Five Million Dollar Cat
A Novella
Laura Lond
Published by Laura Lond at Smashwords
Copyright 2012 Laura Lond
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Chapter 1
Amy looked at the caller ID and frowned: she did not know this number. Debt collectors? It shouldn’t be, she’d been very careful with the payments. On the other hand, who knows, perhaps something new had surfaced. Oh, how she hated such surprise calls.
However, Amy had learned to face problems square on; trying to hide from them made no sense.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Amy.”
No, not debt collectors. Worse.
“It’s me, Jack—don’t hang up! I’ve got something real important to tell you.”
Somehow she managed to resist the urge to slam the phone down. Perhaps it was due to the shock of the fact that he had the nerve to call—and that he’d found her number.
“What do you want?”
“Listen, baby…”
“Don’t you dare call me that. Keep your babies to yourself.”
“All right, all right, I’m sorry.” He was always quick to backpedal and even apologize, if it was in his interests. “Listen, Amy, I know I got you into a lot of trouble, and I want to repay everything to you. With interest.”
Now, this was something new. She didn’t believe it, of course.
“Do you, really?”
“Yes. I mean it. Can we meet and talk? I’m here in town, how ‘bout I ask you out for dinner?”
“And pay for it with my credit card?”
He was not easy to insult, either—when he had his reasons to keep the peace.
“Of course not! Listen, I know I’ve been a jerk, and you’ve got all the reasons to hate me. That’s why I’m calling. I really do want to make it all up to you. Nothing else. Can you just hear me out?”
Would she be a complete fool to agree? Probably. But Amy was a little intrigued.
“All right, I’ll give you five minutes. Where do you want to meet?”
“How about The Oyster?”
Wow. It looked like he really needed to get on her good side. Well, whatever he had in mind, she would at least get a dinner at a nice restaurant—plus the rarest pleasure to watch him pay for it. That alone was worth the time.
Naturally, Amy was not going to take her wallet. Jack’s old trick with “forgetting” his wouldn’t work this time.
***
A half an hour later Amy pulled in to The Oyster. It had been a while since she dined at a place like this. She looked over the parking lot, searching for Jack’s car, but his memorable black Lexus was not there. Either he’d bought himself something else or he had not yet arrived. Most likely the latter. Amy didn’t believe it for a second that he finally made his fortune and really intended to return her the money. He wanted something from her, that was clear as day.
She entered the restaurant. To her surprise, Jack was waiting inside. He hadn’t changed a bit during these two years—handsome, slick, dressed in his trendy-bad-boy-slash-rock-musician style, with the most charming smile. Why did women always fall for that type? However, she could address this question to herself, too.
“Hi, Amy. You’re just as pretty, even prettier than before.”
And you’re just as sleazy, she wanted to reply, but she was never good at snappy retorts. That last phone conversation was the harshest she’d ever been with him.
“Stop it,” she said. “Let’s get down to business.”
“As you wish.”
He took her to the table and ordered appetizers.
“Just so you know, I haven’t brought my wallet.”
Jack flashed a radiant smile. “Good. Excellent! I told you, it’s my treat. Order anything you want.”
“Have you robbed a bank?”
He gave her a reproaching look. “Amy. You know I’m not like that.”
Yes, she knew. Jack preferred safer schemes, the kind you wouldn’t—usually—go to jail for.
She couldn’t wait to hear how he was going to “make it all up to her.”
“Well?”
He grew serious. “Like I said, I want to pay it all back to you, Amy. All I’d taken from you and even more, much more, to compensate… well, for everything. And to help you make your dreams come true. You deserve that. I want to offer you a quarter million dollars.”
Without a flinch, she held out her palm. Jack let out a chuckle.
“Well, not right now. I don’t have it yet, but as soon as I do, it will be yours, I promise.”
Amy narrowed her eyes. Of course. She should have known.
“I see. Another one of your shady dealings, and you want me to help. You know what? Get lost.”
She rose to leave, but he caught her hand.
“Amy, wait! Nothing shady. You promised to hear me out, you said five minutes. Would you at least give me that? Please?”
“Well, okay.” She had no idea why she agreed.
The waiter brought their appetizers and asked whether they were ready to order the main course. Amy no longer cared for the dinner, but Jack insisted, so she picked the first thing her eyes fell on—some grilled fish. The waiter left.
“I’m listening. Five minutes.”
“That’s all I need,” Jack nodded, moving the appetizers closer to her, gesturing for her to eat while he explained. Amy picked up the fork.
“Nothing shady,” he repeated. “Everything’s perfectly legal, comes from a buddy of mine who works at a law firm. Here’s the deal. There’s this homeless animal shelter called Friendly Paws. There’s one ugly cat in that shelter that probably no one will want to adopt. And there’s this crazy old hag who secretly arranged to pay five million bucks to whoever adopts this cat, if it ever does happen.”
Amy was studying her overly entrepreneurial ex in silence. His plan was not difficult to guess.
“You want me to adopt the cat and get the five million. I keep two hundred and fifty thousand and give you the rest.”
Jack smiled again. “You’re a smart girl.”
“And you call it perfectly legal?”
“Of course! Don’t you see? The only, uh, questionable part is that no one’s supposed to know about it. But it so happens that my buddy found out. So why not take the chance? We’re not breaking no laws, there’ll be no harm to anyone.”
He was looking at her with such sincere conviction that Amy dismissed all thoughts of trying to explain why the whole thing still smacked of fraud. Besides, it wouldn’t stop him. Of that she was certain.
“Why me?”
“You’re the perfect choice. You live in the area, so there will be no suspicion, no question why you went to that shelter to pick a cat. You love animals—you probably would have adopted it anyway if you saw it. So the cat will be in good hands.”
Amy smirked. Yeah, right, as if he cared one bit about the cat.
“Besides,” Jack went on, “I can trust you with this. If you promise to take only your quarter million and give me the rest, I know you will. I won’t have to take measures to collect the money from you.”
He was right about that. Amy wasn’t inclined to accept the offer, but if she did, it wouldn’t even enter her head to keep all the money. That’s just the way she was.
Jack was watching her—closely.
“You deserve this money, Amy. More than anyone. I can find someone else, of course, I’ve still got connections here. But I wouldn’t have such confidence in anyone else as I have in you. And there’s no guarantee that they won’t just throw the cat out when the deal is done.”
Now, this was blackmail, and very well targeted.
“What do you say?”
Amy did not want to get involved—until the very last moment when she heard about the cat’s possible fate. Poor creature. Jack wasn’t going to give up, he would find someone else, and in that case it was very likely. They’d take the money and get rid of the animal. Perhaps add to the abuse it had obviously already suffered, too. If she agreed, she would at least save the cat.
“Will you give me some time to think?”
“Sure, but not too long. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
***
By the time he called Amy had almost made up her mind—for the cat’s sake, not because of the money. The sum was so unreal that she couldn’t picture actually getting it, anyway. She had some questions though, which Jack said he would be happy to answer. This time, they were to meet at Dunkin Donuts; he had warned that “the deal” was never to be discussed over the phone. Just in case.
“Suppose I agree. Who’s going to pay the taxes?” Amy asked when Jack ordered coffee and a couple of Boston Cream donuts (amazingly, he was still paying).
“My buddy and I. I mean, you will, but from our share. Do you follow? You’ll get the five million, have it all officially processed, pay the required taxes. Then you’ll take your two hundred and fifty thousand and give us the rest. Does that sound fair?”
“All right. But how would I transfer the money to you? Wouldn’t that look suspicious?”
“We have thought about that,” he nodded. “Yes, there’s a possibility that your financial transactions will be watched for a while. Here’s the solution: you’ll be paying me cash, in small sums. It’ll stretch over a long time, but oh well. Better be on the safe side.”
“And if the whole thing falls through?”
Jack shrugged. “Well, stuff happens. It shouldn’t, I sure hope everything plays out nicely, but if, for some reason out of our control, it doesn’t work—so be it. You are not to blame. We’ll part as friends, and I’ll be looking for another way to pay you back.”
She couldn’t help smirking again. Yeah, sure thing.
“Any other questions?”
Amy sighed. Well, it looked like she was going to go for it. God, help me.
“Only one, I suppose. The poor cat’s name and description.”
Jack moved aside his empty cup. “Ah, yes. You see, we don’t know that.”
She looked at him, not understanding. “What do you mean?”
“Well, that’s the tricky part of the plan. The whole deal is very confidential, information is strictly guarded. My buddy didn’t see the whole file, he has no access to it. He’d heard a bit here, a bit there. So he did his best to piece it all together and find out the specifics. He did pretty good—he’s got the shelter, the sum, pretty much everything except the darn cat.”
“Then how am I supposed to—”
“Don’t worry, it shouldn’t be hard. It’s clear that the cat has deformities, bad enough to make it unadoptable. I don’t think there’d be several cats like that there. He should really stand out. I suggest that you go and just take a look. Maybe several times—that’s okay, people do that when they are choosing a pet. Then get back to me and we’ll talk about it. It shouldn’t be hard to single him out.”
***
Chapter 2
On the next morning Amy drove to the animal shelter. She worked second shift; normally, she’d baby sit for Linda in the morning—she needed every penny she could possibly earn—but Linda and Brett were on vacation this week. So Amy was free, for a change. She’d nearly forgotten what it felt like.
The shelter, a small one-story building, was located out in the country. Amy smiled at the cute sign with kittens and puppies, paws raised. Friendly Paws. Yes, that was the right place.
She parked, took in a deep breath, reminded herself to look and act natural. I’m here to adopt a cat. Forget Jack. I’ve always wanted a cat.
She wondered why she hadn’t done it yet. She should have. She’d been busy clearing up the mess her life was thrown into, yes; picking up pieces of her broken dream and learning to live without it. But her apartment complex allowed pets, and there was no reason, really, why she should deny herself the pleasure of having an animal friend. So she was not going to become a vet, not in the near future, perhaps never. That didn’t mean she should shut animals out of her life altogether.
Amy walked to the front door, knocked and entered. She found herself in a small office; a middle-aged lady with short graying hair turned from the computer and rose, greeting her with a smile.
“Hi, I’m Brenda. How can I help you?”
“I’m thinking of adopting a cat,” Amy said.
“Wonderful!” The lady’s face lit up, as if this was the very thing she was hoping to hear. “Have you decided on what kind? Male, female? Long or short haired?”
“N-no, not yet. I think I’d like to look around and see what you have.”
“Excellent, excellent,” Brenda nodded, walking out from behind the desk. “We can do that right now, come with me.”
She took Amy to a small corridor. Amy heard barking somewhere on the right, telling her who occupied that part of the building. Brenda led her to the left.
“Here they are,” she said, unlocking a screen door. “Our boys and girls. Be careful as you step in, some of them like to sneak out.”
Sure enough, a large orange tabby dashed for the door as soon as he saw it open. Brenda caught him.
“No, Barney. I know you love to explore and play with the computer keyboard, but you need to stay here.”