She didn’t even have to offer me a bribe to get me to sing like a canary. Unfortunately for her, I knew almost nothing.
“I don’t know much,” I said to establish how little I’d be able to help right from the get-go. “Several cats were taken, and one young witch named Melony Haberdash.”
Val halted suddenly and turned back to face me.“Did you say Haberdash?”
I nodded emphatically.“Yeah. Silly name, right?”
Val bit her lip.“It’s probably just a coincidence, but… Yeah, I’ll definitely need to think on that for a bit.” Her words trailed away, she shook her head, and then she kept walking.
A mostly empty parking lot came into view several paces away, but I still couldn’t see either Fluffikins or Blackjack. I had no idea what business it serviced as it seemed too far a jaunt from the pet park and I could see no other businesses nearby.
“Val, wait. What is it?” I called as I jogged to catch up with her. For all I knew, she was leading me to my doom. I needed to stop trusting people so easily. After all, that’s what had gotten me into this whole magical mess in the first place.
Val’s steps came much faster now, and I longed for my running shoes rather than the useless black clogs Connie had forced upon me.
Was this chick really running away from me?
So much for the kindness of strangers.
20
Blackjack trotted over to join us at the spot where the overgrowth gave way to payment.“He’s gone!” he somehow managed to mewl with a Boston accent.
Val appeared white as a freshly painted wall. I should know—I lived with several of them in my undecorated cottage. “What do you mean he’s gone? Who’s gone?” she demanded of her partner.
Blackjack held his tail high. Only the very end twitched.“The what’s-his-name schoolboy. Fluffy? He just up and vanished.”
“Weren’t you with him?” I demanded, placing a hand on each hip and trying to appear scary, sassy, something. If they decided to turn on me, I’d be toast. Fluffikins and I had been much better off before connecting with this troublesome duo.
“Yeah. The whole time. I blinked, and he was gone, quicker than a nun in the Combat Zone.” Blackjack raised a paw and stared at his toe beans as if they’d gravely disappointed him. “Thought he might’ve done that teleport trick again, but—poof—just gone.”
Okay, my one tie to home had left, but that didn’t mean he’d abandoned me. Maybe he’d just popped home for a quick chat with Parker or one of the other board members.
Yes, that was probably it. I mean, I thought Melony had left of her own volition, but Fluffikins had been certain she’d been taken.
Wait…
“Did you see a swirl of pink magic?” I asked the Boston cat, practically begging him to say yes. Seriously, even if it wasn’t true, I could really use some good news just then.
“Nothing,” he informed me, eyes wide as if he worried blinking again would steal me away, too.
Suddenly I felt as if I were underwater—not in that soothing, peaceful way that happened when immersed in the pink world magic, but in that horrible, terrifying way of being trapped in an undertow with no hope of escaping to break the surface.
“Guys,” I managed despite the throes of panic taken hold. “He didn’t leave. He was taken. Whoever took the agents took Mr. Fluffikins, too.” Giving the voice to the words made me realize just how true they were. He wouldn’t intentionally leave me stranded without money, identification, or any way of reaching the PTA back home. He was a pain in the butt, but he wasn’t evil. Well, at least not pure evil.
“What should I do?” I squeaked in desperation.
Val placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, but it did little to quell my panic.“We’ll keep working our side of this case and see what we turn up. Maybe we’ll luck out and find your familiar in the process. But we can’t drop our investigation to go looking for him.”
“But I have no phone, no money, no one to help. How am I supposed to get him back?” I argued. The panic grew thicker around me, and I struggled to catch a breath.
“I wish we could do more, but here…” Val reached into her pocket, then pressed a roll of bills into my hand. “After you leave the parking lot, head right down Main Street. Around the corner of Main and Yarrow there’s a scuzzy-looking motel called The All-Nighter. It looks bad, but it’s actually really clean, and the owner is one of us. Crash there for tonight, and in the morning hop the ferry to Glendale. The first one runs at seven thirty.”
I nodded along, glad Val seemed to have a plan because I was still totally lost.“Okay, okay. And then what?”
“There’s a woman there who can talk to animals. Her name is Angie Russo. Not a magic bone in her body, but Jack bumped into her when we first got here. We checked into her and she seems legit. Fancies herself a bit of a private investigator, so just play that angle and she’ll help you find your familiar.”
“Thank you,” I said, rather than correcting her about the true nature of my relationship with Mr. Fluffikins. “I will.”
Nobody said anything, so I took the opportunity to ask a question.“How can I get in touch with you if I need something?”
“You don’t. Maybe we’ll meet again one day, but for your sake, I hope not,” Val said grimly.
“Now go. We can’t waste any more time standing here chitchatting when we’ve got a crook to catch.” Blackjack motioned me away with his paw.
I took a deep breath and walked to the end of the parking lot. When I turned back, both Val and her cat familiar had vanished.
21
As promised, the All-Nighter looked terrible from the outside but was mostly okay from the inside. I resisted the urge to turn away from the cracked brick exterior that was largely in need of a power wash, knowing that I could either sleep here or on the streets.
My room smelled like a heady blend of Clorox and Pinesol, which I took to be a good sign. The first thing I did after examining my room for either hidden corpses, used contraceptives, or little baggies of powdered drugs—none of which I found, thank goodness—was to take a long, hot shower. As the water sluiced over me, I fought the temptation to relax into it and instead combed my mind for solutions to that day’s outlandish string of problems.
While I was grateful to Val for offering me money and a lead, it seemed she’d taken advantage of Fluffikins’s disappearance to avoid telling me what she knew about the Haberdashes. I chided myself for not realizing that earlier. For all I knew, she was in league with the abductors. After all, the magical tracker had delivered us right to her familiar. He’d also beenalone with Fluffikins for long enough to stash him somewhere unbeknownst to me. Why had I taken him or Val at their word?
Another question that I kept asking myself:Why hadn’t I ever exchanged phone numbers with Parker? True, I could just take a short walk to visit him and vice versa. We’d also only known each other a handful of days, but still.
If I could call him now, he’d be able to help. Instead, I was hopelessly alone in a far-off place and with only half the money left from the wad Val had entrusted to me. I needed to find my way out of this one and fast, because I doubted I’d be able to afford a second night in this place.
Grasping at straws, I picked up the hotel phone and dialed information.“OH MY COD in Beech Grove, Georgia, please,” I said when the operator picked up.
She patched me through at once, but the line just rang and rang. Either the proprietor was too busy to answer or he’d already closed for the day. Just my luck.
I called information back and gave her the names of a few other businesses from the downtown area. This time she gave me a list of numbers, which I jotted down on the motel’s stationery. I called every single one, asking whoever picked up if they knew Parker Barnes, but no one did.
Strange.How could he have lived in Beech Grove his entire life and not made a mark on any of the locals? It was like the man was a ghost.