“Spring Hope” Excerpt

An excerpt from the short story “Spring Hope,” which takes place approximately 25 years after the end of the main Doctor Rowena Halley series:

1

“Mom! Kissa’s missing. I think she’s been stolen!”

Nadya’s voice cracked on the last word. I could hear her gulping back tears.

“When?!” I cried.

“I don’t know…recently…she was fine last night, but then”—sob—“she wasn’t there when I went in to feed this morning. I looked and looked, and I can’t find her!”

“Do you think she escaped?” I tried to keep my own voice calm. It was hard. Nadya and I had rescued Kissa off the street together. I considered her a part of my household, even though she was currently living with Nadya, a hundred miles away.

“No…the door…” Nadya took a deep breath, forced herself to choke back her sobs, and said, “The door was messed up. Someone forced the lock. And her tracker is off.”

“My God! Is Kissa the only one missing?”

“Yes, but Machak is limping and has a cut on his face. I think someone hurt him!”

“Have you told Doctor Horvat? Have you called the police? The vet?”

“I told Doctor Horvat. She took Machak to the vet and told me to look for Kissa. She thinks she escaped out the broken door. She said the trackers have been acting up lately.”

“That seems the most likely,” I said. “Kissa’s always had a yen for roaming, and you’ve said they’re still ironing out the bugs in the trackers.”

“But why would someone break in and not take anything?”

“They didn’t take the computer equipment?” I asked. “You’ve got some pretty high-tech stuff there. It might be worth a lot on the black market.”

“Nothing’s been taken.”

“Maybe Machak interrupted them,” I said. “He’s pretty spicy. He might have attacked them and forced them to make a tactical retreat before they could actually take anything. Can you get, I don’t know, a DNA sample from him? Maybe he bit them.”

“Doctor Horvat took a swab before she took him to the vet. But Mom…” She trailed off and started crying softly.

“Yes?” I prompted.

“I think…I think someone took her. I think they wanted to”—big sob—“steal her kittens.”

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