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In the main suite, I once again looked at the boxes on the wall. There was a slight indentation behind the one that had the cracked glass. I made a quick sketch in my notebook and moved on. The next room was labeled "Verencat."
After knocking for about two minutes, I pushed the door open on my own. In the center of the room was a large overstuffed chair. In the chair there was a cat. A boneless cat, apparently. She was on her back and seemed to be slowly oozing over the front of the chair.
"What?!" she said.
"You Verencat?" I asked.
"Sometimes."
"What are you other times?" These characters were beginning to make my eyes itch.
"Asleep."
"Could you tell me what went on with this pshrynk guy?"
"Yes."
I was starting to get the idea here. I toyed with the idea of asking one word questions but decided that that just wasn't my style.
"Who were the other people in the room when the doctor got his face rearranged?" Let's see her answer that one with one word.
"Moderators." Damn!
"Which ones?"
The cat looked up at the ceiling as if for inspiration. After a long pause, she said, "Dunno."
"Technically that's two words, you know." The cat got an embarrased look on her face and oozed a bit more toward the floor. "I'll make this one easy on you. How many moderators, not including the stiff, were there in the room when he got stiffed?"
"Ten." She looked pleased with herself.
"Did you see the murder?"
"No."
"Did anyone else see the murder?"
Pause. "Maybe." She clearly wasn't going back to the dunno conjunction.
"Who might have seen the murder?" I was starting to get fatigued by holding up both ends of a conversation.
"Penguin."
"A pet? Sort of like that dog?"
"Nah."
I was getting no where. I decided to wrap it up. "What can you tell me about the string that seems to be everywhere I look today?"
"String? Did you say string? Ohmygod! String! Gimme the string! Where's the string!? String! String! String! Gimme gimme gimme gimme!"
The cat formed bones all of a sudden and flew around the room, chasing a piece of electric blue string that had been clinging to her tail. I quickly pulled the door open and dove out before I got caught up in the string frenzy.
"That was strange," I said.
"You should see her with a laser," said Zippy.
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