Софи Келли - A Case Of Cat And Mouse

I rubbed the back of my head with one hand. This didn’t look good for Charles or Elias.

“I should tell Marcus, shouldn’t I,” Roma said. She knew the answer so she didn’t frame the words as a question.

I nodded just the same. “People say stupid things when they’re arguing. It doesn’t mean the conversation had anything to do with Kassie Tremayne’s death. It’s more likely they were talking about something to do with the competition. I’ve seen things get pretty heated on the set but people cool off pretty quickly after they’ve vented a little.” I gave her a hug. “Yes, tell Marcus, but I don’t think what you heard is a big deal.”

She smiled. “Thank you. I’ll call him in the morning.” She reminded me that we were moving the cats from the old carriage house into their new home on Sunday, and I promised I would be there.

Roma got into her car and I got into the truck. I resisted the urge to pound the steering wheel with one hand. Both Charles and Elias had left a few things out when we’d talked. I needed to get those blanks filled in.

Rebecca had offered to check in on Owen and Hercules before she left to come down for filming so I wouldn’t have to go home after work, and Abigail had offered to close the library for me, so I made it over to the community center by five after one on Saturday. Basically it was my job just to be available in case Eugenie had any questions or drew a blank on something.

“If you don’t mind,” Eugenie had said when she had asked me to be there. “I think we’ll all be off our game a trifle.”

Since it was Peggy’s first episode I was filling the same role for her.

The crew was almost ready to start filming when I arrived. All the ovens had been tested and were working properly. I’d learned that they were checked before every show so there could be no complaints later that someone’s bake hadn’t turned out because of a wonky oven.

I had also been fascinated to find out that the show had a recipe researcher whose job was to make sure the Back to Basics segments of each show were something the bakers could complete in the allotted time.

Because of the change to the schedule we were also filming the episode out of order. Usually the show was shot in sequence: Favorites, where each baker showed off their personal recipes; Back to Basics, which tested how much they knew about baking and which was blind judged; and Outside the Box, which was each contestant’s chance to showcase their creativity. Today the Outside the Box segment was going to be filmed and tomorrow they’d go back and do the Favorites and the Back to Basics sections.

It was a long afternoon. Eugenie wanted another fact about sourdough starter to use when she talked to Ray. Russell wanted to know if the sourdough museum was a legit thing. (It is.) And every time Peggy came out she had a question. I could see she was nervous. She kept rubbing the side of her right thumb against her little finger.

“You’ve got this,” I said as we stood by the Riverwalk.

“I didn’t think I would be this nervous,” she said.

“Well, it doesn’t show. If you do get stuck, just turn to Richard and smile. He’s got your back.”

I had decided not to talk to Charles until everything was finished on Sunday. It didn’t seem fair to do anything that might throw him off. However, there was no reason not to talk to Elias.

Right after filming finished for the day I saw him standing with Richard and I made my way toward them. I got waylaid by Eugenie.

“I should have guessed you’d know about the museum,” she said, smiling at me.

“It’s nice to have a use for all the random facts that just seem to stick in my head.”

Eugenie held out a brown paper envelope. “Kathleen, I know you’re busy, but would you have time to go through this?”

“What is it?” I asked, taking the envelope from her. It felt about an inch thick, filled with papers I guessed, since it wasn’t very heavy.

“It’s the contents of Kassie’s show file. I flipped through it very quickly and it just seems to be notes and some things she printed out on Richard, on me and on some of the contestants. The police didn’t want it and one of the producers gave it to me thinking there might be something Peggy or someone else would find useful. I was going to toss the whole thing in the recycling bin but perhaps someone should go through the papers, just to be certain, before I do.”

Somehow the job of fact-checker/researcher had turned into me being a jack-of-all-trades. I didn’t really mind. Paperwork was easy to handle. Popcorn in the book drop? That was a real problem.

“I can do that,” I said. “I’ll pull out anything I think Peggy would find helpful and I’ll give you back the rest. You can recycle it or file it or let Russell make little paper animals with it.”

I’d discovered that along with magic tricks Russell also did origami. I had gone to get coffee during filming and when I came back there was a tiny origami mouse sitting on my notes.

“That’s a splendid idea,” Eugenie said, “especially that last part.”

“Is there anything else you need?” I asked.

She shook her head. “There isn’t.” She looked around. Richard’s conversation with Elias seemed to have ended. It looked as though he was headed back to the community center. “I need to catch Richard. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I took a couple of steps so I was directly in Elias’s path. “Do you have a minute?” I asked.

“I do, but not much more than that,” he said. “What is it?”

There wasn’t any point in beating around the bush. “You didn’t tell me that Charles was sleeping with Kassie.”

A tiny pulse flickered just below the corner of his right eye. It was the only indication he was surprised that I knew. “He told you.”

I nodded. “He did. He also said that you told him not to tell anyone, including the police.”

“I knew it made him look bad,” Elias said. “And I know Charles—he couldn’t have killed Kassie.”

I raised an eyebrow. “But he has killed someone else.”

“That was a long time ago and it was an accident.” He looked at his watch. “Is that it?”

“No,” I said. “This is where you tell me that you and Charles had an argument on the street outside Eric’s Place a couple of hours before I found Kassie’s body.”

He pressed his lips together for a moment. It was the only sign I could see of the annoyance I was guessing he was feeling. “Is there anything you don’t know about?” he asked.

I held up both hands. “I don’t know what the two of you were arguing about.”

Elias waved away my words. “It was nothing. Charles was having an attack of conscience. He thought he should tell people about his relationship—such as it was—with Kassie. I disagreed.”

“I told Ruby I would help you and you’re making it difficult when you keep secrets like this.” It was hard to keep the exasperation out of my voice.

“Oh, please, Kathleen. You don’t really believe Charles killed Kassie. It’s just unthinkable.”

“Why not?” I said. “After all, the police think you killed her.”

He looked at me for a long moment. “Touché,” he said softly.

“What did you mean when you told Charles you’d bury him so deep he wouldn’t be able to come up for air?”

Elias tugged on his cuff the way he had the last time we’d talked. Nervous habit, maybe?

“Not what you think,” he said. “I know Charles is trying to turn being on the show into bigger opportunities. Hell, he’s not the only one. All of the contestants have an agenda. What I meant was if he was foolhardy enough to make what should be kept private public, I would have no choice but to make sure not one single opportunity would come his way. Nothing more. Now are we done?”