The Girl with the Cat Tattoo

Chapter 18

“Why don’t you stay here a few more days?” Lola asked as her sister gathered her things to head back home.

Melody zipped Max into his cat carrier, then straightened. “I’ll be fine. The door has been repaired, an alarm system installed.” Everyone had insisted upon the alarm system, and Melody had agreed. She and Lola had spent the past two days cleaning the house after Joe dusted for prints.

“No matches in the database,” he’d told her once images had been entered into the system.

“I just want my life to return to normal,” Melody told Lola. “I need to get back to work. I want to sleep in my own bed. By myself.”

Lola didn’t seem convinced. “Oh, wait. Your laptop. I mean, David’s.” She hurried to her bedroom, then returned with the laptop she’d borrowed from Melody a couple of weeks earlier. “You’ll need this.”

Melody hadn’t been able to make herself look at David’s laptop. So full of photos of them together. But now she was worried about losing them. What if his laptop had been stolen along with hers? She planned to back everything up as soon as she got home.

“Call me,” Lola said once Melody’s car was loaded. The sisters hugged, and Melody and Max took off down the street.

Once they were home, Melody tried to forget about the break-in. She settled into bed with Max and began to go through David’s old files, backing things up in cloud storage.

The doorbell rang. She peeked behind the curtain and spotted a florist’s truck. Melody opened the door to a massive bouquet of lush, pastel lilies. Tucked among the brightly colors blooms were sprigs of catnip. She thanked the deliveryman, put the flowers and their glass container on the kitchen counter, then opened the attached envelope.

“Oh, look, Max. It’s from Ellen.” She gave him a glimpse of the card before delving deeper into the message. “Thanks for visiting me in Burbank,” she read. “If you ever need someone to officiate at your wedding, let me know. XO, Ellen.” Melody pulled out a sprig of catnip and dangled it in front of Max’s nose. “That’s so sweet.”

He went wild. He ripped the green plant from her hand, chewed it, rolled on it, rolled on it some more, then raced around the house, banging into walls.

“Wow. That’s some high-powered catnip.” Melody watched Max a while to make sure he wasn’t going to injure himself, then she returned to the bedroom to continue with David’s files. Thirty minutes later she came upon a folder that said Cute Cat Photos. She smiled, clicked, and found that the folder didn’t contain jpeg files at all. Instead, it contained documents. Stranger still, they were all labeled confidential police business. So odd for David to have something like that on his personal computer.

Max jumped up beside her and stuck his nose in the screen. She elbowed him away gently. “Should I open a document, Max? It’s marked confidential. What do you think?”

Max meowed and put his paw on the keyboard.

She laughed and lifted him away. He came right back.

“It’s probably some kind of silliness. Who would mark a folder confidential? That’s like marking a door secret door. Like look here. Look in this secret door.” She stared at the screen. The desktop image was a photo of all three of them, David and Melody sitting on the couch, their bare feet on the table, with Max between them, lying upside down, his belly exposed. Lola had taken the picture while David and Melody laughed about how Max never took a bad photo.

“Hmm,” Melody said. “Maybe he wanted me to open it. Maybe that’s why he labeled it confidential. But then he would know me. I’m not the kind of person to open something that belongs to someone else.” She tapped her chin. “What to do, what to do.”

She thought about how the only thing of real value taken during the break-in was her laptop. I don’t like this. That’s what Joe had said.

What if the thief had been after David’s computer all along?

Was she being ridiculous?

She didn’t know why, but she dragged a copy of the folder into the little box on her screen, then hit upload. A few minutes later, it was saved. Then she grabbed her cell phone and searched for the name of someone she hadn’t talked to in two years. Since then, Frank Cameron had been promoted and was now just one step down from chief of police. She told him about the break-in and her suspicions about the computer, and then she called Joe.

“I know it’s silly,” she said. “It is, right? All espionage.” She laughed, but didn’t really mean it.

“Have you told anybody else?” Joe asked.

“David’s old partner.”

“Cameron?”

“Yes. He said he’d be right over to get the computer. Now I’m embarrassed. I’m being silly, right?”

“No. Lock the door, and don’t answer it when he gets there. Do you hear me? Lock the door. I’m on my way.” He disconnected.

Just then, a knocked sounded on the front door. The knob turned, and Frank Cameron stuck his head inside.