Софи Келли - Paws Аnd Effect

* * *

I waited until seven thirty to call Hope. “I know how ridiculous this sounds,” I said, explaining my leaps of logic while leaving out the cat’s role in the process.

“I’ve seen cases solved with thinner hunches,” Hope said. “I’ll go out there and look for him. I’ll call you later.”

I was on the back steps shaking the mat from the porch when I spotted Rebecca coming from her house carrying a beautiful golden-orange chrysanthemum. I walked across the grass to meet her.

“Good morning,” she said, holding out the plant.

“Is this for me?” I asked.

Rebecca smiled. “It’s for the library. Abigail is going to put it on the table in the reading corner. She said you’re decorating for the Halloween party.”

I nodded. “She told me she was going to see what she could scrounge to brighten up that spot.”

“Well, I’m one of the scroungees,” Rebecca said.

I took the plant from her. “Did John come to see you?” I asked.

She nodded and her smile faded. “Yes, he did. He told me that he couldn’t find anything that would stop the development. I was hoping for a different outcome.”

“You and me both.”

“The day you introduced us at the library I really believed we had a chance.” She adjusted the yellow scarf at her neck. “It’s not that I’m against progress. It’s just that I don’t want to see a beautiful piece of land destroyed.” She raised her eyebrows slightly. “Everett called me a tree-hugger.”

“I’m sure he meant it as a compliment.”

“If I thought that going out there and chaining myself to one of those trees would stop this whole thing I’d do it, but I think Ernie Kingsley would just cut it right out from under my feet.”

I smiled at her over the top of the plant. “From what I’ve heard about the man, you’re probably right.”

“The day John came out to see the rest of my mother’s journals started out with so much hope and it ended in such a dark way.”

That was the day Dani had been killed and we were still no closer to figuring out who her killer was.

Rebecca leaned sideways to look at Hercules sitting on the step. “Are you coming over?” she asked the cat.

“Merow,” he said.

“All right, then. See you tomorrow.” She smiled at me and headed back across the lawn. Half the people I knew talked to my cats like they were people. At least it made it seem a lot less odd now when I did it.

* * *

Marcus called me mid-morning at the library to cancel our flea market plans. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Brady thinks the prosecuting attorney may be going to take everything to the grand jury sometime in the next couple of weeks.”

I drop into my desk chair as my stomach flip-flopped. “How can they do that when you haven’t done anything wrong?”

“The prosecutor doesn’t want it to look like he’s treating me any differently than he would anyone else.”

“So he’d do this to any other person who’s innocent?”

“Kath,” he said gently.

I sighed. “What did Brady say?”

“That’s why I have to cancel. He wants me to meet him at his office so we can go over everything.”

“Go,” I urged. “Call me when you’re done and we’ll do something.”

“Ummm, I like the sound of that,” he said.

My face got warm. “How’s your dad?” I asked, partly to change the subject.

Marcus laughed. “Last time I checked he was sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of aspirin and an entire pot of coffee. Is it wrong that I might have laughed?”

“Yes,” I said, “but I probably would have done the same thing.”

I heard some kind of crash in the background. “I’ve gotta go,” Marcus said. “Everything will be okay. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said. I wanted to believe everything was going to be okay. But it seemed to me that it was going to need a nudge or two.

13

Hope called as I was getting into the truck after the library had closed at lunchtime for the day. “Are you still at the library?” she asked.

“I’m just about to head home.”

“Do you mind if I stop in for a minute?”

“No,” I said. I didn’t have any plans anymore. “Did you find Ira?”

“Yes,” she said. “I’ll tell you all about it when I get there.”

When I pulled into the driveway Hope pulled in right behind. I grabbed my briefcase and got out of the truck. “So Ira was there, on the other side of the lake?”

She nodded. “Living in his truck just back from the water in a little clearing in the trees. He’s only been there a couple of days. He knows someone with an apple U-pick up north and he’s been working there. Ira’s actually a pretty interesting man.”

“You don’t think he killed Dani.”

She shook her head. “No. His right arm is basically useless. I suspect he had a stroke at some point in the past. There’s no way he would have been able to pick her up, let alone throw her over the embankment. And I took a look at the truck. It’s banged up in places but nothing recent and nothing that makes it look like it hit someone.”

“It was a long shot anyway,” I said with a small sigh.

“Hey, I’m impressed that you figured out where he was. If you ever want to give up being a librarian . . .” She grinned.

“I’ll go work for Burtis Chapman,” I said, “because I’d make a lousy detective.”

“I think you’re pretty good at it.”

My stomach growled loudly then. “Have you had lunch?” I asked.

“I thought maybe I’d head over to Fern’s,” Hope said with a shrug.

“I have soup and brownies,” I said. “And cats who will at least pretend to listen while you talk about your day.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said.

Owen was in the kitchen lying on the floor on his back, chewing on the head of a funky chicken. He lifted his head to look at us and I thought he looked just a little buzzed on the catnip.

“Should I start looking for the body?” Hope asked.

“It’s probably under the fridge,” I said.

“Do you know why he bites the heads off?”

“He likes to chew on them and suck on the beak part. Roma thinks he was separated from his mother too soon.” I washed my hands and reached for the placemats and napkins.

“Just let me wash up and I’ll do that,” Hope said.

I left the things on the table and got the soup out of the fridge and a pot from the cupboard so I could heat it up for us.

“You found Owen and Hercules at Wisteria Hill, right?” Hope asked as she set the table.

“More like they found me,” I said, “but yes.”

“It’s beautiful out there. I know the resort is supposed to bring money and jobs but I can’t help thinking I’d rather have the trees than an ugly glass-and-metal building.”

“You haven’t heard?”

Hope was folding a napkin into some kind of triangular shape. She looked up at me. “Heard what?” Then before I could answer she made the connection. “Ah crap. Marcus’s friends didn’t find anything. Did they?”

I opened the cupboard for a couple of bowls. “No. It doesn’t look like there’s any way to stop things now.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given that John Keller was doing all the work since Danielle McAllister’s death.”

“Wait a minute,” I said. “What do mean?” Hercules had come in and was sitting by the table. He murped a soft inquiry as well. Owen was still engrossed in his chicken.

Hope smiled down at the little tuxedo cat and waggled her fingers at him.

“I think I told you that I did some background checking on both John and Travis Rosen.”

I nodded.

“Turns out he used to work as a lobbyist for a consortium of construction companies.”