by Cate Conte
Grandpa sighed. “He doesn’t consider himself rich, Maddie. He barely taps into that money, as you can probably tell. He uses it mostly for charity. Animal-related charity. And he certainly doesn’t want anyone to know about it.”
“The horse might’ve left the barn on that one, Grandpa. No pun intended.” But something had been working its way around my brain ever since that moment in the trailer when the $5 million number had been tossed around like mere pennies. I looked at Grandpa now. “He funded the house. For the cat cafe. He was our anonymous benefactor.”
I knew I was right. It was the only thing that made sense. That mystery had been nagging at me since the summer.
But either Grandpa didn’t want to admit it because of pride or he truly had never asked and didn’t know for sure. He squeezed me tighter. “The benefactor was anonymous, Maddie. Let’s just be thankful whoever he or she was cared enough to help us out when we needed it. That’s the beauty of being part of a community, isn’t it?”
Chapter 63
Grandpa wanted to go home, but I wanted to stay and see Leopard Man when he was ready for visitors. So he settled on a couch in the family area and I went looking for coffee. But as I walked through the lobby, I decided to detour out the front door to get some fresh air. And found Lexie Holt sitting on a bench.
I went to sit next to her. “Nice arm, slugger.”
She smiled a little. “Thanks. I hope I don’t ever have to use it again. And thanks for unlocking the trunk.”
“Anytime. You okay?”
She nodded. “Waiting for a cab.”
“Are you leaving tomorrow?”
“I’m going to try. I still need to figure out how to get Jason home.” She looked at me. “But I was thinking about coming back to your place first.”
“My place? Why?”
She took a breath. “I want to adopt Jasmine. I feel like she’s my last link to Jason and … I hope you say yes.”
Impulsively, I leaned over and hugged her. “Of course you can adopt Jasmine. I’m sure she’ll like California.”
“Colorado,” she corrected. “I’m moving. I don’t want to be around … my old life anymore. I have family out there and, well. I just think it will help.”
“It will,” I said. “I think that’s smart, Lexie.”
“Maddie?” We both turned at Grandpa’s voice. He and Craig were in the doorway. “There you are. And there’s a message for you on my phone. I didn’t realize until just now. Lucas called me because he couldn’t get ahold of you.”
Because my phone was on the side of the road somewhere. “Excuse me,” I said to Lexie, and hurried in to take Grandpa’s phone. He was looking at me curiously.
I understood why when I heard the message. It was brief, and Lucas sounded far away, like he was already somewhere else. “Maddie. I couldn’t reach you. I hope everything’s okay out there with the storm. Listen, I’m at the airport. I have to go out of town for a few days. I probably won’t be back until after Thanksgiving.” A pause. “I’m sorry.”
And that was it.
Blinking back tears, I handed the phone back to Grandpa. “I’m going to go get coffee,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t ask me about it, because I knew I would cry. I turned to go, but Craig’s hand was on my arm.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked.
Chapter 64
Thanksgiving morning, and the island had pretty much returned to normal. The storm had moved out to sea and the roads were drying out, although the sun hadn’t yet returned to shine on us.
The gloom and clouds fit my mood.
I sat at the kitchen table, nursing my second cup of coffee and picking at the pumpkin muffin Ethan had made me. It was delicious, but I had no appetite. I still hadn’t heard from Lucas, and he hadn’t yet returned to the island. I wasn’t sure what could have caused this, but it couldn’t be good. My mind was jumping to all sorts of bad scenarios: He was secretly married and had a family somewhere, he was in the Mob (were people still in the Mob these days?), he’d been kidnapped by a terrorist.
Why wouldn’t he answer his phone?
“You better get dressed,” Ethan said, poking his head in the kitchen. “We’re going to be late.”
We were heading to my parents’ house for dinner. Well, everyone except Val, who was overseeing Ava-Rose’s big Thanksgiving bash. Ethan was a little sad about that, I could tell. But my mother had been cooking all week. And we had a guest joining us. Leopard Man had been staying with us since he got out of the hospital two days ago. Grandpa wouldn’t let him return to his trailer, said he needed people to keep an eye on him. So he was coming to Thanksgiving dinner.
And rumor had it, he had a date this weekend with a certain librarian.
I was happy about all that. But in general, I wasn’t feeling happy.
“I’m coming,” I said, getting up to refill my coffee.
Ethan watched me. “Doesn’t look like it.”
I sighed. “I am. It won’t take me long.” I glanced at the clock. It was only ten thirty.
“You probably want to hang out and relax before dinner,” he said, reading my mind.
“Why don’t you give me a break?” I sank back into my chair.
He sat across from me. “Look. I know this whole thing with Lucas is weird.”
“Weird? It’s more than weird. He freakin’ ghosted me, pretty much.”
“That’s being dramatic. He has a business here. He’s coming back. Maybe something just happened.”
“Obviously,” I sniffed.
“I mean something that has a good explanation,” Ethan said pointedly. “Meaning, don’t just jump to Doomsday scenarios without any information.”
“Hey, I have some good news,” Grandpa said, coming into the kitchen and cutting off my reply. He was all dressed up today for the festivities, wearing a dashing purple shirt with his favorite black trousers.
We both looked up expectantly.
“Ava-Rose convinced the board to drop the charges against Dr. Drake. And she paid his outstanding hospital bill.”
My eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
Ethan grinned. “Val knew she was a sweet lady underneath all that bluster.”
He was right. She had. And I think Val had forgiven me too, mostly because after the real reason Drake had been stealing was revealed everyone felt terrible for him. Ava-Rose had clearly stepped up to help, and beyond that, her party had come together nicely and she was happy with Val’s work.
All’s well that ends well. Except, of course, for Jason Holt. Ugh. I needed to stop thinking about sad things and go have a nice day with my family. I’d been looking forward to this, after all.
“That’s great,” I said, getting up. “I’d better go get ready.”
Grandpa nodded. “You should. Carl will be right up. And we have another guest coming with us.”
I frowned. “Another guest? Who?” I suddenly had a bad feeling. “Grandpa, please tell me—”
The doorbell rang.
Ethan and I both looked at Grandpa. He smiled and went out to answer the door.
“What did he do?” I asked.
He looked worried. “I don’t know.”
I peered out through the kitchen door and nearly groaned. My grandpa apparently had too much time on his hands now that this murder was solved and felt like I needed a distraction from my worry about Lucas.
Because he’d invited Craig to Thanksgiving dinner with us.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks titles by Cate Conte
CAT ABOUT TOWN
PURRDER SHE WROTE
THE TELL TAIL HEART
About the Author
CATE CONTE is a member of Sisters in Crime National, Sisters in Crime New England, Mystery Writers of America, and the Cat Writers’ Association. She lives in Connecticut with her cats (and a dog). You can sign up for email updates here.
Thank you for buying this
St. Martin's Press ebook.
To receive special off
ers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
St. Martin’s Paperbacks titles by Cate Conte
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
First published in the United States by St. Martin’s Paperbacks, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
THE TELL TAIL HEART
Copyright © 2019 by Liz Mugavero.
Cover design by Mattew Carrera.
Illustration by Robert Crawford.
All rights reserved.
For information address St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.
www.stmartins.com
eISBN: 9781466883468
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / July 2019