by Paige Sleuth
“Yes.” Kat paused. “But I’m correct that you don’t like Willow, aren’t I?”
“Nobody likes her,” Hannah declared.
“Nobody?”
“Well, nobody who’s had her in class, anyway.”
Kat absorbed that. “Why, is she a tough teacher?”
Hannah snorted. “Yeah, that’s one way to put it. She wants to fail everybody.”
Kat frowned. “She does?”
“She’s, like, a really harsh grader,” Hannah said, sticking out her tongue. “She makes us write these super hard papers and refuses to give multiple-choice tests. She says essay questions make us think.”
Kat felt a pinch of sympathy. She hadn’t been fond of essay questions in her youth either. “How did you do in her class?”
“I got a C.”
“And you weren’t happy with that?”
“Oh, I was just glad I passed,” Hannah said. “But, I mean, I worked my butt off for it.”
“So her class was challenging,” Kat mused aloud.
“More like impossible. I told Dad that a C in Ms. Wu’s class was like an A in a normal class, but he still got all on my case about it. He grounded me for the first two weeks of summer. It sucked.”
“Hmm.” Kat couldn’t help but think that would instill some resentment in the young woman. Still, she didn’t believe Hannah had framed Willow.
But had someone else in her class?
Kat’s heart beat a little faster. “Hannah, you don’t happen to know of anybody else who perhaps didn’t fare as well in Willow’s class, do you?”
Hannah snorted. “Nobody fared well in Ms. Wu’s class.”
Kat’s eyes drifted to the green flecks dotting her carpet, her senses on high alert. Whoever had sold that marijuana to Hannah quite likely could have access to other drugs. Could they have sold cocaine to one of Hannah’s other classmates, someone who had vowed vengeance against their demanding English teacher?
Kat looked at Hannah again. “Who sold you the marijuana?”
Hannah hugged her backpack closer, as if it were a shield. “Nobody.”
“Who?” Kat pressed. Even if Hannah’s supplier couldn’t lead her to the person who had put that cocaine in Willow’s car, she still wanted to know their identity. A burning anger spread throughout her chest when she thought about someone selling drugs to a fifteen-year-old.
Hannah sighed, her shoulders dropping two inches when she evidently realized that Kat wouldn’t let the issue drop. “Josh gave it to me.”
“Josh?” Kat racked her brain, straightening when the name registered. “You mean Josh Easton?”
Hannah’s face had paled considerably. “You’re not going to get him in trouble, are you? I mean, it’s only pot.”
Kat locked gazes with the teenager. “Is Josh dealing this stuff?”
Hannah adjusted the backpack in her arms. “I don’t think he sells that much. He just needs a little extra income since he wants to buy his own car when he turns sixteen. I mean, he’s working all summer down at Cherry Hills Auto too, but they don’t pay much and he’ll have to quit when school starts.”
Kat’s breath caught. “Josh works as a car mechanic?”
Hannah nodded. “He doesn’t really like it, but, you know, it’s hard to find a job when you’re our age so you just take what you can get.”
“What exactly does he do there?” Kat asked, feeling lightheaded.
Hannah seemed to have relaxed somewhat now that they’d moved off the topic of drugs. “Oil changes, I guess.”
Kat gathered that the teenager really didn’t know what Josh did. For that matter, Kat had no clue what automobile mechanics did either.
But, even given her lack of knowledge concerning the details, she figured Josh had probably changed at least one taillight. At the very least, he’d likely watched someone else changing one and knew how to do it himself.
Kat’s gaze snapped toward the wall clock. “What time does Cherry Hills Auto close?”
Hannah’s tongue poked at her cheek, as if she were debating over whether to say anything. She must have realized how easy it would be for Kat to look up the information herself because she finally said, “They’re not open this late.”
“What time do they reopen in the morning?”
“Seven.” Hannah looked at Kat with her head slanted slightly to one side, as if she couldn’t quite figure her out.
Kat couldn’t blame her. She was still working things out herself, but she was pretty sure a huge puzzle piece had just fallen into place.
CHAPTER TEN
Kat barely got any sleep that night. Tom joined her on the mattress sometime after midnight, and, although Kat fully expected her restlessness to send him scampering away in search of a less turbulent bed, he merely adjusted positions and settled down again whenever she flung the covers over his head or bumped his body with her foot.
She checked the time every ten minutes, silently counting down the hours until Cherry Hills Auto opened for the day. She forced herself to wait until exactly seven o’clock before racing out of her apartment building and jumping into her car. She’d mapped out and memorized the route to the shop the night before. It was a short, five-minute drive from her place.
She parked in a vacant spot and peered out the windshield, craning her neck to see if she could spot Josh Easton in one of the garage bays. She saw several people wearing blue coveralls, which she guessed was the employee uniform, but she couldn’t make out any of their faces from this distance.
She stepped out of the car and headed toward the garage area, homing in on a burly man poking around under the hood of a red sedan. “Excuse me.”
The man turned around, grinning when he spotted her. “Hiya. How can I help you, miss?”
“I’m wondering if Josh Easton is working today.”
The man looked around for a second before pointing to the far bay. “He’s over by that Beemer.”
“Thanks.”
Kat moved slowly as she headed in the direction indicated. Despite mentally rehearsing various scenarios all night long, she still hadn’t worked out exactly what she would say to Josh. The only thing she knew for sure was that she had to act on Hannah’s information.
As she got closer to the BMW, all Kat could see of the mechanic were his boots and the dirty coverall cuffs that hung past his ankles. The rest of him was underneath the vehicle somewhere, doing who knew what.
Kat decided she would wait for Josh to emerge rather than interrupting him. She had a healthy fear of anything related to car repair work, and she didn’t want the teenager injuring himself if she startled him.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to wait long. Josh rolled himself out from under the vehicle less than a minute later. His eyes grew larger when he spotted her.
She smiled. “Hi, Josh. Remember me? We met at Jessie’s Diner yesterday.”
“I remember. Ms. Harper, right?”
“Yes, or you can call me Kat.”
Josh pulled a rag out of his pocket and used it to wipe his hands. “What are you doing here?” He sounded wary, as if he suspected she’d sought him out to berate him for his dirty fingernails.
“Hannah McGinty told me you worked here. I thought maybe you would know how to replace a burnt-out taillight.”
The tension in Josh’s posture eased. “Oh, yeah, sure.” He aimed a finger at the building. “You’ll need to tell the guys in the office what you want done.”
“Is it a simple procedure?” Kat asked.
He nodded. “We just unscrew the light cover. Takes maybe a second, assuming we have the right bulb in stock.”
Kat pretended to ponder that.
Josh regarded her. “I can’t do it for you unless my boss gives me the go-ahead though.”
“Oh, I understand.” Kat paused. “Josh, I wanted to talk to you about Willow Wu too.”
His grip on the towel tightened. “What about her?”
“She was your English teacher last year, right?” Kat figured with H
annah and Josh being the same age and attending the same school, they’d probably also shared the same English class.
“Yeah, so?”
“Hannah told me she was a strict grader.”
Josh fidgeted, not saying anything.
Kat took a deep breath. “Josh, is the grade Willow gave you the reason why you can’t play football this upcoming school year?”
His whole body stiffened, and Kat noticed a hardness to his face that hadn’t been there a second ago.
“Your father told me you were cut from the team because you didn’t keep your grades up,” she continued.
Josh’s eyes darted to the man Kat had spoken to earlier. He seemed to be silently imploring his coworker to rescue him.
Kat opted to try a different tack. “Okay, forget about the football team for a moment. I saw the pot you gave Hannah.”
A muscle in Josh’s cheek twitched. “She told you?”
“She didn’t want to tell me.”
“Yeah?” He scoffed. “Then she should have kept her big mouth shut.”
Kat decided to go for broke. “She doesn’t know you framed Willow, Josh. I put that together myself.”
His jaw clenched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You put that bag of cocaine in Willow’s car, didn’t you?” Kat pressed. “When she stopped by Saturday morning to talk to your father about the 4F benefit dinner, you saw an opportunity.”
His knuckles had turned white around the towel now, but he didn’t respond.
“It was dark and raining, and she was busy inside the house telling your dad about how she planned to drive over to Wenatchee to interview a few other caterers,” Kat continued. “So you decided to punish her for giving you a failing grade and consequently disqualifying you from playing sports.”
She waited to see if Josh would say anything, but he seemed to have adopted the silent defense. Still, as long as he didn’t turn around and walk away, she would keep talking.
“You disabled her taillights, figuring she would get pulled over at some point during the drive to Wenatchee,” Kat went on. “And then you planted that bag of drugs in her car where it was sure to fall out when she went to get her registration.”
“You can’t prove that,” he bit out.
Kat shrugged. “I’m sure you left something behind that a good forensics team could find. Did you wear gloves when you were tampering with her taillights and handling that cocaine bag?”
Josh blanched, leading her to believe the answer was no.
“And even if you didn’t leave any fingerprints, I’m guessing you have more coke stored somewhere,” Kat said. “I’m sure a good analyst could compare the makeup of the batch found in Willow’s car with whatever else you currently have in your possession.”
Josh no longer looked defiant. Now he just looked scared.
“Josh, what you did was wrong,” Kat said. “I understand why you were angry with Willow, but sending a woman to prison for something she didn’t do isn’t right.”
“She’s just so unreasonable!” he exploded, dragging a hand through his hair. “You have no idea how hard I worked in her class, and she still flunked me!”
Kat took a step backward, surprised by the young man’s outburst.
Josh’s face turned red. “It’s not like I really cared about her stupid English class, but I still needed to pass it.”
“Because you did care about being cut from the football team.”
He nodded. “That team is like family to me.”
Kat couldn’t prevent the pinch of pity she felt for him then. After witnessing the way Vicky treated everyone around her, including her own son, she couldn’t imagine Josh’s home life made for a very pleasant living situation.
Josh flopped against the BMW, his legs seeming to give way beneath him. “What do you think they’ll do to me?”
“Your parents?”
“The cops. They’re going to throw me in jail to rot, aren’t they?”
“I’m not sure,” Kat said honestly. “Although I hope they’ll work to get you the help you need.”
He looked at her, his eyes shining as if he might cry. “For the drugs, you mean.”
Kat nodded, a lump developing in her throat. “You don’t want to go down that path, Josh. You’re so young. You have your whole life ahead of you still.”
He swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Kat swallowed hard. “For some people it gets better, you know. Once you become an adult.”
Josh examined her, his lips quivering as if he wanted to ask her something. But after a moment he bowed his head and looked down at his shoes without a word.
Kat fumbled in her jeans pocket for her cell phone. Her fingers were trembling so badly it took her a couple tries before she got a good grip on the device. “You know I have to tell the police about this, right?”
Josh nodded without looking at her. He didn’t seem angry or scared anymore, just defeated. From the way his body had folded over on itself, it looked as if every one of his muscles had lost the will to move.
Kat called Andrew. “Can you come down to Cherry Hills Auto with a couple officers?” she said when he answered. “Josh Easton confessed to planting the drugs in Willow’s car.”
“I’ll be right there,” he replied.
Josh glanced at something over his shoulder. “I should go tell the guys I have to take off.”
“Okay.”
Kat watched him walk away, feeling something in her heart give out. She prayed Josh found the help he needed in juvenile detention or wherever he was headed.
Sometimes, she reflected, maybe being taken away was the best thing, for everyone.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kat smiled at the petite Asian woman sliding into a booth seat in her section of Jessie’s Diner. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Likewise,” Willow Wu replied. “Imogene says I owe you a big thank-you for figuring out who set me up.”
Imogene beamed as she sat down opposite Willow. “See, I told you she was a great addition to 4F.”
Willow swiped at a single tear that slipped down one cheek before looking at Kat again. “Thank you.”
Kat shrugged. “I didn’t do much really. I almost think Josh was somewhat relieved to have been caught.”
“Even so,” Willow said. “Without your nudge, he might never have confessed.”
The bell on the front door tinkled, announcing the arrival of another restaurant patron.
“Look who it is!” Imogene gushed.
Kat turned around. Her heart beat a little faster at the sight of Andrew heading toward them.
“Hi, ladies.” He grinned at Imogene, Willow, and Kat in turn. A tingling sensation spread throughout Kat’s entire body when his eyes lingered on her for what felt like a fraction longer than the others.
Imogene scooted over and patted the seat next to her. “You have to join Willow and me for lunch. We’re celebrating.”
Andrew sat down. “I suppose I could do that.” He nodded at Willow. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Imogene grabbed his arm. “Andrew, has Kat invited you to our 4F benefit dinner yet?”
Kat’s face flushed as Andrew’s gaze met hers.
Andrew returned his focus to Imogene. “No, she hasn’t.”
“Well, let’s correct that right now!” Imogene pulled her purse onto her lap and started rummaging through it with all the vigor of a dog digging for a bone.
Andrew extracted his wallet from his pants pocket. “How much are seats?”
“Whatever you’d like to donate for the animals.” Imogene yanked a ticket out of her purse and held it up like a trophy. “Minimum is twenty dollars.”
Andrew pulled a few bills out of his wallet and handed them to Imogene. “Has Kat reserved her seat yet?”
Imogene grinned at Kat. “Why no, not officially.”
Kat shifted her weight between her feet. �
�I’m working on it.”
Andrew reached back into his billfold. “Why don’t I buy hers too.”
Imogene’s face lit up as she took the money from him. “That would be marvelous! She can be your date.” She winked at Kat while Andrew busied himself with returning his wallet to his pocket.
In spite of her growing embarrassment over this whole situation, Kat also found herself feeling irrationally pleased. She almost wanted to thank Imogene, except that would only encourage the older woman.
Willow cleared her throat. “Speaking of the benefit dinner, with all the setbacks this week we’re behind on everything that needs to be done. But I may have found a caterer. I was supposed to meet with her Saturday, before this whole drug fiasco derailed my plans.”
“She has a lot of vegan options to choose from?” Imogene asked.
Willow nodded. “And her schedule’s completely clear the night of the benefit dinner.”
Imogene leaned across the table. “Tell me about her.”
As Willow and Imogene talked, Andrew smiled at Kat. Her knees weakened a little when his dimples made an appearance.
Yes, Kat Harper had to admit to herself, she was definitely looking forward to the Furry Friends Foster Families benefit dinner.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for visiting Cherry Hills, home of Kat and Matty! If you enjoyed their story, please consider leaving a book review on Amazon. Also join my readers’ group so you’ll be one of the first to know when Kat and Matty’s next adventure is published.
Please keep reading for an excerpt from Book One of the Cozy Cat Caper Mystery series, Murder in Cherry Hills. Thank you!
MURDER IN CHERRY HILLS
Katherine Harper knew something was wrong when she opened her front door late Tuesday morning and saw Matilda sitting outside her apartment.
Kat scrunched up her nose as she looked down at the cat. “Matty, what are you doing here? You live next door.”
Matilda stared back at her, her tail sweeping across the welcome mat.
Kat had to admit that Matty was a very striking cat. With her yellow and brown markings, white chin, and oversized green eyes, Kat thought the tortoiseshell was adorable.