Free Cat in the Dark by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

had disappeared in the direction of the garage, silent and uncommunicative. Wilma knew she would be out there sulking as she unloaded her possessions from the van. Already cross at the eviction from her apartment—though she hadn’t let her anger spoil last night’s gallery opening—her sullenness was multiplied by Bernine’s unexpected presence. Bernine was not Charlie’s favorite person.
    Earlier this morning when the two young women had coffee in the kitchen, Charlie had made no effort to be civil, had hardly spoken to Bernine. Wilma hoped that when Mavity arrived, her old friend would ease the atmosphere, that her earthy temperamentwould soften their various moods. Mavity might be ascerbic, without subtlety or guile, but her very honesty made her comfortable to be near.
    As she picked up the coffeepot from the desk and moved across the room to fill Clyde’s cup, she watched the cats sniffing the good smells from the kitchen and licking their whiskers. She could just imagine Bernine’s sarcasm when the cats were fed from the same menu as the guests.
    Clyde lowered the sports page and held out his cup. “Charlie going to stay out in the garage all morning? What’s she doing?”
    â€œUnloading her tools and equipment—she’ll be in shortly. You could go out and help her.”
    Clyde sipped his coffee, shook his head, and dug out the editorial section, burying himself again. Bernine watched him, amused. Very likely, Wilma thought, Bernine understood Charlie’s temper—and the reason for it—far better than did Clyde.
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    Dulcie watched Clyde, too, and she wanted to whop him, wished she could chase him out to the garage with Charlie. Didn’t he know Charlie was jealous? That she was out there sulking not over the eviction, or simply over Bernine’s presence, but over Bernine’s proximity to Clyde himself? Males could be so dense.
    But you didn’t need female perception, or feline perception, to see that Bernine’s sophistication and elegant clothes and carefully groomed good looks, coupled with her superior and amused attitude, made big-boned Charlie Getz feel totally inadequate. You didn’t need female-cat intelligence to see that Charlie didn’t want Bernine anywhere near Clyde Damen.
    Scowling at Clyde, she realized that Bernine was watching her, and she turned away, closing her eyes andtucking her nose beneath her paw, praying for patience. Must the woman stare? It was hard enough to avoid Bernine at the library, without being shut in, at home, with that cat hater.
    Why were anti-cat people so one-sided? So rigid? So coldly judgmental?
    And how strange that the very things Bernine claimed to value in her own life, her independence and self-sufficiency, she couldn’t abide in a sweet little cat.
    Beside her on the couch, Joe was avoiding Bernine’s gaze by restlessly washing, his yellow eyes angrily slitted, his ears flat to his head. He’d been cross and edgy anyway, since last night when they followed the old man and Azrael and lost them. And then the front page of the Gazette this morning hadn’t helped, had turned him as bad-tempered as a cornered possum.
    The Molena Point Gazette didn’t concern itself with news beyond the village. Problems in the world at large could be reported by the San Francisco Chronicle or the Examiner . The Gazette was interested only in local matters, and last night’s break-in occupied half the front page, above the fold.
    SECOND BURGLARY HITS VILLAGE
    A break-in last night at Jewel’s Liquors netted the burglars over two thousand dollars from a locked cash register. This is the second such burglary in a week. Police have, at this time, no clue to the identity of the robber.
    Police Captain Max Harper told reporters that though the department performed a thorough investigation, they found no mark offorced entry on the doors or on the window casings and no fingerprints.