Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

I nodded slowly. Hope was probably right. Marcus wouldn’t want to get Hope in trouble for keeping him in the loop.

Hope looked down at Hercules, still sitting next to her chair, his green eyes fixed intently on her as though he were following the conversation. I knew there was a good chance that he was. Her eyes met mine again. “I think you’re missing the point,” she said. “Marcus may have seen Dani the night she died. Why didn’t he say so?”

I stared at her. “Hope, you don’t think that Marcus . . . ?” I couldn’t finish the thought.

“No,” she said. She cleared her throat. “No.”

I felt Hercules lean against my leg. I studied Hope’s face. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She still didn’t say anything.

My heart was pounding so hard in my ears that my own voice sounded like I was underwater when I spoke. “Tell me!”

Hope looked at me for a long moment as though she was deciding what to do. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a plastic bag. She dropped it onto the table.

I leaned over for a closer look. For a moment I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. The bag held a small, round metal disc. On the front was a stylized black crescent moon bisected by a white line. There was a small gold star at the top point of the moon.

“It was underneath her body,” Hope said. “And before you tell me it’s not the only one in existence, I know that, but this one was wiped clean of fingerprints.”

“How did you get that out of the police station?” I asked, gesturing at the bag.

Her eyes slid off my face and she picked up her cup and took a drink.

“Hope, you broke the chain of evidence.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “It was never logged in as evidence.”

I just stared at her and finally, when I didn’t speak, she lifted her head and looked at me again. “You and I both know Marcus didn’t have anything to do with Danielle McAllister’s death. But he was the last person she had contact with and part of his key chain was found with her body.” She closed her eyes for a couple of moments and took several breaths. “And before you ask, John Keller and Travis Rosen both have theirs.” She had obviously uncovered the backstory of the key chains at some point in her investigation.

“You can’t hide evidence,” I said. A bubble of panic had settled in just under my breastbone and I pressed my fist there as if somehow I could hold it in place and keep it from overwhelming me. “I know how it looks, but you’re putting yourself at risk and if it comes out this will just make things look worse for Marcus.”

Hope opened her eyes again. “They were old friends, Kathleen, old friends who were involved in some kind of disagreement in a public place. And then one of them is dead. How much worse could it look?”

“It could look like Marcus asked his partner to hide evidence of a crime. You could lose your badge. You could go to jail. Both of you could.”

My voice was getting louder. Hercules pressed his furry body against my leg. I stopped talking and swallowed a couple of times to get my emotions under control.

Hope looked away again, her expression a mix of guilt and defiance.

“I know you care about him,” I said. “But you have to turn that key chain in, because you and I both know it doesn’t belong to Marcus so it has to belong to whoever killed Dani.”

“All right,” she finally said. She still wouldn’t look at me. “You know what will happen.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “You’ll be taken off the case and Marcus will be called in for questioning.”

“And then what?” Hope said, finally looking in my direction.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

5

The key chain fob was logged in as evidence. I didn’t ask Hope how she explained the time lag. We agreed that I would tell Marcus what she’d uncovered so far, that way she’d be able to truthfully say that she hadn’t shared any information with him. It was splitting hairs but it protected both of them and that was enough for me.

I tossed and turned most of the night. I woke up in a tangle of blankets with an arm and a leg hanging off the bed. It made me think of all the mornings my mother had insisted that sharing a bed with my dad was like being on the channel ferry.

I missed them. They were both on the West Coast at the moment while my mother did a two-week guest stint on The Wild and Wonderful . She was hugely popular with fans of the racy soap opera, who had been clamoring since her previous visit for a return performance.

I looked at the clock. It was too early to call. My mother hated mornings. I couldn’t tell her what was going on, anyway. I pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants and went down to the kitchen to make coffee. That’s where I was when Hercules came through the door. “Through” as in the bottom left panel almost seemed to shimmer and then he was standing in the kitchen.

“Merow?” he said, looking like he was surprised to see me. He’d probably been sitting out on the porch. He liked to do that, look out the window at the world and not have to get his feet wet in the early morning dew on the lawn.

“Couldn’t sleep,” I said.

He stretched, arching his back and yawning. “You too?” I asked.

He gave an offhand murr that might have been a yes.

I poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, curling one leg underneath me. Hercules launched himself into my lap. He craned his neck to look in my mug.

“It’s coffee.”

He sat back on my leg and looked around the kitchen.

“I’ll get breakfast in a minute,” I said. I pushed up the sleeves of my shirt and took another drink of my coffee.

Herc bumped my free hand with his head and I stroked his fur.

“How am I going to tell Marcus that he could be a suspect in his friend’s death?’ I asked the cat. I set my cup down and massaged the back of my neck. “How do I tell him her death wasn’t an accident?”

My plan had been to invite Marcus for dinner, but now that seemed like such a long time away. “Hope said she thought the medical examiner’s official report would be ready on Monday, but what if she’s wrong? I don’t want him to be blindsided.”

Hercules hopped off my lap and walked over to the back door. He didn’t go through it; he just sat down and stared pointedly at it, then looked over his shoulder at me.

“I don’t want to have coffee on the porch,” I said. “I don’t have any socks on and I don’t have a fur coat like you do.”

He made a sound in the back of his throat, which could have best been described as an expression of exasperation. I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me. I was tired and trying not to give in to the worry gnawing at my insides.

Hercules came back across the floor to me. I’d left my purse and keys on one of the chairs the night before. He stood on his hind legs and swept the keys to the floor. Then he sat down, shot me a look and started to wash his face.

Door. Keys. I was supposed to make the connection and I likely would have, if I’d had more sleep. I needed to talk to Marcus before I could deal with anything else.

Marcus.

Door.

Keys.

“You think I should go talk to him right now,” I said.

Hercules looked up at me, his white tipped paw paused in midair. “Merow,” he said. It was about as close to “Well, duh,” as a cat could get.

I got to my feet, put my cup in the sink and got four stinky crackers from the cupboard. I put the crackers at his feet. “You’re a very smart cat,” I said.

I went upstairs, brushed my hair and teeth and found a pair of socks. I didn’t bother with makeup and I didn’t call Marcus, either. I went back downstairs and put out breakfast for both cats. There was still no sign of Owen but I found Hercules in his favorite spot on the bench in the porch.