“Get us out of here!” Persephone’s claws dug into my skin, but I couldn’t move.
“Someone tried to kill us!” Casey stared wide-eyed at the back window. “Addie, go!”
I was frozen with shock, the signals from my brain not quite making it to my body. Somehow I managed to put the SUV in drive and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. We were going back the way we came—or so I thought. Once we got out of this parking lot, we could figure it out.
I turned onto the main road and pulled into the parking lot of a bank. No one was there. My legs were rubber when I jumped out of the car.
Persephone.
I pressed her against my chest with both hands, trying to get a hold of her harness. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. What happened?”
I ventured to the back of the SUV, where Casey was already standing. Her gaze was fixed on the bullet-sized hole in the middle of the shattered glass web. It didn’t take out the back window, but with one good pothole strike, the whole thing would shatter.
“Someone shot our car?” I was still in shock.
“Looks that way.”
Persephone squirmed in my arms. I managed to get a grip on the leash and let her down. It didn’t feel safe though. The shooter could’ve followed us.
“We should go to the police, but for some reason, that feels wrong.”
“It does.” Casey agreed. “Someone posted there was a search party at the Dairy Barn, and when we arrived, they shot at us. But if we don’t go to the police, who do we tell to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”
We were on the same page. Which was comforting and chilling.
“Rosamund.” I paced behind the SUV. “This is a rental. We’ll have to go to the police, because we’ll have to report the damage. Do we tell them about the ransom notes too?”
“We don’t know if they’re connected. If someone got upset about a group of people being on the land, that has nothing to do with Cupcake’s search party.” My brain refused to let me think they were looking for us.
“If that was their plan, it worked.” Casey traced her foot over the painted parking spot line. “And for some reason, I think we should tell Roy.”
“If we go that route, you tell him. He likes you way better than me.” He looked at me like gum stuck on the bottom of his shoe, while he was trying to woo her.
“Ugh. Might as well put it to good use. I just have a feeling that nothing in this town happens without him knowing.” Casey hugged herself. “I hate this. If they had better aim….”
She shook her head and walked away.
“Let’s go to the police and get it over with.”
I’d never been in trouble with the law before, and even though I didn’t do anything wrong, guilt was flowing over me in waves as we pulled into the parking lot of the police station.
An officer sat at a desk by the opening. “Well, if it isn’t the lady with the talking cat. We don’t get too many celebrities here in Rappaport.”
“You have Cupcake.” I gave him a tight smile. “We’d like to report a shooting. Someone shot at our car.”
No reaction. Maybe this type of thing happened all the time in Rappaport. Or this wasn’t the first he heard of the incident.
“Was anyone hurt?” he asked.
“No, we’re fine. The car has a shattered back window.”
His gaze slid to Casey. “And who are you?”
“I work with Addie, and I’m Persephone’s social media manager.”
He grinned. “How long will you be in Rappaport?”
“As long as it takes to find Cupcake,” she said.
“You know who Cupcake is, I assume. He’s missing. Actually, he was stolen, and we were hired to find him.”
“Yes, ma’am, I know who Cupcake is. I just learned today he was missing when my niece called me in tears, begging me to find him.”
“I see you got right to it,” Casey said.
The officer smirked. “The department is keeping an eye out for him, as well as an eye on the people who’ve come to town to find him.”
That was a warning. “Would you like to see the damage to our car?”
“Sure.” He opened a desk drawer and pulled paperwork out of it. “Where did this shooting take place?”
“In the parking lot of the Dairy Barn.”
“We got word that Cupcake might have been spotted there,” Casey added.
He closed the drawer and looked up at me. “That’s private property.”
“That doesn’t give them the right to shoot at us.”
“Actually, there’s something called the castle doctrine, which says a homeowner has the right to defend their home if they feel threatened.”
“It’s an abandoned ice cream shop.” And hardly a castle, but there was no need to add that.
The officer rose from his desk. His tag read Mitchell. “I could write you a citation for trespassing on private property.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous.” Casey waved her arms and shook her head. “Someone tries to kill us and we’re the ones getting the citation? What’s next? We get robbed and then spend the night in jail?”
“Don’t tempt fate,” I said.
Officer Mitchell strode over to her. “Things are a little different around here than they are where you’re from.”
“Is that so?” She crossed her arms.
He nodded. “I could take you ladies out to dinner and explain the rules to you, if you’d like.”
We shared a glance. This town was bananas.
“Where would you take us to dinner?” I asked. Casey’s mouth gaped, because I was not known to accept social invites. But on the road, I was a different woman. I had to be fearless because that’s what my clients paid me to do. “Wherever we go needs to be cat friendly.”
“When you’re friends with me, people bend the rules for you,” he said.
“Like the castle doctrine?” I asked.
“We’re very busy while we’re here, but maybe if we see you around—”
“Why don’t you give me your number?” Officer Mitchell cut Casey off and gave her a megawatt smile. “Then we can pick a time that’s good for all of us.”
“You should follow Persephone. She’s on all socials under Spy Kitty in the City. I manage the account, and I check all messages. That way if you see anything that bends the rules in the wrong way, you can take care of it, if you know what I mean.”
Officer Mitchell was not used to being shot down. Interesting. “I’ll follow Persephone.” He considered my cat, who sat between Casey and me. “Is she friendly?”
“Sometimes she bites,” I said. She never had, but she had no problem telling strangers to back off.
He laughed. “Can’t say I blame her.”
“Is there anything we need from you about the car?” He still hadn’t seen the damage, and didn’t seem interested in doing so. “We’ll have to report this to insurance because it is a rental—”
“You were trespassing,” he reminded me.
“We didn’t notice the sign right away, and before we had a chance to leave, someone shot at us,” Casey said. “The Dairy Barn isn’t exactly in its glory days.”
“No, and that’s too bad because they had the best ice cream sundaes.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and typed something. “I just followed Spy Kitty. I’ll be looking forward to the crime-solving tips.”
And with that, we headed back to our bullet-ridden SUV. I handed the keys to Casey and headed for the passengers’ side. After the night we’d had, I coaxed Persephone into the travel carrier.
“Ugh,” I said after I climbed into the car. “That felt a lot like extortion.”
“Extortion with a potentially free dinner. I was kind of hoping he meant tonight because I am starving,” she said as she pulled away from the police station. “But I’m not sure if I can take any more of this weird town.”
“Takeout it is.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” She laughed. “But I am pretty shocked that you took Officer Mitchell up on his dinner invite. After all the times you said you’d rather stay home and watch Parking Lot Potluck instead of going out with me and Brooke.”
“I have a feeling Officer Mitchell could be an ally, and we are in dire need of some of those around here.” It was a risky alliance, since my new job seemed to contain a lot of legal gray areas. “We messed up today, but if there are people in town vying to best us in the Cupcake search, it might be a good idea to have the law on our side.”
“In case anyone else shoots at us?” Casey shook her head as she pulled into the parking lot of the motor inn.
“Yeah. We didn’t even get a chance to check that message. The least we can do is see if the name lines up with someone local.” We should’ve done that before we went to the police station. But after getting shot at, we weren’t exactly thinking straight. If the person who left the message didn’t own property near the Dairy Barn, the castle domain theory was irrelevant.
But Office Mitchell had made no attempt to start a report for the incident.
It didn’t feel right.
We went into our separate rooms, and I headed straight for the bed. Persephone curled up next to me. She deserved a little Magic Fingers action.
“I’m scared for Cupcake,” she said. “This town is mean.”
“I am, too.” I couldn’t always look on the bright side. I had to face the brutal reality of what happened to animals if we couldn’t help them in time. “I hope whoever has him realizes that he’s much more valuable when he’s happy and healthy.”
The Magic Fingers made my eyelids grew heavy fast, and my video chat with Henry was in danger for the second night in a row. How could I even put my thoughts together after a day like today?
Casey knocked on the door between the rooms.
“Come in.”
She had her tablet in her hands, and I expected there to be a takeout menu on the screen. But instead, it was The Cupcake Search Party social media site.
“I searched every thread for the post that said there was something organized at the Dairy Barn. It’s gone. Whoever posted it deleted it.”