Kitty Hero Chronicles

Chapter 9

As the day drew to a close, Java found her way back to the park bench where she first felt her whiskers warn her of the coming weather—which she finally accepted was actually a warning of the danger that her cafe had been in before the Masked Avenger came to the rescue.

So many questions and so few answers; she had reasoned every possible conclusion and was unable to find any meaning in why her father had to suffer like he did...and why she had to suffer as a result. The evening sun drew close to the horizon as the shadows came out to play amidst the thin, crooked branches of the near naked trees. Autumn had come upon the town without mercy and the haggard trees were evidence of its wake.

"I wondered if I would find you here," a voice said from behind her. She didn't even bother to jump; all the strength to do so was sapped out of her from the exhaustion of mental anguish from replaying the events of Trusty's story over and over in her mind.

"Hey," she managed to say without looking around.

"Hey? What kind of greeting is that?" the Masked Avenger said, now coming around to her side, still unwilling to be seen in the light by her.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice cracking from the pressure the day had exerted upon her.

"It's just...I've had some bad news."

"Anything I can do to help?" he said.

"No, it's too late for that," she said, her head still hanging low. "I...I've just found out the circumstances of my father's death, and I've just been thinking and staring at this picture for hours trying to find some answers." She held up the picture she had taken from her father's office. He took it and studied it closely.

"Looks like two best friends having their picture taken to me. What's so special about it?"

"You see the albino rat there next to my father?"

"Yeah," he said.

"According to the mayor, whom he worked for before he was killed—"

"Killed? You mean—"

"Yes," she resumed. "My father was murdered and, as it turns out, by the very rat whose picture you hold in your paws."

He looked at the picture again. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be," she said, a much more harsh tone in her voice. "He's the one who's going to be sorry. When I get through with him I'm going to make him wish he'd never heard the name of Henry—or Java—Gray."

"I understand your feelings about this rat, Java, but you mustn't let it deter you from our mission: to find out the detailed plans of the—"

"Criminal mastermind," she finished. "Yeah, I know. But don't worry, I'm not being deterred from the mission. As a matter of fact, the mayor told me he suspects this rat to not only be behind my father's death, but he also believes him to be the criminal mastermind we're looking for."

The Masked Avenger was silent. Could it really be the one he had been searching for all this time?

"Tell me more about him, this albino rat."

When she had told him all she had heard from Trusty about Vincent Vladimir, he said, "Though I hate the circumstances that lead to these conclusions, I'm glad that we're now closer to revealing the mysterious plot to endanger our town, thanks to your friend the mayor."

"So we know where to start, I guess," she said. "But what do we do until we find further details that will help us in the process of locating him and taking him down?"