lovely neighborhood, but still: better safe than sorry, these days.”
“I do. I must have forgotten.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d opened that door. It could have been unlocked for days.
“We’re after wrecking his hunt,” Rafferty said, nodding towards the cat. The birds were gone; the cat had frozen, one paw lifted, giving us a wary stare and deciding whether to run for it. “He’s not yours, no?”
“It hangs around sometimes,” I said. I was still shaking. I didn’t actually feel any better now that he had turned out not to be a burglar. Like an idiot I had believed Susanna, It’s over, the cops are gone, we can forget the whole thing . . . “I don’t know who owns it.”
“I’d say he’s a stray. He’s awful bony. Got any ham slices, anything like that?”
For some reason I plodded obediently into the kitchen and stared into the fridge. He can’t do anything to me, I told myself. He’ll have to go away soon. I had forgotten what I was looking for. In the end I spotted a packet of deli chicken slices.
When I got back outside, Rafferty and the cat were still staring each other out of it. “Here,” I said. My voice sounded rusty.
“Ah, lovely,” Rafferty said, taking the packet from me. “Now. You don’t want to throw it to him, or he’ll think you’re throwing a rock or something, and he’ll be gone. What you want to do—” Wandering casually down the steps and into the garden, face still turned towards me, talking evenly and calmly: “Just get as close to him as you can, yeah? and leave it down, and then back away. I’d say—” The cat flinched, ready to run; Rafferty stopped instantly. “Yeah. Here ought to do it.” He stooped and laid a slice of meat on the ground. The cat’s eyes followed every move.
Rafferty straightened smoothly and meandered back to the terrace, dropping a couple more slices of chicken on the way, big clear gestures so the cat wouldn’t miss them. “Now,” he said, flipping back his coattails and taking a seat at the top of the steps, easy as if he lived there. “Do that every day or so, and he’ll keep coming round. Keep the rats down for you.”
“We don’t have rats.”
“No? Something dragged Dominic’s hand out of that tree for a snack. What was it, if it wasn’t rats?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m not a wildlife expert.” It came out sounding snotty. He was acting like this was a normal casual chat, and I didn’t know what to do with that; I couldn’t hit that note.
Rafferty considered. “A fox’ll climb a high fence, but they haven’t really got the claws for trees. I’ve seen the odd one do it, mind you. Going after eggs, or nestlings. Got foxes?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen any.” Dominic’s hand, flopping under delicate busy teeth. Small bones rained deep into the earth. The garden felt like it had that terrible stoned night with Susanna and Leon, distorted and alien. I wanted to go inside.
“Could’ve been, I suppose,” Rafferty said. The cat was stretching its neck towards the meat, curious. “Sit, man. He won’t come closer while you’re standing there.”
After a moment I sat down, at the far edge of the steps. He fished out a packet of Marlboros. “You want one?” And, grinning, when I hesitated: “Toby, I know you smoke. Saw them in your stuff when we were searching. I promise I won’t tell your mammy.”
I took a cigarette and he held the lighter for me, making me lean towards him. Getting that close made all my nerves tighten. I couldn’t figure out a way to ask what he was doing there.
Rafferty drew in a deep lungful, eyes closed, and let it out slowly. “Ahhh,” he said. “I needed that. How’ve you been getting on, you and the family? Is everyone all right?”
“As much as we can be,” I said, which for whatever reason was the standard response I’d found myself coming out with a few hundred times at the funeral. “It’s not like it came out of the blue. We just didn’t expect it so soon.”
“It’s rough, no matter what way it happens. Takes a lot of getting used to. Look at that—” Paw by paw, nose twitching, the cat was inching nearer. “Don’t pay him too much notice,” Rafferty said. “Are you going to go back to work? Now you don’t need to be here for Hugo?”