Besides, she didn’t even have to walk fast to catch up to the creeping sedan. Karen Travers was the one behind the wheel, and it looked like her daughter was sitting in the passenger seat. Ah, she remembered Ashlyn Travers well from the other night. Karen was roughly forty-five, and she was a stalwart presence at most town functions. She was famous for her pecan pie.
And apparently her bad driving skills.
“Mrs. Travers.” Roxie raised her voice and patted the hood of the car.
“Mom!” Ashlyn yelled as she pointed Roxie’s way. “It’s the police. Great. You are a freak who got the po-po on us. What is wrong with you?”
Karen’s eyes were wide as she turned and caught sight of Roxie. She stopped the car and the window came down. “I’m so sorry, Deputy. Was I doing something wrong?”
This was one of those moments where she brought out the “dumbass said what” face she’d perfected over the years. “On this particular street, we usually drive our cars in a forward motion, Mrs. Travers. And by usually, I mean always. It’s illegal to drive backward down the street.”
Karen shook her head. “No. Sometimes you have to do that. Did you see that cat?”
Ashlyn’s eyes rolled so far in the back of her head, Roxie was surprised they didn’t simply make their way back around. “Oh, my god. Please don’t say it. Please don’t humiliate me like this.”
Roxie looked back up the street and the cat was on the other side of the road, licking one paw like she didn’t have a care in the world. “Is there something wrong with the cat?”
If there was, she might need to call Zep and they would have to work together. That wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Maybe the cat was attacking people and they would have to chase it down.
Although the cat didn’t look like it had a problem. The cat was still sitting at the end of the street, licking her paws and looking at them like she knew she’d caused a ruckus and was perfectly fine with that.
Karen nodded and sighed like she was satisfied that Roxie understood. “Yes, it’s black. It’s got totally black fur.”
“And that means you have to drive backward?” Roxie looked in the car, hoping she didn’t find any liquor. She might have to ask Lila what prescriptions Karen Travers was on. She didn’t see anything illegal. There was a bunch of what looked like cameras in the back. Video cameras and equipment. Ashlyn had mentioned something about a school project the other night. It looked like she was using better equipment than her phone.
“Yes, ma’am,” Karen replied as though the answer should have been easy to understand. “Now I have to get going because Ashlyn’s due at her AV Club meeting and I have to make my way around, if you don’t mind.”
She realized her dad had gotten out of the car and was watching the situation.
“Do you intend to continue backing down the road?” Roxie asked, trying to come up with some reason for Karen to decide to forgo forward.
“Of course,” Karen said, pointing down the street. “The cat is black.”
Ashlyn beat her head against the dashboard before turning Roxie’s way. “She won’t go forward because the black cat crossed the path she was going to take. I’m not kidding, Deputy Roxie. She’s insane. You should take me into protective custody because she’s going to humiliate me on every level. There has to be a law or something.”
Roxie was getting the bad feeling she totally didn’t understand the situation going on here, and that often meant one thing. “Is this a Cajun thing?”
Karen had a helmet of blond hair that didn’t move an inch when she shook it. “It’s an everyone thing. Don’t you know that you can’t ever keep walking down a path a black cat crossed?”
“Yes, it’s a weird old Cajun thing.” Ashlyn talked right over her mother. “No one is freaked by it anymore except my mother.”
“Well, your grandmother didn’t believe it. She laughed and sashayed right through that cat’s path and she got hit by a car,” Karen said, her voice filled with pure righteousness.
“Pawpaw hit her with a car because he caught her cheating on him with their dry cleaner,” Ashlyn shot back.
“Yes, but maybe she would have gotten away with it if she hadn’t crossed that path,” Karen argued. She turned back to Roxie. “Sorry, Deputy. My family has a scandalous past.”
“How about present. Grammy is the bane of the nursing home. She’s the reason they had to do that class on safe sex practices. I’m doomed,” Ashlyn was saying. “One day I will make a film about how weird my family is.”
“I thought you wanted to make horror films,” Karen pointed out.
“Yes, that’s what I said.” Ashlyn crossed her arms over her chest in a show of teenage stubbornness. “My life is a horror movie.”