Miranda James - Classified as Murder

While Anita spoke, I had been covertly glancing at Diesel. He had her bag on its side, and his head and shoulders were inside it. I really should reprimand him, and if the bag had belonged to anyone else, I probably would have.

Anita drew my attention back to her with that second question. “Surprises? What kind of surprises?” Would she admit to knowing that Mr. Delacorte suspected items from the collection were missing?

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, her tone nonchalant. “I never got to see the collection, so who knows what’s in it.”

I was no longer paying attention to her, because my cat had pulled a wad of clothing and other objects out of Anita’s bag and was now digging among them. “Diesel, stop that, right now.”

The cat froze for a moment at the sound of my command, but then he resumed his search. Whatever was in there was something he obviously wanted in the worst way. Normally he was good about obeying me.

I started forward, and when Anita realized what was going on, she started screeching and pushed me out of the way to get to Diesel.

Diesel froze again, but this time he had something in his mouth. I kept up with Anita because I was afraid she might strike the cat, and I wasn’t going to let that happen, even if I had to push her out of the way.

Diesel had found a Baggie of cheese chunks in Anita’s tote, and he scrambled under the sofa with it. As Anita squatted to retrieve her things, I got down beside her to peer under the sofa. I had to stop my errant feline before he got into that cheese. He could tolerate small amounts of cheese, but too much would make him sick.

Without meaning to, I had put my knee on some of Anita’s things. Her loud screech in my ear startled me, and I moved my knee. Anita snatched up the sweater I had knelt on, and underneath it was a clear archival folder like the ones I used to protect valuable documents for the college library.

Anita grabbed at it, but her fingers slipped. When she reached for it again, I latched on to her hand.

I had seen what was in that folder.

Tamerlane .

THIRTY-TWO

I figured Diesel had earned his cheese. I wasn’t worried about him eating the Baggie. He knew how to get into one and extract the contents. I had to hope he wouldn’t try to devour all the cheese before I had a chance to stop him.

Anita wrenched her hand out of my grasp. The momentum caused her to fall out of her squatting position and land hard on the floor on her behind.

I pulled my handkerchief out of my pants pocket and used it to pick up the archival folder. I stood and looked down at Anita. “Your trip out of town wouldn’t have anything to do with this, would it? Found a buyer already?”

Anita didn’t respond. I could almost see the wheels turning in her brain as she labored to find a reply. She scrambled to her feet, and I thought she was going to bolt. I moved between her and the door, but I had misread her intentions. She scurried over to the bell near the fireplace and slammed her hand against the button.

“Thanks,” I said. “When Truesdale responds to that, I’ll ask him to call the sheriff’s department for me. Deputy Berry is going to be mighty interested in this.” I brandished the folder. “And how you came by it.”

Anita squared her shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s mine, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh, really.” I couldn’t believe the nerve of the woman. “That’s really interesting. Mr. Delacorte had a copy of it, too.”

Anita’s eyes widened. “He did?” She was doing her best to appear surprised. “Now isn’t that an odd coincidence. I had no idea. Imagine, two copies of Tamerlane in Athena.”

“Yes, imagine that.” I found it interesting that she had made no further attempts to take the folder away from me. She remained near the fireplace and didn’t take her eyes off me.

I remembered Diesel and the cheese. I called out to him, and his head appeared from under the sofa. “Come here, boy,” I said. “You’ve had enough cheese.”

He meowed twice before he crawled from under the sofa and made his way to my side.

“That damn cat.” Anita threw Diesel an angry look. “He ought to stay at home, where he belongs.”

I didn’t bother to reply. I heard the door open. I turned to see Truesdale enter the room.

“Someone rang?” He paused a few feet away from me and glanced back and forth between me and Anita a couple times. Then he spotted the folder I held, and he frowned.

Anita ran to him with her arms open. “Oh, Nigel, it’s so awful. Charlie stole that thing, whatever it is, and now he’s going to try to tell people he found it in my bag. You can’t let him get away with that.”

I was so shocked I almost dropped the folder. “Don’t be ridiculous, Anita. When the FBI investigates, I’m sure they’ll find your fingerprints all over this.”

“FBI?” Truesdale put up his hands to ward Anita off. She stepped back, appearing confused. “What has the FBI got to do with anything?”

I watched Anita’s face as I replied. “They’re going to be investigating the thefts from Mr. Delacorte’s collection.” Anita paled and began to tremble.

Truesdale glanced at her. “What have you done, Anita?” The distaste in his voice was obvious.

“Nigel, honey, don’t look at me like that.” Anita smiled in what she probably thought was a coquettish fashion, but to me it simply looked like she had gas in her stomach. “I’m sure we can get this sorted out. After all, that belongs to you now.” She pointed to the folder. “Why don’t you just take it and put it back in the library, and we can forget all about this.”

“That’s utterly ridiculous,” I said. “ Tamerlane isn’t the only thing you’ve stolen from the collection, and you know it.” I remembered the bracelet. “Where did your gentleman friend get the money to buy you that expensive piece of jewelry? Tell us that.”

Anita clutched at her wrist as if trying to hide the bracelet. Truesdale’s eyes narrowed as he regarded her. “So Mr. James was correct in thinking that items were missing from the collection.” He turned to me. “What has been stolen?”

“I think you’d better wait and speak to Deputy Berry about that.” I suddenly realized that if I started giving details about the missing books, Kanesha would probably be angry with me. She was the one running the investigation, and I had to be careful. “As a matter of fact, I think we need to call her right now.”

“That sounds like a very good idea.” Truesdale’s tone was grim. He strode over to a table near one of the bay windows and opened a box. He pulled out a telephone and punched in a number.

While he spoke with the sheriff’s department, I kept an eye on Anita. Diesel rubbed against my legs to remind me he was there, and I stroked his head a few times. Anita’s gaze swung back and forth between me and the door, and I feared she might try to run away. I moved a few feet closer to the door, and she glared at me.

“Deputy Berry is on her way here.” Truesdale came to stand by me, and we both watched Anita.

“Nigel, I can’t believe you’re acting this way. After all the nice things I’ve done for you, too.” Anita pouted. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have known what was in Mr.—”

“Quiet!”

Truesdale was so loud and fierce as he roared out that one word. Anita, Diesel, and I all jumped.

In a quieter but still firm tone, he continued, “I think you had better not say anything more until you have an attorney to represent you. You wouldn’t want to say anything that could get you into deeper trouble, would you?”