And he was still trying to get used to being shut within solid walls. Confined in a man-made structure, it seemed to Sage that a part of him must have gone missing. The open hills, the wind, the shadowed woods had all been taken from him, had left him feeling incomplete and small.

Kit, lying close to him, watched him intently, her round yellow eyes just inches from his, gazing at him as if trying to see into his very soul, as if trying to know the young tom's deepest thoughts. That unnerved Sage, but excited him.

"You'll stay here with me," Wilma told Sage, "until I go back to work, then you'll go to Charlie's house, at the ranch, and that's nearer your own hills and woods." She looked at Charlie. "First day I get back, I start training the new reference librarian."

Charlie looked so alarmed that the cats came alert, watching her. "You're not planning to quit? The new librarian isn't taking your job?"

Dulcie looked at her housemate in amazement. She'd heard nothing of this. If Wilma quit her job as a reference librarian, she'd have to give up her library office where the cat door opened from among the bushes outside, the door that let Dulcie into the closed library at night.

No more midnight prowling among the books? No more pulling books from the shelves, dragging them up onto a table where she could read alone and unseen? No more nighttime adventures into exotic lands and distant times?

"I'm not quitting," Wilma said quickly. "Only cutting back. And we do need more help. The new librarian will be full-time, and that will give us more actual hours, even with the reduced schedule I've set for myself." Wilma didn't have to work, she had an adequate federal retirement pension from her first career as a probation officer.

Still, Charlie looked uneasy. "You're not…You're feeling all right?"

"I'm feeling fine. Don't fuss," Wilma scolded. "I'm not sick, there's nothing wrong with me, there are simply some other things I'd like to do. How could I quit? How could I give up my library key?" Wilma said, mirroring Dulcie's thoughts. "How could I give up my office, and Dulcie's cat door? Who knows, I might even start riding again."

"Are you serious? You can ride Redwing all you want, she really needs the exercise. If…"

Charlie paused, watching Joe. On the desk, the tomcat sat at rigid attention, studying Wilma and then turning his gaze on Charlie, watching the two of them so fixedly that Charlie shivered. Joe's yellow eyes were far too intent and calculating. Whatever he had in mind, he made Charlie feel like a cornered mouse.

"This is perfect," Joe said softly, turning to watch Wilma. "Are you serious about riding again?"

Wilma looked at him warily.

"This couldn't be better," Joe purred. "This fits right in with our plans."

"What plans?" Charlie and Wilma said together.

A slow smile spread over the tomcat's face, sending both women into a paroxysm of suspicion. "What?" Wilma said. "What's in that sneaky cat mind, that you think you can get me to do?"

14

A T LEAST CHARLIE'S acting sensibly, Joe thought as he leaped from a pine tree to the tiles of the courthouse roof-a lot more sensibly than Dulcie.

Dropping down onto the lower roof of Molena Point PD and then into the branches of the ancient oak that sheltered its front door, he stretched out along a branch, thinking about his plan.

"You're a fair poker player," Charlie had said when he'd told her what he had in mind. "Wilma and I get the book, which is too heavy for you to carry down the hills without tearing the pages, and you see that the department finds the body without involving me or involving you cats."

"That's it," Joe had said, smoothing his whiskers with a white-tipped paw. "I can talk with Ryan myself if you'd like, to put things in motion. But I'd have to wait until they get back, I don't think she's up to talking with me on the phone yet-she's still getting used to face-to-face discussion." Joe and Dulcie had been sitting on Wilma's desk as, on the blue velvet couch, Charlie and Wilma finished their coffee and cinnamon buns and, in the easy chair, Kit napped, curled up on the comforter with Sage.

"I'll call the honeymooners tonight," Charlie said. "I'm sure they can't wait for people to disturb them."

"It's a good deal for Ryan, too," Joe had pointed out. "She'll love the plan, she'll be happy you called."

Charlie sighed. "A honeymoon, Joe, by its very nature, is-"

"What kind of honeymoon? Those two are up there scrounging through junk shops and wrecking yards. How romantic is that?"

"I'll call her," Charlie said, looking helplessly at the tomcat.

Joe gave her a satisfied smile, leaped down from the desk, and headed for the kitchen, pausing only to scowl pointedly at Dulcie. He was nosing through Dulcie's cat door when Dulcie, following him, pushed him aside, cornering him against the washing machine. Her green eyes blazed. "What are you angry at me about? What did I do?"

"You're matchmaking, that's what you're doing."

"Matchmaking?"

"You needn't smile so fatuously over them, you needn't encourage them."

"Shhh, keep you voice down. I can't make her ignore him, he's her friend. And why would I? He's weak and hurting, the poor cat needs sympathy. Kit grew up with Sage, they were kittens together, she-"

"They're not kittens anymore. She's smitten with him. And you're not doing a thing to discourage her."

"Why would I discourage her? Why would I want to?"

"You're just like every other female! So damned romantic you lose all perspective. No more common sense than a chicken."

Dulcie stared at him, her paw lifted to slap him. "You're jealous!" she hissed. "You're…You…Oh!" And she spun away, her ears down, her tail tucked under.

"I'm not jealous!" he snapped, snatching her back with a hasty paw, his claws locked in her fur, his eyes blazing with amazement. "How could I be jealous! I think of her as a kitten! She's like our kitten! I feel like we raised her together."

She simply stared at him.

"Listen to me," he said angrily. "Remember how hard it was for Kit to leave the wild? What she went through when she felt pulled both ways, half of her wanting to go feral again, running wild, half of her wanting to be a part of human lives in her very special way? Do you remember how hard that was?

"But she did decide," he said, "and she was so happy and proud of herself. She's doing more here than in the wild. Think of the crimes she's helped solve. She's so full of life, so clever and inventive…But now, with Sage pulling on her, she'll soon be torn apart again! If they become a couple, when Sage is ready to return to the wild, what do you think Kit will do? You want her to follow him? You want her to leave the village forever? You want never to see her again?"

"She wouldn't do that. This is her home. Maybe Sage won't return to the clowder. Maybe-"

"What else would he do? He doesn't like the human world. The minute he's healed, he's out of here, headed for the hills. And Kit with him, just as sure as mice have tails. Is that what you want?" And he shoved out the cat door, scorched up a pine tree and across the roofs, heading fast for Molena Point PD.

Now, dropping from the oak branch down into a bed of cyclamens near the front door of the station, he stalked between the bright red and pink blooms and up the steps, and peered in through the bulletproof glass.

The reception area, with its electronic control center and its one holding cell, was empty except for the cats' favorite dispatcher. Watching blond, middle-aged Mabel Farthy busy at her computer, he reared up to claw at the glass, demanding her attention.