Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat Spreads Out

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LButterscotch tabby Quincy is back and hungrier than ever in this frisky follow-up to Fat Cat at Large…
A booth at the Bunyan County Harvest Fair seems like the perfect opportunity for Charity “Chase” Oliver and Anna Larson to promote their Bar None bakery business. Unfortunately, plus-sized pussycat Quincy has plans for their delicious dessert bars other than selling them to customers. After tearing through their inventory, Quincy goes roaming the fairgrounds in search of more delights.
But what he finds is murder. One of the top contenders in a butter-sculpting contest has been killed, and Chase is churning on the inside when she sees Quincy’s handsome veterinarian, Dr. Mike Ramos, being led away by the police. With a little help from a kitty with butter on his whiskers, Chase needs to find the real killer and clear the doctor’s good name…
Includes recipes for people and cats!

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“Yeah, they’re handmade. You’ll see ’em when I get set up.” He turned his back on her and started ripping his boxes open with a pocketknife. She walked away without seeing any of the toys. Why was he so unfriendly? The travel agents, their other neighbors, seemed nice anyway.

She whispered to Anna about Harper. “Our neighbor is a crabby old toymaker. Don’t bother trying to talk to him.”

“Maybe,” Anna whispered back, “he’s harried, being a day late to the fair. His mood might improve.”

Chase doubted it. After she zipped over to drop Quincy at the vet’s office, she hurried back to help Anna get their booth ready to open. The onslaught of dessert bar buyers was truly phenomenal. Sales rivaled those of their two busiest times at the Bar None, which were freshman move-in week at the U and the holiday rush from mid-November until Christmas Eve.

Luckily, they were prepared, with piles of boxed treats and tray after tray of individual bars.

Anna had thought to bring several packages of wet wipes for the sticky fingers of customers who scarfed down their sweets right there at the booth. She and Chase had noticed many of them doing that on Saturday. The eager customers couldn’t wait to pop the Strawberry Cheesecake Bars, Lemon Bars, Cherry Chiffon Bars, and pineapple-coconut Hula Bars into their mouths.

Anna took a break midmorning to run home and check on Inger.

After Chase called the night before, Anna offered to let Inger stay at her place. She had more room—an actual guest room, in fact. Since it was Sunday, the shop was supposed to be open, following the normally scheduled Bar None business days of Wednesday through Sunday. However, they had decided to close up today, under the circumstances.

When Anna got back, Chase asked how Inger was doing.

“She was having morning sickness when I left earlier, but now she says she’s feeling better. She was watching television. I believe she knows that she has to make some decisions about her future and the baby’s soon. She had me drop her off at the shop.”

“She went in to work?”

“Said she wanted to help out with the baking.”

“The poor kid. I wonder if her parents will come around.”

“I hope so.”

Julie and Jay showed up just before lunchtime to help in the booth. Naturally, as soon as they arrived, there was a lull. So instead, they wandered off together to see the sights.

By noon, both women were starving.

“Charity,” Anna confided, leaning her head next to Chase’s while ringing up a large sale, “I’m going to drop if I don’t get something to eat.”

Chase grinned. “We can’t have that. I’ll run over to the food trailers and get something. Do you know what you want?”

“Surprise me. Anything but funnel cakes. I don’t want extra powdered sugar all over our floor.”

“Does Inger have lunch?”

“She said she just wanted crackers, but I left some chicken soup for her to heat up.”

Chase hurried out of the booth and down the midway. The beautiful, unseasonably warm weather was holding.

She had worn a knit jersey top, rust-colored and lighter than the sweater she wore yesterday. She brought along her suede jacket, which had served her well the night before. In the back of the booth, Chase had spied a heavy cotton dashiki in bright kente cloth that Anna had stashed for herself for later.

For now, the sun bounced off the tarps of the vendors’ booths, glinting off the white paint of the closed door to the butter sculpture building. The faintly dusty smell of the sawdust rose from her feet. Fallen autumn leaves had mingled with the sawdust. In places, she could even pick out brilliant reds from the maple behind their own booth.

The armed police guards were still around. Chase was reminded to be aware of her surroundings and keep her guard up.

She slowed a bit when she heard sobbing between the butter building and the one next to it, that of a hawker of handmade silver jewelry.

The large sculptor, Karl Minsky, stormed out from between the buildings and strode away without noticing Chase. He was followed by his daughter, Mara.

Mara dabbed at her eyes with a tissue and almost stumbled into Chase.

“Is something wrong? Can I help you?” Chase asked.

“Yes. And no. I don’t think you can help us.”

Chase took Mara’s arm gently and guided her toward a seat near the food trucks. “Can I get you something to drink?”

“Maybe a soda,” she said between sniffs.

The nearest line for sodas was short, so Chase wasn’t gone long. When she got back, Mara seemed more composed. “Do you want to tell me about it? It might help to talk.”

“I’m so frightened.” Mara sipped her drink. “Daddy had a big argument with that man, right outside the main exhibition room.”

“What man?” Chase asked, although she was pretty sure she knew.

“The one that’s dead. I’ll bet a lot of people heard them arguing. And now he’s been killed.”

“Just because they had words doesn’t mean your father killed him.” She felt a need to comfort the poor girl.

“He was so mad.” Mara whimpered. She gave a couple of gulping sobs.

Chase wondered if the girl thought her father had killed Oake. The next time she saw Detective Olson, she would check and see if he knew about Minsky’s threat.

“I’m so sorry to bother you with this. Please forgive me.”

Given his intensity when she’d met him earlier, Chase could easily picture Karl enraged. It was very possible he was the killer. But she soothed Mara as best she could and hurried on to complete her errand as Mara wandered off, nursing her drink.

Anna probably wondered what was taking so long. Chase picked the shortest line, fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, quickly grabbed two, and scurried back toward the Bar None booth.

When she was almost there, she could have sworn she saw Mike duck through the hangings into the fortune-teller’s booth.

Julie and Jay strolled by.

“Do you need us yet?” Julie asked.

“Check in with Anna. I’m on my way there in a sec,” Chase said, dawdling.

They continued on toward the Bar None booth, stopping to browse at the travel agency.

Mike’s mission in the fortune-teller’s booth was short because he came out as Chase passed by.

“Love you,” Madame Divine called as he left.

Love you! Who was this woman?

“Having your fortune read?” Chase asked with a bright, stiff smile. She really wanted to ask him what he was doing there. “Does Madame Divine think you’ll be off the hook soon for the murder?”

“I wish she could know that,” he said, and walked past her toward his office, trailing the scent of lavender. He hadn’t returned her smile.

There was one more delay getting the fried sandwiches back to Anna. Julie and Jay and two women stood talking outside the travel agent’s booth, which was next to the Bar None. As she neared, she realized the two women were the travel agents.

“Have you heard?” Julie asked Chase. “About the missing diamond cat collar?”

“It’s the prize for the contest. The Picky Puss Cat Food Company donated it. It was displayed along with all the other cat items,” Jay added.

“It was the most valuable thing there,” the tall blonde said.

“I wonder what they’ll do now,” the redhead said.

“About what?” Chase asked.

“The collar!” The redhead threw her arms out. “It’s the whole point. Why have the contest?”

“They have to have it,” Jay said.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” Julie called as Chase left them to their speculations and proceeded to the Bar None, recalling that Patrice, aka Madame Divine, had been protesting behind her tent about having borrowed something from an exhibit and having lost it. If Chase recalled the words correctly, she’d been addressing her grandfather and she’d mentioned the Fancy Cat Contest. Had she taken the diamond cat collar? And lost it?

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