“What happened to you? You’re filthy.” I ran my thumb over her fur, which had dust and cobwebs tangled in it. “You cut yourself, too.”
There was a little bit of blood right under her ear.
“Noodle scratched me. That cat knows how to defend her territory.”
Rosamund rose from her stool and came back with a wet paper towel. I pressed it against the wound, but the bleeding had pretty much stopped.
“Tell me everything.”
“I knew you’d want me to try again with Noodle, so I headed for the backroom. She’s in a bad mood today. Not sure why.”
“Maybe because there were so many people here.”
“Could be,” Persephone continued. “But she’s guarding an opening in that backroom. It’s not big—I couldn’t get through it, but a smaller cat could.”
Oh. That changed things. Cupcake could have escaped…if Noodle let her near the opening. Did that mean the break-in was completely unrelated? Or Cupcake got freaked out while it was happening and found a way to escape?
I relayed Persephone’s discovery to the ladies.
Rosamund groaned. “I asked Roy to patch up that hole. Must’ve come loose again.”
Casey and I looked at each other. I wished she could talk to me Persephone-style, so no one else could hear.
“Can we see it?” I asked. Persephone’s perspective might be skewed.
“Not sure we can get in there. I put boxes in front of the spot for a reason.” Rosamund headed to the backroom. “We discovered the hole when we found mice. Noodle took care of most of them, and obviously, we’re not looking to invite more guests in.”
The backroom never got bright, even when the lights were on. Casey and I helped move the cardboard boxes. Some of it looked like more Cupcake merch, but now wasn’t the time to mention that. Rosamund would want to put it out as an olive branch to the customers who'd left disappointed. The last thing we needed was more people in the mix. After a gunshot to our SUV and a growing collection of ransom notes, it was time to narrow down suspects.
We were met by a very defensive Noodle. Only a sliver of waning sunlight was visible behind her.
“Hey, kitty.” Casey was brave enough to go down on one knee and make kissing noises at the snarling cat. “I think I can make your day a little better.”
I’d seen her win over fiercer opponents at the shelter. She reached into her bag and pulled out a package of treats.
“I didn’t know she had those,” Persephone said.
“You’ll get a treat later.”
The first gentle shake was enough to get a curious look from Noodle. The next one was enough to get her to soften and come forward.
“She wasn’t this mean before,” Rosamund whispered. “It’s new. It breaks my heart.”
“Maybe she saw something that scared her.”
Noodle approached Casey cautiously. This wasn’t her first rodeo, and she kept talking to the cat, telling her pretty she was, and that she was brave to defend her spot. She offered a hand, and when Noodle bumped up against it, I knew the tabby was putty in Casey’s very capable hands.
I inched closer to the opening. I had to be careful too…Noodle probably thought her territory was more important than a few treats. The wood looked like it had either rotted away, or an animal had gnawed an opening.
Noodle was not to be underestimated.
I curled my lip at the mouse carcasses. Just because it was nature didn’t stop the pang of regret that I couldn’t save the little creatures. The opening was small and jagged.
“That’s not the same hole that Roy patched. It’s new.” Rosamund sighed.
“Is it big enough for Cupcake to get through?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. But Cupcake never came into the backroom. This is Noodle’s territory.”
Noodle had flipped over onto her back and was letting Casey rub her belly. Persephone hadn’t relaxed. She was super stiff in my arms, not taking her eyes off Noodle.
“If something spooked Cupcake and sent her back here, could that be why Noodle’s been upset lately?”
“It’s possible,” Rosamund said.
“We have to consider that the break in upset Cupcake, and she escaped. Which would mean she was local, and whoever has her thinks they can gain something from giving her back to you.” That theory meant that we’d have to talk to Roy. Hopefully he’d held onto the torch of search party leader while we’d been thrown off the path. “Any issues with neighbors?”
“There’s no one too close, and I already told you who had the most to gain from taking Cupcake.”
I nodded. Noodle wasn’t the only one who was defensive around here. It might take Rosamund a bit to look at this from a different lens. “Why don’t we let you recoup from the day? We’ll meet up tomorrow and come up with a plan to search for Cupcake.”
Casey gave Noodle one more good scritch on the head before rising to her feet. “We have dinner with Brian, too.”
Rosamund groaned.
“Can we tell him about the ransom notes?” I asked.
She pressed her lips together, and I braced myself for a no as I went over my rebuttal in my head. Officer Mitchell would have access to resources we didn’t. And if we could get him to take us seriously beyond his crush on Casey, maybe we could bring Cupcake home sooner.
“I suppose we have to,” she finally said.
I’d save the victory dance for when we actually found her cat, but it felt like progress. We headed back to the hotel before our dinner date.
Roy was holding court at the tiki bar for happy hour.
“I don’t want to go talk to Roy, but I feel like we should say hi and check in.” I eyed the tiki bar, then Casey.
“You’re right. Maybe we should freshen up first?” Casey suggested. “Give new energy to the rest of the day.”
“We could certainly use that.”
The Canyon room was starting to feel cozy. I fed Persephone and went into the bathroom to get ready to third—and fourth—wheel on Casey’s date with Officer Mitchell.
I was pretty sure she wasn’t interested in him like that, not that we’d had a chance to talk about it. Normally, I would bow out of this situation as gracefully as possible, but I wanted to see what Officer Mitchell had to say for himself when he was simply being Brian.
Or if he was like me, his job never really ended.
After throwing on a cute dress—I’d had a chance to go shopping since the last case, so I didn’t have to rely so heavily on Lucky for all occasions that required something fancier than a T-shirt—I knocked on Casey’s door.
She looked adorable in a boho patterned blouse, cropped black pants, and chunky heels. We simply nodded to each other and headed to the tiki bar.
The pool area was packed. Some of the patrons wore Cupcake T-shirts, so walking in with Persephone didn’t go unnoticed. Roy narrowed his eyes at us as we took the last two empty seats at the bar.
“I don’t usually allow animals at the bar,” he said.
“Consider this a special occasion.” Casey smiled at him.
“For you, I can make an exception. What would you like?”
“Two pina coladas, please.” She looked at me. “Does that sound good to you?”
Anything that had whipped cream and a cherry on top sounded amazing to me, but I usually didn’t drink while I was working. I had a feeling Roy didn’t pour heavy. “Yes.”
Roy nodded and got to work loading the blender. An older couple, sporting oversized Cupcake shirts, tentatively approached us.
“Is this Persephone?”
“Yes.”
“We’re big fans. When we heard Cupcake was missing, I said to my husband, they need to call Spy Kitty, and here you are. Any leads yet?”
“We can’t talk about the investigation,” I said.
The couple nodded.
“Of course,” the woman said. “Is there anything we can do to help? We love sharing Cupcake’s videos with our grandkids, and we can’t imagine having to tell them that he’s gone.”
“He’s not exactly gone, just missing.”
“You think you can find him?”
“That’s what we’re here to talk to Roy about.” Casey winked at him as he brought us our drinks. “We’d love to catch up with you later, especially if you’ve been on the Cupcake search teams.”
“Oh yes. We’re going out again bright and early tomorrow. We won’t stop until Cupcake is home safe and sound.”
Roy gripped the edge of the bar and waited for us to say goodbye to the older couple.
“I see you got a new car,” he said.
That should’ve been the least of his worries. “We have a dinner date—”
“Of course you do.” He smirked.
“Related to the investigation. And we’re hoping you have some new information for us. You know, as leader of the search party.”
“I’ve been slammed here with people coming to help.” He sounded overwhelmed. “Didn’t think so many people would care about a cat. If I saw this coming, I would’ve raised the room rates.”
Casey leaned forward. “If we don’t find Cupcake, all this is going to go away.” She nodded as Roy recoiled. “Don’t get me wrong, the town is super cute, but you haven’t created a pull. Rosamund and Cupcake are popular. People want more. But if this story doesn’t have a happy ending…”
She put her hands in the air.
“So we need a pull,” he said, focused totally on Casey.
“First, we need to find Cupcake,” I reminded everyone.
“Of course. But once he’s safe and sound, things will go back to normal. What if you could make this boom last forever? Imagine what that could do for the bottom line.”
He gave her his signature oily grin. “Maybe we need a dinner date of our own.”