Page 9 of Stay in Your Lane!

I was going to focus on this. I was! I just needed to read about echidnas first. Like, why? Why was their business shaped that way? How did that help?

A rustle in the bushes caught my attention. “Kitty kitty,” I murmured, a swell of well-being spreading out from my chest as I realized I’d done it—I’d lured the cute cat from earlier in! “Come on out…kitty kitty kitty…”

A dark shaped waddled out from under the bush and over to the bowl of cat food. For a second, I thought the cat from earlier had gotten into some kind of fight—this wasn’t the normal stride offelis catus.

But it was very normal forProcyon lotor.

“Aw, raccoon,” I muttered. “Dang it.” Not that I had any problem with feeding a raccoon if the circumstances called for it—nobody deserved to starve, after all—but if it was here, then the cat definitely wasn’t coming back. “Dude, come on.”

It stared at me balefully before scooping up a double-handful of food and waddling back into the bush on its hind feet like the hateful little food-stealer it was.

“See if I buy the good stuff foryouagain,” I shouted after it.

A nearby window banged again. “I thought I told you to shut the fuck up!”

“Sorry!”

Great. No kitty for me. That made me kind of sad. I shouldproooobablygo and retrieve the bowl before the raccoon got back to it, but I was a little wary about handling it now that it had been touched.Gloves. Obviously.I reached into the box in my backseat for a pair of gloves—you never knew when you’d need them—then got out and walked back over to the bowl. I knelt down next to it and…

Huh. Was that a circle? And another circle, and the straight lines looked just like?—

It was a shoe imprint. An Air Force 1 shoe imprint.

Huh. Was that important? Like, it seemed like it should be? Except I wasn’t a crime scene tech, and surely they’d gotten a picture of it earlier. Then again, they hadn’t cordoned off the yard, only the trailer itself, so maybe not? Well, just in case they hadn’t, maybe I should…yeah, I should take a picture of it.

I should put something in for size reference. Hmm. Oh! The bowl of cat food ought to be okay.

It was a standard size, easy to measure out. I turned my flashlight function on and snapped a picture, then took another from a different angle for good measure. I looked around for more, but the ground was too disturbed. My guess was this one had survived because it was so close to the bush. What had the person wearing it been doing over here? Peeking through the window? Smoking? Smoking would be good—they might have left a cigarette butt around. I checked to be sure, but didn’t find anything.

Still. Not bad. I put my phone away and picked up the bowl, then headed back to my car, only to see?—

“Hey!” There were three raccoons—three—in my backseat chowing down on the open bag of cat food. “Dudes! Quit it!” I ran toward the car and they booked it, knocking the bag over and spreading kibble all across the footwells. I stared at the mess and imagined those little assholes snickering to themselves as they ran off. Freaking hoodlums. And Istillhadn’t seen the cat.

“Are you okay?”

I spun around to see Kyle coming out of the house. He chucked his Tyvek suit and pulled off his respirator over by his truck, but his eyes were on me.

Probably because I was staring at my car like it had personally disappointed me. “Yeah,” I said as casually as I could. “Just a kibble issue, no worries.”

“A…sorry, a kibble issue?”

“Fucking raccoons,” I muttered. “But I’m fine.”

“In a fight between you and raccoons, I’d certainlyhopeyou were fine.”

I laughed. “You’d think so, right?” But raccoons were tricky little shits. With over sixty percent of their cerebral cortexes dedicated to touch, I wouldn’t put it past them to be able to open a locked door or…

My brain gradually pulled me back on track. “Are you done?”

“I’m done,” he confirmed. “I just need to load up the trash bags and I’m good to go.”

“Can I help with that part?”

He rolled his eyes. “If you really want to. I don’t know why you would, but?—”

“So you don’t have to do it all by yourself.”

Kyle’s jaw tightened. “I can handle it.”

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