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“I’ll bet you my next paycheck Ryan took Janice,” Lucy said, storming into Kat’s apartment.
Bubbles whimpered and shifted closer to Kat. Kat gave the dog what she hoped was a reassuring pat before stepping over the threshold. When Bubbles didn’t follow, she held her hands out to him and wiggled her fingers. He sat down in the corridor, refusing to budge.
Lucy spun around. Her jaw was clenched and her nostrils were flared, but her expression softened when she saw Bubbles outside the door.
“Poor baby.” Lucy breezed back into the hallway, looped the end of the leash around her wrist, and cradled the dog’s head in her hands. “Don’t you worry, Bubbles. We’re going to find your mama and get her back home where she belongs. You know I would arrest Ryan right now if it were up to me.”
“We don’t know that Ryan is involved,” Kat said. Despite her own doubts, she wanted to maintain an open mind.
Lucy scowled. “Of course he’s involved. He’s Mr. Desperate, remember? You heard all that jabbering about princesses and good men. I bet when Janice didn’t respond to his advances he decided he would take her by brute force.”
“He never tried to take you, did he?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, think about it. Ryan had the most opportunity of anyone, being right across the hall from her.”
Tom came running from the kitchen. He meowed a greeting, then froze when he saw the big, brown dog sitting just outside the apartment.
The sight of Tom seemed to give Bubbles the impetus he needed to come inside. He barked, his tail swinging back and forth as he inched forward to inspect the cat.
Lucy tugged on the leash. “Hey now, Bubbles. Let’s give Tom some space.”
Bubbles didn’t pay her any heed. He kept moving farther inside, his eyes trained on Tom.
Tom crawled forward at an equally slow pace. The animals met near the coffee table, both of their noses working overtime as they attempted to sniff out whether the other one was friend or foe.
“They seem okay with each other,” Lucy said.
“It’s possible Tom has been around dogs before. I don’t really know.” Like many rescues, Tom had a past that was cloaked in mystery.
Bubbles nuzzled Tom’s side, spurring the cat to twist around and lick the dog’s nose.
Lucy set one palm over her heart. “Aw, look at that.”
But the moment didn’t last long. Two seconds after that loving lick, Tom reached out and smacked Bubbles across the face. Kat thought Tom might be trying to entice Bubbles to play with him, but the Irish setter didn’t see it that way. He lowered himself to the floor and laid his head on his paws.
Watching the animals reminded Kat of what Ryan had said about Janice’s heated arguments behind closed doors. “Do you think Janice could be in an abusive relationship?”
“No,” Lucy said shortly. “Ryan made up that whole boyfriend story so we wouldn’t suspect him of taking her. I guarantee it.”
Kat couldn’t deny it was a valid possibility.
“Trust me,” Lucy said. “If Janice had a boyfriend she would have mentioned him before now. She and I are always lamenting over the lack of decent men in this town. It’s one of the reasons we get along so well. If Janice had found someone it would be a miracle. And she wouldn’t have kept such big news to herself.”
As Kat considered Lucy’s words, she became aware of a low growling sound. It was only then that she noticed Matty hunkered down on the back of one of the sofas, an intense expression on her face. Judging from the way the fur on Matty’s gray-striped tail had started to stand on end, the tortoiseshell wasn’t happy about having a dog inside her apartment.
Kat reached for the leash in Lucy’s hand. “I’d better put Bubbles in my bedroom before the cats gang up on him.”
Lucy handed over the leash, but when Kat started toward her bedroom Bubbles dug his feet into the carpet. He evidently didn’t recognize Matty’s arched back and bared teeth as a warning that he’d better make himself scarce if he didn’t want to end up with claw marks in his hide.
With some effort, Kat managed to drag Bubbles through the living room. Once he could no longer see Matty and Tom she had an easier time coaxing him into her bedroom. She found an empty Tupperware container in the bathroom, filled it with water, and left it in the bedroom for him.
Matty had joined Tom on the floor while Kat was getting Bubbles situated. By the time Kat returned to the living room, the tortoiseshell was busy licking Tom’s head. She seemed to need to reassure herself that her brother was okay after enduring such a harrowing encounter with an enemy species. In contrast, Tom seemed to have already forgotten about the dog. He closed his eyes, savoring the attention.
Lucy plopped onto the couch. “I’ll tell you, I don’t like the idea of that guy being one floor below us.”
She was obviously still dwelling over their encounter with Ryan. “Assuming he did take Janice, where would he be keeping her?” Kat asked.
“Who knows?”
Matty and Tom had moved on from grooming to wrestling. Matty now had Tom in a headlock and was using her hind feet to pummel his stomach. Tom kept snapping his jaws, trying to get a good grip on his attacker, but he couldn’t quite twist his head around enough.
Lucy jerked forward with a gasp. “Ryan works construction, right?”
“Yeah,” Kat said. “So?”
“So maybe he’s got her stashed on a site somewhere.”
“Do you know where he’s working right now?”
“No. I try not to talk to him.”
Someone knocked on the door. Kat went to answer it, her heart rate spiking when she peeked through the peephole and saw Andrew standing there.
She flung the door open. “Did you find Janice?”
He shook his head, a gesture that crushed her spirits.
Tom extracted himself from Matty’s grasp and galloped toward the door, meowing his heart out along the way. Although Tom was always chatty, right now he seemed more vocal than normal. Kat wondered if the excitement of having Bubbles in the next room had loosened his lips.
“Hey, Tommy boy.” Andrew crouched next to Tom and ran one hand down the cat’s back. “He feels softer than usual.”
“He was brushed recently,” Kat told him.
“Yeah, by me.” Lucy materialized in the doorway next to Kat. “It was like spinster central in here earlier. If you had been here, you would have thought your girlfriend was ready to apply for her AARP card.”
Andrew raised his eyebrows at Kat. “Spinster central, huh?”
“Never mind that,” Kat said, too impatient for small talk. “What’s the latest on Janice?”
Andrew stood up, much to Tom’s dismay. The big cat rolled around on the floor to tempt their guest into petting him again, but Andrew was already back in cop mode.
“She’s not in any of the building common areas,” he said. “So I called up her sister in the Tri-Cities, the one Janice noted in her wallet as her next of kin. And I spoke to all your neighbors who are currently home.”
“And?” Kat prompted.
“And Janice’s sister hasn’t heard from her. As for your neighbors, nobody saw or heard anything suspicious. It doesn’t help that most were either watching television, listening to music, or sleeping.”
Kat glanced at the floor. If she and Lucy had been paying more attention earlier, would they have heard what was going on directly below them?
“What about Ryan?” Lucy said. “Did you question him?”
Andrew turned toward her. “You’re referring to Ryan Pollack, Janice’s neighbor across the hall?”
Lucy nodded. “He showed up when we were outside with Bubbles. He says he was out for a twilight walk, but come on. A guy walking around looking at sunsets? Who does that?”
“As of this moment I have no reason to believe he’s involved,” Andrew replied.
Lucy gaped at him. “You can’t honestly believe that sunset garbage. I mean, get real.”
“I have no reason to doubt anything he told me.”
“Well, then you’re delusional.”
Tom meowed, clearly unhappy at being ignored for so long. Scrambling to his feet, he positioned himself equidistant from all three humans as if that would boost his chances of capturing someone’s attention.
Lucy was the first to cave. She hooked her hands under Tom’s armpits and lifted him up. “You would never do anything as stupid as watching a sunset, would you, Tom?”
Tom chirruped his concurrence, then head-bumped Lucy’s chin for emphasis.
Lucy glowered at Andrew. “You’re making a huge mistake letting Ryan off with that story. That guy is dangerous, and he’s keeping Janice somewhere.”
“Look, I appreciate your concern,” Andrew said. “But the fact remains that I have no grounds to arrest Ryan Pollack at this time. I can assure you though, I will be verifying his alibi as soon as I can and if things don’t check out I’ll reconsider.”
Lucy shifted Tom around so he could rest his feet on her arms. “How can he have an alibi?” she asked. “Did he claim somebody saw him wandering around the park?”
Andrew lifted one shoulder, his lips sealed tight.
Kat found his response curious. Had Ryan spun a different story for Andrew than the one he’d told them? If he had, Kat doubted Andrew would tell them what Ryan had said, no matter how much they pestered him. She had been with him long enough to know he didn’t like to discuss police business with anyone who didn’t work for CHPD.
But that didn’t mean Kat intended to sit back and let him handle things. She had an obligation to her neighbor, and she was going to do everything she could to find out where Janice was.
