Frankencat (Whales and Tails Cozy Mystery Book 13) Read online

  Chloe’s plea faded as an image flashed into my mind. I closed my eyes and focused on the image before I spoke. I knew from previous experience that it was important to get a lock on the psychic connection before I said or did anything to break the spell. Once I felt I was ready, I opened my eyes and tuned back into Chloe’s chatter. I was certain she hadn’t missed a beat even though I’d missed the whole thing. “Look, I have to go,” I interrupted. “Someone’s in trouble. I’ll call you later.”

  I hung up with Chloe, called a cab, and then called Dani Mathews. Dani was a helicopter pilot and one of the members of the search-and-rescue team I was a part of. She’d offered to give me a lift into Anchorage for my meeting today and I’d taken her up on it.

  “Someone’s in trouble,” I said as soon as Dani answered.

  “I was about to call you. I just got off the phone with Jake.” Jake Cartwright was my boss, brother-in-law, and the leader of the search-and-rescue team. “There are two boys, one fifteen and the other sixteen. They’d been cross-country skiing at the foot of Cougar Mountain. Jake said they have a GPS lock on a phone belonging to one of the teens, so he isn’t anticipating a problem with the rescue.”

  The cab pulled up and I slipped inside. I instructed the driver to head to the airport, then answered Dani. “The boys dropped the phone, so Jake and the others are heading in the wrong direction”

  I slipped off my shoes as the cab sped away.

  “Do you know where they are?” Dani asked with a sound of panic in her voice.

  “In a cave.” I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the image in my head. “The cave’s shallow, but they’re protected from the storm.” I took off my heavy parka and pulled a pair of jeans out of my backpack. I cradled the phone to my ear with my shoulder as I slipped the jeans onto my bare legs.

  “Where’s the cave, Harm?”

  I closed my eyes once again and let the image come to me. “I’d say they’re about a quarter of a mile up the mountain.”

  “Are they okay?” Dani asked.

  I took a deep breath and focused my energy. There were times I wanted to run from the images and feelings that threatened to overwhelm and destroy me, but I knew embracing the pain and fear was my destiny as well as my burden. “They’re both scared, but only one of them is hurt. Call Jake and tell him to check the cave where we found Sitka,” I said, referring to our search-and-rescue dog, who Jake and I had found lost on the mountain when he was just a puppy. “And send someone for Moose.” I glanced out the window. The snow was getting heavier, and it wouldn’t be long before we would be forbidden from taking off. “I’m almost at the airport. Go ahead and warm up the bird. I should be there in two minutes.”

  I hung up the phone and placed it on the seat next to me. The driver swerved as I pulled my dress over my head and tossed it to one side. I knew the pervert was watching, but I didn’t have time to care as I pulled a thermal shirt out of my backpack, over my head, and across my bare chest.

  “What’s the ETA to the airport?” I demanded from the backseat.

  “Less than a minute.”

  “Go on around to the entrance for private planes. I have the code to get in the gate. My friend is waiting with a helicopter.”

  As the cab neared the entrance, I pulled on heavy wool socks and tennis shoes. I wished I had my snow boots with me, but the tennis shoes would have to do because the boots were too heavy to carry around all day.

  As soon as the cab stopped, I grabbed my phone, tossed some cash onto the front seat, and hopped out, leaving my dress and new heels behind.

  “You’ve forgotten your dress, miss.”

  “Keep it,” I said as I flung my backpack over my shoulder and took off at a full run for the helicopter. As soon as I got in, Dani took off. “Did you get hold of Jake?” I asked as I strapped myself in.

  “I spoke to Sarge. He’s manning the radio. He promised to keep trying to get through to Jake. The storm is intensifying at a steady rate. We need to find them.”

  “Moose?”

  “Sarge sent someone for him.”

  I looked out the window as we flew toward rescue. A feeling of dread settled in the pit of my stomach. The storm was getting stronger and I knew that when a storm blew in without much notice it caught everyone off guard, and the likelihood of a successful rescue decreased dramatically.

  The team I belonged to was one of the best anywhere, our survival record unmatched. Still, I’d learned at an early age that when you’re battling Mother Nature, even the best teams occasionally came out on the losing end. I picked up the team radio Dani had tucked into the console of her helicopter, pressed the handle, and hoped it would connect me to someone at the command post.

  “Go for Sarge,” answered the retired army officer who now worked for Neverland, the bar Jake owned.

  “Sarge, it’s Harmony. Dani and I are on our way, but we won’t get there in time to make a difference. I need you to get a message to Jake.”

  “The reception is sketchy, but don’t you worry your pretty head; Sarge will find a way.”

  “The boys are beginning to panic. I can feel their absolute horror as the storm strengthens. The one who isn’t injured is seriously thinking of leaving his friend and going for help. If he does neither of them will make it. Jake needs to get there and he needs to get there fast.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll find a way to let Jake know. Can you communicate with the boys?”

  I paused and closed my eyes. I tried to connect but wasn’t getting through. “I’m trying, but so far I just have a one-way line. Is Jordan there?” Jordan Fairchild was not only a member of the team but she was also a doctor who worked for the local hospital.

  “She was on duty at the hospital, but she’s on her way.”

  “Tell her she’ll need to treat hypothermia.” I paused and closed my eyes once again. My instinct was to block the pain and horror I knew I needed to channel. “And anemia. The break to the femur of the injured teen is severe. He’s been bleeding for a while.” I used the back of my hand to wipe away the steady stream of tears that were streaking down my face. God, it hurt. The pain. The fear. “I’m honestly not sure he’ll make it. I can feel his strength fading, but we have to try.”

  “Okay, Harm, I’ll tell her.”

  “Is Moose there?”

  “He will be by the time you get here.”

  I put down the radio and tried to slow my pounding heart. I wasn’t sure why I’d been cursed with the ability to connect psychically with those who were injured or dying. It isn’t that I could feel the pain of everyone who was suffering; it seemed only to be those we were meant to help who found their way into my radar. I wasn’t entirely sure where the ability came from, but I knew when I’d acquired it.

  I grew up in a warm and caring family, with two parents and a sister who loved me. When I was thirteen my parents died in an auto accident a week before Christmas. My sister Val, who had just turned nineteen, had dropped out of college, returned to Rescue Alaska, and taken over as my legal guardian. I remember feeling scared and so very alone. I retreated into my mind, cutting ties to most people except for Val, who became my only anchor to the world. When I was fifteen Val married local bar owner Jake Cartwright. Jake loved Val and treated me like a sister, and after a period of adjustment, we became a family and I began to emerge from my shell. When I was seventeen Val went out on a rescue. She got lost in a storm, and although the team had tried to find her, they’d come up with nothing but dead ends. I remember sitting at the command post praying harder than I ever had before. I wanted so much to have the chance to tell Val how much I loved her. She’d sacrificed so much for me and I wasn’t sure she knew how much it meant to me.

  Things hadn’t looked good, even though the entire team had searched around the clock. I could hear them whispering that the odds of finding her alive were decreasing with each hour. I remember wanting to give my life for hers, and suddenly, there she was, in my head. I could feel her pain, but I also kn
ew the prayer in her heart. I knew she was dying, but I could feel her love for me and I could feel her fighting to live. I could also feel the life draining from her body with each minute that passed.

  I tried to tell the others that I knew where she was, but they thought they were only the ramblings of an emotionally distraught teenager dealing with the fallout of shock and despair. When the team eventually found Val’s body exactly where and how I’d told them they would, they began to believe that I really had made a connection with the only family I’d had left in the world.

  Of course, the experience of knowing your sister was dying, of feeling her physical and emotional pain as well has her fear as she passed into the next life, was more than a seventeen-year-old could really process. I’m afraid I went just a bit off the deep end. Jake, who had taken over as my guardian, had tried to help me, as did everyone else in my life at the time, but there was no comfort in the world that would undo the horror I’d experienced.

  And then I met Moose. Moose is a large Maine Coon who wandered into the bar Jake owned and I worked and lived in at the time. The minute I picked up the cantankerous cat and held him to my heart, the trauma I’d been experiencing somehow melted away. I won’t go so far as to say that Moose has magical powers—at least not any more than I do—but channeling people in life-and-death situations is more draining than I can tolerate, and the only one who can keep me grounded is a fuzzy Coon with a cranky disposition.

  “Are you okay?” Dani asked as she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. Her concern for my mental health was evident on her face.

  “I’m okay. I’m trying to connect with the boys, but they’re too terrified to let me in. It’s so hard to feel their pain when you can’t offer comfort.”

  “Can’t you shut if off? I can’t imagine allowing myself to actually feel and experience what those boys are.”

  “If I block it I’ll lose them. I have to hang on. Maybe I can get through to one of them. They don’t have long.”

  “Do you really think you have the ability to do that? To establish a two-way communication?”

  I put my hand over my heart. It felt like it was breaking. “I think so. I hope so. The elderly man who was buried in the avalanche last spring told me that he knew he was in his final moments and all he could feel was terror. Then I connected and he felt at peace. It was that peace that allowed him to slow his breathing. Jordan said the only reason he was still alive when we found him was because he’d managed to conserve his oxygen.”

  “That’s amazing.”

  I shrugged. I supposed I did feel good about that rescue, but I’d been involved in rescues, such as Val’s, in which the victim I connected with didn’t make it. I don’t know why it’s my lot to experience death over and over again, but it seems to be my calling, so I try to embrace it so I’m available for the victims I can save like that old man.

  “The injured one is almost gone,” I whispered. “They need to get to him now.”

  I knew tears were streaming down my fact as I gripped the seat next to me. The pain was excruciating, but needed to hang on.

  Dani reached over and grabbed my hand. “We’re almost there. I’m preparing to land. Sarge is waiting with Moose.”

  She guided the helicopter to the ground despite the storm raging around us. As soon as she landed, I opened the door, hopped out, and ran to the car, where Sarge was waiting with Moose. I pulled him into my arms and wept into his thick fur. Several minutes later I felt a sense of calm wash over me. I couldn’t know for certain, but I felt as if the boy I was channeling had experienced that same calm. I looked at Sarge. “He’s gone.”

  “I’m so sorry, Harm.”

  “The other one is still alive. He’s on the verge of panicking and running out into the storm. Jake and the others have to get to him.”

  Sarge helped me into the car and we headed toward Neverland, where I knew the fate of the second boy would be revealed before the night came to an end.

  Recipes

  Double Layer Pumpkin Pie—submitted by Darla Taylor

  Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes—submitted by Vivian Shane

  Marie’s Gingersnaps—submitted by Marie Rice

  Streusel Apple Pie—submitted by Patty Liu

  Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

  Submitted by Darla Taylor

  8 oz. cream cheese, softened

  1 tbs. milk

  1 tbs. sugar

  1 tub (8 oz. or larger) Cool Whip

  1 prepared graham cracker crust

  1 cup cold milk

  1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin

  2 pkgs. (4 serving size) vanilla instant pudding

  1 tsp. ground cinnamon*

  ½ tsp. ground ginger*

  ¼ tsp. ground cloves*

  May substitute 1 slightly heaping tsp. pumpkin pie spice for the * items above.

  Mix cream cheese, 1 tbs. milk, and sugar in large bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Gently fold in 1½ cups Cool Whip. Spread onto bottom of crust.

  Pour 1 cup cold milk into large bowl. Add pumpkin, pudding mixes, and spices. Beat with wire whisk until well mixed. Mixture will be thick. Spread over cream cheese layer.

  Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Garnish with remaining Cool Whip.

  Pumpkin Cinnamon Pancakes

  Submitted by Vivian Shane

  The first pumpkin recipe I make when the fall season arrives.

  Pecan syrup:

  1 cup maple-flavor syrup

  5 tbs. chopped pecans, toasted

  Pancakes:

  1 cup buttermilk pancake mix

  ⅔ cup cold water

  ⅓ cup canned pumpkin

  ½ tsp. cinnamon

  ⅛ tsp. ginger

  Butter, room temperature

  Combine syrup and pecans and heat in microwave on high, about 25 seconds. Set aside and keep warm.

  In a medium bowl, whisk pancake mix, water, pumpkin, cinnamon, and ginger until just blended (don’t overmix; the batter will be lumpy). Spray griddle with baking spray and heat to 350 degrees (medium). Spoon 2 tbs. batter onto griddle for each pancake. Cook for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear, then turn over and cook 2 minutes longer. Top with butter and syrup.

  Yields 6 pancakes

  Note: I use the leftover pumpkin for pumpkin bread.

  Marie’s Gingersnaps

  Submitted by Marie Rice

  ¾ cup shortening

  1 cup brown sugar

  ¼ cup molasses

  1 egg

  2¼ cups all-purpose flour

  2 tsp. baking soda

  1 tsp. ground ginger

  1 tsp. ground cinnamon

  ½ tsp. ground cloves

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  In a large bowl, cream together the first four ingredients until fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift the remaining ingredients together. Stir the flour mixture into the molasses mixture.

  Lightly spray baking sheets. Form dough into small balls and roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on the sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the desired firmness/hardness. (For crunchier cookies, leave in oven longer.)

  Cool for a couple of minutes on baking sheet and then move cookies to cooling rack to finish cooling. If reusing the baking sheet for another batch, use spatula to scrap the sheet and then respray before placing more cookie dough on the sheet.

  Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

  Streusel Apple Pie

  Submitted by Patty Liu

  1 Pillsbury Pie Crust, unbaked

  ½ cup granulated sugar

  2 tbs. flour

  ¾ tsp. cinnamon

  ¼ tsp. nutmeg

  ¼ tsp. salt

  6 cups apples, sliced

  Topping:

  1 cup uncooked quick or old-fashioned oats

  ⅓ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

  ⅓ cup pecans, finely chopped

  ½ tsp. cinnamon

  ⅓ cup butter or margarine, melted

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Com
bine filling ingredients, except apples; toss apples in mixture; place in 9-inch pie shell. Combine topping ingredients; spread over pie filling. Bake 50 minutes or until topping is brown and apples are tender.

  Serves 8

  Note: You can microwave the apples until softer; this will cut down on the baking time. Remember, if you use apples with peel it will take longer. Doubling the topping gives better coverage for this pie. It’s important to cover the edges of the pie crust with tin foil before baking to keep the crust from getting too brown.

  Books by Kathi Daley

  Come for the murder, stay for the romance.

  Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery:

  Halloween Hijinks

  The Trouble With Turkeys

  Christmas Crazy

  Cupid’s Curse

  Big Bunny Bump-off

  Beach Blanket Barbie

  Maui Madness

  Derby Divas

  Haunted Hamlet

  Turkeys, Tuxes, and Tabbies

  Christmas Cozy

  Alaskan Alliance

  Matrimony Meltdown

  Soul Surrender

  Heavenly Honeymoon

  Hopscotch Homicide

  Ghostly Graveyard

  Santa Sleuth

  Shamrock Shenanigans

  Kitten Kaboodle

  Costume Catastrophe

  Candy Cane Caper

  Holiday Hangover

  Easter Escapade

  Camp Carter

  Trick or Treason – September 2017

  Reindeer Roundup – December 2017

  Zimmerman Academy The New Normal