Джанет Кантрелл - Fat Cat At Large

The unwavering gaze was back.

“There was probably a lot of money involved,” Chase ventured. “Don’t you think?”

“I think this is the rest of the document we found on the floor by the body. It is a document signed by Iversen, but that doesn’t mean he was there that day, when he says he wasn’t.”

“Can you see if his fingerprints are on it?”

“They’re on the other pieces, so they’re probably on this one, too.”

“He was there earlier! Michael—Dr. Ramos—saw him!”

“Yes, we have that information.”

He leaned toward her and gave her a gentle smile. She felt something inside warming up.

“Ms. Oliver, we’re still gathering evidence. This isn’t proof of anything, but thanks for bringing it in.”

She shot up out of the chair. “Am I still the main suspect?”

“Did I say you were?”

“You told me not to leave town.” She winced and grimaced from the back spasm caused by her sudden movement.

“Yes, I did. And that still stands. Are you okay?”

“Fine. If I can find someone else who saw him there, will that nail him?”

“Please let us interview the suspects.” There was no trace of that smile and the dark blue eyes glittered, looked hard.

“There were other people there, too.”

He raised his eyebrows, encouraging her to go on.

She sat down gingerly and told him about Hilda and the young man and the floozy. She was almost certain the young man was Ted.

“We’ll look into this,” he said, but he hadn’t taken any notes.

It was still up to her to clear herself.

SIXTEEN

Driving away from the police station, Chase wanted to talk to Anna. She called, but Anna didn’t pick up. The lovely day that had stretched before her, free and empty, seemed dreary and weighty now. It was only midmorning. What would she do the rest of the day?

She headed for the hospital to visit with Laci. However, she had checked out early that morning and was, as far as Chase could tell, at home. Chase had never been to Laci’s home and had to stop by the office to find the address.

Before she went into the office to look up the records, she flew up the stairs to check on Quincy. He lay in his bed, snoozing. The Kitty Patties she’d left atop his diet food were gone—and so was the food that had been beneath. His bowl was clean!

Quietly, not wanting to disturb whatever force was at work, she backed out and shut the door. Quincy slept on. He hadn’t even raised his head. He must feel good, she thought, to have his tummy full of good food, finally.

She pulled the notebook out of the desk drawer below the computer. She hadn’t balanced the books from yesterday, but she wanted to put that off as long as possible. Laci’s information would be in Anna’s handwriting, since she was the one who kept employee records. She preferred to keep them on paper, but Chase knew they were in the computer somewhere, too.

She paged too far and saw the posh address of Vi Peters’s place. Flipping to the C s for Carlson , she found Laci’s information. She froze when she saw the address. It was the same building she’d seen Shaun Everly walking toward, that first time she saw him in Minneapolis. If she went to see Laci, would she encounter him ?

Why on earth did Laci drive her PT Cruiser to work when she lived that close?

Oh well, Chase was going to have to figure out if she was brave enough to chance running into her nemesis. She walked the two blocks at a brisk pace, then hesitated when she got near.

Chase loitered on the sidewalk opposite the apartment building, where she could see the parking lot that belonged to it, until she thought she might be attracting attention. Laci’s PT Cruiser was there, but so was the silver Boxster that she thought was Shaun’s.

A black Lexus idled next to the door. The driver had the hawk-nosed silhouette of Torvald Iversen, and his long, thin fingers drummed on the steering wheel.

Chase felt a brazen anger rising from her toes. She walked to the driver’s window of the Lexus. It was open, and he turned when she approached, looking surprised to see her there.

“Some people have to work in the middle of the day,” she said.

“I am working,” he said, his eyes half-lidded and his manner cool. “Are you?”

“What kind of work is this, sitting in your car? Looking for someone else to attack?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I’m looking for someone else to partner with my client.”

Shaun’s car was nearby. Could these two creeps be cooking up a scheme together?

As if her thoughts of him had the power to conjure up the man himself, Shaun Everly walked out the door of the building. He didn’t go to his car, though. Ignoring Chase, he got into the passenger seat of Iversen’s Lexus. The car pulled away without either of the occupants giving her another glance.

Good riddance, Chase thought. Those two deserve each other. Maybe Torvald would knock off Shaun when he found out what a cad he was. Maybe Shaun would steal money from Torvald and that would set things off. Maybe they were . . . what?

Puzzling over the association of those two bums, she marched up the front steps into the building. She pushed the door open and ran a finger along the name tags under each buzzer. None of them said “Everly.” Maybe the building manager hadn’t made up a tag for him yet. One was labeled “L. Carlson,” so she pushed that one.

Laci’s voice came over the intercom and she buzzed Chase in, not sounding upset to see her. How could Anna think about firing Laci? That would be like kicking a sick puppy.

After she climbed two flights of stairs, Laci ushered her into an apartment filled with ruffles and floral-patterned furniture. Chase decided Laci did resemble an ailing baby animal, maybe even a sick puppy.

Chase asked her how she was feeling and got a sigh and a woebegone expression. Laci lifted a limp wrist to wave Chase to a seat on the cabbage-rose sofa. She sat herself on a chair covered with Victorian striped fabric in various shades of pink. Laci’s other wrist was wrapped in an Ace bandage.

“What’s the wrapping on your wrist for? Did you hurt it?” Chase sank into the soft couch. When it bent her back the wrong way, she scooted to perch on the edge of the cushion.

“I sprained it when I fell, the doctors said.” She rubbed the bandage with her other hand. “I’m lucky I didn’t break it.”

“How long do you have to stay away from work?” Maybe, if she had to take a lot of time off, that would make it easier for Anna to eventually terminate her.

“Not long. I might be able to come in tomorrow. I could have a little bit of a concussion, they said. They’ll tell me when I can work again.”

“Well . . . why don’t you take another few days off. We can manage for a while. Business should be slower now.”

“Until the holidays. Then you’ll need everyone.”

That was true. If Anna got rid of Laci, she would need another worker. She still hadn’t talked to Anna about this.

“You know,” Laci said, “how I told you Vi was spreading rumors about Ted stealing things?”

“Yes,” Chase replied cautiously. She remembered. Also, Ted was stealing things.

“I think that’s what started making him so upset.” So upset that he dumped Laci? “He was bad then, but he’s ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times worse now. He’s almost been a different person since his father was killed. He totally blamed him for everything, you know.”

Chase wondered if that was because he had killed his father. Laci said he got very angry about his parents’ separation. Angry enough to do something to his father?

They both jumped when her buzzer sounded. When Laci answered the intercom, Ted’s voice came into the apartment.