Софи Келли - A Case Of Cat And Mouse

“Banana cream and apple,” Peggy said.

Russell rubbed his hands together. “Umm, I think I’ll try the banana cream. And I’ll have tea.” He looked at me. “Are you sure you don’t want any pie?”

I shook my head. “No thanks.” I wondered what he did for a workout given that he seemed to have more of a sweet tooth than I did.

As if he could read my mind, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Hot yoga burns a lot of calories.”

I was wondering how to get Eugenie to join us, when she solved the problem by picking up her tea and coming over to the booth. She slid in next to Russell. “This is a delightful surprise,” she said. She looked at him. “I thought you had something to do.”

“I did,” he said. “And now it’s done.”

“Marvelous,” Eugenie said. She smiled across the table at me. “And it’s good to see you, too, Kathleen.”

“Actually, we need to talk to you about something,” I said.

Eugenie looked a little puzzled. “Of course. What is it?”

Peggy came back then with Russell’s pie and our coffee and tea. “Let me know if you need more hot water,” she said to Eugenie.

Russell took a bite of pie and made a little groan of happiness. I had had the banana cream pie and it was that good.

I looked at Eugenie. “Where were you the night Kassie was killed?”

Her eyes shifted uncertainly from side to side. “I already told you that. Russell and I were at Eric Cullen’s lovely café.” She looked sideways at Russell and smiled. He suddenly looked like he was eating sawdust instead of pie. “What’s going on?” she asked.

“Were you with Russell the entire time?” I said.

She continued to keep her gaze on Russell. “What did you tell Kathleen?” she said.

I repeated the question. “Were you with Russell the entire time?”

Finally she shifted her attention to me. “The fact that you’re asking me that question tells me that you know that I wasn’t.”

Russell put his fork down. He put a hand on Eugenie’s arm. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I overheard you and Kassie arguing and I didn’t want the police to think you could have killed her and when you didn’t have an alibi I said we were together all night but I’m just not very good at lying.” The words all came out in a rush.

Eugenie looked . . . surprised. “My dear boy, you told the police we were together to give me an alibi?”

He nodded.

“I thought you did it to give yourself one.”

“Okay, hang on a minute,” I said. I pointed at Russell. “You gave Eugenie an alibi because you’d heard her fighting with Kassie.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you didn’t kill her.”

“Heavens no,” she said. “I didn’t have to resort to murder to get rid of her.”

“We’re coming back to that,” I said. I gestured at Eugenie. “You thought Russell had said he was with you to give himself an alibi.”

“Yes. I have one.”

“You have one?” Russell exclaimed.

I rubbed the space between my eyes. I had a headache.

Eugenie took a sip of her tea. “It’s not one I’d like to share with many people but I do have it.” She reached over and patted Russell’s shoulder. “Honestly, all you had to do was ask me. I would have told you .”

“Tell us now,” I said. “Start with explaining what you meant when you said you didn’t have to resort to murder to get rid of Kassie.”

“This isn’t something I want spread around,” she said.

“I’m not planning on doing that,” I said.

She exhaled slowly. “You know that I’ve lived in Canada for quite a while but I grew up in London.”

Both Russell and I nodded. I wasn’t sure where Eugenie was going.

“One of the reasons I left London—left England all together—was so that I could live my life on my terms.” Her long fingers played with her cup.

Russell frowned at me. He seemed as confused as I was.

“Eugenie, I’m not really sure where you’re going with this,” I said.

“Have you heard of Hamilton House?” she asked.

“If you mean the plumbing supply company, then yes. I have a big, deep Hamilton House bathtub in my bathroom.” It seemed as though I actually heard a tiny click as my brain made the connection. “You’re one of those Hamiltons.”

“Yes,” she said.

I glanced at Russell, who hadn’t made the connection. “Thomas Hamilton invented the little flapper piece that lifted up and let water into a toilet when you flushed it.” All the odd and obscure things I’d been asked to research over the years meant I was really good at trivia night.

“Okay,” he said slowly, clearly still lost.

I shifted my gaze to Eugenie. “Your great-grandfather?”

She nodded.

I turned back to Russell again. “That invention was the beginning of one of the largest plumbing supply companies in the world.”

Eugenie cleared her throat. “The biggest, actually.”

“So what you’re saying is you’re rich,” Russell said. “Are we talking Tony Stark rich?” He was referring to the billionaire character in the Iron Man movies.

“Nothing like that,” she said. “But I do have more than enough money to relieve Elias of any financial obligation he might have to Sean Sullivan, Kassie’s father. So as you can see, I had no reason to hurt anyone.”

“And what about your alibi?” I said.

She looked around the restaurant and then leaned forward. “Again, Kathleen, this is something I’d prefer to keep as private as I can.”

“I understand that,” I said. “And I don’t plan on sharing what you tell me with anyone, although I think you need to share it with the police.”

“I should have done that from the beginning,” she said. She hesitated for a moment. “I was in a smoking club in Red Wing.”

Russell’s eyes grew wide. “You smoke?” he exclaimed.

Eugenie looked around to see if anyone had heard him but no one was paying attention to us. “Cigars,” she said. “No cigarettes and none of that silly vaping. It’s just that it doesn’t go with my image.”

Smoking didn’t go with Eugenie’s image and fast-food pies didn’t go with Richard’s. At least the “hot” yoga made sense given what I knew about Russell. I had no doubt everyone’s new alibis would check out.

I picked up my coffee and took a long drink. I knew Ruby would be devastated, but it was looking more and more like Elias had killed Kassie.

chapter 15

Marcus showed up the next morning with a mint chocolate chip cupcake for me from Sweet Thing. All of the alibis had checked out. Eugenie, Russell and Stacey were in the clear.

“Thank you,” I said. I would have kissed him but we were standing just inside the library door.

“Did you bring enough of those to share with the class?” Mary asked from the circulation desk.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Marcus said, bringing a cardboard box with the Sweet Thing logo on it out from behind his back. He set it in front of Mary with a flourish.

She smiled approvingly. “Nice work, Detective Gordon.”

He smiled back at her. “You’ll notice two of them are mocha fudge, which are your favorite.” He caught my hand and gave it a squeeze. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

Mary watched him leave. “If I were you I’d get some rope and tie—”

Still holding the little bag with my cupcake, I put my hands over my ears. “I’m not listening,” I said, heading for the stairs. Even with my ears covered I could still hear her laughing.

It was a busy morning at the library. I gave a class of fourth graders and their teacher a tour and was pleased by how many of the kids were readers. Keith King dropped off some information about a program he thought the library might qualify for that would give us a thirty-percent discount on the new computers we needed.