Midnight passed, Wednesday:
Catman’s initial thought
was that he could go to Bradley Wayne’s downtown office but he realized that
his keys and his wallet were in his other uniform. He turned the cart around,
meandered the alleys and side streets for a while in confusion, then decided to
go up Kanes Ravine, he kept a spare Catcave key in a hollow stump.
The cart ran out of gas
a mile from downtown, five miles from Kanes Ravine.
An hour into the hike
his phone buzzed. He pulled it from a boot pocket and looked at the incoming
number, “Hello Miss Strehli. It’s rather late.”
“This is the same hour
you visited my apartment last night, Mr. Wayne.”
“I guess it is… How did
you get this number? Not even Albert knows this line.”
“I did my research, Mr.
Wayne.”
“Why are you
calling?—I’m rather indisposed at the moment.”
“I know. I’ve been
watching the news. Willie Wilson is offering a one million cash dollars reward
to the person that turns you over to him. He wants to unmask the Catman live on
global TV.”
“And you want to
collect?”
“My only concern is for
Richard’s welfare, Mr. Wayne.”
“This is not a good time
to talk.”
“There was another story
on the news, Mr. Wayne. The police went to Wayne Manor and arrested your butler
Albert. They traced the High School bomb threat to his telephone.”
Catman stopped in his
tracks, “Albert?”
