He grinned. “That’s it?”
I didn’t think it would be quite so simple, but it was. I nodded. “Yep. That’s it.”
Looking a little relieved, Ethan stood up slowly and came around to my side of the table and pulled my chair out for me. Then we took our time and walked hand in hand back up to the house. When we got to the courtyard, Michael and Paco were in one of the chaise lounges my grandfather built, wrapped in each other’s arms and sound asleep. We tiptoed up the stairs and closed the French doors behind us.
I wasn’t sure what was coming next, but I didn’t get a chance to find out. We hadn’t been inside ten seconds when my cell phone rang.
I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Who in the world would be calling me at this hour?”
Ethan glanced at his watch. “Uh, it’s nine o’clock, Gramma.”
With the day I’d had, not to mention the miles of territory covered in Guidry’s short letter—he was never a man of many words—I’d just assumed it was around three in the morning. My cell phone was on the coffee table in front of the couch, and when I read the caller ID, I turned to Ethan and frowned.
“It’s Village Meats.”
“Who?”
“The butcher up the street from the bookstore.”
As I flipped my phone open, Ethan whispered, “How the hell does he have your number?”
I held up one finger and said, “Hello?”
“Dixie, this is Butch from the butcher shop. I’m really sorry to call you, but this old guy just knocked on my window. He doesn’t have a cell phone—that’s how old we’re talkin’ about. He says he got that cat cornered out back in the alley. I said I’d give you a call.”
I said, “Mr. Silverthorn?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Old guy with gray hair. He said you’re good at catching cats.”
“Huh. Okay, thanks, Butch. Tell him I’ll be right there.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. I flipped the phone closed and said, “This will take twenty minutes tops.”
“Who is Butch? And where are you going?”
“He’s the butcher. He said Mr. Silverthorn is there and he’s got Cosmo cornered in the alley.”
“He’s Butch the Butcher?”
I picked up my backpack. “Would I make that up?”
“So what does Mr. Silverthorn need you for?”
“Ethan, he’s an old man and that cat is fast. There’s no way he could catch him.”
He sighed. “But what about dessert?”
I laughed as I kicked off my sandals and pushed my feet into a pair of Keds. “Oh, so that’s what you’re worried about!”
“Babe. It’s Michael’s key lime pie.”
“I know, I know. We’ll have it when I get back.”
He followed me out to the balcony. Michael and Paco were still sound asleep on the deck. He said, “Well, I guess I better bring in that table anyway. If the tide comes in we’ll never see it again.”
“Okay. I’ll be back before you know it. I promise.”
He gave me a quick kiss at the top of the stairs and then watched me bound down the steps. As I hopped across the driveway I shouted, “If you eat all that pie I’ll kill you!”
He grinned. “You better hurry, then.”
28
I sped along Midnight Pass, thinking proudly that everything was falling perfectly into place. I had decided that once we had Cosmo safely ensconced in the cat carrier, I’d suggest we take him to the vet right away, and I’d call Dr. Layton to see if she could come in for an emergency checkup. Even though I’d left plenty of food for him, there was no telling what Cosmo had been eating these last few days, and I didn’t want to take any chances.
Then I’d offer to pick Cosmo up in the morning and deliver him right to Mrs. Silverthorn’s arms. I figured it wouldn’t be hard to convince her to adopt him, and that way I’d have the perfect opportunity to visit the mansion one more time, and I could draw Janet aside and tell her where Baldy was. I’d do my best to persuade her to turn herself in, and I’d even drive her to the police station if she needed moral support.
My timing was excellent. I sailed right through all the lights, and in no time at all I was pulling into a parking place on the deserted street right in front of Beezy’s Bookstore. There was a chill in the breeze off the water, so I grabbed Ethan’s black hoodie from the backseat and then went around to the back of the car and took out one of my plastic cat carriers. I was just about to make my way to the alley when I remembered the cat treats.
I zipped my backpack open and pawed through it, feeling around for my little plastic bag of cubed cheese, but of course with all the junk I carry around in there it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t very well use my tried and true method of dumping everything out and combing through it—that would have taken too long, and Mr. Silverthorn was waiting for me. Plus, no animal likes to be cornered. I knew Cosmo would eventually make a run for it given half a chance, and I could just see Mr. Silverthorn’s face when I explained why it took me so long to get to him.
I had worked my arm all the way down to the bottom of the backpack and was about to give up and dump the whole thing out in the street when finally my fingers slid across the crinkly plastic and my hand closed around the gumball-sized chunks of cheese inside. With a huge sigh of relief and a solemn promise to be less of a slob from now on, I wrestled the bag of treats out and stuffed it down in the pocket of my hoodie.
Even though the moon was casting a blue glow over the entire alley, it was dark. There was just one light on, midway down toward the north end, and I wondered why in the world Butch hadn’t at least kept his back light on so we could see what the heck we were doing. I was thinking I’d have to go back again and fish around in my backpack for my penlight when I heard a crunching sound behind me.
“Dixie? Is that you?”
I turned to find Mr. Silverthorn, about twenty feet past the butcher shop, his face illuminated with the light from his rusty old flashlight. “We’re over here.”
I let out a sigh of relief as I made my way to him. “I’m glad you thought to bring that flashlight. I left mine in the car.”
“Well, we may still need yours yet. The light on this one is getting dimmer and dimmer. I believe the batteries may be older than I am.”
I smiled. “Sorry it took me so long, I had a little trouble finding my cat treats.”
He directed the beam of the flashlight down a narrow loading area cut into one of the buildings, at the end of which was a metal Dumpster with what looked like a small tool shed to the left of it. “I think you’ll need them. He’s taken up a rather strong position there in the corner behind that shed. Nothing I say or do seems to have even the slightest effect on him, and I’m afraid I’m too old to crawl under there and grab him.”
I set the cat carrier down and patted the bag of treats in my pocket. “Hopefully we won’t need to crawl under there at all. Even the most stubborn cat can barely resist a piece of cheese.”
“Thank goodness you’re here, Miss Hemingway. And what a turn of luck that the butcher had your number.”
I nodded as I knelt down in front of the cat carrier. “I gave him my card and asked him to call me if he saw anything.”
“That was smart. He was surprisingly interested in the news that I’d found Cosmo, although he seems to have disappeared now.”
I opened up the front door of the carrier. “So if you can just stay close by with this, I’ll try to coax him out with the cheese, and if that doesn’t work and I can’t convince him to come out on his own, I’ll have to try to grab him. He won’t be one bit pleased with me if it comes to that, so the sooner I can get him in the carrier the better.”
He nodded firmly and handed me the flashlight as he picked up the carrier with both hands and readied himself. I had to smile. He seemed more than happy to follow orders, which shouldn’t have surprised me. If I lived with Mrs. Silverthorn I’d probably get used to following orders, too.