Meow for the Money (A Klepto Cat Mystery Book 14) (16 page)

“And while Mr. Pritchard was struggling with Petra, the boy escaped and ran to where the cats live in the ravine,” Craig suggested. When Jody didn’t respond, he continued, “Or did Petra Salvo put the boy in the ravine and leave him there to die?”

“What?” Jody shouted. “What are you talking about?”

“Did you know that your son had been drugged?”

Jody quickly stood. “No!!! That’s not true!” She glanced around the room frantically before saying, “Sure, he was quiet for a while after Savannah brought him to me, but he’d been through a lot. He’d walked a long distance. He was tired.”

“We found a rag with chloroform on it near where Savannah discovered the boy and when we had the rag analyzed, we also found a telltale smattering of a drug. If given enough of it, a child Carlo’s size could die. You are fortunate, indeed, that he most likely ingested only a small amount of it.”

Jody began shaking her head slowly. “Petra wouldn’t harm Carlo. He wouldn’t. I know he wouldn’t.”

“And you thought he wouldn’t harm his stepmother, didn’t you?”

Suddenly Savannah said, “Tetah. Tetah.”

Craig furrowed his brow. “What?”

“That’s what the boy was saying—Tetah. Petra. That’s what he was trying to say: Petra. He was telling us who took him.”

Craig looked at Jody. “Is that right? Is that how your son refers to Petra?” When Jody remained quiet, he asked more sternly, “Jody, was Carlo saying Petra’s name when Savannah found him that day?”

She took a deep breath. “I don’t know…maybe, I guess.”

Craig made a note on his pad, then asked, “Jody, did he take the cat and poison the other one? Was that Petra?”

She tightened her lips. “I didn’t want to believe he’d do it. And maybe he didn’t. I don’t really know.”

“What about Megan Vale?”

“What about her?” Jody asked, defensively.

“What’s her role in harassing June Balcomb?”

“I don’t know,” Jody said, sniffling and blotting at her eyes.

“Did she know about the kidnap attempt?”

“Oh, no. I haven’t discussed any of that with her. She doesn’t know anything. I don’t think she’s involved in any of it—just Petra.”

Craig paused. He stared at Jody. “Did you know she’s seeing your boyfriend?”

“My boyfriend?” she said, frowning.

“Yes, Petra Salvo. Megan Vale is sleeping with him. Did you know that?”

Suddenly, Jody’s demeanor shifted. She jumped to her feet. “That’s a lie. Why would you say that? It’s a bald-faced lie—you liar!” she shouted.

Savannah stood and tried to console the distraught woman. “Jody, would you like to take a walk outside? I’ll go with you, if you want.” She looked at Craig, who nodded.

“I have a call to make,” he said. “You two go get some fresh air.”

Once outside, Savannah began making small talk. “Your backyard is lovely. You must spend a lot of time out here.”

Jody sniffled. “We had it specially designed for Carlo. He loves riding his little cars around on the paths. Ernesto designed it. He’s into figures and investments, but he’s also good at landscape design.”

“I really like the—what are they called—little separate outdoor rooms?”

Jody blew her nose, then nodded. “Yes, they’re great for entertaining. We have the large area for the main activities and these cubbyholes where people can have more intimate conversations. Did you see the pool?” she asked, still wiping at her nose. She took an uneven breath. “We had it built away from the house and the entertainment area. As you can see, there’s a fence around it to protect our children.”

“Your children?” Savannah questioned.

“Well, Ernesto has two children from a previous relationship and we plan to have more. In fact, I may be pregnant, as we speak. Only…” she began to cry.

“Only, you don’t know whether it’s your husband’s or Petra’s?” Savannah asked.

She nodded. “He’s so persuasive…” she wailed. “But now that I know what he’s capable of…the manipulation and even…murder…” She shook her head. “It just makes me sick.” She moved toward a freestanding porch swing and sat down. “I mean, I’m physically sick. Having morning sickness doesn’t help.”

“Well, let’s just sit here for a minute, then, shall we?” Savannah suggested.

The two women were quiet for a moment, when Savannah looked up and saw the detective walking toward them.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

Jody nodded.

“Well, I have some news,” he said, tightening his lips for a moment.

Both women looked up at him.

Easing onto the edge of a nearby bench, he continued, “Petra has thrown you and Megan under the bus.”

“What?” Jody said.

“He blames everything on the two of you. He says you and Megan have been leading him on and tricking him into getting involved in your devious plot to extort money from your aunt.”

“Well, that’s…” she started, her voice accelerated in anger. She then said more quietly, “…par for the course, I guess. He’s never taken responsibility for anything in his life. His daddy always got him out of any jam he found himself in. Petra even has a way of making his hotshot attorney believe his wild stories.” She snickered. “Well, Detective, it’s time for me to stand strong against him. If you can promise he’ll stay in jail and won’t be out bothering me anymore, I think I can come up with the evidence you need to sentence him to many years behind bars.”

“Oh?” Craig said. “Evidence?”

“I may look frail, but this isn’t my first rodeo,” Jody said grinning. “I’ve been taken for a ride before, so this time I tried to cover my bases. I’ve taken pictures, saved receipts, and recorded dates and conversations in case I ever needed proof of my whereabouts or intentions.”

“Really?” Craig said, grinning.

“My dream was to become an attorney,” she said. “And I still can—all I need is to take the bar. I learned in my studies and in my life experiences how important it is to document things—keep a paper trail—as long as it doesn’t incriminate you,” she said, chuckling. She turned to Craig. “Okay, what do I need to do in order to find out who’s been bothering Aunt J’s cats? Is that the last key to your case?”

He nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Okay, let me get my stuff together and we’ll meet again. Is that okay with you, Detective?”

He stared at her, then said, “Do you have a phone number for Megan Vale? I can’t reach her using the one Mrs. Balcomb gave me.”

“Yes, let me look it up for you.” She laughed. “She lost her cell phone, you know—she thinks it’s somewhere around the estate.” Tapping on her phone screen, she said, “Here’s her new number.”

“What does your cat have planned for this afternoon?” Craig asked Savannah on their way back to the estate.

“Huh? Rags? Well, I guess he’ll probably continue living the life of luxury in the cat room with his harem,” she said, chuckling. “Why?”

“I have a job for him, if he can tear himself away from the harem.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, I want to find that woman’s cell phone. If it’s on the property like she seems to think it is, Rags might be able to find it. What do you think?”

Savannah shrugged. “I’m always up for a walk. Sure, I can take him around the property and see what we can find.”

Half an hour later, Savannah slipped Lily into her pink jacket and put her in the stroller. She strapped Rags’s harness on him and stepped outside with the two of them. “Rags, find the cell phone,” she said, realizing how stupid she sounded.
Heck, cats can read your thoughts, I’m sure of it. I’ll just picture a cell phone in my mind and see if he gets the message. First, I think I’ll snoop around where that poor man died. Then maybe walk out to the ravine. I wonder if Megan ever went out there.

Savannah and her entourage were returning from the ravine and trekking through a patch of tall grass, when it occurred to her that maybe the phone was lost in her room when they were moving Megan out, or it was in the storage space.
She might have been in such a hurry to hide the powder in the shed that she walked out without her phone,
she thought.

She walked toward the shed and noticed that the lock was still disengaged.
Thanks, Craig,
she thought. Opening the door, she looked inside.
Where to start?
she wondered. “What do you think, Rags?” That’s when she noticed him walking away from the shed, taking up the slack in his leash. When he’d reached the end of it, she backed out of the shed and followed him, pushing the stroller behind him. “Glad it’s not snake season,” she said as the cat pulled her alongside the shed into calf-high weeds. Suddenly, he stopped. He backed up a step and sniffed the weeds.

“What is it, boy?” she asked, moving toward him. As she approached, he promptly leaped over a weed clump and started pawing at some loose dirt outside a gopher hole. “We’re not hunting prey, Rags,” she said. “Come on, stay on task. Let’s find the phone.”

A few minutes later, she led the cat back to the shed and snooped around in there for a few minutes.
If it’s here, it’s probably buried deep in a box someplace after the authorities pulled everything out and examined it the other day
. “Rags, let’s go check our room, shall we? If it’s not there, we’ll come back out when the sun’s shining brighter,” she said, shivering. But Rags seemed to have other ideas. When Savannah turned to step outside, Rags began pulling in the other direction.

“What do you see?” she asked, when she noticed him pawing at something between two boxes. He stepped back and looked up at her, then peered into the narrow space again. “What is it, boy?” she asked, stepping closer. Using the flashlight app on her phone, she lighted the gap and saw a tubular item wedged inside. “What is that?” she asked, pushing one box aside so they could see the item more clearly. She kicked it out into the open with her foot. “
Vape cigar—disposable
,” she read on the side of it.
Interesting. I wonder if Craig saw this
. “Well, let’s leave it, Rags. We’ll tell Craig about it in case he wants to check it out.” After closing the door to the shed, she adjusted Lily’s hood to make sure it was still covering her ears, and they headed for the house.

“Now see if you can find the phone,” Savannah said, turning Rags loose in their guest room. In the meantime, the baby walked around the room examining interesting things at her level—a colorful knob on a dresser drawer, the fringe on a throw pillow, a doll stuck between the slats in her portable crib, and a bowl of water. Each room had a bowl of water and a small bowl of kibbles in case one of the cats got hungry or thirsty on one of their adventures around the spacious home. “No-no,” Savannah said, quickly picking up the water bowl and placing it out of the toddler’s reach. She then returned to her search. When she pulled a small daybed out from the wall, she heard something. Rags heard it too. Savannah lay down across the bed and Rags promptly joined her. She laughed when she realized Rags was also peering into the crevice between the wall and the daybed, his cheek against hers.

Suddenly, the cat turned and leaped off the bed, slipping underneath it. “Hi Rags,” Savannah said, when she saw him look up at her from the gap between the bed and the wall. She pulled the wad of bedding up so she could get a clear view of the floor, then she spotted it. “Ah-ha,” she said out loud. “I’ll bet this belongs to Ms. Megan. Good job, Rags. High five and paw bump,” she said, laughing.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Savannah asked Craig when she found him in the kitchen eating a bowl of soup and a sandwich.

“What?” he asked, looking up at her and Lily.

“Megan’s phone.”

“My God, Savannah, you found it?” he asked, obviously astonished.

She furrowed her brow. “Well, didn’t you want me to?”

“Yeah, but…I sure didn’t think…” he started.

“You sent Rags and me out on a ruse, is that it, Craig?” she insisted.

Looking sheepish, he said, “Well, I sure hoped we’d find it, but…wow, this is great. This should answer some of our remaining questions.” He smiled at Savannah. “Thanks. Good job.” He stood and motioned toward the small table. “Can I buy you lunch? Sit down, I’ll be right back—need to see about a warrant to examine that phone.”

“Sure,” she said, lifting Lily into her high chair. She moved toward the counter and plugged the phone into her charger. After washing her hands, she served herself a bowl of the soup she found sitting on the stove, scooping out a few vegetables and pieces of chicken to cool for Lily.

“She’s not using her spoon,” Craig said upon returning to the room.

Savannah peered at her daughter. “Yeah. She knows she can get more with her fingers. But when she’s had enough, she starts working with the spoon. Sometimes she actually gets a morsel on it. These things take time, Craig.” Savannah had just finished eating when Edie walked into the kitchen. “Did June have lunch?” Savannah asked. “Want me to take her a bowl of soup?”

“Yes, she did. I imagine she’s ready for dessert. I made brownies. Will you take her one? She’d probably like a refill on her tea, too.”

“Sure,” Savannah said. She glanced at the baby. “I’ll take this to June and come back for Lily.”

“I’ll bring her,” Craig offered, while rinsing his soup bowl in the sink.

“So how did your visit go with my niece?” June asked when the pair entered the cat room with the baby.

Craig glanced at Savannah, then said, “As expected, Mrs. Balcomb. As expected.” When it was obvious that she was waiting to hear the details, he grimaced and added, “We’ll talk about it later, after the rest of the ducks line up.” He pointed. “Well, now there’s an acrobatic cat. Look at how he runs up that climbing thing and does a somersault.” He chuckled. “An acrocat, if I’ve ever seen one.” After several minutes of small talk with the two women, Craig slipped out of the room, returning with Megan’s phone.

“Did you get permission?” Savannah asked, when she noticed him studying the screen.

“Yeah, things move fast when you have enough on one of the suspects to arrest him.”

“So what do you see?”

Craig glanced up briefly. “Some pretty interesting stuff, actually—for the gossip columns.”

Savannah’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really? Like what?”

He stared across the room at Savannah before saying, “Evidence. Can’t reveal evidence before we work with it.” When he realized June was watching him with interest, he said, “It’s Megan Vale’s phone—she lost it and I guess Rags found it. I suspect it will help us with the remaining questions pertaining to this case.”

“Can’t you give us a hint?” Savannah asked, smiling coyly.

He shook his head. “I want to see what I can get out of Megan before this information goes into evidence. If she cooperates, we may not need it. In the meantime, I can’t, in good conscience, show it to anyone else.”

“Oh, I get it,” Savannah said, rushing to grab Lily before she pulled Shadow’s tail. “You want to get the truth from the horse’s mouth.”

He looked up at her apprehensively. “I guess you could put it that way.” He then asked her, “Got someone to watch the princess this afternoon?”

“You want me to ride shotgun again?”

“You’re an asset, Detective Savannah.”

****

An hour and a half later, Savannah and Craig left in the car.

“Megan doesn’t know I have her phone, so mum’s the word, okay?” he said.

Savannah nodded, then she remembered something. “Craig, I…I mean, Rags found something in Megan’s storage shed this morning. I don’t know if it’s important to the case or not. I think it’s one of those vape cigarette things—although it looks more like a cigar.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, as I said, I wondered if it’s important to the case. I doubt that Megan smokes vape cigars…”

“Oh, you’d be surprised, Savannah. Women do a lot of things these days—just look at all the tattooing that goes on among females. Why they’d want to cover up their beautiful skin with all of that ink is beyond me.”

Savannah was quiet for a moment, then she turned toward Craig and said, “Wait! I remember something.” When Craig remained silent, she said, “I’m pretty sure that Carlo was pointing in the direction of that shed when he was saying Petra’s name—or what we think was Petra’s name. I wonder if Petra hid in there after killing Mr. Pritchard. He might have been in the shed the whole time we were all out there near Andrew’s body that day.”

Craig rubbed his chin. “Could Carlo see the shed from the ravine?”

“No.” She thought for a moment and added, “From the ravine in general, yes—but not from where I found him, I don’t think.”

“So maybe the kid did walk to the ravine on his own or…Petra took him there then doubled back to kill Andrew.” He thought for a moment. “What if the whole process took longer than he expected? Maybe Jody began her dramatic role in the little pageant too soon and Petra was caught off guard, so he ducked into the shed and that’s how the boy ended up on his own. Oh, he had plans for Carlo, that’s for sure—but we don’t know what they were.”

“I just thought of something else, Craig,” Savannah said, using a rather mysterious tone. “Jim said he saw a wisp of smoke or steam or something near those storage sheds the day Mr. Pritchard was killed. No one else saw it, so we just sloughed it off as a figment of his imagination. Maybe Petra was inside there smoking that e-cigar.”

“Hmmm,” Craig said.

Within a few minutes, Craig pulled into valet parking at a swank hotel on the outskirts of town.

“Well, she is sure spending her stipend, isn’t she?” Savannah said. “This place must cost a thousand dollars a day.”

“And what did Mrs. Balcomb give them,” Craig asked, “five thousand? That’ll only last her five days, if she doesn’t buy food.”

“Oh, I think those who lived at the estate got more money. But still, yeah, mighty extravagant.”

“Let’s go take a look at her room, shall we?” Craig suggested, getting out of the car.

Once they reached the eighth floor, they found room 805 and knocked on the door. “Just a minute,” came the response.

“That’s a man’s voice,” Savannah whispered, frowning.

Craig raised his eyebrows and nodded.

“Hello, Detective,” Megan said upon opening the door a few seconds later.

Before Craig could speak, a tall black man edged past him and left the room, saying, “Excuse me. I’m in a hurry.”

“I guess you are,” Craig said, taken aback. He looked at Megan, who smirked rather impishly.

“I suppose you won’t believe it if I tell you he’s my brother,” she said, giggling a little.

Neither Craig nor Savannah commented.

“Well, come in, Detective…Mrs. Ivey,” she said. “I hear you have questions.” She looked from one to the other of her guests.

“Yes, we do,” Craig said, stepping into the room after Savannah.

“Let’s sit here, shall we?” Megan invited, motioning toward a lovely sitting room.

Again, Craig positioned himself across from his interviewee and suggested Savannah sit to his left. “Ms. Vale, I guess you know some of what’s been going on with regard to the Balcomb estate.”

She responded rather solemnly. “I heard that Petra was arrested. He called me and asked for help getting out.” She peered directly at Craig. “You’re not going to let him out, are you?”

“Was that a rhetorical question, Ms. Vale, or are you serious?”

“Uh, well…I…” she stammered.

“He’s been accused of murder. If it sticks, he won’t be released.”

Savannah was sure she saw a hint of relief in Megan’s demeanor. She wanted to ask her why, but was pretty sure Craig had a plan of his own, and he was definitely in charge. She still wasn’t sure why Craig had invited her to join him.

“Ms. Vale, we’re just trying to tie up some loose ends here. We know who was behind the attempt to harass and maybe harm Mrs. Balcomb, but we still have some unanswered questions I hope you can help with. Now, can you tell me who took the boy, Carlo, from the room where he slept on January tenth?”

“Um, wasn’t it some child-porn pervert from the trailer park?”

Craig stared at the woman. When she broke eye contact and began glancing around the room, he said, “Now Megan…may I call you Megan?” When she nodded, he continued, “I think you know there was no stranger involved. It was someone the boy knew, wasn’t it? Someone little Carlo trusted, right?” Before she could speak, he raised his hand. “Don’t forget, Megan, we’ve already spoken with several others. We’ve already been told the truth as they know it. It would behoove
you
, Megan, to be truthful with us, as well. Otherwise, you could find yourself in …well…in more hot water than would be comfortable.” He picked up a man’s shoe from the floor. “It appears that you have something going for you, Megan.” When he saw her smile, he continued, “You seem happy; what does he do—real estate investor, importer/exporter, banker? He doesn’t live in town, does he? You have an exciting long-distance relationship, do you?”