Софи Келли - A Case Of Cat And Mouse

I snatched it away from him. “You’re walking on thin ice, mister,” I said sternly.

He looked down at his feet, puzzled, and then his golden eyes came back to mine.

“It’s a figure of speech,” I said. I jammed the pencil and everything else into my pants pocket.

I got to my feet and rubbed my forehead with the heel of my hand. Could cats have kleptomania? Did Owen need a kitty therapist? Or maybe I needed one for even asking the question.

I was setting the table when my phone chirped. It was a text from Ruby asking if I could bring Hercules to class. She had an idea for the concept for another calendar. She wanted to pair Owen and Hercules with different artists from the co-op.

Need to see Hercules with one of Maggie’s pieces

The idea was a good one, and even better, I was happy to have Ruby focusing on something other than Kassie’s murder. I texted back a yes.

I made a big bowl of spaghetti for supper with extra cheese because it had been that kind of day. Owen moped around by my feet. I’d eaten about half of my pasta when my cell rang. I picked it up. I didn’t recognize the number on the screen, and I was about to set the phone down when I realized the area code was the one for Duluth. Dorrie Park went to school in Duluth.

“Hello,” I said.

“Is this Kathleen Paulson?” the voice on the other end asked, no pleasantries, no preamble.

“It is.”

“I’m Dorrie Park. You left me a message about the baking contest.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. “Yes, I did.”

“So you’re what? Doing a little more digging into the people who are left on the show so no big secrets come out about the winner?”

“Something like that,” I said, shifting sideways in my chair and pulling one leg up underneath me.

“I shoulda guessed this would happen. What’d you want to know?”

I decided not to beat around the bush. “You dropped out right before the semifinals. But you were good enough to make it into the top three. Why did you leave?”

“I had a family emergency.”

“You dropped out of the contest for family reasons and less than a week later you were in Paris.”

“So?” she said.

I wished we were having this conversation face-to-face. It was impossible to read Dorrie Park from just her voice. “So you were a student working two jobs and suddenly you’re posting photos of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower.”

There was silence for a long moment. “Look, I don’t think I did anything wrong, but I don’t want to get in trouble.”

I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand. “You’re not going to get in trouble. I just want to know whether or not someone offered you money to drop out.”

Dorrie made a sound that was halfway between a groan and a sigh. “Fine. Yeah. I needed the money and I didn’t really care about taking the cooking course that’s part of the prize. So I said yes. That’s not really wrong, is it? I mean, it’s not against the law or anything?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “How much money are we talking about?”

She hesitated once again. “Twenty thousand dollars.”

“Twenty thousand dollars?” I repeated. How had Ray gotten his hands on that much money?

“Yeah,” Dorrie said. “And she gave it to me in cash so the IRS wouldn’t find out.”

A loud thumping sound filled my ears—the sound of my own heartbeat. “She?”

“She. Kate. Kate Westin. That’s who we’re talking about, right?”

“Umm, right.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“So do you wanna know anything else?” Dorrie asked.

“No,” I said. I was trying to make sense of what I’d just found out.

“And just so we’re clear, I’m not going to get in any trouble for this?”

“Not from me.” That seemed to be enough for her.

“Okay, well, I gotta go.”

“Thank you,” I said, but Dorrie had ended the call and I wasn’t sure she’d heard me.

I set the phone down on the table. It seemed I was wrong about Ray. Or at least about him being the one who had gotten rid of Dorrie Park.

My spaghetti was cold now and my appetite was gone anyway. I pushed the bowl away. I thought about Kate telling me how her modeling career had ended. I remembered the bitterness in her voice and the pain in her eyes. Was that why she’d gotten rid of Dorrie? Did she see winning the Baking Showdown as her only chance at a new career?

Owen was still moping around by my feet.

I reached down and stroked the top of his head. “You’re not hurt,” I told him. “You don’t need stitches. You don’t have a concussion. But if you really feel that bad I could arrange an emergency visit . . .”

I didn’t finish the sentence and Owen gave me a quizzical look.

A visit to the emergency room. That’s what had started the confrontation that had ended with Caroline upending that bowl on Kassie’s head. I closed my eyes and tried to picture the video one more time. I tried to focus on every detail, every facial expression, every word, every sound.

And finally I knew who had killed Kassie Tremayne. It made sense. It fit the timeline. It fit the circumstances.

A wave of nausea rolled from my stomach to the back of my throat. I put a hand on my abdomen and took slow, deep breaths until it passed. Then I picked up my phone and called Marcus. All I got was his voice mail. I remembered that he had court tomorrow. He was probably meeting with the prosecuting attorney. “Call me, please, as soon as you can,” I told his phone. “I know who killed Kassie.” It wasn’t until I set my phone on the table that I realized I hadn’t told him who the killer was.

I washed my dishes, stopping several times to make sure the ringer on my phone was working. Where is Marcus?

I hunted all over the house for Hercules. I finally found him sitting on one of my Adirondack chairs in the backyard. “Want to go see Ruby again?” I asked.

He’d been staring off into the distance but his furry head swiveled in my direction the moment I said Ruby’s name.

I gestured with one hand. “C’mon then.”

He jumped down and made his way over to the steps.

“I just have to grab my bag and my keys,” I said.

He put one paw on the bottom step. I half expected him to start tapping it impatiently.

I was glad to have the distraction of taking Hercules to class with me, but I couldn’t help thinking about Kassie’s murder. I couldn’t see how I could be wrong. There was just one question I didn’t have the answer to. I wasn’t even sure it mattered, but . . .

I looked at my watch. I had a few minutes. I turned toward the community center.

There was a parking spot close to the back door. Even more important, Russell’s rental car was there. “I won’t be very long and then we’ll go see Ruby and Maggie,” I said to Hercules. “Stay here.”

I should have known he’d ignore me. He jumped up onto the dashboard and nonchalantly walked through the windshield. I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed but there was no one around.

I didn’t have time to argue. I picked him up and started for the back door.

Harry was at the desk. “Hi, Kathleen,” he said. He looked at the cat. “Hello, Hercules.”

The cat murped a hello back.

“Is Russell still here?” I asked. “I saw his car outside.”

Harry nodded. “He’s here. He brought down a piece of strawberry tart about half an hour ago. Stacey’s with him. Everyone else is gone.”

I thanked him, signed the log and headed up the stairs. This conversation would be easier to have face-to-face.

I found Russell and Stacey in Eugenie’s office, just getting ready to leave. He was winding a scarf around her neck and I thought they looked as though they had genuine feelings for each other.