Fat Cat At Large (A Fat Cat Mystery) (8 page)

Laci’s eyes opened wide. “Well . . .”

“Have I or have I not?” Chase repeated through gritted teeth. “Tell him to leave the store right now.”

She shooed both of them from behind the counter. Ted gave Chase a glum stare as he slid past her. Laci looked near to tears. The burly guy customers didn’t seem to notice the scene, talking loudly among themselves and occasionally punching each other’s arm.

After they left with a considerable number of purchases, Chase and Laci were alone in the salesroom. What would Anna say? Chase wondered. She tried to summon up the older woman’s wisdom and experience. She also needed to make sure Anna didn’t fire Laci.

Laci shrank as Chase faced her. “That will not happen again. Do you understand me?”

“What do you have against poor Ted?”

“Poor Ted is stealing from us! I’ve told you that. I’m about to ban him from the store. You will tell me if he comes in here again.” Was she going overboard? If only her back didn’t ache so. It was making her extra grouchy.

Laci started sobbing.

“Go into the kitchen until you can straighten up and do your job.”

Chase felt like Cinderella’s evil stepmother as Laci slunk through the double doors with her hands to her teary face. It occurred to Chase that this was perfect passive-aggressive behavior on Laci’s part. Chase disliked being manipulated. She heaved a sigh. What next?

One more rush day, Chase told herself that night as she brushed her teeth for bed. She just needed to get through Monday.

M
onday was humming along and Chase was feeling that she would make it through the day. She watched the clock in the afternoon. The hour hand crept toward six. At seven thirty they would close up and the rush time would be over.

She had brought plenty of aspirin and Tylenol downstairs to the shop today and alternating them was helping her back pain. Her mood was better because of that, she was sure.

Anna and Chase had stocked the shelves for the last time at five and were both working the front of the store. Many last-minute freshmen were moving in and finding they needed something sweet to tide them over until dinnertime. Vi had asked to take an extra break at five, an inconvenient time given the number of customers in the shop right then. Chase wondered if Anna would try to replace both of their sales clerks.

At five forty-five, Vi was returning when Ted Naughtly showed up. Chase’s good mood was fast evaporating. It was time to be direct.

She stood in front of the young man and blocked his way. “You are not welcome here, Ted. Please leave.”

“I don’t want to stay. I just need to tell Laci something.” He glanced over his shoulder, out the front window, to the sidewalk.

Chase followed his gaze. A young woman closer to Ted’s age than Laci’s, maybe midtwenties, dressed in a very short skirt and very high-heeled shoes, stood on the sidewalk, her nose in the air, seeming interested in the top of the gingko tree that grew through a round hole in the pavement in front of the Bar None. Her bosom threatened to spill from the low-cut top.

“I promise I won’t be back,” he said.

Something in his manner made Chase stand aside and let him pass. Laci was near the rear of the store, holding a stack of boxes for a student’s matronly relative who seemed to be stocking up for winter. The poor, slight girl struggled to contain the cartons in her thin arms as the woman, unconcerned, piled on a few more.

Chase watched as Ted walked to Laci’s side. Laci turned her head and gave him a huge smile, bobbled, but didn’t drop the boxes. Ted put his head near hers, as he always did. This time it had a different effect. He couldn’t have said more than a dozen words before her smile vanished. Her expression continued to deteriorate as Ted left the store.

The young woman on the pavement took his arm and snuggled against him as they disappeared down the street without a backward glance from either of them.

Chase turned at the sound of a crash. Laci lay on the floor in a dead faint, surrounded by the scattered boxes she’d been juggling.

After a split second of shock, Chase rushed to her inert form. She knelt and shouted Laci’s name a few times. Anna rushed in from the kitchen. Vi stood frozen for a few minutes, then grabbed the showcase for support.

“What was that noise?” asked Anna. “It sounded like something hit the—” She spied the two of them on the floor, one unconscious, and whipped out her cell phone. Chase breathed a sigh of relief that Anna was taking charge. Now everything would be all right. What else could go wrong that day?

Not more than two minutes passed before an ambulance pulled up, sirens blaring and lights flashing. Laci’s eyelids fluttered and she turned her head. When she tried to struggle up, Chase put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t get up, Laci. Wait until the EMTs check you out.”

The uniformed medics rushed into the shop and started working on Laci with the tools of their trade. One pumped the blood pressure cuff while another inspected her eyes, skin, and heartbeat.

Within a few minutes they decided to transport her to the hospital for observation. “Her blood pressure isn’t what it should be,” said the crisp blonde woman with the cuff. “She may be dehydrated.” Her partner, the guy with the stethoscope looped around his neck, brought in a gurney and they carefully lifted Laci onto it. Chase and Anna followed them to the rear of the ambulance. Anna thought to ask which hospital she was being taken to. It made sense that she was being transported to the nearby University of Minnesota Medical Center.

“I’ll drive,” said Anna. “Come through the shop.”

Chase started to follow Anna inside so she could go to the parking lot where Anna’s car was, but a hard hand clamped her forearm.

“Where did they say she was going?” It was Ted.

“Ted, what happened?” Chase shook off his hand. “After you talked to her she passed out. Right after you went out the door. Do you know if she’s sick?”

“Oh no. I did it.”

“What did you do?”

“Don’t shout at me,” he growled. The buxom miniskirted woman lingered in the crowd of gawkers that had gathered, her wary, puzzled eyes on him. “I told her I was breaking up with her. I’ve been trying to tell her, subtly, but she wouldn’t get the message. So I brought Krystal with me so Laci could see her, and I told her flat-out.”

“She’s . . . delicate, you know.”

“Boy, do I. Where are they taking her?”

“U of M.”

Ted hurried away. Chase, after calling to Vi to mind the store, ran through the two rooms and out the back door to Anna’s car. As they sped southward, toward the hospital, Chase’s cell phone rang with a call from Vi.

“Chase? Miss Oliver?” What was wrong with everyone? Now Vi sounded distressed, like the world was ending.

“What is it, Vi?” She knew she had snarled at her. She softened her voice. “We’ll be back before closing.”

“The health inspector is here. He says he needs to reinspect.”

“Now? He has to do it now?” She could hardly expect the inspector to know that her employee was being rushed to the hospital. “Can he do this later?”

“He says not. His schedule is tight.”

Chase told Vi she’d be there in ten minutes. She told Anna to drop her back at the store. When would she learn to quit asking herself what else could go wrong?

A
nna let Chase out in front of the Bar None and continued on to the hospital to see about Laci. Chase entered her own shop through the front door, something she didn’t usually do during business hours. Today she paused to appreciate her place. Seeing the cheery striped walls, the pink shelving, and, in the rear of the room, the shiny glass display case lifted her spirits momentarily. Customers eager to satisfy their sweet tooth milled about, creating a low, pleasant murmur. With the alluring aromas in the air, the first impression was nice for visitors, she decided.

She hoped it worked on health inspectors. Her insides tightened a bit, thinking about him poking around in the kitchen with no one else there.

Vi waited patiently while a couple of giggling upperclasswomen made up their minds what to purchase. Chase was glad to see that Vi was her usual put-together self, poised and polished. It had been a few days since she’d seen the old Vi.

She hurried through to the kitchen to find the same inspector as last time, the lanky, bespectacled Harold Johnson, this time in a blue plaid shirt, standing in the middle of the space scribbling on his pad of paper. He glanced up at her entrance and gave her a smile. She hoped that was a good sign.

“I see the sign is in place,” he said.

Chase held her breath. The job Anna had done tacking it up again had worked, probably because she’d used pushpins, not trusting Chase’s tape job. Now the employees could read about how they had to wash their hands every time they visited the restroom, something Chase was sure they appreciated.

Could the reinspection be this easy? He was still peering at her through his round glasses lenses, smiling underneath his bristling mustache. She nodded.

“All done, then.” He clicked his pen shut and extended his hand.

Chase grabbed it and pumped the handshake. “Okay, then, good, good.” She probably sounded like a babbling fool, but it was a relief to have something go right.

After he left, Chase helped Vi in the front until the stream slowed to a trickle at around 7:00.

“We have officially made it through the rush,” she said to Vi. “Let’s call it quits. I’ll flip the sign and you can leave as soon as these last few are waited on. I think I ought to get to the hospital to see Laci.”

“I hope she’ll be all right.” Vi wasn’t heartless after all.

“I do need to see her. Will you do okay here by yourself?”

Vi glanced at the three people left in the Bar None, all elderly women, for a change. “I’ll make it.”

“See you tomorrow, then. It should be relaxing.” Classes started on Tuesday and their business at the shop would be a fraction of what it had been for the last couple of weeks. At least she had Vi to depend on, to close up the store.

Chase went out the back, trying to tamp down an irrational feeling of unease, and drove to the University Medical Center.

She sped down East River Parkway, turned left on Harvard Street and zipped into the parking garage, sliding into a space fairly near the pedestrian tunnel. She ran down the long tunnelway to the main hospital and rushed to the emergency desk to find out where Laci was.

A very short older woman with gleaming snow-white hair was talking with the desk clerk. Chase got in line behind her since only one clerk was in evidence. A noise from her purse startled her—it was her cell phone. The desk clerk glared at Chase and pointed to a sign on the wall that said “Silence Cell Phone’s.” Chase sighed at the misplaced apostrophe, but followed the instructions. A glance showed an unfamiliar number, so she stuck the cell into her purse.

“Yes, dearie, thanks for asking,” the woman said, her voice strong in spite of her elderly looks and her diminutive size. She wore a pink velour pantsuit under a puffy down-filled jacket. “I’m feeling so much better.”

Chase couldn’t hear the soft-spoken woman behind the counter, who was typing and swiveling back and forth between the older woman and her computer screen. Chase hummed “Get Me to the Church on Time” from
My Fair Lady
and bounced with impatience, anxious to see how Laci was doing. That sent a twinge to her spine, so she stopped and stood still, changing her tune to the more sedate “Ol’ Man River” from
Show Boat
.

The white-haired woman glanced up at Chase. Her light blue eyes sparkled behind wire-rimmed glasses. “I won’t be much longer, dear. Just checking out.”

The woman turned to the clerk and spoke again. “Yes, that’s right. . . . That’s right. . . . No, I live on Fourteenth Avenue Southeast. I believe you entered Southwest.” She leaned to one side to see the computer screen better. “And my name is spelled with a
J
. Yes, Hilda Bjorn.”

Then it clicked for Chase. This was the woman who had reported seeing her! Anna was with Laci; she’d be fine. Chase needed to talk to this woman.

As the woman finished her business and turned away from the window, Chase waylaid her.

“Ms. Bjorn? Could I speak with you for a few moments?”

She peered past Chase, out the glass doors. “I don’t think my ride is here yet. What do you need?”

“Would you like to sit down?”

“I’m old, dear, not dead yet. I can stand up. I was just in for a tiny infection in my insulin pump hole. That’s what I call it, my pump hole.”

Afraid she’d insulted the woman, Chase hurried to apologize. “I didn’t mean . . . No, I don’t think—”

“That’s all right. It was rude of me to get snippy. Now, what’s on your mind?”

“I’m Chase Oliver. I’m the person you saw coming out of Gabe Naughtly’s condo the day he was murdered.”

“Oh my. Yes, you are, aren’t you?” She peered at Chase closely. “Yes, I can see that you resemble her.” The woman drew back a bit. “Should I be afraid?” She peered around. “We are in a public place.”

“I didn’t kill Gabe Naughtly!” The clerk at the counter glanced up and Chase lowered her voice. “I thought that maybe you might have seen someone else that same day.”

“I see lots of people every day. But that day? Let me think. Andy, of course. That’s my next-door neighbor. His name is Anderson Fear, Professor Fear.” Chase wondered if that was the somewhat fearful-looking man who had told her that Ms. Bjorn was in the hospital. “He comes and goes between his classes and his office hours. That day there were a lot of people at that condo. A young man looked like he was coming to see Gabe, after Gabe got home, but he didn’t go in, just hung around on my side of the street. Oh yes, and that young woman had gone in already, the one that dresses kind of like, well, like a floozy. You know, those tight clothes, all those tattoos, and those horrid shoes. It’s a wonder she’s never broken an ankle in those things. She didn’t stay as long as she usually does and she came out while the young man was still hanging around. She’s been there a lot lately.”

“Anyone else?”

The woman frowned in thought.

“Did you see the tall, thin man, very pale, wearing a blazer? He came in right after me that day.” Chase would love to nail Torvald Iversen for the crime.

“Maybe. I’m not quite sure. I’ll have to think about . . .” She looked outside. “Oh, there’s my ride. Come see me sometime, dearie.”

Chase saw the man she had already pegged as Professor Fear get out of a small Japanese car and come inside. He smiled when he saw Ms. Bjorn. “Ready to go?”

She nodded, turning to Chase before she left. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, dear. I’m sure you didn’t kill anyone.”

It would be nice if more people were sure of that, thought Chase. So, a young man and a floozy. Who the heck would they be?

At the counter, the woman wouldn’t give her Laci’s room number, so she texted Anna and got it. The woman did tell her where the elevators were, so she took one up to Laci’s floor. When she found Laci’s location, Anna stood in the doorway, looking ready to leave. Chase raised her eyebrows and Anna nodded to the interior of the room.

Ted Naughtly sat on the edge of the bed, leaning in close and stroking Laci’s hand. They were gazing into each other’s eyes and neither had noticed Chase’s arrival. The breakup hadn’t lasted long, she thought.

Chase cleared her throat. They both kept gazing. “Hi, Laci,” she finally said.

Ted jerked upright.

“Hi, Miss Oliver,” said Laci wanly. Chase had asked both Laci and Vi to call her Chase, but it had never taken.

“How are you feeling?” Chase asked.

Laci batted her eyelashes at Ted. “Better with Teddy here.” She managed a weak smile.

“I’d better go,” he said, standing up. “Mom probably has dinner ready.”

“Buh-bye.” Laci sighed and gave him a limp wave.

“See you.” He pushed past Chase and disappeared down the hallway.

Chase entered the room and sat in the visitor’s chair while Anna still hovered at the door. The hard plastic seat didn’t do anything for her back pain, and it flared up again. “Are you going home tonight?”

“No, they’re keeping me until tomorrow morning for observation.” She didn’t seem to approve of that. Her weakness suddenly vanished as she propped herself up and poured a glass of ice chips, maneuvering around her IV. She’d been putting on an act for “Teddy,” Chase realized. The little vixen.

“What’s the reason for keeping you?”

“Oh, they said I was dehydrated.”

“And her heart rhythm is a little off,” said a nurse, bustling into the room with a blood pressure cuff. She wrapped the sleeve around Laci’s arm and pumped. “She’ll go home tomorrow if the scan for a concussion comes up normal and if nothing else happens.”

“But she’s okay?” asked Chase.

“Basically.” The cuff deflated with a whoosh. The nurse unwound the Velcro, then noted Laci’s numbers on an electronic pad and left.

“I’ve been dieting,” Laci said. “I guess I overdid it.”

“Dieting?” Anna spoke up at last. “Girl, you don’t have an ounce to lose. What were you thinking?”

“Teddy’s mom is so thin. I think he probably likes really thin women.”

Chase pictured the miniskirted woman he’d gone off with just before Laci fainted. She wouldn’t win any skinny contests, not with her top half, anyway.

“Laci,” Chase said, “your job is to rest up and feel better. Let us know if you need anything.”

“Laci!” A woman rushed in and ran to the bed, followed by a slower man who looked at Laci with deep concern. “Baby doll! We came as fast as we could when we heard.”

“We were at the cabin,” the man said. “Traffic was terrible.”

“Oh, you always say that, Dad. Mom, Dad.” Laci gestured around the room. “These are my bosses, Ms. Oliver and Mrs. Larson.”

After all four shook hands, Anna and Chase left Laci with her parents.

“Vi should have closed up by now,” said Chase. Weariness descended on her, pushing her down farther than the elevator was taking her. “Laci seems to have fairly normal parents. I wonder why she has to take up with a guy like Ted.”

“Who knows anything about anybody?” This wasn’t the cheerful, upbeat Anna that Chase knew.

“What do you mean?”

“It seems like you never really know someone, anyone. A person you think you know, a person close to you, could be, for instance, an embezzler.”

It was an effort for Chase to keep her jaw from dropping.

“Who wants to go over the books?” Anna asked, leaning against the rear wall of the elevator as the floors dinged past. “You or me?”

“I can. You’ve been doing it every night for a while.”
Only because you suspect I’m pilfering our money.

“Go ahead. I’m whipped.”

Chase looked at Anna directly. She seemed tired, maybe even more tired than Chase felt. The elevator doors opened, and before Chase could say anything else, Anna hurried out to the emergency parking lot, where she’d left her car.

How was she ever going to find out what was bothering her dear Anna? How were they ever going to get back to their easy, relaxed relationship? How was Chase going to find out if Anna truly thought Chase was stealing money?