Claws for Alarm

by Cate Conte

  “She’s right,” Craig said.

  I spun around, amazed. “I am?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah. They’re never going to let us anywhere near them. We have no concrete evidence, aside from the different leashes, and someone already in custody. But I think you’re right. I think this Hollywood bunch had something to do with it.” He held Ellory’s gaze. Ellory looked like he’d swallowed something nasty, but said nothing. Craig turned back to me. “So what do you suggest?”

  I repeated my idea. Craig looked at Ellory. “It’s worth a shot. Look, we already have cops crawling the marina to protect them.” He used air quotes and an eye roll to accentuate this. “We can send her in with a wire.”

  “Lucas can come with me,” I offered.

  “Great,” Ellory said. “Let’s endanger two citizens instead of one. And what happens if Maddie gets her talking and they realize it’s a setup? They can motor that stupid behemoth boat right out of the harbor.”

  “Yeah, at five miles an hour,” Craig said. “They won’t get far. Plus we can alert the Coast Guard to be on standby.”

  “Her grandfather will kill us,” Ellory said. “You of all people should know that.” He pointed at Craig.

  “Not if we involve him,” Craig said. “Actually, maybe we send him in with her instead.”

  “He’s still a civilian,” Ellory snapped.

  “A highly trained one with thirty-five years on the force,” Craig said dryly.

  Ellory’s inner struggle played out on his face as Craig and I waited. In the end, thankfully, he must’ve decided that the danger of putting the wrong person on trial outweighed a careful sting operation. “I guess I’m outvoted. Okay, let’s get this in motion. Maddie, call Novak back. Tell him you can bring the cat over at”—he checked his watch—“four o’clock. That will give us time to get in place. Tomlin, call Mancini and get him on board. I’ll pull a team together and let the chief know.”

  Chapter 43

  “Maddie. Can you hear me?”

  Craig’s voice came through clear as day in my ear. “Copy,” I said. “Or should I say ‘Roger’?”

  I pretty much heard Craig roll his eyes on the other end of the line. “Don’t worry about it. You won’t be on this thing long enough to need to know the lingo.”

  Grandpa and I were in Grandma’s old car with Ashley in her carrier, waiting for the patrol officer’s signal to turn into the marina. Of course I had no intention of giving Ashley to Peyton at this point, but if I tried to waltz on to the yacht with no cat, it would be apparent that something was off.

  “Now you listen,” Grandpa said, turning to me. “You stay close to me and let me take the lead. Okay? This isn’t a TV show.”

  He hadn’t been sold on my idea, but Craig and Ellory—once I’d convinced Ellory—had done a good job of convincing him and letting him be unofficially in charge of putting the plan together. I also got the sense their chief hadn’t been a huge proponent. Ellory had to go to his office with all the theories and do the whole song and dance to convince him. In the end, the chief must have weighed the consequences of letting me and Grandpa leverage our relationships with the consequences of sending an innocent woman to jail and decided to give it his blessing. I imagined Ellory would pay dearly if things went south, though, so I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.

  “Got it,” I told Grandpa, aware that a whole bevy of cops were listening.

  “Good. Mick.” He spoke to his wire. “Do we know how many security people are there?”

  “The team this morning reported two out on the dock. No idea who is on the boat.”

  The officer at the gate waved us in. I drove to a spot near the dock and parked, then took a deep breath. I hoped I wasn’t wrong here. But my gut was telling me that I wasn’t. Someone on this boat had committed these crimes. Most likely Peyton herself. And if Ellory didn’t think I could be right, he wouldn’t have signed off on this.

  “Remember what I said,” Grandpa told me as we got out of the car.

  “I got it.” I grabbed Ashley’s carrier, squared my shoulders, and marched toward the docks. Chad must have cleared us with the goons out front, because they waved us through. I went up to the little door on the side that Val and I had used the other day and knocked once, then pushed it open.

  “Hello,” I called, using my brightest voice. “It’s Maddie.”

  Grandpa followed me through the little foyer into the giant living room. Chad was in the room, alone. He looked kind of … off. But that was to be expected if he had committed murder or assault and was trying to get out of Dodge.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Hey.”

  Esther appeared in the doorway.

  “Hello, Leo. Maddie.” She nodded at us.

  “I’ll take her,” Chad said, reaching for Ashley’s carrier.

  I held it out of his reach. “Unfortunately I can’t do that. Peyton needs to sign the paperwork as the adopter. We have an agreement that we need in writing for all our adoptions. Is she here?”

  He looked like he wanted to punch me in the face. “No,” he said through gritted teeth. “Obviously she’s at the hospital with Marco.”

  “Oh. How is he doing, by the way?” I asked. I could feel Grandpa getting stiff beside me. He didn’t want me talking, but I felt like taking this conversation through its natural course was the only way this was going to work.

  “No change.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” Grandpa said. “Have they made any progress on the investigation?”

  “They don’t report to me,” Chad said.

  “And no one has any idea how he ended up out on the beach after you dropped him off that day?” Grandpa asked. “I would think with all the people guarding the boat that someone would have seen him coming or going, no? Don’t they both have security that follows them when they go out?”

  Chad shook his head. “Marco never wanted it.” He looked like he was about to say more, but then he clammed up.

  “Why don’t I sign for Peyton?” Esther broke in. “I do most of those things for her anyway. And I live with her, so it would be like she’s my cat anyway, right?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I really need the formal adopter to sign the paperwork. Do you want to call me when she’s back and I’ll come back with her?”

  “No,” Chad said. “She really wants the cat to be here when she returns.”

  “And my granddaughter just told you that isn’t going to happen,” Grandpa said smoothly, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  “Honest to goodness,” Esther said with a sigh. “Why does everything have to be so difficult?”

  I turned, wanting to ask her what she meant, and it took me a second to process what I saw. Esther held a small pistol in her hand, pointed straight at us.

  Chapter 44

  Grandpa shot a warning look my way. He didn’t need to. I was still trying to reconcile Esther holding this gun.

  “All of you. Out here.” She motioned toward the sliding doors that led out to the deck, unfortunately on the side of the boat facing the water, away from the plethora of cops out in the marina. “I’m sorry, Leo. I do think you’re lovely, but now you’re in my way.” She motioned to Chad. “You too. Out there.”

  Grandpa took my elbow, giving it a reassuring squeeze as Esther shepherded us out the door and closed it firmly behind us. I noticed that there was a cat carrier out here too, by the railing. And Rhiannon was inside. Next to the carrier there was a suitcase.

  Holy crap. They were going to try to escape on the lifeboat. Without Peyton? Was she really at the hospital? Did this mean she was innocent?

  “Why is she out here?” I asked, pointing to Rhiannon. “It’s too hot!”

  Esther chuckled. “That’s the least of your worries, my dear. Chad. Get the boat ready.”

  Stiffly, Chad went over to the railing. I could see the top of the lifeboat, mounted to the side of the yacht. Chad began fiddling with the ropes. I wondered if he even knew wh
at he was doing.

  “Esther,” Grandpa said calmly. “Are you going to try to ride a lifeboat out of here? You aren’t going to get far. The Coast Guard has already been alerted. Everyone knows what you’ve done.”

  I gaped at her. “You? You killed Jillian and tried to kill Marco?”

  “Yeah,” Chad said. “She killed my sister.”

  Esther gave him a withering look that suggested he shut up. “I had to. That woman was going to destroy Peyton. Peyton kept letting herself get in deeper and deeper over her head. All those favors, all the endorsements, all the events in exchange for her keeping her mouth shut. And this one wasn’t stopping it,” she said, jerking her gun in Chad’s direction. “Making her go along with the nonsense about Rhiannon. Tipping off the breeder so she could hold it over Peyton’s head too. And the poor cat.” She gazed at the carrier. “It’s not Rhiannon’s fault. She’s as much a victim of this as Peyton is. I should just shoot him now and get it over with, but I figure I’ll wait until we’re out further.” She smiled a chilling smile at Chad. “Hopefully there will be some sharks out there.”

  Wow. I’d never really thought of Esther as a sweet old lady—I’d never thought much of her at all—but she looked truly frightening at this moment. And Chad looked murderous. I wondered if he was afraid, or if he had a plan that he was waiting to put into action. I hoped Mick was listening to this and they were going to send in reinforcements.

  “So you killed Jillian,” I repeated, trying to keep her talking. I had no idea what she planned to do with us if she was going to shoot Chad and feed him to the sharks.

  “I did. It was quite easy,” she said. “I knew where she’d be. I knew everything about her. It’s one of the benefits of being invisible to most people. They can’t see what’s right under their noses. So I left early that morning, took the walking path all the way up the beach and over to the hotel. I knew she’d be outside. She went out there every morning. My plan was to get her alone to talk. But they’d cleared the patio for your meeting.” She smiled at me. “Quite thoughtful of them and they saved me some trouble.”

  “You brought Rhiannon’s leash with you to do it?” I asked.

  “Actually, I brought it with me to make sure she was handling the revisions. It was one of the things I wanted to talk to her about. I really did go there to talk. But as usual, she was impossible. And she dismissed me like…” Esther’s jaw set and she shook her head. “I started to leave, but then she sat down and turned her back on me. And before I knew it … well. Let’s just say it happened fast.”

  “And Marco? Was that you too?” I could see Grandpa out of the corner of my eye, inching away from me, sliding just out of Esther’s peripheral vision. I hoped he knew what he was doing. I hoped he had a gun, although I was pretty sure he did. He usually did. Not a lot of people realized that he still carried, but he’d told me once that he did. I imagined it was an ingrained habit, and at the moment I was grateful for it. Not that I assumed he’d want to just shoot Esther, but at least he could defend us.

  She sniffed with disdain. “He was going to ruin it all. Throw it all away for that nurse. I don’t care about his reputation. Peyton is more important than him anyway. But that means she has more to lose. He was easy too. Drunk as a skunk, as usual. I told him we were going to get some breakfast. The security team was used to him going out on his own so they didn’t even blink an eye. Walked him right down to the beach and clocked him. I would’ve made sure I got the job done, but then I was interrupted by some tourist.” She sniffed.

  “Where is Peyton really?” I asked. “She’s not at the hospital, is she.” I looked at Chad. He gave a slight shake of his head. Had Esther done something to her? Was she about to? Or was Peyton in on this and getting ready to make her grand exit too?

  “That’s it. Stop talking,” she snapped, advancing on me.

  After that, everything happened so fast I barely had time to think.

  Chad leapt forward, grabbed Rhiannon’s cat carrier, and in one awful move flung the carrier off the side of the boat, shouting something about how all the problems had started because of the cat. Esther screamed. At the same moment, Grandpa came up behind Esther, striking her head with the butt of his own gun. With a cry, she went down.

  And I didn’t even think twice—I raced to the railing and flung myself over the side, one thought screaming in my mind: Save the cat.

  Chapter 45

  The shock of the water left me gasping. I’d thought it would be warmer. Still, I didn’t think twice. Once I resurfaced and opened my eyes, I cast around to see where the carrier was. I could just see the top of it floating about ten feet from me.

  I dove under and swam like our lives depended on it—Rhiannon’s did—and reached it, yanking it out of the water and holding it above me, tilting it so the water would drain out, while treading water furiously to keep myself afloat as I gauged the distance to the shore. The boat was so long that I was all the way out at the end of the dock—and I wasn’t sure I should try to head back there. It felt safer to head straight to shore, which wasn’t far, but looked like a mile right now. I was a good swimmer, but this carrier full of soaking-wet cat was heavy. And poor Rhiannon must be so terrified. I heard her furious meows and was grateful—I hadn’t been sure if she’d inhaled any water.

  Seriously, how was I supposed to swim with this cat? I could hear shouts and sirens all around me and really hoped that meant someone was coming to help.

  But I couldn’t wait. Holding the carrier high with one hand so it skimmed the water, I used my other arm to slowly start swimming, cursing myself for wearing jeans today. They were weighing me down and making me colder. Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to keep going.

  And then I heard a motor behind me. Praying it wasn’t Chad or someone from their sphere, I turned around, still kicking my feet to stay afloat. And almost cried when I saw it was Craig and another cop in a little orange boat. They pulled up next to me. Craig reached over and grabbed the carrier, placing it on the floor of the boat. Then he grabbed one arm while the other cop grabbed my other arm, and they hauled me up and over the side.

  “You okay?” Craig asked.

  I nodded, feeling my legs and arms go completely weak, and collapsed on the floor.

  Craig motored the boat to the shore. The other cop jumped out and helped pull it onto the sand. Someone ran up to the boat with a towel. Craig took it and wrapped it around me, then helped me climb out of the boat.

  “Is Rhiannon okay? Can you bring her to a vet? What about Grandpa?” I asked anxiously.

  “Everyone’s okay. They have Esther and Chad. It’s over, Maddie.”

  Thank God. “What about Peyton?” I asked.

  Craig shook his head. “They found her on the boat. They think she’s okay, but still waiting to hear. Come on, let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”

  Chapter 46

  “Thank you all so much for coming. You have no idea how much this means, not only to us, but to all the animals on the island who need help, like Thurber.” Katrina snapped her fingers, and the dog who had been patiently sitting at her feet sprang up onto the dais and gave her a kiss.

  The crowd in the tent applauded. We still had a full house—all the people who’d bought tickets honored their purchase and had come together as scheduled to help our animals, despite the cat scandal that Becky’s team had broken last night on the Chronicle’s website, with a more detailed story in the print edition today. Val and I had assumed the event would be dead in the water, but we’d started getting phone calls first thing this morning that the community was still supportive of the event. In fact, the very first call was from Lilah Gilmore, one of our influential island elders, which was basically an invitation to others to jump on board. So they did, much to Katrina’s elation.

  I stepped back up to the mic. “So while we don’t have our official guest of honor tonight, she asked me to convey her thanks and much love for all of your support, and she’s asked for our gue
st list. She’ll be sending each of you a gift of her appreciation, and she wanted me to tell you all that she has committed to a monthly donation to JJ’s House of Purrs of ten thousand dollars a month.”

  The audience cheered again. There had been pockets of discussion about the whole cat scandal at the beginning of the event, but I’d put my best public-relations hat on and spun it to make Peyton sound like a saint who had lost her beloved cat and didn’t want to disappoint her fans—which of course was all true.

  “Did she adopt the other cat?” someone else called out.

  “She did. And what’s more, she pledged to add more rescue cats to her household this year.” I smiled as the audience cheered and toasted her. Peyton really did love cats, and she’d been horrified when she heard what Chad had done to her precious Rhiannon. And she loved Ashley—that was undeniable.

  What we hadn’t shared with the crowd was the fact that her own agent and his sister—Chad and Jillian—were blackmailing her for obscene amounts of money to keep this secret that they’d somehow convinced her would make or break her career. Same as they’d done to Marco. It was incredibly sad to me that they’d had such a hold over both of them—two of the biggest stars in the world who couldn’t figure out how to remove themselves from their grasp. But luckily, Chad was going down too. While he hadn’t been part of the murder and had only found out about Esther when she decided they all needed to leave the island so she didn’t get caught, he’d been just as guilty of his own crimes. Jo and her team of agents had been more than happy to take him down for blackmail as part of this operation. And, she’d even stuck around for the party. I saw her in the back, leaning against the wall, observing the crowd as if she were still searching for a criminal mastermind.