Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat At Large

“I’m not a hundred percent sure. But he intimated that someone saw me leave, or maybe enter, the condo. He acts like he doesn’t think I’m telling him the truth about when I was there and what I did. I need to know what that person is saying. If they’re lying about the times, it could look like I did it.” An additional thought occurred to her. “Maybe that person is even the killer, trying to throw suspicion on me.” Chase gulped some of her tart wine. It felt good.

“How awful! That would be hard to defend against.”

“Could you find out who it is?”

“Well . . .”

“It has to be in a police report somewhere. Have you been able to get to those?”

“I can, but—okay, I’ll try. I’ll tell you, though, I may not be able to. I have no business being in those files, so I’ll have to sneak.”

“Love you, Jules. I understand. Don’t jeopardize your job.”

“I’ll try my darnedest, Chase. I can’t have you accused of murder!”

“Maybe, if I can find out who this is, there might be more information that hasn’t been given to the police. This person might have seen someone else besides me.”

“Then why wouldn’t he mention it?”

Chase heard Julie’s name being called.

“He might have seen someone familiar who belongs there,” Chase said, in a rush. “Someone more likely to kill Gabe. One more quick question. What’s with Anna lately?”

“She won’t tell me. It’s so aggravating! Gotta go. Talk to you later. Maybe tonight, late.”

It was already too late to be considered early. Poor Julie, slaving away all weekend. Chase wished she’d had time to complain about her back. Julie’s sympathy would make her feel better, she knew. Quincy jumped with one fluid motion into Chase’s lap as she cut the connection. He bumped his head against her arm and her wine sloshed onto the sleeve of her robe.

“Quince! Now look what you did.”

He turned his round, staring, all-knowing cat’s eyes on her, the picture of innocence.

“I know, you didn’t mean it.”

Her robe was dark blue, so maybe the wine wouldn’t show too badly. She scratched the top of his head. “I guess you want your treats, although I know you won’t eat them.”

She set her glass and her cell phone on the side table and went to the kitchen to sprinkle some diet cat treats into his dish. Quincy sat on his haunches and wrapped his tail around his front paws. He made no move toward the bowl on the floor. Chase shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”

After rinsing the wine spot from her robe sleeve, she went back to her chair and picked up her phone.

“Dr. Ramos,” Mike answered on the first ring. “Is that you, Chase?”

“You know it is. My number is right there.”

“It’s dark where I am. Couldn’t quite see it before I answered.”

“Where are you?” Immediately, she wished she could retract those words. It was no business of hers where he was. Or who he was with.

“I’m looking over some X-rays before I leave. It’s been a long day. What do you need?”

X-rays. Right. Not a date in a dark restaurant. Come to think of it, maybe she needed X-rays herself. “The treats aren’t working for Quincy. Neither is the diet cat food. I’m going to have to feed him something.”

“Has he lost any weight at all yet?”

Chase squinted and thought, recalling the cat jumping into her lap. Was he lighter? “It doesn’t seem like it.”

He didn’t answer.

“I know. Anna is slipping him things that he shouldn’t have. I don’t know how I can stop her. But can’t I feed him something that tastes good to him? Then he wouldn’t play on her heartstrings like he does.”

“I’ll dig around and see if there’s anything new on the market that might work better. But you’re a baker, aren’t you? Maybe you could make something for him. Meanwhile, I want you to bring him in every couple of days so I can weigh him.”

Unbidden, unwanted tears sprang from Chase’s eyes. It was too much. Nothing was going right. She sniffed loudly.

“Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not all right,” she wailed. She took a breath and calmed her voice. She was sounding like Laci. One more sip of wine. “Everything’s going all wrong. Two of my employees hate each other. It’s all I can do to keep them in the same room. Someone is stealing money from the cash register. My cat is miserable. And Detective Olson thinks I killed Gabe Naughtly.”

“Why does he think that?” Mike sounded incredulous, which made Chase feel a smidgen better.

“Someone says they saw me that night, either entering or leaving the condo.”

“So that makes him think you killed the man? Sounds far-fetched.”

“If I could find out who the witness is, maybe I could see if he or she saw anyone else.”

“There was someone else hanging out on the sidewalk earlier, before you got there.”

Her heart leaped. “There was? You saw someone?”

“That guy Torvald Iversen. He was standing on the sidewalk outside the condo when I got home. I noticed him because he wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t going anywhere, just standing outside Gabe’s unit.”

“That was before I got there, then?”

“Oh yes, quite a while before. Let me see if I can remember what time that would have been.”

Torvald was there earlier? Had he already had his business meeting by the time Chase got there? Had he killed Gabe during their meeting? It would make sense that he was trying so hard to frame Chase if he were, in fact, the killer.

She heard Mike shuffle some pages. “What are you doing?”

“I keep an old-fashioned appointment book in my pocket. It’s the only way I can organize my life. That day I had a three thirty appointment, so I would have been coming home about four. That’s when I saw him. Then, when I went out later, sometime after eight thirty, I saw the commotion at Gabe’s and came over and took Quincy.”

Chase felt better after her call to Mike. She started humming “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy . She hoped Julie could find the name of the nosy eyewitness. Surely the person would have seen Torvald, too. She wondered if he was being questioned as strenuously as she was.

TEN

It was Sunday, but not a day of rest for Chase and her crew. It was September 2 and classes would start Tuesday, the fourth. The Bar None would close at six on Tuesday. They would stay closed on Wednesday to recover from the onslaught of the last week. It would be relaxing with just Vi working on Tuesday, and Laci gone for a week. After that, Anna had told Chase she was going to tell the girl she was no longer needed. Anna had said they needed to replace her with someone less histrionic. Chase hadn’t spoken up, but she was determined to do so, if they could get some uninterrupted moments. She wished they could hire a third worker, but they couldn’t afford that.

These were Chase’s thoughts as she pedaled her bike south along Fourteenth Avenue on her way home from an early ride. She’d taken a couple of pain pills at bedtime and two more this morning. The pain seemed to be easing up in the small of her back. The song “Any Dream Will Do” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was on her lips.

The day was fine. The warm, clear autumn weather was holding. She had felt the humidity today on her ride. Crisp days weren’t too far away, though, and cooler temperatures. Brilliant fall days with bright leaves swirling from lofty tree branches were her favorite times in Minneapolis.

Her cell phone rang as she stopped for a red light at Fourth Street. It was Julie. She hadn’t called back last night. Chase would suggest a getaway for the two of them when their crunch times were over. Maybe Julie had found the identity of the witness. Chase hoisted her front tire onto the curb and answered the call.