Fat Cat Takes The Cake

SIX

Julie and Chase spent another few minutes going over the happenings at the reunion together. They decided they couldn’t be completely sure it was Ron’s, since so many others were gone when Julie found it. But Chase thought it was very much like the notebook he had whipped out in the Bar None days ago, hoping to interview her. She couldn’t be positive, though. It was nondescript, a small spiral-bound booklet with a black cover.

“Well, we’d better look inside,” Julie said, turning it over and over with her fingertips, like she was reluctant to touch it too much.

“That’s not illegal or anything?”

“How else can we find out who it belongs to?”

Many of the pages were filled with small, barely legible writing. They were, as far as she could tell, notes for stories Ron had been working on. Words that they could read stood out. Amid several references to “school board” were the words “real estate.” Chase found her name with a reminder to the author to get “pix of Bar None” developed. “This has to be Ron’s. This is what he was working on.”

Julie flipped through to the end and was confronted by gibberish.

“Here,” Chase said, turning the book upside down. “He’s started some notes from the back. He’s using the front part for notes on his stories.”

“Ah. Writing from front to back and also from back to front. But what is this?”

Three words were written at the top of the page, one to a line: PRINCE, PHOTO, and BIRD. The first two words were repeated below on many lines, and were accompanied by dates with numbers after them. This went on for two and half pages. The word BIRD wasn’t repeated.

“Is it a code?” Chase asked.

“He was a reporter. Does it have something to do with articles and photographs?”

Chase drummed her fingers on the table. “Dates and numbers. Are those three horses he bet on?”

“He never bet on the BIRD horse, if they are.” Julie thumbed on from the back until she came to some more pages with writing. “Here are some more notations.”

These entries were even more cryptic. Each line had an initial followed by a date.

“Why are these in pink ink?” Chase wondered. “The other stuff before this is all in blue.”

“Boys and girls?”

Chase took a good look at the dates. They went back several years. Most of the earlier initials were J, with D and M occurring both there and more recently. After those first entries, a few more were listed: L, K, and Q. Beside the bottom M was the date Ron North had been in her dessert bar shop. She put her finger on that line.

“Here. Look at this. Ron and Monique were both in my shop this day. She was uncomfortable being around him, too.”

The last entry held both an M and a J and the date of the reunion. The J was in light pencil rather than pink ink.

“He wrote down the dates he saw Monique? That’s weird.”

Chase put her finger on the J. “That’s you, Julie. This is his stalking log.”

Julie shivered. “A ghost just walked up my spinal column. I wonder if you’re right.”

“And Monique. He bothered her that night, too.”

They spent nearly an hour poring over the notebook, but made no headway with the blue entries, except to assume they referred to men and not women.

Julie jumped up. “I gotta go. I need to figure out some things on a case this afternoon. Plus, I have to work tomorrow, unlike some people I know. Unless I get questioned one more time. Detective Olson said they might want to talk to me again.” Her voice tightened on that last sentence.

Chase didn’t like the sound of that either. She gave her friend a long hug.

Julie paused before she walked out the door. “Wait a sec.” She closed her eyes. “I saw our principal hand something to Ron when they were standing together.”

“Did you see what it was?”

“No, but Mr. Snelson wasn’t happy about it.”

“So, if he’s one of these people in blue, did the handoff have something to do with the amounts?”

“Payment for something, maybe. Drugs?”

“Mr. Snelson, our principal? I guess it’s possible. This could be a blackmail scheme.” suggested Chase.

They looked at each other and shrugged.

“Why don’t you make me a copy of that?” Julie said. “I’d like to go over it some more.”

They both traipsed downstairs to use the copy machine.

After Julie left, Chase—disappointed that Anna was gone—did some dusting and some laundry, and worried some more about Julie. She eventually fell asleep on her couch, staring at the last few pages of the notebook. She knew they would have to give it to the police. Julie was in enough trouble without withholding evidence. She would make another copy of the notebook for herself first thing in the morning in the office downstairs.

• • •

The shop was closed on Tuesdays, but Chase took the notebook downstairs to make her own copy as soon as she was dressed. Quincy had the run of the shop, something he enjoyed whenever he got a chance.

Chase heard a commotion at the back door and ran to find Anna carrying in a heavy-looking grocery bag.

“More baking today?” Chase asked, taking the burden from her. “We’re going to have tons of your new creation to sell on Wednesday.”

“No, we’re not,” Anna said, handing the heavy bag to Chase and returning to her blue Volvo to fetch a couple more off the rear seat. She was on her way back before Chase could follow her out to help. “I’m only doing parts of the recipe. I’m not finishing anything.”

“That’s too bad.” Chase had been looking forward to helping sample them. “Do you have any more bags?”

“This is it.”

Chase shivered in the doorway waiting for Anna to return.

“I have to get good enough so that every step goes as smoothly as possible. Part of my score will depend on how quickly I work. During the competition, I’d like to be flawless. Or as near as a human can get.”

Chase pecked Anna on the cheek as she returned to the warm kitchen. “You already are nearly perfect, dear Anna.”

“Oh, go on.” Anna smiled as she started extracting baking supplies from the bags and strewing them onto the granite counter.

“Wait. Before you get started, I’d like to show you something. Did Julie tell you about what she found at the reunion?”

“I guess not.” Anna shook her head in puzzlement.

Chase ran into the office to get the notebook.

The cat, left in the office alone, set out to declutter the desktop. An offensive object sat on the corner. It was small and black. The cat batted it to the floor. That didn’t seem to satisfy him, though. A loose sheet had fallen out. He shoved the extra piece until it was out of sight underneath the desk. He had nearly gotten the notebook there, too, when his mistress came into the office.

“Now where is that thing?” Chase’s eyes searched her desk, then her toe kicked the notebook. “Oh, I’ll bet you cleaned off the desk, didn’t you?” She gave Quincy a head rub and took the notebook into the kitchen to show Anna.

“What do you make of this?” she asked.

Anna leafed through it, puzzling over the arcane notations. “Do you have any idea what these pertain to? Are PRINCE and PHOTO and BIRD the names of . . . animals, people?”

“I haven’t figured it out. They’re things, right? One is a person, one is an object, and one is an animal.”

Anna handed her the notebook. “You got me.” She frowned and shrugged, then started setting out ingredients for her Batter Battle creation.

“We think we might know what some of the things in pink mean.” She explained what Julie and she had figured out about the stalking dates and initials.

“Charity, I have to keep practicing until I don’t make any mistakes. I’m not nearly there yet and I don’t have time for games.”

At Chase’s shocked expression, Anna softened. “I’m sorry. I know a man is dead and this isn’t a game to you. But if you don’t know what anything means, those writings are useless. I’m sure the police can figure it out. Don’t they have experts to do that kind of thing? You say Julie found it. Why do you have it now?”

“I ended up with it. Wouldn’t it look better for me to turn it in than Julie? I don’t want them to suspect her any more than they already do.”

“I’m sure they’ll get to the truth, find out who did what, and won’t blame Julie for anything.”

Although Chase didn’t hold out much hope for that—after all, Niles Olson wasn’t familiar with any of these people—she hoped Anna was right. The next thing she had to do, after she copied the pages, was to give the notebook to Detective Olson.