Bad Intentions Read Free Page A

We need to make that call. You can't spend your time looking after a kitten now, are you out of your mind?"
    Reilly paid no attention to him. He strode back to the cabin still holding the kitten. It weighed only a few grams. Reilly half closed his hand again. The kitten clawed his palm.
    "Do we have any milk?"
    "No," Axel said. "And cats aren't supposed to drink milk anyway, they need water, otherwise they get fat. And anyway, cow's milk is too hard for them to digest."
    "Fat?" Reilly opened his hand. "Do you see how skinny he is? He weighs nothing."
    Axel walked past him and into the cabin. Reilly followed him. He held the creature like a freshly laid egg, his entire lanky, lumbering body focusing on the tiny animal. He opened a cupboard and rummaged among boxes and bags.
    "Powdered milk?" he said.
    "No," Axel said.
    "Condensed milk?"
    "We don't have that either."
    Reilly was starting to look despondent.
    "We didn't manage to save Jon," he said, "but we can save this one. One life for another. The Koran says so. We need a shoebox and a towel," he added. "Do we have a box?"
    "Put it down," Axel ordered him. "We need to talk. We need to get our story straight. Could you concentrate for five minutes, please? Why did you bring the kitten inside? What were you thinking? Are you on something?"
    Reilly ignored him.
    "Water," he said. "Find a bowl. I'll make mush out of some bread-crumbs. You brought a loaf of bread, didn't you?"
    He placed the kitten on the kitchen counter where it remained
on wobbly legs. He found an empty cake tin decorated with Disney figures on the top shelf. He recognized Cinderella, Snow White and Pinocchio.
    "This will be fine," he said. "This box is crying out for an inhabitant."
    Axel was holding his cell phone. He looked frazzled.
    "The question is who do we call?" he said. "The police or the hospital? Or his mom? What do you think, Reilly? Hello! Could you pay attention for a moment, please, I'm trying to save your skin!"
    "Save my skin?" Reilly said.
    "This would never have happened if you hadn't started talking about Islam," Axel said. "You said time was running out. You said judgment was approaching."
    "You were the one who wanted to go rowing," Reilly said.
    He turned away from Axel Frimann. He gave the kitten something to drink. He found a tea towel on a hook and made a small nest in the cake tin. Then he carefully placed the kitten inside it. It coiled up instantly. For a while he admired the little animal, which had now quenched its thirst and settled down. He had been unaware that he had such a talent for caregiving. It was enormously inspiring.
    "What do we do about its mother?" he said, "and the dead kittens?"
    "Who says you need to do anything about them?" Axel held out his mobile. "Get real, will you?"
    "But the fox will get them," Reilly fretted.
    "Of course. That's his nature."
    "We could cover them up. Or bury them."
    "The fox would sniff them out," Axel said. "You know that."
    Reilly admired the kitten in the cake tin. A gray and white ball of fluff on a checkered tea towel. A small furry miracle.
    "You do the talking," he mumbled. "You know best."
    Axel rang the number of the hospital where Jon had been a patient for four weeks. His voice was filled with concern while he explained what had happened.
    "We got up at nine," he said. "And discovered that his room was empty."

Chapter 4
    W HILE THEY WAITED they wandered up and down the forest paths.
    Reilly studied Axel and the way he walked. He strode around energetically as though rehearsing for a performance he was about to give. The role of the calm but concerned friend of Jon Moreno.
    "I might have been able to pull him out," Reilly said. "If you hadn't stopped me."
    Axel dismissed it. "Jon would have fought you," he said. "Besides, he was wearing a reefer jacket and thick lace-up boots, and you were wearing a knitted sweater as thick as a coat. We were a long way from the shore. We would not have been able to save him. It would have