Софи Райан - The Whole Cat Аnd Caboodle

“Rose, the police think I killed Arthur.”

“We know something the police don’t,” she said, spreading her napkin on her lap.

Maddie looked confused. “What?” she asked.

“We know you didn’t do it,” Charlotte said.

Maddie smiled, and her eyes welled with unshed tears. She blinked them away and laid a hand on top of Charlotte’s hand. “You have no idea what it means to me to have your support,” she said. “All of you. Josh’s law office has an investigator—he’s a former police officer from Portland. Josh says he’s very good. I guess I’m just going to have to have faith that he can find out who really killed Arthur.”

Rose looked up the table at Charlotte, who shook her head so slightly. I would have missed it if I hadn’t been looking in her direction.

“Why don’t we eat?” I said, reaching for my own napkin. I was happy the idea of Rose and the others playing detective had been put to rest for the moment, but I’d seen the look exchanged between Rose and Charlotte, and I knew they hadn’t given up on the idea.

I picked up one of the platters of sandwiches and offered it to Maddie. She took half a ham and Swiss and smiled at me. “Sarah, I love your shop,” she said. “Where do you get everything?”

“Yard sales and flea markets,” I said, taking half a roast beef, tomato and dill pickle sandwich for myself. “We buy things from people who are moving to a smaller house or into assisted living, or just clearing out the old to bring in the new.” I gestured with one hand. “Pretty much everywhere.”

Avery blew through the door then. She was wearing skinny black jeans and a gray-and-black-checked jacket, and she had her backpack slung over one shoulder. “Most boring morning ever, and I’m starving,” she said. “I forgot my lunch but Mac said there’s food back here.” She caught sight of Maddie and skidded to a stop on the concrete floor. She looked at me. “Sorry, Sarah. I didn’t know you were busy.”

“It’s all right,” I said.

“Hello, Mrs. H.,” she said. “I heard what happened. I’m sorry. It bites.”

“Yes, it does,” Maddie said. She gestured at Avery’s left wrist. “I like your bracelets. Where did you get them?”

Avery held up her arm. She had four brightly colored fabric bracelets around her wrist. “I made them.”

“How did you get the material to hold its shape after you twisted it?” Maddie asked, leaning forward for a closer look.

Avery stretched her arm across the table. “It took a few tries,” she said. She pushed the top bracelet of the stack up her arm a little. “See, this one isn’t as tight. But I figured out that if I wet the fabric and let it dry all twisted, the bracelet held together better.”

She was leaning over my plate as Maddie studied the red-and-black fabric. I grabbed my cup and plate and nudged my chair back.

“Take my seat, Avery,” I said.

She turned her head for a second to look at me. “Oh, hey, thanks,” she said, pushing her hair out of her eyes with one hand. I moved over and slid an empty plate across the tabletop to Avery.

“Nonna says you have a big flower garden,” Avery said to Maddie.

She nodded. “Yes, I do.”

“Have you ever used marigold petals to dye fabric?” Avery asked. She slipped her backpack off her shoulder onto the floor.

“No,” Maddie said, reaching for her cup. “But I have used turmeric to dye cotton fabric. It gave me a lovely yellow color.”

“Seriously?” Avery said, reaching for a sandwich. “How long did it take?”

Avery and Maddie spent the next five minutes talking about dyeing fabric. Avery ate a sandwich and a half while peppering Maddie with questions. Finally I leaned over and touched her arm. “Go give Mac a hand,” I said. “I can hear customers.”

“Okay,” she said, jumping to her feet and swinging the backpack up on her shoulder again. “I’m so glad I got to see you,” she said to Maddie. “Maybe I could come over and see your garden sometime.”

Maddie smiled. “I’d like that,” she said. “I’m glad I got to see you, too.”

Avery headed for the front of the store as Elvis wandered in, stopping to rub against my leg before walking around the table and jumping up onto Maddie’s lap. He tucked his front paws underneath himself and started to purr.

“I was thinking about getting a cat,” she said as she stroked Elvis’s fur, “but Arthur was a dog person.”

“How did you and Arthur meet?” I asked.

Rose had slipped out and made a fresh pot of tea. She was moving around the table, filling everyone’s cups, and I smiled a thank-you at her as she got to me.

“We met at a fund-raiser for the Botanic Garden. We were at the same table.” Her free hand traced the edge of her plate. “He told me later he switched his place card with someone else’s because he wanted to meet me.” She had been staring down at the table, but now she looked up at me. “Of course, now I know he wasn’t really interested in me at all.” The color was high in her cheeks. “There’s no fool like an old fool,” she said softly. She looked away again.

“You’re not an old fool,” Charlotte said at once.

“Aren’t I?” Maddie said. “I wasn’t some love-struck teenager. I’m a grown woman who should have known better.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Liz said. “It looks like Arthur Fenety had been charming women out of their money for a long time. He’d had a lot of practice.”

“Maddie, did you give him any money?” I asked. I felt a little awkward asking the question, but I wanted to make sure she wasn’t in any kind of financial trouble. And I still had the feeling she wasn’t being totally frank. She seemed to have trouble looking me in the eye for very long.

She reached for her tea, still stroking Elvis’s fur with her other hand. His eyes were closed in kitty bliss. “No, Sarah, I didn’t,” she said. “The only thing Arthur ever said about money to me was on the day he . . . died.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“Just that he was going out of town for a couple of days because he had some investments he had to see to.”

“Did he say what kind of investments?” Liz asked.

Maddie shook her head. “No. He was singing when he got to my house. I asked him what had him in such a good mood and he said he’d finally figured out what was important in life.” She looked down at the table once more. “He said he had to go out of town to take care of some investments, but after that he was moving to North Harbor for good.”

“Did he get any phone calls while he was with you?” I asked.

She looked up at me. “Not as far as I know, but I was inside cooking, so I guess he could have. I told you that it took longer than I’d expected to make the omelets. First, the burner on my stove wasn’t working properly, and then the phone rang.”

She was still petting Elvis, but he’d stopped purring, I realized. He’d stayed stretched out on Maddie’s lap, but something had clearly annoyed him. His face was scrunched up in a sour expression like he’d just caught of whiff of something he didn’t like. And maybe he had, for all I knew. He could smell a rodent a good forty feet away.

I got to my feet, gathered my dishes and set them on the old sewing table. Then I walked around the table and lifted Elvis off of Maddie’s lap. “Go help Avery in the store,” I said, setting him on the floor. I made a shooing motion with one hand. He made a face back at me, shook his head and headed across the concrete floor toward the door.

Maddie looked tired. There were pinched lines around her mouth and dark circles like smudges of ash under her eyes. “I didn’t poison Arthur, Sarah,” she said.