Five Mews for Murder (Pet Shop Cozy Mysteries Book 5)

by Susie Gayle

  “Like what?”

  “I’m sure I don’t know,” she shoots back, equally exasperated. “Maybe something like what happened to Jerry.”

  “Oh my god.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. I’m starting to realize that no matter what I tell these people, they’re not going to believe I don’t know anything. “Look, I don’t want to be involved in this, but I know things—”

  “What are you saying? Are you trying to get out? You’re not going to go to the police, are you?” She stiffens visibly. “Because I’ll tell them that Savage forced me to cook those books—”

  “Stop! Don’t say another word. Please.” I put my hands up and she quiets. “I just want to know one thing, that’s it. Who is responsible for Mario Estes?”

  “Mario…?” At first she looks confused, but then her eyes widen again, this time until I’m convinced they’re going to fall out of her head. “Oh my goodness! No, no, no. You don’t think… we didn’t… that was a terrible tragedy! We had nothing to do with that!”

  “Right, so I’m supposed to believe that it was just a happy coincidence that you can now pass everything you want without opposition—”

  “Mr. Sullivan, you have to believe me!” she insists. “Okay, yes, we blocked his proposals, but outside of the council we were amiable. In fact, before his accident, I was helping him to settle his father’s estate!”

  “Wait… what?”

  “His father is deathly ill,” she explains. “They don’t expect him to last much longer—”

  “Yeah, I know all that. What about his estate?”

  She frowns, puzzled. “Mario’s inheritance. His father was leaving behind a tidy sum, his home here in Seaview Rock, and a vacation home in North Carolina. Mario planned to sell both houses, but if the value of the total estate is over a million, he would have to pay inheritance tax, so I was helping him—”

  “Oh, no.” I hold my head with both hands while Rachel Stein looks at me like I’ve lost my mind—and maybe I have. How could I have possibly missed the signs? “I’m such an idiot.”

  “No argument here, but do you care to elaborate why?”

  “No. I have to go.” I get out of her car quickly, but before I close the door I stick a finger of warning at her and add, “Leave me out of all this.” Then I slam the door and pull out my cell phone.

  As the line is ringing, I can’t help but feel like I have eyes on me. I glance around and see both Karen and Sarah just outside the hall, watching me. I don’t know if they saw me get into Rachel’s car, but they definitely saw me get out of it.

  I guess I’ll have some explaining to do.

  “Hello?”

  “Leo, it’s Will. Do you know where my pet shop is? Can you meet me there? I have some information about Mario.”

  “Uh, sure thing. Give me fifteen minutes.”

  “Great.” I hang up, and then immediately call Patty Mayhew.

  CHAPTER 15

  * * *

  Needless to say, Sarah is none too happy that she saw me getting out of Rachel Stein’s car, and even less so that I can’t tell her what’s going on. All I can ask is that she trusts me, and after folding her arms over her chest and giving me a very disapproving look, she begrudgingly agrees.

  Of course, there’s the added problem that Karen also saw me, which likely confirms for her at least part of her speculation, but I can only deal with so many things at one time. That will have to wait.

  Leo Estes arrives at the Pet Shop Stop only a few minutes after we do. The bell on the door chimes and he enters, glancing around.

  “Nice place you got here,” he tells me. Then he spots Petunia on the counter and he grins. “Whoa. Is that a rattlesnake?”

  “Sure is,” I tell him. Rowdy, standing near me, lets out a low growl. Sarah leans casually against the wall behind the counter with Basket the kitten in her arms.

  Leo bends to check out Petunia when the bell on the door chimes a second time. We all glance up at the newcomer at the same time, but only one of us is surprised to see the chief of police enter. Patty takes a couple of steps inside, but pauses in front of the door as if blocking the entrance—or in this case, the exit.

  Leo frowns and straightens. “What’s this all about, Will?”

  I take a deep breath. I really wanted to like Leo. He’s a talented artist. He takes care of his ailing dad. He seems like a decent guy. But we all have our faults.

  “Leo, did you kill your brother Mario?” I ask him candidly.

  He looks from me to Patty to Sarah and back to me, and then he chuckles softly. “What? No, of course not!”

  Patty nods for me to continue, so I do. “I think you did, Leo. I don’t think you meant to, at first. I think the two of you went up to Dalton Manor to retrieve your painting for your dad. It was Mario’s favorite too, right? And the two of you were going to bring it to him. But I’m guessing that the conversation turned to the inheritance.

  “Mario was the sole heir to your father’s estate. And again, this is just a guess, but I don’t think you knew that he was getting everything. And that’s just not fair. You’re the one that’s been taking care of your father. But Mario’s business was failing. He probably needed the money.”

  Leo shakes his head. “This is crazy. That was my brother. How can you suggest that I—”

  “Things probably got heated,” I say loudly over his protests. “Maybe you fought. But in the end, your anger got the better of you, and whether intentionally or not, you broke his neck. Then you set fire to the art gallery, knowing that it would destroy the surveillance tapes. You didn’t think anyone would suspect you if you set the fire with your own painting.”

  Leo turns to Patty and pleads with her instead. “Chief, you can’t really believe any of this, right? I mean, I have an alibi.”

  “Funny thing about that word, ‘alibi,’” Patty says. “In my experience, people only tend to really fall back on that when they’re guilty.”

  “Speaking of which,” I continue, “your alibi is your father, right? He attested to Patty that you were with him when the fire broke out—which was around eight thirty at night. But you conveniently ‘forgot’ to set his bedside clock forward for Daylight Savings Time. At the time he said you were with him, you had already killed your brother and set fire to the manor.”

  For a long moment, no one speaks. Leo shakes his head, over and over, but I can’t help but notice that he can’t seem to look at any of us directly.

  “No,” he says finally. “You’ve got it all wrong. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “There’s just one more thing,” I say quietly. “When we first met, you told me that the police wouldn’t give you details. But then later, when I was at your home, you used the phrase, ‘Mario was murdered.’ How would you have known that, Leo?” I try to look him in the eye, but he stares at the floor. “I bet it was tough, moving back into your father’s house and taking care of him all these months, giving up all of your free time, just to find out that Mario was getting everything.”

  Leo’s throat flexes as he gulps. “I was happy to do it,” he murmurs. “I never expected anything out of it. But Mario was never there. It was like he didn’t even care.”

  Patty takes a step forward, reaching for the handcuffs on her belt. “Leo, did you kill Mario Estes?”

  “I want a lawyer,” he mutters.

  “Okay. In the meantime, I’m placing you under arrest for suspicion of murder. Turn around, please.” She pulls the handcuffs from the round black pouch on her belt.

  Leo turns around, but he doesn’t put his hands behind his back. Instead he reaches out, puts both hands around Petunia’s glass cage, and yanks it forward.

  The next few seconds feel like they happen in slow-motion. The cage falls and shatters, glass shards flying every which way. Patty bolts forward, but then recoils from the spray of broken glass. Leo vaults over the counter, cuts left, and gets to the door. He yanks it open and dashes ou
t into the night.

  While all this is happening, I just stand there stupidly, frozen in shock and fear as Petunia, the desert rattlesnake, slithers towards me.

  CHAPTER 16

  * * *

  “Will. Do not move,” Sarah instructs from her place behind the counter.

  “Uh-huh,” is all I can muster. I’m not planning on moving, and even if I was I’m not sure that I could. I stand rooted to the spot as the snake slithers ever closer, coiling on and over itself slowly, inching towards me in no discernible pattern.

  Patty, only a few feet away, puts her hand on the grip of her pistol. “Should I… shoot it?”

  “Absolutely not,” Sarah tells her. “There are too many animals in here to go firing a gun. Just… wait.”

  “Wait for what?” I gasp through clenched teeth.

  “Just… wait,” she repeats. I peel my eyes from the deadly snake long enough to see that Sarah is edging her way around the counter. She hands off the tiny kitten, Basket, to Patty and takes another slow step toward us.

  “What are you doing?” I ask slowly, incredulously.

  “Wait…” she tells me, and takes another step closer.

  Petunia lets out a low hiss and her beady gaze falls upon me. I swear her black eyes are staring directly into mine, and a shiver runs down my spine so fierce it makes me tremble.

  I catch a furry blur in my periphery, and the next thing I know Rowdy lodges himself between me and the snake. My dog lets loose a throaty growl, the likes of which I’ve never heard from him. The bristling hairs between his shoulder blades stand on end, and he bares his white teeth. Even though he’s a smaller dog, he looks downright scary.

  Touched as I am by Rowdy defending me like this, he doesn’t understand the real gravity of the situation. One bite and my pup is a goner. My deep-seated psychological fear of snakes is suddenly replaced by a new, very real fear: losing my dog.

  “Rowdy, no,” I tell him, trying to sound gentle. “It’s okay. Back away. Come on, boy.”

  Rowdy stands his ground and growls all the more fiercely. Petunia, in response, lifts the ridged end of her tail and rapidly shakes it. Hearing her rattle is like hearing the screech of tires before two cars collide.

  “Rowdy—” I can’t tear my gaze from the snake as she rises up from the floor, drawing her head back slightly like a boxer winding up a punch. “Rowdy!”

  Petunia opens her mouth, bares her fangs, and strikes.

  I’m not gonna lie; I close my eyes and shriek. Like a high-pitched, girlish shriek. It’s not my proudest moment. For a few seconds, I don’t hear anything.

  Then I hear Patty Mayhew sigh heavily—“Phew!”—and add, “Nice catch.”

  I dare to open my eyes… and I see Petunia dangling in the air.

  Sarah holds her at arm’s distance, a mixed expression of shock and relief on her face. She has the snake pinched between her thumb and forefinger, just behind its head, and holds it aloft.

  “You… caught it?” I stammer.

  “Yeah.” She looks just as surprised as I am.

  “How?”

  “I watch a lot of Animal Planet. Now… you mind getting me something to put her in?”

  I grab the closest thing on-hand, a clear plastic hamster ball.

  “Okay, on the count of three I’ll drop her in, and you put the lid on,” Sarah tells me.

  “Ooh, no I don’t want to do that—”

  “Will. I just saved your life. And your dog’s life. Put the lid on the ball.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She counts to three, drops Petunia, and in a frantic gesture I clap the lid of the ball down hard, twist it closed, and skirt away several feet. Petunia slowly writhes around a bit in the ball and even pushes it a few feet along the tiled floor.

  Sarah sighs the heaviest sigh of relief I’ve ever heard sighed and takes Basket back from Patty.

  “That could have been a disaster,” she says.

  “Yeah. That was amazing. You’re kind of my hero now,” I tell her. “But unfortunately, Leo Estes got away.”

  Patty smirks. “I’m willing to bet that he didn’t get very far.”

  ***

  There’s one big difference in the way that cops run their investigations, versus the way that I do, and it’s that the cops rarely work alone. Patty came to the Pet Shop, as I asked her to, but she brought along one of her officers, a man named Tom who was waiting just outside the shop for that very reason.

  She’s right; Leo did not get very far. His feet barely pounded the sidewalk before Tom, who played college ball, performed a leaping tackle and took the youngest Estes down hard, eliciting gasps from a trio of old ladies that were meandering down Main Street at that very moment.

  By the time we head outside to see for ourselves, Tom has Leo cuffed, reading him his rights before stuffing him in the back of the waiting police cruiser.

  CHAPTER 17

  * * *

  A few days later, Sarah and I close the shop for a couple of hours to attend the funeral of Mario Estes, Sr. The Estes patriarch passed away peacefully in his sleep the same night that Leo was arrested. Patty admitted to me that she felt an obligation to tell the old man about what had happened between his sons, but he died before she had the chance.

  Maybe it’s better that way.

  Upon hearing the news of his father’s passing, Leo Estes broke down and confessed to the whole thing. It turns out I was right about almost everything; the only thing that Leo wanted in his father’s estate was the house in North Carolina. Mario could have had everything else. But he was intent on selling it, and Leo’s resulting rage was enough for him to commit murder.

  After the funeral, Sarah and I head back to my car when a female voice calls out to me.

  “Will? Will Sullivan?”

  I turn to see a young blonde woman, barely into her twenties, striding towards us.

  Sarah touches my arm gently. “I’ll be in the car.”

  I meet the young woman halfway across the parking lot. I’ve never met her, but her features are very familiar—definitely an Estes. “Mr. Sullivan, my name is Anna. I’m Mario Junior’s eldest daughter.”

  “I’m very sorry for your loss.” It occurs to me that I should probably say “losses,” but now’s not the time.

  “Chief Mayhew told me about how you helped them. I want you to know that me and my family very much appreciate what you’ve done.”

  I shrug. “It’s… it’s nothing, Anna. Thanks, though.”

  “All the same, I wouldn’t feel right not offering you something. And seeing as I’m about to inherit a million-dollar estate—”

  I put a hand up to stop her. “No, no, no. That’s very generous of you, but there is absolutely no way I could accept any money from you.”

  “I understand. Still… there must be something.” She purses her lips, thinking.

  “Really, there’s no need.”

  “Well, I do plan on eventually selling the house in North Carolina. But until then… how about a vacation?”

  ***

  When Sarah and I get back to the Pet Shop Stop, I lock the door after us and we leave the sign flipped to “Closed.” Still in our black funeral clothes, we set about feeding the animals and changing bedding. Basket teeters along after me curiously. He’s starting to get pretty good at moving around on his three legs. Rowdy follows her like a hovering mother, every once in a while giving her a gentle shove with his nose when she strays.

  Petunia the rattlesnake is in a new habitat now—reinforced glass this time—with a new stick to hide under and a mesh wire lid that locks on extra tightly. Despite her attempt on my life (and I’m sticking with that story; if anyone asks, I was very nearly killed by that vicious serpent) we’re keeping her around, at least for now. Despite my fear of snakes, I’m dedicated to finding a good home for every animal that comes through my shop, terrifying or not.

  After I change out the pa
rakeets’ newspaper, Sarah comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist, leaning her head against my back.

  “Are you here?”

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “You’ve been so distant lately,” she says quietly.

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “This thing of yours… this big secret. It has something to do with the town council, doesn’t it?”

  I wince. I knew she was smart enough to figure it out; it was just a matter of time. After my abrupt interest in Mario’s death, my sudden willingness to attend a meeting with her, and seeing me get out of Rachel Stein’s car she must have pieced at least some of it together.

  “Yes.”

  She doesn’t push the issue. All she says is, “You know I’m always here for you.”

  “I know.”

  She releases me and clears her throat. “So, what do we do now?”

  I turn to face her, and as seriously as I can muster, I say, “We pack.”

  “Pack?” Suddenly her eyes light up and she can’t help but smile. “Are we going on a trip?”

  I nod. “We’re going to a beach house in North Carolina for a week. We leave in two days.”

  She bounces excitedly on her toes for a moment, but then her smiles fades. “Two days? Will, we have so much to do! We have to stop the mail. We have to put a sign up to let customers know. We need someone to feed the animals while we’re gone.” She shakes her head. “I need to make a list!” She hurries over to the counter in search of paper and pen while I shake my head, grinning.

  Outside our glass door, someone tugs on the handle, and then frowns when it doesn’t open. He cups his hands around his eyes to try to see inside.

  I knew this was coming. That doesn’t mean I want to deal with it.

  I unlock the door and instead of letting Sammy in, I slip out and stand with him on the sidewalk outside the shop.

  “Sorry,” I tell him. “We’re closed right now.”