Софи Райан - The Whole Cat Аnd Caboodle

A meow came from the bag. Luckily it was noisy enough in the pub that no one else heard it.

I leaned sideways. “He’s not talking to you,” I said quietly in the general direction of the bag. “Yes, he can have a bit of fish,” I said to Sam.

“I’ll send a waitress over,” he said, and headed in the direction of his office with Elvis.

Josh didn’t call for almost another hour. Everyone’s head came up when my phone rang. It was noisy in the bar. “Hang on a second,” I said to Josh. “I’m just going to move somewhere where I can hear you better.” I pushed my chair back from the table. “I can’t hear very well,” I said. I pointed. “I’m just going over by the washrooms.”

I walked to the back before anyone had a chance to get up and follow me, and stepped into the small hallway to the men’s and women’s bathrooms. It was a lot quieter there, but I’d also wanted to be away from the table to hear what Josh had to say without so many sets of eyes watching my face.

“Okay, go ahead,” I said, turning my back on the restaurant.

Josh was officially Maddie’s lawyer. He’d advised her not to say anything and she’d followed that advice.

“She’s going to have to spend the night in jail, Sarah,” he said.

I sighed. “I kind of expected that.”

“It’s not a night in a five-star hotel, but it’s not a hole in the ground, either. She’ll be all right and she’ll be arraigned first thing in the morning.”

I repeated Liz’s offer of bail.

“That’s good. I don’t think the judge will set bail too high, given her age and the circumstances.” I could hear him shuffling papers.

“Can we be there in court?” I asked, wrapping my free arm around my midsection.

“Yes, you can,” he said. “In fact, it would be good for the judge to see that Maddie has a support system.”

We made arrangements to meet at the courthouse in the morning. I thanked Josh again and we said good night.

I thought about Mac’s question to me earlier. Was I certain Maddie hadn’t had anything to do with Arthur Fenety’s death?

I remembered the night of my fifteenth birthday. We’d had a party in Gram’s backyard and we were making s’mores in the outdoor brick fireplace when Maddie arrived. She’d hugged me and handed me a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her garden. “I have something else for you out in my car,” she’d said. We’d walked out to the street and she’d taken a guitar case from the backseat. I’d looked at her, wide-eyed. “I can’t,” I’d started to say, knowing my parents would never let me keep a guitar. It was way too expensive a gift.

Maddie had shaken her head. “Yes, you can. Just open it. Please.”

I’d carefully unsnapped the latches and lifted the lid of the black, hard-shell case. My breath stuck in my chest and my field of vision got dark from the outside in until the only thing I could see was the guitar lying in the case. It was my father’s guitar. I hadn’t seen it in ten years.

I looked at Maddie. “How? What . . . how?”

She cleared her throat before she answered, and even then I had to turn my head to hear what she said.

“It was thrown from the car the night . . . the night of the accident. Some, uh, someone found it a week later in the . . . in the trees.” She took a breath and then swallowed. “The man who found it, he should have taken it to the state troopers, but . . . he didn’t. He took it home and it just ended up stuck in the back of a closet.”

I laid a hand on the smooth amber wood. I couldn’t keep my eyes on Maddie’s face. It was impossible to keep them away from the guitar. My father’s guitar. The words kept running over and over in my head.

“A couple of months ago I went to an estate sale over in Belfast,” Maddie continued. “The moment I saw that guitar—don’t ask me how—I knew it was your father’s guitar. You used to sit on his lap and he’d show you chords. You probably don’t remember.”

I did remember. I couldn’t say that, though, because I knew if I said a word I’d start to cry. I blinked a couple of times and swallowed hard.

“I hope this is okay,” Maddie said.

I got to my feet and flung my arms around her. “It’s the best present ever,” I’d said.

It still was.

I swallowed and blinked a couple of times. Whatever secrets Maddie was keeping, I was absolutely positive that she hadn’t killed Arthur Fenety. She didn’t have it in her.

I put my phone away and went back to the table to share what Josh had told me.

“She’s going to spend the night in jail?” Charlotte said, twisting her napkin in her hands.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Maddie will be arraigned first thing in the morning and Josh doesn’t think there will be a problem with bail. We can all be there.”

Liz was sitting to my right. “Maddie will be okay,” she said. “She’ll be in a cell by herself, unless there’s some kind of a crime wave tonight. The cells are small, but they’re clean.”

She looked around for our waitress, and when she caught the young woman’s eye Liz gestured at her coffee cup.

“I don’t even want to know how you know that,” I said to Liz.

She gave me a sly smile. “No, Sarah, you probably don’t.” She looked across the table at Charlotte. “Maddie will be fine. We’ll all be at the courthouse in the morning, and she’ll be out of there long before lunch.”

“I’ll open up tomorrow,” Mac said.

He was sitting on my left side and I shot him a smile of thanks.

“I can take the morning off school and help,” Avery offered, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table.

“No, you can’t,” Liz said firmly.

Avery made a face at her grandmother, who made one back at her.

“I appreciate your offer,” I said, “but we’re not that busy in the morning. So go to school, but I could use you in the afternoon, if you really want to help.”

“I do,” Avery said, tucking a strand of cranberry-colored hair behind one ear.

“Good,” I said. “If you’re finished, how about you go find Sam, collect Elvis and wait by the front door?”

“Are you just trying to get rid of me so you can talk about stuff you don’t think I should hear?”

“Because that’s worked so well in the past,” Liz commented.

I picked up my coffee cup and shook my head. “I’m not. I’m just trying to get Elvis out of here without anyone noticing you brought him in here in the first place.”

“Okay, then,” she said, pushing back her chair and getting to her feet.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Liz extend her arm under the cover of the tablecloth and brush Avery’s hand with her own.

“Keep him out of sight, Avery,” I said.

“Yeah, I know.” She flapped a hand at me as she headed in the direction of the kitchen.

My coffee was cold and I was about to drink it, anyway, when our waitress came over with a fresh pot. “Could you bring our check when you have a minute, please?” I asked as she poured.

“It’s already been taken care of,” she said with a smile. She moved around me to top up Mac’s cup.

I turned to Liz. “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

She smiled and shrugged. “Sorry, kiddo. I didn’t. Someone else beat me to it.”

“Sam,” I said, reaching for a little paper packet of sugar.

“I don’t think so.” Liz pointed a perfectly manicured nail toward Mac. He had one elbow leaning on the table as he talked to Charlotte and Rose.

“Mac?”

Liz added cream to her cup. “When he excused himself to wash his hands just after we got here, I saw him speak to our waitress.”

I leaned back in my chair and folded my hands around my own cup. “That’s really, really . . . nice.”