Read Online A Familiar Tail by Delia James - Free Book Online

Google. What I had was a big gray cat rubbing his head against my chin and purring like an affectionate motorboat.
    â€œI’m okay,” I told Frank. And Alistair. It was even true. I was breathing. I could see again and the world had stopped spinning.
    â€œGood,” said Frank. “Now, you want to tell me what that was about?”
    No. No, I really didn’t. I automatically dug into my well-stocked pantry of Lies I Tell About My Vibe.
    â€œMerow!” Alistair gave my hand a firm head butt.
    â€œNot now, cat, okay?” I picked Alistair up and set himon the patio. He jumped back into my lap and hunkered down. I felt the tiny pinpricks of his claws. If I tried to move him now there would be damage to skin, not to mention my favorite yoga pants.
    I sighed in defeat. Frank, on the other hand, frowned in deep and implacable skepticism.
    â€œThose must have been some good tacos.”
    â€œPale Ale’s finest.”
    â€œYou were going to tell me what happened back there?” I wasn’t entirely sure if Frank was asking me or Alistair. Alistair, however, looked at me expectantly.
    â€œYou aren’t going to like it,” I told them both.
    â€œI’d say that’s a decent bet.”
    â€œMrrp,” agreed Alistair.
    Me, I did not believe I was having this conversation with either one of them.
    I could still lie. I always lied about the Vibe. I was good at it. But as I sat there, both strength and sense drained away, and all I had left was the truth. “Your aunt died at the bottom of those stairs.”
    â€œYes, thank you, I knew that.” Frank’s words were flat and bitter, and I really couldn’t blame him for that.
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œYou really better not be angling for the job of my psychic friend.”
    â€œBelieve me—I would give a whole lot not to know this right now.”
    Alistair swatted at me with one paw. “Hey!”
    The cat stared belligerently back at me, blinking his babyblues. Frank, unsurprisingly, did not look at all pleased either.
    â€œSo you’re not going to tell me my aunt had a last message for me? Like ‘Sell the house and give this person all the money’?”
    â€œUm, no. Look. Sometimes when I get to a place, I get a Vibe . . . a feeling. Sometimes it’s about something that already happened. Sometimes it’s about something that’s going to happen.” Now that I’d started, words just poured out of me. “I don’t need it, I don’t want it, but I’ve never been able to do anything about it and it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it or I don’t believe it or the cat doesn’t believe it—”
    â€œMeow!”
    â€œIt happens anyway, and it happened when I got into the garden, and again in the basement. And your reaction is exactly why I hate to talk about it.” I struggled under the weight of reluctant cat, but I got to my feet. “And I know you want me gone, so I am out of here. Sorry to have intruded.” Very sorry. Completely sorry. So sorry as not to be believed. I started across the lawn, heading for the gate and McDermott’s on the other side with no intention whatsoever of pausing or looking back. I clutched my purse strap and tried not to think about the magic wand and the photo inside. I’d figure out what to do about them later.
    â€œDid somebody push her?” called Frank.
    So much for good intentions. I not only stopped dead; I turned around.
    â€œWhat?”
    Frank was on his feet and shoving his hair back from his forehead. He stared past me at the garden and the apple trees, like he was hoping they’d have a different answer to his question. Alistair rubbed up against his shins, but Frank ignored him. “This thing—this Vibe or whatever you call it—did it tell you if somebody pushed her down the stairs?”
    He was serious. Dead serious. Which was not the