Out of Circulation (CAT IN THE STACKS MYSTERY)

by James, Miranda

  They strolled at a sedate pace down the walk to a late-model Lexus parked at the curb. Miss Dickce got in on the driver’s side, and moments later the Lexus took off. Miss Dickce floored it, and it’s a wonder Miss An’gel’s head wasn’t in the backseat somewhere. I sent up a quick prayer for anyone who happened to cross their path, thankful that I was safe inside.

  Chuckling, I went back to the living room and retrieved the plaque. Though I’d promised the sisters I would try to talk to Morty Cassity today, I certainly wasn’t looking forward to it. He might not be a grieving widower, but he might have been the one who pushed Vera down the stairs. I didn’t relish the idea of confronting him on my own, with only Diesel as backup.

  I grinned. Diesel could be pretty fierce on occasion, though. His size sometimes intimidated people, and when he growled he sounded scary to those who didn’t know him.

  Back to the phone to call Melba. Luckily for me she was out, and I left a message. Otherwise I might have been on the phone with her for ten minutes.

  Azalea still hadn’t returned from shopping, and it was now a few minutes past one. While I waited for her to return, I looked up the number of Morty Cassity’s car dealership here in Athena. Might as well try to reach him, see if I could make an appointment.

  I spoke to a man who put me through to Morty’s secretary.

  “I’m sorry, but Mr. Cassity is not here today. His wife passed away yesterday, and he probably won’t be in for a few days. Can someone else help you?”

  I thanked her but said that I would try again next week.

  If Morty wasn’t at work today, then he would probably be at home. I debated whether to call him there but decided that he could easily put me off. Whereas if I showed up on his doorstep with the plaque, he would be more likely to let me in the house.

  I waited another fifteen minutes for Azalea, but to no avail. I might as well go talk to Morty Cassity and get it over with.

  “Come on, Diesel, we’re going for a ride.” I scooped up the plaque, and we headed for the car.

  Ranelagh, the antebellum house the Cassitys had purchased some years ago, was in the same neighborhood as the Delacorte mansion. The drive there didn’t take long, and soon I pulled the car into the oak-lined driveway.

  Ranelagh was smaller than River Hill, but just as lovely, with the same Greek Revival architecture. I’d never been inside, but I’d heard the Cassitys spent a fortune restoring it and filling it with period furniture. The drive wound about fifty yards into the property and curved in front of the house. A leg of the driveway veered off behind the house, and as I rounded the curve I caught a flash of bubble-gum pink from a car parked near the back of the house.

  The only person in Athena I knew who had a car that color was Sissy Beauchamp.

  How interesting.

  TWENTY-TWO

  I hesitated as I stopped the car near the front door. Perhaps I should come back another time. Things could be awkward if Sissy was really here.

  Diesel chirped at me, no doubt wondering why we still sat in the car. That decided me. Forge ahead.

  “Come on, boy.” I grabbed the bag with the plaque and held the door open for the cat.

  I clanged the ornate door knocker three times and waited. Diesel sat at my feet and stared up at me. This was a new place, and he was curious.

  No response. I knocked again, three times.

  Moments later the door opened, and an unshaven, tired-looking Morty Cassity stared out at me. He wore a rumpled suit jacket with a pair of ragged gym shorts. He looked like I’d gotten him out of bed and he’d thrown on the first thing he could find.

  “Good morning, Mr. Cassity. I’m Charlie Harris. We met last night,” I said with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to intrude on you at a time like this, but I have something for you.”

  He glanced down at the shopping bag, then at Diesel. I expected him to reach out for the bag and slam the door in my face, but for whatever reason, he stood aside and motioned me to enter.

  “I’ve heard about your cat,” he said once the door shut behind us. He held out a hand to Diesel, and the cat sniffed it, then butted his head against it. “I’ve always liked cats, but Vera didn’t. Wouldn’t have one in the house.”

  Good thing I’d brought Diesel with me; otherwise he might really have slammed the door in my face.

  “This is Diesel. He’s a Maine Coon.”

  “He’s a big, beautiful boy,” Cassity said. His face looked less drawn as he continued petting the cat. He straightened. “No point standing around here in the hall. Come on into my study.”

  He strode away to a door halfway down the hall. I glanced about as Diesel and I followed him. The hallway at Ranelagh wasn’t that different from the one at River Hill. Beautiful Oriental rugs, antique furniture, and paintings adorned the space. The effect was gracious and elegant.

  The study was more of a library, I thought, as I gazed at a couple of book-lined walls. A large desk occupied one quadrant of the room, but a leather sofa and two chairs sat before a fireplace. Morty Cassity motioned for me to have a seat on the sofa while he took one of the chairs. I expected Diesel to sit with me, but he took up position beside our host’s chair instead. Morty seemed pleased with the attention. Thank goodness for a smart cat, I thought.

  “Again, my apologies for intruding, Mr. Cassity,” I began.

  “Morty, please. Charlie, right?” He didn’t pause in his attentions to the cat.

  “Right. Well, Morty, I’m really sorry about the loss of your wife. She was, um, she did a lot for the community.” I winced inwardly at the awkwardness of that, but I couldn’t bring myself to heap fulsome praise on the dead woman.

  Morty cast me a sharp glance. “Vera was a giant pain in the ass to everybody, me included. She spent a lot of money trying to get people to like her and think she was a Somebody with a capital S.” He grimaced. “I’m not saying that the money didn’t do good. Of course it did, but she didn’t do it out of the generosity of her heart.”

  I wasn’t prepared for such bitterness, even though I knew he hadn’t been happy with his marriage. I couldn’t think of any way to respond to him that wouldn’t sound hypocritical or idiotic. No point in trying to defend Vera, even if I had wanted to.

  My host left off his attentions to Diesel and leaned back in his chair, arms across his chest. “Sorry if I’m shocking you, but I’m too tired right now to give a horse’s patoot what anybody thinks.”

  “I understand,” I said. “It was all a great shock.”

  He snorted. “Only that it didn’t happen years ago. Vera made enemies the way rabbits reproduce. Somebody’d finally had enough, I guess. It wasn’t me that knocked her down the stairs, though.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I said, though it sounded fatuous to me.

  “What have you got in the bag?”

  I extracted the plaque and stood to hand it to him. “The award that the mayor presented last night. The Ducotes’ housekeeper found it this morning.”

  Morty accepted the plaque and stared at it for a moment. Then he reached and stuck it on the seat of the other chair near him. “Vera was livid. You have to give it to those two old busybodies, though. They figured out a way to get Vera off their backs publicly.”

  Someone else figured out how to do it permanently, I added to myself. Was it you, Morty?

  I didn’t quite buy this let-it-all-hang-out routine. Was he really this careless and uncaring, to talk this way to someone he’d met once? Or was it calculated? How could he know I was investigating Vera’s death?

  He could have seen my name in the local paper in connection with the previous murders. In the past six months or so I’d been approached twice by people who thought I was some kind of private detective. Morty Cassity could suspect me of ulterior motives, then.

  “Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce ought to be running a major corporation,” I said. “They definitely know how to get people to do what they want.”

  Morty’s expression hardened as h
e spoke. “They’re completely ruthless when it comes to getting what they want. They’re also devious enough to double-bluff their way out of murder.”

  That second statement shocked me. “What do you mean? Are you accusing them of murdering Vera?”

  He shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s entirely possible. First they stage this elaborate public display, which on the surface of it looks all nice and wonderful. But that’s only a cover-up so nobody would ever think they’d put Vera out of the way permanently.”

  I had to admit—but only to myself—that the Ducote sisters probably were devious enough to think of a scheme like that. But did they despise Vera enough to go to such lengths?

  I put the question to the widower.

  He gazed at me through slitted eyelids. “Vera hated those two old biddies with a passion. I never could figure out why and couldn’t have cared less. But the past couple of weeks she seemed more intent than ever on digging up something to humiliate them. She couldn’t stand how high-and-mighty they were.”

  I debated whether to mention Vera’s letter and her phone message. Perhaps Morty would know something about that.

  I quickly decided against it, however. I didn’t want to tip my hand in any way with him. I would probe indirectly instead.

  “The Ducotes are a proud family,” I said. “With a pretty distinguished history in this town, too. They probably have a few skeletons in the family closet, like everybody else, but I can’t see them wanting to kill anybody.”

  “Maybe they didn’t.” Morty shrugged again. “Just saying. All I know is, it wasn’t me.” He checked his watch. “Sorry, but I’ve got to hit the shower. Places to go, people to see, you know how it is.”

  I took the hint and rose. “Of course. Thank you for your time. Come on, Diesel, time to go.”

  Diesel meowed as he left Morty’s side.

  “He sure is beautiful,” Morty said as he followed the cat and me to the front door. “What did you say he is again? I might get one now.”

  “Maine Coon. They’re wonderful companions.”

  Morty nodded and opened the front door. I was about to step out when I realized a man stood there, hand raised to knock. I moved back. “Excuse me.”

  “Gerry. Come on in.” Morty extended a hand to Sheriff Tidwell.

  “Sorry to bother you, Morty, but you know how it is.” Tidwell’s gaze swept Diesel and me. “Afternoon, Mr. Harris. Didn’t expect to see you here. And with your pet mountain lion. I’ve heard plenty about it.” He guffawed. He held a hand out to Diesel, but the cat moved away, his ears laid back. Tidwell shrugged.

  “I was delivering something to Mr. Cassity,” I said coolly. “At the request of Miss An’gel Ducote. Diesel and I will get out of your way, Sheriff. Good to see you. Good-bye, Morty.”

  Tidwell mumbled something, and Morty snickered before the door closed behind us. “Jerk,” I muttered. As usual, Diesel was an excellent judge of character. I would certainly be voting for Kanesha when she decided to run against that oaf.

  As we drove away, I wondered how official the sheriff’s call on Morty Cassity was intended to be. He came alone, and I found that odd, if he planned to question Morty about the previous night.

  This kind of speculation wouldn’t get me anywhere, I realized. I would mention it to Kanesha, though, to get her take on it. She knew Tidwell far better than I ever would, or wanted to.

  Diesel chirped away from his spot in the backseat of the car. I remembered that he seemed quite taken with Morty Cassity, and that was a good sign. Especially contrasted with his reaction to the sheriff. I wasn’t going to exculpate Morty in his wife’s death simply because my cat liked him, of course, but it was a definite mark in Morty’s favor.

  I pondered my next move as we neared my house. What would Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple do?

  If Azalea was in the house, I would talk to her. After that, I wasn’t sure.

  No signs of life as Diesel and I entered the kitchen. I checked the laundry room. No Azalea. I looked in the fridge, and it was fuller than it was at lunchtime, so she had at least come back from grocery shopping.

  I went to the bottom of the stairs and called out her name.

  No response.

  Up to the second-floor landing, then, Diesel right alongside me. I called out again.

  “What you need, Mr. Charlie?”

  I glanced up to see Azalea’s head sticking over the railing on the third-floor landing.

  “I need to talk to you for a minute. I’ll come up there,” I said.

  “I done finished up here. Be right down.” Azalea brought the vacuum cleaner with her, puffing slightly from the weight of it.

  I knew better than to try to take it from her, however. I’d made that mistake a couple of times before, right after I moved back to Athena, and my housekeeper had let me know in no uncertain terms that she didn’t need any help from me.

  Perhaps today I should have risked it. Her face looked gray from tiredness, and she moved more slowly than usual. I remembered her saying how poorly she’d slept last night.

  She stowed the vacuum cleaner in the closet where she kept extra cleaning supplies and then finally joined Diesel and me on the landing. “Yes, sir?”

  “Just a quick question,” I said in a reassuring tone. “I forgot something when we talked this morning.”

  Her lips tightened, but she nodded.

  “I wanted to check. Did you tell the sheriff everything you told me? When he questioned you last night?”

  “Yes, sir, I told that fool what he wanted to know.”

  I noticed that she didn’t answer the exact question I’d posed, but I decided not to press her on it. Then I remembered there was something else I wanted to ask her.

  “Sorry, Azalea, I just thought of one more thing. Do you know anything about the Hobson family? In particular Essie Mae Hobson? She was Vera Cassity’s mother.”

  “No-account white trash,” Azalea sniffed. “Miss Essie Mae was a nice lady, but she sure married into a bad group of folks.”

  “Do you know anything more about Essie Mae? Like who her people were, anything like that?”

  Again, that fleeting second of hesitation before she responded. “No, sir, I sure don’t. Now, I got to get supper started.” She headed down the stairs.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Slightly stunned, I stood at the top of the stairs and watched Azalea go down. Why did I get the feeling that she was holding something back? Was my imagination working overtime?

  “Come on, Diesel.” I went into my bedroom and closed the door after the cat walked in. He hopped up on the bed and settled down for a snooze. Right about now a nap would be nice, but I didn’t have the time.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled out my cell phone. Maybe Kanesha could dig up some information on Essie Mae Hobson. Once again I got voice mail. I let her know her mother’s response to the question of whether she had told the sheriff what she’d told me about Vera’s last moments. Then I related the incident just now and ended the call.

  There was no point in my going back to the archives for the rest of the afternoon, but I felt at a loss over what to do next. I’d start looking in the Ducote papers for some mention of Essie Mae tomorrow.

  I looked down at Diesel, comfortably stretched out and already asleep. All of a sudden I felt really tired. What the heck, I thought. I kicked off my shoes and stretched out right alongside the cat.

  The ringing of my cell phone roused me sometime later. I checked my watch as I sat up and reached for the phone. I’d napped for nearly ninety minutes—it was almost four thirty. My brain felt a little foggy as I answered the call.

  “Hello, honey,” Helen Louise said. “How about dinner tonight at my house? Diesel, too, of course. I feel like spending some time with my two favorite guys. I decided I can catch up on my sleep later.”

  “Sounds good to me, although Diesel might have to check his social calendar.”

  Helen Louise laughed. “See if he can man
age to squeeze me in. About six thirty?”

  “We’ll be there, as long as you’re sure you’re not going to be too tired.”

  After reassuring me she’d be fine, Helen Louise rang off. I realized I needed to let Azalea know there would be one less for supper tonight.

  When Diesel and I reached the kitchen, I discovered Azalea had left for the day. Supper was done, according to the tersely worded note I found. Everything was either in the oven or in the fridge.

  Diesel suddenly shot off into the hall. He probably heard someone at the front door. I followed at a more leisurely pace, and Laura walked through the door moments later. “Hello, you sweet boy,” she said as she patted his head. “Hi, Dad. Isn’t it adorable how he always comes to meet me?” She came forward to kiss my cheek.

  “You look familiar, young lady. Where have I seen you before?” I gazed at her sternly.

  Laura giggled. “I haven’t been gone that much lately, have I? Sorry, Dad, all this business of grading exams and turning in the final grades for the semester has kept me hopping. But it’s all finally over.” She walked toward the kitchen, Diesel right by her side.

  “Not to mention all the time making sure poor Frank isn’t too lonely.” I sighed. “It’s okay, I’m merely a father, and I’m used to my only daughter abandoning me. I’m much too dull, I know, whereas Frank…”

  Laura punched me playfully on the shoulder. “Oh, you poor thing. So neglected. Well, you’ll be happy to know that I am yours for the whole evening.”

  “Not this evening,” I said. “Diesel and I will be dining with Helen Louise.”

  “You cad. Deserting me for the Other Woman.” Laura giggled again. “Two nights in a row with Helen Louise. What will the neighbors think?”

  “The neighbors can mind their own business,” I said dryly, well aware of the irony of that statement.

  Laura shot me a look that said she was aware of it, too. She fetched a can of diet soda from the fridge. “Want anything while I’m in here?”