The Cat Sitter's Whiskers

30

The next morning, my radio alarm went off bright and early, like it always does, except this time it felt particularly jarring. It may have been that I’d been up late talking to Ethan, or rather, not talking to Ethan, but lying on my side in the dark and staring at the back of his head while he slept. It might also have been the song that was playing on the radio. It was some sort of heavy metal tune, although tune seems a bit generous since there didn’t seem to be any kind of melody involved—just a cacophony of what sounded like a hundred drum sets, accompanied by a chorus of unintelligible screams and high-pitched wails, all submerged in a cavernous echo chamber of doom. I slapped my hand across the clock’s snooze button to knock some sense into it, and then rolled over to see if Ethan was still asleep.

He wasn’t there.

While I got dressed, I wondered if he hadn’t gone out for an early morning jog, but by the time I backed the Bronco out of the carport there was still no sign of him. I left a note on the kitchen counter, but I was seriously beginning to think he’d gotten up in the middle of the night and gone home. The note just said, Hey, where’d you go?

Rolling down the driveway, I flipped the headlights on and a river of fog appeared before me, rolling across the road and into the dark brush in a slow, billowing wave, and just as I was getting the strongest feeling of déjà vu, there was a fluttering of parakeets in the treetops overhead. I was beginning to realize why Detective McKenzie had asked me to meet her so early in the morning.

She had already arrived when I pulled up in front of Mona’s trailer and switched off my headlights. Her unmarked car was parallel to the crime-scene tape, next to the police cruiser that was still on duty, and she was standing in the road just beyond it. If I hadn’t known better I’d have sworn she was wearing the same clothes she’d had on the last time I saw her: a knee-length skirt the same pencil-eraser-red as her hair, a drab beige blouse with small brown buttons down the front, and a wispy gray scarf tied loosely around her neck. But then I thought, who am I to judge? I’ve practically been wearing the same exact thing for five years straight.

As I made my way along the dewy grass in Mona’s yard, I hoped it was early enough that McKenzie hadn’t had any coffee yet. That way her mind wouldn’t be in full, spinning-out-of-control, manic-hamster-on-a-wheel mode. But as I got closer, I saw she was holding not one, but two large cups of Starbucks coffee.

She smiled and handed me one. “They open at five, which is why I suggested we meet at 5:15.”

“Ha. Thanks, that was smart.” I took it from her and nodded.

“Shall we?”

I took one rut in the road and McKenzie took the other, and we walked through the stand of pines toward Levi’s trailer. The crickets in the brush fell quiet as we approached, only starting up again once we were well past them, and the palest hint of dusky yellow was beginning to break through the trees to the east—almost exactly the way it had looked that morning Levi had been killed. There was a chill in the air, either from the fog or the place, and I was happy to have a hot cup of coffee to wrap my hands around.

As we got to the edge of the weedy yard, McKenzie slowed to a stop. “So, your friend Mona … have you learned anything else from her?”

Right away I knew the deputy outside Levi’s place must have told her he’d seen me at the Duffys’ trailer the day before. I said, “Yeah, about that … I was only visiting. Mona wanted me to help tell her grandmother the truth about her engagement to Levi, and I had a hard time saying no. She was really afraid to do it by herself.”

There was a pause, and then she said, “Dixie, I’m sure you’re aware that talking to anybody involved in this case only makes things more difficult. I really don’t need you to do my job for me.”

I gulped. “Detective McKenzie, that’s not why I was there. Honestly, I told you, Mona came to me on her own. She just showed up at the diner. She’s had a really tough life, and she seems to think I understand her, like I have some kind of special insight or something, and that I’m the only person who can help her.”

She nodded. “Not to worry. I just think it’s important that we all stick to our roles, yes? And anyway, I’m not so sure she’s wrong. Let’s have a look at Levi’s car.”

She turned and walked away, leaving me standing there at the edge of the yard. I wanted to take off one of my Keds and throw it at the back of her head, but luckily I managed to control myself. And anyway … she was right. When Mona had asked for my help, I should probably have said no, but it’s not like I’ve never meddled in a criminal investigation before. Believe me, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve poked my nose in some place it shouldn’t be, I could buy a guinea egg for every single person on the planet.

I joined McKenzie where she was standing behind Levi’s LeSabre, which was still parked at an angle, its front bumper nearly touching the steps to the trailer. We were about the same distance from the car as I’d been that morning outside my driveway.

McKenzie pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and walked over to open the driver’s-side door. Moments later the motor started up and the headlights came on, illuminating the trailer and filling the whole yard around it with a shimmering halo of white mist.

Just then, two glowing clouds of amber red lit up on either side of the rear bumper. McKenzie must have weighted the brake pedal down with something, because the lights stayed on as she walked back over to join me.

I was pressing the rim of my coffee cup to my lips, holding on to it with both hands like a baby bottle. Now I knew for certain why I was here. I remembered McKenzie saying if they could confirm it was Levi outside my driveway that morning it might help confirm the time of death. She must have known we were going to have another foggy morning, and it was those floating fields of red light she was pointing at now.

“This is about how far you were?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“It’s a 1990 Buick LeSabre. We ran a search, and you could almost count on one hand the number of cars like this in a two-hundred-mile radius, which probably wouldn’t mean much otherwise, except for the taillights. They’re quite distinct, as you can see. They’re almost like two long dashes on the back bumper.”

I stared at the blurry red squares floating in the mist, trying my best to compare their shape with my memory of the lights I’d seen that morning, but it was almost impossible.

I shook my head. “It might be the same color and everything, but I can’t say for certain it’s the same shape. I mean, I just remember two blobs of red light … and then it all happened so fast.” I turned to her. “I wish I could tell you if it was Levi outside my driveway or not, but I really can’t.”

Even in the low light and fog, I could tell she wasn’t looking me straight in the eye, but at a point just over my left shoulder. She said, “Oh, we know it wasn’t Levi.”

I felt my breath catch in my throat. “Huh?”

“We know it wasn’t Levi. The coroner’s examination all but confirms it. And anyway his blood alcohol level was so high he’d have had trouble walking, much less driving. By the time you arrived on the scene, Levi had already been dead for quite some time. In fact, we think he died around two a.m. That’s why I wanted you to see his car in a similar light. If there was in fact someone else driving it that morning, there’d be a lot more unanswered questions.”

I said, “But that’s impossible. I mean, he started his paper route—”

She shook her head. “No. He never showed up for work. I talked to the delivery manager at the Herald-Tribune. He couldn’t get ahold of Levi, so he delivered the papers himself. He said it took longer than usual because of course he wasn’t familiar with the route. He said he had to stop and check the delivery list a number of times along the way. More than likely it was Levi’s manager who was parked outside your driveway that morning.”

I think my mouth was hanging wide open the whole time she was talking. I said, “So…”

She said, “So, what I’m saying is that Levi came home the night before, but I’m relatively certain he never left this trailer again.”

I could feel my heart beginning to beat harder in my chest. I said, “Detective, I’m sure you already thought of this, but Mona told me there was a woman with him that night. She said Levi was drunk, and there was a woman with him that she’d never seen before.”

She nodded. “Yes. Although Mona didn’t tell me herself. One of the neighbors saw a woman in a white sports car, a BMW, with local plates.”

My mind was spinning. “Then that’s it, right? You need to find that woman. If she—”

McKenzie smiled wanly. “Thanks, but we already did. It was a rental car leased under the name Cohen. It only took a few phone calls to trace it to her.”

“Who is she?”

“A tourist. She’s renting a condo here for the summer. She met Levi in a bar. They were drinking, and apparently he could be quite charming when he wanted to be. She came home with him, and…”

For the first time, I sensed a crack in McKenzie’s confidence. She always struck me as the type of person who held herself at a distance, keeping her cards close and never letting her guard down, but there was something she wasn’t telling me.

I said, “And…?”

She sighed. “I could certainly understand why a man might single Miss Cohen out in a bar. She’s quite beautiful, and I imagine it happens to her all the time, but … she appears to have been in a fight, and were it not for Levi’s past record, I don’t know if I would have believed her…”

“What do you mean, Levi’s past record?”

“… and her fingerprints are all over the trailer, so there’s no doubt she was here, but…”

“Detective McKenzie, what past record?”

“Dixie, it would appear that Levi may have tried to rape her.”

My jaw dropped open. “No. There’s no way.”

She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know. I mean, I admit I don’t know much about his personal life, but I can tell you without a doubt … I mean, I went to school with him. He’s lived here his whole life…” My voice trailed away. I could tell by the look on McKenzie’s face I was getting nowhere.

She folded her arms across her chest, almost like she was hugging herself. “Assault and battery. Two counts. And six counts of sexual assault, all within the past four years. Dixie, I’m afraid Levi may not have been the person you thought he was.”

I stepped back. “That’s not possible…”

“It’s true. In every case, his accuser dropped the charges, but you know as well as I do a woman could have any number of reasons for changing her mind that have nothing to do with the innocence of her attacker. Miss Cohen told me Levi was extremely drunk, so she managed to fight him off, and she has the scratches and bruises to prove it.”

I just stood there, shaking my head back and forth mutely.

McKenzie said, “They were seen at Hoppie’s Bar the night before. We’ll know more after we see the security video from the parking lot of the condo where she’s staying. She says she was home just after midnight, which, if the coroner’s evaluation is correct, would be hours before Levi was stabbed.”

I cringed.

The amount of blood in Levi’s trailer should have been enough to clue me in, but I think I’d been doing my best not to think about how he had actually died. This whole time, I’d just assumed he’d been shot, which for some stupid reason seemed less … I don’t know … less horrible. The idea that he’d actually been stabbed made me feel a little light-headed, and for a moment I felt like I might faint right there in front of McKenzie. She may have noticed, because she changed the subject immediately.

“Dixie, I asked you here because I wanted you to look at Levi’s car, but it wasn’t the only reason. Frankly, it’s not something I think we could’ve discussed over the phone…”

I just stared at her and nodded.

She cleared her throat. “Normally, this would be way out of line on my part, but I think in this particular case it’s warranted, and you seem to have established a certain … that is, it seems you know how…” She put her hands on her hips and looked down at the ground. “Oh, screw it. You know how to talk to people. And Mona trusts you. I’m afraid she sees me as the enemy, and I’m afraid she’s not telling me everything she knows. In fact, I’m certain of it. I’m wondering if you might be willing to talk to her again.”

I could feel my eyebrows slowly creeping up my forehead. I said, “So … basically, you’re asking me to do your job.”

She tilted her head to one side and the corners of her mouth rose slightly.

“Yes, Dixie. I suppose that’s exactly what I’m asking.”