The next morning, Faith had still not returned, though they had left the patio door open all night, which had let in a swarm of mosquitoes. The bowl of chicken they’d left outside had attracted a horde of ants, but the cat had completely disappeared.
Erik and Vickie stood on the patio looking into the woods.
“You remember what Dovecrest said,” she reminded him. “Those woods go on forever.”
Yeah, he thought. And for some reason he thought there were stranger things going on than either of them could imagine.
“What do you think happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied. But deep down inside, he had a very bad feeling that the cat would never come back. He was probably jumping to conclusions, but he couldn’t help thinking that Faith was dead.
“She’s never stayed out all night before,” Vickie said. “Not in all the years we’ve had her.”
Erik nodded. “How’s Todd taking it?”
“Not too well. He keeps saying that the stone got her.”
“I guess I’ll have to have a talk with him,” Erik said, hoping he could finally get to the bottom of this whole thing, once and for all.
They stood silent, looking off into the woods.
“Faith will be all right, won’t she? I mean, after all, she’s a cat and cats can pretty much take care of themselves.”
“From most things.”
But the nervous edge to his voice betrayed his concern.
“What do you mean by that?”
He shrugged and debated about telling her about the devil worshiper that Steve Harvey had told him about. He was jumping to conclusions, though. What would devil worshippers be doing in Chepachet, anyway? It didn’t make any sense.
“I mean, she can’t protect herself from everything. She’s a house cat, not a tiger. I just hope she hasn’t been hit by a car. But, knowing Faith, she probably stopped at a neighbor’s house for a hand out and decided to stick around.”
Erik looked back towards the house to where Todd was watching from his bedroom window. The boy waved, almost sadly, and both Erik and his wife waved back.
“Poor kid,” Vickie said. “He loves that cat. Do you really think someone might have found her and taken her in?”
“It’s possible,” Erik said, trying to remain positive, despite his bad feeling.
“Maybe we could make a ‘lost cat’ sign,” she suggested. “We can hang it up in the neighborhood, and I can knock on a few doors with it. Todd’s heartbroken about this. We’ve got to do something.”
“Yeah, that’s an idea,” he said. “We can try the sign. I can scan a picture of Faith into the computer. And I can hang copies at the plaza down the road, too.”
Vickie nodded.
“I really should search the woods,” he said gravely.
“Maybe you could go see Dovecrest and he’ll go with you. I really don’t want you out there alone. You might get lost. I’m sure he’d go with you if you explained the situation.”
Erik still wasn’t sure how he felt about involving the Indian, but he nodded anyway.
“I suppose,” he said. “But let me make one of those posters, first. Then we can copy it.”
“Why don’t you ask Todd to help you,” his wife suggested. “I think his cold is better and it would do him good to feel useful.”
“Sure.”
Then he took one last look into the woods before returning to the house.