The Cats that Stole a Million (The Cats that . . . Cozy Mystery Book 7) (12 page)

The man fired a round of shots through the space between the clock and the stairway wall.  The bullets hit the uninsulated rafters of the attic.

“Go! Go! Go!” Katherine shouted to the cats.

The sound of police sirens filled the night air, and echoed throughout the empty attic.  “Dammit, what took them so long?” she said, still worried. “Let Chief London deal with that nutcase Russian stuck on the stairs.” 

Beaming the flashlight around the attic, she called nervously to the missing cats, “Where are you?” Then Scout cried from the secret room, “Ma-waugh,” which sounded like
hurry up and get in here
.

Katherine rushed in to find two impatient Siamese waiting for her, their tails whipping and thudding on the floorboards:
Thumpity
. 
Thump
. 
Thump
.

Katherine swung the door panel shut.  “Okay, my treasures, let’s join Salina and the other cats in the safety zone.”

Securing the trap door over her head, Katherine crawled onto the landing where Salina was holding the cats.  Lilac and Abby were on the teen’s lap.  Dewey and Crowie were vying for her shoulder.  Iris sat several steps down watching the kittens in her protective mode.

“Oh, Ma’am, I’m so happy you came back,” Salina said, with tears in her eyes.

Katherine sat down cross-legged next to her. Scout and Abra jumped on her lap and reached up to be petted.  “Good girls,” she cooed, then said to Salina.  “Before we do a group hug, let’s get one thing straight?”

“What’s that?” Salina asked, bewildered.

“My name is Katz, not Ma’am.”

Salina giggled, then became serious.  “Katz, are we safe?”

“Yes, we are.  One of the bad guys is pinned under a clock that weighs a ton.”

“How did that happen?”

“Scout and Abra pushed a grandfather clock on him.”

“You’re joking.  Cats can’t do that.”

“I saw it with my own eyes, but we better not tell anyone.  They’ll think we made it up.”

“I guess the bad guy ran out of time,” Salina said, and then put her hand over her mouth to smother a laugh.

“Ma-waugh,” Scout agreed, and then scampered down the partial stairs.

“Have fun, Scout. Abra, you go, too,” Katherine said with frustration.  “Make sure you leap carefully at the place where the stairs are sawed off.”

The cats stopped in their tracks, then padded back, eying Katherine curiously. 

“I guess if I tell you two punks the opposite of what I want you to do, you’ll do as I ask. Sound about right?”

“Raw,” Abra cried, trotting over and head butting Katherine on the chin.

Chapter Eighteen

Stevie drove his Dodge Ram onto Lincoln Street.  The entire block was filled with ambulances, an emergency fire truck, and several police cars.  “This ain’t a good sign.”

Jake, riding opposite, opened his door and tried to climb out.

“Wait a minute, buddy.  Let me stop first.”  Stevie pulled over, and jammed on the brakes.  Jake got out and plodded through knee-deep snow on the not-shoveled sidewalk, then moved to the street, which had been plowed.  Chief London stood on the porch of the mansion talking to an EMT.  When he saw Jake coming up the front sidewalk, he said, “We can’t find Katz or Stevie’s daughter.”

“What do you mean, you can’t find her?” Jake asked with terror in his eyes.  “She’s not here?”

“No, we’ve checked everywhere, and can’t find them.  We were hopin’ you’d heard from her.”

“No, not since an hour ago.  Stevie and I were in the city.  We just got to Erie.  What happened?”  It was then that Jake saw the broken front turret window to the house. His eyes widened with horror.

“Let me give ya the short version.  Katz’s friend is dead, died in the front vestibule. Katz called it in.  When we arrived on the scene, we found the broken window and Katz missing.”

“So the shooters returned?” Jake asked.  On the way back from Merrillville, Stevie had caught him up to speed with the details of the drive-by shooting.

“Only one,” the chief said, pointing at the footprints in the snow on the porch leading to the window. 

“Why’s the fire department here?”

“We needed their help to remove a big old grandfather clock from our perp.”

“What?”

“A Russian named Dimitri Godunov.  He’s got a serious broken leg.  We’ve already taken him to the hospital, and are lookin’ for someone to interpret.  No one in Erie speaks Russian.”

“Katz speaks a little,” Jake said, then realized how stupid it sounded because Katherine wasn’t there.  “Did you check the Foursquare?  The bungalow?”

“Nada, and she’s not answering her cell.”

Stevie ran up.  “Where’s my daughter?”

Jake reached over and touched Stevie’s arm.  “I think I know where they are.  Chief, there’s a back way to the attic.  A few days ago, Katz and I found a secret access way, I mean, back stairs.  Can Stevie and I go check it out?”

“Knock yourself out, but stay to the back of the house.  I don’t want you messin’ up the crime scene up here.”

“Thanks, Chief,” then to Stevie, “We need to go to the basement back door, where Katz’s classroom is.  In the mechanical room, and under the stairwell, there’s this heavy metal tool cabinet.  We need to empty it out, and move it.”

Jake started toward the back of the house.  He moved down the slippery front porch steps two at a time.  Stevie followed.

Jake filled in Stevie with the details of the hidden staircase, while Stevie listened quietly.  Then Stevie said, “I bet they’re there.”

Cokey yelled from the front of the driveway.  “What’s going on?”

Jake motioned him to join them.  He turned the key in the lock of the classroom door, then stepped down.  Stevie followed, then Cokey, who was huffing and puffing from the exertion of running through the deep snow. 

“Uncle, you’ve got to help us move that tool cabinet from under the stairs,” Jake said.

“That big ol’ thing?  It probably weighs a ton.  I’m surprised it survived the explosion,” Cokey said, then bit his tongue.  “Sorry, Jake, I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Whatever, but for starters, help me empty the blasted thing out.  Oh, better yet, get me a step ladder.  We’re gonna need a tall one.”

“I’ll get the six-foot.”

Chapter Nineteen

Sam Sanders sat behind his desk, facing the prisoner one of his drug dealers and son, Dave, had brought in through the back door.  “Sit him down over there,” he said, pointing to a sturdy, metal chair.  “Cuff him to it.”  Then, to the prisoner, “Try anything funny and I’ll . . . ” He pretended to shoot the prisoner in the chest.  The Russian understood the gesture, and nodded his head ‘yes.’ 

“Folks around here don’t take kindly to people like you shootin’ up the town.  My boys tell me you’re here to get something someone stole from your boss.  Something worth big bucks.”

The Russian only understood half of what Sam Sanders had said.  “
Da,
” he answered.  “
Droga
.”

“You mean dope?  What kind of drugs?” Sam asked.

The Russian gestured shooting a needle in his arm.

“Heroin?”

“
Da,
” the Russian answered.

“Well, Mr. — what’s your name?”

“Vladimir.”

“Mr. Vlad man, we don’t want that kind of dope around these parts.  We don’t want you sellin’ in our territory, either, got that?”

The Russian started to get up from the chair but the handcuffs held him back.  Dave hit him on the head with his revolver.  “Back off, buddy,” he said firmly, then to his father, “What should we do with him?  Lady in the car said he was the Russian mob.”

Sam leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk.  He placed his hands behind his head.  “Well, now, son, we definitely don’t want to kill him.  We’d have those Russian boys coming down on us in larger numbers, so why not drive him to the Indy airport and put him on a plane?”

“I can do that, but I’ll need to take a few guys with me.”

“Yep, for insurance.”

“What about his gun?” Dave asked.

“I think I’d like to have it.  Don’t have one in my collection.”

“Now you do,” Dave said, pushing the automatic pistol across the desk.

Sam spoke to the prisoner.  “So, you go bye-bye now.” Sam stuck his arm out and waved his hand, gesturing a plane flying in the air.  “And don’t come back.  If you do . . . ” Sam gestured a gun being fired at the Russian’s head.  Borrowing a line from a mafia movie, he said “Bang, you’re dead.”

Chapter Twenty

Jake, Stevie, and Cokey moved the heavy cabinet aside from the wall under the basement stairs, revealing the opening at the bottom of the hidden stairwell.  Jake positioned the six-foot-tall step ladder inside the space, and called up from below the sawed-off stairs.  “Katz, are you up there?” He climbed up three of the ladder rungs, and shone his flashlight upward on the bottom step. 

“Yes,” Katherine answered happily.  “I’m with Salina and the cats.  We’re coming down.” 

Katherine stepped down the stairs, with Salina close behind.  She was holding two cats, Iris and Dewey, while Salina held Abby and Lilac.  Scout and Abra passed them on the stairs and darted down the rest of the way. On the bottom stair, they eyed the step ladder, and vied for the best position to jump onto the painter’s shelf.  Crowie beat them to it.  The kitten soared through the air and landed on the very top.

“You little monkey,” Jake said, grabbing the cat, and placing him on his shoulder.  Crowie shifted to the other side of Jake’s shoulder, and made himself comfortable by digging his claws into Jake’s wool pea coat.  “Stay there, little man.  Don’t jump down.”

From the cut-off stairs, Scout gracefully leaped on the top cap of the ladder, then Abra joined her. 

“Baby girls.  Stay,” Jake commanded. 

“Na-waugh,” Scout sassed.  In a single bound worthy of Superman, Scout and Abra leaped down, and scampered out from underneath the stairwell, and into Katherine’s classroom.

“Scout!  Abra!” Katherine yelled, then muttered, “They do what they want to do.”

Jake beamed his flashlight up the stairwell. 

Katherine appeared with a wide grin on her face.  “You are a sight for sore eyes,” she said, then to Salina, “You better sit down on a step.  I don’t want you to fall.”

“Where’s my dad?” Salina asked excitedly. 

“I’m right here,” Stevie said, walking over, and standing at the foot of the step ladder.

Jake said, “Katz, I was worried sick something awful had happened to you. Why didn’t you call or text me?”

“I turned my phone off.  I didn’t want the crims to hear it ring or ping when I got a text message.”

“It was only one criminal.”

“Great,” Katherine said dejectedly. “That means the second one is still at large.”

“Afraid so, but Chief London is working on it.  We’ve got to put the cats up somewhere.  They can’t roam the house.  The front turret window is broken.”

“From the awful sound of breaking glass, I figured it was one of the three,” Katherine said.

“I’ll fetch a couple of cat carriers,” Cokey announced.  “Katz, are they still in your office closet?”

“Yes, but before you go up there, can you catch Scout and Abra and lock them in the powder room?  We don’t want them to get out of the house,” she warned.

“I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee they’ll let me catch ‘em,” Cokey said, leaving.

“Thanks,” she called after him.  “Jake, let Salina come down first.”

“Okay,” he answered, then asked Stevie.  “Hey, can you steady the ladder?”

“Yep, don’t mind if I do,” Stevie said clutching the ladder’s side. 

“Salina, hand me Abby, then Lilac.”

Salina carefully placed each cat in Jake’s hands. 

Jake carefully climbed down to the bottom of the ladder, and called up to Salina.  “Swing your legs over, then let your foot find the second step from the top of the ladder. Step down and hold on to the top.”

“I’ve been on a ladder before,” Salina said.  She followed Jake’s instructions and climbed down the ladder.  She bounded toward Stevie. 

“Baby cake,” he said.  “Daddy is so glad to see you’re okay.”  He gathered his daughter in his arms and kissed her on the top of her head.

Salina said animatedly. “You won’t believe Katz’s cats.  They are so smart,” then to Jake, “I can hold Abby and Lilac again.” 

“Thanks, Salina,” Jake said, handing her the cats.

“Chirp,” Abby cried sweetly.  Lilac belted a happy me-yowl.

Stevie looked up at Katherine and flashed a smile of gratitude.  “Thank you, Ma’am, for taking care of Salina.”

“You’re welcome,” she smiled back, then handed Iris and Dewey to Jake.

Cokey returned with the cat carriers and set them on the floor outside the stairwell.  Jake opened the grilled metal front door of the first one and placed Iris and Dewey into it, then he removed Crowie from his shoulder and put him in there, as well.  Salina handed him Abby and Lilac.  He placed them in the second carrier, then he headed back to help Katherine climb down the ladder.  Once she’d stepped off the ladder, he hugged her.

Katherine buried her face in his chest.  “How was your day?” she asked for want of a better thing to say.

“I’ve had better,” he answered.

Chief London clumped down the stairs from the first floor office to the basement.  “I see I’m just in time for the rescue moment.  Katz, are you okay?”

“Yes, Chief.  I’m good,” she said, stepping away from Jake.  “Salina is okay, too.”

“Are your cats okay?” he quizzed.

“Yes.  I was very worried that one of them took a stray bullet, but I’ve checked them.  They’re fine.”

“Well, you must know that one of them did a number on our perp.”

“How is that?” Katherine asked.

“He’s got a big scratch down the front of his face.”

“Maybe he got cut on the glass,” Katherine offered, deliberately not mentioning that Scout and Abra were in the same room with the intruder when he broke into the house. 

“Or maybe one of your cats scratched him.  Should I bag their paws for evidence?” he asked with a playful glint in his eyes.

“You’re not going to arrest my cats, are you?”

“What would the charge be — assault with an antique grandfather clock?”  Then, he slapped his knee and started laughing.

Salina started giggling.  “Dad, time caught up with the bad guy.”

The chief ran his hand through his hair.  “That’s a good one.  Well listen up, folks.  No one is staying here tonight.  Katz, I suggest Jake and you go to your bungalow.”

“Okay, that can be arranged,” she answered.  Then to Stevie, “Salina told me why you came to my house.  Yes, you can stay in the Foursquare before the closing, but tonight, Jake and I want you to stay with us at the bungalow.  We have a guest room for Salina and in the living room there is a fold-out sofa bed for you.”

“Oh, Ma’am, that’s good of you to offer, but —”

Salina finished, “We’ll be happy to stay with you.”

Jake said, “Yes, I can vouch for Stevie and me.  We are both bone-tired.”

Stevie answered, “But I’m not too tired to grill everybody a big steak.”

The chief asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Where ya gonna get a steak in this kind of weather?”

Salina answered.  “I checked out Katz’s fridge.  It’s loaded with steaks.”

“Salina,” Stevie lightly admonished.

“Let’s go!” Katherine said, now holding Jake’s hand.  “Let’s gather up our stuff, the cats, and head on over to the bungalow.”

“Ma-waugh,” Scout cried from behind the door of the powder room.  “Raw,” Abra added, which sounded like
I second that
.

Cokey said, “If Margie and I whip up some sides, can we come too?”

“Yes, you are quite welcome.  Bring Tommy and Shelly, too.  Chief, would Connie and you like to come?”  After she’d asked the chief, she wished she could retract her words.  She had created work for the chief, thanks to Madison and the intruder. She suddenly felt very sad her childhood friend was dead, and wished she could have done something to prevent it from happening.

The chief caught her change of mood.  “Katz, I’ll talk to you later.  You take care now, ya hear?”  He quietly left through the classroom exit door.