She sucked in a deep breath.“But who would do such a thing?”
“It had to be one of the guests, especially after what they were saying about you and Merlin.”
She hung her head, speaking softly.“It’s bad enough that they don’t understand our love, but to try to ruin our wedding? Oh, dear. Perhaps it would just be best to call the whole thing off. I don’t want to get married in front of anyone who thinks that Merlin and I shouldn’t be together.”
I put a finger under Luna’s chin and tipped her head up. “I understand how you feel. Believe me, I do. But you can’t let one bad person ruin the most special day of your whole life. We’ll find out who did this and make sure they’re not here for the ceremony tomorrow.”
She stared at me with large, unblinking eyes.“But how? How can we possibly figure out which of the guests did this when so many had such terrible things to say?”
“Merlin and Mr. Fluffikins are seeing what they can pick up from the crime scene outside,” I told her, choosing to focus on what we could do to make things right.
“Oh, should we go help?”
“No, I don’t want you to see the mess. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, Luna.”
She mewed softly and reached out a paw to touch my thigh.“I understand, dear. Thank you for working so hard on your gift for me. Even if I didn’t get to see it, I can imagine how beautiful it must have been.”
“It really, really was. We have to find out who did this to you, Luna. Can you help me question the guests? Maybe we’ll catch someone in a lie.”
“Of course, I can help. You know, I’ve been much more observant of things like that since I lost my magic. It’s like my other five senses are working harder to accommodate for the loss of my sixth.”
I let out a sad little chuckle.“It’s kind of funny. Isn’t it? We’re the only two without magic, and yet we’re the ones taking lead on this investigation.”
“Better to laugh than to cry,” Luna agreed as she hopped down from the tub and padded toward the door. “You wait here, and I’ll bring in the first cat to question.”
I rose to unlatch the door for her.
It was a good thing Luna was choosing who we should question first, because if we had to talk to all forty-plus cats before finding our culprit, then we’d be up all night with this interrogation.
Definitely not how any of us wanted to spend the night before Luna and Merlin’s nuptials.
Yet here we were.
And I would do anything to make sure tomorrow was every bit as blissful as it ought to be.
7
Luna returned a short while later with the first of our suspects. I instantly recognized the torty from the whole feeding fiasco. She’d been the one who had so rudely climbed my body to claim a can of seafood medley. And I still had the claw marks as a memento from that lovely interaction.
I winced now as that same cat hopped up and settled herself on the bathroom counter.
Luna entered a few moments later, and I closed the door firmly behind her. She claimed the top of the toilet tank, meaning she was at a disadvantage, height-wise.
To balance things out a bit, I decided to remain standing as we asked our questions. The extra height would shift the power dynamic in my favor. Hmm, maybe Luna and I would unwittingly end up playing the good cop bad cop dynamic here. It certainly fit our personalities.
My partner in this informal interrogation took a deep steadying breath before making the introductions.“Gracie, this is Tess. She used to live down the street from me when we were just kittens growing up in Nocturna.”
“Hi, Tess,” I said, keeping my face arranged in a neutral expression rather than smiling politely as I would have done under normal circumstances. “Do you know why we asked you to come speak with us tonight?”
“Is there more food?” Tess’s eyes grew wide with greed; her tongue even darted out to lick her upper lip.
“Yes, yes. You were right to do this privately,” she continued as a small droplet of saliva formed on her chin. “We wouldn’t want the others getting jealous, would we?”
I raised a hand to cut Tess off, and she recoiled.“Funny you should mention jealousy, because we suspect that’s the motive for our vandal.”
The torty glanced toward Luna with pleading eyes.“Vandal? What are you talking about? And am I getting more food or not?”
“Not,” Luna said, her features pinching together in sympathy.
I made aspspsp sound to draw the suspect’s attention back to me. “Someone destroyed the wedding garden, and we think that someone might have been you,” I said, slipping into the role of bad cop right on time.
Tess flicked the tip of her tail.“What wedding garden? This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Don’t play stupid with me. We brought you in before the others for a reason,” I said, glaring down at her and hoping that Luna suspected Tess, too, rather than having simply selected her at random.
“Look,” Tess said, a low growl underlying her words. “I don’t know what you’re accusing me of, which in itself should tell you I’m innocent. But if it helps, yes, I’ll admit I’m a bit jealous, okay? Did I expect Luna to land a mate before me? Absolutely not. That would have been okay in and of itself, but this huge wedding party? Cats never get that. And now if I have a party when it’s my time, everyone will accuse me of copying Luna. So I just learned about this amazing new thing, but I also know it could never be mine. Who wouldn’t be jealous of that?”
“Oh, Tess. I had no idea,” Luna muttered softly.
“Yeah, and why would you? It’s not like you come around the old neighborhood much anymore. And anytime you have, it’s been with Merlin glued to your side. It’s like you forgot about all of us, and then invited us here to gloat. I almost didn’t come, you know?”
“So you admit you’re angry?” I cut in before Luna had a chance to either backtrack or attempt an unwarranted apology.
“Of course, I’m angry. We were close once, but now that Luna has Merlin—” she looked up at me with disgust— “And you, too, I guess. It’s like she doesn’t need us anymore. Doesn’t want us, either.”
Luna jumped onto the counter beside Tess and attempted to rub against her, but the torty jerked back.
“Tess, it isn’t like that. Please understand,” she whispered. “I can’t come to Nocturna on my own because I don’t have my magic anymore. Yes, I love my new life, but I’m also stuck in it.”
A knot of anxiety formed in my stomach. I hated seeing Luna so upset, especially knowing there wasn’t anything I could do about it in the moment. Yes, I could find the cat who’d wrecked our garden, but I couldn’t change how her friends now saw her.
Tess sniffed and shifted her gaze toward the door.“If you wanted to see us, you would have found a way. Now are we done here?” She turned her nose up in the air and walked to the edge of the counter closest to the door.
“Any further questions?” I asked my co-investigator.
“No,” Luna answered with a sigh.
I opened the door so that Tess could get back to the party, which she wasted no time in doing.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” I said, leaning forward to run my fingers through Luna’s soft, white fur.
“I deserve it,” she muttered distractedly.
“No,” I insisted. “No, you don’t. You’re a hero. You gave up your magic to save Merlin’s and my lives. Nobody should make you feel bad about that.”
Luna tilted her head to the side.“Do you think Tess is right? Do you think I’m just showing off? Trying to rub my happiness in everyone else’s face?”
“Of course not. A wedding may be this strange, new concept for cats, but it’s something almost every human does at least once in their lives. You live in the human world now, so it’s natural you would adopt some of our customs.”
She sighed again, heavier this time.“I suppose you’re right. Thank you for always being here to make me feel better, Gracie.”