Chapter 6
Lindsey was plenty busy for the next few days, but oddly enough she kept her attention focused on Sterling. She wasn’t even sure what all or why she had told him to take his own wisdom to heart, but it had been instinctive if nothing else.
Tiffany called her a couple days later. “Hi, just checking in to let you know that the cat I did the amputation on is doing just fine. We’re moving him out to the Haven,” she added, “so this is just a quick follow-up to let you know Tom’s all good.”
“That’s wonderful news,” she cried out in delight. “And it’s better than we could have hoped for.”
“Let’s hope that Tom continues to recover and that he’ll be in a good spot out there, if for no other reason than he’ll have other friends to keep him company,” Tiffany noted.
“Sounds as if Timber’s got more cats coming, maybe tonight, but I’m not sure yet.
There’s been talk of another shelter running into trouble. ”
Lindsey groaned. “Unfortunately, that’ll happen more and more right now, especially since a lot of people are struggling to put food on the table.
So, they’re surrendering animals at a fairly high rate.
Some of them are just turning them out on the streets, where these animals have never had to fend for themselves and are left to struggle. Honestly, it’s getting ugly.”
“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons why we opened the doors for the cats,” she noted, “but I’m not sure how many we are looking at.”
“If it’s the Wildcats Catio in trouble, depending on how bad it is,” Lindsey said, “they probably have hundreds.”
Tiffany sighed. “Yikes. We’ll need to do adoption specials and bring people in to get their next cats,” she suggested. “You can’t just keep taking in animals forever. That would go south very quickly.”
“It always comes down to the funding,” Lindsey noted. “If you do decide to do an event, let us know, and we’ll advertise it too.”
“And yet you have to get the animals in your care adopted as well.”
“Yep, we do, but we don’t always have people who take what we have at any given time, you know? People sometimes have something specific in mind, and, if we don’t have it, they just go to other shelters, so we should add yours to the list.”
“Good enough,” she replied.
“Um …”
“Um?” Tiffany repeated, with a teasing tone. “That’s a great conversation starter.”
“Yeah, it tends to be a conversation killer too,” she admitted, with a laugh. “I just wondered about Sterling.”
“Wondered what?” she asked.
“I mentioned something odd to him before he left town, and I just wondered if you had noticed anything.”
“I haven’t seen him much myself in the last little while. He was here that day, and, beyond that, I’m not sure what he’s been up to. Looks as if I’ll be going out tonight to do the intake for those cats, and apparently there are a lot of them.”
“Oh crap.”
“Yeah, so if you’re free and want to, come on out. Have dinner with everybody. Then you can always ask Sterling how he’s doing yourself.”
“Ha, he might see me and walk away.”
“I doubt that. I think he’s made of sterner stuff.”
Lindsey added, “I understand he has some family issues locally that he might need to sort out.”
“Oh, that’s interesting because I’ve always thought that he looked familiar. I’ve been here all my life, and there is just something about him.”
“I understand he has an aunt here who may have taken his mother’s property.”
“Oh my gosh. That’s what it is. Gligo Farms.”
“Maybe. I’m not familiar with that,” Lindsey said, curious now.
“It’s an organic operation here in town, and they were running into a fair bit of trouble a year or so ago. I don’t know how they’re doing right now, but there was talk of them shutting down at one point. I don’t know if they did or not,” she muttered. “That’s why he looks familiar.”
“He looks like them?”
“Yeah, he does, something about that face, but Gligo is run by a woman—his aunt, I guess—and I think her daughter maybe, but I’m not sure,” Tiffany replied. “I don’t particularly know anything about them.”
“Apparently the farm was Sterling’s mother’s place, and he somehow got cut out of it.”
After a moment of silence, Tiffany spoke. “That could get really ugly.”
“Not only that, he ended up in the foster care system because the aunt wouldn’t keep him.”
“Oh Jesus, now I’m really pissed off,” Tiffany cried out, “especially when she already had a kid—or even if she didn’t yet. If you got the farm from your sister, why would you let her kid go into the system?”
“Yep, but again I don’t really know the truth of the matter, and neither does Sterling yet. That’s half the problem. I’ve only got bits and pieces and haven’t heard the whole truth, but I’m sure he has asked himself about that too at this point.”
“And being just a child himself, Sterling wouldn’t have looked into possession of the farm very closely.”
“He couldn’t, since he was shipped off to foster care.
For all we know, the aunt made changes to her sister’s will or found no will or nobody was there to object or God-only-knows what.
Maybe the aunt’s just living there, like a squatter, and hasn’t even bothered making the changes needed to get the property legally in her name. ”
“Now that would be funny because she could never sell it then, which would also explain why she’s still there, even with rumors of a failing business. That would make perfect sense, especially if she had no legal right to the farm.”
“That would definitely be something to look into,” Lindsey noted. “When you come out tonight, you could always mention that he looks familiar to you.”
“Right. Maybe not, now that I heard about all this.”
But of course, by the time the evening rolled around, Lindsey hadn’t been able to think of anything else. It was a little bit late, but she texted Tiffany. Do you still need help?
Tiffany’s reply came back immediately. Yes!
She quickly drove out to the Haven, and, as she parked and got out, she saw Sterling there.
As soon as she saw him again, she was reminded of the Gligo family.
She smiled over at him. “Since the first time I saw you, I’ve thought you looked familiar,” she began.
“Are you somehow related to the Gligo family?”
He frowned at her. “That’s my aunt’s name,” he replied. “Do you know her?”
“She runs an organic farm, though last year I heard it wasn’t doing very well,” she said. “So, I don’t know if she’s still involved in it or not.”
He just nodded and didn’t say anything.
“It’s called Gligo Organic, I think, if that’s the family name.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been pretty-much estranged,” he said, with half a smile, “or at least that’s one way to look at it.” She raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t elaborate.
Knowing that she probably already knew more than she should because of Tiffany, Lindsey nodded. “I don’t know that it’s doing all that well, but they haven’t sold the place or left the area, at least not that I’ve heard of.”
He gave her a funny look. “That’s an odd comment.”
“I just figured that, if they were in a financial pickle, maybe they would sell out and move on or something, that’s all.”
“Maybe they can’t,” he said, frowning now.
“Yeah, who knows?” She nodded agreeably.
“Who knows?” he repeated.
Not at all sure why she felt so very awkward, she changed the topic. “Tiffany mentioned she had a big cat intake happening when we spoke on the phone today, so I’m here to help.”
“Oh good,” he said, now with a smile lighting up his face. “I just came to grab some coffee. I’ll walk you over. Did you want to grab a cup?”
“I’m good. I had one on the way out.”
With that, he led the way to the medical center. As she walked in, Tiffany looked up and grinned.
“Hey,” Tiffany greeted her. “Sorry, but I never intended for this to be your new thing. Let me say out loud that you don’t always have to come give us a hand. No one will be offended if you have to decline.”
“No worries,” Lindsey said. “Apparently I’m a sucker for any rescue work.”
“And we need that,” Tiffany declared. “I mean, lots of people want to help, but that doesn’t mean they’re in a position to do so or have the right skills and attitude to really be helpful, you know? You, on the other hand, are a natural.”
“You’ll give me a big head now,” she teased, with a chuckle. “Anyway, what can I do?”
And, with that, they got to work, and Sterling stayed to give them a hand.
Tiffany looked over at him and noted, “You’re a pretty handy guy to have around.”
He snorted at that. “I don’t know about handy, but, while I’m here, I would just as soon be useful.”
She nodded. “That’s a good way to look at it.”
They worked together, the small talk bouncing between them all. When Tiffany asked Lindsey about her family, she shrugged.
“I’ve been here for a long time,” she began.
“I was raised by my grandparents more often than not. My mom was a bit of a debutant type and didn’t really want to be bothered with the actual hands-on work of being responsible and raising kids,” she shared, with a laugh.
“She ended up dying from breast cancer quite a few years ago. … That had a pretty profound effect on me. Far more than I expected.”
“Of course it did,” Tiffany agreed, with a nod. “I’m so sorry to hear of your loss, and I apologize if I put you on the spot.”
“It’s fine. Losing a parent can be one of the roughest things, even if you’re not that close—as it turns out.”
“Absolutely,” Sterling confirmed, “and there doesn’t seem to be any coming back from it.”
She looked at him and asked, “You too?”
He nodded. “Yeah, me too. My aunt put me into foster care.”
Both Tiffany and Lindsey froze and turned to face him.
“The aunt who’s here with the organic farm?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she didn’t want to raise me, but she somehow managed to get my mother’s farm,” he stated, a note of bitterness in his tone.
“Good God,” Tiffany said. “How the hell does that work?”