Cat In The Dark

10

LATER THAT MORNING, in the patio of the Spanish-style structure, where piles of new lumber lay across the dry, neglected flower beds, from within a downstairs apartment came the sudden ragged whine of a skill-saw, jarring the two cats as they padded in through the arch past a stack of two-by-fours. The air was heavy with the scent of raw wood, sweet and sharp.

Joe couldn't count how many mice he and Dulcie had killed in the tall grass that surrounded this building, before Clyde bought the place. Situated high above the village, the two-story derelict stood alone on the crest of the hill facing a dead-end street. The day Clyde decided to buy it was the first time Joe had gained access or wanted to enter the musty rooms. Even the exterior smelled moldy; the place was a dump, the walls stained and badly in need of paint, the roof tiles faded and mossy, the roof gutter hanging loose.

That day, trotting close to Clyde entering the front apartment beneath festoons of cobwebs as thick as theater curtains, he was put in mind of a Charles Addams creepy cartoon; beneath the cobwebs and peeling wallpaper hung old-fashioned, imitation gas lights; under Joe's paws, the ancient floors were deeply scarred as if generations of gigantic rats had dug and gnawed at the wood.

"You're going to buy this heap?"

"Made an offer today," Clyde had said proudly.

"I hope it was a low offer. What are they asking for this monstrosity?"

"Seven hundred."

"Seven hundred dollars? Well…"

"Seven hundred thousand."

"Seven hundred thousand?" He had stared at Clyde, unbelieving.

Over the sour smell of accumulated dirt he could smell dead spiders, dead lizards, and generations of decomposing mouse turds. "And who is going to clean and restore this nightmare?"

"I am, of course. Why else would I…"

"You? You are going to repair this place? Clyde Damen who can't even change a lightbulb without a major theatrical production? You're going to do the work here? This is your sound financial investment, and you're going to protect that investment by working on it yourself?"

"May I point out that one apartment has been refurbished, that it looks great and is rented for a nice fifteen hundred a month? That most of what you're seeing is simply dirt, Joe. The place will be totally different when it's cleaned and painted. You take five apartments at fifteen hundred each…"

"Less taxes. Less insurance-fire insurance, liability insurance, earthquake insurance-less yard maintenance, utility bills, general upkeep…"

"After expenses," Clyde had said patiently, "I figure ten, maybe twelve percent profit. Plus a nice depreciation write-off, to say nothing of eventual appreciation, a solid capital gain somewhere down the line."

"Capital gain? Appreciation?" Joe had sneezed with disgust, imagining within these walls vast colonies of termites-overlooked by the building inspectors-chewing away on the studs and beams, weakening the interior structure until one day, without warning, the walls would come crashing down. He had envisioned, as well, flooded bathrooms when the decrepit plumbing gave way and faulty wiring, which at the first opportunity would short out, emit rivers of sparks, and ignite the entire building.

Which, he thought, might be the best solution.

"It is insured?"

"Of course it's insured."

"I can't believe you made an offer on this. I can't believe you sold those five antique cars-those cars that were worth a fortune and that you loved like your own children, those cars you spent half your life restoring-sold them to buy this. Ten years from now when you're old and feeble and still working on this monstrosity and are so in debt you'll never…"

"In ten years I will not be old and feeble. I am in the prime of my life. And what the hell do you know about houses? What does a cat know about the value of real estate?" Clyde had turned away really angry, hadn't spoken to him for the rest of the day-just because he'd pointed out a few obvious truths.

And, what was worse, Dulcie had sided with Clyde. One look at the inside of the place and she was thrilled. "Don't be such a grouch, Joe. It's lovely. It has loads of charm. Big rooms, nice high ceilings. All it needs is…"

"The wrecking ball," Joe had snapped. "Can you imagine Clyde fixing it up? Clyde, who had to beg Charlie to repair our leaky roof?"

"Maybe he'll surprise you. I think the house will be good for him." And she had strolled away waving her tail, padding through the dust and assessing the cavernous and musty spaces like some high-powered interior designer. Staring above her at the tall windows, trotting across the splintery floors through rooms so hollow that her smallest mew echoed, Dulcie could see only fresh paint, clean window glass, deep windowseats with puffy cushions, soft carpets to roll on. "With Charlie's help," she had said, "he'll make it look wonderful."

"They're both crazy, repairing old junkers-Clyde fixing up this place, Charlie trying to save that heap of a VW. So he rebuilds the engine for her, does the body work, takes out the dings and rust holes, gives it new paint…"

"And fits out the interior," Dulcie said, "with racks and cupboards for her cleaning and repair equipment-for vacuum cleaners, ladders, paint, mops, cleaning chemicals. It'll be nice, too, Joe. You'll see."

Charlie had made it clear that her work on the apartments would be part-time, that her other customers came first. Her new business was less than a year old; she couldn't afford to treat her customers badly or to turn customers away. She was lucky to have Pearl Ann on the job. Pearl Ann Jamison, besides having useful carpentry skills, was steadier, Charlie said, than most of the men she'd hired. Except for her solitary hikes up and down the coast, Pearl Ann seemed to want no other life but hard work. Pearl Ann's only faults were a sour disposition and a dislike of cleaning any house or apartment while the occupant was at home. She said that the resident, watching over her shoulder, flustered her, made her feel self-conscious.

Now, the cats sat down in a weed-filled flower bed, listening for any mole that might be working beneath the earth. The patio was sunny and warm. The building that surrounded them on three sides contained five apartments, three up and two down, allowing space on the main level for a bank of five garages that were entered from a driveway along the far side of the building. Winthrop Jergen's apartment was directly above the garages. Strange, Joe thought, that well-groomed, obviously well-to-do and discerning Winthrop Jergen, with his elegant suits, nice furniture, and expensive Mercedes would want to live in such a shabby place, to say nothing of putting up with the annoyance of a renovation project, with the grating whine of skill-saws and endless hammering, as he tried to concentrate on financial matters in his home office. But despite the noise, Jergen seemed content. Joe had heard him tell his clients that he liked the privacy and that he was totally enamored of the magnificent view. From Jergen's office window he had a wide vista down the Molena Point hills to the village rooftops and the sea beyond; he said the offbeat location suited him exactly.

And Clyde was happy to have the rent, to help pay for materials while he was restoring the other four units.

Dulcie and Joe watched, through the open door of the back apartment, Charlie set up a stepladder and begin to patch the livingroom ceiling; the patching compound smelled like peppermint toothpaste. Above them, through an upstairs window, they could hear the sliding scuff, scuff of a trowel and could see Pearl Ann mudding Sheetrock. All the windows stood open except those to Jergen's rooms; Winthrop Jergen kept his office windows tightly closed to prevent damage to his computer.

As the cats sunned in the patio, Mavity Flowers came out of the back apartment and headed upstairs, hauling her mop and bucket, her vacuum cleaner, and cleaning caddy. The cats, hoping she might stir up a last, lingering mouse, followed her as far as the stairwell, where they slipped beneath the steps.

The dusty space under the stairs still smelled of mouse, though they had wiped out most of the colony-mice as easy to catch as snatching goldfish from a glass bowl, the indolent creatures having lived too long in the vacant rooms. Winthrop Jergen's only complaint when Clyde took over as landlord was the persistence of the apartment's small rodents. A week after Joe and Dulcie got to work, Jergen's complaints ceased. He had no idea that the cats hunted in his rooms; the notion would have given him fits. The man was incredibly picky-didn't want ocean air or dust to touch his computer, so probably cat hair would be the kiss of death.

But the mice were gone, and it was while hunting the rodent colony that they had found the hidden entrance into Jergen's rooms.

To the left of the stairs was a two-foot-wide dead space between the walls, running floor to ceiling. It could be entered from a hole beneath the third step, where the cats now crouched. Very likely Clyde would soon discover the space, which ran along beside the garages, and turn it into a storage closet or something equally useful and dull. Meantime, the vertical tunnel led directly up to Winthrop Jergen's kitchen. There, a hinged flap opened beneath the sink, apparently some kind of clean-out access for the plumbing, so a workman could reach through to the pipes-an access plenty large enough to admit a mouse, a rat, or an interested cat into Jergen's rooms.

Now, scrambling up inside the wall from fire block to fire block, they crouched beneath Jergen's kitchen sink listening to Mavity's vacuum cleaner thundering back and forth across the living-room rug; the machine emitted a faint scent of fresh lavender, which Mavity liked to add to the empty bag. They could not, this morning, detect any scent of new mice that might have entered the premises, but all visits to Jergen's rooms were of interest, particularly to Dulcie with her curiosity about computers- she was familiar with the library functions but spreadsheets were a whole new game.

Waiting until Mavity headed for the bedroom, they crossed the kitchen and sat down in the doorway, ready to vanish if the financier turned around. He sat with his back to them, totally occupied with the numbers on the screen.

Jergen's office took up one end of the spacious living room. His handsome cherry-wood desk stood against the front windows, looking down the Molena Point hills-though all the cats could see from floor level was the blue sky and a few clouds, whose dark undersides hinted of rain.

The light of Jergen's computer cast a faint blue gleam across his well-styled silver hair. His busy fingers produced a soft, constant clicking on the keys. His pale gray suit was smoothly tailored. His shoes, in the cats' direct line of sight, were of soft, gleaming black leather. Everything about Winthrop Jergen presented an aura of expensive good taste.

To Jergen's right stood two cherry file cabinets, then a row of tall bookshelves filled with professional-looking volumes. The thick Kirman rug was oversized, fitting nearly to the pale walls, its colors of ivory and salmon forming a soft background to the creamy leather couch and the rose silk easy chairs. The six etchings on the left wall were delicately detailed studies of far and exotic cities, each with unusual rooftops: conical roofs, fluted roofs, straw ones topping stone huts, and a vista with sharply peaked domes. Each city flanked a seaport, as if perhaps the etchings embodied Jergen's dreams of far and extensive travel. The vacuuming ceased, and the cats backed into shadow. As Mavity returned with a lemon-scented cloth and began to dust the end tables, Jergen stopped typing.

"Mavity, would you hand me that file? There on the credenza?"

She picked up a file from the cherry credenza, brought it across to him, her work-worn hands dry and wrinkled compared to Jergen's smooth hands and neatly manicured nails.

"And that book-the black account book."

Obediently she brought the book to him, complying as a kindergartner might obey a revered teacher.

"Thank you, Mavity. Your Coca-Cola stock is doing very well; you should expect a nice dividend soon. And though I can't be certain, it appears the Home Depot stock should split this month, and that will give you a really handsome bonus."

Mavity beamed. "I don't know no way to thank you, Mr. Jergen, for all you're doing for me."

"But, Mavity, your good fortune is in my interest, too. After all, I enjoy a nice percent of your earnings."

"Oh, and you deserve it," she said hastily. "You earn every penny and more."

Jergen smiled. "It's a fair exchange. I expect your niece and her husband have arrived by now, for their visit? Didn't you tell me they were coming this week?"

"Oh, yes, all tucked up in my little place, and enjoying the beach." Mavity began to wind her vacuum cleaner cord, turning away to straighten it.

Jergen smiled briefly and returned to his computer; he began to work again, deep into columns of numbers. Dulcie's eyes widened at the large amounts of money flashing on the screen and at the names of the impressive financial institutions-firms mentioned with serious respect in the library's reference department. But soon both cats grew impatient with a world so far removed, that they could not smell or taste or deal with directly, and they slipped away, leaping down within the dark wall, crouching at the bottom.

In the musty shadows of the narrow, hidden space, Dulcie's eyes were as black as midnight. "Mavity trusts Jergen totally. She thinks he hung the moon. Why does he make me uneasy?"

Joe looked at her and shrugged. "Don't start, Dulcie. There's nothing wrong with Jergen. You're just bored-looking for trouble."

She hissed at him but said nothing as they padded out beneath the stairs into the sunny patio. And they both forgot Winthrop Jergen when a pale blue BMW pulled up in front.

Bernine Sage swung out and came into the patio, her high heels clicking sharply across the worn bricks. Pausing, she glanced through the open doors of the two first-floor apartments.

In the back apartment Charlie had stopped work. She stood quietly on her ladder watching Bernine, but she did not call out to her. Not until Bernine headed purposefully in her direction did Charlie come down the ladder. "Looking for Clyde?" Her tone was not cordial.

"I have an appointment with Winthrop Jergen," Bernine said cooly. "Is it upstairs? How do I…?"

Charlie pointed toward the stairwell. Bernine said nothing more but headed across the patio.

Behind her, relief softened Charlie's face. And from an upperfloor window, Pearl Ann stood at the glass watching the little scene with a dry, amused smile.

The cats listened to the clink of Bernine's heels on the stairs, then her soft knock.

"She doesn't waste any time, does she?" Dulcie said with a cutting little mew.

Joe shrugged. "She'll start off talking investments, then come onto him. The woman's a leech." He curled up in the sunny weeds, yawning.

Dulcie curled up beside him, watching and listening. And it wasn't half an hour later that they heard the upstairs door open and heard Bernine say softly, "Twelve-thirty, then. See you tomorrow." And she clicked down the steps and left the patio with a smug, self-satisfied expression. Her fast work, even for Bernine, piqued Dulcie's interest like the sound of mice scratching at a baseboard.

She watched Bernine drive away, then looked up at Jergen's apartment. "Does he realize she's a little gold digger? He seems smarter than that."

"Maybe he's playing at some game-maybe he sees right through her."

Dulcie smiled. "I want to see this. I want to see how he looks when he leaves to pick her up, what he's wearing…"

"That's incredibly nosy. What difference…"

"What he's wearing," she said with patient female logic, "will indicate what he has in mind-what he thinks of Bernine."

And Dulcie's curiosity drew them back the next day to the patio, where they lay napping in the sun as Winthrop Jergen left his apartment. The sight of him made Dulcie laugh.

"Just as I thought. Trying to look like a twenty-year-old."

He was dressed in a black turtleneck sweater that set off his sleek silver hair, tight black slacks, a tan suede sport coat, and suede boots. "Right," Dulcie said, smirking. "Bernine made a big impression. Don't be surprised if she takes him for a nice sum- she has a way with her lovers."

But Joe was watching Pearl Ann gathering up her cleaning equipment as Jergen's Mercedes pulled away. Joe rose as she headed for the stairs.

"This isn't Jergen's regular cleaning day," he said, as Pearl Ann slipped quickly inside. "Come on."

In another minute they were crouched beneath Jergen's sink, waiting for the customary cleaning sounds, for Pearl Ann's vacuum to start. They heard only silence, then the jingle of keys and a file drawer sliding open.

Slipping to the kitchen door, they watched Pearl Ann sitting at Winthrop Jergen's desk examining the hanging files in an open drawer. Her keys dangled on their familiar gold chain from the drawer's lock.

Searching through the files, she removed one occasionally and laid it on the desk, paging through. Then she turned on Jergen's computer. She seemed quite at home with the machine, scrolling through vast columns of numbers. But every few minutes she rose to lean over the desk, looking down at the street below, her jumpsuit tight across her slim rear. The scent of her jasmine cologne was so sharp that Dulcie had to press her nose against her paw to keep from sneezing. After a long perusal of both hard copy and computer files, she removed a floppy disk from her pocket and slipped it into the machine.

"Copies," Dulcie breathed against Joe's ear. "She's making copies. She's using a code. How does she know his code?" At night in the library, after some instruction from Wilma, she found the computer a challenge, though she still preferred the feel of book pages beneath her paws. She knew about codes, Wilma had shown her that; Wilma kept a few things on her computer she didn't want the whole library to know.

When Pearl Ann seemed finished with the financial sheets, she pulled up a file of Jergen's business letters, quickly read through them and copied them, then dropped the disk in her pocket and turned off the machine. As she turned to put away the files, a whiff of her perfume engulfed the cats, and without warning, Dulcie sneezed.

Pearl Ann whirled and saw them.

"Cats! My God! Get out of here! What are you doing in here! He'll have a fit. How did you get in here!"

Crouching, they backed away. Neither Joe nor Dulcie cared to run beneath the sink and reveal their secret entrance. And the front door was securely closed.

"Scat! Go on, get out!" She snatched up her mop, shaking it at them.

They didn't move.

"You nervy little beasts! Go on, get out of here!" Her voice was hoarse with impatience.

They turned toward the front door, hoping she'd open it, but they weren't fast enough. She shouted again and lunged at them, exhibiting a temper they hadn't guessed at.

They'd never gotten friendly with Pearl Ann, nor she with them. She did her work, and they went about their business, all perfectly civil. But now that they were in her way, they saw a more violent side to Pearl Ann Jamison. Swinging her mop, she advanced on Dulcie, trapping her against the file cabinet. "You nasty little beast."

Dulcie fought the mop, enraging Pearl Ann, who swooped and grabbed her, snatched her up, avoiding her claws, and shook her hard.

Joe leaped at Pearl Ann, clawing her leg to make her drop Dulcie. Gasping, she hit him and swung Dulcie up. "Damn cats! Damn!" she croaked. Jerking the door open, she pitched Dulcie down the stairwell.

Joe barely skinned through as she slammed the door; below him Dulcie fell, unable to find her footing. He flew down the stairs, ramming against her, pushing her into the baseboard to stop her headlong tumble. Pressing against her, he could feel her heart pounding.

"You okay?" he asked, as they crouched shivering on the steps.

"I think so. I couldn't get my paws under me."

"What was she so angry about? What's with her?" He licked her face, trying to calm her. "Do you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm all right. I guess she doesn't like cats. I never saw that side of her before." Her voice was shaky. She licked hard at her left shoulder.

"Whatever she was doing in there, she was nervous as a rat in a cement mixer. Come on, let's get out of here."

They beat it out through the patio, didn't stop until they were across the street on their own turf, hidden in the tall grass.

"So what was she doing?" Joe said, nosing at Dulcie's hurt shoulder. "Is she trying to rip him off? First Bernine came onto him, and now Pearl Ann's nosing around." He looked intently at Dulcie. "What, exactly, was she doing at the computer?"

"I couldn't make much of it, all those numbers make my head reel. You'd have to have an accounting degree."

"Maybe she's running a scam. Hire onto a job, look for something to steal. But what would she…?"

"Could she be the law?" Dulcie wondered. "Or a private detective? Maybe checking on Jergen?"

"Checking on him for what?"

"I don't know. Or maybe investigating one of his clients?"

Joe frowned, the white mark down his nose squeezing into a scowl. "Anything's possible."

"Whatever she was doing, and in spite of getting sworn at and tossed downstairs, I'm as much on her side as Jergen's. Sometimes that man makes me twitch. Always so smooth and restrained-and always so well-groomed."

Joe grinned. "Not like Clyde-earthy and honest." But then he sat lost in thought.

"Did Bernine get Jergen away so Pearl Ann could snoop?" Dulcie asked.

Joe looked at her and said nothing. Was there a crime here, or were they painting more into this than was there?

She said, "Pearl Ann was snooping for some reason. And Bernine-even for Bernine-really did come onto him pretty fast."

The cats looked intently at each other, the two incidents, together, as compelling to them as a wounded bird fluttering before their noses.