The Whole Cat and Caboodle: Second Chance Cat Mystery (10 page)

She looked around for our waitress, and when she caught the young woman’s eye Liz gestured at her coffee cup.

“I don’t even want to know how you know that,” I said to Liz.

She gave me a sly smile. “No, Sarah, you probably don’t.” She looked across the table at Charlotte. “Maddie will be fine. We’ll all be at the courthouse in the morning, and she’ll be out of there long before lunch.”

“I’ll open up tomorrow,” Mac said.

He was sitting on my left side and I shot him a smile of thanks.

“I can take the morning off school and help,” Avery offered, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table.

“No, you can’t,” Liz said firmly.

Avery made a face at her grandmother, who made one back at her.

“I appreciate your offer,” I said, “but we’re not that busy in the morning. So go to school, but I could use you in the afternoon, if you really want to help.”

“I do,” Avery said, tucking a strand of cranberry-colored hair behind one ear.

“Good,” I said. “If you’re finished, how about you go find Sam, collect Elvis and wait by the front door?”

“Are you just trying to get rid of me so you can talk about stuff you don’t think I should hear?”

“Because that’s worked so well in the past,” Liz commented.

I picked up my coffee cup and shook my head. “I’m not. I’m just trying to get Elvis out of here without anyone noticing you brought him in here in the first place.”

“Okay, then,” she said, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz extend her arm under the cover of the tablecloth and brush Avery’s hand with her own.

“Keep him out of sight, Avery,” I said.

“Yeah, I know.” She flapped a hand at me as she headed in the direction of the kitchen.

My coffee was cold and I was about to drink it, anyway, when our waitress came over with a fresh pot. “Could you bring our check when you have a minute, please?” I asked as she poured.

“It’s already been taken care of,” she said with a smile. She moved around me to top up Mac’s cup.

I turned to Liz. “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

She smiled and shrugged. “Sorry, kiddo. I didn’t. Someone else beat me to it.”

“Sam,” I said, reaching for a little paper packet of sugar.

“I don’t think so.” Liz pointed a perfectly manicured nail toward Mac. He had one elbow leaning on the table as he talked to Charlotte and Rose.

“Mac?”

Liz added cream to her cup. “When he excused himself to wash his hands just after we got here, I saw him speak to our waitress.”

I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands around my own cup. “That’s really, really . . . nice.”

“Mac’s a pretty nice man,” Liz said. “In case you hadn’t noticed.”

Before I could answer her I caught sight of Avery coming from the direction of Sam’s office. My gym bag was over her shoulder and at least it didn’t seem to be moving. I decided the rest of us should get moving. I didn’t want to push our luck.

I took one last drink of my coffee. “You ready to go?” I asked Liz.

She nodded.

I leaned over and touched Mac on the shoulder. He turned. “Ready to leave?” I asked.

“I am,” he said.

I looked at Rose and Charlotte. “Ready to head home?”

Charlotte glanced at her watch. “I’m ready,” she said. Was she wondering why Nick hadn’t called either one of us? I was.

Rose had started putting on her coat. I heard her make a comment to Liz about Liz’s faux-snakeskin shoes. They weren’t at all practical, waterproof or sensible. Then again, none of Liz’s shoes were. They were gorgeous, though.

Mac was pulling on his jacket. “Thank you for supper,” I said.

There was just a bit of a smile playing on his lips. “How did you know?”

“I have my sources,” I said with an offhand shrug.

“Could we keep it between us?” he asked, checking his pockets for his keys.

“Why don’t you want the others to know you paid for dinner?”

He ducked his head and smiled. “I just don’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

“All right,” I said, pulling on my own jacket. I understood not wanting to make a big deal about some things.

We collected Avery and Elvis and stood outside on the sidewalk to make plans for the morning. “I’m picking up Rose and Charlotte. I can pick you up, too,” I told Liz.

“That’ll be fine,” she said. She held out her car keys to Avery, who had Rose’s towel-wrapped statue under one arm. “You can drive, but no shortcuts this time.”

“My way is faster,” Avery said, taking the keys. “You just don’t want to admit that.” She stood up a little straighter. “Young people have good ideas, too, you know.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Here we go,” she muttered. She leaned over, nudged my shoulder with hers and said, “I’ll see you in the morning.” Then she started down the sidewalk with Avery. “I didn’t say your ideas were bad,” I heard her say. “I said your shortcuts are bad.”

Mac touched my arm. “It’s a nice night, Sarah,” he said. “I’m going to walk.”

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for coming and . . . everything.”

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile. It struck me that Mac should smile more often. “Don’t worry about the shop in the morning. Take as long as you need.”

I tucked my hair back behind one ear. “Thanks,” I said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He shrugged. “Well, luckily, you don’t have to find out.” He said good night to Charlotte and Rose and cut across the street. I was guessing he’d take a walk along the harbor front before he went home.

“Sarah, I’m not going home. I’m going to Charlotte’s,” Rose said as I pulled the SUV away from the curb. She was in the back, with Elvis on the seat beside her. Charlotte was in the front passenger’s seat.

“You are?” Charlotte said, half turning around to look at her friend.

“I am,” Rose said firmly. “I know you’re worried about Maddie. So am I. We may as well worry together. Unless you’d rather come stay at Shady Pines with me?”

I glanced at Rose in the rearview mirror. I knew that look on her face. Once she made up her mind about something it was a waste of time trying to sway her.

“I don’t suppose I could just say ‘I’m fine, go home,’” Charlotte said.

“You can say it all you want,” Rose retorted. “I’m still spending the night, unless you think Shady Pines would be more fun.”

“You have to stop calling Legacy Place Shady Pines. They’re going to sue you for slander.”

“Ha!” Rose snorted. “It’s not slander if it’s true.”

“Merow!” Elvis chimed in.

“See?” she said. “Elvis knows I’m right.”

“Elvis is a cat, Rose,” I said, taking my eyes off the road for a split second to look in the rearview mirror again.

“Doesn’t mean he’s not smart,” she countered. “Cats pick up on things we miss. They have very keen powers of observation. He knows there’s something fishy going on at that place.”

Elvis meowed again, probably because he’d heard the word
fishy
.

“‘Legacy Place, when you’re here you’re home,’ my aunt Fanny,” Rose grumbled.

“You can drop us both at my house,” Charlotte said quietly, the corners of her mouth twitching.

“How early do you think we should be at the courthouse in the morning?” I asked as I waited to turn left at a stop sign.

“I’d like to be there early enough that we can be close to the front, so Maddie can see us,” Charlotte said. “If that works for you.”

“Okay. What if I picked you up at nine thirty? Is that early enough?”

“You’re changing the subject,” Rose said from the backseat.

“Well, I certainly am trying,” I said. I wiggled my fingers at her in the rearview mirror.

She gave me her best angelic little-old-lady smile. “I can take a hint,” she said.

I dropped off Rose and Charlotte, and drove home with Elvis. He stayed in the back, perched in the middle of the seat like he was royalty.

“What is this? The feline version of
Driving Miss Daisy
?” I asked as I turned onto our street.

He bobbed his head and gave a sharp meow. Okay, so he liked the idea. Why didn’t that surprise me?

I kicked off my shoes and dropped onto the sofa when I got inside my apartment. It had been a long day and I was tired.

Elvis jumped up and stretched out on my chest. I eased my cell phone out of my pocket. Still no call from Nick. I hoped he’d at least called Charlotte by now.

I stroked Elvis’s fur with one hand. “I still think there’s something Maddie’s not telling us, but she didn’t kill Arthur Fenety. Not on purpose. And if she’d killed him by accident, she wouldn’t lie about it.”

He murped his agreement. Or maybe he just liked having his fur stroked.

I folded my other arm under my head. “So, who did kill him?”

Elvis blinked his green eyes at me. Clearly he had no idea.

Neither did I.

I picked up Liz just before nine thirty in the morning. She was wearing a black suit, the jacket banded around the neck and down the front in white. Her hair and her makeup—and her nails—were perfect. She looked confident and affluent, like someone who was accustomed to having things go her way, which, now that I thought of it, she was.

“You look so elegant,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said as she fastened her seat belt, carefully smoothing the fabric of her suit jacket so it wouldn’t wrinkle. “Avery said I looked intimidating.”

“That might not be such a bad thing today.” I glanced sideways in time to see her smile at me.

“You look very pretty,” she said. “I like that shade of red on you. It goes with your skin tone.”

I was wearing a silver-gray dress with a cranberry red blazer and my favorite spike-heeled black boots. I hadn’t exactly been sure how to dress to go to court.

“Thank you,” I said. “And thank you for offering to take care of Maddie’s bail.”

“I told you last night—we’re family. Not by blood.” She tapped her chest with her fingers. “But in here. And we take care of each other.”

Rose and Charlotte were waiting out by the curb in front of Charlotte’s house.

“Sarah, did you talk to Isabel last night?” Charlotte asked as she fastened her seat belt.

I nodded. “She wanted to come back. I told her there isn’t anything she can do. She’s going to call you.”

“There isn’t,” Rose said. “Josh Evans is a very smart young man. He’ll get this straightened out lickety-split.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple,” Liz said.

“What do you mean?” Rose asked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her lean forward in the seat.

“Think about it, Rose. The police have evidence—of some kind. They wouldn’t have arrested Maddie without it.”

“You think she killed Arthur?” Rose said, her voice tinged with surprise.

“That’s not what she said,” Charlotte interjected, holding up one hand.

Beside me Liz shifted in her seat, turning toward the backseat. “Thank you,” she said to Charlotte. “I know Maddie didn’t kill Arthur. I’ve already said that and I’m not saying it again. What I am saying is that the police have some reason they think she did. They must know he didn’t die of natural causes. We need to find out what makes them think Maddie killed him and find some way to show them they’re wrong.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I started to say, but they talked right over me.

“You’re right.” Rose was nodding so vigorously she looked like a gray-haired bobble-headed doll. “I’m sure Josh must have some idea why the police arrested Maddie. They’d have to tell him, wouldn’t they? We should talk to him.”

“And Maddie, as well,” Charlotte added.

I glanced in the rearview mirror again. I knew that look in Charlotte’s eye. She was already making a mental list of things to do.

“There’s no time like the present,” Liz said.

“We could bring Maddie back with us,” Rose said. “I don’t think she should be all alone, anyway.”

“I’m hoping she’ll stay with me,” Charlotte added.

“Josh’s office probably has their own investigator, you know.” I didn’t like the direction the conversation was going in.

“I’m sure they do, dear,” Liz said, sending me a look that seemed a little . . . condescending before she turned back to her friends.

Thankfully we were almost at the courthouse. I found a parking spot in the nearby lot and we walked down the sidewalk to the building.

“Is Christopher going to be here?” Liz asked Charlotte.

Maddie’s son, Christopher, was a mining engineer who traveled all over the world.

Charlotte shook her head. “He’s in northern Russia.”

“Does he even know?” Liz asked, smoothing down the sleeve of her suit jacket.

Charlotte slid the strap of her purse over her shoulder. She was wearing a navy suit with a bright print scarf at her neck. She looked like the school principal she used to be. “I don’t know. Maddie said she called him, but . . .” She shrugged and gave her head a little shake.

Josh Evans was waiting for us inside the courthouse. He smiled and walked over when he caught sight of us. “Sarah, I would have known you anywhere,” he said, taking the hand I offered in both of his.

“Is that good or bad?” I asked, smiling back at him.

“All good,” he said.

I would have recognized Josh, as well. His sandy hair was in the same short, spiked style he’d had when he was twelve, except now it was styled with a lot more expensive cut. He was tall and lanky but he’d lost his geeky awkwardness. He still wore black-framed glasses, except the frames were a designer name now and they weren’t held together with duct tape at one corner. His blue eyes were keen behind his glasses, taking everything in. Even as he smiled at me I felt myself relax, just a little.

Josh said hello to Liz, Rose and Charlotte. Then he quickly explained what was going to happen. “After the charges are read the judge will ask Mrs. Hamilton how she pleads,” he said. “She’ll say not guilty. The prosecutor and I have already talked about bail. I’ll agree with her suggestion and I don’t see why the judge will have any problem with it.”

He gave us an encouraging smile. “Things should go pretty quickly.”

And they did.

Maddie came into the courtroom looking a little tired and very serious but she smiled when she saw us all sitting in the front row. Josh was right about the bail and very quickly we were all in the hallway outside the courtroom.

Charlotte took both of Maddie’s hands in hers. “Are you all right?” she asked, her eyes searching Maddie’s face.

Maddie nodded. “I’m fine. I’m just . . . glad to be here with all of you.” She smiled at Charlotte, Rose and Liz in turn and then she turned to me. “Sarah, you sweet girl, I don’t know how to thank you,” she said. “Josh told me you sent him.”

I reached out and touched her arm. “All I did was make a phone call. It was Rose’s suggestion.”

Maddie looked at us all again. “I don’t know what I’d do without all of you,” she said.

I could see the glint of unshed tears in her eyes. I remembered what Mac had said to me last night when I’d said pretty much the same thing to him. I smiled and patted Maddie’s arm. “It doesn’t matter,” I said, “because you’re not going to find out.”

Josh touched my elbow and we moved a few steps away from the women. “You and Mrs. Elliot found Arthur Fenety’s body,” he said.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“I’ll need to talk to you at some point.”

“Just let me know when.”

“So, you’ve talked to Michelle.” A hint of a smile played across his face.

“I have.” I glanced over at Maddie again. Surrounded by her friends she didn’t look quite as tired as she had in the courtroom.

“Michelle’s fair, Sarah,” Josh said. “And she’s a good cop. If we come up with anything, she’ll investigate. She wants the truth.”

“That’s good,” I said.

He pushed back the sleeve of his suit jacket and checked his watch. It had a wide black leather strap with a silver dial, and on the black face I saw something familiar.

“Wait a minute. Is that Darkwing Duck?” I asked, leaning in for a closer look.

Josh grinned and held up his arm so I could get a better look. It was the purple-suited cartoon superhero on the face of his watch. Josh had been obsessed with Darkwing Duck when he was a kid. The summer he was nine he’d worn a purple cape everywhere. I guess it said something good about the majority of kids in North Harbor that he didn’t get beaten up once.

“It’s good to see you haven’t changed too much,” I said, grinning back at him.

He tugged his sleeve back down. “Sarah, most people in town remember the dorky little kid I used to be. It would be pretty difficult to get too full of myself.”

“You weren’t a dork,” I said. “You were quirky.”

“Quirky,” he said, nodding slowly. “Okay. I like that.” He glanced over at Maddie and the other women. I hoped they weren’t pumping her for information for their “investigation.”

“If you saw Michelle, then I’m guessing you saw Nick, as well,” Josh said.

I nodded. “I did.” I slid the strap of my purse back up onto my shoulder again.

“Heck of a first week.” Josh shook his head. “A murder investigation for his first case, and then he spent most of last night talking a suicidal teenager off the Memorial Bridge.”

“What?” I said. It didn’t sound like the kind of thing an investigator for the medical examiner’s office would be doing.

“He was going somewhere and he saw this kid who had climbed up on one of the girders of the bridge. He pulled over. She started talking to him and she wouldn’t talk to anyone else.”

That sounded like Nick: always the hero. And it explained why he hadn’t called me back. I wondered if Charlotte knew. I glanced down at my own watch. I really needed to get to the shop. I knew Mac could more than handle things, but I didn’t want to dump everything on him for too long.

Josh needed to spend some time going over the case with Maddie. He offered to drop her off at the shop later.

“Are you sure?” I said.

He nodded, setting his briefcase down to pull on his navy trench coat. “I’d love to see the place. I’m assuming I’ve earned enough brownie points to get a tour.”

“Absolutely,” I said with a smile.

We said good-bye to Maddie and Josh and walked back to the parking lot.

Neither Charlotte nor Rose said much on the way across town. There was a tour bus full of leaf peepers at the shop when we got there, but Mac seemed to have everything pretty much under control, although there was a line at the cash register.

Rose peeled off her coat and handed it and her purse to Liz, bustling over to help out. We’d stopped to pick up Elvis on the way. I set him down and he swiped a paw over his face before making his way over to a group of three women looking at the quilts.

Over by the window a woman had a teacup garden in each hand and was looking around for another set of hands. Charlotte piled her purse on top of Rose’s bag in Liz’s arms and headed across the floor to help.

“You might as well pile your things on, too,” Liz said to me.

“Thank you,” I said, hooking the strap of my purse over her shoulder.

“I suppose you’re going to want tea and coffee,” she said.

“You don’t have to do that.” I brushed a clump of cat hair off my red jacket. “Why don’t you go wait in my office?”

She smiled. “This is a onetime offer, kiddo. Who knows when it will come again?” She started for the stairs, looking a little like a Nepalese packman.

“I love you, Liz,” I called after her.

She waggled her elbow at me as she went up the steps. “Everybody does.”

It was just a bit more than half an hour before the tour bus pulled out of our parking lot. Liz handed me a steaming cup of coffee and gave one to Mac, as well. He came to stand beside me by the front window. I was counting how many of the teacup gardens we’d sold.

“How was court?” he asked.

“Maddie’s out on bail,” I said, folding my fingers around the coffee mug.

“What happens next?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. Maddie’s with her lawyer right now.” I glanced over to where Charlotte, Rose and Liz were sitting around a small round table with a mosaic glass top. Rose was talking, gesturing with her hands, while the other two listened.

Mac followed my gaze. “Problem?” he asked.

I crossed my arms over my midsection, still holding on to my cup. “Umm, maybe,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow and I could see genuine interest in his warm brown eyes.

I sighed. “On the way over to the courthouse they were talking about looking for evidence to prove Maddie is innocent.”

“They’re not serious?”

I nodded. “Oh, I think they’re very serious. That’s what worries me.”

Mac looked over at the three women sitting around the small round table with their teacups. “Realistically, Sarah, how much trouble could the three of them get into?”

“You have no idea,” I said, rolling my eyes. Before I could say anything else the door opened and Nick Elliot stepped into the store.

Charlotte immediately pushed back her chair and stood up. I handed my cup to Mac and walked over to Nick.

“I got your message,” he said. “I thought it would be faster to just stop in. I hope that’s okay.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

Nick was dressed casually in khakis, a blue-striped dress shirt and his navy Windbreaker. The ends of his sandy hair were damp and I wondered if he’d had any sleep.

“You know about Maddie.” It wasn’t a question.

“We do,” I said. “She’s out on bail.”

He nodded. “Good.”

Charlotte stood in front of Nick and put her hands on his shoulders. She was only a few inches shorter than he was. I should have told her what Josh had told me about how Nick had spent his night. I wondered what she was going to say. I had a couple of ideas.

“I’m so proud of you,” she said, beaming at him.

Okay, not that.

“You are?” Nick said. His eyes darted to me and then back to his mother. I didn’t have any answers for him.

I looked over at Liz and Rose. There was a little self-satisfied smile on Liz’s face. I knew who had told Charlotte.

“I heard what you did last night,” Charlotte said. “You saved that girl’s life.”

Nick had that
when did I fall down the rabbit hole?
look on his face. “How did you know?” he asked. He looked at me again and I gave an almost imperceptible headshake.

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. And I’m sorry. I haven’t been supportive about this new job and I should have been.”

Nick put a hand over his mother’s. “It’s okay.” They smiled at each other. I looked over at Liz again. She caught my eye and smiled, too.

Charlotte dropped her hands and Nick cleared his throat. “So, Maddie’s out on bail and she has a lawyer?”

His mother nodded. “And we’re already working on a plan to figure out who really killed Arthur Fenety.” She made a gesture with one hand that seemed to include me.

Nick’s brown eyes narrowed. “Hang on a minute, Mom,” he said. “What do you mean, you’re working on a plan?”