The next place wasn’t so nice. A grumpy-looking man opened the door, took one look at me, and attempted to slam it in our faces. “We don’t allow animals in here,” he barked through the mostly closed door.
“Please, sir, he’s very well-trained. Not like a normal cat at all,” Amy begged. She beamed up at the guy, and his eyes softened.
“Don’t let him wander around on his own. And if he pees on something, you’re buying it!” he snapped at Kaye before pushing the door open and allowing us to enter.
“I have half a mind to pee on your shoes,” I added as we passed him.
Amy and Kaye didn’t lecture me this time. Thanks to my bespelled collar, my gripes simply sounded like your everyday, ordinary meows.
“I feel it,” I said with a shudder. “It’s even stronger than the last time.”
Dark magic residue itched at me as we passed through the living room.
Kaye nodded slightly but couldn’t really talk to me about it. There wasn’t much we could accomplish with the big grump standing over us.
Kaye moved toward the dining room and bent down to study a stack of papers on the table. They appeared to be bills of sale. Score one for the home team. This was exactly what we needed.
We had to find a way to swipe these or at least get photos of them.
Amy carried me into one of the bedrooms, out of the prying gaze of the guy running the sale.
“What now?” she asked when Kaye joined us there.
Kaye peered around the room with disinterest. “I don’t feel any magic in here.”
So I said what we were all thinking. “Whatever our exposer worked his magic on had to have been in the living room.”
Kaye glanced around uneasily. “But we have no idea what’s already been sold, and whatever the thing was, it’s already gone.”
“We need to go back into the living room,” Amy suggested. “And see if we can pinpoint the object’s exact spot. Maybe the guy tending the sale can tell us what we missed if we ask the right questions.”
Amy carried me, and we took our time poking around, pretending to be interested in an old coffee table, an entertainment center, and a collection of crockery.
“Here.” We passed a fake fireplace. “It was here.”
Kaye put her hand on the wooden mantle and widened her eyes. “Yes, it was,” she confirmed.
Kaye and Amy exchanged a charged look, each daring the other to propose a plan.
“I’ll create a distraction,” I volunteered. “Buy you guys some privacy so you can figure this whole thing out.”
“No, stay,” Kaye said, “It would be better if— “
But I was already on the job. I let out a keening wail as I launched myself from Amy’s arms and landed on the scuffed-up coffee table, knocking several objects to the side. One of them broke.
I spun toward the grumpy man and hissed.
His face twisted with newfound rage. “I told you to keep a hold of him!” he yelled, lumbering forward with his arms outstretched.
I turned and presented him with my upturned tail.
And the piece de resistance, my butthole. “Look upon true beauty, my friend. It’s mesmerizing, no? You love it, yes?”
I let him draw close enough to assume he was going to be able to catch me, then took off for a nice jaunt around the property.
And so we began a merry chase, the two of us. I careened into the bedroom and scurried under the bed.
Old cranky pants kept reaching under to try to grasp me, but it was stupid easy to evade him. While he was still on his hands and knees, I streaked past him into the kitchen, passing up the closed doors in the hallway.
In the kitchen, I hopped onto the counter and started pushing items to the floor. A ladle here, a saltshaker there. Boom. Bing. Bah!
They all hit the floor with resounding clangs and crashes.
When my pursuer caught up with me there, I trotted into the dining room. Up onto the table, where I knocked off a mug. It shattered on the hardwood floor beneath.
Whoops. I hadn’t intended to break anything. Now he was even more cross than before.
Carrying on, I streaked back down the hall and to the same bedroom he girls and I had taken shelter in before.
“Have you two got what you need yet?” I yelled to them now. This was fun and all, but the longer we played this game, the more likely I was to get manhandled by one very angry man.
“Yes!” Amy called quickly, then her voice dropped into a far more menacing tone. “Moss, stop this right now, you bad, bad kitty!”
That was my cue.
I darted between the guy’s legs and into the living room, where Amy waited at the open doorway. “Go, go, go,” she shouted.
So I went, went, went.
Amy slammed the door behind me as I sprinted toward the elevator, where Kaye stood holding the door for us. As soon as we were both in, she pressed the button to close the doors, and we all let out a huge sigh of relief.
“We found it,” she revealed with a wink. “It was a mantel clock, and the name and phone number were both listed. A quick search of the MCS database got us an address. Are you guys ready to face this exposer head-on?”
I chuckled, but Amy frowned.
“There’s no knowing what we’re walking into,” she pointed out, then stooped down to collect me in her arms.
“Don’t worry,” I said smoothly. “It’ll be fine. But if at any point, things start to get dangerous, shift into a bird and fly away. Easy peezy.”
She smiled at this. “If I change into a bird, you better promise not to snack on me.”
“Mmm. Fresh bird meat,” I said, practically salivating at the thought.
Amy sucked air in through her teeth and shoved me into Kaye’s arms.
“Relax, babe. Remember what I said? You’re always safe with me.”
Hopefully one day she’d believe it.