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“Andrew’s still not answering his cell?” Lucy said, her eyes trained on the peephole embedded in her apartment door.
“Nope.” Kat sighed as she tossed her cell phone on one of the end tables and flopped against Lucy’s sectional sofa.
Tabitha, Lucy’s pretty tabby cat, lay next to her on the couch. With a front half that was pure white except for the top of her head, and a rear half featuring light and dark brown stripes, Tabitha reminded Kat of an unfinished painting.
But the most noticeable of Tabitha’s traits at the moment wasn’t her coat. No, right now it was her capacity for inflicting pain.
“Ack.” Kat had lost track of the number of times the feline’s claws had glided through the fabric of her jeans and punctured her skin while the tabby kneaded her thigh.
Lucy glanced over from her post by the door. “Is she torturing you? It’s been a while since I’ve trimmed her nails.”
“It’s all right.” Despite Kat’s suffering, Tabitha looked so content she couldn’t bring herself to move the little tabby. “You see anything yet?”
Lucy turned back to the peephole. “Nope.”
“Well, you don’t have to keep watch. Even if Sheila is out with Andrew, it’s not like he’s going to escort her back here.”
“I know I don’t have to keep watch, but this is the most excitement I’ve had in months. Who knows, maybe I’ll even catch a glimpse of the mysterious Melody.”
Kat ruffled Tabitha’s fur. “Is spying on the neighbors what she does every Friday night, Tabs?”
Tabitha replied by turning up the volume on her purrs.
Lucy turned her head long enough to stick her tongue out. “Yes, but it’s usually only you I get to spy on.”
“I didn’t realize my life was so exciting.”
“Hey, I can’t get a date myself, so I have to live vicariously.” Lucy did a 180-degree turn and slumped against the door. “Do you think Larry was right about this Melody person having a hot date tonight?”
Kat shrugged. “How would I know? I’ve never met her.”
“Well, I’m telling you, if this new girl only moved to town this morning and already has a date, I’m heading for the nearest convent tomorrow. Just the fact that she has plans tonight and I don’t is depressing enough.”
“Before you lose all hope, we don’t even know if she’s out. She might not have answered the door for Larry because she was napping. Or maybe she didn’t feel like talking to anyone after driving all the way over here from Seattle. You know how exhausting it is to move. That could be the real reason she didn’t show up at the mixer.”
“That’s true.” Lucy twirled a lock of red hair around one finger. “How would we find out if she’s home?”
“Knock?” Kat proposed.
Lucy let go of her hair and snapped her fingers. “Or, we could duck into the hallway and listen for any sounds coming from her unit. The insulation is so bad in this building, if she’s there we’re bound to hear something.”
“That seems like an invasion of privacy.”
“Not any more than watching for Sheila.”
Kat clamped her mouth shut, unable to dispute that.
“Besides,” Lucy added, “it’s not like we’re eavesdropping on conversations and peeping through windows. We’re just listening for water running through her pipes or whatever.”
“I don’t know.” Kat gave Tabitha one last stroke before standing up. “If she is home, she obviously didn’t care to come down to meet us. Maybe we should respect that.”
Lucy tilted her head. “What did you say Melody’s last name was again?”
“Jones.”
“And the other lady is Sheila Smith?”
“Yeah.”
“Seems kind of strange, don’t you think?”
“What does?” Kat asked.
“A Jones and a Smith moving in next door to each other on the same day.”
“Given that those are the two most common surnames in America, it doesn’t seem all that strange. What struck me as more odd was the fact that the handwriting on both of their rental applications looked identical. It’s like one person filled out both forms.”
Lucy tapped her chin. “Think they know each other?”
“I have no clue. I’m having a hard enough time figuring out how Sheila knows Andrew.”
“Seems weird that he’s not answering his phone.”
The unease that had been stirring in Kat’s stomach all evening intensified. “I know.”
“You know what we ought to do?” Lucy said.
“What’s that?”
“We should look up our new neighbors on Facebook.”
Without waiting for a response, Lucy strode across the room and grabbed her iPhone off the coffee table. She thumbed the screen as she made her way over to Kat’s vacated seat on the couch. Tabitha’s amber eyes lit up when she saw a fresh victim to subject to her sadistic massage.
Kat slanted across the sectional sofa to see the screen over Lucy’s shoulder. “There must be hundreds of Sheila Smiths out there. How will we know which one is the right one?”
Lucy tapped on the Facebook app. “We’ll search and see.”
As expected, Lucy’s search returned a long list of results. Kat tried to look at the profile pictures as Lucy scrolled through them, but from this angle it was difficult to make out much.
“Find anything?” Kat asked.
“It’s hard to say. A lot of these profiles don’t use headshots. See, here’s a cow.” Lucy snorted. “Come to think of it, that could very well be her.”
“Try searching for Seattle, too,” Kat suggested. “According to her application, that’s where she lived before moving to Cherry Hills.”
“One modified search, coming right up.”
Kat tried not to squirm while she waited for Lucy to sift through the results, but her impatience was making it hard for her to sit still. Needing something to do, she brushed Tabitha’s fur with her fingers, receiving a nip for her troubles.
Lucy looked up from her phone. “Either that was a warning, or she wants to play. You’re better off using one of her toys, or the next bite might draw blood.”
Kat grabbed a shoelace off the floor and dangled it in front of Tabitha. The cat took a swipe when it came close enough, her tail cutting back and forth.
Kat felt her tension melting away as she played with the tabby. “I don’t remember her being this feisty when she was living with a foster family. It’s like she’s discovered herself since you adopted her.”
“Yeah, well, she makes up for it by sleeping twenty-two hours a day. Most of the time you wouldn’t even know she was alive except for the way she snores.”
Kat laughed, thinking of Tom. “Try having a snoring cat sleeping right on your pillow.”
“No thanks.” Lucy tossed her phone aside and collapsed against the couch. “I can’t find anything on our Sheila Smith.”
Kat eased the shoelace out of one of Tabitha’s claws. “Maybe she doesn’t do Facebook.”
“Or maybe she’s not registered under Sheila Smith. Some people don’t go by their first and last names.”
“What about Melody Jones?” Kat asked. “Did you try her?”
“Yeah. I found a couple Melody Joneses, but I have no clue whether any of them might be the one living across the hall. I’ve never seen her before.”
“Maybe try Googling both their names together,” Kat suggested, swinging the shoelace just out of Tabitha’s reach.
Lucy snatched up her phone and thumbed the screen. After a minute, she shook her head. “Nothing.”
Although Kat had known finding a link between the two women would be a long shot, she couldn’t prevent the twinge of disappointment that pinched her insides.
But her disappointment was all but forgotten when her cell phone rang. Lobbing the shoelace at Tabitha, she lunged for it. Relief poured through her when she spotted Andrew’s name on the caller ID.
“Andrew!” she answered.
“You called?” he said.
“Yes.” She paused, not wanting to ask about Sheila over the phone. “Are you busy?”
“No, but I’m exhausted. I’ve been out patrolling the past few hours.”
A chill crawled over Kat’s skin. “I called the station earlier, and the officer working the phones said you were off duty.”
“You called the station? Why didn’t you call my cell?”
“You weren’t answering your cell.”
“I was driving. I don’t answer when I’m driving.”
“I get that. What I don’t get is why the officer I talked to thought you weren’t on duty.”
“He probably didn’t know I was on the streets.”
“What were you patrolling for anyway?”
“You know I can’t discuss my cases.”
Kat wasn’t sure, but she thought she detected something unfamiliar in Andrew’s tone. Hesitation? Evasion? Was he reverting to his old standby excuse about not being at liberty to talk shop because he knew he’d been caught in a lie, or was she imagining things?
“I really am tired,” Andrew said. “So if whatever you want to discuss can wait until tomorrow, I promise to give you my full attention then.”
As much as Kat wanted to demand that he see her right this minute, she knew she wasn’t in the proper frame of mind to be holding a rational conversation. She felt tense, uncertain, and spoiling for a fight.
“Call me tomorrow, okay?” Andrew said.
“Okay.”
“Night, Kat.”
Kat stared at her cell phone, unsure what to make of their exchange. She had hoped talking to Andrew would lead to answers. Instead, she felt more confused than ever.
“Hey,” Lucy hissed. She was back by the door, motioning for Kat to join her.
Kat pushed thoughts of Andrew aside. “You see Melody?”
“No, Sheila.” Lucy pulled away from the peephole, a troubled look on her face. “She just got home.”
Another chill coursed through Kat, this one penetrating straight to the marrow of her bones. Was it a coincidence that the new neighbor had returned just after her boyfriend had claimed to be getting off work?
She didn’t know, but that would be her first question to Andrew tomorrow.
