her column, ‘The Good Life,’ he wouldn’t be having these weight problems now.”
Not that again. Anna hadn’t brought up “The Good Life” column for a while now, but she’d harped on it when Chase wrote her from Chicago that she had acquired a kitten from the shelter not too far from her apartment. Julie had met Sophie when she’d spent a summer in Alexandria, Virginia, between law-school semesters. Anna had been so thrilled that her granddaughter knew a genuine celebrity that she’d faithfully followed the column ever since.
It was nearly time for Vi to take her lunch, so Chase went to relieve her. She was startled to see Vi and Elinda, facing off in front of the sales counter. Torvald’s nephew, the one listed as Felix on the card at Torvald’s funeral, stood behind his aunt, looking embarrassed.
“You said you’d pay him.” Elinda jerked a thumb over her shoulder at her nephew.
Vi flinched when she saw Chase enter the room. “What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Excuse me.” Vi turned to Chase. “Would you please wait on these customers? I need to take a little break.”
“I just came in to relieve you for lunch, so go ahead,” Chase said. As Vi left the room, Chase asked Elinda, “Is there a problem?”
“Yes, there is.” As she had the last time she visited the store, she stalked out. Felix threw Chase an apologetic look and followed her.
When Vi returned from lunch, Chase tried to ask her what was going on between her and the Iversens, but she avoided answering.
“I have no idea what that woman is talking about. I think she has me confused with someone else.”
Chase concluded that several people seemed to be confused lately. She was certainly one of them. The afternoon continued as slowly as the morning had.
After a couple more hours, Vi wandered into the kitchen. “This is the slowest day we’ve had since I started here.”
“Did you sell some product just now?” Chase asked.
“Of course.”
That made Chase smile.
“Can I leave early?”
She sounded a bit whiny. Chase would rather she have stayed, but couldn’t think why she should with business so slow. “Do you want to leave now? I can cover for the rest of the afternoon.”
“Sure. I have my own car back, so I don’t have to call for a ride.”
Chase was glad she wouldn’t have a chance of confronting Shaun. Maybe Vi would see less of him since she wasn’t dependent on him for rides anymore. She followed Vi to the parking lot with a bag of trash. Vi climbed into her gray Hyundai, giving the rust spots a sad look, and drove off with a rattle of her tailpipe.
When Chase returned to the kitchen, Anna had abandoned her search and picked up her purse and car keys.
“I’m too low on shortening to bake anything anyway. I’ll run out and get some.”
While Anna was gone, Chase held the fort in the front. Perversely, as soon as she was alone in the shop, an influx of customers flooded the showroom and everyone seemed to want to buy dozens and dozens of treats. She scurried to keep up with the orders, wishing Vi hadn’t left. It was inconvenient and annoying.
THIRTY-FOUR
By the time Anna returned from shopping, the crowd had thinned and there were only three customers browsing the shelves and display case. Chase was worn out from the influx that had arrived when she was alone, though. She stuck her head through the double doors and beckoned Anna to the front.
“Could you take over for just a bit?” Chase whispered. “I have to sit down a minute.” Her wrenched back, which had been feeling much better, was giving her twinges of pain once again.
“Was I gone that long?”
Now that Anna mentioned it, she had been gone longer than normal for a trip to the grocery store. It had been a couple of hours.
Anna looked sheepish. “I stopped in to see Bill. Sorry.”
“Tell me all about it later.” Chase fled to the office, where she could put her feet up on the desk. Her headache from yesterday was returning, and she hadn’t had that much wine at dinner with Mike. Maybe she’d give it up entirely for a while. She rubbed her temples, which made it worse.
After telling Anna she would be upstairs, she went to her apartment for some aspirin. Quincy, whom she’d left upstairs today, greeted her with a loud meow. She stooped to stroke his soft back. By the time she reached the medicine cabinet, the headache was blinding. Her back felt worse, too. She downed a few pills, then started downstairs.
The treat maker was in the apartment at an odd time of day. The cat went on high alert with the departure from normal daily routine. When no treats materialized, he started to head for his bed, then stopped and listened. She was going out again. The middle of the day stretched so long between the two feedings. The human wasn’t being as careful as usual lately. The butterscotch tabby was able to slip out of the apartment and down the steps. Thwarted by a closed back door, he scurried through the kitchen and was able to push through the swinging doors, then dart out the front with a trio of departing customers.
“Not again!” Chase ran down the stairs, tripping at the bottom in her haste. She caught herself against the wall, feeling the awkward position in her aching back, and went after Quincy.
She spied the tip of his tail. He had run into the salesroom! That was surely some sort of health code violation. She hurried to get him out of there as soon as she could. But when she reached the front of the shop, she didn’t see him.
“Did you see Quincy come in here?” she asked Anna, who was bent over in the far corner, restocking a low shelf.
“Is he loose again?” She straightened, an alarmed look in her bright blue eyes.
“I saw him push through the swinging door. He has to be in here.”
“Lady, are you looking for a striped cat?” An elderly man wearing an argyle vest and thick glasses pointed to the front door. “He left out that way.”
“How could he?” Chase said. She had been surprised he got through the swinging double doors, but surely he couldn’t work a doorknob. She went to the front window, followed by the man.
“Went out with those people.” He gestured through the glass to a group of three women strolling toward the corner.
“Just what I need.”
“Go,” Anna said. “I’ll stay here. You go get him.”
Chase did, but couldn’t locate Quincy outside. He wasn’t visible on the sidewalk, on either side of the street, or even in the street. She went around to the back and checked near the trash bin, but he wasn’t there either, unless he was crouched under it where she couldn’t see him. Sighing and groaning, she knelt on the pavement and managed to peer underneath the bin. No cat.
She went all the way to Hilda Bjorn’s house, but he had vanished.
As she crossed the street to check around Gabe’s empty condo, Anna came running up the street.
“I warmed some of your special treats for him.” She waved a plastic bag as she approached. “Maybe we can lure him out if he’s hiding.”
“Why would he hide from me?”
“Maybe he’s upset by his latest vet visit and the ingrown dewclaw. Or something might have scared him out here after he got outside.”
“That could be, I guess. He’s not used to being out.”