Cat Magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

beyond the spectacular. It would have made me famous. Famous, Mandy! I would have rehabilitated my career. The Yale Sciences Board would have had to swallow their slap in the face. Maywell would have to stop treating me like dirt just because I’ve failed elsewhere. It’s rime that I got a little recognition, don’t you think?”
    Beneath her hand she could feel the bones of his shoulder. He was much too obsessed with his work ever to get any exercise. He was wasting away.
    He slammed his fist into his palm. “It’s breaking and entering! Malicious mischief! I’m going to call the sheriffs office.” He got to his feet.
    “You’re sure it’s your frog? Maybe it’s another animal. Just symbolic.”
    “That fanatic broke into my lab, killed my property, came over here, broke into my house, and assaulted me!” As he spoke, his voice rose to a pitch of renewed rage..He dialed the phone. “This is George Walker, 232 Maple. Yes, I haw a crime to report! Breaking and entering. Assault. Who’s the victim? I’m the victim! And I know who did it. I know exactly who did it!”
    He listened a moment further, then slammed down me phone.
    “They’re going to come by in a few minutes. Oh, hell !” He picked up the phone again. “Bonnie? Hi, hon. Sorry to disturb you in the middle of the night. Look, will you do me a massive favor? I think the lab got hit by Pierce. Yeah, by Pierce. I’m 90 percent certain. And I’ve got reason to believe he destroyed the frog.” There was silence, punctuated by a burst of language from the other end of the line. “Go over there and check. And call me as soon as you can. I’ve got to have complete confirmation before the sheriff gets here. That’s a love, Bonnie. I’ll repay in grades.” He put the receiver down. “She’s general lab assistant. Her dorm is just across the quad from Wolff. I ought to hear from her inside often minutes.”
    Mandy had a strong feeling that he shouldn’t have called the sheriffs office. “George, try to calm down before the sheriff gets here.”
    “Why? I’ve just been assaulted, I’ve had my experiment set back, maybe even ruined if I can’t get another extension from Stohlmeyer. Why, pray tell, should I be calm? If anything, I ought to be raving mad. And I am!”
    “Just stay away from the liquor. And brush your teeth. If they smell you’ve been drinking, they’re going to ignore you.”
    “Mandy, I was assaulted in my own bed!”
    “Think about what happened, George. How is it going to look to a cop?”
    She left him to dwell on that. Alone in her own room again, she fumbled through the closet for her robe. Deep tiredness weighed upon her. It was Just after three o’clock. The moon had dropped low, leaving the room in shadow. By me moonlight that lingered outside she could still see the bulk of Stone Mountain rising behind the house, its thick coat of evergreens punctuated by gray-glowing tumbles of rock—
    Mandy pulled on her robe and opened the window so that me cold air would refresh her. It smelled of the sweet rot of autumn leaves faintly tanged by old smoke. She could see Ursa Major wheeling above the dark high ridge of the mountain.
    The Great Bear. Woman’s stars. The little girls of Athens once danced beneath them, honoring Artemis the wild huntress, who prowled the autumn hills in the shape of a bear. As a child Mandy’s favorite cuddly had been a stuffed bear named Sid.
    Car lights shone on the back fence as the sheriff turned into the driveway. Mandy drew her robe close around her and went back to George.
    He swept the front door open before the bell even rang. “Come on in.”
    “You the complainant?”
    “I sure am.”
    The deputy was a lean man, his face all angles and lines exaggerated by the porch light. At his hip he had a big pistol, too big for the thin hand that rested on its butt. There were dark glasses in his top pocket, one chewed fret dangling out. His lips were dry and cracked. There was what appeared to