Dog-Eared Delinquent

Chapter Eighteen

Officer Bouchard gave me a ride home in his cruiser, seeing as my captors had relieved me of both my phone and my car keys. When we pulled up, Nan raced down the porch steps and pulled me to her chest.

“I was so worried,” she sobbed into my hair, then reared back and hit me on the chest. “Never, ever do that to me again.”

“Thank you, Officer,” I said with a small yet appreciative smile, even though inside my heart was still broken. Every minute that ticked away without me knowing the location of my best feline friend only broke it further. It had been nearly an hour since Officer Bouchard found me with my hands up inside of Mr. Gable’s shop. After I’d given him Peter’s name, he let me search the downtown area far and wide while he called in the new lead.

Sadly, despite my frantic searching, Octo-Cat was still nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Octavius?” Nan asked, leading me inside with one arm draped across my shoulders.

“I-I-I don’t know,” I sputtered.

“Oh, dear,” she said, her mouth pressed in a thin line. “First tea, then you can catch me up on everything.”

I waited on the couch while Nan tended to the kettle. A short while later, she pressed a mug of hibiscus tea into my waiting hands.

“For strength,” she said, settling in beside me on the stiff couch. “Now go ahead whenever you’re ready, dear.”

I’d held back in sharing the full details of my story with Officer Bouchard, but with Nan, I spared no detail. By the time I reached the part where I’d decided to inform the authorities rather than give in to Peter and Moss’s demands, Nan wore a giant grin.

“I’m so proud of you, dear one. You did everything right.” She hugged me to her side and pressed a kiss onto my forehead.

“But Octo-Cat,” I argued, feeling like the worst pet owner in the entire world.

Nan waited for me to look up at her, then said, “You and I both know he’s no ordinary cat. He’s resourceful and smart, and don’t forget that he’s also tough as nails.”

I sniffed as the one person I loved most in this whole wide world soothed my tears. She would never even dream of lying to me. If she said Octo-Cat was going to be okay, then I knew he’d somehow find a way to get home again. We would find him, or he would find us. I simply couldn’t accept any other outcome.

With great difficulty and a good deal of support from my nan, I finally headed to bed. Of course, Nan entered my tower bedroom several times throughout the night, making one ridiculous excuse after the other as to why she’d stopped in. It made me feel better, though, knowing she was there, that she’d always be there.

Even if Octo-Cat wasn’t.

I hardly slept a wink, thinking every sound I heard might be Octo-Cat coming back to me. By the time the sun rose, I’d driven myself mad with worry.

A couple hours into the day, Nan came into my room with a mug of coffee and a freshly baked scone and sat beside me petting my hair as she spoke. “I already called in sick to your work, and I figured since you’re so sleepy, I can be the one to drive us around as we continue the search.”

“Thank you, Nan,” I managed around a deep yawn. I tried to stand but fell back toward the bed in exhaustion. My limbs simply felt too heavy to move all on my own.

“Sit for a spell,” she instructed, tucking me back beneath the covers. “Finish your breakfast, and while you do that, I’ll start calling around to all the local shelters.”

She headed back toward the stairs, but I called for her to stop.

“Stay,” I pleaded. “I don’t think I can be alone.”

“All righty, then.” Nan nodded, settled herself at the end of my bed, and whipped out her cellphone. “We’ll find him,” she promised again as she placed a call to the first shelter on her list and waited through the rings.

One by one, the shelters all said they hadn’t found our cat yet, but they would call if he turned up. With each failed outreach, my heart splintered even further. I needed to know that he was okay, that my rash decision hadn’t cost him everything.

Once Nan had finished calling every shelter in the region, she placed her phone in my hands and said, “You should keep mine until you can get a new one. You need it more than I do.”

I nodded and finished the coffee with a giant gulp, then tried to stand again. This time I didn’t fall. Progress, at least.

“Let’s get out there,” I told Nan, reaching for the handrail to guide me safely down the stairs. “I can’t wait another moment.”

That was when the phone rang.

In my excitement to answer, I dropped it down the stairs.

Nan raced after it and managed to answer before the caller hung up. She faced me with wide, animated eyes as she spoke.

I stood at the top of the stairs and waited, trying not to get my hopes up too much.

A giant smile filled Nan’s face as she said, “Yes, that sounds like our guy. We’ll be there on the first ferry over.”

She hung up and held the phone out to me as I raced down the stairs, stumbling as I went but not clumsily enough to fall. “Did somebody find him?”

Nan nodded brightly. “A small vet’s office on Caraway Island of all places.

Caraway Island? How would he have gotten there? I know he wouldn’t have braved that kind of swim, and the public ferry stopped running after eight o’clock.

“Someone definitely took him out there on purpose,” I said through clenched teeth. “And I’m pretty sure I know exactly who did it.”

“Oh, dear.” Nan hummed a beat, then said, “Where are your priorities? First, let’s bring our fella home, and then we can make sure those crooks pay.”

We had to wait a solid hour for the next ferry, but the trip out to Blueberry Bay’s only local island was a quick one at least. The vet’s office wasn’t hard to find, either.

“We scanned his microchip and called right away,” one of the techs explained. Thank goodness I had updated the information to include both my number and Nan’s after I’d officially adopted him. Otherwise they would have gotten a dead number that belonged to his dead former owner. I also wondered whether my phone was still active and if the bad guys still had it with them.

“Where is he?” I asked, glancing around the small office anxiously. “Is he okay? I can’t wait to see him!”

Nan and I held hands while the tech returned to the back and then re-entered with a struggling Octo-Cat held in her arms. “He’s got a bit of an attitude, this one,” she said with a laugh.

“Octo-Cat!” I cried with relief. Yes, cried. I was crying yet again, but I was also far too happy to be embarrassed by it. “I missed you so much!”

He let me pick him up and even purred as I cuddled him to my chest.

“You had us really worried there, old boy,” Nan said, giving him a scratch beneath his chin.

“Meow,” he told her with a loving gaze. Nan always had been one of his favorites.

We thanked the vet and headed back to the parking lot. I couldn’t wait to get the full story from Octo-Cat. As soon as we were all safely tucked within Nan’s little red sports coupe, I placed him on my lap and said, “Tell us everything!”

He didn’t answer; instead, he appeared tense as he stretched his head up carefully to peer out the front window.

“Octo-Cat,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Stop being weird. We were so worried about you. I’m sorry about everything that happened, but I’m just so glad you’re okay.”

“Meow,” he said sullenly.

“Hey, I know you’re probably mad at me right now, but please, can you at least tell us what happened after the jewelry shop last night. You know, for Nan’s sake?” I waited breathlessly. If he wanted to yell kitty curses at me, I would dutifully sit here and take it. After all, this was my fault. I deserved the worst.

Octo-Cat tilted his head to one side and meowed again.

That was when I realized the worst had already happened.

My cat could no longer understand me.

The magical residue that Moss had told me about had finally worn off. I’d lost the one thing that made me special, and with it, the best friend I had ever had. Something important in me had died, and I’d need a miracle to get it back.

Surely, there had to be a way.

I couldn’t accept any other outcome.

We would fix this, Octo-Cat and me. We would fix everything.

Failure was simply not an option.