The Cat, The Quilt And The Corpse

Twenty-Nine

I found Chablis hiding under my bed, and it took some serious coaxing to get her to come out. I soothed her for several minutes, and she seemed relieved that I, rather than some crazy woman, came to find her.

I took her into the living room and asked Daphne if she’d sit in John’s chair again and hold Chablis for a while. I thought it would be good for both of them. Daphne was more than happy to comply and so was Chablis. Meanwhile, I called the other cats, and soon they ventured into the living room, checking every nook and cranny for signs of strangers.

I sat on the floor, tickled to congratulate my heroes. Merlot immediately plopped down beside me and turned over for a tummy rub, while Syrah found a comfy spot in the center of my crossed legs.

“Do you really think Marian Mae has Sophie?” Daphne asked.

Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. Merlot and Syrah took off, ready to lie in wait for another takedown, perhaps. Chablis was happy right where she was.

“Who could this be?” I rose. “The local reporter? Is there even a local reporter in Mercy?”

Daphne laughed. “You’re asking the wrong person.”

As I went to answer, relief washed over me when I saw how calm Daphne seemed. Chablis was a hero, too.

I opened the door to find Tom holding two steaming cups of coffee from Belle’s Beans.

“Thought you could use a fix. What in heck’s been going on, anyway?” he said.

“As if you haven’t heard,” I said. “This is Mercy, after all. But Daphne’s here, so you didn’t bring enough java.”

Daphne ended up with Tom’s latte while he warmed up what was left in the bottom of my pot for himself. When I protested that I could drink the old stuff, he said, “Not if what I heard is true. You need the fresh stuff.”

As Daphne and I related all that had gone on, he kept shaking his head in disbelief, occasionally interjecting, “Unbelievable.”

“The chief is waiting on his warrant, but I have the feeling that will be all she wrote for Marian Mae,” I said. “I’m betting Baca wants to take a very close look at Marian Mae’s cat. Maybe her computer, too.”

“Ah,” he said. “She’s the one who took down the Match-a-Cat site.”

I blinked. “I never thought about that. But yes. She was probably in business with him.”

“That’s why she took the computer from the crime scene and tried to destroy it,” Tom said. “She knew there were links back to her. Her home computer will probably finish off any hope she has of denying a relationship between her and Daphne’s father.”

I said, “Though why a woman who the chief seemed to be taking care of would sign on with him is baffling.”

“Remember? I had to sic a bill collector on her to get paid for her security system,” he said. “She could have plenty of debt Mike didn’t know about.”

“Must have been in major debt to do what she did,” I said.

“So she actually needed money,” Daphne said, “and my father was her go-to guy? She must have been desperate.”

“Still,” I said, “why would he take out a life insurance policy with her as beneficiary—? They couldn’t possibly have been involved romantically, could they?”

“Marian Mae is by no means stupid,” Tom said. “He was a frail-looking guy, and if they went into business together she might have insisted on life insurance. You mentioned that the insurance company wasn’t exactly cooperating. I’ll bet we’ll soon discover that Marian was the original beneficiary.”

“And she killed him in a rage when Mr. Wilkerson told her he’d made that switch,” I said, half to myself. I didn’t say aloud my other thought—that this might have had nothing to do with Sophie. Daphne would be so disappointed if the gray cat called Diamond really was Diamond.

Tom said, “If Marian Mae’s as smart as I think she is, she’ll make a deal with the prosecutors. It didn’t look like a premeditated crime to me, and it probably wasn’t.”

I looked at Daphne and said, “Tom used to be a cop,” like I was his proud mother or something. I wondered if I sounded plain silly to him.

“You think she has Sophie?” Daphne asked. “Because I’m too afraid to hope.”

Yup. Here it was. And I felt a little sick to my stomach.

“We’ll know once the warrant is completed,” Tom said. “Bet they turn over whatever cat they find to Shawn.”

But a call from Candace an hour later surprised us. She asked us to meet her outside Marian Mae’s house, so we all piled in Tom’s Prius and hurried over there.

We had to park on the next block, and we saw why when we walked up to the crime scene tape tied to several trees. The search warrant was being executed, and gloved police people were removing items from the house. I saw a laptop in one officer’s hands. And Mike Baca standing well away from the house, hands clasped behind his back, head hung.

And then I saw why. Lydia emerged from the house, her hands gloved, her hair piled high. She wore purple today, but the satisfied smile on her face was more prominent than anything else. She was in charge again and loving it.

Candace came down the walkway and approached me from the other side of the tape. “This is pretty awesome, huh?”

“Very,” Daphne said. “That woman was crazy.”

I had to smile at that one.

“One thing I didn’t get to tell you back at your house was that I’d gathered a little more evidence,” Candace said. “We might not need it now, though.”

“But tell me first how you answered the 911 so fast?” I said.

“Um, you’ve driven with me, right?” She grinned.

“Oh yeah. Guess I do appreciate your timing.” I pulled my oversize cardigan tighter around me, thinking that didn’t mean I wanted another ride with her in the near future.

“Is my cat in there?” Daphne was wearing my jacket, which hung on her thin frame. She was looking past Candace toward the house.

“Let me explain about this evidence,” Candace said excitedly. “I noticed the chief had gray cat hairs on his coat yesterday—not the suit jacket he was wearing the day he came to the crime scene, either. So when he left for a bathroom break, I took some Scotch tape and grabbed a sample off the coat he’d left on the back of his chair.”

“What does that have to do with Sophie?” Daphne said.

“Here’s the deal,” Candace said. “I took many cat hair samples from your father’s house, but I also took some from his clothing—what he was wearing when he died. That gray hair on his pants legs didn’t appear to match anything in the house—and believe me, I examined a ton of cat hair under the microscope. See, cat hairs are pretty distinctive, and—”

“Please. What about Sophie?” Daphne said.

“The cat hair on the victim’s pants appears very similar to the cat hair I pulled off the chief’s coat,” Candace said with a smile.

“I’m confused,” I said. “What does that mean?”

“I think I follow,” Tom said. “You took a sample from the gray cat that I assume you just found in that house. You think it matches those other two samples?”

Candace leaned back, pointing at him. “You got it. We know the chief has been inside Marian Mae’s house before, but now we know either Wilkerson was at Marian Mae’s house the morning he died or she transferred her cat’s hair onto him when she killed him. My guess is the latter. It’s proof. Animal hair has been used over and over in court and—”

“Is my cat in that house?” Daphne said tersely. She had the silver cigarette case in her hands, and from the look on her drawn face, she’d had about all she could take of Candace’s enthusiastic explanation.

“There is a cat in there. Lydia says that since we’ve taken the hair samples, there’s no need to keep her. We can turn her over to Shawn if she’s not yours—but there is a little surprise. Wait right here.” Candace took off running back toward the house.

Like she was worried we’d leave if she didn’t hurry? Candace was something else.

But Daphne wasn’t amused. She didn’t take out a cigarette, but she kept turning the case over and over as we stood there.

A minute later Candace came out carrying a cardboard box with my missing sixth quilt covering it.

“Oh no,” Daphne said, as Candace approached. “Is she hurt or something?”

Candace ducked under the crime scene tape and set the box on the grass in front of us. “Check this out,” she said, lifting the quilt.

Daphne’s hands flew to cover her mouth and she knelt in front of the box. “Sophie. Oh my God, Sophie.”

I went on my knees beside her, my smile so big it hurt.

Daphne only had eyes for her kidnapped cat and was gently petting her head.But I was melting at the sight of four beautiful silver kittens suckling at their mama’s teats.