Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1) (17 page)

Once again the courtroom erupted
in cheers. Abbot turned to Jarrod Inglis, “Get me out of this. Bring my wife to
come and bail me out.” His wife was at that moment sitting, pale with shock, in
the midst of the bedlam that had erupted following the decision.

Inglis stood up, collecting his
papers. “I don’t think so, Bill. I am the attorney for the APS. It would be a
conflict of interest for me to represent the man charged with stealing from
them. You’d better call another firm.”

Abbot protested all of the way
out. Inglis turned and walked over to Dave and shook his hand. “Congratulations!
All things considered, this is one case I’m happy to lose.”

Chris and Dave followed Abbot and
his police escort to the jail while the others took Marmalade to his vet for a
good going-over and then to the groomers for a clean-up and a flea bath.

The P.A.W.W. protesters had
transferred their righteous indignation to Bill Abbot, and had followed the
police car to the station and set up their pickets there, so for the first time
in days all was quiet on Glengarry Lane when they returned home.

Chris and Dave met them at the
house later that afternoon, complaining of imminent starvation and with a tale
to tell. They shared the latter while they ate the sandwiches Mrs. Stuart had
waiting for them.

“Once he got to the police
station, he just collapsed. He started talking and didn’t stop.” Chris began. “We
were right about him stealing to support his lifestyle. He thought he could
hide it, especially when he learned about Mrs. Dunbar’s will. Sorry, but he
thought you would violate the terms before a month was up. And when you didn’t,
he wasn’t worried. He figured it was just a matter of time, especially when he
heard the cat was missing back in the spring.”

“Then he was notified about the
audit.” Dave continued the story. “He panicked. He decided to make it look like
you had violated the terms of the will. It was Horace who actually gave him the
idea.”

“Horace?” James asked. “How?”

Chris answered. “He had seen
Horace in the shelter and realized that, except for the missing white strip, he
and Marmalade look much alike. He came up with the plan to substitute Marmalade
for Horace.”

“He hired a man. Can you guess
who?” There were gasps all around as Dave added that piece of the puzzle. “Yes,
the police have had another little chat with our old friend, Ray Price, and he
admitted that he had lied the first time. He said Abbot hired him to watch the
house. Everyone in town knows that Marmalade comes and goes as he pleases. They
figured it would be easy to grab him. It took much longer than they had
anticipated but that’s just what he did Thanksgiving night.”

“After I stepped on Marmalade in
the dark,” Chris went on, “he must have run out to the front. Price grabbed
him, popped him in a burlap bag and drove out to the shelter after calling
Abbot. Abbot met him there and paid him the money they had agreed on, and he
left happy. But when the papers broke the story about the disappearance, and
the size of the inheritance was revealed, he wasn’t so happy. He went to Abbot
and demanded more money. When Abbot refused to give him any more, he came up
with the phony kidnapping story and sent the ransom note.”

Dave filled in the last of the
story. “Abbot was furious. The supposed kidnapping held up the lawsuit but he
couldn’t say anything about it being a fake because he couldn’t reveal how he
knew.”

“What I don’t understand,” Shae
said, “is why he just didn’t kill the cat. If we hadn’t found him, it would
have been difficult to impossible to prove that he had done it.”

Chris nodded. “He thought of
that, but he was afraid to in case something might come up where he would need
him. Also, if we won, he had planned to try the whole ransom thing himself. He
figured he’d get the money one way or another.”

“It was a lucky thing we went
there that night. He might just have gotten away with it,” Hugh declared.

“We are lucky to have such good
friends.” James looked around the room, at each of the people who were
responsible for finding the truth. “I don’t know what we would have done
without you.” And then he excused himself, his eyes looking suspiciously like
crying.

And Chris was happy that, despite
all of his suspicions, Wilf Mitchell was really just a kindly old man who liked
to garden and rescue cats. At least he had been who and what he appeared to be.

There was a rousing celebration
that night at the house and Marmalade was the center of attention. The groomer
had said the orange dye was going to have to grow out. He didn’t seem to mind.
It was just good to be home in his own bed by the fire, especially since
everyone kept giving him treats when they thought no-one else was looking, and
they took turns toasting each other with champagne purchased for the occasion.

James turned to Shae and said, “I’m
sorry your friend Anthony isn’t here for us to thank him.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry about
him. He’s never happier than when he’s caught someone with his hands in the
cookie jar. And don’t worry about a bill either.” She waved away his protest. “This
one’s on me. You see, he’s not just my friend. We’re going to be married.” She
looked a little embarrassed, as if there were something a little unseemly in this.
“You see, he doesn’t mind that I’m a shark because he’s one himself, in a
computer-nerdy sort of way. But I am expecting a really big wedding present and
you’re all invited to the wedding.”

There were more toasts and hugs
all around. Alicia looked at Chris from behind her glass to see how he was
taking the news. He seemed a little down for a man who had just gotten his life
back.

She found a chance to speak with
him alone. “I’m sorry, Chris,” she began tentatively.

He looked surprised but felt his
stomach tighten. He was pretty sure what she was going to tell him. “Sorry, for
what?”

“About Shae. I know she used to
be your girlfriend.”

“Used to be, a hundred years ago.
It ended when I left the firm and the city to move here. You know Shae, she’s a
city girl. A ‘fashionista’. She is definitely not cut out for a jeans and
sweatshirt life in a small, rural town. I knew she wouldn’t be happy here, and
so did she, and we parted as friends. Did you think it was still on?” he asked,
dumbfounded. 

She nodded dazedly.

“Would you care?” he asked,
daring to hope.

“Of course I’d care!”

“But what about you and Hugh?”

“Me and Hugh?” It was her turn to
be dumbfounded. 

“I saw you together,” he
explained, “that night in the donut shop. You were flirting with him.” The
accusation he’d kept bottled up all those weeks burst out.

She just laughed. “Of course I
was flirting with him. I’m a woman. It’s what we do when we want something.”
She saw the look on his face. “So you thought ... Is that why you became so
distant?” He nodded. “You idiot. Hugh has a girlfriend, well someone he hopes
will be his girlfriend. She teaches school here in town but lives on her
parents’ farm outside Lancaster. She was the one who called them about those
horses. All this because of a little harmless flirting. You idiot!” she
repeated, and that was the last thing she said for quite a while.

“Marry me,” he said when he
managed to pull himself away from Alicia’s lips. “I wanted to ask you that day
on the beach but it didn’t seem right the way things stood at the time.”

“I wanted you to ask me. I didn’t
care about how things stood. You were the one good thing in my life and I didn’t
want to lose you. And then I thought I had.”

He kissed her again.

“Does that mean yes?” he asked
later, not doubting the answer.

She smiled happily. “It means
absolutely yes!”

Their happy announcement meant
more champagne and a promise from Shae to come back for their wedding, whenever
it might be. She was heading back to the city the next day but agreed to have lunch
with them before she left.

They all met for one final lunch
the next day. No-one had been up early thanks to the champagne the evening
before. They were just finishing Mrs. Stuart’s omelets and salad when there was
a knock at the door. James went to answer it and returned with two men, one a
uniformed police officer.

“Everyone, this is Detective
Inspector Samuel and Officer Wyatt.” He made introductions all around.

Detective Samuel was a lean,
middle-aged man with a world-weary face and busy eyes.

“We’re just finishing lunch. Can
we offer you anything?” Alice asked.

“No thank you. I’m afraid this
isn’t a social call.”

“I assume you’re here with more
information about the kidnapping.” Chris began.

The detective shook his head. “Actually,
no. We’re here about the murder of William Abbot.”

There was a shocked silence. It
was as if a cold wind had blown through the room, freezing the smiles on their
faces.

James sat down heavily in his
chair. “Murder?”

“Yes, sir. Sometime last night in
his office at the APS shelter.”

“But he was in jail!” Alicia
exclaimed.

“He was, until his wife bailed
him out just after ten-thirty. Frankly, he’d have been better off in jail. The
receptionist at the shelter found him this morning when she arrived for work.
He’d been hit over the head with a golf trophy that is usually kept on a shelf
in his office. The medical examiner puts the time of death sometime between
eleven last night and two this morning, and I need to know where each of you
was during that time.”

“WHAT?” six voices protested in
unison.

Chris quietened them with a wave
of his hand. “Surely you can’t think that we have anything to do with his
death?”

“Well, sir, it seems that your
fingerprints, along with those of Alicia Dunbar, Shae O’Neil and Hugh Jameson
were found all over his office, and Alicia Dunbar’s were found on the murder
weapon.” The detective looked at each of them in turn. “Can you explain this?”

Chris nodded emphatically. “Of
course we can. It’s a matter of court record that the four of us searched Abbot’s
office two nights ago, looking for evidence of his theft of Society funds. We
handled just about everything in his office then.”

The detective, looking
speculative, made a note in his book and commented, “That would seem to me to
be the perfect time to commit a murder. Everyone knows your fingerprints are
already all over the crime scene. What’s a few more?”

Chris took a deep breath and
tried to keep his tone calm and reasonable. “But we have no reason to kill him.
We won the lawsuit, we got Marmalade back, and Abbot was arrested and charged.”

“And we were all together last
night having a victory celebration. Dave Jukes was here, as was Mrs. Stuart.”
Alicia added, visibly shaken by the unspoken accusation in their questions.

“And what time did the party
break up?”

James answered. “About ten. Shae,
Hugh and Dave left at the same time. The rest of us went to bed. It had been a
long, emotionally draining day. We left the clean-up for today.”

The detective didn’t say it, but
they knew that allowed plenty of time for one of them to have driven to the
shelter and killed Abbot.

“What about Ray Price?” Chris
suggested. “He has a pretty good motive for killing him.”

Samuel nodded. “Officers are
checking into his alibi as we speak. However, we have found no evidence at the
crime scene to suggest he was there.”

“What reason could we have for
killing him?” Alicia exclaimed, indignantly. “It was all over. We had won. We
had no motive.”

“I’d say that revenge is a very
powerful motive. He had caused you no end of personal and financial grief, had
blackened your reputations and had tried to steal from you.” He looked again at
each of them. “People have killed for much less.”

“And just how would we know he
would be at the shelter last night?” Shae asked, as if throwing down a full
house. “The last thing we knew was he was in jail.” The others nodded
agreement.

“Easy to assume that he would
make bail. After all, he wasn’t arrested for a violent crime. You could have
staked out the station, waited until he was released, followed him and waited
until he was alone. Perhaps you didn’t intend to kill him.” He was looking
directly at Alicia. “Perhaps you just intended to confront him about what he
had done. Things got out of hand. You lost your temper, grabbed the trophy and
hit him.”

Appalled, Alicia realized it
sounded completely plausible. “But I didn’t! I was home, in bed. I was happy.
We had won. And besides that, I had just got engaged,” she added, as if that
confirmed it.

A smile briefly touched the
detective’s lips, but then he went on in all seriousness. “Engagements
notwithstanding, it is possible and I have to consider
all
possibilities.”

Since they seemed to be getting
in deeper and deeper, Chris decided to put an end to it. “Are you charging us
with anything, Detective?”

“No, at this time. We’re merely
collecting information. We’ll let you know if we have any more questions. And I
know it is a cliché, but please don’t leave town without informing us.” And
with that, they turned and walked out, leaving a room full of stunned people
behind them.

They were no longer innocents in
the courts of law and public opinion; this could be far worse than anything
they had previously experienced. That it came just when they thought it was
safe to take up their lives again made it that much harder to bear.

“This is a nightmare! It never
ends! We just seem to move from disaster to disaster.” Alice was on the verge
of tears. After the strain of the last couple of months, this was the final
straw.

Shae shook her head. “I wouldn’t
worry about this. I don’t think they really suspect any of us. Despite what he
said, Alicia, you have no real motive. It’s just the fingerprint evidence and
that can be easily explained. I think they’re just fishing.”

Chris nodded briskly. “I agree.
But I’m going to call Dave anyway, just to let him know what’s happening. Also,”
he added grudgingly, “we should probably be prepared for another media
onslaught.”

There were groans all around.