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He’s all better now.” Imogene reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “In fact, since you’re here I’ll give you the invoice now.”
    Kat took it from her and slipped it into her own pants pocket. “I’ll add it to what 4F owes when I process the bills this weekend.”
    Imogene smiled. “I know you’ll take care of it.”
    Kat walked toward the redheaded receptionist. “Hi, Sherry. I have a sick cat I’d like Dr. Harry to look at on behalf of 4F.”
    “Good to see you again, Katherine.” Sherry tapped on her keyboard. “I’ll fit you right in.”
    “Thanks.”
    Imogene straightened as Kat rejoined her. “I heard you’ve been asking around about your mother.”
    Kat stilled. Sometimes she forgot how quickly word traveled in a town like Cherry Hills, and how news seemed to reach Imogene in particular at the speed of light.
    “I heard it from somebody at the police station,” Imogene went on, as if reading Kat’s mind. “They said Andrew’s been making inquiries on your behalf. Is that true?”
    Kat nodded. “I talked to Chief Kenny yesterday.”
    “What did he have to say?”
    “That my mother disappeared right after PNW Financial was held up in 1985.” Saying the words out loud resurrected the nausea Kat felt whenever she let herself consider that her mother might have committed such a crime.
    Imogene adjusted her ponytail. “I remember that. Happened in Wenatchee, and most people believed Maybelle was guilty, including the police.”
    “She hasn’t been positively linked to the robbery,” Kat said, hearing the note of defensiveness in her tone. “Chief Kenny says he only wants to question her.”
    “I didn’t mean to imply anything otherwise,” Imogene assured her. “But you do have to admit the timing is rather strange.”
    Kat didn’t say anything, mainly because she couldn’t disagree.
    Imogene scrutinized her. “You don’t believe she’s guilty?”
    Kat folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not really sure what to believe.”
    Imogene patted Kat’s elbow. “Naturally. A girl always feels ties to her mother, no matter how estranged they might be. Without knowing your roots, it’s hard to find your place in the world.”
    Kat rocked backward, her hands dropping to her sides. She was surprised Imogene had pegged her so accurately. It made her realize she really didn’t know all that much about her fellow Furry Friends Foster Families board member.
    Imogene glanced at Shadow. “I didn’t really socialize with Maybelle, you know, but I heard things.”
    Kat’s stomach clenched. From Imogene’s tone, she gathered anything she’d heard had been negative. Still, she was desperate.
    “What can you tell me about her?” Kat asked, fortifying herself.
    “That she was troubled, for one thing.” Imogene paused, as if conflicted over what she had to say next.
    “I know she used drugs,” Kat volunteered, hoping to encourage her friend to open up.
    Imogene’s lips puckered. “That’s true, but that’s a rather simple way of putting it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Your mom, she wanted something better for herself. I think she just struggled to find out how to achieve it.”
    Kat absorbed that, trying to reconcile Imogene’s observation with a woman on the run after robbing a bank.
    Imogene lowered herself into one of the waiting room chairs. “You know, the rumors about her motive for that bank robbery never really made sense to me.”
    Kat sat down on the other side of Shadow’s carrier. “They didn’t?”
    Imogene shook her head. “People liked to say Maybelle had hit rock bottom, but I didn’t believe it. It just seemed so out of character, Maybelle doing something like that. Your mom, she was trying to shake her drug habit. It didn’t make sense that she would regress so severely all of a sudden.”
    “If you don’t think my mother robbed that bank, why do you think she disappeared at the same time?”
    Imogene held her palms