Paws and Effect (Mystic Notch 4 4) Read Free

was something that shouldn’t be there—a bone.
    “What’s that?” Striker asked, following her gaze.
    “Looks like a bone.”
    They bent down, the silver box forgotten. With relief, Willa noticed the bones were too small to be human.
    “These are tiny.” Striker gently pushed away the dirt to reveal a small skull and thin rib bones. “Cat bones.”
    Willa’s heart tugged. “What would cat bones be doing out here?”
    “Probably an animal got it. Mountain lion or coyote,” Striker said.
    “It must have been one of the feral cats.”
    Mystic Notch was home to a large population of feral cats who several town members, including Willa, volunteered to keep fed and sheltered. Unfortunately, there were many town members who wanted to hurt those cats. They saw them as wild animals and a nuisance. For this reason, the location of the various shelters that Willa and the others used for the cats was kept a closely guarded secret.
    This month the cats were being sheltered in an old building behind the church that was down the street from Willa's shop on Maine Street. They took turns feeding the cats, getting them spayed and neutered and trying to socialize them so that they could be adopted out to forever homes.
    Willa knew the life of a feral cat was fraught with danger. Any number of animals, including humans, could inflict harm on them. When she visited the feral cat shelter, she always had an eye out to see if all the known ferals were accounted for. She grieved when one turned up missing and hated to think the bones might belong to one of those cats.
    “Maybe,” Striker said. “But not recently. It looks like they’ve been here for a while. They're picked clean.”
    Striker got a small tarp from the construction area and Willa’s heart melted at how gently he removed the bones from the dirt and placed them on the tarp.
    “We’ll give it a proper burial.” Striker folded the tarp neatly.
    “Well, this is certainly the most interesting ground-breaking ceremony to hit Mystic Notch,” Hattie said over Striker’s shoulder as she watched him.
    Striker seemed distracted. Willa noticed him looking into the woods as if something was there, but when Willa followed his gaze, she saw nothing. He looked up at Hattie, then down at the small tarp, his mouth set in a grim line. “Somehow, I have a feeling things are about to get much more interesting.”

2
    S unlight poured through the bookstore window, heating Pandora’s sleek, gray fur to a perfect ninety-eight degrees. She snuggled down into her soft, shearling cat bed and soaked in the warmth like a sunbather on the Rivera.
    Pandora’s life was nearly perfect. As the official bookstore cat at Last Chance Books, Pandora enjoyed certain luxuries of which the sunny spot in the store’s window and luxury cat bed were two.
    If only she could train her human, Willa, better. With a sigh, she slit one greenish-gold eye open so she could observe Willa and Striker, who were engaged in conversation across the room.
    Pandora normally preferred to ignore the humans. Their mundane daily tasks were of no interest to her. She did, however, keep half an eye on them as she was sworn to protect them. For the most part, no protection was necessary, but there had been times when Pandora and the cats of Mystic Notch—who, like her, were sworn to protect humans—had been called upon to go above and beyond to ensure the balance of power stayed on the side of good.
    The humans went about their business, blissfully unaware of the lengths the cats had gone to and the cats preferred to keep it that way. It wouldn’t do to have humans knowing what was really going on.
    As she watched Willa and Striker, she noticed the conversation seemed awkward—strained, somehow. She opened her eye a little wider. It was as if Striker was distracted, trying to keep Willa away from something and Willa was suspicious, noticing Striker’s strange behavior.
    Pandora raised her awareness just a tad to listen