Софи Райан - The Whole Cat Аnd Caboodle

Brent was talking to me. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I zoned out. What did you say?”

“Do you want me to start carrying this stuff out?”

“That would be a big help, thanks,” I said.

With Brent’s help I managed to get everything loaded into the SUV. Then we walked back to the office and I paid for the pieces I’d bought. With a little work I was confident that everything I’d bought would sell.

Mac helped me unload when I got to the store.

“Sam called,” he said. “We’re going to get two buses of leaf peepers in about twenty minutes.”

“Is Charlotte here?” I asked.

He nodded. “And Rose and Mr. Peterson are on the sunporch.”

I headed inside and stuck my head around the sun-porch doorway. “Good morning,” I said. Mr. P. was on his laptop and Rose was sitting beside him.

“Good morning, dear,” she said.

Mr. P. looked up and smiled. “Hello, Sarah,” he said.

“Are you having any luck with the information Rose got out of Jim Grant?” I asked.

Mr. P. nodded. “Now that I know his mother’s full name I did a records search. She was married to Arthur Fenety, not that it was legal, of course.” He glanced down at a notepad on the table next to the computer. “Margaret Grant had a small yarn and fabric shop. It went out of business a couple of months after Arthur left town.”

“Do you think he took money from the business?”

Rose nodded. “I hate to call someone a liar, but yes, I do.”

“So why did Jim Grant lie to us?” I said.

“His mother losing her business is a lot better motive for murder than just losing a tea set,” Mr. P. said.

“Rose, did you notice that bandage on his arm and that rash on the back of his hand?” I asked.

“I did,” she said. “He told me it was an allergic reaction to furniture stripper he’d been using.” She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t think that’s true?”

“I’m not sure.” I looked at Mr. P. “Could you check something out for me?”

“Of course I could,” he said. “What is it?”

“I heard there’s a problem with an infestation of poison ivy in the park. Could you find out if that’s true?”

He nodded. “I can do that.”

“Sarah, do you think the rash on Jim Grant’s arm was poison ivy?” Rose asked.

“Maybe,” I said.

“Charlotte said that Daisy told you she dropped Arthur off by the park and he walked to Maddie’s house. Do you think Jim Grant might have met him in the park?”

I twisted my watch around my arm. I wasn’t sure if I should tell Rose about the possible rash I’d seen on Arthur Fenety’s arm. I didn’t want to lie to her, but it just seemed that I was getting pulled deeper into their investigation every day.

“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s possible.” I hesitated.

“Dear, is there something you’re not telling us?”

“Yes,” I said. “There was a mark on Arthur’s wrist. I noticed it when I checked for . . . his pulse. I just glanced at it and I thought it was some kind of scrape.”

“You think it was poison ivy?” Her blue eyes widened. “Do you think Jim Grant could have been waiting for Arthur in the park? Maybe he followed Arthur to Maddie’s house and poisoned him there.”

Mr. P. looked up from the keyboard. “You’re right,” he said to me. “The park is dealing with an infestation of poison ivy. It’s in all the flower beds and along the sides of a lot of the pathways.”

“Thanks,” I said. I looked at Rose. “We don’t know for sure that Jim Grant was even in the park, let alone that he saw Arthur. He said he didn’t get here until Tuesday morning.”

“And if James did follow Arthur, where did he get the poison and how did he get it into Arthur’s coffee cup?” Mr. P. asked. He looked at Rose. “We can’t jump to conclusions.”

She nodded. “All right.”

Mr. P. looked at me. “I’ll see if James Grant had any connection to a source of napthathion.”

Rose looked at her watch. “Liz should be on her way to Phantasy right now. Maybe she’ll find out something that will help Maddie.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” I said.

The two busloads of leaf peepers kept us busy until lunchtime.

Rose came in, looking dejected, to relieve Charlotte.

“You talked to Liz,” I asked.

“I did.” She shook out her apron and pulled the neck strap over her head. “There are at least half a dozen people in Maddie and Charlotte’s neighborhood that have that pesticide in their garage or garden shed.”

“Didn’t anybody pay attention to the ban?”

Rose tied her apron at her waist. “It doesn’t look that way,” she said. “The police are going to say Maddie had lots of opportunity to get the poison that killed Arthur.”

I leaned over and gave her a quick hug. “Maybe Alfred will come up with something.”

“I’m not giving up,” she said with a frown.

I smiled. “I didn’t think you would.”

Rose went to straighten a collection of old tin camp kettles. Mac was on the phone. I decided to go take another look at my morning’s treasures before lunch. As I went past the sunporch door Mr. P. beckoned to me. “I might have found something,” he said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Do you remember what time Maddie said Arthur arrived?”

I thought for a moment. “Between quarter after and twelve thirty.”

“And you said his sister dropped him off at the park?”

I nodded. “She said it was such a nice day he wanted to walk.”

Mr. P. hiked his pants a little higher. Not that they were too low to begin with. “Sarah, how long do you think it would have taken him to walk to Maddie’s house?”

I shrugged and tried to picture the trail that ran through the woods and out to the sidewalk on the other side. “No more than ten minutes.”

“Which means his sister would have dropped him off sometime after noon.”

I nodded. “That sounds right.”

“Daisy Fenety was in the dentist’s chair at eleven forty-five.”

I frowned at him. “Do I want to know how you know that?”

He smiled. “I doubt that you do.”

“So, Daisy would have dropped him off around eleven thirty or so?”

Mr. P. nodded. “I think so.”

I rolled my shoulders forward to work out a kink. “Where was he for that extra time?”

Mr. P. nodded. “Exactly. I asked Royce Collins if he saw Arthur. He delivers flyers in that area Mondays and Fridays. He did.”

Royce had been the mail carrier in Charlotte’s neighborhood as far back as I could remember. I had no idea how old Royce was, but Gram always said you could set your watch by him.

“Did he say what time he saw Arthur?” I asked.

“Royce figures it was about eleven thirty.”

“Then it was,” I said. “That means there’s at least a half an hour unaccounted for.”

Mr. P. nodded. “Exactly.”

I left Mr. P. to see if he could figure out what had happened in the missing time and hoped he wouldn’t break any laws doing it.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon updating the store’s inventory list. Avery and I washed and dried all the dishes I’d brought from the motel, and Rose arranged some of the pieces on a long, low seventies-style buffet that Mac helped me set up in the window.

“Do you have any plans for dinner?” Rose asked.

I remembered then that I hadn’t gotten to the grocery store. Again.

“No,” I said.

“We’re going to McNamara’s for clam chowder and cheese biscuits. Why don’t you join us?”

“That sounds good,” I said. “Yes.” After the middle of September I’d decided not to keep the store open on Friday nights. There wasn’t enough business. “I have to take Elvis home first. What time should I meet you?”