I leaned back, gazing down at her. I wanted to kiss her.
Or maybe whatever it was Lilith had put in that smoke was making me crazy.
A hungry meow sounded from Emmie’s feet.
“I was going to take Moose back to your aunt’s,” she explained.
I tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.
“I think he’d rather stay with you than in the cat hostel.” She wrinkled her nose.
I leaned down to nuzzle her briefly, wishing I could press my mouth to hers.
My heart was still racing. I settled for wrapping an arm tightly around her waist.
“Let me take you out to dinner,” I offered.
“You don’t have to. You’ve gone above and beyond.”
“I want to.” I looked down at her, deciding, fuck it, actually I would kiss her. This had been the week of terrible life choices and, aggravatingly, reverting to the person I’d been in high school, so why the hell not?
“Let me take you out,” I murmured, cupping her cheek, leaning in…
Angry yowls sounded as Moose took off, harness jingling as he raced into the dark alley.
“Moose, no!” I yelled, swearing as I ran after him, Emmie behind me.
“It’s probably just a rat he heard,” Emmie called after me as I advanced cautiously in the dark alley.
“I thought I replaced that light,” I hissed as Emmie’s phone flashlight shone into the alley.
Instead of a rat, though, Moose was yowling and spitting as he cornered a dark figure.
Emmie screamed when she realized what Moose was doing.
The figure was trying to escape, but he couldn’t because of Moose and his sharp teeth and claws.
“And they say you need a dog if you want protection.” I grabbed the smaller figure and hauled them up to slam them against the metal door to Emmie’s kitchen. There was that smell of almonds. “Returning to the scene of the crime.” I pulled at the hood and cap hiding their face.
Emmie exclaimed in surprise as the murderer dropped the spray bottle they were carrying and started sobbing. “I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know what to do. I was pushed to the edge. I was in over my head. I was overwhelmed!”
“Alice?” Emmie peered at her fellow feral-cat-committee member.
“Please don’t tell Gertrude,” the other woman sobbed.
“I don’t understand. Why did you kill Brooks?” I frowned.
“I didn’t kill him.” Alice was taken aback. “I didn’t have anything to do with the murder.”
“Then what are you doing here, smelling like cyanide?”
“Oh, this?” Alice picked up the spray bottle. “It was just to help the café cats accept the new cats.”
“New cats?”
Moose was hissing and spitting at the large plastic box near the door. Out of one of the holes in the plastic box, a paw reached.
“The white cat. You’ve been dumping cats here,” Emmie said accusingly. “After you protested in front of my shop and called me a murderer,you’rethe one abandoning cats.”
