Lilian Jackson Braun - Cat 14 Who Wasn't There

"Hmmm," Qwilleran said, patting his moustache.

"Did the bus driver cause her to ingest a substance that stopped her heart?" Koko gazed into space.

"I'll rephrase that. Did the bus driver slip her a drug that killed her?" Koko was mute. He looked from side to side, and up and down, with convulsive movements of his head.

"Pay attention!" Qwilleran rebuked him, and he repeated the question.

"Did the bus driver--was "Yow," Koko interrupted but without conviction. It was not the definitive response that Qwilleran had hoped for, and he thought it wise to ask a test question: "Koko, is my name Ronald Frobnitz?" "Yowl" said the town psychic as he leaped to catch the fruit fly he'd been tracking.

Eight

After the unsatisfactory interrogation of the redoubtable Koko, Qwilleran decided that the cat was a charlatan. Or he was a practical joker who delighted in deluding the man who gave him food, shelter, respect, and admiration. Despite Koko's past record, there were moments when Qwilleran seriously doubted that he was anything but an ordinary animal, and his so-called insights were all a matter of coincidence. The telephone rang, and Koko raced him to the instrument, but Qwilleran grabbed the handset first.

"Qwill! You're home!" said the pleasant voice of Lori Bamba, his part-time secretary.

"How was Scotland?" "Magnificent! How's everything in Mooseville?" "Same as always. We're all very sorry about Irma Hasselrich. She was a wonderful woman." "Yes, that was a sad happening... Did you have any problems with my correspondence?" "Nothing that I couldn't handle. Did it rain a lot while you were there?" "Mornings were misty. That's what keeps the Scottish complexion so fresh and the Scottish landscape so verdant--just the way it looks in the whiskey ads." "Do you think the cats missed you while you were away?" Lori asked.

"Not much. Mildred Hanstable cat sat so they ate well." "There are several letters for you to sign, Qwill, and Nick can drop them off this afternoon. Will you be home around three-thirty?" "I'll make it a point to be here," Qwilleran said. He found the Bambas an attractive young couple--Lori with her long, golden braids, Nick with his dark, curly hair and alert, black eyes. The best of the next generation, Qwilleran called them. Lori had been Mooseville postmaster before retiring to raise a family and work out of her home. Her husband, trained as an engineer, worked for the state prison near Mooseville, and since Nick shared his interest in crime, Qwilleran looked forward to seeing him and relating the case of the missing bus driver. Meanwhile, he had a cup of coffee and listened to one of the tapes he had recorded during the tour. The Siamese listened, too, with Koko making an occasional comment from the top of the fireplace cube.

"Tonight we are comfortably lodged and extremely well fed in another historic inn. I suspect Bonnie Prince Charlie slept here 250 years ago. One can hardly buy anything without his picture on it. Irma likes to talk about the heroic women who aided the prince's cause.

Flora Macdonald dressed him in women's clothing and passed him off as her maid as they traveled through enemy lines. And then there was Lady Ann Mackintosh, who raised regiments to fight for the prince, while her husband was off fighting for the other side." Koko responded to the sound of a familiar voice with a happy gurgling sound, but as the tape unreeled he seemed to hear something else.

"Bushy is taking hundreds of pictures on this trip. At first, when Irma stopped the bus for a spectacular view, we all piled out with our cameras, but now Bushy and Big Mac are the only ones who take pictures.

The rest of us, jaded with spectacular views, remain in our seats.

Occasionally Bushy photographs members of our group in different settings, especially Melinda. He seems to think she's a good model." Koko jumped on and off the desk when he heard this segment, and Qwilleran recalled Lori Bamba's theory--that cats respond to the palatal shhhh sound. (her own cats, for that reason, were named Sheba, Shoo-Shoo, Natasha, Trish, Pushkin, and Sherman.) Evidently "Bushy" was the trigger sound here.