I was getting nowhere by assuming my cat had something akin to a human conscience. At the end of the day, he was a coldly logical being who would always put himself first, no matter the circumstance. As a result of our years together, I’d learned that my cat had two tragic flaws—pride and curiosity. Right now he was tagging along because of the latter, but the moment he lost interest, I’d be left on my own again. Unless… I needed to find a way to channel his pride to make sure he saw this through to the end.
“I don’t know if this one is solvable,” I admitted with a practiced look of consternation. “But I do know we have a much better chance of solving it if we work together. You know I’m nothing without you, Octavius.”
He nodded along, completely unaware of how already I was playing him like a fiddle.“This is true. You need me, Angela. You’ve always needed me.”
“I do,” I agreed emphatically. “And what’s more, this crime happened right next door. What if the killer comes back and tries to break into our house next… tries to break into YOUR house?”
Octo-Cat reared back and thrashed his front paws in the air like a tiny, unskilled ninja.“Then he’ll have another thing coming when he meets the business end of these claws. Nobody comes into my house without my say so.”
Now I was the one nodding like a broken bobble head as I brought my final argument home.“I don’t know for sure a murder happened. That’s why I need you to come check it out and make sense of things for me. We need to protect our home, and I’m not confident I can do that without your help, Octavius.”
“Well, of course you need my help, dear Angela. Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?”
I shrugged nonchalantly while inwardly beaming with confidence in a job well done. I’d played to my cat’s hubris so many times, it was no longer difficult for me to put my pride aside to bolster his own. He was the one who had seen the flashlights last night, and he was the one who could get in and out easily without being spotted or leaving any fingerprints behind. And as much as I liked to puzzle out the clues, Octo-Cat was the one with a truly obsessive mind. Once he gave headspace to a case, he didn’t stop until he found the answers he was looking for.
Maybe the new neighbor hadn’t been murdered, but I couldn’t risk the chance that she had been. Not when this had all gone down so close to home. The police had been quick to rule Angela Miller’s death an accident, but I still needed more proof.
11
Octo-Cat and I finished our trek through the woods and approached the neighbor’s large front porch. Potted plants flanked the steps on either side, and vibrant flowers dripped down from hanging baskets, creating a welcoming entrance so at odds with how the woman herself had treated visitors. It felt eerie to be in her space when she had so clearly not wanted us here.
“Okay, where do we begin?” I asked my feline companion as I took stock of the porch and yard. The police had already cleared out, which meant we were alone.
“You could go to the door. See if it’s unlocked,” Octo-Cat suggested in a snooty tone that seemed to imply I should have been able to think of that on my own.
I flexed my fingers demonstratively.“It would leave prints.”
Octo-Cat scoffed.“Since when do you care about that? You leave DNA evidence behind all the time.”
“Yes, but normally I don’t have a motive that could peg me for the murder.” I hadn’t really considered this until now, but suddenly it became a very real concern. My troubles with the neighbor were well documented. What was I doing trying to prove foul play when the police were happy to leave it alone?
“The police said it wasn’t murder,” Octo-Cat reminded me even though I was already thinking the exact same thing. It was probably time to admit that I had quite a bit in common with my cat. I was too curious to leave this alone, even though I probably should have. I was curious, but I could still be careful.
“They say that now, but what if they change their tune?” I shrugged. “I’d rather not incriminate myself, if I can help it.”
Octo-Cat jumped up on the porch railing and paced back and forth.“Fine. Then what do you want to do?”
I thought for a moment.“Let’s head around back. I’ll show you the shed where I saw the body.”
That was all I needed to say for him to leap down and take off running toward the back of the house far ahead of me, forcing me to do a light jog to catch up.
“It smells awful,” he said as soon as we made it to our target location.
“Well, there was a lot of blood.” I sniffed at the air but couldn’t pick up anything unusual beyond the acerbic taint of chemical cleaners hanging in the air.
“No, that’s not the smell. Blood, I don’t mind. I am a carnivore, you know. For me, blood is a bit like a delicious gravy.”
I cringed at the thought and briefly reconsidered becoming a vegetarian, as I so often had since gaining my strange gift.“Right, then what do you smell?”
Octo-Cat shuddered and shook out his fur.“No clue what it is. Only know I don’t like it.” Well, this was getting us nowhere fast.
“It’s not exactly helpful when you—”
“Angela, silence.” Octo-Cat lifted his head, ears alert and body rigid.
“What?” I paused and glanced around in a panic but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
But Octo-Cat remained tense and frozen.“Shhhh, there’s something out there,” he insisted.
I turned in the direction he was looking, back toward the forest. I couldn’t see or hear anything. “What is it? Is it something dangerous?” I whispered.
“Will you just keep quiet already?” my cat bellowed, forgetting his own call for silence.
At last, a strange, garbled noise rose from the edge of the forest, and a flash of yellow caught my eye.“I… I… I… I am being as qu-qu-quiet as I can!” an unfamiliar voice declared before its speaker had moved fully into view.
“It’s you!” I exclaimed, unable to hide my sudden burst of excitement. “You were here yesterday. You saw what happened to Ms. Miller.” I didn’t know for sure that he had, but something had spooked this buck, and I intended to find out what. I held out both hands to show I meant no harm and took one slow step forward.
“No!” he brayed and shook his head, whipping the yellow tape around in a blur. “Leave me alone!”
And just like that he ran off into the forest, the tangled crime scene ribbon twisting in the air behind him.
“Nice one, Sherlock,” Octo-Cat quipped, making me feel even worse about scaring off our witness. At least he was calling me Sherlock. Usually he referred to me as Watson, the lovable sidekick rather than the hero.
“Do you think he saw what happened?” I asked, chewing on my lip as I considered the same question.
“I don’t know about that, but I do think he’s the bad thing I smelled. Yuck.” He kicked back his hind legs in the same way he did after using the litter box.
“We need to get him to talk to us,” I said.
Octo-Cat shook his head, immediately dismissing my suggestion.“He’s prey, Angela. Chasing after him is only going to make him run farther away from you.”
“Okay, then what do you suggest?” Seriously, why did I even bother to put forth my own ideas when Octo-Cat was just going to boss me around anyway?
He sighed.“Well, I don’t see anything useful in this shed. My guess is the cops cleared it out as part of cleanup. Meanwhile you’re not willing to open the door to let us into the house, so I honestly don’t know where that leaves us.”
“Wait, I have an idea. Follow me.” I only turned to make sure he was following me as I turned the corner of the house. Thankfully, he’d fallen right in line, so I led him to the side of the house where I’d spotted the prints leading up to the basement egress window. The prints were no longer visible, but I wondered.
“Hop down there,” I ordered, pointing to the window well that sported a patch of gravel before the window. “See if the window is fully latched.”