MISTO WOULD RETURN to ride with Lee, watching over the old train robber as Lee headed at last where he longed to be. And though sadness filled the ghost cat that the old man traveled alone, he knew that could change. This night as Misto departed, willing himself back to Rome, slipping beneath the covers into Sammie’s arms, she woke and hugged him. “Lee’s all right?” she whispered. “You’ll keep him safe, you won’t leave him for long?”
He pressed his nose against her warm cheek. “I will return to him, I will travel with him, just as I will be with you.”
“I saw him dig up money,” she whispered. “Lots of money. Will that put him in danger? Will he be all right? Oh, Misto, will he be safe? And happy?”
“The gods willing,” Misto said, “I will tell you how he fares, and I can bring him messages. Will that please you?”
“Oh, yes,” she whispered, hugging him tighter. “But what happens when you must be born again? Then what will happen to Lee?”
“My life on earth is but an instant, in the eternal warp of time. But always, as spirit, I am with you and with Lee, I can move anywhere, into any time. Always I will be with you, we belong together. Wherever I am, my spirit self is near.”
Yawning, Sammie kissed Misto’s nose. Holding him close, she drifted into dreams where for a few moments she felt herself a part of eternity, was lifted up into an incomprehensible freedom that buoyed and strengthened her. “Wherever I am in endless time,” Misto repeated, purring, “I will be with you, forever I am with you.”
About the Authors
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
In addition to her popular Joe Grey mystery series for adults, for which she has received eleven national Cat Writers’ Association awards for best novel of the year, SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY is a noted children’s book author who has received five Council of Authors and Journalists awards. Two of her children’s books were written in collaboration with her husband, Pat.
PAT J. J. MURPHY spent his career as a federal probation officer in California and Oregon, as well as the chief USPO in Panama and Georgia, where he retired as chief probation officer for the Northern District of Georgia. The Murphys retired to their home state of California, settling with their two lady cats in Carmel, California.
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Also by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
The Cat, the Devil, and Lee Fontana
Cat Bearing Gifts
Cat Telling Tales
Cat Coming Home
Cat Striking Back
Cat Playing Cupid
Cat Deck the Halls
Cat Pay the Devil
Cat Breaking Free
Cat Cross Their Graves
Cat Fear No Evil
Cat Seeing Double
Cat Laughing Last
Cat Spitting Mad
Cat to the Dogs
Cat in the Dark
Cat Raise the Dead
Cat Under Fire
Cat on the Edge
The Catsworld Portal
Credits
COVER DESIGN BY RICHARD L. AQUAN
COVER ILLUSTRATION AND LETTERING BY ANN BOYAJIAN
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE CAT, THE DEVIL, THE LAST ESCAPE. Copyright © 2015 by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Illustration by Ann Boyajian
EPUB Edition February 2015 ISBN 9780062269126
ISBN: 9780062269102
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