CHAPTER 1

“What’s it tonight, Simon Magee, hunting or the girl down the alley?” Tom Shackle asked as he opened the door and watched the Siamese cat step into the moonlight. “Where that cat goes we’ll never know.”

“That’s not ours to know,” Sally, his wife, answered. “Cats do cat things.” She tossed her curly blond head at him. “Are you jealous?”

“Just wondering. He goes out about the same time every night.” He sighed deeply and slid back into his favorite chair.

“Tired?” she asked.

“Bored,” he answered. “I’ve been doing paper work the last week.” He pounded his hand on the arm of the chair. “I need a case to work on.” He leaned his head on the back of the chair. “I’d like to throw all the paper work out the window.”

Tom worked at the government building as an investigator. Between cases he tried to catch up on the reports necessary in government jobs.

Sally sat on the arm of his chair. “Maybe we need a vacation.” Her eyes brightened. “We could go east to Colorado and see the mountains.”

“We see mountains here. We don’t need to go to Colorado for that.” He picked up the newspaper and thumbed through it.

“Just a suggestion.” Sally left his side and went to the kitchen. “I hope the next case starts tomorrow,” she whispered to herself. “I’ve had enough paper work myself.”

Tom thumbed through the paper to the sports section and grunted disgustedly at the scores. Leaning back in the chair, he let the newspaper drop to the floor. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. “Maybe you’re right,” he finally said. “A vacation before the next case sounds good.”

Sally rushed to him from the kitchen. “Do you really mean it?”

“Sure,” he answered. “As long as we don’t have to visit relatives.” He leaned over, picked up the paper and tossed it in the chair. “I’ll clear it at work tomorrow.”

“I hope nothing comes up.” Sally went back to the kitchen, brought two cups of coffee and sat them on the coffee table.

Tom stirred sugar into his coffee and nodded. “It’s been pretty quiet.” He sipped the hot brew. “Where would you like to go?”

Sally’s blue eyes shone with excitement. “Anywhere I’d like to go?”

“Sure. Have you thought about it?”

“Some dreams, of course, but not logical places.” She squeezed her hands together. “I suppose Paris or London are a bit far.”

Tom chuckled. He gazed at his wife and shook his head. “That is a dream, Sally. You’re supposed to stay close until the baby is born.”

Sally patted her stomach. “Yes, I suppose, but it’s fun to dream.”

Tom took another gulp of coffee and stepped from the chair. “I think I’ll take a shower and go to bed. You be thinking where you’d like to spend some time away.” He smiled and kissed her lips. “Maybe you could dream up some place where I could get some fishing in.”

He left her smiling, turned the shower on and let the water wash away the thoughts of more paper work tomorrow. A vacation was probably what he needed. He shampooed his dark hair and shook his head sending the excess water flying.

As he wrapped the towel around his waist and strolled to the bedroom, he hummed a tune. Yes, he thought, tomorrow he would put in for vacation time and they would take off right away before the baby came. Her doctor said that could happen any time now. Maybe they had better wait. He shook his head. No, afterwards there would be no time. Now was the only opportunity.

He sank into the crisp sheets. Sally was already in bed and Tom scooted up against her.

“I’ve thought about the vacation,” she began. “But what if another case comes up right away?”

He slipped his hand from her breasts to the protruding stomach. “Maybe someone else can take it.”

“You know better,” she said. “We’ll have to wait until you’ve closed the case.”

He smiled in the darkness. “Yes, I know. But maybe there won’t be one. It’s been quite for some time.”

Sally held him as close as the stomach would permit. “Okay, but I’ll not hold my breath.”

He cuddled in her arms. No, he thought. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

~*~

Simon Magee, the long sleek Siamese cat, sneaked under the broken picket in the fence surrounding his master’s house. He slipped among the violet shadows left by the moonlight. Over wooden fences he leaped and squeezed through wire borders. He quickly padded among the azaleas and left his mark on the trunk of the Douglas Fir. A tom cat hissed at him and Simon quickened his pace. He left the residential district and raced through the alleys of the city’s downtown. Finally he stopped before the high wire fence that enclosed the government building. His attention was drawn to movement alongside the fence. On silent pads the cat slipped through a broken link in the chain link fence and crept toward the four men snipping at the wires.

~*~

The four men stepped through the opening.

“Okay,” the older man whispered. “Louie, you stay here and be the lookout. If you see anything shine this flashlight into that window up there.” He pointed to a second story window in the government building. “Okay?”

Louie Barden nodded. “Okay.”

“We won’t be long. It will be where the guy said it would be.” He looked at the younger man. “Are you ready?”

Sam Shepard, the younger man was inexperienced in robbery. He shook his head. “I don’t know about this.”

“It won’t take long,” the first man repeated. “And, Louie, here, will let us know if anyone is coming.” He looked at Louie. “Right?” he asked the lookout man.

“Right,” Louie confirmed.

The older man pulled a stocking cap mask over his face. “Let’s do it.”

“Are you sure that guy who called you will buy this thing once we get it?” Louie asked nervously. “It won’t do any good to get it if no one wants it.”

“Don’t worry.” The older man said. “We just call that number he gave us, leave the microfilm and pick up the money. Nothing to it.”

Louie nodded. “Okay.” He watched the three men run to the back door of the government building. He squinted in the darkness, watching the door, stuffed his big hands into the pockets of his ill-fitting trench coat and paced back and forth on the sidewalk lined with low boxwood hedges. His eyes scanned the large well kept yard dotted with large Douglas Fir and beyond the high chain link fence to the noisy city. The night breeze, warmed by summer’s touch, tugged at Louie’s coat and he flipped it open to feel the coolness. He drew his attention back to the building and rubbed his chin, his gaze on the door. He checked the grounds once more then looked more closely. Up the walk, trotting toward him, was a large, sleek Siamese cat. Louie smiled and crouched down as the cat padded up to him. He picked up the animal and patted him, uttering clucking sounds as if he were talking to an infant. “This building is in your territory, huh, kitty?” he stroked the cat’s neck, noticing the cat’s blue collar had a tiny pouch sewn on the inside. He pulled the Velcro loose to check what was inside the tiny hidden pocket. “Probably your address in here, huh?” Pulling out the folded paper, he squinted and held the message closer to his eyes. “Let’s see,” he told the cat. “This says you are Simon Magee.” He chuckled. “What a common name for such a high classed animal.” He was about to read the address when an alarm went off in the building.

Before he could dig out the small piece of paper in the pocket, an alarm went off inside the building. Louie gasped, his eyes wide as he jumped to his feet fearfully watching the door of the government building. His heart pounded inside the trench coat and he hugged the squirming cat closer as if the animal would protect him. Unable to move, he waited as his cohorts raced from the building toward him.

“Sam accidentally set off the alarm,” one screamed at Louie. “Here. Take this. Hide it somewhere. We don’t want to be caught with it on us.” He handed Louie a tiny piece of microfilm.

“But what? Where?” Before Louie could finish, the three men were running toward the hole in the fence they had cut to enter the yard.

Louie looked at the film then at the building, screaming its alarm, then at the cat in his arms. Quickly with shaking hands he opened the address pouch on the cat’s collar and jammed the tiny film into the pocket. Dropping the cat as he ran, Louie headed for the hole in the fence.

Louie slipped through the hole and raced down the street bumping into people as he went. He ducked into the alley that separated the grounds of the government building from the dingy bar beside it. The man slumped down behind a garbage can, his heart pounding and his breath coming in gasps. He could hear the sirens of the police cars racing to the scene of the crime and huddled closer to the wall of the bar. The trash can close by might hide him more securely, he thought. He slipped behind it as he saw the policemen rushing onto the grounds of the government building. He looked closer. They were wrestling with someone then shoved the man toward the police car.

Louie watched the policemen enlarging their search, moving toward his location. He anxiously looked from one end of the alley to the other. They could see him if he ran. He thought a moment then searched the garbage can. No, he could not fit inside, but he drew out a liquor bottle. He held it up and, seeing some of the liquid remained in the bottle, he drank it and tried to lay loosely against the building, holding the bottle lovingly against his chest.

The policemen spotted him and rushed down the alley. Louie lay against the building as if drunk. One patrolman shook him and Louie groaned sleepily. The policeman pulled him up by his coat, but Louie gave no indication that he noticed them. Finally they let him loose and Louie slipped to the alley’s floor, laying totally relaxed among the garbage cans. He opened his eyes just a little and watched the policemen hurry back to the government building. Louie chuckled, but lay still in the alley. He did not move until he felt a furry body rubbing next to him. His eyes popped open and he lay ridged. His mind thought only about rats that inhabited the city’s alleys. He relaxed when he heard a purr and chucked at his fear. Beside him rubbed the Siamese cat with the blue collar. He was about to grab the cat to retrieve the microfilm when a man staggered toward him and sat heavily beside him talking in slurred tones. The cat jumped away as the visitor grabbed a garbage can to steady himself, dumping its contents on himself and Louie.

Louie pushed the man aside and stood up, brushing his soiled coat and trousers. He watched the cat run down the alley and around the corner leading to the street. Louie huffed with disgust and was about to follow the cat when a uniformed policeman passed by and stopped, watching him. Louie sat back down. The man beside him put his arm around Louie’s shoulder, smiling with a toothless grin. Louie looked at the policeman and turned to the grinning man. He reluctantly put his arm on the man’s shoulder and joined him in some tune the man was singing. They swayed back and forth with the melody until Louie chanced another look up the alley. The policeman was gone.

Louie unwrapped the man’s arm from his shoulder and stood up. He gave his coat another brush, kicked a piece of lettuce dangling from his shoe and slipped down the alley, his back toward the busy street and the man still singing among the garbage cans.