“No. It feels creepy. And I’ll get kicked out anyway. The condo will go into Marty’s estate.”

“I know about a sweet studio walk-up. It’s only a block from here. It would make a great starter property for you.”

“I can’t buy. I have nothing for a down payment, and I’d have to cut back on classes if I had a mortgage. I could barely afford to rent that room from Marty.”

“Beast is going to make it more difficult to find a rental,” Sharon said. “Where are you? I went upstairs to your condo, but no one was home. Since a man answered your cell I’m assuming you’re either with your parents or Mr. Yummy.”

“Mr. Yummy.”

“Lucky you. I have a good feeling about him.” Sharon sighed into the phone. “I have a good feeling about 2B, but I can’t connect.”

“Are you sure a man lives there?”

“This morning there was a name under his door buzzer. Mr. M. How mysterious is that? Mr. M.”

“That’s pretty mysterious,” Cate said. “Did you check around to see if anyone saw Mr. M. fiddling with his name plate?”

“No one saw. He must have done it in the wee hours of the morning. Gosh, I can’t imagine what the building will be like without you. Why don’t you move in with me? I have an extra bedroom. It would be fun.”

“That’s really nice of you, but I might have some other options.”

“Well, the offer is always there. I have to go. I’m showing a townhouse this morning.”

Cate didn’t have other options. She had a big dog and no money. What she had were two very good friends, and she didn’t want to lose one of those friends by encroaching on her space.

“What are you going to do?” Kellen asked.

Cate shrugged. “I’ll find something.”

“We might be able to work something out here… in exchange for services.”

“What sort of services were you thinking about?”

“Cooking. Cleaning. Sex.”

“That could get pricey,” Cate said. “My cooking doesn’t come cheap.”

And it could be painful, Cate thought. She would have a hard time tearing herself away from Kellen and his house if it didn’t work out. And she still couldn’t tell if this was casual sex or something more for Kellen. It was too soon for the “L” word to get spoken out loud. And how do you figure this stuff out?

Her relationship with Beast was much easier. She could promise undying love to Beast, and he’d happily stay around as long as she fed him.

Midmorning Cate’s cell phone rang.

“Hey, girlfriend,” Julie said. “Where the heck are you? I sent Pugg up to fetch you, but he said nobody’s home.”

“Pugg is there? Doesn’t he sell tires on Saturdays?”

“He has the day off, and I have him runnin’ errands. He’s such a good soul. So where are you? Are you out with the dawg?”

“I’m at Kellen’s house.”

“Mr. Yummy? Omigod. I was thinkin’ you might be with him. I want a full report. He’s great, right? I can always tell.”

“Did you hear about Marty?”

“Hard not to hear about Marty. It’s all anyone’s talkin’ about. It’s just so sad. And I hate the thought that you might leave the building. You and Sharon are like sisters to me.”

“I like the South End. I’m going to try to get something in the neighborhood.”

“Shoot. You could stay here with me. I could even get an extra chaise longue. Only problem is my landlord won’t let Beast stay here. Not that there’s that much difference between Beast and Patrick Pugg. They both got about the same amount of fur.”

“I’ve got a good start on your pages. I thought I’d stop around after lunch and drop some of them off, so you can see if they’re okay.”

“Sure. I was hoping you’d do me a favor today, if you have the time. We got the seniors on the party trolley again, and they’re asking for more of your cake. My boss said he could use four cakes, and he’d pay for them. And one of them has to be the yellow cake with the white frosting and multicolored sprinkles. And another wants to be the chocolate chip cake with the creamy chocolate icing.”

“He’ll pay?”

“Yep.”

“It’s a deal.”

Cate punched the code into the condo lock and pushed the door open. She had Julie’s pages tucked under her arm, her purse hung on her shoulder, and a grocery bag balanced on her hip. The condo was silent and felt benign. As far as Cate could tell there was no bad juju lurking behind the drapes or under the bed. She kicked the door closed and went to the kitchen. She’d bought butter, eggs, powdered sugar, and cake mixes. She had the rest of the ingredients already in the condo.

Marty’s kitchen still felt empty to Cate. It would have felt better if Beast had been there. And while Cate had mixed feelings about Marty now, she wished he was in the kitchen too. He might not be the guy she thought he was, but she didn’t wish him dead.

She went to work buttering and flouring cake pans, and setting out oil, bowls, the colored sprinkles, and chocolate chips. It would be fun to do this in Kellen’s kitchen, she thought. All that space to work. And his kitchen felt like a real house kitchen. It had a big cook’s stove, and the beautiful mahogany moldings were everywhere. And the best part about Kellen’s kitchen was Kellen. He didn’t have a lot of pots and pans. He didn’t have a mixer or spatulas or even a toaster, but his presence was felt. His keys were on the counter. A pad and pen. The take-out menu for California Pizza Kitchen and P.F. Chang’s left lying out, next to the phone. The knowledge that he was somewhere in the house and could walk through the kitchen at any moment.

Cate closed her eyes and thunked her forehead against an over-the-counter cabinet. She was in bad shape. She was doomed. There was no denying it, she was in love.

Two hours later, Cate had four cakes cooling on racks on the granite countertops, and she had the butter softening for the icing. Plenty of time, she thought. She didn’t have to be at work until six. It was three o’clock now. And it wasn’t like she had to go back to Kellen’s house to get dressed. She still had clothes in the condo.

She was about to add powdered sugar to the butter when the doorbell chimed. She wiped her hands on her jeans and went to the door. She looked out through the peephole and didn’t see anyone at first. She looked lower and realized it was Pugg at the door.

“Julie sent Pugg to help,” he said to Cate.

“Thanks, but I don’t actually need help.”

“Pugg would score points if you let him help. Or maybe Pugg could just stand to one side and watch. Pugg would be very quiet.”

“Sure. Come on in.”

Pugg followed Cate into the kitchen and flattened himself against a wall.

“You won’t even know Pugg is here,” he said. He craned his neck to see what Cate was doing. “Did you know that some people believe the first cake mix in a box dates back to 1929 with Duncan Hines? Pugg has read that these mixes were lumpy, but he doesn’t know from personal experience. Jiffy and Bisquick were introduced in 1930. And General Mills and Pillsbury did not produce cake mix until 1949.”

“I didn’t know that,” Cate said.

“Where is Cate’s dog?”

“He’s with Kellen. I thought he’d be safer there. Kitty Bergman wanted to take him away.”

“Why would Kitty Bergman want Beast?”

“I’m not sure, but I think he might be mixed up in stolen property.”

“Pugg is interested in this. If Pugg was a master thief he would implant a microchip under a dog’s hide and have Pugg’s secret bank accounts recorded on it.”

Cate stopped stirring. “Can you do that?”

“Yes. It’s common practice to implant microchips in animals for identification purposes. Microchips are tiny transponders approximately the size of a grain of uncooked rice. They carry unique identification numbers and are implanted just below the hide using a needle. They can be easily read with a handheld scanner.”

“Can anyone do this?”

“Most often this is done by a veterinarian or breeder, but it would seem to be a simple procedure, that could be done by anyone able to stick a needle in his dog.”

“How do you know all this miscellaneous information?”

“Pugg has large blocks of free time while he waits to score with chicks, so he reads books, many of which are filled with interesting but basically useless information.”

“What would a scanner look like?”

“Pugg has never seen one, but he imagines it might look like a small television remote.”

“Look around the condo while I make icing and see if you can find one. Look in Marty’s room first.”

Cate was finishing the last cake, piping on small yellow flowers, when Pugg came into the kitchen with the scanner.

“Pugg thinks he found the scanner,” he said. “It was in Marty’s office and could easily be overlooked in a drawer with other electronic gizmos. Pugg thinks this is the scanner because Pugg could not get it to work the television or DVD player.”

Cate took the scanner in her hand. “It’s light.”

“Yes. The average chip scanner weighs four ounces and can read transponders operating at 125 and 128 kHz. Pugg believes this particular scanner is Swiss-made to read a fifteen-digit code and needs a transponder operating at 134 kHz. It sells for $179.95 on the Internet and weighs less than three ounces.”

“You must have a photographic memory.”

“At the risk of ruining your inflated opinion of Pugg, Pugg read most of that on the back of the scanner.”

Cate dropped the scanner in her purse and carefully boxed the cakes.

“I got these boxes from the bakery on the corner so everything would stay nice,” she said to Pugg. “You take two of them, and I’ll take two of them. Just be very careful not to tip them. I don’t want the icing to get smushed.”

They maneuvered out of the condo with the cakes, and Cate made sure the door was locked behind her. They rode one floor down in the elevator, and carried the cakes into Julie’s apartment and set them on her kitchen counter.