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“You, Kat Harper,” Andrew said, tapping her on the nose as they sat side by side on her living room sofa a few days after Will Blaedel’s arrest, “sure do know how to pile the paperwork on a guy.”
She grinned. “You should be thanking me for solving another case.”
“I’ll leave that up to Idaho’s finest. Natalie Grimes’s homicide is their jurisdiction.”
From his spot in Kat’s lap, Tom twisted his head toward Andrew. When he locked eyes with their visitor, the feline let out a grunt.
Kat gave Tom a scritch between the ears. “Sounds like somebody else wants a little credit for his role in closing this case.”
“What role? He didn’t do anything.”
Tom lifted his nose in the air with a haughty sniff.
Kat smoothed back his whiskers. “Oh, how quick they are to dismiss, huh, Tommy?” To Andrew, she said, “Tom butt-deleted that email on my phone, remember? The one I had to recover from the Trash folder? It made me realize how difficult it is to permanently delete an email without intending to.”
Andrew snorted. “That hardly qualifies as a contribution worthy of praise.”
Kat covered Tom’s ears in mock horror. “Don’t let him hear you say that. And I’ll have you know, without Tom’s insight I might not have been as convinced of Will’s involvement or pressed him as hard for a confession.”
“If you ask me, Tom should be the one thanking us for cleaning up that mess he made the other day.”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath. That’s almost as likely as him volunteering to pay off Dr. Mark’s vet bill.”
Andrew bumped shoulders with her. “If you need help with that, I can chip in something. You know I would do anything for Tommy.”
“I love that you offered, but I’ve got a funding plan for that bill. I’m going to be cutting back on the cat extras for a little while.”
Tom’s eyes widened. Cutting back was not something he was well-versed in.
Kat rubbed his head. “That’s right, you little scamp. No more treats or exotic wet food flavors until we’ve eliminated something I’ve been feeding you as the cause of your issue the other day.”
Matty shot Kat a disgruntled look from her spot on the other couch. The tortoiseshell seemed to understand that, out of a sense of fairness, she too would need to forgo any special foods for the time being, and she clearly wasn’t happy about the sacrifice.
“He hasn’t thrown up since then, has he?” Andrew asked.
“No, but I want to make ultra-certain he’s one hundred percent recovered before I introduce any variables into his diet.”
Kat didn’t voice her true fear, that something might be seriously wrong with her baby. Dr. Mark hadn’t seemed too concerned about the possibility, but Kat couldn’t help but imagine the worst.
Andrew smiled, those dimples Kat loved framing his mouth like twin parentheses. “You’d be a good mom, you know that?”
Kat stilled, his statement knocking the wind out of her lungs. Despite how they’d been together for over a year now, they had never discussed children before. Frankly, she wasn’t sure she was ready to discuss it now.
“Speaking of moms,” she said, jumping on the opportunity for a segue, “did I tell you Suzanne decided to name her baby Natalie?”
Andrew arched one eyebrow. “After Will Blaedel’s victim?”
“Yup. She says it’s the first name she’s proposed that her husband actually approves of, and they both feel it would be perfect for their little girl.”
“I’m sure the original Natalie would be honored.”
“I’d like to think so too.” Kat grimaced. “I had to touch her today.”
“Who?”
“Baby Natalie. Suzanne. Take your pick.”
Andrew’s lips twitched, his dimples winking in and out. “She finally wore you down, eh?”
“More like she grabbed my hand before I could run for cover and held it against her stomach.”
“So, what did it feel like?”
“Odd. But kind of awesome, too. Once is enough for me though.”
Andrew barked out a laugh but quickly sobered. “Now that Lawson has been cleared of any wrongdoing, does this mean he’s going to fill in for Suzanne when she goes on leave?”
“Not exactly. But Zack will be on the payroll, just not doing the job he expected. Turns out, with Will no longer there, we need a new IT support person.”
“How does Suzanne feel about another department stealing away the guy she handpicked for herself?”
“To be honest, I think she’d go along with anything right now. She’s just relieved it turned out Will was pulling the strings behind the scenes and nobody can blame that whole hiring-a-wanted-man debacle on her inexperience.”
“Well, I’m glad she’s been vindicated,” Andrew said.
“Yeah, especially since she jumped the gun when she posted that job opening without Kim’s approval. But she and Kim talked it out, and Kim assured her she would still have a position waiting for her when she returns from maternity leave, no matter how good her temporary replacement ends up being.” Kat smiled. “And I think Zack is going to be an excellent employee. He explained why he was late that first fateful day, which went a long way in starting—or restarting, I should say—him off on the right foot.”
“Why was he late?”
“He was having breakfast at that restaurant near the DataRightly building on Monday morning when Chief Kenny and Officer Leon walked in. He said he was so freaked out seeing a uniformed cop there he hid in the bathroom for thirty minutes before he got up the nerve to make a run for it through the restaurant’s back exit.” Something inside of Kat stirred when she recalled how contrite Zack had looked when he’d apologized to Suzanne. “He said he’s lived for three years with the fear of being caught. Natalie Grimes might have been Will’s most obvious victim, but she wasn’t the only one.”
Andrew stretched his arms across the back of the sofa. “At least the truth is finally out. Blaedel will be returning to Idaho to face the consequences of his actions, and Lawson has his life back.”
“And I’ve learned a valuable lesson,” Kat said, resting one hand on Tom as she snuggled closer to Andrew.
“Be careful who you’re friends with?” Andrew guessed.
“More like, just when you think you have them figured out, people can still surprise you.”
Seventy-two hours after discovering the truth, Kat was still having trouble wrapping her head around the fact that one of her coworkers was a murderer. When she thought about how many times she had blithely brushed past Will in the hallways, a chill lodged so deep within her bones it took her hours to shake it.
At least she wasn’t alone. From the office chatter Will’s arrest had spurred, she knew Maura, Suzanne, Wendy, and everyone else at DataRightly were also struggling to reconcile the Will they knew with the killer from Ketchum, Idaho. It seemed no one had ever suspected he was capable of such evil.
Kat felt a tap on her forearm. Tom was pawing at her.
“What is it?” she asked him.
He meowed. Her first thought was he must be begging for treats, but she nixed that idea when he stood up, hopped off her lap, and trotted over to Matty. With a grunt, he jumped onto the other couch and dropped down beside the tortoiseshell.
Matty wasn’t an overly affectionate cat, but she allowed Tom to curl up next to her. Not only that, but after staring at him for so long that Kat was certain she would swat him away, she did something wholly unexpected.
She wrapped her paws around his neck and began grooming his head.
Kat watched them, her heart feeling close to bursting. Was the unexpected kindness the result of Tom’s recent health scare? Perhaps the bond between the two felines ran deeper than she had ever realized, and this was Matty’s way of expressing concern for her adopted brother. Whatever the reason, it got Kat thinking.
Perhaps you could never fully know a person—or an animal, for that matter—but maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe that was what made life so interesting.
