“I’m going to prepare some food for the Angel’s Wings Shelter for the Homeless. Christmas will be here, and without Kath—” Her voice broke and she turned away.
I nodded, feeling only slightly like a heel for asking the question.
“Darla, you’re welcome to come to Zinnia,” Millie said. “You can stay with me. I hate to think of you here alone.”
“That’s very kind.” Darla dashed her tears away with the back of her hand and stood taller. “I’ll be fine. This is the hard part of really having a friend of the heart. To care for someone so much leaves you wide open for terrible heartache.” She inhaled and forced a smile. “Enough doom and gloom. Tell me more about what happened. I should have gone with y’all instead of letting my depression get the better of me and going to the grocery store. I would have given a lot to see Clarissa’s face when that arrow almost got her.”
“She was frazzled,” Harold said. “As were all of her guests.”
“How close did the arrow come?” Darla asked.
“The second one nicked her ear,” Jaytee said. He’d taken a seat at the breakfast nook and was busy unsacking the groceries and organizing them. When Darla opened another set of cabinets, I saw that she, too, was obsessive about organization. The canned goods were put away in alphabetical order, by vegetable and can size. She even took the time to move the older cans to the front as she put the new ones in back. I, on the other hand, just jammed things onto shelves, which sometimes resulted in cans of tomatoes on the verge of explosion. The way I looked at it, it just kept life interesting.
Darla opened a bag of cat food and poured some kibble into a bowl for Gumbo. The little kitty daintily crunched a nugget or two, and then turned to the kitchen window that looked out on the pool and patio area. The kitty jumped up above the sink and batted at the window, obviously asking to go out.
“Did Kathleen let her kitty go outside?” I asked.
Darla shook her head. “No, she has to be inside. I promised Kathleen that if anything ever happened, I’d keep Gumbo safe.” Tears brimmed, but she blinked them away. “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to her cat.”
“I understand,” Tinkie said gently. She rubbed Darla’s back lightly. “Gumbo will adjust to being indoors here. This is a wonderful home for her.”
“I’m going to check the trunk to be sure we got everything,” Jaytee said.
“Thanks.” Darla gave him a wan smile.
The minute Jaytee opened the back door, Gumbo leaped from the window, hitting the floor halfway across the kitchen. She was out the door before Jaytee even knew to be on guard.
“Gumbo!” We all cried the cat’s name as Darla and I darted after her. I saw the tip of her tail disappearing around a neatly trimmed bottlebrush plant. My legs were longer than Darla’s, and I scurried after Gumbo, with Darla following behind me.
“Kitty, kitty, kitty!” I called. “Kitty, kitty.”
Darla, too, called for the feline, but Gumbo paid no attention to either of us. She streaked across the patio and through the dense hedge. She was gone before I had half a chance to convince her to come to me.
“I’ll go around the hedge,” I told Darla. “I need a flashlight.”
She hurried inside and returned with a small flashlight. Once we left the patio, the yard sloped gently to the bluff overlooking the river. While it was a large, well-maintained lawn, it was also inky dark. Away from the patio illumination, I couldn’t see what was in front of my face. I could run into a shrub or step in a hole and break my neck. The flashlight helped, but overhanging limbs caught in my hair and brushed my face. The big benefit of the flashlight was that I might be able to pick up the cat’s golden eyes.
Tinkie, Cece, Jaytee, Harold, and Millie came out on the patio, braving the brisk wind that blew up off the river, to keep an eye out for the little cat. Darla was beside herself. Her agitation would send the cat running in the opposite direction. Cats were like that. They didn’t like any drama unless they created it. “Darla, maybe you could get some food to rattle for her.” I needed to get her away from the cat’s hiding place if I ever intended to get my hands on the kitty.
“Of course,” she said, hurrying inside.
I made it around the dense hedge that marked the parameters of the patio and walked toward the river. The drop-off on the bluff was very steep, and I didn’t believe the cat would attempt the zigzagging stairs that seemed to cling to the clay bank of the river in a very precarious way.
I swung the beam of the flashlight from left to right, hoping to see the cat’s eyes. The skin along my arms prickled. I had the sense I was being watched. It was the same sensation I’d experienced before.
Out on the street in front of the B and B, I heard yelling. I couldn’t be certain but it sounded like Coleman … and another man. An argument. I decided to give Gumbo one last try before I had to rush back to see what was going on with Coleman. I knelt down and aimed the flashlight into the thickest part of the hedge. Gumbo looked back at me.
She was curled up in a piece of cloth tucked in the compost at the base of the hedge. I reached into the bush and grabbed the kitty. She was purring and didn’t offer any resistance. When I drew her out, she dragged what looked like a stocking cap with her.
I tucked the kitty inside my costume and coat, calmed by the loud purr Gumbo made. She truly didn’t object to being captured, thank goodness. When I turned the flashlight on
