Leann Sweeney - The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse

“I wouldn’t have known if I didn’t have a partner who loves to run his mouth—especially after he’s decided the boss might have this case all wrong. Morris told me some stuff that’s pretty interesting,” she said.

“So share.” I took another bite of a chicken leg.

“Get this. Flake Wilkerson had an account with a flight shipping company. He was sending cats everywhere. It costs a lot to ship an animal across the country in this age of unstable fuel prices. Guess that’s one reason he was charging an old man on a fixed income twenty-five hundred dollars for a cat. Maybe that’s what he charged all his customers, and selling to locals like Mr. Green helped him make an even bigger profit.”

“That’s how he made his money? Stealing cats and selling them?” I said.

“After what you’ve learned, it makes sense,” she said. “Another thing I overheard directly about Wilkerson is that he didn’t have a landline. So how was he doing business?”

“Good point,” I said.

“I was hoping Chief Baca’s realizations would make him pay attention not only to the lack of a phone—not even a cell phone was found in the house—but I’ve collected cat hair samples I know could be useful. And if he would have listened to me from the beginning—”

“But he didn’t. You’re right about the phone, though. Mr. Wilkerson would need one, right?”

“Exactly,” she said. “Or else he did everything over the Internet.”

I wiped my hands on the paper towels I’d brought to the counter, and Candace did the same. “Maybe like the computer, the killer knew the cell phone could be incriminating. We should ask Ed about any new additions to his mobile phone collection—because I’m sure he has one.”

Candace smiled. “Since Ed is the one who found the computer, my guess is the chief already asked about phones. He may be difficult, but he’s not stupid.”

“ We didn’t ask Ed. Does that make us dumb?” I said.

Candace’s face fell. “Darn. Guess it does.”

Leaving her to recover from the shattering realization that we’d missed an opportunity, I put the empty chicken boxes in the garbage can outside so the cats wouldn’t be tempted to raid the kitchen trash. I heard thunder rumble in the distance. Another weather change was on the way.

Candace had settled on the sofa with a big glass of water, her police utility belt lying on my coffee table. She wore her gun in a shoulder holster and had removed that, too.

“I am stuffed and feeling like an idiot,” she said.

I didn’t like looking at a gun in my living room, so I averted my eyes from her weapon. Weapons like hers were meant to take people down. I appreciated the fact that we had folks like Candace to protect us, but that gun was plain scary.

Candace stretched out and crossed her legs at the ankles. “Know what else Morris told me?”

“Seems you have a whole lot more to tell me than I had to tell you,” I said.

Her eyes glittered with excitement.

“Get this. Apparently that county computer expert Baca was counting on to help with the damaged hard drive is not available and won’t be for at least a month. That’s where the secrets are—in that computer—and Baca’s gonna need serious, expert help.”

“Does that mean he’ll have to wait until the computer person can work on it?” I asked.

“Maybe not. Remember what Karen said about Tom’s abilities with computers? Well, I planted that seed with Morris. If I know my partner, he’ll be in Baca’s office tomorrow ready to persuade him to hire a consultant—Tom Stewart.”

“Morris would do that?” I said.

“Any way he can play the hero is fine by him,” she said.

“But won’t Morris mention that you were the one who told him about Tom?” I said.

“Are you kidding? Morris isn’t about to give credit to anyone but Morris.” Candace intertwined her hands behind her neck. “Nope. I believe I have this all set up. Then you can grill Tom for information about that hard drive.”

I’d been leaning back on the sofa myself, but that remark sat me straight up. “Grill him? What does that mean?”

“He likes you. That’s as plain as day,” she said. “I saw the way he looked at you when he found your cat. He was proud as punch and happy he could help you.”

“Oh. So I should use him?” I was not liking this idea.

“I used Morris. Now it’s your turn,” she said.

“But Tom won’t be permitted to talk about anything he gets off that hard drive, will he?”

“Haven’t you been paying attention?” she said. “That’s not how things work in Mercy.”

“But I don’t know Tom well enough to—”

“You could get to know him better,” she said with a smile. “He treats me like I’m his little sister, but you? You could get plenty out of him.”

“I wouldn’t feel right about that, Candace.”

“But if Tom helps the department with the computer, then Baca might be able to solve the case. And won’t you be curious to find out what Tom might learn?”

“Yes, but—”

“This reluctance is coming from the woman who went to Taylorville today to question a man about a cat? Can you forget about everything you’ve done trying to solve this thing just because you feel uncomfortable?” She shook her head. “Nope. You’re too much like me. You can’t leave this alone for a minute.”

Of course she was right.

Candace left about an hour later, and I closed myself in the sewing room with the bags of shredded paper. I didn’t want to think about being sneaky with Tom, and what better distraction than a paper quilt? It might be a dead end, but I was intrigued.

Playing with paper, however, would be way too much fun for my cats. Any shreds I moved would become an instant toy, and soon the three of them would destroy any hope I had of piecing together even one flyer or poster. They had to stay outside the room for now—and they didn’t like it one bit. Paws appeared underneath the door the minute I shut the cats out, and then Merlot started meowing loud enough for the people across the lake to hear.

Trying to ignore them, I focused on the felt design wall that I used to arrange blocks or quilt pieces. Fabric will stick to the felt all by itself, but paper would have to be pinned. Embroidery pins would do the job.

First, though, I had to find strips of paper that went together. As a longtime quilter, I have an eye for what goes with what. I sat on the floor, a pile of shreds in front of me, and something interesting popped out immediately. The rich blacks and whites of what was obviously a flyer. A flyer I’d seen with my own eyes on Chase Cook’s computer.

I started searching for all the matching pieces I could find, my hands shaking with excitement. I didn’t find more than a third of the picture, but this was Roscoe, all right. My first discovery was that I could recognize some of these shreds as bills and some as computer-generated flyers like my own. I decided to lay one of my own lost Syrah flyers next to me as a guide. If I did put one of those back together, it would confirm that Wilkerson had gotten his hands on one or more and didn’t want any Good Samaritan interfering with the plans he had for Syrah, that being to deliver him to poor, unsuspecting Mr. Green.

After this find, I started placing other strips that seemed to go together in separate piles, a project that proved time-consuming but not all that difficult. There were plenty of colorful shreds and I actually enjoyed myself. Even though it was getting very late, I was determined to put at least one piece of paper back together.

Four hours later, fatigue finally got the better of me. But I had re-created parts of two different cats by pinning pieces on the design wall. I had half a face of one long-haired gray cat with aqua eyes as well as a chest and legs that surely belonged to a Siamese. I knew immediately that this was not the Siamese found at the Pink House and currently in Candace’s care, though. The markings and colors were wrong.