She laughed and poked me. "That man is a dream and don't you ever doubt it. We took Scan over to his grandmother, Savich's mom, who couldn't wait for us to leave so she could spoil him rotten.
"Hey, it's after eight o'clock in the morning, Mac. Dil-lon is walking the cliffs, checking for any recent signs of people close to the cottage. He wanted me to wait, to give you more sleeping time, but hey, I couldn't. I was worried about you. You're okay, Mac, really? And you too, Laura?"
I was wondering if Savich knew werewolf tracks when he saw them. "No one came back last night.
Maybe the bears are hibernating."
"Both Dillon and I are good at finding bears. We're all together now, Mac, not just you two alone anymore." Sherlock began to examine me, not saying another word, just lightly touching my arms, my face. She pulled up my sweatshirt and began looking me over. "Your ribs okay now?" I felt her fingertips lightly brushing over my still-bruised middle.
"Yeah, I still get tired quicker than I used to, but it's better every day. Hey, Sherlock, don't pull down my pants."
"Oh, all right." She straightened again, then gave me several long looks. "How do you guys feel now after all that phenobarbital?"
Laura said, "I'm still just a bit on the groggy side, but it's nearly gone."
"Since I'm a manly man, I had almost no aftereffects."
I got a punch in the arm.
"I'm off to make some coffee," Laura said. "Everyone want some?"
I heard her moving around in the small kitchen that was separated from the living/dining room by a bar with three stools bellied up to it.
"Squawk."
"That's Nolan, and his first word of the new day." Laura had pulled off his cage cover.
Laura called out, "You can open his cage if you want to. All the windows are closed, he'll be just fine.
Also, if you could sprinkle some sunflower seeds for him. I'm making him some toast right now. Yes, Grubster, I hear you, the world hears you. I'm going to open some cat food for you. Don't fret."
I watched Sherlock open Nolan's door, saw him stare at her a moment, then, a step at a time, venture outside his cage. He cocked his head at Sherlock. "Squawk."
He jumped to the back of one of the love seats. He took a sunflower seed from Sherlock's outstretched fingers, carefully dropped it on the sofa back, then hopped up on Sherlock's shoulder and began chewing on her hair. Sherlock began to laugh.
"Squawk."
"Eat your breakfast, Nolan," Sherlock said, and set him on the sofa back.
Grubster was meowing his head off. Then, suddenly, there was silence from him. He'd doubtless buried his face in a bowl of cat food.
"Come sit down, Sherlock," I said. "I don't remember how you like your coffee."
"Just a bit of fake sugar and a dollop of milk," Sherlock said to Laura. "Oh, if you don't have any of that stuff, black is just fine."
"No, we're in luck," Laura said. "That's the way I drink my coffee too. Mac?"
"Don't pour me any yet, Laura," I called from the cottage door. "I want to see what Savich is up to."
"Put on some shoes before you head out," Sherlock said, absorbed with putting another sunflower seed in Nolan's mouth.
When I walked outside, I was surprised to see a beautiful clear morning, the sky as blue as Jilly's eyes, with just a light breeze. I turned south to see Savich striding toward me. He saw me and waved.
Like his wife, when he reached me he studied me closely. "You okay?" Thank God he didn't feel it necessary to feel me up.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about. Did you see anything? Sherlock's already inside drinking coffee. Come on in. I'm surely pleased to see both of you."
"I didn't see any signs of anyone out here. The ground's still soft from all the rain. There would have been footprints if anyone had come close. But you've already checked out here, haven't you?"
"Not this morning."
"Now you don't have to. Sounds like you guys are in deep shit. I'm glad you called us. But it's going to be sticky, Mac. We're both really sorry about Jilly and any involvement she may have in all this. I want you to know, too, that we talked it over on the way here, and for Jilly's sake, we're with you for a day or two. I agree with you we should be safe enough for that long. Someone would have to be crazy to come after four federal agents when everyone knows why we're here.
"I said as little as possible to Jimmy Maitland. For the moment, at least, since you're on leave and have already talked to your boss, Carl Bardolino, he's going to let us go with this. As I said, Sherlock and I discussed this situation thoroughly on the flight to Portland. We've got more questions. Then we can discuss strategy." He paused a moment and gripped my shoulder. "I'm very sorry about Jilly, Mac. No word about where she is?"
"No. I'm sorry about your having to leave Scan."
"He'll do just fine. Sherlock says he's too young to be ruined just yet, so it doesn't matter how often my mom tickles his stomach and tells him he's the prince of the world. I sure hope she's right."
It sounded so normal, so very unlike the past four days of my life. I sighed. "Come meet Laura Scott."
Chapter Sixteen
After we'd each drunk a cup of coffee strong enough to cut through sludge, I said, "There's a whole lot we need to do today. Since we don't know how long we can count on staying here, we've got to make good use of every minute."
I looked over at Savich, who was staring into his nearly empty coffee cup. He looked every inch a mean son of a bitch, big and muscled, wearing jeans and a dark blue turtleneck sweater, short boots. You could count on him to cover your back. "It's fifteen minutes after eight o'clock in the morning, Mac. I ain't going nowhere until I get food in this empty belly."
Sherlock said, "Before we do anything, you guys need to go shower. A shave for you, Mac. Your hair's standing on end. Actually, both of you could use some more sleep. But it's odd. You both look real relaxed." She raised her eyebrow, blinked twice, and walked quickly into the kitchen.
"She knows," Laura said to me.
"I hope she approves of you."
Laura and I didn't share the shower, but it was a temptation. We brushed our teeth together. When we returned, I inhaled the smell of bacon and eggs and nearly cried. I saw that Nolan was riding around on Savich's shoulder. Grubster was sitting on Sherlock's lap.
"Quite a menagerie you've got," Savich said, and lightly stroked his fingertip down Nolan's breast.
"Squawk."
The table was set. We all sat down like grown-ups. Savich brought out the plates of food he'd kept warm in the oven. "Eat up." Savich ate for five minutes, then said, "Mac, you mentioned this old fellow, Charlie Duck, who was murdered. What about him? How does he fit into all of this?"
"All we have is his dying words to Doc Lambert: 'a big wallop, too much, then they got me.' He knew something about Laura's drug case, no question at all in my mind about that. But what?"
Laura said, "There hasn't been a whole lot of time to think since I met Mac, but I agree with him. Charlie found out something he shouldn't have and that's why they killed him."
I said, "After breakfast I want to call the M.E. in Portland and see what he has to say. I want to speak to Maggie Sheffield, the sheriff, and see if she's learned anything. I'd assume that she would have called here if she'd gotten any leads on Jilly."
"Charlie Duck's funeral is this afternoon," Laura said as she fed a sunflower seed to Nolan, who was seated on a chair arm. "We can go see what's in the pot and maybe stir it up."
"We're going to start stirring the pot much sooner than that," I said. "Paul's first on the list."
Savich reached down and fed a bit of bacon to Grubster. He said to Sherlock, "Do you think they'll keep us as interested as Scan does?"
"He's already a hell-raiser," Sherlock said. "Savich is trying to find some weights light enough for him so he can begin his training." She looked at Grubster, who was now washing himself on one of the love seats. "That's some cat," she said. "Big varmint but a sweetie."