Dashiell’s negative response to Simon was especially strong, so I decided the new baby and Otto could hang out downstairs in the cat room since they were familiar with each other already. Once they were settled, I sat on the kitchen floor with my four sweet kitties. I offered treats, played with them, and after scarfing down another salad, I lay down on the sofa for a little rest. It had been a tiring day. Chablis couldn’t have been more thrilled. She jumped onto my stomach and settled down for a much-desired cuddle. I was soon surrounded by the other three and their collective purring put me right to sleep.
I awoke in the darkened living room to the sound of Tom opening the back door. At least I hoped it was him. I sat up carefully, not wanting to disturb the slumbering Chablis. The other three were no doubt greeting Tom, hoping for double treats from him and lots of scratching on their foreheads.
“Jilly?” came his stage whisper.
I reached around and turned the lamp on. “Hey, hon. What time is it?”
“Past nine. You sound sleepy.” He came into the room carrying his buddy Dashiell. “Why not head to bed and get some good rest? I hear you were plenty busy today.”
“I’ve been asleep for at least two hours, which means I’ll be awake for a while. Guess I can catch some late-night TV. What did you learn from Joshua Meyers?”
Tom settled into the easy chair across from me and put his feet on the ottoman. “Joshua Meyers, my dear, is a fence.”
“Why in the heck did he ring the doorbell at Minnie’s house knowing the police were there? Seems rather . . . stupid.”
“Regardless of what you see on TV, criminals are not known for their intellect. The Joshua Meyers of the world believe they can lie their way out of anything, even if they’re talking to a police officer.”
“Meyers was there to pick up stuff to sell and actually thought he’d leave with a truckload, huh? That is pretty dumb. Why did Minnie buy all that stuff for Chester in the first place? What could he have told her to make her believe it was okay?”
“We don’t even know if she actually did the buying. Those boxes remain a bit of a mystery. From my little talk with Joshua, he only heard there was merchandise that he might be able to buy cheap and sell high. We have no proof he gave Chester Winston any money at all; in fact, we have no proof he even knew the dead man. Word on the street travels faster than a three-legged chicken, and my guess is Joshua heard about Minnie’s house and what was inside. I doubt we’ll get a straight answer out of him as to exactly who he heard this from.”
“Gosh, I was hoping him showing up would be the break you needed.”
“We’re holding him for a few more hours, but he’s only guilty of being as dumb as a box of rocks. I have to head back to the station, but I wanted to check on you. I turned on the cat cam and saw you were asleep, but you’d hardly moved a muscle every time I looked at you.”
“Ah, the cat cam is also a wife cam, then?”
He laughed and pointed at me. “Right. So don’t get any ideas. Actually, when you didn’t answer my text, I got a little concerned.”
“I never heard it. Can I fix you coffee before you leave?” I picked up a limp Chablis and held her to my chest as I stood. She was out like she hadn’t slept in days. She nuzzled into my neck and began to purr.
“Coffee would be awesome. Mind if I chill out with old Dashiell? This chair seems a lot more comfortable than I remember.”
“I don’t need help making coffee. You have to be more exhausted than I was. How much sleep have you had in the last three days?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll catch up when we clear this case.”
I made the coffee strong and Tom accepted his mug with a grateful smile. I also handed him the keys to Minnie’s house and he dropped them into his shirt pocket. Meanwhile, the cats decided I needed watching, probably figuring I could disappear again at any moment. The original three amigos gathered around me and Merlot even sat on my feet when I settled on the sofa.
I said, “Do you believe that Chester’s hitting up pet owners for those recovery fees turned him into a victim?”
“Could well be, but we need to start from the center and work out. Most murder victims are killed by an angry or mentally unstable family member. If I clear those folks, then as I mentioned before, the suspect pool becomes a whole lot bigger.”
“Alcohol could be involved in whatever happened. Seems Minnie’s twins were drunk when they got into it with Chester’s family at the hospital.”
“Alcohol and drugs are kind of what I meant when I used the term unstable.” He smiled.
I nodded. “This case is all over the map. Fake recovery fees, a fence hoping to cash in on murder, a woman with a brain tumor who was probably taken advantage of and a doctor run off the road and nearly killed.”
“Hold on,” Tom said. “We don’t know if Dr. Ross’s crash is connected to this case. Remember—she deals with mentally ill folks all the time.”
“Of course. You’d think I wouldn’t jump to conclusions by now, but something tells me it is connected.”
“Maybe.” He sipped his coffee and offered nothing more, which made me believe he knew something he wasn’t saying.
I decided to change the subject. “That Captain Osborne offered to help. You wouldn’t have an issue with that man, would you?” I smiled, knowing immediately from his expression that I’d hit the nail on the head.
“He’s arrogant and he wants to move up the county police ranks. Remember that big meth lab we had our sights on a couple of months ago? The one just inside Mercy town limits?”
Chablis jumped into my lap now that she’d decided I wasn’t getting up again. “I recall you were determined to gather everyone involved and put them in jail.”
“The county sheriff’s officers who joined us in the investigation made the bust too soon. We lost out on arresting several other players. We’d had to pair with the sheriff’s department since so many bad guys were on our radar. I’m certain Osborne was the one who jumped the gun.”
“You never told me, Tom.” I stroked Chablis and she closed her eyes and purred.
“I was embarrassed. Half of those drugged-up morons have moved out of Mercy because we didn’t complete our investigation. I’m glad they’re not here anymore, but they’ll be setting up somewhere else and spreading their misery.”
“That’s pretty sorry. Osborne did that so he could take the credit?” I asked.
“That’s my guess. I’ve worked with people like him before. They act like an invading army, ready to claim territory that doesn’t belong to them.”
“You sound frustrated and I don’t blame you. Speaking of frustration, what about Chester’s family? Are they cooperating? I mean, one of them hit Morris in the head. They had a loud argument in the hospital corridor with Minnie’s sons. The daughter-in-law was the one who attacked Morris. Who are these people?”
“Them.” He closed his eyes, breathed deeply and let out the air with a huge sigh. “The daughter-in-law is Lucinda, married to Chester’s eldest kid, Earl. I haven’t met the daughter, but she goes to school in Tennessee and isn’t around. The ex-wife might have had a beef with Chester. Her name is Marjorie Allen. She’s been married and divorced four times. They’ve all lawyered up. After how they’ve acted, that’s actually a smart move. Makes my job harder, though.”
“Have you spoken with them at all?”
“Yesterday, before the head-bashing and the hospital incident. They all alibi each other for the day we found Chester, but who knows if that will hold up considering we don’t have a time of death closer than within the last five days. I had to call the coroner today and, of course, guess who answered the phone?”
“Lydia Monk. How did that conversation go?” From my brief encounter with her at Minnie’s house the other day, her animosity toward me seemed to have ratcheted up a notch.
“Actually,
she was helpful for once. Polite, even. She told me the autopsy was scheduled for tomorrow. They had to ask a medical examiner to come here from Columbia to do the job. The lady doc they’ve been using is sick with pneumonia.”
Syrah jumped onto the back of the sofa near my head and rested a paw on my shoulder. I reached back and petted him. “Is it weird that I enjoy talking to my husband about murders and suspects and autopsies?”
“That’s my world. I promise to enjoy a quilt discussion in the near future.”
“Are you kidding me?” I laughed. “Quilting is never that exciting. No adrenaline rush. It is, however, relaxing and comforting.”
“That’s why I want to talk to you about it. Besides, isn’t a quilt like a puzzle that you have to put together?”
I laughed. “It is. It becomes even more puzzling when I make a mistake and have to figure out how to fix it without undoing hours of work.”
“I believe that’s why you like to hear about my cases—because you’re a puzzle solver at heart.” Tom lifted Dashiell, stood and walked over to the sofa. He set his sleepy boy down next to me. “I have to get back to work. I’m trying to take on the reports for everyone working the case. The two night shift officers are picking up a lot of slack. We do have other crimes to handle but nothing major. They’re pulling twelve-hour shifts.”
“And you’re pulling twenty-four-hour shifts.”
He put his hands on either side of my face, bent and kissed me. “As long as I can spend a little time with you every day, I can manage.”
My phone, sitting on the coffee table in front of me, rang. I was ready to let it go to voice mail so I could say a proper good-bye to Tom, but I’d asked Kara to update me on the two women in the hospital. I didn’t want to miss that call.
Tom picked up the phone and handed it to me so I wouldn’t disturb the cats surrounding me. Merlot had completely stretched out on both my feet to make sure I didn’t move.
“It’s Kara.” Tom blew me a kiss while I answered the phone.
She said, “Jillian, it’s good news. Minnie’s operation took longer than they thought, but they got the whole tumor. As soon as the swelling goes down in her brain, they’ll start to wake her up.”
Relief washed over me. “Great news. What about Dr. Ross?”
“Her brother tells me she’s out of the woods. In fact, they could start bringing her out of her coma as soon as tomorrow.”
“I am so glad. Maybe she recognized whoever ran her off the road.”
“Her brother said she will probably have no memory of what happened right before the wreck. Who’s working her case, by the way? I’d like to talk to them for my piece about her. I’ve learned she’s quite a remarkable woman.”
“You know, I have no idea. Tom mentioned the two night shift officers—that’s Clancy and Fowler, I believe—are picking up the slack while everyone else works on Chester’s murder.”
“But chances are, this is part of the Winston case, right?” Kara sounded a tad disappointed.
“That’s what I thought, but Tom said we can’t jump to that conclusion. There’s no evidence connecting her incident to Chester’s murder.”
“What if we could find that evidence?” she said.
“Are you saying that you miss that investigative journalist job you had in Houston and feel you can start over right now?”
“Do you truly believe that her accident so soon after she took on Minnie as a patient was a coincidence?”
“No—and I don’t think Tom believes it was a coincidence, either, but he said they have to start in the center and move out. That means investigating family members first.”
“Okay, so while they’re doing that, we can at least try to gather information about the hours before the accident. Maybe we’ll find a connection.”
“We shouldn’t interfere with Tom’s investigation, Kara.”
“Her brother is torn up, Jillian.” She was almost pleading now. “All they have is each other, and she was intentionally targeted.”
“You’ve been away from big-city journalism for too long. Peyton touched your heart, didn’t he?”
A short silence followed. “Yes,” she almost whispered. “Like I said, all they have is each other. For years before my dad met you, all we had was each other. I felt an instant connection to him.”
“Okay, I get that. But can you do the digging around and leave me on the fringe of your personal investigation?”
“I know you, Jillian. You care as much as I do. But I’ll make it easy for now. Tell me everything you know about Dr. Ross’s interactions with Minnie.”
Twenty
I lay in bed an hour later feeling as if I were hiding information from Tom that he needed to know. Once Kara set her mind to investigating something, she wouldn’t quit. I’d distracted myself from this reality by taking care of the “downstairs kitties” before I got ready for bed. I’d found them snuggled together sharing one of my quilts. I’d quickly run upstairs to get a few more so Otto and Simon would be nice and comfy. They’d probably have to stay in the kitty room through tomorrow, as I wanted to visit my hospitalized new friends—or at least show my support to their families. Visiting them probably wasn’t an option.
But as I awaited sleep, I had nothing to do but think about Kara’s plans. When I sat up and turned the lamp on, my four cats all raised their heads and looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. They’d been sure I was down for the count.
I called Tom, but he didn’t answer, and I chickened out when his recorded voice asked me to leave a message. It would be a stammering and probably incoherent recitation about how my stepdaughter would soon be crossing the line into his police territory. He was already irritated with Captain Osborne for doing exactly that.
But not leaving a message turned out to be a worse mistake because within seconds Tom called sounding panicked. “Are you okay? You always leave a message.”
“No. I’m fine. I decided it could wait until morning.” I leaned against the headboard, eyes closed. It could have waited. Kara wouldn’t be out with her tablet and stylus hunting down witnesses in the middle of the night.
“It doesn’t have to wait now.” The tenor of his voice alone could soothe me.
“Promise you won’t be angry?” I said.
“Jilly, you are the last person on earth who could get me riled. What’s going on?”
“It’s Kara. She’s got a soft spot for Dr. Ross’s brother. To help him get answers, she wants to figure out who might have run his sister off the road and at the same time prove to you it’s connected to Chester’s murder.” I went on to explain more about our conversation.
Tom sighed. “I can’t say I like that. We’re dealing with a killer, and if she does make the connection between the two crimes, she could become a target. I’ll call and warn her off this tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry. I should have been more forceful with her. But you’re right. She could be putting herself in danger.”
“Actually, this isn’t anything you did, so no need to apologize. She’s a big girl and no matter what you said, she probably would have stuck her investigative nose in all this. I love Kara, but I hope I can convince her to wait this out for a few days.”
I said, “The stubborn adolescent I met years ago has grown into an even more stubborn adult. I wish I knew how she planned to investigate.”
“That’s the question I intend to ask her tomorrow.” After Tom told me to get some sleep, we both said, “I love you.”
* * *
I had another fitful night and by morning I thought maybe I should be the one to convince Kara to let the police do the investigating, especially after she showed up at our back door looking as tired as I felt.
Once we both held mugs of coffee and she’d greeted each cat, we sat looking out on the still lake.
She said, “Tom called me ve
ry early this morning. I guess you told him how interested I was in Dr. Ross’s case.” Chablis had squirmed into Kara’s lap, even though the edge of the table made it a tight fit.
“Guilty as charged. I asked if he thought the cases were connected. I’m sure he told you exactly what he told me.”
“That he has to focus on the families as suspects first, and he cannot try to fit Dr. Ross into the equation right now. I get that. Most people are murdered by someone close. Blah, blah, blah. But I’ve already started checking on those family members. Chester’s daughter, the college student, was on campus all week. It’s midterm time.”
“How did you find this out?” I asked.
“I know people all over the country from my days working at the Houston Chronicle. These are folks willing to check stuff out for me. The professor in charge of the school newspaper where she attends? I know him. He immediately called a student who knew someone who knew someone else. Took me thirty minutes last night to discover she remained on campus all week.”
“Did you tell Tom?”
“He thanked me, though he’d already checked her alibi and knew where she’d been. The others are far trickier. I mean, who can vouch for where you were every minute of the day and night yesterday or last week or . . .” I started to speak but she held up a hand. “I take that back. You’re not a good example. You’re married to the police chief. But what about me? Where was I? How much of my time can you or Liam account for? If I lied, would either of you back me up if you had knowledge that I wasn’t telling the truth? Because that’s what happens in families. They protect each other.”
“You have a point.” She seemed so worked up, I decided to simply listen and not dispute what she said. Tom could interrogate with the best of them. I often believed he could get the truth out of a stone, so at some point he would make the connection between the crimes if one existed.
“Meanwhile,” she went on, “Brenda was run off the road and her case is sitting on the back burner because this small police department has way too much on its plate. And there I go mixing metaphors, which shows how tired I am.”
The Cat, the Collector and the Killer Page 14