The Witness Cat (Steve Winslow Mystery) Read online

  “No, I would not.”

  “Is that so?” Steve Winslow looked at the judge. “One moment, Your Honor.”

  He turned and walked back to the defense table. But he walked right on by and went out through the gate.

  “Mr. Winslow,” Judge Weston said. “Are you leaving the court?”

  “No, I’m not, Your Honor,” Steve Winslow answered.

  He stopped next to Tracy Garvin, who was sitting in the first row. He bent down and unsnapped the top of the cat case.

  “Nice kitty,” he said. “Now, Molly, it’s time for you to be a very nice cat. Easy does it. Come here, sweetie.”

  Steve Winslow couldn’t see the cat, just the green eyes glowing in the dark. They fixed on him. He heard the hiss, saw the paw snake out.

  “Not yet, Molly. Not yet. Come on, now. There’s a good girl.”

  Steve Winslow got his hands under the cat, managed to lift her out of the box. Cradling her in his arms, he pushed his way back through the gate.

  “Here’s the witness,” Steve Winslow said. “Molly, Mr. Hobbs’s cat. She was in the cabin that night. She saw you come in, she saw you lift the mattress, and she saw you plant the cufflinks. She knows you did it, and she will identify you now. Molly, where’s the man you don’t like? The man who was in your master’s cabin where he shouldn’t have been?”

  Steve Winslow marched up to the witness stand, holding the cat.

  Molly’s head swiveled around. Her eyes fastened on the witness. Suddenly she yowled and her huge, double paw reached out and batted the witness across the face.

  Overmeyer shrieked and half rose from his chair.

  A.D.A Beerbaum lunged to his feet, spouting objections.

  Steve Winslow, paying no attention, bore in on Overmeyer. “The cat identifies the witness as the man who was in her master’s cabin that night.”

  “It’s a lie,” Overmeyer cried. “It means nothing of the sort. It’s a trick. The cat wasn’t even there.”

  Steve Winslow turned from the witness stand, a huge smile on his face. “That’s right, Mr. Overmeyer. The cat wasn’t there. But you were. That’s how you know she wasn’t. The cat wasn’t there when you planted the cufflinks. She’s accused you falsely. She may be guilty of perjury.” Steve Winslow smiled and chucked Molly under the chin. “Just like you, Mr. Overmeyer. Just like you.”

  With that, Steve Winslow turned his back on the disconcerted witness, walked to the defense table, handed the cat to his client, and sat down.

  Mark Taylor was duly impressed. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Steve,” he said later that afternoon in the lawyer’s office after the cranky Mr. Hobbs had departed with his cranky cat. “I mean, getting the charges dismissed. You sure pulled off a miracle this time.”

  “Well, I had to,” Steve Winslow said. “I have a small studio apartment. Where am I going to keep a cat?”

  “Don’t let him kid you, Mark,” Tracy said. “He’d do anything for a client.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Mark Taylor said. “But tell me how. I mean, this was brilliant stage managing on your part. You got the cat up there, you got the witness on the stand, and right on cue the cat lashes out and rakes him across the face. I mean, you couldn’t have staged it any better.”

  “I guess not.”

  “So how did you do it? I mean, if what the witness said was true, if the cat wasn’t there that night, why would Molly hate Overmeyer?”

  “She’s a cranky cat,” Steve Winslow said. “She doesn’t like anybody very much.”

  “Yes, but right on cue,” Mark Taylor said. “She swiped the guy’s face right on cue. When you lifted her out of the box, you had her all calmed down and everything, so how did you get her to do that?”

  “Professional secret,” Steve Winslow said.

  “Don’t give me that,” Mark Taylor said. “I’ve seen you do some crazy things in court, but this takes the cake, having a cat accuse a witness. So how did you get her to do it?”

  Steve Winslow stole a look at Tracy Garvin and bit his lip. “Ah, gee, Mark ...”

  “Come on. What did you do?”

  “Well,” Steve Winslow said, “when I held her up to Overmeyer, I had her cradled in my arms. And my right hand was underneath her.”

  “And?”

  Tracy Garvin’s eyes widened. “And?”

  Steve Winslow exhaled. “I pulled her tail.”

  Which is why Tracy Garvin wasn’t speaking to him.

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