looking at them like she knew she’d caused a ruckus and was perfectly fine with that.
Karen nodded and sighed like she was satisfied that Roxie understood. “Yes, it’s black. It’s got totally black fur.”
“And that means you have to drive backward?” Roxie looked in the car, hoping she didn’t find any liquor. She might have to ask Lila what prescriptions Karen Travers was on. She didn’t see anything illegal. There was a bunch of what looked like cameras in the back. Video cameras and equipment. Ashlyn had mentioned something about a school project the other night. It looked like she was using better equipment than her phone.
“Yes, ma’am,” Karen replied as though the answer should have been easy to understand. “Now I have to get going because Ashlyn’s due at her AV Club meeting and I have to make my way around, if you don’t mind.”
She realized her dad had gotten out of the car and was watching the situation.
“Do you intend to continue backing down the road?” Roxie asked, trying to come up with some reason for Karen to decide to forgo forward.
“Of course,” Karen said, pointing down the street. “The cat is black.”
Ashlyn beat her head against the dashboard before turning Roxie’s way. “She won’t go forward because the black cat crossed the path she was going to take. I’m not kidding, Deputy Roxie. She’s insane. You should take me into protective custody because she’s going to humiliate me on every level. There has to be a law or something.”
Roxie was getting the bad feeling she totally didn’t understand the situation going on here, and that often meant one thing. “Is this a Cajun thing?”
Karen had a helmet of blond hair that didn’t move an inch when she shook it. “It’s an everyone thing. Don’t you know that you can’t ever keep walking down a path a black cat crossed?”
“Yes, it’s a weird old Cajun thing.” Ashlyn talked right over her mother. “No one is freaked by it anymore except my mother.”
“Well, your grandmother didn’t believe it. She laughed and sashayed right through that cat’s path and she got hit by a car,” Karen said, her voice filled with pure righteousness.
“Pawpaw hit her with a car because he caught her cheating on him with their dry cleaner,” Ashlyn shot back.
“Yes, but maybe she would have gotten away with it if she hadn’t crossed that path,” Karen argued. She turned back to Roxie. “Sorry, Deputy. My family has a scandalous past.”
“How about present. Grammy is the bane of the nursing home. She’s the reason they had to do that class on safe sex practices. I’m doomed,” Ashlyn was saying. “One day I will make a film about how weird my family is.”
“I thought you wanted to make horror films,” Karen pointed out.
“Yes, that’s what I said.” Ashlyn crossed her arms over her chest in a show of teenage stubbornness. “My life is a horror movie.”
Karen wrinkled her nose. “Don’t mind her. She’s got all those hormones. I think her daddy letting her watch all those movies about weird animals that got irritated and killed people affected her brain.”
“Irradiated, Mom,” Ashlyn corrected. “Trust me, if an irritated animal is going to take you out, it will be me. And I’m going to be late. If I didn’t have to carry everything, I would walk. Thanks a lot.”
Boy, Roxie was glad she didn’t have teens. Her dad had a smile on his face. Had she been that bad as a teen? She’d definitely had a mouth on her, and she’d absolutely fought with her mom.
Karen tilted her head her daughter’s way. “There’s a reason we get them as babies. So, I should go. I’m going to back up to Florence Street and make my way back around to Main. I promise I’ll put her in drive as soon as I can.”
Roxie had some questions since the route Karen was planning was to the west and the cat had come from the west. “How do you know the cat didn’t already cross that path? When is it okay for the cat to cross? Because when you think about it, the cat’s been running all over town. We don’t know exactly where she’s been. I think it’s a she. She has a kind of feminine wile about her.”
Karen frowned. “I don’t know how I would know. You’re right. That cat could have gone anywhere, come from anywhere. How would I know where the cat’s been?”