“Hey, wait!” I cried, slowly attempting to follow after him. I hoped the Sphynxes would follow, too. I was dying to ask them the next question. It would be the only one we needed to find the murderer—oddly my question would be the same as the answer to their first riddle: Who? As in, who killed the senator? How was Octo-Cat not getting this?
“They know who killed the senator,” I shouted after him. “Now you just have to ask one more question and we’ll have solved this one in record time!”
I couldn’t see him anywhere. Had he really just run off and abandoned me? And here I was starting to think he cared. Well, two could play the punishment game, and I suspected I’d have a much easier time annoying him than he had bugging me.
“Oh, Octo-Cat!” I called in one last ditch attempt to lure him in with kindness. “Where are you?”
Nothing. Even the wind had stopped howling through the trees.
Well, this was just great. He’d run off and left me injured and alone in a scary forest. Unless…
I turned around to search for the Sphynxes behind me, but instead bumped into a large, barrel-shaped chest. A human chest.
I didn’t even bother to look at his face as I twisted around and made an attempt to run. Hurt foot or not, I needed to get back to the relative safety of my house. Needed to get out of these twisted woods now. My very life might just depend on it.
I’d only made it a single step, when he grabbed my arms and pulled me back into his chest.
“Hey, what are you—?” I yelled as I struggled to get away.
He brought one sweaty hand up and clamped it over my mouth before I could finish my cry for help.
Well, this was it. This was how I died—not on the stairs but lost in the woods just a couple dozen feet away from my new palatial home.
This was not turning out to be a very good moving day.
Not at all.
Chapter Nine
This was it. Fight or flight. Preferably both.
I’d been detained by a murderer before. I’d been pitched into the wharf and left for dead. I could survive this. Summoning all my strength, I bit down on the fleshy palm that covered my mouth.
Yes! That did it.
My attacker cried out in pain. He pulled away at once, clutching his injured hand. “Ouch, what’d you do that for?” his voice came out a bit high-pitched for a man—nasally, too.
“Hey, you’re the one who attacked me!” I corrected, studying his red face and matching red flannel pajama pants. He was far less scary now that I got a good look at him, but it didn’t change the fact that he could easily overpower me with his size and strength.
“Who are you?” I demanded. “What are you doing in my woods?” He didn’t need to know I’d only just moved in that afternoon. In fact, I’d probably be safer if he didn’t.
At least he had the decency to look properly chastised. Still clutching his wounded hand, he rushed in with an explanation. “I heard talking, so I came out to see what was going on, and then you ran straight into me.”
I scoffed and crossed my arms over my chest. It must be nice to be a man, to be able to wander into the dark woods with no worries for your safety beyond the normal serial killer with a chainsaw type of thing. Then again, I often found myself charging into dangerous situations with little more than my temperamental tabby to back me up. I guess that meant I couldn’t judge him too harshly. “That still doesn’t tell me who you are.”
“I’m Matt Harlow,” he said, thrusting his uninjured hand toward me in greeting.
“I bit the first. Do you really want to trust me with the second?” I asked, widening my eyes in challenge just like my cat so often did to me. I wouldn’t feel safe until we got out of the forest. I was at way too much of a disadvantage here in the dark unknown with a much larger man before me and an injury slowing me down.
Matt jolted back and offered up a nervous laugh. At least he was scared, too. “Good point,” he said. “So you’re okay, right?”
“I’m fine,” I said, even as the throbbing in my toes intensified.
“That’s all I needed to know.” He lifted his arm in a swift wave, then turned back in the direction he came from. “Have a good night.”
I stood watching him go until he ducked out of eyesight, then continued my journey back toward home. So that was Matt Harlow, the senator’s next of kin. Had we met under different circumstances, I could have prodded him for information, see what he knew. As it was, though, I’d much prefer to wait for the light of day and a reliable cell signal before possibly accusing him of murder.
Okay, so he seemed like a nice enough guy—tall, chubby, not unlike a teddy bear, but that didn’t change the fact that his inclination upon meeting me had been to grab hold of me and cover my mouth. That was way creepier than those hair-lacking, riddle-smacking cats would ever be.
“I’m home,” I called when at last I trudged through the door. I’m not sure why I even bothered announcing myself when clearly my feline roommate wasn’t too bothered about my safety.
Octo-Cat intelligently remained hidden. Otherwise, I definitely would have given him a stern talking to about abandoning me in the woods right when the Sphynxes were about to reveal something crucial to our case. Well, if he wanted to hide from me, he could go to bed without dinner for all I cared.
I stomped through the house just to make sure he knew how angry I was with him. On my third pass through the open floor plan of the lower level, I stopped off at the kitchen to plop a fresh serving of Fancy Feast into Octo-Cat’s bowl. As much as I wanted to teach him a lesson, I also didn’t want to have to deal with an entire night’s worth of his yowling.
But I got my jab in anyway, because I served him his least favorite flavor—the chicken we had only because it was part of the multi-pack I got from our local warehouse club store. Normally I saved up several dozen, then dropped them off as a donation for the local animal shelter, but I figured it would be okay to use one for a very necessary revenge.
Not satisfied, I marched up the stairs to my tower bedroom and wedged the door shut behind me. The cable company would be coming by tomorrow to connect the Internet, so for now I had to depend on my phone’s mobile connection to surf the web before bedtime. Although the pages loaded painfully slow due to our proximity to the woods, I wanted to do some quick research into the senator’s recent activity to see if anything jumped out as a possible clue to her murder.
While I was at it, I looked up Matt Harlow, too. From what I could tell, he was just a normal middle-aged guy from the city who’d recently gotten divorced and worked a job in sales. Nothing jumped out at me as serial killerish, but it was possible he’d only killed once to date, provided that Lou’s untimely demise could be pegged squarely on her son’s shoulders.
Honestly, I was stumped here.
An impatient scratching sounded outside my door.
“Go away!” I called, not wanting to deal with my diva cat just then.
Octo-Cat murmured a few soft words to himself that I couldn’t discern, although it sounded like he was having some sort of argument. “I’m sorry!” he called to me after a slight bit of hesitation.
I was so shocked I dropped my phone onto the bed beside me. I don’t think I’d ever heard that particular combination of words cross his lips. “You’ll be sorry,” sure, but never a genuine, heartfelt apology.
I smiled to myself, ready to milk this moment for all it was worth. Just like Octo-Cat, I had to get my victories somehow. “What was that?” I asked, pretending I hadn’t heard.
Whether he was here to demand a better flavor of Fancy Feast or because he genuinely felt bad, I didn’t know. At least it was something, though.
When his voice came out strained, I could tell this moment was punishment enough. “You know what I said. You’re just—aargh! I’m sorry, all right? I’m sorry!”