Софи Келли - Final Catcall

Hope’s gaze darted momentarily to Marcus. “Do you know where your sister is?” she asked.

His hands were stuffed in his pockets. “I’m not sure. Probably at the theater.”

Hope set her coffee mug on the roof of Marcus’s car. “Show me what you found,” she said to me. She glanced at Marcus. “Probably better if you wait here.”

He nodded. “All right.”

I led her around to the back door. She was wearing black ankle boots a lot like the pair I owned. Their chunky heels put her height closer to mine.

Hercules was sitting by the porch door.

“Nice cat,” Hope said.

“This is Hercules,” I said. “Owen is . . . somewhere.”

I took Hope into the kitchen. She pulled on a pair of gloves before she picked up the sheet of paper.

“You’re sure this is Hugh Davis’s handwriting?” she asked.

I nodded and pointed at the pile of notes. “Those are all his notes. It’s the same writing.”

She gave me a long, appraising look. “Kathleen, rumor has it that you and Detective Gordon are . . . involved.”

She was clearly out of the loop.

“Not anymore,” I said.

She searched my face and I wondered what she was looking for. “I don’t know how things are between the two of you—” She held up a hand. “None of my business—but I can see you care about him, so are you absolutely sure that clipping was attached to those notes?”

I swallowed and pulled a hand across the back of my neck. “Yes,” I said.

She took out her cell phone, glanced at the screen and put it back in her jacket pocket. “I’m going to take all of this,” she said. “I’ll notify Mr. Saroyan.”

I took a step forward to start putting all the papers back in the boxes and then stopped, realizing that she wasn’t going to want me to do that. I folded my arms across my chest.

“Kathleen, you seem to have a knack for getting involved in police business,” Hope said. “If you come across anything—anything else—that has to do with this case, you call me.” She fished a business card out of her pants pocket and handed it to me.

I thought about telling her that I was fairly certain Hannah had been near the marina the previous evening. And that there was a good chance that Hugh and Abigail had known each other. Fairly certain and a good chance aren’t one hundred percent certain, I told myself.

I nodded. “I will,” I said. Just not right now, I added silently.

Hope quickly gathered up all the papers and packed them into the two boxes. She stacked one on top of the other and picked them both up.

“I’ll get the door,” I said. I followed her back to the driveway. Marcus was leaning against the driver’s-side fender of his car. He straightened up when he saw us.

“I’ll see you at the station,” Hope said to him. She glanced at me. “Thank you, Kathleen.” She took the boxes and put them on the backseat of her car.

Neither Marcus nor I said anything until she’d pulled into the street and started down the hill.

“I better go,” he said then.

I took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll . . . see you around.”

He nodded.

As I turned to go, he suddenly caught my hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks, Kathleen,” he said softly.

“You’re welcome,” I said.

Hercules was on the bench in the porch. I gathered the mugs and went into the kitchen. He followed. “Merow?” he said.

It seemed to me there was a question in the sound.

“That was Detective Lind,” I said as I put the mugs in the sink and ran some water to wash them.

He tipped his black-and-white head to one side and gave me a quizzical look. Either he wanted to know if there were any more stinky crackers or he was wondering why he hadn’t seen Hope Lind before. I decided to go with the latter.

“She’s been away finishing her degree.”

He murped and sat down beside me while I washed the cups and dried all the dishes.

I thought about what I would do if I were in Marcus’s place, if Sara or Ethan had a connection to a murder. I wouldn’t be able to do nothing.

I glanced down at the cat. “Marcus is going to try to talk to Hannah before anyone else does.”

Hercules made a noncommittal sound.

“It’s not really any of my business,” I said.

No response. I wasn’t sure if that meant that he agreed or disagreed. It probably meant he wasn’t even listening.

“Marcus won’t be allowed to stay on the case, not as long as Hannah’s connected to it in any way. And she is connected. I’m going to have to tell Detective Lind about Andrew seeing Marcus’s car. I should have told her already.” I was twisting the dish towel so tightly in my hands that the skin was stretched white over my knuckles.

Marcus wouldn’t just step away from an investigation, especially one his sister was mixed up in. The first moment I’d seen them together I’d realized how close they were, even though he’d never talked about her to me.

“He’s not going to back off,” I said. I could feel Hercules’s unblinking gaze before I looked down to see him staring up at me. I did see the irony of what I was saying. How many times had Marcus told me to stay out of one of his cases? Now I was the one who thought he should stay out of things.

“It’s not the same thing.”

Hercules made little muttering sounds and stared up at the ceiling.

“How can I just do nothing?” I said.

The last time I’d said those words—just a couple of weeks ago—things hadn’t ended so well. But this really was different; at least that’s what I told myself.

“Marcus and I are friends. I don’t want him to do something that might put his job at risk. I’d do the same thing for Maggie or Roma.”

The cat made a noise that could best be described as a snort. I ignored it. I grabbed my purse and started for the door with the cat on my heels. There was no point in trying to make him stay in the house. He would just walk through the door.

I found a place to park on one of the side streets that ran up the hill from Eric’s. I wasn’t certain that was where Hannah was, but I knew it was a pretty good guess. “I won’t be very long,” I told Hercules, who had ridden shotgun down the hill, his green eyes seemingly watching the street all the way. “Then we’ll go home and have some sardines.”

He walked across the bench seat to the driver’s door and pawed the air near my jacket pocket. I narrowed my eyes at him. “How did you know there were crackers in that pocket?” I asked, pulling out the bag.

He wrinkled his nose at me. He would have been able to smell those crackers if they’d been in a lead-lined bag.

I put the remaining treats on the seat. “I’ll be back,” I said. “Stay in the truck and stay out of trouble.”

He shot me a look and murped as he dropped his head over the crackers. I didn’t have to speak cat to know that meant You too .

11

As I rounded the corner, Hannah was just coming out of Eric’s—and Marcus was standing outside waiting for her. Neither of them noticed me until I literally stepped between them.

“Umm, hi, Kathleen,” Hannah said. She was confused, her eyes darting from me to her big brother.

“What are you doing here?” Marcus asked, his mouth pulled into a tight line.

“Same thing as you,” I said. “I came for some coffee.” I turned to Hannah. “By the way, Detective Lind is looking for you.”

“Me? Why?” She was a very good actress. Nothing showed in her face. On the other hand, I could feel the tension coming off of Marcus’s body like mist rising from the river.

There was no point in dancing around it. “I was going through Hugh’s papers, looking for some of his notes for Ben. There was a clipping stuck to a piece of paper. You wrote ‘Drop dead’ across the front of it.”