Frankencat

by Kathi Daley

  Chapter 10

  “Okay, this is strange,” Tara said as we ate tuna sandwiches and studied the notebook. So far, it looked like Paula had, as I’d thought, used it to jot down notes and things she needed to remember, like phone numbers, appointments, and grocery lists.

  “What’s strange?” I asked as I nibbled on a potato chip.

  “This page is set up like a ledger. See this first column of numbers? I could be wrong, but to me they look like bank account numbers, and the second column has dollar amounts, so that fits. The third column is a bit different, but I’d say they’re customer numbers.” Tara glanced up from the page she was looking at. “I have no idea if this is in any way related to Paula’s death, but I think it could be.”

  I frowned. “I suppose. Money does seem to be at the root of a lot of murders. I wonder if those are her accounts or the account information of someone else.”

  “I’m not sure, but the dollar amounts are big. Paula didn’t appear to have a lot of money. If she did I don’t know why she would be messing around with all the temp jobs she’d been taking. I wonder if we can find out whether these really are account numbers and who they belong to.”

  “We’re meeting with Rachael this afternoon and she works at the same bank where Paula was temping. Maybe she can tell us what we’re looking at.”

  Tara tore out the page and handed it to me. “Let’s bring this with us and we can ask her. I didn’t find anything else interesting, although we might want to find out who this phone number belongs to.” Tara pointed to a number jotted down on another page. “I imagine Finn has pulled Paula’s phone records by now, so we can ask him.”

  “I’ll call him after I finish eating. You said there were several phone numbers in the notebook. Why are you focusing on that particular one?”

  “It looks like she came back to it several times.” Tara pushed the book toward me. “See how there are all these doodles? And there are doodles surrounding most of the numbers I found, which indicates to me that Paula liked to doodle while she talked on the phone. But this number has a lot of doodles, and many of them were done in different-colored ink. I’m not sure it’s significant, but it seems to indicate it’s a number she called many times.”

  I studied the page Tara had shoved in front of me. There were doodles in black, blue, and even red ink. “Okay. I’ll see if Finn knows whose number it is. Anything else?”

  “Without more to go on, not really. I’m not sure there’s anything in the notebook. We may just be grasping at anything we can find.”

  I glanced at Frank, who was curled up on a chaise longue. “There has to be something relevant in this notebook. Frank wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of taking me to fetch it if there wasn’t. Whether we’re on the right track with the account numbers and phone number I don’t know, but I’m quite certain something in this book is going to provide us with the clue we need.”

  “I’ve been thinking about what Sarah said about the killer already being on the premises. Although it seems unlikely, it’s possible. People are in and out of the store all day long. It would be entirely possible for someone to sneak in and hide in the storeroom.”

  “Maybe,” I answered. “But something doesn’t feel right. For one thing, the use of our box-opening knife as a murder weapons seems random. More like a weapon of opportunity. If someone snuck in and hid in the storage room waiting for the opportunity to kill Paula why not bring a weapon with them? They couldn’t have known the knife would be just sitting there.”

  “True,” Tara acknowledged. “And they couldn’t have known Paula would use the phone, which would put her near the storeroom. It is all very random.”

  I paused, then said, “Paula said she needed to make a call. Maybe the killer contacted her with either a call or a text and asked her to call them right away. That could provide a way to get Paula into the office.”

  Tara shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. The killer would have to have known ahead of time that Paula’s cell battery would be dead and that we’d take a break. I think you were right the first time. It’s all too random.”

  “Unless someone was in the storeroom for another reason and Paula’s murder was a wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time sort of thing.”

  “What do you mean, another reason? What other reason?”

  “For the sake of this discussion, let’s say someone snuck into the storage room earlier in the day for some random reason. Maybe to steal something or to find a place to sleep where they knew they’d be able to avoid being caught in the storm. What if they were moving around in the storeroom and Paula heard them after she made her call? She went into the room to check it out and the killer panicked and thrust a knife in her chest.”

  “Okay, then where did they go afterward?”

  “They snuck out when we were all huddled in the cat lounge during the worst of the storm. Between the electrical failure and the sheer panic everyone was feeling, it’s totally conceivable that no one would have noticed someone sneaking out.”

  “Maybe, but if I was the killer I would have gone out the back door, and we both know it was locked from the inside. And I think I would have taken the knife with me so the sheriff’s office couldn’t pull prints or other evidence from it. I know we both want the killer to be someone other than a book club member, but in the end, I think it’s going to be one of them.”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It would make things a lot easier if it did turn out to be a random person taking refuge from the storm, though.” I glanced out at the dark clouds on the horizon. The air and sea were both calm, but I had a feeling things were going to change by the end of the afternoon. “I’m finished with my lunch. I’ll call Finn to see what he has to say.”

  Before I made the call I took my plate into the cabin and gave Max the leftover tuna, which wasn’t enough to keep for another time. Then I grabbed a sweatshirt because the wind was beginning to pick up and headed out onto the deck, where Tara was sitting with Frank. I dialed Finn’s cell and waited.

  “Hey, Cait. What’s up?”

  “I’m just checking in. We’ve completed all but two interviews and I wanted to compare notes before we headed out for the afternoon. I also wanted to ask you about a phone number we found in a notebook that was Paula’s.”

  “Do I want to know how you happened to come into possession of that notebook?” Finn asked.

  “Probably not,” I said, then read him the number.

  “That’s the number Paula called from your office on the night she died. The one that led to the burner phone.”

  “And you never found out who it belonged to?”

  “Not so far. I’ve been calling it periodically, but no one has answered. I’ve been trying to track the purchase location by the product number. It looks like it was bought out of state. There are only three chains that carry this brand in Washington. I checked with them and found the model attached to the number is only available east of the Rockies.”

  “Why would different models be available in different areas?”

  “It’s a marketing ploy. It’s possible a third-party retailer sold the phone on the internet, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to narrow this down. I’m still working on it, though, just in case I catch a break.”

  “As long as we’re talking about phone numbers, did you ever figure out who was calling Paula in the middle of the night?”

  “I only found two calls to her house line between midnight and six a.m. Both were made from Paula’s cell phone to her landline.”

  “Why on earth would Paula call her home phone in the middle of the night?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe she was messing with Henry.”

  “Wouldn’t he have seen her making the call?”

  “Not if he was asleep and she made the call from bed. The landline ringing would have woken him up, but if it was on Paula’s side of the bed and she answered it, he never would have known she was the one to make the call in the first place.”

>   “This is becoming more and more bizarre.”

  “Tell me about it. Most of what we’ve found so far makes no sense at all.”

  “Did you find any prints on the knife?”

  “There were prints from three different people: you, Tara, and Paula.”

  “Paula?”

  “She may have grabbed the knife and tried to pull it out before she lost consciousness.”

  “Okay, that makes sense, but are you sure there aren’t any other prints that could belong to the killer?”

  “Not unless you or Tara did it.”

  “Ha, ha; very funny.” I paused to let everything sink in. “The killer must have worn gloves.”

  “It would seem to be the case, but a killer wearing gloves doesn’t fit the rest of the setup. The use of a knife sitting on a nearby table seems to indicate a killing of opportunity, whereas gloves make it seem intentional.”

  I frowned and glanced at Tara. I could see she was curious about the details of our conversation. “One of the women we spoke to suggested that the killer might already have been in the storeroom before the book club even started. Tara and I have discussed that possibility and feel it’s conceivable someone could have snuck in to find a place to ride out the storm they were aware was coming and maybe Paula heard them moving around and went to investigate and got herself stabbed for her trouble.”

  “Then where were they when you and Tara went in to look for Paula?”

  I explained about the dark room and overall chaos and the theory that the killer snuck out. “Though it doesn’t fit that a homeless person taking refuge would be wearing gloves. Actually, the whole idea of anyone wearing gloves doesn’t fit. It was stormy but not cold enough to warrant digging out the winter gloves. If the killer used gloves they would have to have had the gloves on them at the time they confronted Paula. And the only scenario where that works is if Paula didn’t see them. Maybe they were hiding behind the boxes where we found the body. The killer saw Paula looking around and pulled on the gloves they just happened to have with them before grabbing the knife off the table and killed Paula so quickly she never even screamed.”

  “Jane Warton is a nurse,” Finn pointed out. “She might have gloves on her if she came directly from work, and she would have the know-how to make the first stab fatal.”

  “Yeah, but we talked to Jane. She said she was in the ladies’ room and then went out to the main room and talked to Gwen. Gwen confirmed that she spoke to Jane and several people have confirmed that Jane was in the ladies’ room. I don’t think it could have been her.”

  “As long as we’re taking about suspects who else have you spoken to and eliminated?”

  “So far, we’ve established alibis for Jane, Barbara, Martha, Alice, and Gwen. We spoke to Giselle, who told us she was outside having a smoke when the whole thing went down. No one remembers seeing her inside the building during the break, but they don’t remember seeing her go in or out either. We also spoke to Sarah. She was with Gwen early on, but then she told her she was going to the ladies’ room, though no one remembers seeing her after that. We still need to speak to Rachael and Stephanie. We have an appointment with Rachael this afternoon.”

  “Okay; keep me posted. It looks like the crime scene guys might finish up today. They went back this morning to check a few additional things but seemed pretty confident they’d learned everything they could from the store. I won’t know for sure when they’ll release the bookstore until later this afternoon. I’ll call you when I do.”

  “Okay; thanks, Finn. And let me know if you track down the owner of the cell. It could be the key to everything.”

  “All right, and be careful. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  I hung up and filled Tara in.

  “It doesn’t make sense that the killer’s prints aren’t on the knife,” she said.

  “Yeah, that definitely adds to the mystery. Let’s try to finish the interviews today and then we can go over the suspect list to see if we can narrow it down to one or two people. Once we do that I guess we’ll focus on proving our theory.”

  “Okay. I need to wash my hands and then we can head to the bank to see Rachael. I never did get hold of Stephanie; I’ll try calling her again too.”

  ******

  The Madrona Island Community Bank wasn’t a large bank, but it did a steady business and seemed to employ solid, long-term employees who, more often than not, remembered your name. I knew Rachael had worked there for at least ten years, making her way from part-time teller to account manager. She seemed to enjoy her job and based on what I knew of her, she understood the importance of what she did and took it seriously.

  “Thank you for meeting with us,” Tara said. “I know you’re busy.”

  “I’d like to help, but I only have a twenty-minute break, so we’ll need to talk quickly.”

  I explained that we were talking with everyone who’d been at book club to pick their brains to put together a map of where everyone had been and who they’d spoken to once the break was called. I assured her that we didn’t necessarily consider her a suspect but that we hoped she could tell us something that would help us make sense of what had happened.

  “When the break was called I went into the coffee bar with everyone else. I poured myself a cup of coffee and helped myself to one of Tara’s delicious cookies. Martha was getting some coffee as well and we chatted for a while about the book. At some point Barbara and Alice joined us. I wanted to use the ladies’ room before we reconvened, so I excused myself and headed in that direction. I ran into Stephanie, who was just coming out of the ladies’ room and we spoke for a few minutes. During that time Sarah showed up and went into the ladies’ room. When she came out she and Stephanie went to the coffee bar and I popped into the ladies’ room. When I came out I was going to rejoin the others, but the lights went out and you asked everyone to come into the cat lounge. I guess you know the rest.”

  “You said you ran into Stephanie coming out of the ladies’ room when you got there and stopped to chat. Was there anyone else either in the hallway or nearby?” Tara asked.

  “Just Sarah, who, as I said, went in before I finished speaking with Stephanie. Other than Sarah and Stephanie, I didn’t see anyone. The door to the office was closed and I heard voices inside, though it could have just been Paula talking on the phone.”

  “One of the others mentioned that you had an argument with Paula in the alley behind the bank not long ago,” I began.

  Rachael paused with a look of surprise on her face. I supposed her altercation with Paula wasn’t widely known. “It was two weeks ago, when she was temping here. There are very definite rules about who can access accounts and for what reason. I found Paula checking accounts for her own information. I don’t know what she was after, but when I discovered what she was doing I fired her immediately. She was angry and so was I, and we argued.”

  “You seemed to be getting along all right at book club,” Tara pointed out.

  “I wouldn’t say we were getting along, but neither of us wanted to make a scene, so we just sort of ignored each other. I know she was upset about being fired, but she had no reason to be looking at the accounts. It was totally inappropriate.”

  “So, as an account manager you had the authority to fire her?” Tara asked.

  “Well, no. It was more that I recommended to bank management that she be let go immediately and they agreed. I spoke to Stephanie after the incident and she told me that Paula had been snooping around in client files when she temped for the law firm she works for too. If you ask me, Paula was after some sort of specific information. Stephanie and I had planned to compare notes to see if the files she accessed at the law firm and the bank belonged to the same people, but we hadn’t found the time to get together to do it. I guess now it doesn’t matter.”

  “Not necessarily. It could be important information. Do you think you could provide us with the names associated with the account Paula was snooping around in?
”

  “If Finn wants that information he can ask for it in an official capacity. You understand; I need to cover my butt. I imagine Stephanie will tell you the same thing.”

  “You’re right. That would be more appropriate and I’ll do that.” I took the piece of paper I’d torn from Paula’s notebook out of my pocket. “Can you at least tell me if these are account numbers associated with this bank?”

  Rachael looked at the list and frowned. “The numbers in the first column look like our account numbers. I can’t tell you if these specific accounts are in any way associated with the dollar amounts.”

  “And the last column—are those customer numbers?”

  Rachael shook her head. “No. We don’t have customer numbers that look like that. I’m not sure what those are. They don’t look familiar.”

  I folded the paper and put it back in my pocket. “Is there anything else you can tell us about Paula or anything that happened the night she died?”

  “No, not really. I will say after working with Paula for almost two weeks I saw she wasn’t the sweetheart she seemed to be in book club. In fact, I’d say she was carrying around a lot of suppressed rage. If she hadn’t been the victim I’d have suspected her of being the killer. That woman seemed to be battling a lot of demons, I can tell you that.”

  “Did she ever mention anyone she was having a specific problem with?” I asked.

  “Other than her poor, long-suffering husband, not really.”

  “Do you know Henry?”

  “Actually, I do. He works for Calvin and Coleman, a local accounting firm.”

  “Is that the same firm Paula temped for?”

  “No. She temped for Brian Walton. He has a one-man office. The firm Henry works for has three accountants and a bookkeeper.”

  “Okay. Go on. You were saying you know Henry from his work with this firm.”