“Get out of this house!” she screeched at him. “I’ll say you came in here and tried to rob me! Whatever you think you know, it’s not enough to prove anything!”
Sunny was using the opened recliner to pull herself to her feet when she suddenly stopped. “Or maybe not,” she said. “My dad had a chair like this in our living room. He and my mom got into an awful fight because she said he’d lost one of her silver spoons. Went on for months, until one day he pushed back to recline, and I saw something shiny in the piece of fabric that connects the footrest to the seat.”
On her feet now, she pointed to the hammocklike piece of brocade fabric. Nestled in it was a hypodermic syringe—a syringe with a broken needle.
Still on her knees, Carolyn Dowdey looked down, a dazed expression on her face. “I thought I brought it home, but I couldn’t find it. So I figured I must have lost it on the way.”
“Call 911,” Will told Sunny. “The sheriff’s going to be happy about one thing. This woman is going to another jurisdiction.”
*
Even with the fatal hypodermic turning up, Carolyn Dowdey might have made a long, drawn-out legal fight of it. But now that the cat was out of the bag—or the ceiling—she told the whole story to the officer who arrived, to Sheriff Nesbit, Detectives Trumbull and Fitch . . . and even to the news crews that quickly gathered. It was as if, after years of being alone, Mrs. Dowdey relished being the center of attention. As for Sunny, she just wanted to get done with the formalities of giving a statement and dealing with the media as quickly as possible. The big thing was to get Shadow safely home. Besides, he didn’t like the bright lights from the cameras.
It was a pretty odd-looking party that convened the next day. Both Will Price and Tobe Phillips sported shiners. Will also had a bandage over his cheekbone. Mike and Mrs. Martinson shared half the couch. Will sat on the other side, with Sunny on the floor at his feet. Across the room, Tobe had an armchair, and Jane sat on the floor.
Shadow occupied Sunny’s lap, purring away. He’d been very attached to her since coming home—sometimes literally. She had pulls in several sweaters from his attempts to climb on her.
“Are you ready?” Jane asked. “Start petting Shadow and making much of him. Let him know you love him.”
While Sunny did that, Jane reached into the bag at her side and took out Toby the pup. He had grown noticeably bigger already, but showed the same bumbling eagerness as before when Jane put his paws on the floor.
Toby spotted Shadow and, yipping like a nut, came toward him. Under Sunny’s hands, she could feel the cat’s muscles tense. But with Sunny holding him, Shadow held his ground until Toby came nose to nose with him.
The cat gave a deep sigh. Sunny wasn’t sure if that was annoyance or resignation. But he stayed there . . . until Toby suddenly came at him with a large, pink tongue.
Shadow tried to jump back, and Sunny lifted him to her shoulders. “Okay, that’s enough for a first try,” she said. “And for the time being, the new house rule is no licking.”
The others laughed and raised glasses. “No licking!”
“At least,” Will leaned forward to mutter, “not on the first date.”
