Karen Anne Golden - The Cats That 03 - The Cats That Told a Fortune by Karen Anne Golden

home.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because right about now he’s heading for Indy to check on Stacy.”
    “But he said he was calling Sheriff Goodman,” Katherine said, confused.  “Is he the sheriff for Brook County?”
    Jake nodded his head.  “Oh, the chief will call him.  Just sayin.’”  Jake threw the rag into the bucket.  “We’re done here.  Margie will be happy she won’t have to repaint the door.”
    “I’m going inside to feed the cats,” Katherine said, leaving.
    “While you’re doing that, I’m going next door to see if your neighbor saw anything.”
    “Not too likely,” Katherine said.  “Mrs. Harper is in poor health, but you might want to ask the home health aide.  She may have seen something.”
    While Jake walked next door, Katherine locked the exterior classroom door.  She headed toward the carport side of the mansion.  The overhead porch had been heavily damaged by the tornado.  Reconstruction had been very labor intensive and involved lots of millwork.  The building was finally finished, and Margie was beginning her four-color-scheme paint work. Two levels of scaffolding still remained. 
    Katherine shifted her eyes to the three new double-hung kitchen windows that Cokey an d Jake had installed.  She saw two cats per window:  Abra and Scout were in the first one, followed by Lilac and Abby in the middle, and a lonely Iris in the third.  On the inside, Cokey had widened the window sills to give the cats more room, making it easier for them to bask in the sun.  The cats were clearly agitated, so she ran to the side steps, hurriedly put the key in the lock, and rushed inside.  The cats were caterwauling loudly.  The kitchen was a complete disaster.  All the cabinet doors were open, and numerous dishes had been knocked out.  They were lying on the ceramic tile floor, broken into bits.
    Jake walked in, “What the hell!” he said.
    Katherine grabbed the closest cat and began checking for injuries.  Jake did the same.  Judging by the number of broken pottery shards, Katherine was shocked that none of the cats was seriously wounded.  Jake and Katherine grabbed two at a time and put them in a different room.  Iris was yowling at the top of her lungs.  Katherine snatched her around the middle.
    “Shhh, Miss Siam,” Katherine cooed.  “Was it you, Fredo?  Did you do this?”
    “Yowl,” Iris bellowed in protest.
    While Katherine consoled the upset Siamese, Jake found a broom and dustpan and began cleaning up the mess.  He said, “You seriously think one of the cats did this?”
    “Well, unless the pink mansion has a poltergeist!”  Katherine replied, putting Iris in with the other cats.  Scout tried to lunge out. “Not happening, magic cat!”  She closed the door and said, “Iris likes to open the cabinet doors.  Maybe she open ed them and another cat pushed the dishes out.”
    “But why just the dishes?”
    Katherine shrugged. 
    “We’d better childproof the cabs,” Jake offered, as he finished sweeping up the mess.
    “Something really upset them.  They were all hyper when I came in.”
    “They probably saw whoever threw the eggs and it scared them,” Jake suggested.
    “Did you find out anything next door?”
    “Nope.   Mrs. Harper didn’t see a thing, but she’s in a wheelchair.  Unless she was parked by one of the windows facing the mansion, she wouldn’t have seen anything anyway.  The health aide said she’d taken Mrs. Harper to a doctor’s appointment, so whoever threw the eggs could have done it then.  Probably like the chief said – a bunch of Erie brats having some pre-Halloween fun.”
    “Or it could have been Barbie Sanders,” Katherine added. 
    “Not thinking so,” Jake said skeptically.  “Katz, I promised my dad I’d come over so I’d better take off.  Do you want to help me unload the Jeep?  I think you bought everything for sale at the festival.  But first,” he said, taking Katherine into his