Lilian Jackson Braun - Cat 11 Who Lived High

Ignoring them, he moved from room to room, warily. In the library both the desk lamp and a floor lamp were unaccountably lit - as were a pair of accent lamps on the foyer console, the buffet lamp in the dining room, and the bedlamps in both sleeping rooms. The French doors to the living room were closed, as he had left them, and the area was in darkness, likewise the kitchen. He examined closets, then went out on the terrace and explored its entire length, passing the French doors of 14-B. His neighbor's blinds were closed, but light glowed through dimly. The huddled mass in a dark corner of the terrace turned out to be a cluster of large empty plant pots.

Qwilleran stroked his moustache in puzzlement and returned to 14-A. Who could have entered - and why? Did someone know he was being taken to dinner by SOCK? Did they have a key to his apartment? But why would they leave all the lights blazing?... unless they were interrupted and made a quick getaway.

At that moment he heard the door of 14-B open and close. He rushed out to the elevator lobby, but there was no one there-merely the evidence that Keestra Hedrog had put her rubbish container outside the door.

Mystified, Qwilleran returned to the kitchen to give the Siamese a taste of squid; the chef had wrapped enough food for three days. But he was too late. The cream-colored napkin lay on the floor, and the foil wrapper was open and licked clean, while two satisfied gourmands sat nearby, washing up, with not the slightest indication that they felt any guilt.

On the contrary, they seemed proud of themselves.

5

"YOU GUYS HAD a picnic last night!" Qwilleran said grudgingly on Monday morning as he opened a can of boned chicken for the Siamese. " After stuffing yourselves with all that food, you don't deserve breakfast!" Yet, Koko was prowling as if he had fasted for a week, and Yum Yum was clawing Qwilleran's pantleg.

"What I want to know is this: Which one of you two turned on all the lights?" While he was dining at Roberto's with Amber, Koko or Yum Yum or both of them had discovered that most of the lamps in 14-A had touch-switches, and the scamps had run from one to the other making them light up. No doubt they expected to make this a nightly romp, but Qwilleran foiled them. Before retiring he cat-proofed all the lamps by turning off thumb-switches or disconnecting plugs, at the same time making the observation that touch-switches were not practical in households dominated by felines.

After that he had some difficulty in falling asleep. He was not accustomed to a waterbed, and he lay there expecting to drown... listening to the periodic clanking of the radiators as the boilers sent up another burst of steam...

hearing the drone of traffic on the nearby freeway... counting the number of police and ambulance sirens... wondering why the helicopter was hovering overhead... recognizing an occasional gunshot. He had lived too long in the country.

Eventually he fell asleep and slept until the yowling outside his bedroom door told him to shuffle out into the kitchen and open that can of boned chicken. While searching for the can opener, he discovered a Japanese slicer with a tapered blade and light wood handle, similar to those in the mushroom paintings. He carried it into the gallery - as he preferred to call the sunken living room - to compare, and he was right. Koko followed him and sniffed the bloodstain, opening his mouth and showing his teeth.

"Get away from that!" Qwilleran ordered, and put his shoulder to the bar once more to cover the stain. Then he changed his mind. It was an awkward location for a bar. He nudged it back again into a more suitable position and covered the stain with a rug from the library - an Indian dhurrie in pale colors that blended with the mushroom carpet.

Shooing the cat from the gallery, he closed the French doors.

Yum Yum was now batting some small object about the floor of the foyer. Koko might have a notably investigative nose, but Yum Yum had a notably meddlesome paw. Rings, watches, and coins - as well as bottle caps and paper clips - were within her realm of interest, and any sudden activity that gave her pleasure was suspect. This time it was an ivory- colored tile less than an inch square - not exactly square but slightly rectangular, and not ivory or ceramic but a light- weight wood in a smooth, pale finish. Qwilleran confiscated it, to Yum Yum's disappointment, and dropped it in his sweater pocket.