Purrfect Murder

by Louise Lynn

  Celia rolled her eyes. “He wanted to talk about it over dinner, but I didn’t think the topic warranted that amount of conversation. You haven’t gotten a letter like this?”

  “No. Not that I’ve seen. And I check the mail every day.”

  Celia forced a smile. “Well, I’m sure we’ll think of something. Business has been good this year, so I have some extra money stashed away if the rent does go up. I know for sure I’m not moving.”

  “What does Hilltop Realty want to do with the property it’s trying to buy?” Hazel asked and furrowed her brow, something Celia always warned against since she claimed it caused premature wrinkles.

  Celia stood and stretched. “Probably put in really expensive condos like they did on the other side of the lake,” she said, not bothering to hide her disgust.

  Right. Hazel forgot what happened to North Lake City a few years ago. It used to be a quaint tourist town in the same vein as Cedar Valley, but a huge corporation bought up most of the town and replaced it with its own condo village. Those who didn’t sell, got bullied out of their land, for the most part.

  At the time, Cedar Valley had fought against it, and the residents had all banded together and vowed that such a thing wouldn’t happen to their town. But it looked like the company of Hilltop Realty was trying to make it a reality.

  “Well, the good news is, hopefully our new sheriff isn’t as corrupt as the last one. That’s the reason the other company got away with it, isn’t it?”

  Celia smiled and nodded. She ran her fingers down the front of her apron and let out a heavy sigh. “You’re right. I’m not gonna put too much thought into it. Plus, if things start looking nasty, I’m sure the town will band together again and do something to stop it,” she said with a wink. “And if that sheriff really starts bothering you, you could change his mind too.”

  Hazel stared at her, wide-eyed, and shook her head. “No. I’m not about to flirt my way out of any situation. Especially not with the likes of him. I doubt he’d even listen to me.”

  Celia laughed. “You never know,” she said, and wagged her finger in Hazel’s face.

  Casey, one of her workers, leaned out the door before Hazel had a chance to say anything. “We’re getting slammed, Cece,” she said.

  Celia nodded. “Back to work then.”

  Hazel stood and gave her a quick hug. “See you at lunch. I have to run home and feed Anthony Ray, but I’ll be back around twelve-thirty.”

  Celia gave her a tight squeeze and let go.

  When Hazel got to her shop, Michael had already unlocked the door and cleared the icicles from the eaves. Hazel honestly didn’t know how she’d have managed without him, and he’d only been her assistant since she’d opened that summer. He hadn’t been in Cedar Valley much longer than six months either, but Hazel had to admit he made running the shop worlds easier than she imagined it would be when she first broached the idea to her mom and sister.

  It’s not that Hazel didn’t want to take on an assistant, but she knew she’d have to train them if they weren’t already familiar with camera equipment. Luckily, Michael had completed an associate’s degree in photography at a community college in Reno and knew plenty.

  He was young, bright-eyed and full of energy—maybe too much energy sometimes.

  “Hey,” Michael said, and his chubby cheeks squished into a smile. A small young woman hovered behind him. Her brown hair hung in her face, and she tucked her chin to her chest. “The Barkley’s are coming today for their engagement photos, so I thought I’d open early. And maybe if we get finished I could leave a little early too. April helped since she was in town and—”

  “Yes. You can leave early with your girlfriend, Michael. I got tied up in Celia’s. Met the new sheriff and everything.” Hazel rolled her eyes.

  Michael gaped. “The sheriff? Is Cece in trouble or something?”

  Hazel laughed, took off her coat and hung it on the rack near the door. “Nothing like that. He came in for coffee and breakfast.”

  Michael let out a relieved sigh, his cheeks flushed pink. He always got like that when anyone mentioned Celia. Hazel teased her about his innocent crush at first, and she was not amused.

  Still, Hazel was grateful he’d recently met a young woman. April lived in Carson City and could only make it to Lake Celeste on the weekends. While Michael claimed she was the prettiest and most perfect twenty-one-year-old in the world, Hazel had yet to see it. Mostly because she had yet to really see April. The girl’s hair curtained her face and she never made eye contact.

  “Hello, April. Are you only up for the weekend again?”

  “Mmm-hmm,” April said, and tugged her knitted cap lower over her head. Her thick bangs made it impossible to see her eyes.

  Hazel smiled. Michael also claimed she was only shy around new people, but underneath it all she was an amazing athlete of some kind, though Michael never said anything more about it. “You have any big plans? Isn’t that party at Cedar Lodge this Sunday?”

  “She has Monday off, so I’m hoping to convince her to stay,” Michael said with a starry-eyed grin.

  He’d already completed many of the tedious opening tasks, like giving the floor a quick sweep and making sure all the props and equipment were in their proper places.

  Her shop, Wild @ Hart Photography, was a mishmash of several things. Since Hazel was the only full-time photographer in Cedar Valley, it meant she had a monopoly on nearly every photography related thing in town. It was one of the reasons she’d decided to move back after the divorce.

  While her heart belonged to wildlife photography, it’s not really something that was easy to make a living at. Therefore, Hazel supplemented with her own studio. She shot everything from weddings and engagement photos to newborn and pregnancy shoots. She’d even signed a contract that fall to make the rounds to the local schools in every town on Lake Celeste and photograph the children once a year.

  A portion of her studio was even dedicated to Old West photography. Cheesy, she knew, but the tourists really loved it. And anything that brought in extra income was worth it.

  Plus, it kept her busy.

  After her divorce, Hazel needed to be kept busy. It wasn’t as magical as globetrotting with her dad, but it was better than L.A.

  “Are you going to stick around and watch us work or—”

  April shook her head. She wasn’t tall or particularly large, but she wore clothes a good two sizes too big. The sleeves of her coat drowned her hands, and her gray pants bunched at her boots. “Gotta run errands,” she said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper.

  Michael gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and April floated out of the studio like a snowflake.

  Hazel and Michael watched her go.

  “She’s something, isn’t she?” Michael said in a dreamy voice.

  “Yeah. Something all right.” Hazel shrugged.

  Young love didn’t have to make sense.

  The portion of her shop that wasn’t a dedicated studio, housed prints of her own work. Most of the time tourists only shelled out a dollar or two for a postcard, but occasionally, a wealthy patron would show up and buy one of the huge prints that graced the walls. Mostly shots of the lake or surrounding mountains and streams. That was always a good day considering they ran from five hundred dollars and up.

  “That bear came around again today,” Hazel said, and settled at her desk in the back room. It was too early for her first appointment to show up, so she might as well go over the photos she took that morning.

  “Cool, you get a picture this time?” Michael settled on a stool near her desk.

  Hazel nodded. “Not sure if it came out yet though. Anthony Ray scared it off.”

  Michael shuddered. “Your cat can scare off a bear? That’s freaky. Are you sure he’s not possessed by a demon or something?”

  Hazel snorted. Anthony Ray would love that. “Not a demon. Maybe some lesser evil though.”

  Hazel put the chip in the computer and waite
d for the photos to load. Once they did, she transferred them over. Then she scanned through the pictures she’d taken that morning. Each click of the mouse enlarged it to full-screen.

  The bear stood by the lake. The white snow set off its dark brown fur, and the water behind it was a glorious bright blue as the sun broke over the trees.

  The next photo was slightly out of focus, so Hazel clicked past it.

  The next was a nice profile shot, when the bear turned. She could work with that too.

  Then, the following five shots were of the bear retreating, a big brownish-black blob of its backside—which was not her best work. She let out a breath. This is what made wildlife photography so difficult. The animals never did what you wanted them too.

  “I wish he stuck around. But I can make a few postcards out of these,” she said, and smiled at Michael.

  He didn’t return it. His eyes focused on the screen.

  She’d clicked on the last photo and enlarged it, but the bear hadn’t been in the frame. Still, Michael’s finger shook as he pointed toward it. “What’s that?”

  Hazel frowned at the display.

  A dark figure stood draped in the shadows of the cedar trees with their back to the camera. Hazel almost didn’t make it out.

  Her heart lodged in her throat. She hadn’t seen it when she snapped the photo.

  Was that what startled the bear?

  Even more distressing, what was this person doing in the woods near the lake, in the dead of winter, at that hour of the morning?

  Chapter 3

  “It happened again,” Hazel said as Esther popped her head into Hazel’s office.

  Esther handed her a cup of coffee, Hazel’s third. At least caffeine addiction was more forgiving than other kinds.

  Hazel gratefully grabbed it and took a long sip.

  “How many times is that?” Esther asked, and settled on the stool that Michael had vacated a good twenty minutes before.

  She’d sent him to sort the props and Old West costumes in the farthest studio. He’d been more than happy to oblige since Hazel didn’t have an explanation for the figure beyond some trespassing hiker.

  Hazel tugged on one of her fuzzy curls. “Three, I think. But one of them was an elk and not an obvious person.”

  Esther’s auburn hair hung in a perfectly smooth sheet to her waist. How she avoided getting it entangled in the many layers of beaded necklaces that hung alongside it, Hazel had no idea. She’d never been that lucky herself.

  “But nothing this clear,” Esther said, and squinted at the screen.

  “Put on your glasses.” Hazel gave her a half smile.

  Esther pouted, then rummaged through her oversized floral purse, pulled out the pair of black-framed glasses, and put them on her straight nose. Even with them on, she looked as beautiful as ever.

  Hazel slumped back in her chair. “I thought L.A. was full of crazy people. That’s why I left. Now this.”

  “It reminds me of that photo you took of Sue Allen back in the tenth grade,” Esther said, and shivered.

  Hazel couldn’t blame her. Sue Allen had been in a fatal car crash, and Hazel had been snapping pictures of the woods around the accident when unbeknownst to her, Sue herself popped up in several of them.

  Or, at least, they thought it was Sue at the time.

  It turned out to be Sue’s younger sister, Astrid, leaving flowers near the tree Sue’s car had hit.

  Hazel licked her lips and nodded. “But this person was out there with a bear who hadn’t gone to its den yet—which means it’s still hungry. That doesn’t make sense. Unless they had a death wish”

  Esther’s eyes stayed fixed on the screen. “Do you have any clue who it is?”

  Hazel shrugged. She threw a glance at her office door. It was open, but she heard Michael still rustling in the far studio. “If I did, I’d ask them what they were doing in my backyard.”

  “Fair enough. Well, I think it’s time you went to the police. This could be dangerous.”

  “No way am I taking this to the new sheriff,” Hazel said, though the last part came out grumbled.

  Esther finally tore her eyes away from the screen and raised her brows. “The new sheriff? You mean that handsome guy on all the ‘vote for me’ ads?” She grinned. Her teeth were pearly white and contrasted beautifully with her red lipstick.

  Some say redheads can’t wear red lipstick, but those people had never met Esther.

  “Yeah. Him. And he’s not nearly as charming as the photo would suggest,” Hazel said, and idly clicked through the other photos of the bear to see if the figure showed up in any of them.

  It didn’t.

  “So, what happened? Another guy who rubbed you the wrong way? What did this one do? Open the door for you too long?”

  “Ha ha. No. He insulted my hat, number one. Then he claimed he was in line first and that I cut in front of him, but he didn’t say anything until we got to the register. And he was kind of rude to Cece so—”

  Esther snorted. “A triple threat, huh? Did he flirt with Celia?” she asked as if it were matter-of-fact. With most of the male species in Cedar Valley, it was.

  “Not really. Actually. You know what that means?”

  Esther flicked her playfully in the shoulder. “Just because he didn’t flirt with Celia doesn’t mean he’s gay. Some men have different taste.”

  “And some men’s taste leans towards other men,” Hazel said, and flicked her back. “Remember Robbie Smith?”

  Esther’s cheeks flushed, and she glowered at Hazel. “You don’t have to bring him up. We were in high school. And he’s a ski instructor at the lodge now. You know how awkward it is when I run into him in town?”

  Hazel couldn’t hold back the laugh that erupted from her throat. “Oh, come on. I’ll bet it’s awkward for him too.”

  Esther ignored that and turned back to the computer, took the mouse from Hazel’s hand and enlarged the photo so the figure filled the screen. “You know you have to show this to Mom.”

  Hazel shook her head. “No, I don’t. You know how she gets when things like this happen? She’ll claim it’s a ghost, pull out the spirit board and attempt to commune with the dead.”

  Esther wrinkled her nose. “Right. The last time she did that, Ruth couldn’t sleep by herself for a month.”

  Hazel frowned. “Promise you won’t tell her?”

  Esther sighed and looked back at the dark figure on the screen. “For now. But, think about it, Hazel. If someone is stalking you, the police can help. Regardless if you like the new sheriff or not.”

  An icy chill shot up Hazel’s spine and it had nothing to do with the weather outside. It was her turn to pout, and Hazel did with aplomb. “Popping up in photos isn’t really stalking. They haven’t threatened me or anything.”

  Esther shrugged. “Still. Safe is better than sorry. You can ask for help when you need it.”

  Hazel nodded. “I could call dad.”

  Esther scrunched her nose and pursed her lips. “Good luck getting ahold of him.”

  Hazel didn’t have a response to that. And she wasn’t about to bother her dad over something so tiny while he was working.

  Esther wrapped Hazel in a sideways hug, and Hazel sucked in a deep breath of Esther’s spicy scent, like cloves and orange peel.

  Hazel stared at the picture for several minutes after Esther left, her mind racing through possibilities of who it could be.

  Her closest neighbors were gone for the season. The caretaker only came by once a week, and his car hadn’t been parked close by. Even hikers usually didn’t wander that far onto private property since none of the trails were near enough.

  With a frustrated sigh, Hazel had to admit she didn’t have a clue.

  Photography reminded Hazel of her father. He was a world-class photographer, and the one who gave Hazel her first camera and taught her how to use it.

  She had an eye for detail, he’d always said. And she always imagined herself being like him som
eday. Jet-setting all over the world to exotic locales and photographing everything. Instead, she wound up in her hometown, divorced and starting a new business at thirty-five.

  If she didn’t have a mother and sister in Cedar Valley, Hazel didn’t know where she’d be.

  At least she had several clients in her planner that week.

  Dirk Barkley and his fiancée, Simone, arrived five minutes late, but Hazel was still in her studio pulling out all the things she needed for their shoot. She heard them arrive before she saw them.

  “I think it’s a bad idea, Dirk,” a deep masculine voice said.

  Hazel glanced toward the foyer at the front of the shop.

  A woman stood there, her hair bleached blonde and her skin unnaturally tan for that time of year. Well, at least in Cedar Valley. Maybe she was from the coast. Or, more likely, she got it from a tanning bed or a bottle. She wore a light-pink puffy jacket and a pair of matching pants and snow boots. That outfit made sense for the slopes, but it was a bit much for just walking around town. But who was Hazel to judge?

  “You don’t like money, Tommy?” another man said.

  They both stepped into the shop behind the woman.

  Tommy sighed. “I like money well enough, but I don’t like bad investments. Or losing my life savings. When I went into business with you I—”

  “We’re about to have our engagement photos taken. Can’t you guys do this somewhere else? You’re embarrassing me,” the woman said, and put on an exaggerated pout. Her lips were the same pink as her clothes. Hazel wondered how much thought went into matching them. Probably quite a bit.

  She recognized both Dirk Barkley and his fiancée, Simone, from when they made their appointment a few weeks before. Not to mention, Dirk was well known around Cedar Valley. He didn’t live there full-time, but he did have an ostentatious vacation house on the other side of town—one that he’d petitioned to have built because most of the townsfolk had been against the construction.

  Not that they didn’t like development in their small community, but if too many overly wealthy people started moving in, it’d force out the locals.