Carrot Cake Murder (Hannah Swensen, #10)(38)

Hannah’s eyes popped open. Her mind was working so hard to identify the origin of the sound she was hearing, it had awakened her. And it was the middle of the night. At least she thought it was the middle of the night. It was certainly dark enough to be the middle of the night.

There it was again, a sort of a high-pitched squeak. Perhaps it was a mouse being terrorized by a cat! “Moishe?” she called out, flicking on the light.

Moishe was nowhere in sight. He wasn’t on the bed, and he wasn’t in it, either, because there was no lump under the covers. He wasn’t in the bedroom at all. The chirping had stopped, and Hannah knew that meant she had to get up. She gave a tired sigh as she pulled her slippers out from under the bed and put them on. It was a warm summer night, and she didn’t need to protect her feet from cold floors. But her slippers were washable, and she did need to protect her feet from any tangible evidence of rodent carnage that might be scattered in her path.

There was nothing in the hallway. Hannah was careful as she walked. And there was nothing in the living room except…

Hannah stopped short as she spotted Moishe sitting proudly on the second floor of his Kitty Kondo. He was practically grinning at her, but not so widely that he might drop the prize in his mouth. It was a furry gray mouse with a string attached, and Hannah knew that string had been tied to the pole of kitty toys when they’d gone to bed. Moishe must have gathered his courage and gone up there in the middle of the night to get his prize. And he must be chewing on it right now, even though she couldn’t see his jaw working, because it was making a new sound, an electronic beeping sound that seemed to be coming from her bedroom.

Realization dawned and with it, Hannah groaned. The beeping was coming from her alarm clock. It was time to get up and face the morning. She’d had a full four-hours’ sleep, and that was all she was going to get.

There was a soft hissing sound from the kitchen, and Hannah sniffed the air. The last of the water had gone into her coffeemaker’s basket and it was dripping down through the coffee grounds to join the fresh brew that awaited her in the carafe.

“I should have taught you to shut off the alarm clock,” Hannah said, addressing her courageous hunter.

As Hannah turned to go back to the bedroom to shut off her alarm, Moishe made a sound that she took for agreement, but he didn’t open his mouth. It was clear he wasn’t about to give up his prey for an early-morning conversation.

It didn’t take long for Hannah to shower and dress, and she drained the last of her first mug of coffee as she walked down the hallway to the kitchen again. There she found Moishe still staring at the food in his bowl, the toy mouse held tightly in his mouth. “Can’t have your mouse and eat it, too?” she asked, pointing to the food bowl.

Moishe made another pathetic closed-mouth sound, and Hannah took pity on him. “I tell you what…why don’t I tie the mouse back on the pole, and you can catch him again later? That way you’ll have twice the fun.” With that said, Hannah reached for the mouse, and surprisingly, Moishe let her have it. As she headed for the living room to tie it back on the pole, she wondered if he’d really understood her and opted for twice the fun, or whether the food in the bowl had simply won out over the nonfood in his mouth.

She had time for one more cup of coffee. Hannah poured her last cup and leaned against the counter to sip it. Once she finished her coffee, all she had to do was retrieve the cookie dough, find her car keys, pick up her purse, and go out the door.

The phone rang, and Hannah mentally corrected herself. All she had to do was answer the phone, pick up the cookie dough, find her keys and her purse, and go.

“Hello,” she said, answering normally since Moishe wasn’t bristling.

“Hi, Hannah. You were up, weren’t you?”

It was Norman, and Hannah laughed. “Of course I was up. I have to be at work in thirty minutes. I’m glad you called, though. I wanted to thank you for putting up Moishe’s Kitty Kondo.”

“You’re welcome. I didn’t think you’d mind if Sue from downstairs let me in.”

“I don’t mind at all!”

“Good. I think it’s going to take a while before the Big Guy gets used to it. He made himself scarce while I was installing it, and when I tried to coax him closer, he hid under your bed.”

“He’s a faster learner than you think. You should have seen him this morning playing with that mouse on the pole. He managed to get it loose, and he looked really proud of himself.”

“Great! I’ll pick up some replacement toys the next time I’m out at the mall. The girl at the pet store said her cats tear up at least one toy a week.”

“Thanks, again,” Hannah said. “You’re the most thoughtful person I know.”

There was a silence, and Hannah knew Norman was a bit embarrassed by her compliment. “Well, you are,” she told him.

“Thanks. You threw me off balance there and I almost forgot the reason I called. It’s number fifty-seven.”

“Number fifty-seven?”

“Five-seven. That’s right.”

“But what’s five-seven?”

“The Animal Channel. For Moishe to watch. I asked around after the slide show last night. I thought you might want to turn it on before you left for work.”

“Right. Thanks, Norman. I’ll do that. And if you can, come in for cookies this morning. I’m trying out something new.”