Trials of a Cat Sitter



The Cat Sitter’s Pajamas [by] Blaize Clement

New York; Thomas Dunne Books [2011]

978-0-312-64313-3 ; $24.99

Dixie Hemingway [no relation to the more famous Floridian] used to be a sheriff’s deputy, until her husband, also a deputy, and little girl were killed in a pointless accident.  Then she retreated to a simpler line of work: pet sitting.  She has a schedule of dogs, cats, and birds she visits, feeds, plays with, exercises, and picks up after.  There are a number of regulars, plus some who are added from time to time, when the occasion warrants it.  Thus it was with Cupcake and Jancey Trillin, who were vacationing in Italy.  Cupcake is one of those famous faces you see around the barrier islands of Florida – he was an immovable inside linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So the day in question, Dixie punches in the code to the gated community of Hidden Shores, where the Trillins live, and drives to their home to take care of Elvis and Lucy, their cats.  As she opens the door, a practically naked woman spears in the doorway, saying she is Cupcake’s wife.  Knowing that she is not, Dixie closes the door and calls Cupcake in Italy.  He tells her to call the cops and get rid of the woman, who calls herself Briana.  He says he doesn’t know her, but he has been stalked, and this sounds like another one.  Get her out of the house, but not arrested – committed, maybe – she sounds crazy. Dixie calls 911, and waits for the patrol car to arrive.

Briana is gone, but another woman is lying in the living room, bleeding out.  No one knows who she is.  Backup and techs are called, plus an ambulance for the body.  Dixie is allowed to take the cats out, which she does, including the piece of paper that Elvis was carrying – it’s what he does – Elvis has a paper fetish.  She takes them to a boarding house for cats, and then goes back to her routine.  Then she detects a convertible Jaguar behind her.  At a stop light, the occupant of the car jumps out and into Dixie’s Bronco.  It’s Briana, asking for help.

Questioning herself, she agrees to meet Briana later, which she does.  She manages to get Briana a lawyer and he gets her to turn herself in.  She, of course, knows nothing of the dead woman.  Briana tells Dixie about her childhood, back in the bayou country of southern Louisiana, when she and Cupcake used to burgle houses for stuff to sell.  Cupcake, she said, did it to get a pair of Nikes.  She did it to live, before she went to New Orleans, turned tricks, and was discovered and made into a supermodel with only one name.

Dixie returns to her pet sitting chores, but gets off course, when she sees a man driving Briana’s car.  She sees where he goes – to a very rich private street.  The next day the detective in charge of the case meets her at the diner, where she has breakfast after her early morning pet chores.  He listens to her story, and then demands to know the rest of the story.  She tells him she has told him all she knows, except that she found out where Briana lives, because she’d followed the Jag.

Dixie finds out that the CSI’s are done with the Trillins’ house, so she hires someone to clean up and books them a hotel room until they can get back into their home.  She calls The Trillins, who are in Charlotte, waiting for a flight to Sarasota.  She tells them she will pick them up.  She opens her door to go to the airport, and is clobbered.  The pain is exquisite, and, just before she passes out, she realizes that there are several men, speaking some language she doesn’t recognize, and they are very accomplished at torture.  She knows she won’t look too bad, but boy, does she hurt!  She wakes up when her phone rings – Cupcake and Jancey are in the Sarasota airport, wondering where she is.

The next day the Trillins get to go home, where they discover a pair of Nikes in Cupcake’s size, sitting on the bed in the master bedroom.  None of them have ever seen them before, and they assume that Briana left them.  The detective comes to visit them.  He discovers the Nikes are fakes.

Upset that the detective has investigated all of them, Dixie stops by the house where Briana’s car got parked.  The Oriental couple there is husband and wife, Peter and Lena.  They say that the men who beat Dixie are their enemies, who want to take over their business, which is making knockoff designer clothing and accessories and selling them to upscale shops in the area, who sell them to tourists, who will pay big bucks for them because they don’t know the difference.  When Dixie goes back to her pet sitting, Briana pays her a visit, and she learns that the bad guys were looking for a list of shops that take the knockoff clothing.  She also tells her that the dead woman was an F.B.I. agent.

The final scenes help to discover where the list of shops that everyone wants is, who killed the F.B.I. agent, who Briana really was, and brings Dixie close to death yet another time.  Finally, the death-knell seems to sound on Dixie’s now more off-than on love affair with Detective Guidry, who received an offer he couldn’t refuse in New Orleans.  She decides, for the second time, not to follow him.  There are some possibilities opening up for her closer to home.

Author Blaize Clement died July 20 of last year.  This will not be the end of Dixie Hemingway, though, for her son John will continue to the write her stories – there are at least 2 planned, and maybe more.  She is such a good character, and the people who are her friends, family, and clients are all such great folks.  I hope this cozy series continues.

Recommended.  ~ lss-r

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The book belongs to my public library.