“You must be right,” he said. “She was the only one who didn’t want to be here.”
They walked around the garage and found themselves in the beginning of the formal garden area. It was nicely manicured with carefully laid out paths. Statues and topiaries were illuminated, helping to show the edges of the winding trails.
“There must be an acre of garden.” Steve stood still in the rain and looked at the yard. “How are we going to find it?”
“There won’t be a lot of digging going on in the garden this time of year. I’m sure they have it cleaned up. Julie’s very particular. We should be able to see any place the soil’s been disturbed. It’ll be easy.”
An hour later, they were still looking. The lights went off in the house, but the rain was still falling. A cold wind began to blow in from the north, creating tiny icicles in the trees. The decorative lights picked them out, making prisms in the ice.
Peggy was on her hands and knees, shining the flashlight between rosebushes and birdbaths. A few spots looked promising but ended up being new plantings. Apparently there was more fall work than she’d anticipated.
“I don’t know if we can find it like this,” Steve said. “Maybe I could ask Emma where she buried the cat. I could tell her I need it for research or something.”
“You’d say anything to go home right now, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am. Even my goose bumps are frozen and wet. And I don’t see how we’ll find it in all of this. It’s like a maze.”
Peggy laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ll find it. And for the record, I don’t think anyone would respond well to you asking to do research on their dead cat.”
“It was just a thought. My brain is mostly frozen, so it might not have been the
“I think I found it!” She interrupted his misery to point the flashlight at a small mound of red clay beside the statue of an angel reading a book. A purple mum was in full flower beside it. “There’s even a little cross. This has to be it.”
Steve hoped so and applied the shovel carefully. The ground was soft and wet as Peggy predicted. It only took a moment to dig up a small wood box. “Either they bury their wine or this could be the cat.”
“Let’s open it.” Peggy dropped down beside it, already too wet and muddy to care. “It’s the right size. How does it open?”
“It slides.” He demonstrated, pushing the flat panel open. “And voila! A dead cat.”
She looked at the partially decomposed animal. It was wrapped in a yellow scarf. “Is it the right cat?”
“Looks like it to me.”
“Are you only saying that so we can leave?” She glanced up at him.
“No, of course not. It’s the same cat. Can we leave now?”
“Peggy, I’m in a stranger’s backyard digging up their dead cat. Why would I bother lying to you now? If it isn’t the
She closed the wood panel and struggled out of the mud to get to her feet. “Okay. Let’s cover it up and get out of here.”
Before they could move, the back door to the house opened. The bright yellow light from inside alerted them. Steve dropped down to the ground beside Peggy, putting his arm around her. Peggy snapped off the flashlight. They crouched down close to the bushes, hoping they wouldn’t be noticed.
A tiny figure in a dark poncho walked down the path from the house. The fairy lights in the garden illuminated her footsteps. She walked by close enough to touch Steve and Peggy, but the darkness protected them. Not wasting any time in the terrible weather, she opened the guesthouse and went inside.
“Let’s get out of here,” Steve whispered. He made sure Peggy was out of the way and closed the hole in a few seconds. “Thank God. Next time you ask me to do something with dead bodies, remind me to say no.”
She kissed his cold, wet cheek. “I will.”
They ran quietly out of the yard the same way they went in, careful to stay clear of the guesthouse, where one light burned in the window. Peggy felt safe once they put the garage between them and the house. They climbed the fence, sliding on the icy mud as they reached the neighbor’s yard. Steve took her arm, and they ran the rest of the way back to the Saturn.
Once they got there, Peggy felt guilty about the mess she was about to make in his car. She hesitated after the door was open. Maybe she should walk home. It wasn’t that far. He’d never get all the mud out if she sat down.
“Don’t worry about it.” Steve pushed himself behind the wheel. The muddy shovel was already in the backseat. “Autobell does a fine job of cleaning the car.”
She laughed as she got in. “Am I that transparent?”
He leaned close and kissed her. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s that I feel I’ve known you my whole life.”
“It’s possible, you know. I’m older than you.”
“Good thing.” He started the car. “If you were younger, I couldn’t keep up with you.”
IT TOOK TWO DAYS to get the results back from the independent lab. The cat was poisoned with anemonin.
