people?" Eile asked as she sprinted to keep up.
"The Garda."
"Who?"
"An Garda Siochana na hEireann; the Guardians of the Peace of Ireland. You would call them the police. Now, keep still."
Eile pulled up abruptly. "The police? Why are we running from them?"
Medb stopped at the edge of the road. "I do not want to get involved with them."
Eile got a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Did you kill the bookseller?"
Medb looked at her, but while her face appeared neutral, there was no look of anger in her eyes. "We will discuss it later. For now, we have to get away from here."
"But if we run, we'll just be incriminating ourselves. Shouldn't we stay and clear our names?"
Losing her patience, Medb replied in an angry tone. "I have no time for that, or this. I am leaving now; you can either come with me or stay and take your chances with the Garda. Decide."
Eile looked at Sunny. "I think we should stay. We didn't do anything wrong, and the police can help us find Oldebuck's book."
Sunny looked from Eile to Medb and back again. "I think we should go with Mayv. I have a bad feeling about all this, and I trust her to look out for us."
Eile couldn't argue with that. "Is there something going on we don't know about?" she asked Medb.
The massive woman didn't answer right away. "Yes, and now that you are involved, no matter how inadvertent, you will become a target. I can protect you; the Garda cannot."
"Ah, Jesus!" She shook her head and looked at Sunny. "I guess we have no choice, again."
"Then we better get going," Sunny agreed.
Medb nodded, and the three of them headed down the road.
From "The Adventure of the Cat's Peril"
Eile stifled a yawn as she came down the stairs. She got about halfway, however, when she paused and looked around. She and Sunny had moved into their new place just a week before; they hadn't even unpacked everything yet, and boxes still crowded the foyer. Not that they had had all that much to begin with. Eile had been raised by her maternal uncle, a retired Marine Corps drill instructor, and they lived together in a tiny townhouse. When he suffered a stroke and had to be placed in a home to receive proper care, she inherited the house and all its belongings, but aside from the furniture she owned only her personal items. When she met Sunny, she had nothing but the clothes on her back, being on the run from enemies of her parents who wanted to kidnap her. They had lived together in the house for only ten days before Medb found them their new home, so Sunny barely had time to acquire much of her own except for some clothes.
Eile still wasn't used to how big it was compared to the townhome. Though it had only two stories plus a basement like the latter, it was much bigger, with more rooms of a more spacious size, and the basement was finished. There were four bedrooms on the second floor, while the first had an office, a conservatory, a library, and a combination family and media room, along with a living room, the kitchen and dining room, and a breakfast nook. The basement contained the utility room, a safe room, and Medb's "man cave" for her personal use, along with an exercise area they had put in themselves.
Technically, the massive woman owned the house. She had bought it to have a residence in Denver whenever she was in town, but that wasn't often, since she made her home in Cairnsford, a small town halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs. She had modified it to suit her own purposes, including putting in the safe room and making the library out of what would have been the garage. However, she let them live there as house sitters. She gave them carte blanch to decorate it as they saw fit, and when they had asked if there were any limits, she told them that she didn't care if they gutted the place and put in monkey bars and hammocks, but if they exceeded her design budget they would have to pay for any extra work themselves. Sunny already boiled over with ideas, each more outlandish and ludicrous than the last, but Eile knew she wouldn't do anything without her cooperation. She took their partnership very seriously.
She started down again after a few moments. She understood that Medb had really acquired the house for her and Sunny. They needed a secure place to live, what with Sunny's parents being on the run from enemies they had made during their earlier careers as thieves and spies. The house sat in a gated community called Tara, which was part of the greater Lowry development project, but whereas it appeared to only have a perimeter security fence with limited car and pedestrian access, in reality it was the perfect place to live for people who wanted tight security but didn't want to appear as if they needed it.
She went straight to the kitchen. Sunny usually got up before her, and at such times the first thing she did was make breakfast. Besides, she could hear her mangling some Italian aria.
"Mornin', Sunny, what's--" She froze as soon as she saw her. Her partner hadn't dressed yet; all she wore was an apron.
"Gaaah, Sunny! What if someone sees you, ya ditz?!"
She held a bowl of batter and licked at the wooden spoon. She stared at her over her glasses, her azure blue eyes wide with surprise. Eile had to admit, seeing her like that really turned her on. If it weren't for the circumstances, she would have suggested they coat each other with the batter and lick themselves clean. From the day they confessed their lust for each other, they had had sex every night and at least once most days. Time seemed to be passing in a whirlwind, but she loved every moment of it. Partnering with Sunny had turned out to be the best thing she could have done.
Sunny put the spoon back into the bowl and stirred it around. "Who can see me?"
She started to say their neighbors, but thought better of it. "Well, that's true." The kitchen actually lay in the back of the room it shared with the dining area, and the windows opened onto their backyard, which was huge, easily twice as big as the house's footprint. The surrounding fence offered no obstruction to Peeping Toms, but the yard looked out onto Alameda Avenue, and the closest house lay a good distance away. Only with binoculars could anyone look into the kitchen.
"Sorry. Wha'cha makin'?" She poured herself some coffee.
"Pancakes." Sunny ladled a dollop of batter into a hot greased skillet. Eile was a reasonably good cook, but Sunny was the chef. In comparison, her idea of breakfast was cold cereal or instant oatmeal, a bagel, or scrambled eggs, maybe with heat-and-serve sausages. Since Sunny arrived, they had been having real bacon, omelets, French toast, eggs Benedict, all sorts of meals. Though she still did her own cooking and generally helped out, she let Sunny set the menus and perform most of the preparation. She did worry that with all that great food she would start to put on pounds, but so far it hadn't happened.
"Any special kind?" She went over to the stove to look. Brats sizzled in another skillet and what looked like mushrooms sautéed nearby.
"Banana with honey." A timer went ding. "Ah! Do me a favor and take out the muffins?"
She went over to the toaster oven and removed a cupcake pan. Inside each well lay a golden-brown dome of bread nested in a paper skirt.
Sunny flipped a pancake. "Just dump them on that plate." In the center of the kitchen sat an island cabinet with a serving platter sitting on top. Eile turned the pan upside down and the muffins dropped and bounced onto the plate.
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, there's some icing in the fridge."
She opened the refrigerator and saw a bowl filled with a beige cream with a postit note attached saying, DON'T TOUCH! She removed it and retrieved a knife from the utensil drawer before returning to the island.
"Yer full of energy this morning." She spread the cream over the tops of the muffins.
"I've got big plans for today!" Sunny dropped more batter into the skillet. "We'll need all our strength."
She grinned. "Uh-oh." She liked to tease Sunny about how hazardous her adventures were.
"I'm serious!"
"Okay, okay, sorry. So, what'd you have in mind?"
"Well, first I thought--" A gentle buzz interrupted her. "Paper's here! I'll get it."
/> "Oh no you don't, Missy!" She got between her and the foyer. "Yer not going out like that! Besides, it snowed last night, and you could catch cold. I'll get the paper."
"Oh, poo!" Sunny turned back towards the stove.
She padded through the foyer to the front door. Opening it, she looked out into the courtyard. Though the house was essentially shaped like a cube, an open space lay between the living room and the library, which was roofed by the upper floor. It had been landscaped into a small courtyard with a fountain, flower beds, and a path that wound around them all. The end opposite the door was closed off by a wrought iron gate, which had a metal box for mail and the daily newspaper attached to its center, with access panels on both sides. A button beside the gate set off the buzzer when pushed.
She walked out to get the paper. Because the courtyard was sheltered by the shape of the house, the only snow that got in lay piled up around the fence. Still, she could get close enough to retrieve the paper without stepping in it. As she turned away, however, something odd caught her attention. Looking down she saw a patch of caramel tinged with chocolate beside the gate. At first she thought it was just a patch of exposed earth, but then she realized there wasn't a flower bed there, just pavement. Curious, she squatted and reached out to touch it.
It felt like fur.
"What the--?" She brushed away the snow around it. A small body revealed itself, curled up into a croissant shape,