“My husband knows, but I didn’t tell him right away,” Robin said.
“My boyfriend knows,” Val said. “He actually suspected before I told him. He’s a sheriff, and he worked with a psychic when he was down in Southern California. The real kind.”
“Right.” She was having a hard time taking everything in, but it did feel good to talk about it. It made her feel a little less on edge. “Monica, how about you?”
“My husband passed before it happened, but I have a boyfriend now, and he knows.” Monica laughed a little. “He didn’t exactly react well at first, but he’s come around now.”
“How did you convince him?”
“I helped him stop a string of serial arsons.”
“Oh right. That’s good. Not the arson, but the… stopping the arson.” Was that an empty wineglass in front of her? Not anymore, it wasn’t. Katherine refilled her glass.
“You sound stressed,” Robin said. “I think the important thing is to make some kind of connection with Megan and Toni. Even if you don’t become friends, having someone who understands what you’re going through is really important. Megan, at least, sounds like she’d be open to talking again.”
Megan seemed like a social person who would text Katherine on her phone and want to meet for lunch or have brunch or go shopping for purses together. In short, all the social things that Katherine avoided.
Then again, Megan was also likely as confused as she was, only she didn’t have three nice psychics in Glimmer Lake giving her advice.
“I’ll call her,” Katherine said. “I think she’ll be willing to talk.”
Chapter 6
Katherine got ready for work on Monday with her head full of questions and her body full of aches. She’d once taken a tumble down a steep hill on a ten-kilometer trail race when she was thirty-two.
Her body was definitely reminding her that was fifteen years ago.
“Are you sure you’re ready for work?” Baxter frowned at her over his teacup. “You experienced something traumatic four days ago.”
“What else am I going to do?” Katherine nibbled along the edge of her bagel, wishing she’d spread more cream cheese. “Sit around here and think about how much my knee hurts? Work is better. I can sit for my lecture today if I need to. I only have one class, and if I don’t make my office hours today, I’ll just have to make them up later.”
Why had she been so skimpy with the cream cheese on her bagel? Life was too short for skimping on cream cheese. Tomorrow she’d lay it on.
Baxter reached for the french press and refilled her coffee cup. “What about the Fred lab?”
“I don’t think they need me this week at all actually.”
The Fred lab was the university’s affectionate term for the research project Katherine was attached to, studying the neural pathways of cephalopods as a starting point for smart prosthetics in humans.
She hadn’t planned on studying octopus neural networks with two biomedical engineers, a marine biologist, and a neuropsychologist, but a consult had led to a fascination and an inevitable affection for the project’s mascot, Fred, a large Pacific red octopus that lived at the center.
Fred wasn’t a research subject—they had four smaller octopi that were the test subjects—but he was the unofficial mascot of their odd group, and the five scientists and the dozen or so graduate students working there were constantly devising new games to keep Fred amused.
“Job and Britt are in the middle of fabricating a prototype, so they won’t need me until they get to the programming stage and they’re not there yet.”
“That’s convenient.”
“I may go and check on Fred though. I have a puzzle in mind, and I want to ask Maria if she thinks it’s too difficult.” Professor Maria Gatan was the marine biologist in their research group and Fred’s main caretaker.
“There seem to be few puzzles that cephalopods can’t solve.” Baxter lifted his mug of tea and drained it. “Fascinating creatures.”
“Poodles.”
“Hmm?” He lowered the magazine he was skimming. “What?”
“Poodles are highly intelligent. And they don’t shed. They have hair, not fur. So no dander.”
Baxter frowned. “I’m not sure—”
“Not a large one, I don’t think. Or a very small one. They have a medium-sized poodle that would be perfect.”
He set down the magazine. “Who would pick up the… refuse?”
“Who cleans the bathrooms now?” Katherine asked. “You have many fine qualities, Professor Pang, but cleaning isn’t one of them.”
He pursed his lips. “What about London?”
“Do we have a trip scheduled?”
“No, but we go regularly. And we go to Hong Kong.” He stood and walked to the kitchen to refill his tea. “We can’t take a dog traveling with us.”
“Then I’ll ask a friend to watch the dog while we’re gone,” Katherine said. “Well-behaved, cute, fluffy dogs are usually not a hard favor to ask.”
“Who would you ask to watch a dog for us?”
Katherine opened her mouth to answer, then shut it. Who would she ask? Her sister was in San Francisco. She could hardly ask one of her graduate students—that was probably unethical. “I’m sure I could think of someone.”
This was a tad depressing. She flipped through her mental index of friends and associates, but she was having a hard time coming up with ideas. Feeding and walking a dog for a weekend wouldn’t be a stretch for one of the neighbors they were friendly with, but actual dog sitting?
“I’m sure I know someone.” She stood and poured her coffee into the travel mug Baxter had set out on the counter. “Or we could board it. I’m sure there are kennels in the area.”
“Hmm.” His mouth was set in a stern line.
Katherine couldn’t help but kiss it.
Baxter softened and smiled at her. “You do seem to keep coming back to this idea.”
“A small dog.” She put her hand on his chest. “Medium-sized. Poodles are smart and not overly needy. I’ve done my research.”
He poured the rest of his tea into the travel mug next to hers. “We’ll talk about it later.”
She glanced at his tea. “Are
