Софи Райан - The Whole Cat Аnd Caboodle

“I opened the paper and I couldn’t believe it. That wasn’t the brother I grew up with.” She looked away for a moment. “I wish I could apologize to all the women he took advantage of. I wish I could do something for them.” She sat very straight, her shoulders rigid, and in her lap her hands were tightly clenched together. “As far as I can tell, just looking through Arthur’s papers, the money is gone.” She paused for a moment. “There were some pieces of jewelry I found in a box in his closet. I can give those to the police. But there don’t seem to be any secret bank accounts.”

“It’s very thoughtful of you to try to help,” I said. I wondered if that jewelry would turn out to belong to Jim Grant’s mother.

She looked at me. “I believed Arthur when he told me that he had a pension and had saved a lot of money. I didn’t really know my brother.”

I thought about Liam and wondered how I’d feel if I were in Daisy’s place.

She looked at Charlotte. “I really believed he cared about Madeline,” she said. “He called me right after he met her and he seemed genuinely happy.” She pointed to the vase of lilies on the coffee table. “He bought those flowers for me the day he died. He was in such a good mood that morning.”

“Did your brother do any gardening?” I asked.

Daisy shook her head. “He didn’t know a thing about plants. We grew up in Meridian, Florida, with a tiny backyard. He met Madeline at some event for the Botanic Garden but he was only there because he won the ticket.” The bottom hand on her lap kept pulling the fabric of her trousers into little folds. “Madeline talked about gardening and plants all the time. Arthur listened because . . . because he liked her.”

I gestured to the vase holding the flowers. It was china with a raised flower design; white daisies with yellow centers and deep green leaves. “That’s very pretty,” I said. “It’s the Daisy May pattern, isn’t it?”

Daisy looked surprised. “Yes, it is. Arthur bought it for my last birthday. She looked down at the gleaming hardwood floor, then met our eyes again. “It’s my fault he’s dead,” she said.

Charlotte shook her head. “No, Daisy, it’s not your fault. There wasn’t anything you could have done.”

“She invited me, too.”

“You mean Maddie?” I said. Charlotte and I exchanged glances. Why hadn’t Maddie told us that?

Daisy nodded. “I declined because I had an emergency dentist appointment. I can’t help thinking if I’d gone to lunch, as well, Arthur would still be alive.”

“There was no way you could have known what was going to happen,” I said.

She gave me a faint smile. “Thank you for saying that,” she said. “It’s hard not to keep second-guessing myself. I took the car because I was going to the dentist. I dropped Arthur at the park. It was such a nice day he’d decided to walk. The last time I saw him he was standing by the park gates, talking to the mailman.” She lifted a hand to her throat. “What he did was wrong. I understand that. But Madeline shouldn’t have killed him for it.”

“We don’t think she did,” Charlotte said. “Maddie couldn’t kill anyone.”

“Arthur was at her house. She made the coffee,” Daisy said, two bright spots of color appearing on her cheeks. “I don’t see who else could have done it. I understand your loyalty, but I’m sorry. I think you’re wrong.”

There really wasn’t anything else to say. We told Daisy again how sorry we were for what she was going through and then we were back out in the SUV.

“I don’t know why I thought Daisy would be any help,” Charlotte said. “Of course she blames Maddie. I would, too, in her place.”

“We know where they grew up,” I said, sticking the key in the ignition. “Maybe Mr. P. will be able to dig up something.”

“So, what do we do now?” Charlotte said, fastening her seat belt.

What I should have said was “Nothing.” I should have said “The next thing to do is leave it to Josh’s investigator and the police.” But even against my better judgment I was getting caught up in Maddie’s case. “We need to know if anyone knew that you had that bottle of napthathion in your garage. Or if anyone else had kept a bottle.”

Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. “Could we stop at Liz’s house for a moment?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said.

We found Liz and Avery in the kitchen. Avery was making what I guessed was a quiche, based on the piecrust and eggs she had out on the counter. She also had a huge amount of kale.

“Any luck with Daisy?” Liz asked.

“We know where Arthur and Daisy grew up,” I said. “Maybe Mr. P. can do something with that.”

“We need to know if anyone knew I had that bottle of pesticide,” Charlotte said.

“Or if anyone else kept a bottle after it was banned,” I said.

“You want the town gossip,” Liz said.

I nodded. “I guess we do.”

“Done,” she said. “I’ll call Elspeth.”

Elspeth was Liz’s niece. She ran a very successful spa and salon in town, Phantasy. We had tourists who came to North Harbor several times a year just for a couple of days of pampering at the spa. Elspeth was a lot like Liz, with the same big heart and sardonic sense of humor, just in higher heels.

Liz held out her hand and studied her impeccably manicured nails. “I had my hands in too much water today. Look at my manicure.” She smiled. “I’ll have to go to the salon first thing in the morning for fingers, toes and what everyone knows.”

Chapter 17

I dropped Charlotte off at Rose’s apartment building. “Give Maddie my love,” I said.

“I will,” she promised.

Before I could pull away from the curb Elvis meowed from the backseat.

“What?” I said, turning around to look at him.

He craned his neck as though he were trying to see over the seat back and then he looked at me.

“You can come up if you want to,” I said.

“Merow,” he said somewhat plaintively, it seemed to me. Then he did the neck-craning thing again.

“You’re a cat,” I said. “You can jump from there.”

He stood up and seemed to study the seat back.

“You can make that,” I said.

He sat back down and blinked his green eyes at me.

I shrugged. “Okay. You can stay there. We’re not that far from home.” I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see him flick his tail at me.

I took Elvis home, gave him his supper and made myself a scrambled egg and tomato sandwich. I had to get to the grocery store. My refrigerator had officially gone from bare to pitiful.

After a shower I sat cross-legged on the bed while Elvis watched Jeopardy! , letting my damp hair air-dry instead of smoothing out the waves with the hair dryer. I opened my e-mail and looked through the file Grace MacIntyre’s detective had sent. I didn’t learn anything new. Everything he’d dug up on Arthur had ended up on the front page of the newspaper. My dad called halfway through the program. Unfortunately he hadn’t been able to get any more information, either.

“Call me if I can do anything else for you,” he said. “Or if you need bail.”

I laughed. “I will, Dad,” I promised. “I love you.”

“Love you too, baby,” he said.

When I got to The Black Bear, Jess had already snagged a table close to the stage. “Hey, how was your day?” I asked as I slid onto the chair beside hers.

She was wearing her long hair smooth and sleek, parted in the middle, and her lip gloss matched her plum-colored sweater. “Great,” she said. “I found some fantastic vintage denim jackets in those boxes. Are you sure you want to sell them to me?”

I nodded. “We don’t have the space for them and that kind of thing really doesn’t go with everything else we sell.”