Cat Shining Bright

“Wait here, Ryan, please. Someone needs to be here, Pan might be hurt, they may need us.” He was halfway down the stairs when they heard sirens: Ryan ran to the studio window. Below, headlights were coming from either end of the street, their red flashers bright on the fallen tree and smashed car. The two black-and-whites drew close to the wreck and parked; their loud whooping stopped. Ryan followed Clyde down to meet them, praying that their noise and lights might bring Pan home.

 

Out in the wind Joe and Kit heard the sirens, heard them stop, heard the squawk of a police radio. The wind had died a little, the rain had stopped, and several blocks down where swaying trees led across from roof to roof, they saw a pale shape among the blowing branches. When they reached it, the ghostly shape was gone.

As they searched, balancing among swinging tree limbs, they heard scrambling, the sound of claws on rough bark. When they looked up, a cypress branch shook hard and Pan leaped down, straight into Kit’s and Joe’s faces. Kit threw herself at him nuzzling and scolding him; the three hunched together as the wind gusted harder.

“Where were you?” Kit said. “I thought you were behind me and you weren’t and that man stole another car and then a tree fell and I thought Joe was killed, it fell right on top of his tower and I couldn’t see you anywhere and I went to help him . . . Are you all right?” She stopped talking long enough to lick Pan’s ears, to look him over and see he wasn’t hurt.

“I’m fine,” Pan said. “I’d started to follow you, then I saw the same man up the side street breaking into cars and when he couldn’t get one started he just stole what he wanted. I thought you’d be following but I couldn’t find you. There was another, skinny man breaking into cars, taking things, then he broke into a black Audi.

“It didn’t take him long, he got the engine started, neat as you please. He took off, turned right at the next block but moving real slow as if looking for someone. I followed him. Behind me, I heard a couple of windows break, heard a car start. I kept following the Audi. He met another car, they stopped and talked, so low I couldn’t hear, then they both took off without lights. When I heard a tree fall I went back to look for you to see if you were all right. The street was quiet, the Jeep that had been parked there was gone. I was two blocks past the plaza when I heard sirens, saw red lights. Looked like the cops were at Joe’s house and I headed back fast.”

“The tree fell on Joe’s house,” Kit said, “on Joe Grey’s tower and on the stolen Jeep! The driver squirmed out and ran. Ryan reported it but we need to tell the cops he stole the BMW and locked it in that garage and—”

“No,” Joe said.

“But—”

“No way. How do you think that would look? What would the phantom snitch be doing at this hour out in the storm, so close to Clyde’s house?”

There had already been too many questions over the years about who the snitch was, the voice that had given the department so many useful leads but who would never identify himself. Even though the cops knew the snitch’s voice wasn’t Clyde’s, they’d have to wonder who would be out in this blow, so close to Clyde’s, at three in the morning, following the thieves.

“No,” Joe said again, his ears back, scowling at Kit.

She hung her head in silence. It wasn’t likely the cops would ever guess anything so bizarre as that a cat was their informant—though there had been some strange looks from the chief, and from the officers. “But,” she said, “someone has to tell them . . .”

Pan nuzzled Kit and licked her face. “Let it be. We’ll think of a way.”

“But we need to tell them now.”

“Let it be, Kit,” Pan said gruffly.

“I guess,” she said doubtfully, rubbing her face against his—and wondering how long the stolen BMW would remain in that garage.

Joe, watching the two, wanted suddenly to be close to Dulcie and the kittens, wanted to be tucked up with his own family, listening to the storm’s howl only from beyond solid walls.

He knew Dulcie worried about him, out on a wet, windy night. But he worried about her in a different way.