Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1)

by Valerie Tate

  “Well ...” Shaken or not, Dani couldn’t resist a little gossip. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I wouldn’t have put it past that wife of his.”

  BINGO! Alicia pressed her carefully. “Really, his wife Jennifer? What makes you think so?”

  “She has a wicked temper. The walls here aren’t all that thick and we’ve all heard them going at it from time to time. She was always wanting money for something and he was always telling her he couldn’t afford it. Still, all couples have arguments.”

  ‘Yes,’ Alicia thought without saying, ‘but one of them doesn’t usually end up with his head bashed in.’ Instead she asked, “Have you told the police this?”

  “Oh, sure. They asked me the same thing you did about enemies and arguments. They didn’t seem to set much store by what I told them, though.” She seemed a little put out. “They did question everyone who works here and all of the volunteers, especially Nancy Webster.”

  “Why especially her?” Alicia asked, remembering number three on her list of possible suspects - shelter staff and volunteers.

  Dani leaned in and said softly, even though there was no one else to hear, “They found some blood on the sleeve of her volunteer’s smock.” She waited a second for effect and added, “Mr. Abbot’s blood!”

  “Really?” Alicia and Alex exchanged looks. Another BINGO.

  Dani looked very pleased at the reaction her bit of gossip received. “Yes, they even took her to the police station for questioning but they had to bring her back,” she said, as if speaking about a puppy or a kitten being returned to the shelter.

  “Why was that?” Alex couldn’t help but ask.

  “She has an iron clad alibi, as they say.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes, Nancy and her husband went to visit their daughter in Goderich and stayed the night. She didn’t even find out about Marmalade until she read it in the morning papers.”

  “Where did the police find her smock?”

  “It was hanging on the coat rack by the door. You see,” she went on, “normally the volunteers take their smocks home with them, but Nancy was in a hurry because they were driving to Goderich, and she forgot it when she changed into her coat. The police think the killer put it on to protect his clothes from blood spatter, not that there was much blood,” she added, grimacing.

  Alicia was about to say it was time they left when Dani said, “Oh, I almost forgot about the scruffy man.”

  “What scruffy man?”

  “There was some man here one day not too long ago. He and Mr. Abbot had a big fight.”

  Alicia sent Alex a significant look. Another good suspect.

  “Do you know who the man was?”

  “No. As I said, he was a scruffy-looking fellow. His clothes were old and he needed a shave and a haircut. I wasn’t going to let him in to see Mr. Abbot but he just barged past me and pounded on the door to the office. When Mr. Abbot opened the door and saw who it was, he said it was OK and he let him in and closed the door.”

  “Could you hear what the fight was about?”

  “I’ll say. They could have heard it in town. The man was saying he wanted more money. Mr. Abbot kept telling him that he’d been paid and he wouldn’t get another penny. The man stormed out shouting that he’d be sorry. I asked Mr. Abbot if he wanted me to call the police but he said no, it was just a guy who’d done an odd job for him and wanted more than the amount they’d agreed on.”

  JACKPOT! It had to be Ray Price.

  “And did you tell the police about what you heard?”

  “Yes. They wrote it down but they didn’t seem too interested.”

  Alex nudged Alicia. A family had just driven in and were parking their car. Time to go.

  “Well, Dani, thanks for your time. I know you’re busy. Let me know if you hear anything about Horace,” Alicia said sincerely, turning to go.

  “Sure thing. We miss him too.” She turned to greet the newcomers, and Alex and Alicia hurried out the door and back to their car.

  It had been a profitable trip.

  Chapter 53

  Once in the car, instead of turning on the ignition, Alicia sat staring out the window.

  Alex waited patiently for a minute or so and then said, “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m just trying to decide if we should go see Ray Price now or wait until tomorrow.”

  “I thought you said you were leaving Ray Price to the police.”

  “You heard what Dani said. They didn’t seem interested in what she told them. It wouldn’t hurt to nose around a little.”

  “Do you know where he lives?”

  “Detective Samuel said he lives in a subsidized housing apartment. Let’s go now.”

  There was only one subsidized apartment in Dunbarton. It was a low-rise building at the far end of town near the highway bi-pass, the Dunbarton equivalent to the wrong side of the tracks.

  On the drive over they agreed on a plan of attack. It was Alicia’s idea that they should go to Price’s apartment on the pretext of needing some odd jobs done and try to find out where he was the night of the murder after he left the jail. However Alex pointed out that he would be sure to recognize Alicia and so, as much as she hated to miss all the fun, as she put it, she agreed that Alex should go in alone.

  They stopped at the park a block from the apartment. Alicia got out and Alex took the wheel.

  The park was not a popular place that day. Although the projected snowfall hadn’t arrived, the thin, late November sun could do little against the onslaught of a rapacious wind that came storming off the lake like a marauder, and there was no shelter. Huddled on a bench, Alicia decided she would have infinitely preferred lying on the floor in the back of the car. At least she would have been warm.

  Driving the last block to the apartment, Alex decided her cover-story would be that she needed a handyman to rebuild the porch steps on the cottage she had just purchased and that someone she had met in town had suggested she contact him. She was excited. She had never gone ‘undercover’ before.

  It wasn’t just a low-security building, it was a no-security building. The tenants’ names and apartment numbers were on the mailboxes at the entrance and a sign above the boxes said the doors were locked from eleven pm until eight am. Alex walked right in.

  Price’s apartment was number 306 on the top floor. There was no elevator, so she started up the stairs when it occurred to her that if Price had indeed killed Abbot, she would be walking into a murderer’s lair. She started to turn back before reminding herself she’d told Alicia that she could do it, and she didn’t want to let her friend down, so she finished the climb and went through the doors into the hall. But just to be safe, she decided she’d talk to him from the hall.

  The hall was no more appealing than the stairwell had been, dingy and smelling of a combination of food and stale cigarette smoke. Number 306 was three doors down. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves - not a good idea, she decided, considering the odors in the hall - and knocked on the door.

  It was opened by a man who definitely met the scruffy criterion – torn jeans, a stained sweatshirt with ragged cuffs, two day’s growth of beard and an over-grown, thinning-at-the-top mullet. “Mr. Price?”

  Hugging herself to keep warm and failing miserably, Alicia was wondering if Alex had reached Ray Price’s apartment when an appalling thought suddenly occurred to her. Someone is considered a murder suspect because he might have committed a murder and she had just sent her best friend to a murder suspect’s apartment, alone.

  “I’m such an idiot,” she said aloud, leaping to her feet.

  She tried Alex’s cell first, but when it went straight to voice mail, she took off along the street to the apartment building. The wind snatched at her every breath as she ran, so that she was gasping for air when she reached the entrance. It took only a moment to find Price’s number and to start up the stairs.

  At the third floor she stopped and eased the door open to peer d
own the hall, hoping to see Alex, but the hall was empty. Fear for her friend’s safety made her heart pound in her chest and slowed her mental processes. What should she do, she thought frantically. If Price was a killer, Alex could be in mortal danger, but if he wasn’t, this was a fool’s errand and Alex would be furious with her for intervening.

  She thought of pulling the fire alarm, but it was at the other end of the hall. Finally she decided to stroll casually down to 306 and see what she could hear through the door. If she didn’t like what she heard, she could pull the alarm.

  The building must have been better constructed than she thought because there wasn’t a sound from 306, or any of the other apartments for that matter. Straining to hear, she walked past 306 as if looking for an apartment number and turned back. She reached the window at the end of the hall, still listening intently for any sound that might indicate that Alex was in trouble. Giving up on looking casual, she was putting her ear to the door when the handle started to turn. In a panic, she flew back down the hall to the stairwell, through the door, and turned in time to see Alex leaving the apartment, followed by Dani’s ‘scruffy man’. She was about to jump in and save her friend from an obvious villain, when she saw Alex smile and shake the scruffy man’s hand, turn and head for the stairs.

  Alex saw her the minute she walked through the stairwell door. “What are you doing here? I thought you were waiting in the park.”

  “I was worried. I thought you might need rescuing.” Ignoring Alex’s laughter, she asked, “What did you find out?”

  “I’ll fill you in when we get in the car.”

  After the heat of the apartment building, it seemed even colder outside. The girls hopped in the car and Alex cranked the heat up to high.

  “Well?” Alicia asked breathlessly.

  Alex shook her head. “Believe it or not, Ray Price has a wife. I just met her. She bailed him out just after the Abbots left and they went right home to bed. She was furious with him and ‘cussed him out up, down and sideways’ - his words not mine - because he had sworn to her that he hadn’t taken the cat.”

  “What did she think he was doing all those nights when he was haunting our driveway?”

  “Office cleaning.”

  “I guess that’s why Detective Samuel wasn’t interested in Dani’s story about the fight. They knew he had an alibi,” Alicia said wearily.

  “You’re probably right. By the way, you don’t know anyone who needs the porch steps of their cottage replaced, do you? He gave me a very good deal.”

  Back at the house, while Alex unpacked, Alicia went to her ‘Murder Board’ and reluctantly crossed ‘Ray Price’ and ‘Volunteers and Staff at the Shelter’ off the list, then recorded their new information under her ‘Suspects’ heading and stood back to see the results. A picture was definitely becoming clear but what were they going to do about it?

  Chapter 54

  “I don’t think this is a very good idea …” Alex said for the umpteenth time.

  “I know, but do you have an alternative suggestion?” In the face of her friend’s exasperated glare, Alex had to admit she didn’t.

  The two girls were huddled in Alicia’s small Toyota on King Street, two cars away from Jennifer Abbot’s sparkling white Lexus. Jennifer was in Caruso’s, a small family-owned grocery store. There was a large supermarket on the bi-pass outside of town but the Town Council had a major campaign in place encouraging townsfolk to support the small shops on the historic main street, and it seemed that Jennifer was heeding the call. She had been in there for half an hour and the girls were becoming Popsicles in the unheated car.

  The main street was decorated for Christmas, with wreaths hung on the Victorian-style street lamps, cedar garland criss-crossing the road, and miniature lights gracing the denuded branches of the trees along the sidewalk. The shop-windows glistened with artificial snow and festive ornaments and holiday music poured into the street each time a door was opened. The local radio station was playing Christmas music ‘all day every day’ until December 25th and the store owners were using it to get shoppers into the Christmas-buying mood. It seemed to be working, because the street was busier than usual for a weekday afternoon, and Alicia and Alex were wishing that they were among the happy gift-buying throngs instead of shivering in the Matrix waiting for Jennifer to reappear.

  After the Ray Price fiasco, it had become clear to Alicia that their first instinct had been right all along. The only suspect left was Jennifer Abbot and it had been her idea to follow Jennifer for a day to see if they could learn anything that would lead them to proof of her guilt. So far the plan had been a dismal failure. Even though the oft-predicted first snow of the season had yet to materialize, the temperature was freezing and so were the girls. It hadn’t taken them long to realize that a stake-out wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and that hot coffee and blankets should be in the ‘Surveillance Manual for Idiots’ guide under essential gear.

  Whatever her life-style had been like prior to her husband’s death, Jennifer was playing it low-key now - grieving widow going about the mundane routines of life. Alicia and Alex had parked down the street from her house in the early morning, but it was afternoon before Jennifer finally climbed into her SUV and headed into town. The grocery store was her first stop, but the boredom of several hours of waiting was taking its toll and they almost missed her leaving the store.

  “Finally! I thought she’d never leave that shop. You sure know how to show a guest a good time, Al!” Alex watched Jennifer in the side view mirror as she put her bags in the back of the Lexus, but instead of getting in the car, she dodged traffic to cross to the other side of the street.

  “Where’s she going now?” Alicia turned the rear-view mirror and with surprise saw their suspect step into the Ex Libris bookstore. “I can’t believe it!”

  “Yeah, isn’t that the store where you work?”

  “It is but that isn’t what surprises me. I can’t believe she reads. She strikes me as a Vogue and Enquirer kind of girl. Only hard-core readers shop in a used book store.”

  “That reminds me, aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

  Alicia wasn’t surprised that it had taken that long for Alex to think of work. “No. When all of this started, Ned told me that I could take as much time off as I needed.”

  “That’s awfully nice of him. He must be putting in a lot more hours himself to make up for that.”

  “I think most of the time he just isn’t opening. He doesn’t live on the profits. He seems to have income from other sources. Also, since he owns the building and lives in the apartment upstairs, it isn’t too much of a problem for him. He’s a long-time family friend. I’ve known him all my life. But you’re right, it is kind of him all the same. He … Look! There she comes and I don’t see any packages,” Alicia smirked, her opinion of Jennifer’s reading habits apparently vindicated.

  They watched Jennifer, elegant in a belted tweed jacket and thigh-high boots, stroll casually along the street looking in the shops until she reached the Simpson’s Travel Agency.

  Holding their breaths they waited … Would she? “Yes, she went in!” Exhaling with gratification, they collapsed against the seats.

  “What do you want to bet she’s booking a trip out of town?” Alex’s eyes shone with excitement.

  “It’s entirely possible but even women who haven’t killed their husbands can plan a winter vacation in the sun. It is a good sign, though … but not that good. Look, she’s leaving already. She wasn’t there long enough to have booked a trip.”

  Once more, Jennifer headed down the street.

  “She does have some brochures.” Alex pointed out, trying not to feel let down. “Where’s she off to now?”

  Alicia slumped down in her seat as Jennifer passed by on the other side and turned into the main headquarters of the town’s gossip mill, otherwise known as ‘The Tea Room’.

  “Lucky her! I could use a cup of hot tea and a cookie right about now. I can’
t feel my feet.” Alex wiggled her toes to try to get some circulation going.

  They watched through the artfully decorated window and saw Jennifer stop by a table where the silver-haired brigade had gathered for their daily dose of scones and scuttlebutt. Alicia wondered who was pumping whom and about what.

  It looked like Jennifer had received some unexpected news because she suddenly looked up through the window and abruptly left the tea shop, before heading straight across the street towards their car.

  “What do we do now?” Alicia said frantically.

  “Duck!” Alex cried, and did.

  “We can’t just duck,” her friend responded in disgust. “What if she looks in the window and sees us ducking? How would we ever explain it?” Thinking fast, she said, “Put your hood up.”

  “Why?”

  “Don’t argue, just do it and pretend to be looking at this map! Hopefully she’ll think we’re tourists.” Alicia pulled a map out of the door pocket and opened it.

  “Cold tourists,” Alex grumbled, but did as instructed. “You know, it has just occurred to me,” she continued in the same tone, “that a bright red Matrix is not an ideal vehicle to be driving if one wishes to be inconspicuous.”

  “It’s less conspicuous than that big, hulking Navigator you drive.”

  It must not have been too conspicuous because Jennifer passed the car without noticing them. She got into the Lexus and pulled out into traffic. Waiting to let a few cars get between them, Alicia thankfully turned on the ignition, and the heat, and followed, staying well behind.

  Jennifer’s final stop for the day was at Barret’s Funeral Parlor. Defeated, Alicia and Alex gave up the stake-out and went home.

  Chapter 55

  Back at the ‘Murder Board’ once more, while Alex went upstairs for a hot shower, a discouraged Alicia added the pittance they had learned to the list and wrapped herself in an Afghan and flung herself down on the couch.