A Paw-sible Theory

“Please would you tell me,” said Alice, a little timidly...“why your cat grins like that.”

––Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Important Appointment

Chaos greeted my entrance. The name of the store was Ramsey’s Collectibles––what I saw when I slid through the partially-open back door was junk. The shelves along the walls of the narrow room were overflowing with assorted items that had nothing to do with each other. There were several tables and other pieces of furniture in the middle of the room piled with bulging boxes. Up against one wall, was a small, glass display case filled with small figurines, which I assumed were the collectibles the store name implied.

Hunter entered from the front entrance and scanned the room for signs of life, positioning himself by a display case, which also served as a counter. He asked a clerk to see Dan Ramsey and the un-kept, surly teenager slouching in a chair behind the display case pointed to the ring for service bell at the end of the display case. Hunter hit it twice, and Dan Ramsey crawled out from behind a wall in the rear of the store, to my right. Another scruffy-looking youth, older than the one behind the counter, followed him out.

Ramsey was about sixty-years old, heavyset with a full head of white hair, and dark, button eyes. He was dressed in jeans, a loud flowered-shirt, and flip-flops on his feet.

“You must be the lawyer who wanted to see me. I don’t get too many people in here dressed in a suit. It makes it too hard to dig through the junk,” he chuckled, as he slid behind the counter.

“I appreciate you seeing me so soon, Mr. Ramsey.”

“Yeah, well, I figured that someone told you that Alyx Hille and I have our differences––and I don’t deny that––but she and that partner of hers have all these hoity-toity ideas about our downtown and they’ve managed to talk other owners into making unnecessary changes. They’ve tried to change the essence of Ocean Street, the flavor of the place, and I won’t stand for it if I can help it!”

“Do you feel strongly enough about stopping her to want to kill her, maybe?”

The hands in his pockets came out and slammed on the counter. “I agreed to see you, buddy, because I couldn’t wait to tell you that on the day in question, I was out of town at a flea market. At least a dozen regular dealers can testify that they saw me there from six in the morning to late afternoon.” His eyes narrowed. “And just for the record, I don’t know anything about what happened to Ms. Hille––and I can’t say I care!” He turned abruptly and went back to the hole behind the wall.

Although, I was truly exhausted, not to mention hungry, I couldn’t go home yet.