A Case Of Cat And Mouse

chapter 18

I couldn’t get the video that Eugenie had shown me out of my mind. I kept seeing the look of fury in Caroline’s eyes as she dumped the contents of the bowl over Kassie’s head. I saw the cloud of flour and cocoa hanging in the air. I could hear Ray gasp and the sound of the jar Kate dropped shattering as it hit the floor. It kept playing on a loop over and over in my head.

I drove home and for once Owen was not sitting on a chair in the kitchen. I went upstairs and changed into comfy yoga pants and a T-shirt for tai chi. When I came back downstairs I found him in the living room peering under the sofa.

“What are you doing?” I said.

Owen jumped at the sound of my voice, smacked his head on the front edge of the couch and yowled.

I went over and kneeled down beside him. “Let me see,” I said gently. I didn’t think he was hurt. He hadn’t hit his head very hard.

He shook his head vigorously.

“Let me see,” I repeated, putting one hand on his back.

I felt all over the top of his head, gently probing with my fingers. Owen didn’t even wince and it didn’t seem like there was any kind of injury under his fur. “You’re okay,” I said, smoothing his fur. He muttered and gave the sofa the stink eye.

I reached over and felt along the edge of the piece of furniture, just to be sure there were no staples or nails that he could have gotten cut with, but there was nothing but smooth fabric. But it did look like there was something under the couch.

I put an arm around Owen and leaned sideways so I could look underneath. He immediately shifted so my view was blocked. “I’m trying to see what’s under there,” I said.

He meowed loudly and tried to look injured and pathetic. “You’re fine,” I said. I gave him a little scratch under his chin. Then I shifted sideways again, and again Owen managed to block my view.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” I said. I was getting exasperated. I turned around, picked up the cat, set him down behind me and crouched close to the floor for a better look under the couch. Two paws stepped on the side of my head.

I squinted up at him. “What is wrong with you?” I snapped in frustration. Before the cat could get any more in my way I swept my arm under the piece of furniture in a wide arc, bringing several items out from underneath.

Owen had climbed off my head. I sat up and looked at my spoils. There was a thumb drive, a small pencil, half a package of gum, a lighter and an orange key chain with a tiny retractable knife shaped like a key. The thumb drive was the one Marcus had been looking for. I had seen the lighter in his SUV. He’d used the key-chain knife a couple of times to open bags of cat food out at Wisteria Hill. He’d asked me about the gum and while he hadn’t said anything about a missing pencil I was willing to bet that was his, too.

Owen had forgotten all about his head. He was suddenly engrossed in the area rug in front of the couch.

“Where did all this come from?” I said.

He pretended he hadn’t heard me. I stuck my head in front of him and put my face close to his. “All of these things? How did they get under the sofa?”

“Mrrr,” he said. He gave me his best innocent face, but just like a person he couldn’t quite look me in the eye.

I moved so I was in his range of vision again. “Owen, did you steal Marcus’s things?”

He gave me a sulky look.

I shook a finger at him. “We don’t take things that don’t belong to us.”

He muttered under his breath. “And we especially don’t take things that could start fires.” I wondered how the cat had managed to get in and out of Marcus’s SUV on two different occasions to snag the gum and the lighter. At least now Marcus knew about Owen’s ability to disappear. I wasn’t sure how I could have explained what happened otherwise.

I picked up the thumb drive and the key chain. There were teeth marks on the package of gum. I didn’t think Marcus would want that back. As I reached for it Owen stretched out a paw and pulled the pencil toward him.

I snatched it away from him. “You’re walking on thin ice, mister,” I said sternly.

He looked down at his feet, puzzled, and then his golden eyes came back to mine.

“It’s a figure of speech,” I said. I jammed the pencil and everything else into my pants pocket.

I got to my feet and rubbed my forehead with the heel of my hand. Could cats have kleptomania? Did Owen need a kitty therapist? Or maybe I needed one for even asking the question.

I was setting the table when my phone chirped. It was a text from Ruby asking if I could bring Hercules to class. She had an idea for the concept for another calendar. She wanted to pair Owen and Hercules with different artists from the co-op.

Need to see Hercules with one of Maggie’s pieces

The idea was a good one, and even better, I was happy to have Ruby focusing on something other than Kassie’s murder. I texted back a yes.

I made a big bowl of spaghetti for supper with extra cheese because it had been that kind of day. Owen moped around by my feet. I’d eaten about half of my pasta when my cell rang. I picked it up. I didn’t recognize the number on the screen, and I was about to set the phone down when I realized the area code was the one for Duluth. Dorrie Park went to school in Duluth.

“Hello,” I said.

“Is this Kathleen Paulson?” the voice on the other end asked, no pleasantries, no preamble.

“It is.”

“I’m Dorrie Park. You left me a message about the baking contest.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, I did.”

“So you’re what? Doing a little more digging into the people who are left on the show so no big secrets come out about the winner?”

“Something like that,” I said, shifting sideways in my chair and pulling one leg up underneath me.

“I shoulda guessed this would happen. What’d you want to know?”

I decided not to beat around the bush. “You dropped out right before the semifinals. But you were good enough to make it into the top three. Why did you leave?”

“I had a family emergency.”

“You dropped out of the contest for family reasons and less than a week later you were in Paris.”

“So?” she said.

I wished we were having this conversation face-to-face. It was impossible to read Dorrie Park from just her voice. “So you were a student working two jobs and suddenly you’re posting photos of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower.”

There was silence for a long moment. “Look, I don’t think I did anything wrong, but I don’t want to get in trouble.”

I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand. “You’re not going to get in trouble. I just want to know whether or not someone offered you money to drop out.”

Dorrie made a sound that was halfway between a groan and a sigh. “Fine. Yeah. I needed the money and I didn’t really care about taking the cooking course that’s part of the prize. So I said yes. That’s not really wrong, is it? I mean, it’s not against the law or anything?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “How much money are we talking about?”

She hesitated once again. “Twenty thousand dollars.”

“Twenty thousand dollars?” I repeated. How had Ray gotten his hands on that much money?

“Yeah,” Dorrie said. “And she gave it to me in cash so the IRS wouldn’t find out.”

A loud thumping sound filled my ears—the sound of my own heartbeat. “She?”

“She. Kate. Kate Westin. That’s who we’re talking about, right?”

“Umm, right.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“So do you wanna know anything else?” Dorrie asked.

“No,” I said. I was trying to make sense of what I’d just found out.

“And just so we’re clear, I’m not going to get in any trouble for this?”

“Not from me.” That seemed to be enough for her.

“Okay, well, I gotta go.”

“Thank you,” I said, but Dorrie had ended the call and I wasn’t sure she’d heard me.

I set the phone down on the table. It seemed I was wrong about Ray. Or at least about him being the one who had gotten rid of Dorrie Park.

My spaghetti was cold now and my appetite was gone anyway. I pushed the bowl away. I thought about Kate telling me how her modeling career had ended. I remembered the bitterness in her voice and the pain in her eyes. Was that why she’d gotten rid of Dorrie? Did she see winning the Baking Showdown as her only chance at a new career?

Owen was still moping around by my feet.

I reached down and stroked the top of his head. “You’re not hurt,” I told him. “You don’t need stitches. You don’t have a concussion. But if you really feel that bad I could arrange an emergency visit . . .”

I didn’t finish the sentence and Owen gave me a quizzical look.

A visit to the emergency room. That’s what had started the confrontation that had ended with Caroline upending that bowl on Kassie’s head. I closed my eyes and tried to picture the video one more time. I tried to focus on every detail, every facial expression, every word, every sound.

And finally I knew who had killed Kassie Tremayne. It made sense. It fit the timeline. It fit the circumstances.

A wave of nausea rolled from my stomach to the back of my throat. I put a hand on my abdomen and took slow, deep breaths until it passed. Then I picked up my phone and called Marcus. All I got was his voice mail. I remembered that he had court tomorrow. He was probably meeting with the prosecuting attorney. “Call me, please, as soon as you can,” I told his phone. “I know who killed Kassie.” It wasn’t until I set my phone on the table that I realized I hadn’t told him who the killer was.

I washed my dishes, stopping several times to make sure the ringer on my phone was working. Where is Marcus?

I hunted all over the house for Hercules. I finally found him sitting on one of my Adirondack chairs in the backyard. “Want to go see Ruby again?” I asked.

He’d been staring off into the distance but his furry head swiveled in my direction the moment I said Ruby’s name.

I gestured with one hand. “C’mon then.”

He jumped down and made his way over to the steps.

“I just have to grab my bag and my keys,” I said.

He put one paw on the bottom step. I half expected him to start tapping it impatiently.

I was glad to have the distraction of taking Hercules to class with me, but I couldn’t help thinking about Kassie’s murder. I couldn’t see how I could be wrong. There was just one question I didn’t have the answer to. I wasn’t even sure it mattered, but . . .

I looked at my watch. I had a few minutes. I turned toward the community center.

There was a parking spot close to the back door. Even more important, Russell’s rental car was there. “I won’t be very long and then we’ll go see Ruby and Maggie,” I said to Hercules. “Stay here.”

I should have known he’d ignore me. He jumped up onto the dashboard and nonchalantly walked through the windshield. I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed but there was no one around.

I didn’t have time to argue. I picked him up and started for the back door.

Harry was at the desk. “Hi, Kathleen,” he said. He looked at the cat. “Hello, Hercules.”

The cat murped a hello back.

“Is Russell still here?” I asked. “I saw his car outside.”

Harry nodded. “He’s here. He brought down a piece of strawberry tart about half an hour ago. Stacey’s with him. Everyone else is gone.”

I thanked him, signed the log and headed up the stairs. This conversation would be easier to have face-to-face.

I found Russell and Stacey in Eugenie’s office, just getting ready to leave. He was winding a scarf around her neck and I thought they looked as though they had genuine feelings for each other.

Russell smiled when he saw me. “And you brought Hercules,” he said.

Stacey smiled at the cat. “Hello, Hercules,” she said. She looked at me. “It’s okay, Russell told me I can’t pet him.”

“What are you doing here?” Russell asked. “Everyone’s gone.”

“There’s something I wanted to ask Stacey.”

“What is it?” She looked a little uncertain.

“Did you give Kate one of your pills the day Kassie was killed? I know what happened on the set when you were all filming the promos. I know Caroline dumped a bowl of flour on Kassie and Kate broke a jar.”

Her pink cheeks and guilty expression told me yes before she spoke.

“She was so upset she was shaking and she couldn’t seem to stand still. I . . . I didn’t know what else to do. I gave her two.”

I reached out and touched her arm. “Hey, you were just trying to help. It’s okay.”

“Is that it?” Russell asked.

“It is,” I said.

“Let’s go, then.” He flipped the light switch, closed the door and we started down the hallway.

“Kathleen, we’re going over to Fern’s,” Stacey said. “Would you like to join us?”

“Merow,” Hercules said. It seemed he’d forgotten we were meeting Ruby.

“Yes, we know you would,” I said, scratching behind his left ear. I smiled at Stacey. “Thank you, but we’re going to tai chi.”

“I didn’t know cats did tai chi,” Russell said.

“Are you kidding?” I said with mock surprise. “You should see his Cloud Hands.”

My phone rang then. Marcus, finally. “Go ahead,” I said. “I need to get this.” They headed for the stairs.

But it wasn’t Marcus. It was Abigail. “I’m sorry to bother you, Kathleen,” she said, “but I’m having trouble with that monitor again, the one closest to the front desk.”

“Have a good night,” Russell called from the end of the hall.

I waved and he and Stacey were gone. “Whack it with the heel of your hand on the right side right in the middle of the top edge,” I said to Abigail.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Just try it.”

I heard a thump and then Abigail exclaimed, “It worked!” She sounded surprised.

“Well, one of these days it won’t,” I said. “And it probably won’t last. I have another cable I can try. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Abigail thanked me and said good-bye.

“I’m going to take you over to Maggie and Ruby and then just run over to the library for a minute,” I said to Hercules.

He wasn’t listening. Something behind me had caught his attention. The hairs rose on the back of my neck as I turned around.

Kate was pointing a gun at me.