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The Truth About Cats & Dogs Page 19


  “Are you sure?” Penny asked.

  “Positive.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back as soon as—” Before he could finish, Familiar jumped to the ground.

  Meowing, he started weaving through the junked cars.

  “Familiar!” Peter called. “Come back here.”

  Penny saw the tip of his black tail disappear. “I think he wants to stay here,” Penny said, amazement in her voice.

  “He’s the most stubborn animal I’ve ever known,” Peter said with disgust. “He’s been in trouble from Ireland to Egypt and back. He has a nose for getting into the middle of things.”

  Penny turned to her uncle. “He’s after something. He keeps looking over his shoulder to see if we’re following.” Penny started after the cat. “Come on, Uncle Peter.” Familiar had already disappeared from view into an old rusted chasis.

  She began wading through the wrecked cars as the sound of the sirens grew louder. When she turned back, she saw that Peter had stopped to examine the ground. “What is it?”

  “A footprint. It might be evidence.”

  Penny let out the breath she’d been holding for what felt like centuries. “Do you think someone took Miranda?”

  Peter nodded. “I can’t think of anything else. I’m frightened to imagine what they may have done to her. You go get Mack and see if the police will send some officers to help with the search.”

  “The cat disappeared,” Penny said. She pointed to the area. “He just vanished.”

  Peter nodded. “I’ll look for him. You go help Mack. Familiar’s out here somewhere, and our job is to have the backup he needs, when he needs it.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SHOCK PASSED OVER Mack’s face as he watched Penny walk up to the patrol car. It took Penny a few seconds to realize that blood colored her blouse and hands. The police officer, wearing a sergeant’s chevrons and a tag with the name Stanley Greene, got out of the car with a questioning look at the blood.

  “My uncle’s cat was shot,” Penny said, and saw the color drain from Mack’s face. She gave him a tight smile of reassurance, then continued, “He’s going to be okay. At least, we hope so. He took off among the cars. We lost him.” Familiar was everything her uncle had said, and then some. Even though he was injured, he wouldn’t give up the hunt.

  “Did you find any sign of Miranda?” Mack’s face showed naked fear.

  Penny slowly shook her head. “Familiar is searching the area. If she’s there, he’ll find her. Uncle Peter says he’s one heck of a detective.”

  “A cat?” the policeman said incredulously. “You have a tracking cat?”

  Penny nodded, casting a glance at the junkyard where her uncle still searched. “You could say that.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Mack’s voice was hoarse with worry and stress.

  Penny couldn’t help herself. Mack looked so distraught. She put her arm around his waist and gave him a comforting squeeze. “Miranda’s going to be okay,” she said. “We’ll find her.”

  “I told the officer everything,” he said. “He’s going back to question those two men on the porch.”

  “They might be more willing to talk to a law officer,” Penny agreed.

  “If not willing, at least afraid not to tell the truth. And the officer radioed to bring in some tracking dogs,” Mack continued. He spoke as if he were in a daze. “They don’t really know for certain that Miranda is in danger, but they’re going to help. It’s going to be dark in another few minutes. Miranda has never been away from home in the dark.” His voice grew rougher. “I know she’s going to be terrified.”

  Penny’s hand automatically began to rub Mack’s back. Touch carried an amazing ability to comfort. She knew that from her work with animals. Whenever a cat or dog was frightened and upset, she spent time petting and rubbing it, soothing it so that it would relax and begin to heal.

  “Uncle Peter found a footprint,” Penny told the officer. “It could belong to anyone, but it could also belong to one of the two men who chased Miranda into the junkyard.”

  “We’ll take care of it.” Sergeant Greene got on the radio and put out a call for other units. “We’ll get this search started,” he said, looking up at the sky and shaking his head. “It’s only going to get harder when it’s dark.”

  “Let’s go call for Familiar,” Penny said, taking Mack’s hand and pulling him away from the patrol car. She thought of Miranda, the girl’s desire to help a stray cat. She felt a wave of anger and then grief. Surely nothing had happened to the child. But she couldn’t escape the fact that Familiar had been shot. She could only assume that it had been the men who’d gone hunting for Miranda.

  “She has to be okay,” Mack said, more to himself than to Penny.

  She tightened her grip on his hand. “Just visualize her alive and safe.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Mack stopped suddenly, an expression of amazement on his face. “You just moved into the neighborhood and all you know is that my little girl brought you kittens that were going to die. You don’t know me or Miranda. Why do you care?”

  “I care about cats and dogs and even a little girl I don’t know.” Penny’s smile was slow. “I care about all things, and I don’t like to see animals or humans suffer.” Her smile widened. “I have a sneaking suspicion that Miranda is a very lovable little girl—when she isn’t driving you crazy with worry.”

  “She’s a great kid,” Mack said, exhaling a long breath. “Better than I deserve. I just don’t want her hurt again.”

  Penny suspected he was talking about the past as much as the present. “Children are a lot tougher than you might think,” she said.

  “You sound like you’re talking from experience.”

  Penny nodded. “My dad died when I was twelve. He was in an accident. And then my mother got breast cancer. She died when I was nineteen. It was a long, hard illness.”

  “And you took care of her?”

  “I tried.” Penny felt the unexpected surge of tears. She’d thought she’d grieved enough. “There wasn’t anything to be done. The doctors tried everything.”

  “At least your mother didn’t abandon you,” Mack said, with such bitterness that Penny stopped and turned to face him. In the failing light, she could see the anger and hurt in his eyes.

  “Death is a form of permanent abandonment.”

  “Your mother didn’t choose to die and leave you.”

  Penny shook her head. “Toward the end, she did. And I was glad when it was over. It isn’t about abandonment.”

  His arm went around her shoulders and she felt a sense of comfort she hadn’t expected. “Thank you,” she said, stepping back from him. “You’re a very gentle man—though I didn’t think so at first.”

  “I can only imagine what you must have thought, with Miranda bringing in those kittens, probably acting like she didn’t want me to know.”

  Penny shook her head. “It wasn’t the best first impression. But I understand now. You were only trying to protect Miranda from an animal you thought was dangerous. I understand how it is not to want to lose someone.” For some reason she found it easy to talk to Mack, a man who was virtually a stranger. “I’m guilty of avoiding relationships because I don’t want to chance risking another loss.” She laughed self-consciously. “I think that’s why Uncle Peter is here, to urge me to date a little before I’m a dried-up old maid.”

  Mack’s large hands slid to her shoulders, and he started a slow, gentle massage of the tense muscles. “You don’t have any worries in that regard. You’re too pretty to stay alone for long.”

  Penny began to relax as he kneaded her tired shoulders. “I don’t know about that, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

  “I guess I’m so mad at Miranda’s mom because it upsets me to think about how she must hurt. But that’s my problem, not Miranda’s. I shouldn’t let how I feel affect how I deal with this. I should be focusing on her feelings, not my own.” His hand slipped around Penny’s shoulder an
d he pulled her close to him. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair.

  Penny closed her eyes. Mack smelled of laundry detergent and the heat of his own body. She felt as if she was trembling all over, but she knew it was emotional, not physical.

  “She’s going to be okay, Mack. We’ll find her.” She stepped away and turned, giving him a long look.

  MACK THOUGHT HIS HEART would break. His fear for his daughter was overwhelming. And yet he found room in his thoughts for the remarkable young woman who stood staring into his eyes. She was a good person, a woman with tender feelings for a child she hadn’t met for more than a few minutes. And she was beautiful. Her brown eyes held depths that urged him to gaze into them forever. There was something in her that made her want to help—even him.

  “When we find her, I want you to help me with that cat. Gumbo.” He said the word as if it might hold the magic to bring his daughter home. “If we can really tame her, I want Miranda to have her.”

  “We’ll find the cat, and if we have to, we can trap her. Then we’ll tame her a little, and when the kittens are weaned, we can spay her. Once she is loved and wanted, she’ll probably come around.”

  Penny continued to talk about the cat, and Mack was grateful. Her voice was the thread that held him together. It didn’t matter what she said, and she seemed to sense that. She was one of the most giving and tender people he’d ever met. How would he handle this without her—a woman he’d just met a few hours before?

  “Gumbo is a great name for a calico,” Penny said, leading him away from the crackle of the policeman’s radio and the words that cut through his heart. He heard “stretcher” and “hostage situation” and “kidnapping” and “medical examiner.” And it was the last that nearly broke him.

  He let her lead him toward the junkyard where all of his hopes and fears waited.

  “We should probably do something in a pattern,” Penny said as she tugged at his hand. “Why don’t we begin here? Maybe we can find some clue before night falls completely. It’ll take the police a little while to get organized. Of course, they’ll have lights and all the right equipment, but we can get started.”

  Penny Jameson was an angel. Mack found himself staring at her, wondering where she’d left her wings. She was getting him going, keeping him moving, starting off on her own search while he followed behind her like a big, dumb animal. No, not like an animal. Like some hunk of rock or a tree trunk. He shook himself, forcing himself out of his stupor.

  A minute later he saw the footprint. He bent to examine it.

  “That’s where we found Familiar, in that tire,” Penny pointed out.

  “It would probably be safe to assume that Miranda was somewhere near here, then,” Mack said. “It looks as though the cat was trying to guard her.”

  He moved past a crunched BMW and found what looked like a rough path among the cars. In the fading light, he stooped and picked up an empty can of cat food. The label was still pristine.

  “It’s new,” Penny said when he held it out to her. “I think Miranda was here.”

  How long had his daughter been coming to this junkyard? Mack felt as if he’d left his world behind and stepped into a nightmare. “Do you think she brought it today?”

  Penny nodded. “Could be. Maybe she isn’t hurt, Mack. Maybe she’s feeding the stray cats.”

  He prayed that was true. Once he found Miranda, he was going to buy food for all the cats in the neighborhood—and help her put it out, too. Once he found her, things were going to be different. He was going to come home at three o’clock, when she got out of school. He was going to be the best father in the world.

  “Look!”

  Penny’s excited tone pulled him free of his thoughts. “What is it?”

  “It’s a sheet of paper.” Penny held him back from picking it up. Instead, she used a stick to unfold it.

  Mack leaned closer. “That looks like the type of writing tablet Miranda had. She was always making notes and drawing pictures.” He got another stick and helped hold down one end of the note.

  In the center of the sheet was a drawing of what looked like a dragon. Beside it were two words: “bad teeth.”

  “Is that Miranda’s handwriting?” Penny asked, her voice rising with concern.

  “Yes, and it’s the purple pen I gave her last week. There’s no doubt she left this.” He knelt down, careful not to touch the note. “Bad teeth,” he said out loud. He looked up at Penny’s worried face.

  “I think she’s trying to identify the men,” Penny said slowly. “One could have had a tattoo of a dragon and the other bad teeth.”

  “At least it’s a start,” Mack said.

  “We have to assume Miranda is okay,” Penny said. “She was able to draw that image and write those words, and she left the paper for us to find. Mack, she’s not only okay, I think she’s smarter than her abductors.”

  Mack acknowledged Penny’s words, but he wasn’t certain it was a good thing. He knew his daughter. “She’s a very smart little girl. They wanted to put her up two grades, but I wouldn’t let them. She’s smart,” he said, “and she’s very determined. Sometimes that’s a dangerous combination.”

  WAIT UNTIL I get my hands on those two creeps. They shot me and grabbed Miranda. Dang it, they snatched her up and took off with her. But I have a plan. I know the humanoids are going to use the typical police procedure to find Miranda. That won’t be quick enough.

  From the conversation I overheard between Dumb and Dumber, they’ve got almost a full shipment of stray cats and dogs, even though some of the animals they captured aren’t strays. Like Buster. I’m certain they have him. Their plan is to load up the cages and take the animals tonight. They didn’t say where, but I have no doubt that it’s someplace no cat or dog wants to be.

  Even worse, they have Miranda. I don’t know what they plan to do with her, but it can’t be good. One of the men mentioned selling her, like she’s a tub of green beans or basket of potatoes. Or an animal. It just made my skin crawl. The good news is that I’d recognize both of the men if I saw them again. One has had a real dental apocalypse. The three teeth I saw looked like candidates for removal. And the other has this unique dragon tattooed on his right forearm. Really, he might as well wear a name tag. And that’s what bothers me. If he were worried about being identified, he’d have tried to cover up the tattoo. So that must mean that he doesn’t plan for Miranda to be able to give a description to anyone. And that means nothing good for Miranda.

  My side stings a little where the bullet nicked me, but I’ve been hurt worse. I’ll be okay, at least until I find the humanoid. After that, I think I’ll swoon and let the good Dr. Jameson tend my wound. First things first, though—I’m off to the rescue. I only hope Peter can see well enough in this poor light to understand what I’m doing.

  CHAPTER SIX

  MACK WATCHED Sergeant Greene collect the piece of paper that bore the drawing of the tattoo and the words “bad teeth.”

  “Those two old gents on the porch reluctantly confirmed that one of the men chasing your daughter had a dragon tattoo and the other had bad teeth. Looks like your daughter is pretty smart,” the officer told Mack. “That’s in her favor. Now that we know she’s been abducted, we can focus our search.”

  The police officer and Penny, heads bent together in a whispered conversation, walked back to the patrol car.

  Mack felt his dread deepen. Abducted. There was no doubt now. Miranda had been taken by unprincipled and possibly violent men. His nine-year-old daughter was beyond his protection.

  Mack’s fears were compounded by the total fall of darkness. Officers had almost finished searching the junkyard, and so far there was no sign of Miranda or the cat. With the moonlight touching the last bits of shiny metal and glass on the sea of cars that stretched out for acres, Mack felt hopelessness settle over him. Miranda could be anywhere.

  “She’s going to be okay.” Peter walked up behind Mack. His voice held determination. “Let’
s head back to your house. If she can get home, that’s where she’ll go. If the officers find anything, they’ll contact you at home. Penny is giving them all the pertinent information.”

  Mack turned and followed Peter down the block. “I hope so.”

  “I don’t blame you for being skeptical, but keep in mind, Familiar is on the case.”

  “He’s a cat.” Mack couldn’t help himself. He didn’t intend to hurt Peter’s feelings. After all, Peter was a total stranger, yet he had just spent the past four hours searching for Miranda. They were moving slowly away from the junkyard, and he looked back over his shoulder. “There’s not much a cat can do at this point.” Penny was rapidly catching up with them, and he felt a sense of relief.

  Peter’s laugh was easy. “So you might think. Just remember, even though Familiar was wounded, he still went after your daughter.”

  “How would he know where they took her?” Mack wanted to believe. More than anything he wanted to hold on to the idea that someone—even a cat—was on the trail of Miranda.

  “Cats are uncanny creatures,” Penny said. “They have a sixth sense about things, and Familiar is the most observant living creature I’ve ever known.”

  “We both know that those men didn’t take Miranda because they wanted to buy her an ice-cream cone.” Mack pushed aside the thoughts of what they might be doing to his daughter.

  “What about ransom?” Penny asked.

  Mack felt as if he were under water. Ransom! He’d never even thought about it. “I need to check my phone,” he said. He dialed his home number, got the answering machine, coded in his key and began to retrieve the one message. At the rough sound of the strange man’s voice, he felt as if everything around him had stopped.

  “Your little girl says you’ll pay for her,” the voice said. “If that’s true, and you want her back alive, you’ll need some money. Lots of money. A hundred-thousand dollars, cash. And if you involve the police or anyone else in this, you can kiss your kid goodbye. I have a source in the police department, so don’t do anything stupid. I’ll call back and tell you the arrangements.”