Libby pulled back and smiled timidly. She was a petite woman with a fashionable brown bob and bangs. Her eyes looked worried. “I came,” she said in a low voice. “But it still feels weird to be out in public like this. I know everyone’s worried about Misty, not me, but I still have the feeling that people keep looking at me.”
Deirdre put an arm around her friend. “Then we’d better stick close together so I glare at anyone who might be looking.”
Libby smiled in relief and then hugged Sam. Spotting the cats, she broke out in a big smile and then swooped up Flipper, her favorite, and began kissing his furry head. The fat cat blinked happily and began to purr at a hundred miles an hour. He, for one, didn’t care about Libby’s past as long as he got lots of pats.
They all sat down together and truthfully, Libby did attract a lot of stares. Thankfully, the meeting started soon and everyone’s attention was redirected. Sheriff Davis, a rather short man with a broom-like brown moustache and a weary look, took the podium in the hall.
“Thanks to you all for coming out today,” he said. “Mr. and Mrs. Brown have reported their cousin, Ms. Misty Hall, to have gone missing and they’re worried she may have landed in trouble. We’re all much obliged that you all came out today to help look for her.”
He began clicking through a PowerPoint presentation on a big screen behind him. “These here are pictures of Ms. Hall. And this is the number to call should you find anything. I’m going to ask you in a moment to divide yourself in groups. There are pieces of paper on the wall for different districts to cover and a volunteer leader by each so just group yourselves accordingly. Mr. and Mrs. Brown invite you back here afterwards for hot chocolate and donuts to take off the chill.”
He nodded and stepped down. People immediately rose and began organizing themselves. Deirdre noticed that no one wanted Jones Park, a huge wooded space outside the town proper.
“Sam, should we take the park? Looks like folks aren’t keen to be in the woods after dark.”
“Well, I’m the right person to go.” He looked down at the cats. “But what about them?”
Joe looked up at Deirdre with angry eyes, as if offended she might even think of leaving him behind.
“You’re right. I’ll have to leave them in the car. They’re smart but if it gets dark in the woods I hate to think of them losing their way.”
Joe yowled angrily at these words. She scooped him up and patted him affectionately. “I’m sorry darling. I know you could take care of yourself but Flipper isn’t so good in the dark.” Joe growled a little, as if protesting being left behind on Flipper’s account. Dee felt bad that he was always looking after the less agile and adept member of their family. But Flipper loved Joe and it wasn’t fair to leave him alone in the car while Joe got to go out.
Their group leader turned out to be Michael Stevens, the second in command at Brown’s Salt Water Taffy. Originally from Portland, Michael had been hired by the Browns to help them with the day-to-day affairs of their business. Michael had an MBA and was a bright guy who the young women in the town had, at first, all wanted to date. He was handsome enough – muscular and tall with precisely combed brown hair and a quick laugh.
Unfortunately it seemed Michael only wanted to marry his job. And when he wasn’t working he was always pounding the pavement in his running shoes, rain or shine. The Browns adored him as he had helped them expand into new markets and increased their profit considerably.
A few other people shuffled over to the Jones Park area. Michael proceeded to break them into even smaller groups so they could cover a good part of the park. He assigned them all different trails and gave them maps and rolls of tape to mark anything suspicious.
“Go slowly and take photos of anything you find,” he told the group. “See any ditches or creeks, have a look in without getting yourself in danger. I want you all to stay together at all times, be alert and don’t wander far off the trail. This is just a preliminary search. If Sheriff Davis gets concrete evidence that something suspicious has happened to Misty he’ll go ahead with a full police search.”
Deirdre, Sam and Libby were assigned to a long winding trail that went deep into the woods. With the map and tape in tow, they hopped in Sam’s truck and drove out to Jones Park. Dee loved the area and she and Sam spent as much time there as possible. Hiking was one of the few forms of exercises Dee did consistently. She was always trying new regimes – Zumba, yoga or swimming – before getting bored with them.
But the park inspired Dee to get active. It was a huge forested area filled with trails that wound around creeks, around inland lakes and past jagged cliffs with plummeting white waterfalls.
Sam parked the car and they all clambered out. The cats both yowled angrily at being shut up in the car but Dee made sure they had plenty of food and water and that they were parked in a shady spot. “I’m sorry guys,” she shrugged, trying to avoid Joe’s accusatory look. “It’s for your own good, really.”
The sun was heading towards the horizon but there was still plenty of light. The long days of summer hadn’t yet completely disappeared. They headed down the trail and slowly began looking around. It was a marshy area so the trail was a wooden boardwalk.
The route was pleasant and wound through woods of tall pale ash that were crowned with fiery red leaves. The forest floor was covered in bright green moss and ferns as well as the first fallen leaves. Warblers flitted through the trees, calling out their distinctive cries and squirrels dashed up and down the trunks of the ashes with food they had gathered.
The three friends were silent for a bit, guiltily enjoying the beauty of the forest as they anxiously darted their eyes about, looking for any sign of Misty.
“Do you really think she would have wandered in here and got lost?” Libby mused. “I never thought her a woodsy type.”
Deirdre shrugged. “From what I heard she’s more of a bar type. She must be in her late 30’s but I think she still lives like she’s in her 20’s. Apparently the Browns have set her up with her own condo in Portland and she hardly works anymore, just lives off their money and the odd bartending job.”
“So it doesn’t sound like she’d be the kind to go for a stroll in the woods,” Sam put in.
“Well, who knows? Maybe she needed some time to herself. But I agree with the Browns. Taylor said that she never leaves Green Harbor without asking for money. This time she just disappeared. Seems suspicious.”
Libby looked over at Deirdre unhappily. “You think something may have gone wrong?”
Dee put on her thinking cap. “Well, let’s think about it. Why would anyone want anything to happen to Misty? Far as I know she didn’t have a regular boyfriend. Could be she owed someone money. But truthfully, Misty is a high-profile person. Everyone in Maine knows about the Browns. Hurting Misty would attract a lot of attention, as it already has. So it would be a pretty bold move to go after her for something petty.”
“Though I heard she was spending time with rough types in Portland,” Sam said, peering down into a ditch nearby. “Could be somebody got bold enough to make a move on her.”
Libby sighed sadly. Deirdre knew she was thinking about her husband’s passing and put an arm around her friend. That summer Libby’s sister-in-law had murdered him in a play to gain control of Libby and Roy’s famous B&B. It had been a devastating event in small Green Harbor. The only condolence was that the perpetrator had been sentenced and put in jail. Libby had her prized B&B still and with the help of her loving friends, she’d managed to find some solace and peace in her life.
Darkness began to fall. The trail petered off into a round set of boards lain over a wet area. Large moss-covered rocks were scattered over the forest floor. The trees were now skinny pines that had shed their now reddish needles all over the ground. The three shone their flashlights desperately around to try to pick up any trace of Misty but nothing could be seen. They all decided that it would soon be too dark to spot much so they headed back in single file.
Chapter 4
Monday morning went by in a blur. Deirdre put the finishing touches on her grant application. She finished right before the deadline and submitted it electronically before laying back in her chair and exhaling a huge sigh of relief. Now she could finally pay attention to the millions of other projects she needed to work on. She wanted to expand their offering of book club sets. There was the e-newsletter that needed to be written. And the deadline was coming up for their quarterly paper newsletter of events and news. There was never a dull moment at the library.
Deirdre got up to put on her electronic kettle and check on the cats. Joe was stalking the office. He still looked angry about being left behind on the search. Flipper was sound asleep in a fat black and white ball. She could hear his peaceful snoring. Dee picked up Joe and cooed at him but he merely squirmed away and went back to eyeing her angrily from across the room.
Dee then realized that Taylor hadn’t bothered her all morning. This was unusual. Her assistant was constantly asking questions and driving her insane. Perhaps she’d finally clued in that Dee was under deadline. Then again, she’d also heard a really loud thump coming from the book drop box sometime that morning. Someone must have returned a ton of books and Tay had been too busy shelving to bother Deirdre.
Of course her peace and quiet couldn’t last. Tay burst in with a furry object buried in her arms
“Oh my God,” she breathed, her doll-like eyes huge under her bangs. “So I heard someone drop off some books. But I ignored it because there were these two teenage boys looking at something bad on the computer. And so I told them what you said to tell people who were looking at bad things. And they wouldn’t listen. And we got into this discussion. And I totally lost track of time. And then this other man, this old guy, he started getting mad at them. So I tried telling him what you told me when people get mad at the library. And then he got mad at me…”
“Tay, what’s in your arms?” Dee interrupted.
She looked at it as if remembering it was there. “Oh shoot. Right. It’s a kitten. Somebody dropped off a kitten in the book box.”
Dee slowly pryed open Tay arms. Out sprang a perfect little ginger kitten onto her lap. He was probably only a few weeks old and had some tabby markings, a white belly and chest plus a little smudge of white on his nose plus blue eyes and long-ish hair. Other than looking a bit on the skinny side he seemed perfectly fine. The kitten sat on Dee’s lap and looked up at her with sweet innocent eyes. She stared back in disbelief.
“Yeah, I guess people know you like cats…” Tay offered.
“Sure, but I still wonder why they didn’t take him to the animal shelter.” Dee stroked his tiny head with a forefinger and he butted it affectionately, purring all the while. “He’s so adorable. Oh no. This is dangerous. Sam made me promise not to get anymore pets or I’d really start to become the crazy cat lady.”
“Don’t you like have to have, like, 10 cats to be a crazy cat lady?”
“When you bring your cats everywhere I think you’re called that by default unfortunately.”
She looked down at Flipper and Joe who were sitting at her feet. Flipper was staring at the kitten in amazement as if he’d never seen anything so strange in his life. Joe looked utterly disgusted.
“He looks like a clementine. You should name him Clem,” Taylor announced.
The little kitten looked up at Dee with big blue “adopt me” eyes. She felt her heart nearly explode with wanting.
“He doesn't look at all like a clementine. He's fuzzy, for heaven’s sakes,” Dee said, tearing her eyes away and forcing them to look anywhere but into the depths of those irresistible, innocent baby blues. “Plus naming him implies ownership. And Sam made me promise not to get more cats.”
Taylor chewed her gum listlessly. “Yeah, but he's not your husband. You don't have to listen to him. He doesn't live with you either. So I'm pretty sure you can do whatever you want.”
Sometimes her assistant made terrifying sense. Dee looked at the kitten with trepidation. He mewed pitifully. She scooped him up and bestowed kisses all over his adorable head. It had been decided. She’d keep him. As if she could have said no!
Joe gave her an angry look, turned around and walked away. Flipper continued to stare at Clem as if he'd never seen another cat before. “I'm counting on you to help Joe get adjusted,” Deb told the big cat. Joe sneezed loudly in disgust from the other end of the room.
Taylor went back to sorting the stacks and Deirdre got Clem water and cat food. He ate and drank eagerly and then settled into the cat bed by the window. He curled up into a little ball and quickly fell sound asleep. Flipper sat on the very edge of the cat bed, staring down at the adorable ball of fluff, dumb disbelief written across his sweet face. Joe made himself scarce.
Deirdre tried to get back to her work but after all the energy she had spent on finishing the proposal and deciding what to do with Clem she felt spent. Instead, she stared out the window while thinking about Misty Hall. The other search parties hadn’t found anything either the previous night.
Dee wracked her brains trying to think of who she might try to speak to about the lost woman. She didn’t know who Misty spent time with in Green Harbor other than her family. Someone had to know her well enough to provide some explanation for her whereabouts. Surely the police were already on the trail. But then again, Dee was never quite sure that the police were following the right leads. Plus, she was just darn curious.
Finally, unable to sit still one moment longer, Deirdre packed up the cats and left the library in the care of Taylor. She put all three cats into the backseat where they alternatively ignored or stared at each other.
Deirdre wasn’t sure where she wanted to drive. At first she thought of stopping in at the Cove Café. Sarah Brown often had coffee there with her group of girlfriends. The problem was that Sarah had been in Dee’s year and she’d been a bit of a bully. Sarah had been one of those effortlessly gorgeous teenagers that usually only exist in the pages of a magazine. Dee had been bookish and studious and she had caught a lot of flak from the more popular types. Over the years, the differences between her and Sarah had evened out but they’d still never become more than casual acquaintances. Dee wasn’t so sure approaching her for information on Misty would go over well.
Without thinking about it too much, Dee turned the car towards Jones Park. If nothing else, she mused, I’ll get to see the fall colors.
Indeed, the maples were sprouting bright red pops of color in their midst that contrasted beautifully with the azure blue sky. The aspens contributed a sunny golden yellow to the mix and the conifers a deep hunter green. Sights like this made Deirdre glad once again that she lived in Maine. Sometimes she got restless living in a small town but she knew she would never leave. Maine was who she was.
The sun was high and it was getting stuffy in the car. Dee cranked down the window and breathed in the sweet fall air with relief. Just then a rusty red fox darted across the road. She slowed and then stopped when another one followed right on its heels. They were beautiful animals. As she waited for them to cross she felt soft feet on her lap. Dee reached down to pat whomever had been cheeky enough to climb into the front seat. But her hand only met the air, not fur.
Dee immediately put the car in park and looked around her and, then into the back seat. One cat. Two cat. No three cat. Clem! She looked out the window just in time to see a little fuzzy orange bum disappear into the woods.
Cursing, Deirdre closed the window, steered the car onto the shoulder and parked before darting out. “Clem!” she cried wildly. “Where are you?”
T
he last thing she needed was to adopt a perfect, adorable little kitten and then lose him the very same day. Sure, his owner hadn’t been very nice in dumping him in the book drop box. But he or she probably hadn’t wanted Dee to lose the little fluffball in the woods.
Ignoring the tug of low branches, she crashed through the forest, frantically calling the cat’s name. Even though he probably didn’t even know his name, or Deirdre for that matter.
It was cooler in the woods but she still quickly became hot and sticky as she ran forward. She really was going to have to get back into an exercise routine. Then abruptly she stopped.
Chapter 5
Up ahead was Clem, sitting pretty as a peach on a fallen log. He was cleaning his paw with his tiny pink tongue. Dee felt her maternal instinct kick into full gear. She raced forward and scooped him up, nearly crying with relief.
That’s when she spotted something else strange. It was a pink fleece pullover lying beside the fallen log. There weren’t any marks on it but it didn’t look like it had been there for long as it still looked freshly laundered. Dee remembered that she had a plastic bag in her pocket and she used it to scoop up the sweater. Maybe, just maybe…
In the next instant she was back in the car with the windows sealed up tight. Clem quickly fell asleep in the backseat. Flipper sat next to him as he tried to inch closer and closer to his mysterious new friend. Joe sat as far away as possible, looking cranky. Dee piloted the car directly back into town while talking to he tabby through the rearview mirror.
“Listen buddy, if it turns out to be a clue it’s okay. You can’t always be the one to solve mysteries. It just isn’t fair if you’re the one to get all the attention. Um, not that you don’t do your share Flipper. But you know, it’s usually by accident that you find anything, right kitty?”
Dee parked at the police station and told the cats firmly to stay put. Then she went in with the sweater.
Murder in Green Harbor (Deirdre The Cat Lady Sleuth Book 2) Page 2