Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

Maggie put a hand on Brady’s leg. “Want a slice?” she asked.

He nodded and then held up two fingers. “Two, maybe?”

They moved into the kitchen. Roma touched my arm and I shifted in my seat to face her.

“I have a suggestion. I don’t know if it will help.”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember when we were trying to find out how Tom—my father—died?”

“I remember,” I said. It had been a very painful time for Roma, finding out that the biological father she’d thought had abandoned her had really been dead for almost all of her life.

“The key to figuring that out was learning more about him as a person. Maybe that’s true for Dani as well.”

Some of the things I’d learned about Tom Karlsson were ugly, but they had ultimately led to his killer. Maybe I did need to find out more about Dani the person.

I nodded slowly. “Maybe it is.”

11

It was unseasonably warm the next morning. I took my coffee outside. Owen came to sit on the wide arm of the Adirondack chair. He was washing his face when suddenly his head came up. His ears twitched and he turned his head to look at the side of the house. “Mrrr,” he said.

I waited and after a moment Elliot Gordon came around the side of the house.

I got to my feet. “How do you do that?” I said to Owen. He’d already resumed washing his face and ignored me.

“Good morning,” Elliot said. He was wearing jeans and a close-fitting black sweater with black leather shoulder and elbow patches. And he was carrying a large manila envelope.

“Good morning,” I said. I held up my mug. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I would, if it’s no trouble.”

“It’s already made.” I gestured to the door. “Come into the kitchen.”

I got Elliot a cup of coffee, refilled my own and we sat at the table. He slid the envelope across the table to me.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Everything I’ve been able to find on the McAllister family.”

I pulled out a sheaf of papers. There were notes in fine, neat handwriting made in the margins of some of the pages. I suspected this was research done by a legal assistant.

“Can you give me the short version?”

“American Land Trust, the organization Danielle McAllister worked for, is funded by her grandmother.”

I frowned, flipping through the pages. “Are you sure?”

He didn’t say anything and when I looked up the expression on his face told me he was just going to ignore my question.

“The money is filtered through a number of different corporate entities,” he said.

“Which means it’s not common knowledge—or something the family wanted to be common knowledge.”

“I think that’s a safe assumption,” Elliot said, adding cream to his coffee.

“Do you think Dani knew?” I asked.

He nodded over the top of his coffee cup. “Based on when the organization was formed and when she went to work for them I don’t see how she couldn’t.”

“The McAllisters have a lot of money.”

“Old money,” Elliot said. “There’s a difference, you know, between old money and nouveau riche.”

“Old money brings tradition, prestige, influence, connections,” I said.

He nodded, taking another sip of his coffee. “Exactly.”

I remembered the story Maggie had told me about Dani’s brother. “Dominic McAllister is a developer. I’m not trying to imply developers don’t care about the environment.”

“McAllister doesn’t,” Elliot said flatly.

“I’ll take your word on that,” I said. I took a sip of my own coffee. “So if environmental concerns aren’t at the top of Dominic McAllister’s priorities, why did the family secretly fund an organization that seems to be at cross-purposes to their day-to-day business?”

“Not the family. Matilda McAllister.”

Hercules wandered in from the living room, glanced at us as he passed the table and went to sit in front of the door to the porch. I got up and opened it for him, grateful that he hadn’t just walked through the way he often did.

“Dani’s grandmother,” I said as I retook my seat.

“She controls the family trust and has money of her own,” Elliot said. “Dani has always had her grandmother’s favor and ear.”

I sighed. “Which also means access to her money.”

“Something some other family members haven’t been happy about.”

I stretched one arm up over my head. “So are you suggesting someone in her family killed her over that?” I sounded skeptical because I was.

“Rumor has it that Matilda has the ear of the governor, not to mention several other powerful people in the State House.”

I tried to follow the logic through. “So if Dani could find any reason to stop the project at Long Lake, no matter how flimsy, between pressure exerted by the coalition and her grandmother’s influence the project would have been scuttled.”

It gave Ernie Kingsley even more of a motive. I thought about my deal with Simon. I was going to hold him to his promise to set up a meeting with the developer. As far as I was concerned I definitely still wanted it.

“Kingsley-Pearson is leveraged to the hilt. If this project folds the company will go under.” Elliot’s face hardened.

“You think someone from the company could be involved,” I said.

“I think neither one of us wants my son to be accused of something he didn’t do.” He had a great poker face. I wouldn’t want to play cards with the man.

“That’s true,” I said.

“You doubt my intentions.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t. I believe that you care about Marcus and you want to help him. But as my friend Burtis says, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. You didn’t just come out here to share information. You could have done that over the phone. So tell me what else you want.”

He leaned back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. “I want you to give this information to my son’s lawyer. If I give it to Marcus I’m not sure he’ll even look at it. “

“I can do that,” I said. I picked up the papers and put them back in the envelope.

“You and Burtis are friends,” Elliot said. “How did that happen?”

“He saved my life. He and Marcus. And my cats like his turkey jerky.”

“Next time you see him tell him I said hello.”

I nodded. “I will. And just so you know, he still lives in the same place.”

He smiled but didn’t say anything.

After Elliot left I went out to the porch and sat down next to Hercules, who was looking out the window. “Interesting man,” I said.

He wrinkled his nose at me almost as though he was agreeing.

I looked at my watch. I’d been mulling over Roma’s advice to learn more about Dani. I’d told Marcus I wanted to talk to both John and Travis. “Maybe now is a good time,” I said to Hercules.

He jumped down and headed for the kitchen door, meowing at me without even looking back.

I’d made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies after I’d gotten home from Maggie’s. Now I put a dozen in a bag to take to Travis. Hercules was sitting by my shoes.

“Want to come with me?” I asked.

“Meow,” he said, eyeing the bag with the cookies, whiskers twitching.

“No, these are for Travis,” I said. “Do you still want to come?”

I couldn’t help grinning as he cocked his head to one side, seemingly considering the question. “Mrrr,” he said after a moment of thought.

I gestured at the door. “Let’s go.”

We drove out to the Bluebird Motel first, Hercules on the passenger seat beside me, looking through the windshield and making little noises from time to time as though he were giving directions.

Even though Ruby wanted to sell the piece of land her grandfather, Idris, had left to her, she’d given John and Travis permission to access it, so if Travis wasn’t at the Bluebird I’d head for Wisteria Hill.