Софи Келли - A Tale Оf Two Kitties

“All right,” I agreed, dropping onto the closest chair. Micah came to lean against my leg. “Did you know the day before he died Leo got one of those pieces of mail they found at the post office?”

Marcus hesitated for a moment. “Yes,” he finally said.

“Did you know there was a key in the envelope?”

He looked over his shoulder at me. “A key?”

“Sandra Godfrey delivered the letter and Leo opened it in front of her. She said the only thing inside was a silver key.”

“What kind of a key?” he asked. “A house key? A car key? One of those little keys for a diary?”

“I don’t know. All Sandra said was that it was a silver key. Marcus, what if it was a car key?”

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s say it was.” He grabbed a carrot from the counter. “What are you thinking? That another car caused the accident that killed Meredith Janes twenty years ago and that someone, somehow got the key to that car and instead of talking to the police put it in an envelope and mailed it to her estranged husband?”

“No,” I said, reaching down to stroke Micah’s soft fur. She seemed to be following the conversation, which didn’t really surprise me. Like Owen and Hercules, Micah was a Wisteria Hill cat. “Even Owen wouldn’t let me get away with a theory as far-fetched as that.” I sighed. “It’s just that I can’t seem to let go of the idea that there’s a connection between what happened to Meredith Janes all those years ago and Leo’s murder.”

Marcus turned to look at me. “Why?” He gestured with the carrot. “Go ahead. Make your case.”

I tucked one leg up underneath me, getting a little more comfortable. Micah nuzzled my hand as if in encouragement. “All right,” I said. “First of all, there’s nothing that suggests what happened to Leo was some random act—a robbery gone wrong, for example.” I leaned sideways for a moment so I was in his line of vision. “I’m assuming I’m right about that.”

“Keep going,” was all he said.

“So it was personal. Thanks to that video Mariah Taylor filmed, Simon has an alibi.”

Marcus smiled as he chopped the carrot. “You can say ‘I told you so’ if you want.”

I smiled back at him. “I thought that was implied,” I teased. I was getting a kink in my back so I lifted Micah onto my lap. She immediately stretched across my legs. “Harry had a reason to kill Leo—at least in theory.” I held up a hand before Marcus could object. “Yes, I know killing someone over an old watch is a pretty weak reason for murder, but people have been killed for less.”

“Agreed,” he said, dropping the chopped carrot into what I was guessing was our salad.

“More important, no one who knows Harry would ever believe he could kill anyone and he also has an alibi. That leaves two people: Elias Braeden and Leo’s late wife’s best friend, Celia Hunter.”

Marcus turned to face me. “I don’t see how Celia Hunter could have killed Leo. I doubt she has the upper-body strength to swing that piece of sculpture. As for Elias Braeden, he was on the road between Minneapolis and here.”

I held up one finger. “Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean Celia couldn’t have the strength to have swung that sculpture. Look at Mary. People mistake her for just a sweet, cookie-baking grandma but she could probably take you down with just one roundhouse kick.”

“Point taken,” he said.

I held up a second finger. “And Elias’s alibi is weak. He could have left a little bit earlier than he says he did or driven a lot faster. There’s some wiggle room. I think we need to look at both of them anyway.”

Micah meowed loudly.

“See? She agrees with me,” I said, smiling at the little cat.

Marcus snapped on the oven light and bent down to look through the door. I was so busy watching him that I completely missed what he said. He turned and looked expectantly at me.

“I’m sorry, I got sidetracked. What did you say?”

“I said okay; let’s start with Celia Hunter.”

“All right,” I said. “Didn’t you think it was odd she came here just to show Leo that letter she received? I don’t see why she thought it was so important.”

He nodded. “I had the same thought.”

“And she was at Leo’s apartment no more than half an hour before his murder.”

“The woman has an alibi, Kathleen,” Marcus said. “Leo Janes got a phone call from a former colleague at the university where he used to teach just as she was leaving. He heard Leo say good-bye to her, not to mention Mrs. Hunter isn’t tall enough or strong enough to have killed him.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

He set down the cast-iron frying pan he’d just picked up and gave me a puzzled look. “Unless she was wearing stilts, yes, I’m sure. So is the medical examiner. The murder weapon was that piece of abstract metal art. It’s heavy. Too heavy for Celia Hunter to have picked up. And even if she happened to have a bionic arm that we didn’t know about she was too short to have delivered the blow that killed Leo.”

Micah sat up then and jumped down to the floor. She moved over to sit next to the stove, either to see what was going to be happening there next or because she’d decided to switch sides in the discussion.

I pulled my other leg up and rested my chin on my knee. “What if he was bending over?” I said.

Marcus picked up the pan again, set it on the burner and turned on the heat.

“Think about it. This wasn’t a planned murder or the killer would have had a weapon with her—or him. What if Leo bent down to pick something up and Celia saw her opportunity?”

“Except that piece of artwork is solid metal.” He frowned at the pan. “Could you swing a twenty-pound bag of potatoes at my head?” he asked without looking at me.

“No,” I said. “But Maggie probably could.”

Marcus did glance at me then. “Okay, but how about Rebecca?”

I shook my head. “No, but I think Celia’s stronger than we both know. I found photos online of her from this past spring as part of a medal-winning dragon boat team.” I put my hand around the upper part of my left arm. “She has actual muscles here. I don’t think it’s that unrealistic that she could have lifted that statue.”

“So what’s her motive?” He added a little butter and some olive oil to the pan.

“That’s where I’m stuck,” I said with a shrug.

“Okay, so what’s your case for Elias Braeden?” He set two small bacon-wrapped filets into the pan. Micah’s whiskers began to twitch as the smell of searing beef filled the kitchen.

“Leo took his casino for about a million dollars. And Elias doesn’t know how he did that so it leaves him open for it to happen again, or at least it did while Leo was alive. Add to that he worked for Idris Blackthorne at one time. Idris had a reputation, and not all of that was just talk.”

“So his motive is?”

“Money. Or in the heat of the moment, anger, especially if Leo wouldn’t explain how he’d managed to win so much money.”

“I’ve seen those motives before,” Marcus agreed. He gave the pan a little shake and then turned the meat. “Do you happen to know if Celia or Elias are right-handed or left-handed?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and pictured Celia picking up things at the flea market. “It’s possible that Celia is left-handed,” I said. “I don’t know about Elias.”

“I think you need to give up on the idea that Celia Hunter is the killer,” he said. “And I know you think there’s some connection to what happened to Leo’s former wife twenty years ago, but I think your connection is just a coincidence.”

“Wait a minute, the killer is left-handed?”