2 CATastrophe Read Online Free

I’d just seen Miller hours before this call, it had to be death.
    “You’re not saying anything, so I’m going to infer that you recognize the address and that this man was your latest pet talking client, yes?”
    Her inferences had given me a few seconds to recover from the shock. The case had been odd and quirky, but I’d never have thought that it would lead to murder.
    “You’re right. He’s a client of mine.”
    “Oh yeah, does he have you talking to his tropical fish or his turtle?” Green asked. She’d never bought my act for a second. She knew that I was a fraud, yet she still seemed to like me. I wasn’t sure I understood how those two things could go together.
    I put on my cheeriest voice for her. “I’m talking to a cat that has been following him around.”
    Sheila actually laughed. While I knew that she was skeptical of my business venture, she’d never shown open ridicule for it. “You’re finding out from a cat why it was following Miller around Toledo. What – did it take a cab? Or wait, maybe it was like that cat on Saturday Night Live that used to drive around? What was its name?”
    I confessed that I couldn’t remember either. We were even on the same wavelength for our weird humor, which gave me a pang of regret.
    “Ask The Duchess,” she suggested. “Maybe her memory is better than yours.”
    I finished chewing my eggs and got down to business. I was surprised to find that I was still a bit miffed about the police file. “So I know you didn’t call just to set up a party at James’ house. What gives?”
    She cleared her throat, and her voice went all official on me. I braced myself, knowing that very likely he was dead. “At 6:32 pm this evening, we received a telephone call from one of the neighbors. There had been shouting at the Miller house, and then all of the lights went out. It was still daylight outside, so that wasn’t too strange, but Miller typically kept his outside lights on all day. The neighbor was concerned and called to see if we could investigate the house.
    “When we arrived, the doors and windows were locked from the inside. One of the officers investigated, walking from window to window and looking inside. When he got to the kitchen window, it appeared that the body of a man was on the floor. He wasn’t moving. The officer went to the back door, broke out part of the window in the door, and opened it. There was a deadbolt lock as well as a standard lock. He unlocked both and entered.
    “When he went to the kitchen, the officer found the body of a man, who we identified as James Miller. He had multiple photo IDs and we made a positive identification based on that. There was no sign of a struggle, despite the reports of shouting. There were no marks or bruises on the body. The front door was locked and dead-bolted from the inside.”
    “So no cause of death? You’d only be calling if you thought it was fishy.”
    “Not yet. We sent him to the morgue, but it will be a few days before the autopsy is ready. The budget cuts around here have slowed up work.” She paused. “Look, I have to tell you. If we don’t find some kind of evidence that this was murder, I’m going to have to call it as accidental or unknown. I don’t want to do that. I have a feeling that this is a murder, and my instincts are rarely wrong.”
    I doubted that, given that she’d given me a police folder regarding my sister. Her gut did not know people. “So now that you’re done telling me about things. I have a question for you. Was there an orange tabby there with Miller? I’d told you that he’d been concerned about being followed by that cat, and I just had a weird –”
    “Yeah, that cat is here alright. Is it his?” she interrupted.
    “No, it’s not. That might be your first clue that something isn’t as it seems here.”
    She paused for a moment. I knew the connection was still good, because I could hear voices in the background talking about the scene. Finally,