Cat In A White Tie And Tails

“You always were by the book, Carmen. We fought about that even in L.A. I’m no saint, never was, but I come here and find out you’re playing two iffy guys against each other, having them investigate each other. And me. What’s the matter? You don’t trust men, right? Especially men you’re attracted to.”

She drew on her patented laser-paralyzing, icy-hot blue glare. Worked on the job. “You sure you want to rattle my cage this badly, Rafi? Isn’t there a little something you want from me?”

“A little support and humanity would be nice. I’m sure Mariah would second me on that at the moment.”

Her head snapped back, her rarely worn, thin hoop earrings striking her neck. She’d trained herself to be impassive or aggressive, as called for by her job. That wasn’t working here, with Rafi, and it was no longer working at home, with Mariah. Her fingers twined around the other hand, clenched in a fist. It was a prayerful gesture, she realized, maybe even pleading.

“Give me time.”

“Thirteen years out of my daughter’s life is way more than enough ‘time.’ I will post your ‘debut’ on YouTube if you don’t ease up on Mariah.”

“That’s despicable.”

“Maybe that’s what you need to drive us both to where we need to be, Mariah and me.”

“All right,” she said, drawing a deep breath.

“‘All right,’ what?”

Rafi’s wary suspicion had insulted her at first, and then it had made her very, very sorry. For the first time she could take out and turn over and touch her regret for abandoning him on such an emotional impulse. Maybe the hormonal earthquakes of being unexpectedly pregnant had something … a lot … to do with it.

“It’s not a bad idea,” she said, stunned to hear herself sound so calm. “Instead of reading Mariah the riot act on her American Idol dreams, I’ll let her pursue them. Within limits.” Fierce again. “She … met you at the reality TV teen competition. I’ll let you, will suggest, you’ll work with her on her … aspirations. Within limits.”

“Okay.” He was smiling at her, she didn’t understand why, after all the empty years, but it made him look handsome and even kind. “Can I ask—within limits—if you’ll stand up and sing with the band tonight? Just a casual number. They’ve been glancing our way every sixty seconds. They miss you.”

She gave them another regretful glance. So much had been expendable in her life.

“And Carmen,” he said as she rose. “I’d suggest you start working up that oldie, ‘Begin the Beguine.’ That would get this place on the map.”

“And me?”

“On YouTube for sure.”

He laughed as she made a face and walked toward the guys in the band.

They were grinning like idiots and she had missed them and the music so much, she could scream. She guessed she’d sing instead.

Chapter 23

The Second Coming

Planning a triumphal return is where I excel, particularly when it is my own.

I have no doubt that consternation must be running amok, particularly on my Miss Temple’s part, when the residents and visitors to the apartment in Pulaski Park discover I am not merely hiding out in an insanely clever spot no human could discern with the naked eye or nose, but that I am totally gone … kit, caboodle, and carrier.

Knowing what dismay my kidnappers caused my nearest and dearest led me to annihilate them without mercy and to literally “nail” them. Street smarts now have led me into the proper neighborhood. Finding the exact address is no problem, since I am an … ahem … eidetic-savant.

Now, if Miss Midnight Louise were here, she would jump on that assertion, as well as my back. No, I did not mean “idiot-savant.” That is a human stunted on all sorts of everyday knowledge but a genius in one particular area, usually music or mathematics. This eidetic-savant just never forgets a thing, especially my own scent and trail.