Once cooler heads prevailed, the angry mob turned out to be a wealth of information. Within twenty minutes, Casey had sent Roy packing with his tail between his legs—until he returned with two-for-one drink vouchers as an incentive for the newly formed search parties. “There are a couple wooded areas behind Rosamund’s house. Apparently, once you get off the main road, things get rural fast. That’s where they’ll be concentrating their search. They’ve divided up into shifts, so there’s someone looking for Cupcake at all hours of the day. I shared with them some of the things we’ve done in the past to find lost animals.”
“That’s great, but after getting the ransom notes, the possibility that he escaped is pretty slim. What will they do if they think we’re sending them on a wild…cat chase?”
“Persephone escaped when Nicole stole the painting. It could’ve been a similar situation.” Casey shrugged. “Maybe once someone realized they found a famous cat, they wanted to capitalize. Now we have people looking for her.”
“True. Speaking of ransom notes, I want to see if Henry’s had a chance to look at them.”
We’d moved to my room. Persephone’s stuff was here, and I wanted to give her a chance to relax.
Casey settled into the zebra print chair in the corner. “Tell him I say hey.”
“I will.” I popped a couple of quarters into the Magic Fingers machine.
Casey gave me a look.
“Persephone likes it. And she’s had a stressful day.”
She jumped onto the bed, flopping down to take full advantage of the vibration.
“We should check in with Rosamund,” I suggested. “See if any of the protesters went to the store.”
“Man, I hope not. I told her to stay away from social media today and let me handle it. She’s not ready for this kind of controversy.” Casey swiped her phone and frowned. “It will take me a while to go through these notifications. I underestimated how passionate people could be about animals they’ve never met.”
“If we can funnel that excitement to the animals at the shelter, I’m all for it.”
“Before I left, I started a feature on Persephone’s page called Shelter Cat Saturday. Depending on how long we’re here, I’ll have to have Brooke take more pictures. We need to check in on her and see how she’s doing with all those hotties helping out at the shelter.”
“I’m sure she’s just fine. I peeked out the window. All but a few of the Cupcake crowd had left. “I’d suggest doing our admin work while we sat at the pool, but I don’t want anyone to bother Persephone.”
Casey glanced at my open suitcase, where my cat had curled up for a nap. She did that at the beginning of the last trip too. “I don’t think she’d mind if we slipped out for a bit.”
She was probably right, but… “I’m worried about leaving her alone. If someone stole Cupcake, they might want Persephone too.”
My phone dinged. Henry.
Wow. This is a first for the Spy Kitty sleuthing team.
You’re telling me. Does anything look unusual to you? I asked.
Some of the fonts were popular midcentury. And the colors look the same, but they could have faded with sun damage.
“Henry seems to think the magazines are old.”
“Of course they are. Who reads magazines anymore, besides my grandma?” Casey grinned at me. Persephone had woken, and had crawled into Casey’s lap to enjoy a good scritch to the spot. “Everything’s available online.”
“I’ve been known to look through a magazine every once in a while.”
“My grandma also likes Parking Lot Potluck.” She and Brooke loved to tease me about my favorite cooking show.
Casey might not have been impressed with Henry’s investigative skills, but I was. Is there any way to tell how old they are?
The best way to do it would be to remove the letters from the paper and check the text on the back. But the glue will most likely make it illegible. You might get lucky and get a date. We can only date paper by eras, and ink by its earliest known use date. Have you contacted the police?
We suggested it to Rosamund, but she’s stubborn, and our fingerprints are all over it.
If you get another one, don’t touch it. Call the police.
That will certainly freak her out.
How are you holding up? he asked.
I’m making peace with the reality that no two cases are alike, except that everyone involved has an agenda.
You’ve got this, Addie.
“Oooh, we’ve got a message from Brooke.” Casey held up her phone. “She says everyone who’s come into the shelter is talking about Cupcake.”
“Have her tell them Persephone is working to find her.”
Casey’s expression darkened. “She’s heard there’s more than one person heading this investigation, and says to be careful.”
“I hope that’s someone posting hearsay and not true.”
“As long as someone finds her, that’s a good thing, right?”
“We’re being paid to be here. So if someone else finds her first…”
Casey scoffed. “I hope they brought a crowbar to get Rosamund to open up. Even if they did, they don’t have Persephone on their side. Isn’t that right?” She roughed Persephone’s fur, and my cat grabbed her hands playfully with her paws. “I asked for a shelter update.”
“Awesome.”
“She said the first couple of days have been great. Darlene and Erin have pulled extra shifts. About half a dozen of Jason’s friends have come in, and they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty. Casey waggled her brows. “You know I asked for pictures.”
Moments later, she put her hand over her mouth. “What is hotter than ex-military dudes holding shelter pets?”
“Them finding homes for the shelter pets?” I took the phone from her. She was right. All those big strong men holding our shelter regulars made my heart skip a beat.
Casey gasped. “We should do a calendar. Vets with Shelter Pets. Think of the money we could raise for Helping Paws.”
“Oh, I’m so on that one.” I gave her the phone back. “Text her and ask her to start gathering interest. We need to end this weird day on a positive note.”
“What should we do for the rest of the day? It’s still kind of early.” Casey lifted Persephone from her lap and placed her on the bed. She stalked over to me and flopped down in front of my legs.
That deserved a belly rub.
Casey opened the curtain. “I bet Persephone could find a nice late afternoon sunbeam to nap in at the pool, and we can talk strategy.”
“Is there catfish here?” Persephone asked.
“Don’t know. But I’m sure we can find you some fish.” I looked up at Casey. “The pool might be a good idea. I’d like to talk to some of the guests about the crowd that was here earlier.”
“They’ll probably be more talkative during happy hour, especially since Roy is plying everyone with two-for-one drinks.”
“Then dinner. Want to try the Arcade Diner? As long as we can bring Persephone.” After a day like today, I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
“Absolutely. I need to film something while I’m here… is it okay if I mention Persephone on my channel? So they understand why I’m in Rappaport. So far, I’ve kept Spy Kitty separate from my own stuff.”
“Sure.” But the word came out sounding the opposite. Someone had catnapped one famous cat, and I had no plans of letting them add to their collection. “Keep details about your location a little vague.”
She nodded and disappeared into her room to change into her bathing suit, and I did the same. Persephone settled into the spot my suit had been in my suitcase.
Once I was changed, I sat on the floor and ran my hand over her back. “If we called Marnie here, would you let her read your cards?”
“What does that mean?”
“She’d draw cards that tell us more about you. That’s what she did for Casey and me. She was really good, and I wonder what she’d have to say about you.”
“Is that magic?”
“I don’t know what it is.” Talking to Marnie again after that awkward exit wouldn’t be easy, but we had to find a way to make it happen. “Was it the shop that made you uncomfortable, or her?”
“Not sure.”
“Did you get a good scent?”
“The whole place smelled spicy. She did too.”
That was probably the incense and candles. “Have you smelled that anywhere else?”
“No.”
Which meant Marnie most likely hadn’t set foot in the Don’t Forget Me shop for a long time. “I have to put the harness on you again.”
“It never gets less embarrassing.”
“I know. But I’m worried someone might try to take you too.”
Persephone’s eyes widened. “Would they?”
“I hope not.”
Casey knocked on the door. She had a cute sundress on over her bathing suit, and a matching straw hat. All I’d packed as a cover-up was an oversized T-shirt and a pair of shorts. “Ready?”
“I am.” I grabbed the leash, opened the door, and turned back to Casey. “Just a warning—Roy’s out there, tending bar.”