“This is Luna,” my cat told me.
I looked from the white cat to the black cat but said nothing.
“Don’t look so shocked,” the black cat said with a grin. “It’s a pretty common name where we’re from.”
Both cats hopped onto the counter, and this time I sank down onto the closed toilet seat—still too wrung out from my encounters with Virginia and Tess to remain standing.
“Well,” the guest stated. “Luna here says you have some questions for me. Ask them.”
“I…” I started, but then my words fell away. My energy was still zapped. Even if I could speak, I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I would have liked. Still, I cleared my throat and tried again. “Did you…?”
“I haven’t got all night,” the black-furred Luna snapped rudely. “Keep me too long, and I’ll miss the food Tess said was coming any minute now.”
“Sorry,” I said, keeping my eyes on the tile floor. “It’s just… I mean, I’m so…”
“You’re feeling out of sorts after what happened with Virginia,” Luna finished for me.
I sighed and nodded.
“Rest up, dear. I can take over the questions this time.”
“Who’s Virginia?” the other Luna asked.
“Never mind about that,” my cat said as she rose to all four feet and began pacing the length of the counter. “What we really need to know is if you know anything about the destruction of our wedding garden.”
“Wedding garden? I’ve never been to a wedding before, so you’re going to have to take this a little slower. What’s a wedding garden?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. A beautiful arrangement of herbs and flowers, and a special arch Gracie put together as a surprise.”
The suspect Luna shook her head.“I still don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry.”
My Luna sighed.“What’s so hard to understand? It’s an arch made out of flowers—wisteria, lilac, roses, chrysanthemum, that kind of thing.”
The black cat blinked slowly but showed no signs of guilt.“No, I didn’t see that. I would have remembered something like that.”
Something niggled at the edge of my brain. Luna was doing a less-than-admirable job playing bad cop. It just wasn’t in her nature. But that’s not what bothered me.
“How did you know what the arch looked like?” I asked.
Luna paused for a moment before explaining,“I’m so sorry, dear. I spied it through the window this morning while you were working on it. I didn’t mean to spoil the surprise, but I was just so curious.”
I nodded.“That’s okay. I’m glad you had a chance to see the arch before it met its untimely end.”
It wasn’t like Luna to spy on me, especially since she hated it whenever Virginia eavesdropped on us. Luna had always loved surprises. Plus she knew she’d be seeing the garden on her big day tomorrow. Why sneak a peek so close to the big reveal?
“If you didn’t do it, then maybe you know who did,” Luna demanded, whipping back to face her suspect.
The other cat shook her head.“I don’t. Sorry.”
“Luna,” I mumbled, casting my eyes toward the ground. “Let her go. She didn’t do it.”
“But we’ve only just begun questioning her, dear.”
“She didn’t do it,” I repeated, strength returning as my mind finally put all the pieces together in the right order. “But I’m pretty sure I know who did.”
11
“You know who did it?” Luna asked with wide eyes once our latest suspect had dismissed herself from the bathroom.
“Yes, I believe I do.” My body still felt weak, my brain jumbled. But I was certain I had this figured out despite these difficulties.
“It was Tess, wasn’t it?” Luna hissed. “I always knew that one was up to no good. She’s a bit of a bully, if you ask me.”
I chewed on my lip for a moment before responding,“Let me walk you through the timeline of events.”
She plopped her rear down onto the counter and nodded thoughtfully.“I’m listening.”
I was still a bit light-headed, but I stood anyway, taking care to keep one hand pressed into the wall for support.“I finished the arch just before the guests arrived through the cauldron at dusk. So we know it wasn’t destroyed before then.”
Luna nodded.“Yes, agreed.”
I thought back, reconstructing the order of events that evening—both so that I could lay it all out for Luna and so that I could make absolutely certain of my hunch before sharing it with her. “Once everyone was here, we went inside, and I served supper. There was a period of about ten minutes while I cleaned up and the guests had free roam of the house and yard.”
Luna wrapped her tail around her feet.“So you think someone did it then?”
“No, because I would have noticed when I went around the house to throw away the mess.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” She flicked her tail, then wrapped it around her body the opposite way from before. “What happened next?”
“Next we played the toilet paper wedding game. That went on for a long time, because some of the teams kept requesting more time. I even had to run out to buy more toilet paper so everyone could finish.”
“Yes, I remember that. How could I forget? Everyone was making such a fuss. Sasha was very upset that we changed the original rules of the game. Do you think she acted out in retaliation?”
I shook my head and swooned slightly to the side from the dizziness.“No,” I said, straightening myself back to a full standing position. “It wasn’t Sasha, but our culprit did choose that time to act.”
Luna leaned forward as if confiding a secret, then whispered,“What time?”
“The time when I was away on a toilet paper run.”
She tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes for a moment.“Hmmm, I did notice a few of the members of Sasha’s team grew bored since they’d already finished their gown. They could have easily slipped away unnoticed while everyone was distracted.”
There. Now she was getting it.“Yes, that was the perfect time to slip away unnoticed. I agree.”
“So who did it, then?” Luna asked, shifting her weight from paw to paw.
“I’ll get to the who, but first the why.”
“Do go on, dear. You have me quite curious.”
“Someone didn’t want this wedding to happen, and destroying the arch seemed like the surest way to make that happen—or rather not happen,” I revealed.
“You’re confusing me a bit with the way you’re wording this, but I think I follow. Go on.”
“Our vandal didn’t want this wedding to happen, and from what I understand, more than one cat fits that particular bill. Some were jealous like Tess. Others thought you were settling for someone beneath you.”
Luna’s mouth fell open, but she said nothing.
“Sorry. I overheard a conversation when taking out the trash, and for what it’s worth, I absolutely do not agree. Our vandal, though—the cat who did this—she didn’t fall into either of these two camps. She did want to stop the wedding from happening, though, and that was because she regretted inviting so many cats who didn’t support her marriage and weren’t happy for her.”
I stopped a moment to let the weight of my words sink in and then asked,“Is that why you did it, Luna? Is that why you destroyed your own wedding garden?”
“How did you find out?” she squeaked, lowering herself to a defensive hunched position.
“It was the chrysanthemums,” I said, telling her exactly where she’d gone wrong.
But Luna didn’t get it. She tilted her head to the side and studied me carefully. “What do you mean, dear?”
I sighed.“When you were describing the arch to the other Luna, you mentioned chrysanthemums as part of the arrangement, then said you had taken a peek in the morning. But I only added chrysanthemums at the very last minute when Mr. Fluffikins showed up and demanded it.”
Now she got it. Luna sniffled and hung her head in shame.“I’m sorry I lied. And I’m sorry I destroyed the beautiful gift you made for me.”