Looking at Belle, I grinned. “Does this mean Dave and Gilbert are going to sing?”
Gilbert walked over and answered that question. “Not a chance, but we promise to demonstrate our acting ability.”
When I returned to Dave’s side, I glimpsed a shiny gold medal attached to my backpack. “Oh my goodness! Hero Cat? Is that what it says?” Christie preened and purred.
Dave explained that that’s why we had to bring Christie. Ellie wanted to be sure she got the recognition she deserved.
It wasn’t long before Matthew went to the display table and got everyone’s attention. “Dear friends, Mum and I want to thank you for joining us this evening. We’ve lost a fine gentleman, and tonight we plan to honor his larger-than-life personality. Beatrix and our new friend Fiona knew him better than any of us, and they assure me he’ll be looking down and enjoying our camaraderie.”
Beatrix took her place in front of the table and motioned to Fiona to join her. Together they told the story of how they knew Teddy and what he’d meant to them. They spoke of his passion for literature and collecting and how he’d opened Bluebird Books later in life. Taking turns holding up the binders, they described a few of the documents inside.
As they spoke, Matthew made the rounds pouring champagne into the flutes arranged on each table. Beatrix lifted her glass as did Fiona, and together they said, “Here’s to a life well-lived.” Most of the guests knew the bare bones of how Teddy had died and that his death had resulted from someone breaking into his cottage, but not much beyond that.
Peter walked his mother to the display table and pulled a chair up for her. Belle sat and chuckled. “It’s storytime. Please open your programs to The Mystery of the Key. Teddy was nothing if not fun-loving. That meant Beatrix had to embark on a treasure hunt to find the key to his safe. He couldn’t just leave it for her. Instead, we had to follow the clues to find it. Even Constable James got in on the act with Ellie, Leta, and me. First, Leta stumbled across the safe hidden behind a false cover to the book Safe Haven, and then the fun began. Inside the cover was a note—You found me! Now you must find my key.
Each clue led to a book—except the one that inspired us to look beneath the bed—until, finally, we located the key. I won’t tell you the answers, but you can follow along in your program as I read the clues aloud. By the way, the lovely calligraphy is compliments of Fiona.”
When Belle closed her program, Wendy called to the owner of the Book Nook and now Bluebird Books.“Beatrix, this sounds like so much fun. Can we use the clues to do a treasure hunt at your shop for our next book club meeting? Say yes, please.”
Beatrix nodded and agreed. “Who knows? We might get a bigger crowd if we advertise the event. And we could have a drawing to win the books. Great idea. Teddy would be pleased to know he inspired us.”
It was Ellie’s turn to stand by the display table. “Never the twain shall meet. Thus ends the first line in Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘The Ballad of East and West,” but in this case, I’ve used it to reference Mark Twain.
“First, Beatrix, Belle, and Leta inventoried the items in Teddy’s collection to identify missing pieces. Next, I assisted Belle and Leta in double-checking the list and trying to ascertain a pattern. Wendy, I was delighted to act as your substitute in the Little Old Ladies’ Detective Agency.
“We determined that one thing the missing documents had in common was Mark Twain and that each one was also connected to either Arthur Conan Doyle or J.M. Barrie. What did it mean? We turned to Gilbert and Dave to help us figure that out. Those two saw right away the documents had to be . . . forgeries.” When the audience gasped, Ellie curtsied and invited the pair to come forward.
I looked around. Our friends seemed enthralled. I guess when you’re not privy to the investigation along the way, hearing how the puzzle was solved can be intriguing. Gilbert and Sullivan, a.k.a Dave, did not disappoint as they explained how we’d concluded Bonnie and Alastair, or perhaps Bonnie and her son, were a team of forgers. The audience erupted in laughter when Gilbert re-enacted the scene where he slapped his forehead and exclaimed, “I say, Dave, didn’t you tell me a few of those letters came from Alastair’s Attic?”
Gemma and Constable James were the last to take center stage. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” began our local Detective Inspector, “It took several days for all the pieces of the puzzle to come together. As Alastair Porter was caught in the act, we could easily charge him with breaking into Leta’s cottage, and with his wife’s confession, we were able to charge the couple with forgery.
“It wasn’t until yesterday, though, that he confessed to murdering Teddy Byrd.” There were shocked gasps all around. Several guests wondered aloud why he would kill Teddy. Briefly, Gemma laid out the sordid saga of what led the proprietor of a flea market stall to murder an elderly man. The lighthearted atmosphere gave way to shocked silence. “Now, let me turn things over to our very own Constable Jonas James for the rest of the story—the part that ended well.”
Our young constable smiled shyly. “As we’ve heard tonight, many of you had a part in unraveling this crime. The Chipping Camden Affair didn’t start in Astonbury, but it ended here, just across the lane at Leta’s cottage.
“Our killer had to get his hands on those binders Beatrix and Fiona showed you, and he thought the coast was clear at Schoolhouse Cottage. After what he’d already done, breaking into Leta’s home was nothing. It was his misfortune that Dave and Leta came home early from the cricket match and caught him in the act. When Alastair Porter came at Dave with a sword, our friend single-handedly got the better of him . . .”
When Constable James paused, Dave stood and took a bow, and the crowd went from gasping to laughing. “What he meant to say was that Leta single-handedly painted the guy purple. And just in case that didn’t do the trick, her attack cat nailed him.” Pointing to Christie in the backpack, Dave pulled me to my feet, and I did my best to emulate Ellie’s elegant curtsy.
“And so,” Gemma concluded as she raised her glass, “Though I’m once again none too pleased with their interfering ways, many thanks to Tommy and Tuppence and the Little Old Ladies. As the Bard would say, All’s well that ends well.”
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*Be sure to look for the recipe at the end.
Recipe
Pastitsio
Servings: 8
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
4 cups warm or hot whole milk
1 tbsp kosher salt divided
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup grated Romano cheese (optional: an extra ½ cup for top of casserole)
1 ½ lbs lean ground beef
1 cup diced onion
3 large garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp tomato paste
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
4 large eggs, beaten
1 lb ziti or elbow macaroni
Preparation:
Grease a 9x12 baking dish. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
For the béchamel sauce, heat a large pot on medium heat. Add butter.
Once the butter melts, whisk in the flour. Cook for one minute.
Take the pot off the heat and slowly whisk in warm or hot milk, making sure there are no lumps.
Return the pot to the heat and whisk in 1 ½ teaspoons salt and the nutmeg.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer until thickened, about 8 minutes, whisking along the way.
When mixture is thickened, remove from the heat and whisk in grated cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
While béchamel is thickening, heat a large non-stick skillet on medium. Add ground beef. Start to brown the beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon.
When beef is halfway done cooking, drain fat if necessary. Add onion, garlic, and remaining 1 ½ teaspoons of salt. Continue to cook beef until it’s browned all the way through and onion is soft.
Mix in the tomato paste and cinnamon. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Set aside.
When the meat sauce is almost done cooking, drop the pasta into the boiling water. Cook until it’s just under al dente. Drain.
Slowly add ½ to 1 cup of the warm béchamel sauce to the beaten eggs so that eggs don’t curdle.
Whisk the egg mixture into the béchamel sauce in the pot.
Add the pasta back to the pot you cooked it in. Toss with half of the béchamel and half of the meat mixture.
Construct the casserole:
Layer half the pasta mixture into the prepared casserole dish.
Cover with remaining ground beef mixture.
Layer remaining pasta on top.
Pour remaining béchamel sauce on top of the pasta.
Optional: Sprinkle another ½ cup grated Romano on top.
Bake in the oven until lightly golden brown and bubbly, about 30-40 minutes. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.
Tips:
Adjust the recipe to your taste. There are a variety of pastitsio recipes. Leta’s sister Anna doesn’t use tomato paste or anything tomato in hers. Some cooks use pureed tomatoes or tomato sauce. Some, though not many, use a combination of lamb and beef.
For the béchamel sauce, be sure it is thickened but still thin enough to pour over the casserole.
You can make the meat sauce ahead of time and reheat it when you prepare the casserole.
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Books, Authors and Series Mentioned in Collectors, Cats & Murder
Books & Plays
Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie)
Jane Annie (J.M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Sherlockian (Graham Moore)
The Once and Future King (T.H. White)
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
Morte D’Arthur (Thomas Malory)
The Third Man (Graham Greene)
The Quiet Man (Graham Greene)
The Bookman’s Tale (Charlie Lovett)
Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
The House of Silk (Anthony Horowitz)
Dracula (Bram Stoker)
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (Charles Foley, Daniel Stashower, and Jon Lellenberg)
The Crystal Cave (Mary Stewart)
The King Arthur Trilogy (Rosemary Sutcliff)
Long Summer’s Day (R.F. Delderfeld)
Post of Honour (R.F. Delderfeld)
The Green Gauntlet (R.F. Delderfeld)
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Persuasion (Jane Austen)
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
Howards End (E.M. Forster)
Key to Rebecca (Ken Follett)
Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (Ian Fleming)
Lie Down with Lions (Ken Follett)
Eye of the Needle (Ken Follett)
The Big Sleep (Raymond Chandler)
In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
Lost Book of the Holy Grail (Charlie Lovett)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)
The Interpretation of Dreams (Sigmund Freud)
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
How to Find Love in a Bookshop (Veronica Henry)
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (Katarina Bivald)
The Diary of a Bookseller (Shaun Bythell)
The Collector (John Fowles)
The Tuscan Child (Rhys Bowen)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Lee Israel)
Brighton Rock (Graham Greene)
The Monkey’s Raincoat (Robert Crais)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain)
The Cat in the Hat (Dr. Seuss)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain)
Booked to Die (John Dunning)
Hide-and-Seek with Angels (Lisa Chaney)
Moriarty (Anthony Horowitz)
Authors
J.M. Barrie
Arthur Conan Doyle
P.G. Wodehouse
A.A. Milne
Jerome K. Jerome
Rudyard Kipling
H.G. Wells
Bram Stoker
Dorothy L. Sayers
Margery Allingham
Agatha Christie
Patricia Wentworth
Josephine Tey
Graham Greene
Michael Dobbs
Robert Louis Stevenson
Oscar Wilde
Ngaio Marsh
R.F. Delderfeld
T.S. Eliot
Mark Twain
Lee Childs
Quentin Jardine
Robert B. Parker
Ian Rankin
J.K. Rowling
Beatrix Potter
Nancy Mitford
Jane Austen
E.M. Forster
William Faulkner
Edna Ferber
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sigmund Freud
Ian Fleming
Ken Follett
Edgar Allan Poe
Deborah Crombie
G.K. Chesterton
John Keats
Robert Burns
George Eliot
Charlotte Bronte
J.R.R. Tolkien
Series / Related Books
Peter Wimsey
Albert Campion
Tommy and Tuppence
Russell and Holmes
Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries
Mrs. Bradley Mysteries
Spenser series
Bosch series
Inspector Lynley Mysteries
Maggie Hope Mysteries
Jeeves and Wooster
Father Brown
About the Author
Kathy at her desk when she was four years old.
Picture me sitting serenely at my desk surrounded by my four-legged office assistants. The dog warms my feet, and the cat provides the purr-fict background music. I sip hot tea, sift through handwritten notes, and place fingers on the keyboard as thoughts take shape. Such is the joy of writing.
As a child, I took a book everywhere—to family dinners, to doctor’s offices, and of course to bed. Years later, a newspaper article inspired me to put pen to paper and submit my thoughts—my words—to the editor. Before I knew it, I was writing weekly columns and blogs. Then came a book co-written with my dog. (What? Doesn’t everyone do that?)
Now I’m living a dream I never knew I had—writing cozy animal mysteries featuring a dog and cat who talk to their owner. If a dog can write a book, surely animals can communicate. Naturally, my office assistants help with the dialogue. And, yes, they are angling to be listed as co-authors.
By the way, if you can’t find me, I’m traveling in the UK doing research for my next mystery—don’t judge.
—Kathy
www.KathyManosPenn.com
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Kathy Manos Penn, Collectors, Cats & Murder
Collectors, Cats & Murder Page 26