Fat Cat Takes The Cake

After the snowplows made a second trip down Chase’s street, Mike thought he’d better get going before the streets filled up with snow again. “I’d love to stay much longer, but I should leave now.” He gazed into her face for a long moment. She searched his eyes, wondering how deep his feelings for her went. She thought she saw flickers of love, but wasn’t sure.

“You won’t have any trouble with that big truck, will you?” Chase asked.

“Probably not, but this isn’t going to let up anytime soon.”

She had to agree with that. It was on the tip of her tongue to suggest he stay the night, but he gave her a peck on the cheek and left before she could form the right phrase in her mind. How do you ask that, she wondered. Everything she thought of sounded wrong: Wanna stay over? Would you like to stay here? Are you sure you want to leave?

Back on the couch, she was left with a cozy, warm glow. Part of it was the wine, but part was from the warmth of a big, strong man, whose arm had been around her for an hour. The only part that bothered her was the chaste peck he gave her when he left. It wasn’t a kiss, a real kiss. Was he pulling away from her? Was he interested in someone else?

She wandered downstairs to work on the billing for the shop, since she had all this extra time. Switching on her monitor, she breathed a sigh of relief that it was working. At least she hadn’t lost power. Quincy padded after her and curled up on the floor beside her.

This was where they were supposed to be now. The cat was content. He had been puzzled when everyone left the shop in the middle of the day. He was disappointed now that there were no baking smells coming from the kitchen. None of the women who slipped him tidbits were around. He missed them. This one, although she made delicious treats and din dins, never let loose with extras between scheduled meals and treats. She was rigid that way. He had enjoyed nestling with her and his vet upstairs, but it felt normal to be here in the office. He checked under the desk. The paper and his other treasures were where he had left them. He was too warm and comfy to make the effort of batting at any of them. Maybe some other time.

Julie called when Chase was in the middle of paying some vendors online. What did businesses ever do before computers and the Internet?

“Have they plowed your street?” Julie asked.

“Twice. They don’t usually do that.”

“It’s almost stopped snowing here.”

“It keeps starting and stopping. Have you seen the weather forecast?” Chase clicked over to the weather site as she said it.

“This should be the end of it,” she said. “I talked to Anna. She said you closed up early. What’ve you been doing?”

Julie was trying to sound casual, so Chase chuckled.

“Oh, Mike came over, I’ll bet.”

“He lost power and asked me to refrigerate some insulin for his boarders. And he stayed awhile.”

“Nice.”

“What are you doing?”

“Jay and I were at his place. We talked about my . . . my case.” Julie’s voice faltered on the last word. If only she didn’t have a case!

“Does he have any insight? Any words of wisdom?” Chase turned an invoice over on her desk and started in on the next one.

“Not really. But he trusts Gerrold that there’s not enough evidence to go forward.”

“Then why are they even still considering you?”

“I guess because they don’t have anybody else. Do you have dinner plans?”

“If Jay is gone, why don’t you bring Chinese over here? I’m doing some computer work that will take me about an hour.”

They had a companionable evening, but Chase was frustrated when Julie left. She didn’t have as much faith as Julie did in her lawyer. She had a lot more experience with Detective Niles Olson than she did with Gerrold Gustafson and didn’t think he and the district attorney would be bringing the case to a grand jury unless they thought there was a chance of pinning the murder on her best friend.