She hisses at him. He makes a ‘brr’ sound and blinks a couple times at her and then she cautiously gets closer, and sniffs him.
Ally looks like she’s about to expire into a puddle of emotions at the reunion as the two cats sniff and circle one another and Georgie finally starts licking his face.
We eat, clean up and then she carries him carefully up to my bedroom and sets him up in a little gray cat bed made of the same material as a stuffed animal. She bought Georgie a pink one. In fact, before we picked Ralphie up I watched her drop almost three hundred bucks on cat toys, cat food, cat litter, extra cat dishes, and the two cat beds.
“I want them with us tonight so I can make sure he’s okay. I was gonna separate them, but I don’t want her to feel left out. Can we put the litter box in the bathroom up here tonight maybe?”
“Sure. I’ll grab it,” I say.
“Any new developments with everything?” she asks when I’m back.
Her situation.
She hasn’t brought it up until now and I knew I had to broach it with her tonight. I’m glad she did it first because though I knew we needed to talk about it today, I hesitated, because she seems relaxed.
“Glad you brought it up. I didn’t want to burst your bliss bubble.”
Her expression drops. “Something bad happened.”
“No, no. I just didn’t wanna stress you out by bringing it up. Everything’s movin’ in the right direction, though slower than I’d have liked. I’ve had a few conversations with Boyd and with Craig, a new contact in Ohio that’s lead on the Thaddeus Steele task force. Took a bit to get everyone together but there was a round table today and we dialed in. They’ve been working at building a case and they want that gun, babe. It might be nothing or it could be everything in giving them a solid reason for an arrest warrant. I’m not privy to all the details on the case yet. They’re vetting me to make me a freelance consultant for the case and I’ll have more information once that process is done with.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“It’s all good news so far, Ally. They give me the impression they’re closin’ in and what you’ve got could help them with that in a big way.”
“All right. We can go to my place tomorrow and I’ll give you the cash I have in my bug-out bag and can send it to them. Actually, I have to be there in person for the safety deposit boxes and fingerprints, so could you maybe.. uh… come with me?”
“Absolutely. The cops want that no later than early next week if we can make time. Maybe take a flight out Saturday.”
She’s trembling in my arms.
“Ally?”
“Hm?”
“Talk to me.”
“Giving up that money, that safety net is… it means I don’t have the same freedom to run. You know? Knowing I had all that money aside let me know I could disappear if I had to.”
“I get that. How much money is it?”
“Almost three quarters of a million dollars,” she whispers.
I whistle low.
“I’ve only spent what was necessary, you know, so that if I needed it, it was there. But also so that if they found me I’d be able to give most of it back if pressed because, you know…”
“I get it.”
“But even more than the money, the other thing - the gun. It’s always been in my mind that it was a bigger deal than the money because if it was evidence, and it might not be, but it was in a Ziploc bag so that says something to me. If it is, they’d want it back the most. And not having it in the same place as me or even the cash felt like a bargaining chip. I mean, if he was gonna kill me he’d kill me, but…” She trails off.
I give her a squeeze and touch my lips to her forehead.
“This is all gonna be over soon and when it is, you don’t have to worry about bug-out bags, backup plans, or bargaining chips. You just have looking forward to worry about. Okay?”
She nods. “I pray he doesn’t get a chance to hurt anyone I care about. And I’m glad that the cops will have that gun. It’s haunted me that maybe that gun could solve a cold case and bring a family some closure, bring justice to a killer.” Her voice chokes up and I know she’s thinking about her father’s cold case.
“I know. We’ll do our very, very fucking best. And you’re doing the right thing, handing over that weapon.”
“Mom’s going to Europe? She’s gonna be safe? I’ve been afraid to ask more about her, but you didn’t say anything, so I figured you’d tell me if I needed to know anything.”