Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter

by Blaize Clement

  “A lot of people say they can’t sleep at night if they drink tea after noon, but it never hurt me none. I drink tea all day long and I sleep just fine. If I don’t, I get up and watch TV. Some of them shows are dirty, got people doing it right there in front of your face. You ask me, there’s some things people ought not do in front of other people, and that’s one of them. You ever see any of them dirty shows?”

  I got up to get the tea tray and said, “I’ve seen some of them, but just for a few minutes. I don’t much like watching other people having sex.”

  “Well, that’s how I feel, too. What good does it do you to watch? If I’m not going to do it, I sure don’t want to watch somebody else doing it. What did you want to tell me?”

  She had caught me off guard, and when I looked at her, I realized she had been babbling because she was scared. I probably wore the same face that Sergeant Owens and Todd’s lieutenant had been wearing three years ago when they came to tell me about Todd and Christy. They didn’t have to say a word for me to know that my life was over.

  I said, “I think you’d better sit down, Cora.”

  I’ve seen greyhounds who have been pulled from the track to be destroyed, and their eyes had the same defeated look as Cora’s.

  “Is it about Marilee?”

  “Yes.”

  “Has something happened to her?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “I’m sorry, Cora. Yes, she is.”

  Her face imperceptibly crumpled, its thin skin suddenly cracking into an infinity of tiny lines. But her blue eyes remained blazingly dry, and she straightened up in her chair.

  “How did he kill her?”

  “I don’t know, Cora. Her body was found this morning, but I don’t know how she died. She was in the woods behind her house. I suppose she was killed about the same time Harrison Frazier was killed.”

  She closed her eyes at the image I had conjured, but mercifully didn’t ask who had found Marilee’s body or its condition. She was a sharp old lady, she probably knew the things that would happen to a body left lying in the woods for several days.

  “I always knew he would be the end of her. I knew it from the first day.”

  “They don’t know who killed her, Cora.”

  “I know. It was Harrison Frazier. I knew he would.”

  “Harrison Frazier was killed, too, Cora.”

  “I know that, and I’m glad. That’s a terrible thing to say, isn’t it, to be glad that another human being is dead, but I am. The world’s a better place without him, if you ask me. But it’s not a better place without Marilee.”

  The tears came now, spilling down her ravaged face. She didn’t bow her head and she didn’t wipe the tears away. She cried defiantly, as if her weeping were an accusation.

  I reached across the table and took both her hands. “Cora, I’m so sorry.”

  “Oh, don’t think this is the first time I’ve cried over what Harrison Frazier did to Marilee. This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last.”

  “What did Frazier do, Cora?”

  “Turned chicken, that’s what. His family thought Marilee wasn’t good enough for him, and he didn’t have the balls to stand up to them. That’s what hurt her the most. The way he let them drag her through the mud.”

  “When did this happen, Cora?”

  “Marilee was fifteen. I guess Harrison was just fifteen, too. Lord knows they weren’t either of them old enough to take on a baby. I don’t fault Harrison for that. But the way he acted later, that was the thing that just killed Marilee.”

  “Are you talking about Marilee’s daughter?”

  She sighed. “I’m not supposed to talk about her, but now I don’t guess it matters. It wasn’t right, what they did. I don’t care how much money they paid Marilee, it wasn’t right.”

  “What who did?”

  “The Fraziers. They wanted Marilee to put the baby out for adoption, and that was all right with me. I didn’t want Marilee to be tied down with a baby to raise and her just fifteen years old. I’d already been through that with her mother. If my daughter had given Marilee to some nice folks, Marilee might have been better off. I did the best I could for her, but I had all I could do to keep food on the table for us. If I had it to do over again, I’d have tried to get my daughter to let Marilee be adopted, and she wouldn’t have ended up hanging herself, God rest her sweet soul.”

  My heart did a little slide. Cora Mathers had lost more than any woman should have to endure.

  “So Marilee’s baby was adopted?”

  “Bought is more like it. The Fraziers came up with the idea of their daughter taking the baby, and Harrison talked Marilee into it. His sister had been married a good while and I guess she couldn’t have one of her own. You know how that goes. Them that wants them can’t get pregnant, and them that can’t handle them get pregnant if a man so much as looks at them. Anyway, Harrison told Marilee if she let his sister have the baby, they would always know she was being taken care of, and that after they married, they could get her back.”

  “He said they’d get married?”

  “That’s what he claimed. He said they’d finish school and then they’d get married. His family probably told him to say that, and Marilee believed him. She was just fifteen years old, she didn’t know how men lie to you.”

  “You don’t think he ever planned to marry her?”

  “Not for a minute. They had Marilee sign a bunch of papers. She had to promise to stay away from the baby and never let on she was hers. They paid her to do that. If you’re rich enough, you can pay somebody to do just about anything.”

  I poured her a cup of tea and waited while she took a shaky sip. I said, “The photograph on the refrigerator—”

  “That’s Lily. That’s what they named her. She’s nineteen now, and she got in touch with one of them places that find your real mother for you. I don’t know for sure how it works, but they called Marilee and then she and Lily talked on the phone. Marilee thought since Lily had found her, it wasn’t like she was breaking her promise to the Fraziers. They’ve been writing, and Lily sent her that picture. She looks exactly like Marilee. Marilee was so excited about meeting Lily. Now she never will.”

  “How old was Lily when Harrison’s sister took her?”

  “Oh, just hours. When the baby came, the Fraziers were right there with a lawyer and she signed papers and they took her.”

  “And Marilee thought one day she would get her back?”

  “That’s what Harrison told her. And he said it didn’t make any difference what his folks said, he wasn’t going to let Marilee go.”

  “But he did.”

  “Well, he did and he didn’t. He didn’t marry her, if that’s what you mean, but he never let her alone, neither. He was a fool for her, was what he was. Went crazy mean if she got mixed up with any other man. He told her one time he would kill her if he ever caught her with another man, and that’s what he’s done. Killed her.”

  “Wasn’t he married?”

  “Married and with kids. Marilee was just the woman he had on the side. He thought it was enough that he paid her. How do you think that made her feel? I tell you, all the money in the world won’t make up for a man treating you like a whore. He ruined her life, and then he killed her.”

  “Did Harrison Frazier know that Marilee and Lily had found each other?”

  “Oh my, no. She had promised, you know, and they’d paid her all that money. No, she couldn’t let Harrison know.”

  Cora looked up at me and gave me a wry smile. “If I keep talking, this won’t be true, you know? It’ll all turn out to be just a bad dream.”

  “I know. Talking helps to let bad news settle in slowly instead of all at once.”

  “Well, I’ll just tell you this, and you can pass it on to whoever it is that’s looking into this. Harrison Frazier was the one who killed Marilee. Now I think I’d like you to leave me alone.”
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br />   I understood. I had been like that, too, wanting to burrow into a hole and suffer by myself. I thought briefly about alerting somebody, but then decided to honor Cora’s request to be left alone.

  “Do you mind if I come by tomorrow?”

  “That would be nice of you, Dixie. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like it if you’d stop by.”

  “Just one more thing, Cora. When the investigators are finished at Marilee’s house, it will have to be cleaned. I need your permission to call the special cleaning people.” I couldn’t think of any other way to describe the professionals who clean and sterilize a house where blood and body fluids have been spilled.

  She flinched a bit and then rallied. “You do whatever you need to do, hon.”

  I made fresh tea for Cora and left her sitting at the table warming her hands on a steaming cup.

  Before I drove away, I called Guidry on my cell phone. He answered on the second ring with a clipped “Guidry here.”

  “Marilee had a baby when she was fifteen. Harrison Frazier was the father. His older sister adopted the baby, and his family paid Marilee to stay away and keep it a secret. But Frazier kept seeing her on the sly, and he told her he would kill her if she ever had another man. Her grandmother thinks he murdered her.”

  For a moment, the line was silent, and then he took a deep breath. “Does the grandmother have any ideas about who killed Frazier?”

  “No, but there’s something else. The daughter is nineteen now, and she found Marilee. They’ve been corresponding and they were going to meet.”

  Okay, now I’d told him everything I knew. Well, almost everything.

  Twenty-One

  I said, “If Frazier was insanely jealous like Cora says he was, maybe he killed Marilee when he caught her with another man.”

  “And what was the other man doing while Frazier was killing Marilee, standing by watching?”

  “Frazier could have knocked him out first.”

  “And who took Marilee’s body to the woods? Do you think Frazier did that while the second guy was unconscious and then went back to get himself killed? Damned cooperative of him if he did.”

  “Well, I don’t know, Guidry. I’m just passing on what Cora told me, so don’t give me attitude.”

  “I appreciate the information, Dixie. Like I said, you get around.”

  “Yeah. Now, when can I get a haz-mat crew in Marilee’s house so I can bring Ghost home?”

  “Who?”

  “Marilee Doerring’s cat. We talked about him, remember?”

  “Dixie, the Doerring woman is dead. You can’t bring a cat back to her house.”

  “What’s the difference in her being dead and off on a trip?”

  “A pulse, for starters.”

  “No, I mean what’s the difference to a cat? The contract I had with Marilee Doerring gives me temporary custody of her cat, with the obligation to do whatever is necessary for his welfare in an emergency. This is an emergency. There’s no reason why he can’t stay in familiar surroundings while I look for a new home for him. He’d be a lot happier.”

  “That’s what I live for, Dixie, to make a cat happy.”

  I batted away a floating cat hair and said, “Okay, that was snide, because I really do live to make a cat happy.”

  “Crime-scene tape should come down some time tomorrow. It’s all yours after that.”

  “Just until I can find a home for Ghost. Would you and your wife like a nice cat? Absyssinians are usually good with kids. If you have some, that is.”

  There was another pause while my face got hot. I couldn’t believe I’d just said what I’d said. He was going to think I was trying to find out if he was single, which was ridiculous. When he spoke, I could hear the grin in his voice. “I don’t happen to have any kids, Dixie, never have. Don’t have a wife, either, although I did once.”

  My lips were tingling like I’d had a shot of niacin. It was really stupid. I didn’t care whether he was married or not. I said, “A cat would be good company for you, Guidry. Cats don’t have to be taken for walks, and they don’t bark and disturb the neighbors. They’re really ideal pets. Research shows that people who have pets are healthier than people who don’t. Did you know that?”

  This time, he outright laughed. “I’ll think about it, Dixie, but don’t get your hopes up.”

  He clicked off and left me holding an empty phone.

  I muttered, “Fuck you very much, Lieutenant,” and started the Bronco.

  Talking about Ghost had helped me get my priorities straight. I had to find a new home for Ghost, and I had to do it quickly. He was not only cramped in his private room at Marge’s, but it was costing me forty dollars a day to leave him there.

  I didn’t want to leave him with just anybody, either. Pets are like surrogate children. Now that I knew how Marilee had been denied her own daughter, I understood a little better why she had lavished so much love and attention on Ghost. Unable to choose the most nutritious food for her child, she chose it for her cat. Forbidden to buy pretty clothes and toys and baubles for her daughter, she bought them for her cat. Even Ghost’s collar with its silver hearts and keys was like a charm bracelet she might have given her daughter. I felt a new affinity for Marilee, a kind of mother-to-mother rapport. Marilee had entrusted me with her substitute child, and I wanted to carry out her wishes.

  I was already late making my afternoon pet visits, but I turned the Bronco toward Roberts Point Road and Shuga Reasnor’s house. I pulled up in front of Shuga’s glass doors and slammed out of the car into the suspended heat peculiar to late afternoon on Siesta Key.

  Shuga was home. I could see her through the glass doors. She was sitting on one of her rose linen sofas with a phone stuck to her ear and one long bronzed leg swinging like a nervous pendulum. She saw me when I got to the top step, and even that far away I could see her eyes widen. She got up and started toward the door, still talking on the phone. I put my fists on my hips and stood without ringing the bell while she ended her conversation and flipped the phone shut.

  She pulled the door open and stood looking at me. At first, I thought she had two black eyes, but it was smeared mascara. She said, “I know she’s dead. The detective called me.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “What do you want?”

  “You’re the person Marilee authorized to make decisions about her cat.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake!”

  Rolling her eyes, Shuga stepped out of the way and pulled the door shut behind me. We walked silently to the living room and sat down across from each other.

  “I just have a few minutes,” she said. “I have to take care of things a lot more important than a damned cat.”

  “Things like calling Marilee’s daughter and telling her that her mother’s dead?”

  Her leg stopped swinging, and she gave me a level look.

  “Yeah, things like that.”

  “That’s who you called, isn’t it? That’s where you thought Marilee was going when she left here.”

  “Okay. Is that a crime?”

  “Why didn’t you tell Lieutenant Guidry that you’d talked to her daughter? Why didn’t you tell him you knew Harrison Frazier?”

  Her head snapped up then, and she jumped to her feet. “Get the hell out of my house, lady. My best friend just died, and I don’t have time for this shit.”

  “Your best friend didn’t die, she was murdered. Did you kill Marilee, Shuga? Were you involved with Frazier and got jealous because he had the hots for Marilee?”

  She barked a loud laugh, then sat down and took a cigarette from the crystal holder on the coffee table. She stuck it in her mouth and talked around it while she lit it from the silver lighter on the table. “That’s rich. Me involved with Harrison Frazier? I don’t think so.”

  She sucked smoke deep into her chest and slumped back on the couch, looking at me the way a cobra looks at the man playing the flute, wondering whether to be nice or lunge for my throat.

>   I said, “Let me make it easier for you. I know that Harrison Frazier was the father of Marilee’s daughter, and I know he’s been seeing her for years. Did he come here to Siesta Key to see her?”

  Through a fog of exhaled smoke, she said, “Oh, God no. Too close to Orlando. No, they met in other places. Every month or so, she would fly off and spend a few days with him. They always went to some out-of-the-way place where nobody would recognize them. Harrison would rent a cabin in some godforsaken spot in Louisiana or get a room in a mom-and-pop motel in Bumfuck, Nebraska, places like that. He could have taken her to the penthouse suite at the finest hotel in the world, but he took Marilee to dumb places like that. She was so crazy about him, she thought she had a good time. I think they spent all their time fucking, so I guess maybe she did.”

  “If they always met someplace else, what was he doing here when he was killed?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I got scared that something had happened to Marilee when you found him in her house.”

  “Marilee’s grandmother thinks Harrison killed Marilee. Cora says he was crazy jealous and that he threatened to kill her if she got involved with another man.”

  “He was jealous. Marilee thought jealous meant he loved her, the dumb cluck. But he couldn’t have killed her, he was dead. Somebody killed both of them.”

  “You said Dr. Coffey wouldn’t kill her himself but that he might hire somebody to do it. Who else had reason to kill Marilee?”

  “I don’t know anybody who would kill her. I’m telling you the truth.”

  I wasn’t sure I believed her, but I let it go. “How did Marilee get involved with somebody like Harrison Frazier, anyway?”

  “Cora was a cook at the grade-school cafeteria in Orlando. She barely made enough to scrape by, so she was always looking for ways to make money. The summer Marilee and I were fourteen, Cora got a job cooking at a ritzy camp for rich Baptist families outside Orlando. It was more of a resort than a camp, but it was supposed to be a way for families to have a clean, wholesome vacation with their kids and still give them a chance to swim and hike and hang out like normal kids. They let Cora bring Marilee and me with her, and we waited tables in the dining room. The rest of the time we were free to walk around the camp. If we were at the lake and one of the rich boys decided to come down and sit with us, we couldn’t do anything to stop them.”