The chirrup of Chase’s phone sent Quincy shooting to the floor. He leaped into Mike’s lap.
“See how he moves?” she said, digging her cell out of her pocket. “So graceful? He’s not all that fat.”
She ignored his frown and answered her phone. She had let the other dozen or so calls in the last couple of hours go unanswered.
“Where on earth are you?” Anna asked. “We’ve been worried sick.” Anna sounded on the verge of tears.
“I’m okay and Quincy’s okay.” She heard Anna let out a long breath. “It’s a long story. I’ll be home in a few minutes. Is that where you are?”
“Yes, we’re at your place. We’ve been going door-to-door trying to find you two. There’s something happening at one of the condos up the street, too.”
“Yah, that’s where I’ve been. I’ll tell you all about it.”
Mike asked if she’d like a ride after she ended the call, but she thought the walk would be good to clear her head.
It was nice to be alone for a few minutes before answering still more questions. Quincy snuggled his head into her neck with his paws over her shoulder for the short trip. His long whiskers brushed her neck. Night had fallen. The tree-lined residential street was dark and quiet. The vehicles with flashing lights had departed. A crime scene van waited outside Gabe’s place, but its engine was turned off. She took her time covering the two blocks to her place. The business district of Dinkytown at nearly ten o’clock was more brightly lit than the blocks to the north, bustling with returning college students and, this week, some families.
She headed up the stairs in the rear of the building and found Anna and Julie inside her apartment. Anna grabbed Quincy and Julie hugged Chase, then they traded. When everyone had been hugged, Chase scrubbed her hands with water as hot as she could stand it. She kept imagining she could detect traces of blood, but Anna pronounced them clean. Chase accepted a cup of cranberry herb tea and settled into her chair with her feet on the hassock.
“Where are Laci and Violet?” she asked.
“We sent them home after an hour of searching,” Anna said. “They both looked dead tired. Young women have no stamina these days.”
Chase knew she herself couldn’t keep up with Anna and wasn’t surprised that her two employees had the same failing.
“I’m not sure yet,” Anna said, “but we might have an accounting problem.”
Accounting problem? Chase was the one who did the books. “What sort of accounting problem?”
“I’ll have to go over what I think I saw again. I don’t want to worry you for nothing. Just thought I’d mention it. Now tell us what’s going on.”
When Chase had told them everything she knew—that Gabe was dead, that Torvald Iversen was a jerk, and that Dr. Ramos was now Mike and, on second thought, fairly good looking—she remembered she hadn’t finished the cleanup in the shop. Quincy crawled into his cat bed and gave his collar a good scratching while she talked.
“I’ll go, you sit,” said Anna.
Julie sat on the floor beside the cat’s bed and patted her lap. Quincy left off scratching and accepted the invitation.
“I have to go downstairs to get a scoop of diet food for Quincy anyway. It won’t take but a few minutes.”
Anna protested, but let Chase leave.
Chase flicked the light switch at the top of the stairway and made her way down to her shop. She didn’t have to exit to the alley, since there was a door into the shop at the bottom of her steps. This door was rarely locked, but it was tonight. Vi had been guarding the alley entrance to the shop. Maybe she had locked everything when she’d left.
After Chase ran back up the stairs to get the key she hadn’t brought with her, she noticed that Quincy was crouched on the kitchen counter and Anna was holding something behind her.
She’s slipping him treats again, Chase thought. She’d deal with that later.
She ran down the steps again and opened the door into the dark kitchen.
Two dots of light glowed red in the light that came into the rear window from the parking lot streetlamp. The dots were near the floor. Chase stopped, puzzled. She saw another pair of glowing embers, then another.
She switched on the light and three huge white rats scurried out of the kitchen, pushing through the doors into the showroom.
Swallowing a scream, she stomped the floor, trying to flatten an imaginary Gabe Naughtly to a pancake. She let out some choice words aimed at the man, then stood still, remembering he was dead. Murdered.
Julie and Anna both clattered down the stairs in response to her stomps.
“Now what?” Anna and Julie could see the rage on her face, she was sure.
“Rats.” She pointed at the swinging doors.
FOUR
Julie and Anna stood frozen in the doorway from the apartment stairs into the shop.
“There are rats in there,” Chase said, staring into the kitchen. Her body vibrated with anger. “Three of them, at least.”
“How do you know, Charity? Did you hear them?”
She assured both women she’d seen them. They believed her when one poked a head into the kitchen, whiskers twitching. Chase saw some of Quincy’s cat food scattered on the floor. The bag sat on its customary shelf. Someone must have strewn the food on the floor to keep the rats where she would be sure to come upon them immediately.
“Look,” said Julie, pointing to the corner. “Whoever put the rats here left their cage.”
“I guess we could lure them into it with Quincy’s food. That’s what they’ve been eating. I’m glad somebody likes it.”
“I have a better way.” Anna opened the cleaning closet. She pulled out the large bucket they used for mopping the floors. She swept up the food on the floor and dumped it into the bucket, adding another scoop for good measure. Then she removed a rack from the oven and propped it against the bucket with a ringing sound.
“Now we go away for a bit,” Anna said.
When they returned, half an hour later, the tall bucket held three large white rats and one black and white one. The food was gone and the rats seemed lazy and content, not at all distressed by the steep, unclimbable sides that confined them.
“What’s that little clatter noise?” asked Chase.
“It’s called bruxing,” Anna said. “That black-and-white one is chattering his teeth together.”
“Is he mad?”
“He’s probably content. It’s usually a happy sound. They’re obviously from a pet store. I’ll see how tame they are.” Anna bravely stuck a hand into the bucket. One rat sniffed her fingers. She picked it up and put it into the cage.
“Aw, he’s so nice and soft,” Anna murmured.
Chase was impressed. “This is a skill I didn’t know you had, Anna. Where did you learn to handle rats?”
“One summer in college, I worked in the science lab. These are tamer than those were, by a long shot.”
When all four were contained, Anna said she’d take them to the pet store on the next block over tomorrow morning.
Chase had dreams all night long of swirling, flashing lights, dead bodies rolling over, rats climbing her kitchen counters, and her own bloody hands. Morning took forever to arrive.
As she showered, she began to wonder when Gabe could have put the rats inside. How long had he been dead when she found him? His shoulder wasn’t warm when she touched it. His body was starting to stiffen. Didn’t that mean he’d been dead more than a few minutes?
So how could Gabe have done it? The rats were put there while everyone was searching for Qunicy. Gabe had to have been dead at that time. Who else hated Chase—or Anna—or the shop—enough to commit such horrible sabotage?
• • •
Early Wednesday, Chase got her bike out and took a turn around Dinkytown. Since they were so busy at work this week, she was missing Chase Time, some moments to unwind by herself and get some sorely needed exercise. Standing in a kitchen or hunched over a computer were the opposite of exercise.