Tightening her hold on the knife again, she moved slowly through the living room in her stockinged feet, noting the front window ajar from when she’d opened it earlier upon her return from work to let in some fresh air. There wasn’t enough of a gap for anyone to have slipped through the opening though, to say nothing of the idea that it would have been impossible for an intruder to scale the fifteen-floor building height in any case.

Unless Ed from next door had finally decided to pop over the terrace divider and introduce himself? Though ‘terrace’ was overstating it, the horizontal ledge beneath the windowsill was barely wide enough to hold a planter.

Thanks to Hannah’s chocolate offerings, she and the old man seemed to have come to a sort of truce in the interim, exchanging notes with a little more frequency and even some camaraderie. She guessed he’d have softened up enough soon to the point that she could introduce herself in person, but for the moment was simply happy with no more complaints. But her neighbour coming through the window for a visit was highly unlikely given his age and mobility issues and anyway, why wouldn’t he just knock on the door like a normal person?

Her head spinning with the various possibilities, most of which were too outlandish to truly consider, Hannah crept slowly toward the entrance to Courtney’s room. Her breath hitched when from the doorway she spied a dark shape sprawled out on the bed … indolently licking itself.

‘Where the hell did you come from?’ she sang, a mixture of surprise and relief flooding through her.

The cat looked back at Hannah with pure disdain, evidently annoyed at being interrupted. Brown and orange patterned, it was old and scrawny enough to be mistaken for a stray, save for the thin red collar around its neck.

Clearly, it hadn’t just wandered off the street and decided to scale the fifteen-floor height in through her open window. Though Hannah didn’t know much about cats, so maybe anything was possible. Still, wherever it might have originated, she couldn’t let the animal remain there on Courtney’s pristine Egyptian cotton bedding. For one thing, its fur would shed all over the white comforter.

But who did it belong to?

There was no mention of any cat when they’d been making preliminary housesitting arrangements or indeed since, and now that she thought about it, wasn’t this a pet-free building? Regardless, this kitty could not stay where it was, contentedly sprawled out on Courtney Wilde’s bed.

Hannah approached, and the cat immediately stood, arched its back and hissed.

Great, she thought wryly. Yet another hostile reception.

These days, it was becoming a pattern.

Chapter 13

WARD

For a few moments, Ward was tempted to just ignore the buzzing phone but he knew his mother too well.