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The apart faced an alley too narrow for the ambulance to park in They left the ambulance parked on the wider street that the alley intersected, and walked down the dark, garbage-strewn alley toward the apart to the disoriented, combative male and his mom

Ellie’s smile vanished as they hurried up the stairs She and Catalina ht privately joke about their jobs— they had to have a sense of humor, or they’d lose their minds— but once they were in the presence of their patients, the para the best they could for theh, Ellie and Catalina would exaht, and reassure his worried mother

The woman who opened the door was tiny and white-haired, ninety if she was a day “Oh, thank God you’re here! My poor baby Ricky!”

Ellie frowned in confusion as she followed the wohteen-year-old son Maybe the 911 operator had randmother’ as ‘mother’

The woman pointed dramatically “Here he is!”

Ellie bit down on her lower lip to stop herself fro

Ricky was a fat, fluffy, contented-looking Angora cat He blinked up and yawned at them from his perch on the back of the sofa

“Ricky is a cat,” Catalina said, her voice quivering slightly

“He’s et a drink of water, and I reached out to pet hiht heto bite me My poor baby!”

“I think you just startled hily

The wouess that could be it He does look better now, don’t you, baby? But better safe than sorry! Aren’t you going to examine him, just to be sure?”

Fighting to keep a straight face, Ellie said, “Catalina, why don’t you do the exao out and radio the hospital with our estimated time of return”

As Ellie walked past her partner, Catalina whispered, “You owe me a pizza”

“Come on, you love cats,” Ellie whispered back, and made her escape

Once she was safely out the door, she gave in to laughter Poor baby Ricky, the world’s most pampered cat!

Ellie was still s as she walked down the stairs It was calls like these that re a parahts at home Whatever else you could say about the job, it was never boring

She entered the alley Blinking down the dark strip of asphalt, lined with garbage cans and buildings with darkened s, Ellie tried to remember which end of the alley led to the street where they’d left the auely faht

The alley stretched on for longer than she re when they’d first coht was fro was dily of e There was no sound but the occasional ru by several streets away

Uneasy, Ellie wondered if she’d gone the wrong way Then she came to a dead end at a brick wall It was a T-shaped intersection, with even darker and narrower alleys leading to the left and right

Definitely the wrong way, she thought She turned around to go back

“Are you sure he’s dead?” The voice came from the alley to her left The speaker was a man with a low voice