The Tell-Tail Heart: A Cat Cozy (Cattarina Mysteries) Read Free Page B

shuddering and seizing with each little cough as it relaxed into a
fitful sleep. I longed to heal her but didn't know how. Yes, I loved Sissy, but
I loved Eddie even more, and losing her would cast a shadow over his heart that
nothing, not even a litter of suns, would banish. That's why I hated to leave
her.
    But the eye had possessed me.
    I tiptoed downstairs in the dark, moving like mist
over the floorboards. I'd taught myself how to open the front door latch,
letting myself in and out of the house at will. However, the office latch was
nearly impenetrable. I knew because I'd tried it before. With no nearby
bookshelf from which to launch myself, obtaining the proper trajectory and
momentum had proved difficult in the past. Still, I had to—
    Scratch, scrape, scratch , scrape .
    I paused in the hall, listening to a sound I
hadn't heard in days. I hastened to Eddie's office door and found it ajar,
firelight streaming through the opening—a welcome sight, as he'd left the
room unoccupied for days. I slipped inside to find my companion at his desk,
quill pen in hand, furiously scribbling upon the page. But what had lifted his
melancholy? When I leapt onto his desk, I found my answer. He'd set the eyeball
near the ink blotter where it watched him.
    At once, jealousy struck me. Watching Eddie was my job. I batted the thing and knocked it to the floor, startling him. He looked
up, his hair mussed, his cravat askew.
    "Catters? I didn't see you come in."
    I meowed softly, so as not to wake the women.
    Eddie set aside his pen, retrieved the eye, and
sat down again with it. "Imagine, the last person to touch this was a
murderer. Isn't it marvelous?"
    Firelight glinted off the glass bauble, bringing
it to life between his ink-stained fingers. For an instant, I wondered if it
could see us. I dismissed the thought with a switch of my tail. Preposterous.
Though if Eddie hadn't taken such a liking to it, I might've carried it to the
garden and buried it—just in case.
    "In any event, it's got me writing again,"
he said to me, "and I have you to thank for it." He scratched me
between the ears and gave me a rare smile. I liked his teeth, small and square
and not the least bit threatening. When he finished petting me, he set his new
muse on the desk and picked up his pen again. "If you'll excuse me, I'm
deep in the middle of outlining and can't go to bed until I'm done."
    I paced the desktop and let him write. I'd gone
from liking the eyeball to hating it in the span of a good yawn. But if it gave
Eddie a reason to write, I'd fill the house with them. With this in mind, I
disappeared down the hall, jumped to the bookshelf by the door, and sprang the
front latch on the second try. If I hurried, I'd reach Shakey House Tavern
before it closed. Whoever dropped the eye might've dropped another one. And
Eddie would be very, very pleased to own it.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    Trouble
by the Tail
     
    B y the time I'd backtracked
along Coates to Nixon, the roads had emptied of all beasts sensible enough to
shelter from the dipping temperatures. Ziggety-zagging south, I scampered along
a combination of alleys and main thoroughfares to reach Shakey House in about
the time it takes Muddy's dumplings to boil. While a more efficient route existed,
it would've taken me near the Eastern State Penitentiary. While most two-legged
citizens considered it a marvel of construction, I stayed clear of it. A large
tom named Big Blue lived behind the building, and I didn't know if he'd
appreciate an interloper crossing through his territory.
    At Callowhill, I skittered around two salted
meat barrels and ran down the block toward my destination. The way Eddie had
bound eyeball and murder together, I deduced that one human had slain
another over the object. Which meant tonight, I tracked a killer. Whether or
not this put me in harm's way, I didn't know.
    I reached Shakey House in time to catch the last
patron—Mr. Abbott—leaving. He ignored me and hurried