Stealing Murder: A Cat Clarke 1960s Adventure (The Cat Clarke 1960s Mysteries) by Beth Byers

Author:Beth Byers [Byers, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2021-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Albert Clarke

“Mama?” Just hearing her voice over the phone was enough to send me spiraling. I needed to know if Cat was all right. Had they caught her? Did anyone realize that there was a second thief?

My eyes met Claire’s. Sweet heaven, she was lovely. She had volunteered to call, but Mama wouldn’t trust Claire. Not today.

I heard Mama’s gasp. She was as wordless as I was. I had little doubt that she was frantically deciding what to say. “You’re late.”

“Don’t I know it, Mama. I could use a lift home.” I groaned, unable to hold it back. My ribs had to be broken. The pain was intense in my cheekbones and jaw. I might well have a loose tooth. Claire nudged my hand. She’d already made me a bag of ice.

Mama hiccupped, and I could hear the overt worry. “Are you all right?”

“Rough night.” I needed to say so much to her, but none of it could be said over the phone. None of it could be said in front of Claire and her brother. Holy heaven, the feeling behind the phrase ‘rough night’ was fraught. I didn’t know what to tell her. I didn’t know how to say all of the things. Had Cat made it back home? Was someone listening to our call? Did I dare say more? My goodness, what if Cat had been caught? What was happening back there?

I closed my eyes. Sweet hell. I’d hoped Cat had slipped out and made it home.

“Where are you?”

I struggled to find the answer. “Harlem. The Dark Orchid. I got roughed up. Claire and Roy are helping.”

No one else had been willing to help me. I’d had to walk all the way to Harlem, sticking to the shadows before someone else tried to teach me my place. I swallowed against the pain. I couldn’t hold back the need to know. “Cat?”

Mama was quiet too long. “She’s a wild thing, you know that.”

What did that even mean? She hadn’t come back? She’d been arrested? Surely, Mama would have said if Cat was any of these. Heavens above. Where was Cat?

“Matilda!” Mama was holding the phone away from her face. “Send Voigt to The Dark Orchid to pick up Albert.”

I closed my eyes with a measure of relief. Not that anything was all right. Nothing was fine. Cat was missing. Someone had tracked us. My goodness, I deserved this. We all did. Juliette Arison was horrible, but we wouldn’t be where we were right now if we hadn’t done what we’d done.

“Voigt will be there soon,” Mama told me. “Thea’s gone to work after losing that wager.”

What the devil was going on? “Work?”

Mama knew, of course, that was I confused. She continued. “She’ll be running errands for some of Charles Butcher’s men, so she won’t be at the penthouse, but I think I’ll come up to the city for some shopping. See you then, darling.”

I collapsed back onto the stool and eyed Roy, who said, “Dr. Strong is on his way.

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.