The Purr-fect Crime

Chapter 9

“You did what?”

Charlotte’s shrill shriek cut through the sound of the TV – I actually looked at the windows, worried they might shatter – and Bee sent a look of pure disdain her way.

“Calm down,” Sophie told her. “It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad? You committed a felony. You guys could go to jail.” Ok, it had definitely been a good idea not to tell Charlotte what we were going to do before we did it.

“Relax, Char. No one’s going to jail. Well, we’re not, anyway. No one even knows we were there. There are like, four houses on that street, and everyone was at work anyway. No one would have seen us, and we had a good excuse to be in that area.”

When Charlotte had gotten home that afternoon she wanted to know if anything had come up with regards to the murder. Sophie had told her about our little excursion out to Tony’s house, and she wasn’t taking it very well.

“I can’t believe you guys. I can’t believe I’m related to you,” she told me, glaring my way.

“What?” I asked. “Besides, Sophie hasn’t even told you the worst part yet.”

“Oh God, it gets worse?” Charlotte asked, and Sophie and I looked at each other. We had to tell her.

“There was someone already in the house when we got there, who had broken in. He ransacked Tony’s study, and ran out of the house when he heard us.”

“YOU WERE IN THE HOUSE WITH A MURDERER?”

Well, damn. To be honest, I’d never actually thought about it that way. Given the way Sophie looked at me, it was obvious she hadn’t either.

“Whatever, Charlotte. It’s fine. We’re fine. Whoever it was ran out without us seeing them.”

Charlotte collapsed onto the couch and put her head in her hands.

“I can’t believe you guys. I mean, it’s one thing to want to try and find clues about who killed Tony Nyman, but you guys were in a house with a murderer. You could have been killed so easily. Oh my God. I live with crazy people. Full on, batty, crazy people.”

“Oh you’re such a baby,” Sophie told her, collapsing onto the couch next to her. Hearing my stomach growling, I headed towards the kitchen to make dinner. I’d grabbed some focaccia on the way home and was about to make a killer flatbread for dinner.

Sophie joined me in the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine.

“I think we’re all going to need this tonight,” she declared as she poured out three generous glasses. I grabbed one with gusto and took a sip, enjoying the smooth taste of white wine as I swallowed.

“Awwww yeah,” I muttered as I continued on with the cooking.

Charlotte came over and grabbed a glass, then sat at one of the stools by the breakfast bar, watching me cook.

“So,” she started, taking a second sip of wine. “What did you guys find out while you were out breaking the law?”

Sophie and I glanced at each other.

“What? What was that look?” Charlotte asked. “Oh no. You guys didn’t find anything, did you?”

I shook my head. “It turns out Tony Nyman is either the most boring man that ever lived, or whoever was in the house took the important stuff with them.”

“Well, when he was running away did you see him holding anything?” Charlotte asked. I tried to think back, then I shook my head, slowly.

“No. No, I don’t think so. I mean, whoever it was was pretty far away, but I think I would have remembered if they were carrying anything.”

Leave it to Charlotte to think about these things completely rationally.

“So I think we can say whoever was in the house didn’t find what they were looking for,” Charlotte continued.

“Yes. I think we can say that.”

Sophie nodded in agreement.

“I agree. I only even less of a glimpse of the person than Angie did, but I agree with her. I don’t think whoever it was had anything in their hands.”

“So that leaves us with one of two options: either whatever the person was looking for wasn’t there, or it didn’t exist at all.”

I threw some chopped onions into heated olive oil in the pan and mixed them around as they sizzled, sending a delicious aroma wafting through the house. I kept my eye on Bee, who was slowly, subtly trying to make her way towards the kitchen; I knew if I gave her the opportunity she was going to try and steal some of our dinner.

“I think whatever someone was looking for, it wasn’t there,” Sophie announced.

“But why?” Charlotte asked.

“I don’t know. Just a gut feeling, I guess. I mean, why else would they go to all that trouble? As you’ve been pointing out religiously, what was done was a felony. Whoever did it could potentially have gone to jail. That means what they were expecting to find must have been important. Otherwise, why risk it at all?”

Charlotte rested her chin in her hand as she thought about Sophie’s words.

“I agree. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to, to rob a place if you didn’t have something specific you were looking for. But then, what could that have been? I mean, we went through the rest of his things, and it didn’t really seem like Tony Nyman had anything out of the ordinary going on in his life.”

“Well maybe that’s the thing, maybe what the person was looking for was the out-of-place thing.”

“But then where would it be?” I asked. Charlotte shrugged.

“Safety deposit box?”

“Maybe. But we’re never going to be able to find out if he had one, let alone get access to it.” Sophie sighed. “This sucks. I thought this would be easier.”

“You always think everything should be easier. I think it’s good for you to have to actually work this mystery through,” Charlotte told her, and Sophie rolled her eyes.

“A minute ago you thought what we did do was the worst thing ever.”

“It was the worst thing ever. But at least it was a thing.”

“Ok, let’s not start this again,” I warned them both. “I think whatever the person was after, it had to do with business or finance or something along those lines.”

“Why do you think that?” Charlotte asked.

“Well, the literal only part of that house that was even touched was the study. And it was completely and totally ransacked. Like, the living room, the kitchen and the bedroom weren’t even touched.”

“Would we have even noticed if it was?” Sophie asked. “The dude lived like a monk, he owned like four pieces of furniture.”

“Well obviously we still would have noticed,” I told Sophie, shooting her a dirty look. “Stop being argumentative just for the hell of it.”

“I’m not!” she argued, and I rolled my eyes.

“I think that’s a good point, though,” Charlotte told me, ignoring the little spat between Sophie and I. “I think you might be onto something Angela.”

“Of course Angie is. She’s Nancy Drew, remember? But what do we do about it?”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do for now,” I replied. After all, one felony a day was enough, wasn’t it? “I think we should wait for the funeral and go to that. After all, that’s totally allowed.”

“I overheard Portia Ross telling Karen that it’s going to be in two days, it’s just going to be a small thing at the church apparently. I guess seeing his bank account statements and the fact that he didn’t have any family or anyone who cared about him, really, it’ll be something really small.”

“Oh, good, two days from now is Sunday, so the vet clinic will be closed anyway and Charlotte doesn’t have class, so we can all go,” I said.

“Good. Today’s adventure was a total fail, maybe someone at the funeral will give us a clue as to where we should be looking next,” Sophie piped up, excited once more that we had a new, definite plan.

One little setback wasn’t going to stop us.