Magicats II by Gardner Dozois & Jack Dann

Author:Gardner Dozois & Jack Dann [Dozois, Gardner & Dann, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Amazon: B00O983146
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2014-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

The Sin of Madame Phloi

Lilian Jackson Braun

Even the common house cat—drowsy, overfed, amiable, trusting, unambitious—may display its own kind of patient intelligence, and, when it must, may devise plans and cunning strategies of its own; in fact, as the compelling story that follows slyly demonstrates, it may even be plotting bloody revenge as it dozes on the rug in a spot of summer sunshine . . . and plotting it quite well, too.

Lilian Jackson Braun is a prominent mystery novelist. Among her best-known books are an ingenious series of mystery novels featuring cats—including The Cat Who Went Underground, The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts, and The Cat Who Knew a Cardinal. Her short fiction has been collected in The Cat Who Had 14 Tales, a collection of first-rate stories about—you guessed it—cats.

* * *

From the very beginning Madame Phloi felt an instinctive distaste for the man who moved into the apartment next door. He was fat, and his trouser cuffs had the unsavory odor of fire hydrant.

They met for the first time in the decrepit elevator as it lurched up to the tenth floor of the old building, once fashionable but now coming apart at the seams. Madame Phloi had been out for a stroll in the city park, chewing city grass and chasing faded butterflies, and as she and her companion stepped on the elevator for the slow ride upward, the car was already half filled with the new neighbor.

The fat man and the Madame presented a contrast that was not unusual in this apartment house, which had a brilliant past and no future. He was bulky, uncouth, sloppily attired. Madame Phloi was a long-legged, blue-eyed aristocrat whose creamy fawn coat shaded into brown at the extremities.

The Madame deplored fat men. They had no laps, and of what use is a lapless human? Nevertheless, she gave him the common courtesy of a sniff at his trouser cuffs and immediately backed away, twitching her nose and breathing through the mouth.

“Get that cat away from me,” the fat man roared, stamping his feet thunderously at Madame Phloi. Her companion pulled on the leash, although there was no need—the Madame with one backward leap had retreated to a safe corner of the elevator, which shuddered and continued its groaning ascent.

“Don’t you like animals?” asked the gentle voice at the other end of the leash.

“Filthy, sneaky beasts,” the fat man said with a snarl. “Last place I lived, some lousy cat got in my room and et my parakeet.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Very sorry. But you don’t need to worry about Madame Phloi and Thapthim. They never leave the apartment except on a leash.”

“You got two? That’s just fine, that is! Keep ’em away from me, or I’ll break their rotten necks. I ain’t wrung a cat’s neck since I was fourteen, but I remember how.”

And with the long black box he was carrying, the fat man lunged at the impeccable Madame Phloi, who sat in her comer, flat-eared and tense. Her fur bristled, and she tried to dart away.

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