What the Cat Knew Read online

  Her visitor was a young Asian woman she’d never met before. She looked shy and sad and Reg was afraid that anything she said might send the girl skittering away in fear. Was she Sarah’s maid, sent to the cottage to make sure that everything stayed clean and in order? In spite of Sarah’s claim that Reg would have her own space and they would not always be running into each other, Reg was beginning to sense that Sarah intended to closely supervise the little cottage.

  “Yes…?” Reg prompted her visitor.

  The woman looked at her for a minute, wide-eyed, before finally opening her mouth.

  “My name is Ling Lau.” Her English was unaccented. Probably born and raised in the US, if not in Florida itself. “I am… I am looking for someone to talk to my husband…?”

  “To talk to him about what?” Reg asked. Was her husband the gardener? Maintenance man? Why would Reg be needed to talk to him?

  “Well, he’s… just to make sure he’s okay… to talk to him one more time.” Reg suddenly realized that she had misjudged the situation. “I never got to say goodbye.”

  “Oh, of course. Come on in.” Reg opened the door the rest of the way, hoping she wasn’t blushing as furiously as her burning face suggested. “Can I get you some tea?”

  That way, she’d have a minute to get rid of the flushed face and gather her wits before the session. Going into a reading flustered wasn’t going to produce good results.

  “Uh, yes. Tea would be fine.”

  Reg pointed Ling in the direction of the seating area in the living room, and retreated to the kitchen to put the kettle on. Starlight followed her, meowing loudly to tell her that he needed to be fed. Reg glanced over her shoulder at Ling. “There’s food in your bowl,” she told Starlight. “I’m not giving in and feeding you gourmet food because you’re a picky eater. If you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat the kibble.”

  Starlight yowled and wound around her feet.

  “No.” Reg pushed Starlight away with her foot. “Be quiet and quit making such a fuss. We’ve got company.”

  Starlight sat down and stared at Reg.

  “That’s not going to work. You can stare as long as you like. Eat the food I got you.”

  She tapped her foot while waiting for the water to boil. She realized after the kettle started to whistle that she hadn’t cleaned up any of what had been used the day before. She put the china carefully into the sink, and checked the cupboard for more. Luckily they were from a service of six, so there were still fresh cups and silver left over. Reg loaded up the tray, added a plate of store-bought cookies, and took everything over to the coffee table.

  “How did you hear about me?” she asked Ling. “I just barely moved here. Did Sarah send you over?”

  “No, I heard about you at The Crystal Bowl last night. Everybody was talking about what a wonderful reading you did for Amy Carver. She was so excited that someone had really made contact. So I was hoping…”

  Reg sipped her tea. “Of course. That’s what I’m here for. Why don’t you tell me about your husband?”

  “His plane went down over the ocean. They found the wreckage…” Ling’s voice cracked. “Some of it. A lot washed ashore. But they didn’t find his body.”

  Reg nodded. No wonder the young woman looked so sad. What a horrific way to lose her spouse.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Not having his body… I can’t help feeling like he isn’t at rest. That he’ll just have to keep wandering the earth until his body is discovered and properly laid to rest in consecrated ground.”

  It was good of Ling to give Reg the key to what she was looking for.

  “Do you have a picture of him?”

  Ling nodded and pulled a fat red wallet out of her purse. She had a small snapshot of her and her husband side-by-side. Maybe an engagement photo.

  “He’s very handsome, isn’t he?” Reg commented. He had a young face, in spite of the mustache and beard. Pleasant looking. Ling’s age or a tiny bit older.

  “Very,” Ling agreed, laying a hand over her heart. “I miss him so much. I thought we would have years and years together… and to suddenly have him taken away from me so soon… I just don’t know what to do with myself. That whole life that we were going to build is just gone.”

  “What were your plans?”

  “We wanted to build our own home. Have two or three children when we were ready. Warren flew, and wanted to start some kind of charter business. He was always talking…” Ling choked up again. “He was always talking about how safe flying is. So much safer than driving a car.” She covered her mouth and sobbed.

  Reg was sitting too far away from Ling to pat her hand or her shoulder without first going around the coffee table. She should have been more aware of her placement and not put the coffee table between them. Trying her best to be unobtrusive and not make Ling uncomfortable, Reg grabbed a couple of tissues from the box on one of the side tables and went around the coffee table to hand them to Ling and sit beside her on the couch. She tentatively put a hand on Ling’s back.

  “Focus on the good things,” she said. “I know it’s hard, but we want lots of good energy here. We want to make it a welcoming place for Warren to come back to.”

  Ling nodded and dabbed at her eyes. “Yes. Yes, of course.”

  “How did the two of you meet? And did you go on an airplane for your first date?”

  Ling smiled through her tears. “We met at the restaurant where I was working, while I was home from school. He came in one night… and then he came back the next night… and the next…”

  Reg grinned. “He knew what he wanted when he saw it, hey?”

  “Our first date wasn’t on a plane… just to a movie. But we talked about planes, and he told me all about his dreams to run his own charter.”

  “And you’re not afraid of heights? Flying always makes me nervous,” Reg confided. “I’d rather drive across the country than to have to fly.”

  “It’s so different in a little plane, where you can see everything and you know the pilot. It’s like… being on a big commercial jet is like taking the bus. But going on a private charter… you’re sitting together in a Ferrari. It’s so much nicer.”

  Reg imagined it. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, getting herself into character. She tried to imagine all of the things Warren and Ling would have talked about, how it had felt for them to be close together, how much he would be missing her now if they had been forced to separate.

  “What’s his full name?”

  “Warren Blake.”

  “Warren Blake,” Reg spoke the name out loud, tasting it, trying to construct a full man from the little bits she had been given. “Are you here, Warren Blake?”

  She took deep breaths and cleared her mind, letting herself fall into the character. She rolled her eyes back.

  “Ling? Is that you, Ling?”

  Ling covered her mouth, muffling her words. “It’s me, Warren.”

  “Where am I?”

  “This is… I came to a psychic, so that she could talk to you. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

  “A psychic? Why would you go to a psychic?” Reg paused, searching for words in the void, feeling her way through the character. “Where am I?”

  “You’re dead, Warren. You’re a spirit. On a different plane.”

  “I’m not on a plane.”

  Ling laughed. “A different plane of existence, not an airplane. You died.”

  “But they brought me back, right? Because I’m alive now.”

  “No,” Ling’s voice was infinitely sad. “You’re dead.”

  Reg couldn’t open her eyes widely enough to see Ling. Something was keeping her eyes shut, like tape over her lids. She explored the darkness there.

  “I couldn’t be dead.”

  “Is this normal?” Ling whispered. “How can he not know that he’s dead?”

  Reg was unable to answer to reassure her.

  “If I was dead, I wouldn’t be able to he
ar my heart beating. But I can.”

  “No. You’re dead. They’re looking for your body.”

  “My body is right here.” Reg thumped her chest. “I can feel it. I’m not dead.”

  “I wanted to tell you that I love you.” Ling had apparently decided to continue forward with the conversation even if Warren was being difficult. “I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, and I wanted you to know how much I love you and that I’ll always miss you.”

  “Don’t leave me, Ling. I love you too. Stay with me.”

  “I won’t leave you, Warren… but I can’t stay with you. We only have a few minutes to talk. We’re using Reg as a channel… I can’t come where you are, and you can’t come with me.”

  Reg grasped Ling’s hand, unable to open her eyes but still needing to connect directly with Ling. At least this time, she wasn’t pushing the client away and telling her not to come back again. Ling would keep coming back for as long as she could, if Warren kept telling her to stay with him.

  “Is that really you, Warren?” Ling squeezed Reg’s hand.

  “Who else would it be, Ding-a-Ling? Don’t you know me?”

  Ling gasped, and then was crying softly, her breathing ragged as she tried to contain herself.

  “I love you so much, Warren. I don’t know how I’m going to go on without you.”

  “Then don’t leave me.”

  “I won’t. I’m not going to leave you.”

  There was a sharp pain in Reg’s ankle, as if someone had tried to shove a nail through her foot. Her eyes flew open, startled by the hot, sharp needle of pain. “Ouch!” She looked down and saw Starlight there. He’d crept up behind her, crawling under the couch to bite her from beneath the wicker couch. “Ouch, you evil beast!” She shoved him away from her and felt her injured ankle. She expected to see blood, and there it was, welling up from the fang marks. “Are you a cat or a vampire? Sheesh! Holy crap, that hurt!”

  She became aware of Ling, watching her with wide, round eyes.

  “What happened? Why did he bite you?”

  “I don’t know. Because he’s perverse and wants to go back to the pound, I guess! Crap! Crap, crap, crap!” Reg grabbed a napkin from the tea service and pressed it over the bite marks. “I’m sorry. I’m being a baby, I know but I was not expecting that, and he bit me deep!”

  “Do you need a tetanus shot?” Ling asked. “Should I take you to the hospital?”

  Tetanus? How about rabies? Just how much did the shelter know about Starlight’s medical history? Could he be rabid without them knowing it? They hadn’t said that he was aggressive at the shelter, just that he had been depressed. Unless they were trying to cover it up. Could they cover up that they were caring for a rabid cat? And letting someone adopt it? Reg was pretty sure that if they knew the cat was sick, they’d have to put it in isolation. Wasn’t that what they did with Old Yeller?

  “I don’t think it’s that bad,” she assured Ling. “I’m overreacting. It just surprised me so much. I wasn’t aware of anything that was going on in the room…” She trailed off. “What about your husband? Did it help? I don’t think I’m going to be able to reestablish the connection today.”

  “It was so good to hear his voice,” Ling said.

  Reg couldn’t remember if she had done a special voice. That was pretty bad, because if she didn’t remember how she did Warren Blake the first time, how was she going to get it right again?

  “But it’s so strange that he wouldn’t believe he was dead. Is that… normal?”

  “Sometimes spirits can be confused,” Reg assured her. She’d seen enough Steven King movies and episodes of Ghost Whisperer to know that. “It might take a few sessions before he realizes the truth. Right now, he’s unanchored, just floating around, trying to figure out the rules. He’ll get stronger.”

  Ling nodded. She didn’t argue that Reg had solved all of Amy’s problems with just one session. Amy’s mother had been dead a long time, and Amy had contacted her many times over the years. It wouldn’t take long before Warren understood where he was and could tell Ling that he was okay.

  “I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Ling said, looking down at Starlight. “You are a bad kitty!”

  Reg smiled and nodded her agreement. “Yes, he is!”

  Ling settled up her bill. Reg limped to the door to see her out, and then went into her bathroom to doctor her injury. There was something very wrong with that cat. She was seriously considering taking him back.

  ⋆ Chapter Six ⋆

  Reg didn’t get much else done that day. She didn’t take Starlight back to the animal shelter, but she did give him a very stern talking-to. Halfway through the lecture, he started rubbing against her leg and purring so loudly that he drowned her out. Reg eventually bent down and picked him up. He snuggled in her arms and bumped the top of his head to the bottom of her chin, acting like she was his favorite person in the world. Why had he bitten her? Was he trying to play? Was he mad at her for not giving him what he wanted to eat? Jealous of her attention to her client? She hadn’t introduced him to Ling and told her how he was her familiar, was it possible that he resented that?

  She was anthropomorphizing him and that just wouldn’t do. He had bitten her because of some cat instinct. Maybe a flea had bitten him and he was taking out his anger on whatever was closest to him. It was a lucky thing that he had chosen to bite her instead of Ling. That would have been disastrous. She couldn’t have an animal that might injure her clientele. He’d have to be locked up during sessions. The whole point of getting him to begin with had been to use him as a prop. What good was he to her if she had to lock him up and hide him away from clients?

  Reg put Starlight back down on the floor and they considered each other.

  “Truce?” Reg asked.

  Starlight rubbed against her leg.

  She wasted a bunch of time on the internet figuring out all of the bad diseases she could catch from a cat bite. Who knew they could be so dangerous? It was probably a good thing she hadn’t ever had a cat as a pet when she was a young girl, or she never would have made it to adulthood.

  She didn’t feel like making anything for dinner, but she didn’t feel like going to The Witch’s Cauldron again either, so she made another sandwich, sharing the filling with Starlight. She again looked at the community flyer as she was eating, narrowing her focus to just one paragraph. It was an advertisement for some kind of witches’ gathering. Not quite Reg’s wheelhouse. She knew she needed to keep her focus narrow, or her marketing would end up bringing in no one. She was doing well as a medium, she needed to just keep doing what she was doing. No witches’ hoedown for her.

  She tried to watch TV, but was too tired and headed to bed early. Hopefully, she would soon be able to adjust to a regular schedule and not be so tired after each reading. She needed to be able to do several a day to make good money; she couldn’t just wimp out and have a nap after each session.

  Reg was in a darkened room. She couldn’t see anything around her. She could hear noises; people talking, a public address system, a rolling mail cart, televisions, crying… it was all a muddle of muffled sounds. She couldn’t pick out any voices that she knew. Her head hurt and she was frozen, unable to move her body. Trapped inside of herself.

  She tried to call out to get someone to help her. The cat moved restlessly near her, trying to find a comfortable place to curl up and go to sleep. She couldn’t reach out and pet him or push him off the bed.

  “You’re dead,” a voice told her.

  Reg tried to answer. She could hear the protests in her head, but she couldn’t voice them aloud.

  I can’t be dead. I’m right here.

  “You died,” the woman’s voice told her with certainty. “I’m sorry.”

  Reg’s heart rate increased. Her breathing sounded louder in her own ears. How could she be dead if she could hear her own heartbeat? She could hear the blood pumping through her veins. She could feel her chest rise and fall with each brea
th. But she couldn’t get out any words or move her body. What had happened to her? Why couldn’t she move?

  I’m not dead.

  “I’m sorry, you died in a plane crash. A plane of existence.”

  That didn’t even make sense.

  It must be a dream. That was the only thing that made sense. When nothing made sense, then the only sensible thing was that it was a dream.

  “You’re not asleep.” Ling’s voice was in her ear again. “If you were asleep, I’d just wake you up. You died days ago. You’re not even here.”

  I am here, or I wouldn’t be able to talk to you.

  “But you’re not talking to me. You’re not here. I’m talking to another Reg in another existence. You are gone forever.

  Panic flooded Reg’s system, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t call for help. She couldn’t even open her eyes to see whether she was having a dream, or whether Ling were really there. She couldn’t see where she was.

  A pain in Reg’s arm dragged her from sleep. She opened her eyes to see the darkened interior of her bedroom in Sarah’s cottage. It had just been a dream, but it left her with a heavy feeling of disorientation. Like the nights she dreamed she was looking for something, and when she woke up she still pushed the blankets around and searched under her pillow, looking for the object lost in her dream. Reg looked down at her arm, feeling where it hurt. Starlight was lying next to her, looking up at her in irritation. Wondering why she was thrashing and groaning in her sleep, probably.

  “Did you bite me again?” She squinted and felt the painful spot in her arm. He hadn’t drawn blood; she didn’t think he’d even broken the skin; but it was still painful, like a hard pinch. “You need to stop doing that! Really!”

  He gave his head a shake. Reg picked him up and pulled him into her lap. “What was all that about, huh? Why can’t you just be a nice kitty?”

  His purr started, and Reg closed her eyes, just enjoying the warm, furry bundle in her arms and the vibrating rumble of his purr.