Cat Striking Back by Shirley Rousseau Murphy Page A

months in the Damen household, Ryan still hadn’t settled in completely to this strange new lifestyle that was so often dominated by the smart-mouthed tomcat.
    Charlie searched the couple’s faces. “What’s wrong, what’s happened?”
    Both were silent.
    When she looked again at Joe Grey, the tomcat yawned.
    â€œYou haven’t been by the Parker house?” Clyde said.
    â€œNo, I came up the lower street.”
    â€œMax didn’t say anything about it this morning before he left? But maybe he didn’t know.” Clyde turned to stare pointedly at Joe. “This time, we have a disappearing body. We have a supposed murder, but there’s no corpse.”
    They all three looked at Joe. The tomcat said nothing, his yellow eyes wide and innocent.
    Ryan said, “Davis worked the scene this morning, she and Dallas are still there, stringing crime tape. We’d wanted to take a look at the house, I’d hoped it might be for sale, it’s been empty so long. I thought maybe, depending on what they found, they’d let us take a peek—but you know those two. They weren’t letting us in with it cordoned off.”
    â€œThen you are looking for a fixer-upper,” Charlie said. She daren’t look at Joe, the tomcat shared fully her amusement at Clyde’s pitiful carpentry skills. She knew that Ryan was convinced Clyde could convert his magic touch withcars into an equally impressive skill with houses. Ryan had said they’d make a great team, but Charlie wondered if that was just the dream of a new bride.
    â€œWe’ve looked at five open houses already today,” Ryan said, “and we have a late appointment with Helen Thurwell to show us some others. Right now, we’re on our way up to look at the Baldwin Ranch. It’s been vacant nearly a year, and it is listed. And I want to swing by the remodel, see how the men are coming on the drain.”
    â€œThey’re working on Sunday?”
    Ryan nodded. “It’s like a circus on the weekend. The neighbors keep coming around asking what we’re doing. Digging a bomb shelter? Putting a swimming pool in the garage? We lock the garage at night to keep kids and animals from getting down in there.”
    The four-bedroom house Ryan was renovating was charming, but the client, who had owned it less than a year, had discovered during last winter’s rains that the finished downstairs rooms had, in fact, turned into a swimming pool, the house having major water problems left undisclosed in the “as is” sales contract.
    Checking the drainage system, Ryan had found heavy leaks under the garage and into the basement, generated by a hidden spring uphill from the house, a flow that she didn’t think even the usual French drains could fully handle. She’d decided to put in a bold new drainage system under the garage. As they couldn’t get a backhoe under the roof, her men were digging by hand, working on Sunday by special permission of the building department.
    Ryan said, “Did you check on the kittens? Who let the mama out?”
    â€œNot a clue,” Charlie said. “Joe and Dulcie…” She paused, watching the tomcat. “What? What is it?”
    In the backseat, Joe Grey had reared up, his paws on the open window sill as he stared down the hill into the neighbors’ wooded yards. Glancing quickly at Charlie, he shook his head almost imperceptibly, his voice silenced, the look in his yellow eyes wary. They all looked where Joe was looking but saw nothing unusual.
    Dropping down onto the seat again, the tomcat spoke softly. “Someone was standing halfway down the hill under that big cypress tree, looking up at us. He’s gone now but I’ll just have a look…” Before Clyde could reach over and grab him he’d leaped out, was across the yard and up the nearest pine. Scrambling toward the top, he appeared and disappeared among the dark