A Paw-sible Theory

“There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats.”

––Anonymous

CHAPTER SIX: Too Much Said

Maggie put the phone on speaker while she refilled our empty food and water bowls.

“Ethan, it’s almost seven o’clock, where are you?”

He said he was still at the police station but would be leaving shortly and asked if there was any change in Alyx’s condition.

“No, Ethan; she was the same when I left her,” Maggie answered in a matter-of-fact way. The conversation ended; she slipped the phone in her purse; and picked up the magazine she had brought along and left the room.

Finished with dinner, I padded to my favorite chair for a nap and found it occupied; Maggie was sitting in it, her head bowed almost as if praying, though she had never struck me as the religious type.

She lifted her head when I landed on the arm of the chair. “She has to wake up, Murfy. I can’t handle it all. Ethan might be in trouble. Smarts asked too many questions about him, and I may have given him too much information.” She shook her head as if trying to shake the thought out.

Tired from all the activity, I ambled to my favorite hiding spot under Alyx’s bed and tried to sort out what happened as best I could. I woke up when I heard Ethan’s voice, surprised that I had actually fallen asleep. Apparently, all that thinking had exhausted me, and I realized that I didn’t have as much control over my natural make-up as I thought I did.

I scampered to the living room so as not to miss anything and in case I did, Misty was already there.

“What happened at the police station? Why did it take so long to give a statement and get fingerprinted?” Maggie asked Ethan.

“To begin with, I waited for over an hour for Detective Smarts to show up and when he finally did, we were constantly interrupted by some other cop or ringing phone.” Ethan sat forward a little. “He said they interviewed the neighbors as to what they saw or heard. And they checked the house and pot fragments for finger prints.”

Ethan hesitated a moment as if the thought had just occurred to him, and panic crept in his voice. “You know, they were asking me questions like I might have had something to do with it.”

Maggie appeared to dismiss the idea. “That’s absurd. You? Hurt your mother?”

“It’s not that ridiculous; they interviewed me for two hours and kept asking me the same questions over and over. They took my fingerprints and Smarts commented on the fact that there was no evidence of a break-in; whoever it was got in with a key or someone let them in. Since I made the pot used to hit her, my fingerprints are all over it and the rest of the house. Add to that, nothing was taken, nothing was disturbed.”

“How do you know it’s one of your pots?”

“I recognized the fragments. You told me at the hospital that they fingerprinted you too. Did Smarts say why?”

“He said it was because we were the ones who found her, whatever that means.”

Ethan walked to the window and looked out. A puzzled look wrinkled his brow when he turned to face Maggie.

“He asked me about my bout with depression. He wouldn’t tell me how he knew, but I guessed it must have been you. The neighbors don’t know. Why did you tell him?”

“It just came out. He asked if you and your mother did any fighting and one thing led to another. I’m sorry, Ethan. I shouldn’t have said anything but even if I hadn’t, they would have found out somehow.”

“I thought medical records were confidential. I guess it doesn’t matter now, but I don’t think they would have. And if that wasn’t bad enough, they checked my credit and found out I’m in over my head.”

“I don’t know anything about that. Does your mother know?”

He shrugged. “I think she might have an idea. That’s what she wanted to talk to me about this morning.”

He slowly paced back to his seat. “I don’t get it. What do you think happened, Maggie? Do you have any idea who might have wanted to hurt Mom?”

“I don’t know; your mom never even hinted at any problems with anyone, and I certainly never saw a problem with any of the people we know.”

“What about that confrontation with Dan Ramsey at the Downtown Merchants Association meeting a couple of months ago?”

“Yes, there’s that, but I really don’t think he had murder on his mind. Did you mention it to Detective Smarts?”

“No, I forgot. Did you?”

She shook her head. “I forgot, too.”

“That Detective Smarts kept referring to the fact that there was no evidence of a break-in, no evidence of a struggle. He asked me if I knew of anyone she might have given a key to the house.”

She looked down at her shoes. When she didn’t say anything, he continued, “I thought Mom gave you a key when she and Charvette went to that antique show in Georgia.”

Still, no comment from Maggie.

“I guess you gave it back, so that just leaves me with a key to the house.”

She looked away. “That’s to be expected; you’re her son, and you should have a key to the house.”

I wondered why Maggie acted so strange when Ethan asked her about the key. It was no big deal if she didn’t give the key back, so why?

When Ethan told Maggie he had decided it would be best if he stayed at the house so he could take care of us, and to make the hospital trips easier, she looked at him in alarm.

“Do you think that’s a good idea? We don’t know what happened here, Ethan. What if whoever did that to your mom comes back?” She reached for his hand. “Ethan, I don’t feel right about you staying here.”

He pulled his hand back and sank to the floor, flat on his back. I signaled Misty and we crept over closer to Ethan.

“Don’t worry,” he said; “I’ll be okay. Besides, I have the cats to protect me.” We meowed in agreement, bringing a smile to the humans’ faces.

“See? They agree,” he said.

Maggie didn’t push it any further. “Okay, I can see you’ve made up your mind.”

Ethan looked exhausted, as if the day’s events had hit him all at once.

“This has been a very long day,” Maggie said. “Why don’t you go lie down while I make something to eat?”

Ethan didn’t argue. Maggie waited for him to close the bedroom door, checked her phone, and walked out to the lanai to make a call. I slipped thru the door before she closed it and took cover next to the ornamental tree in the corner, not exactly hidden but not in full view either. Maggie conveniently sat at the bistro table next to the tree, and I edged closer so I could hear both sides of the conversation.

“Hi, George; it’s Maggie. I’m just calling to thank you for the wonderful dinner last night. I had no idea you were such a good cook.”

The name George didn’t ring a bell at first, and then I remembered. George Lucas was Alyx’s friend, the man who turned “trash into cash,” so to speak.

“It was my pleasure, Maggie,” I could hear his voice respond weakly through the phone. “I hope we can do it again, soon.”

“I’d like that very much but something awful has happened and I’m afraid I may not have time to see you.”

It sounded like an excuse but George didn’t seem to take it that way.

“What happened, Maggie?”

Maggie told him the whole story. She concluded with, “I’m at Alyx’s house now, and I convinced Ethan to take a nap. I swear, George, that boy has a stubborn streak in him that makes it hard to deal with him sometimes.”

“What do you want him to do that he doesn’t want to do?”

“He wants to stay at his mother’s house and there’s no changing his mind.”

“As I’m sure you know, he was given responsibility at a young age. He thinks he knows best concerning himself.”

“I know. Alyx told me that when she had to go back to work, the only job she could find was working as a clerk with the Police Department where they lived at the time. She had to be at work at seven in the morning. To be sure Ethan made it to school, and on time, she woke him up at six, made sure he was dressed, had breakfast and was ready to leave for school an hour after she left. Ethan never missed a day, unless he was sick, in which case, she had to depend on a kind neighbor to look in on him because she risked being fired if she took too much time off.”

“At least he had breakfast,” said George. “I read an article in The Beachside Journal that thousands of kids go to school without breakfast and just recently, the school board instituted a policy of free breakfasts for all students––the philosophy being that you can’t learn on an empty stomach. It sounds like a good idea; only time will tell if it makes any difference.”

“I don’t have kids so I can’t speak from experience, but it seems to me that experts are always looking for an explanation as to why kids don’t do well in school. The educators blame the parents who in turn blame the teachers, and no one blames the student on whom rest the ultimate decision to learn.”

“I didn’t mean to change the subject, so all that aside, don’t worry about Ethan; he was brought up well, and he really can take care of himself.”

“I hope you’re right, George. I don’t want Alyx to get mad at me any more than she is already.”

“What do you mean?”

I snuggled my head and ears a bit closer so I could hear the following conversation.

“Remember last night I told you that a real estate agent contacted me last week about selling our building?”

“Yes, you said Rupert approached you, with a tempting offer.”

“Right. What I didn’t tell you is that Alyx didn’t want to hear it. I told her that our customers and clients would follow us no matter where the store was located. She wouldn’t listen. I’ve never seen Alyx react that strongly to anything before, and I really didn’t know what to make of it. More than that, my own reaction scared me––how angry I got at Alyx for not allowing me to explain that I didn’t want to sell the building any more than she did, but that we should at least discuss it.”

“I’m sure you’ll get the chance to clear it up once she comes out of her coma.”

“I hope it’s soon, George. There’s a ton of work left to do and we just accepted two new clients a few days ago.”

“Is there anything I can help you with? I want to see more of you and I don’t want to see you buried under with work.”

“Thank you, George. You can help by taking me to breakfast tomorrow, but it has to be early.”

“In that case, maybe I should come over and spend the night so we don’t waste any time.”

For some reason beyond my knowledge of humans, Maggie turned red.

“It doesn’t have to be that early, George.” She said that with a smile that lingered until she went back inside.