The Cat's Meow, page 6
“Come along, G.K.” Bygul said and led the way around to the front of the diner, where they stood at the big picture window and peered inside. “Are there any new people inside or have we been wasting our time with the same people over and over again?”
How in the world was Genghis Khat supposed to know the answer to that question? He didn’t pay attention to people’s faces. He mostly saw their shoes and their boots and sometimes their fingers that came down to offer a tasty morsel or a head scratch.
And he needed to be inside the diner if he wanted to identify them by scent.
“Right. Let’s go inside then,” Bygul said. “I’ve got a bit more time this morning, so I’m going to stick around, just to see what’s going on in here. We might need to choose a new place tomorrow if the diner’s a bust.”
A new place! What if there wasn’t any food or head-scratching humans at the new place?
* * *
Maggie wasn’t happy when she discovered for the third day in a row that Genghis Khat had somehow disappeared from her house.
This time, the window over the kitchen sink was open.
Maggie had tried to open the window when she’d first moved in, but it had been stuck and she’d been unable to budge it.
Yet somehow, while she’d been cleaning upstairs, someone had managed to pry the window open and entice Genghis Khat outside.
She had no idea how this kept happening, especially since paranoia had her checking all the doors and windows before going to bed at night and once again when waking each morning.
She’d even closed her bedroom door the last two nights to keep Genghis Khat close, which had seemed a genius plan yesterday morning when she woke to a paw on the cheek and kitty breath.
Her mistake had been thinking the danger was over when he hadn’t been stolen in the middle of the night. She’d gone out into the garden as usual yesterday and when she’d returned, the window in the study had been open again and Genghis Khat nowhere to be seen.
Today, she’d been determined there wouldn’t be a third catnapping.
More paranoid than ever, she’d kept Genghis Khat with her as she moved about the house, dusting and vacuuming.
Unfortunately, Genghis Khat hated the vacuum cleaner and he’d gotten away from her when she’d opened the guest bedroom door. She’d raced after him, but somehow it was already too late.
The window was open and Genghis Khat and his catnapper were long gone.
She couldn’t understand it. She’d been seconds behind him and yet somehow, he’d managed to leave the house and completely disappear.
Not a single car or person was in sight of the house in any direction and yet there was no denying the cat was missing.
This time, Maggie didn’t even bother to call the sheriff’s office. The man was infuriating and if he wasn’t willing to do his job and investigate these catnappings, Maggie would damn well do it for him.
At this point, she was fairly certain the catnapper was just messing with her. He probably had some secret way of getting into her house and back out again without being seen.
So Maggie’s first step—after rescuing Genghis Khat again, of course—would be to find the catnapper’s secret entrance.
And block it forever.
Grabbing her car keys, Maggie stormed out of the house and for the third time in as many days, drove into town, headed for the diner.
She was annoyed, yes, and worried about Genghis Khat, of course, but there was a tiny part of her that was happy to have an excuse to go into town again because maybe Annie would be working this morning or maybe Livi and Kate would be there having lunch.
Maybe even all three of them would be there and she’d get to hang out with her friends again.
* * *
Jackson had to admit it was pure curiosity that had him sitting in a booth toward the back of the diner the following day, rather than ordering his lunch to-go.
“Well, Sheriff, it sure is nice to see you here in the middle of the day,” Annie said with a grin. “You here to meet our resident cat or the human?”
“Definitely the cat,” Jackson said dryly.
At that moment, a huge gray monstrosity leapt onto the bench seat across from Jackson.
“Good lord, is that the cat in question?”
“The very one,” Annie said cheerfully as the cat glared balefully at Jackson over the top of the table.
“He doesn’t seem too happy to see me,” Jackson observed.
“Well, you are sitting in his booth.”
Jackson gave Annie an incredulous look. “You gave the cat his own booth?”
“Not exactly, but Maggie sat here the first day she came to collect Genghis Khat and it’s kind of been her booth ever since.”
“Ever since two days ago,” Jackson said dryly.
“Well, no one’s really wanted to use it since, so…”
Jackson wasn’t even surprised to hear this.
Shifters could be utterly ridiculous sometimes.
He leaned forward a bit and called to the other diners, “What, did you think her humanity’s catching or something?”
“Or something,” David Humphreys growled.
Jackson shook his head.
Wolves.
So damn superstitious.
Jackson sat back in the booth and stared at the cat across from him.
Genghis Khat—a name so ridiculous, Jackson couldn’t help but smile at the audacity of it—was sitting straight and tall and staring right at him.
Over the next several minutes, Jackson indulged in a staring contest with a domesticated cat.
It was ridiculous, but once he’d started, he couldn’t figure out how to extricate himself without appearing weak to the other shifters, not to mention the damn cat.
“There you are, Genghis Khat!”
The staring contest was mercifully ended when the cat was suddenly swept up into a woman’s arms.
And what a woman!
Jackson was struck dumb at the sight of her.
She was wearing a bright green dress that came to mid-thigh and the sassiest sandals he’d ever seen. They had ribbons that wrapped around and around her calves, accentuating what had to be the sexiest legs he’d seen in a long time.
Her hair fell in long, brown waves almost to her waist and her bangs fell across her eyes like curtains.
She peeked at him, just once, giving him a glimpse of hazel eyes, before she plopped into the seat across from him, cuddling the ridiculous cat in her arms.
Her scent reached him in a delicate, floral wave that had the panther inside stretching and pressing against his skin.
Before Jackson could really do anything other than blink at this vision in front of him, Annie showed up with two plates. She slid the one with a burger in front of Jackson and the other—a tuna melt, it looked like—in front of the human.
“Hi, Maggie,” Annie exclaimed. “I hope you don’t mind. I went ahead and put in an order for a tuna melt for you. I noticed how much Genghis Khat enjoyed the tuna yesterday and since the sheriff is here for his lunch, I thought it’d be nice if the two of you could keep each other company.”
Jackson couldn’t help but notice that Maggie never took her attention from the cat in her lap the entire time Annie was speaking. However, the minute Annie said sheriff, Maggie’s head came flying up and her eyes jerked from Annie to Jackson.
“You!” she exclaimed.
Jackson opened his mouth, without any real inkling as to what he was going to say, but whatever it was, he didn’t have a chance to say it, because Maggie cut him off in a rush of words.
“I don’t appreciate you dismissing my concerns. There’s quite obviously a catnapper at work in this community causing all kinds of mischief. Maybe it’s just some prankster, but I’m not finding it funny. And it’s your job to stop criminal activity.”
She stood and swept from the booth. She had the cat cradled in her left arm and used her right to grab the plate with the tuna melt on it. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Your deputy refused to take fingerprints the first time Genghis Khat went missing, and here we are, two days later with three unsolved catnappings you haven’t even bothered to begin to investigate. Well, I’ll tell you what, if you won’t solve this spree of catnappings, I will!” With that, she turned on her heel and flounced out of the diner.
Silence fell in her wake until the diner’s door opened again and Maggie poked her head back in to call, “I’ll bring the plate back tomorrow, Annie, if that’s okay.”
“Sure, sure!”
“Just charge it to my account, or better yet, charge it to your condescending, inept sheriff’s account!” With that, she was gone again.
“Ooooh, doggie,” Travis Norton exclaimed. “You done riled up the human, Jackson.”
Jackson didn’t reply. He was too busy processing what had just happened.
“Jackson, honey, you okay?” Annie was starting to look concerned.
She couldn’t possibly be as concerned as Jackson was though.
“What’s the matter, Sheriff?” David’s wife, Natalie asked. “Haven’t you ever seen a human before?”
“Sure I have, Natalie. Just haven’t met one that’s my mate before.” With that, he lunged from the booth and raced toward the door, with only one thing in mind.
Soothing his mate’s temper.
* * *
“Darn that sheriff, Genghis Khat.” Maggie sat in her car in the diner’s parking lot, fuming. “He ruined everything. I was looking forward to chatting with Annie again. Although there were a lot of people in the diner I hadn’t met yet, so maybe it was better to just get out of there. No use pushing my luck.”
Genghis Khat, who was sitting on the console between the two front seats, rubbed his head against her shoulder and let out a deep, rumbling purr.
“I know, baby.” Maggie lifted a hand and stroked it all the way down his back. “You’re the best kitty ever.”
A knock on the window startled both of them, making Maggie jump and Genghis Khat hiss fiercely.
A peek at the side window told Maggie it was the idiot sheriff knocking.
Damn.
“It’s okay, Genghis Khat. Everything’s going to be just fine.” Maggie stroked him several times, soothing down his fur and crooning to him.
Interestingly, the sheriff didn’t knock again, just stood outside the door waiting patiently.
Or maybe not so patiently, Maggie didn’t know.
Still, he didn’t knock or hurry her along, so Maggie counted that as a tiny point in his favor.
One tiny point that barely made a dent in all the ones he’d racked up as marks against him.
Finally, she turned and rolled the window down a couple inches. She stared at him, but didn’t say anything. After all, she wasn’t the one knocking on his car door window. She had nothing to say.
He was silent for a minute before he finally seemed to realize she was waiting on him to speak. “Would you mind stepping out of the car for a minute?”
Maggie scowled. What could he possibly want from her now? She turned to Genghis Khat and said, “Be good, boy. I’ll be right back.”
She opened the door and the sheriff stepped forward to offer a hand.
She froze and stared at his hand.
What was he doing?
He just waited.
Was she supposed to give him something?
Well, he was a cop. Maybe he wanted her license and registration.
Or maybe he paid for her lunch and wanted her to pay him back.
She couldn’t imagine what else he’d want her to give him.
She felt Genghis Khat’s paws on her shoulders and glanced back to see that he was now standing on his hind legs and peering over her shoulder at the sheriff.
She turned back to the sheriff just in time to see him reach toward her.
She shrank back, but all he did was catch both of her hands in his and gently pull her from the car.
Oh.
He’d been offering his hand to help.
Now Maggie felt foolish.
At least she hadn’t tried to give him money or her license or anything like that.
Genghis Khat meowed at her and she turned to see he was now sitting in the drivers’ seat, watching her and the sheriff.
“It’s okay, Genghis Khat. We won’t be long.”
The sheriff closed the door and pulled her toward him.
That was when Maggie realized he still had hold of both her hands.
He guided her around so her back was to the car, then stepped in so he was standing right in front of her.
Closer than she was usually comfortable with.
He was in her space and Maggie was usually very territorial about her space.
This was her space, that was his space, and never the twain shall meet.
Except right then, her space and his space were all tangled up together and she was feeling a bit lightheaded.
“Breathe, Maggie.”
She dragged in a deep breath. “You know my name.”
“You called my office the past two days, gave your name each time.”
Maggie scowled at the reminder. “Yes, and you didn’t take my concerns seriously.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I took your concerns seriously enough to send a deputy out to your house.”
Well, she supposed that was true. It wasn’t his fault his deputy had refused to dust for fingerprints.
“I also tracked your cat to the diner and you got him back both days, didn’t you?”
Maggie sighed. Well, when he put it like that, sure. “Yes, but you haven’t done anything to keep this from happening again. Today was the third time someone opened a window at my house and stole my cat.”
“Right.”
From the look on the sheriff’s face, Maggie was pretty sure he didn’t agree with her assessment of the situation. Still, he didn’t argue with her, which was probably another point in his favor.
“Well, how about I come out right now and help you problem-solve? We can take a look around, see where the intruder might be getting in or possibly how—” he hesitated, then continued, “—Genghis Khat might be getting out.”
She wasn’t sure what that hesitation meant, but had a feeling it was related to her cat in some way. The sheriff probably thought she hadn’t noticed, but he’d been in a pretty intense stare-down with Genghis Khat when she’d arrived at the diner.
She’d planned to admonish him for trying to intimidate her cat, but then she’d found out he was the sheriff and she had a much bigger lecture to deliver.
Oh, well, she’d just save that one for next time.
“Maggie?”
“Fine, Sheriff. You can follow me back to the house.”
“First, call me Jackson.”
Maggie hesitated, then said softly, “Jackson.”
He smiled at her, then stepped back, pulling her with him. He opened the car door and held it as she climbed in. “I’ll meet you at your house. Drive safe.” He closed the car door and stood there, hands on hips, watching as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward home.
Within minutes, he was behind her on the winding roads leading out of town.
By the time they reached the house, Maggie was a bundle of nerves.
Genghis Khat could obviously sense her nerves because he’d paced in the passenger side seat the entire trip home.
Scooping Genghis Khat into her arms, Maggie met Jackson on the front porch, and let him into the house, feeling more nervous than ever.
She’d never had a man over to her place before—any place, not just this one.
“So I thought I should look for a secret entrance,” she said. “I figure that’s the only way someone could sneak into my house without me knowing it.”
“What about the locks? If your Aunt Becky gave keys to anyone—”
“I changed the locks when I moved in. No one has the keys but me.”
“Right, then. Let’s get to the searching.”
As strange as it was, the afternoon and evening went by quickly.
Maggie found Jackson’s presence to be both soothing and agitating, all at the same time.
Genghis Khat followed them from room to room as they searched for a false entrance. They tapped all the walls, explored every closet in depth, and found nothing.
Jackson spent some time looking at both the study window and the kitchen window and couldn’t find anything wrong with either lock.
“This just isn’t possible, Genghis Khat,” Maggie said, hands on hips.
Genghis Khat was sitting in the center of the kitchen table, watching carefully as Jackson flipped the lock on the window back and forth.
“I just don’t understand how you keep getting out. I know you’re not doing it on your own, but I don’t know how someone’s getting in.”
“Well, you could certainly have a security system added, wire the windows so the alarm blares when they’re opened, but it seems like overkill.”
Maggie sighed. “Yeah. I guess. Well, thanks for trying to help, Sheriff.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Jackson.”
He smiled. “It was my pleasure, Maggie. It’s getting on to dinner time. I was going to go to the diner, if you’d like to join me.”
Maggie shook her head. “Oh, no.” She’d spent more than enough time socializing and talking for one day, and while the sheriff wasn’t quite the idiot she’d once thought him, she needed him to leave now.
She’d enjoyed listening to him speak and watching him wander through her house. She’d enjoyed watching his capable hands knocking on walls and testing the locks on her doors and windows.
She’d enjoyed the feel of his hand in hers when he’d led her down the stairs and into the kitchen just a few moments before.
But it was too much.
Entirely too much for one day.
“Time to go, Sheriff.” Maggie hurried toward the front door and flung it open.
He followed at a more leisurely pace, then stopped right next to her and slid one broad hand around to the back of her neck, where he cradled her head.
He nudged her chin up with his other hand and leaned down and kissed her.
It wasn’t her first kiss.
