Cat Striking Back by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Author:Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

19

HE STOOD ON the hill beside the car hidden by the heavy cypress branches, looking down along the lower roads. There were no car lights, and only a few scattered houselights shone, muted behind closed curtains. People were settling in for the evening, and that old couple with their canes and their weird dog were gone. It had taken them long enough, nothing better to do than sit on a stone wall watching the fog roll in. He’d lost sight of them for a while, and when he looked again they’d vanished. He meant to wait another hour, until there was less likelihood of cars, before he started digging. He didn’t want someone taking a late-evening walk and hearing the sound of the shovel or seeing the reflection of his flashlight through the garage window.

Getting in the car, silently closing the door, he sat looking down at the quiet, bucolic neighborhood. Those houses down there, none of them were very impressive, just little wood-framed places, ordinary and small. A strange neighborhood to be putting a lot of work and money into a remodel, particularly with the economy in trouble. Why spend time on the nondescript place, why take the risk?

He didn’t let himself think that he was taking an even greater risk—and that he had a lot more to lose than did that contractor.

He had laid the flashlight and tools on the backseat, everything was ready. He wished he could play the radio but he didn’t want to chance it. She’d have turned on the oldies station, she didn’t like to sit quietly when they were together.

Yet she’d lie for hours soaking up the sun, silent and alone and completely happy. He hated that, hated that she’d liked being alone.

When he started getting restless, he did turn the radio on, real low, but then nervously turned it off again. Below him, the lights in one house went out, as if the occupants had gone to bed. Or were they leaving, going out? But no car lights came on and moved away. He was about to gather up his tools and get on with the unpleasant work ahead when, far down the hill, lights appeared from around a bend, heading up toward him.

He watched the car getting closer, watched it turn onto the street below and head up the hill, straight for the remodel, making him wish he’d pulled his car even deeper under the trees. As it passed the last lighted house he saw its black-and-white pattern. Black car, white door with MOLENA POINT POLICE stenciled on it. It paused before the remodel, generating in him a jolt of panic.

He could see only the driver, couldn’t tell if he was alone. He sat with the motor running, shining the beam of his flashlight over the house and yard. It paused at the dirt pile. He prayed the guy wouldn’t walk the property, that he wouldn’t try the pedestrian door into the garage, which he’d left unlocked. The thought of a cop going in there made cold sweat prick his neck and shoulders.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.