“Has it always been like this?” she asked. “I mean, has your sister always been able to talk to her cats, or…”
“Or did my mother drop her on her head as a baby and suddenly she became Chatty Cat Cathy? No, she’s always been like this,” said Alec with a smile. “Unfortunately only the women in our family have the gift.”
“Oh. So you don’t…”
“No, I don’t talk to cats, or dogs, or any other pets.”
She flashed him a quick smile. “I’m sorry, Alec. This is all pretty new for me, so….”
He scratched his scalp. “Yeah, I can imagine. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you at first. I was afraid you’d freak out and—”
“Run for the hills?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, I’m still here, aren’t I? Though I have to admit it’s going to take some getting used to.” She studied the fat orange cat named Max for a moment. He was busy chatting with his human, and Charlene shook her head. “How does it work, exactly? I mean, to me it just sounds like he’s meowing, but to Odelia it all makes sense somehow?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how it works,” said Alec with a shrug. “I just know it does.”
“No, but I mean, something inside her brain must be able to compute the sounds her cats make, right? Have you ever had it looked at? By a doctor or a brain specialist or something?” Or a linguist, she wanted to add, then realized that no specialist would be able to figure this out even if they’d believe it in the first place. She hardly believed it herself, still harboring the faint suspicion the entire Poole family was simply performing some kind of elaborate joke at her expense. But since that was even more ridiculous than the simple truth, she placed a hand on Alec’s arm and said, “It’s just a little weird, is all.”
“I know it is, honey,” said her big teddy bear of a police chief. “But trust me, you’ll get used to it.”
“Yeah, I guess I will.”
She finally dragged her eyes away from the strange spectacle, and said, “So do you have any idea who did this?”
“Not yet,” said Alec, a resolute look stealing over his face, the policeman replacing the boyfriend for a moment. “I’ve got officers canvassing the neighborhood as we speak, so it won’t be long before we start getting some useful information. Whoever this guy is, he must have been seen by someone.”
“I hope so. This is going to make a lot of people very nervous. A break-in in broad daylight, and attempted arson on top of that. Maybe we should give a joint statement—before all kinds of wild stories start going around and people really start to panic.”
“Good idea,” he said. “Though I’d prefer to wait until we know some more.”
“Deal,” she said, patting him on the beefy arm. “I have to get back. I’ve got a land development application on my desk right now that needs looking at.”
“A land development application? For…”
She grimaced. “A new shopping mall.”
Alec’s face fell. “A shopping mall—but Charlene!”
“I know what you’re going to say, and I hear you, but we still have to do this by the book, and look at it from every angle. A new mall doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, you know.” When he raised an eyebrow, she added, “Just trust me, all right?”
“All right,” he said, but it was obvious he wasn’t exactly bowled over by the idea of adding a shopping mall to the town landscape.
She waved to the rest of Alec’s family, and then took her leave. She hadn’t told her boyfriend, but the people pitching the plan for the new mall were actually coming in for a personal chat, and she couldn’t afford to be late for the meeting.
Alec watched his girlfriend carefully navigate the attic ladder, disappearing from view, and he must have been frowning, for when his sister wandered over, the first question she asked was, “And? Do you still have a girlfriend or did she dump you?”
He smiled. “She’s sticking around… for now. Though the whole cat-talking thing really freaked her out.”
“I’m sorry she had to find out like this,” said Marge.
“It’s fine. She had to find out sooner or later, and maybe better sooner than later.”
“I hope you told her to keep this between ourselves?”
“Of course. Charlene isn’t going to talk—you don’t have to worry about that.”
Marge glanced up at her big brother. “Something else bothering you? I mean, apart from the burglary, the attempted catslaughter and the fact that your girlfriend just discovered that your sister, niece and mother can talk to cats?”
“There’s talk of a new shopping mall,” he said. “She’s looking at the application.”
“But we already have a mall.”
The next town over, Hampton Keys, had a great mall, which was only a twenty-minute drive away. It had been servicing the neighboring towns of Hampton Cove and Happy Bays for years, with no one asking for a second shopping center to be built.
“Yeah, I know.”
“A mall is going to destroy Main Street.”
“I know.”
“It’s going to attract a massive amount of traffic, all rolling through town.”
“I know, I know.”
“And tourists.”
“Marge—”
“Tourists that are going to run roughshod over our peaceful little town.”
“Look, I know all that, all right? But it’s not my decision to make. Charlene is mayor, and it’s her responsibility to weigh the pros and cons and make a measured decision.”
“You can always give her a nudge in this or that direction, though, right?” asked Marge, giving her brother a nudge with her elbow.
“Oh, I’ll nudge her plenty. Question is, is she going to listen?”
And that’s what worried him: if she chose to go full steam ahead with this new mall development, and he was dead set against it, it might create a rift between them that could be hard to bridge. Plus, he didn’t want to see their lovely little town fall into the hands of the kinds of developers who only had quick—and big—profits on their minds.
“I’m sure it’ll all work out for the best,” said Marge now, always the picture of optimism. “So what are we going to do about the cats? They need protecting, Alec. In case this person comes back.”
“I’m not sure,” he said, rubbing his face thoughtfully. “It’s not as if I can ask a couple of uniforms to sit outside and guard the house twenty-four-seven.”
“Why not?”
“Honey, if I tell my people to guard four cats they’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Mh,” said Marge. “Yeah, I can see how that would cause you all kinds of trouble.” Then her face lit up. “I’ve got it. Why don’t you ask Chase?”
“Chase?” he said with a twinge of alarm.
“Sure! He knows how much Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus mean to this family, right? And he’s a cop. And he lives right next door. It’s the perfect solution!”
“I don’t know if…”
“Chase!” Marge bellowed. “Come here a second, will you?”
Chase dutifully came striding over. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Tell him, Alec,” said Marge, hooking her arm through her brother’s.
“Tell me what?” asked Chase.
Alec cleared his throat. “The thing is, Chase, that this madman—well, it’s not entirely inconceivable that he could come back.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And we don’t want that, do we?”
“Oh, no, of course not.”
“So we need someone to be stationed at the house… to watch… the cats.”
“Great idea.”
“So we were thinking about you, Chase,” said Marge, patting the cop on the broad chest. “You wouldn’t mind, would you?”
“Me?” asked Chase, darting an anxious look at his superior officer.
But Alec held up his hands. “Look, someone’s gotta do it, buddy. And it might as well be you.”