Vanessa smiled to herself in approval. So that’s the kind of man Detective Sargent Peter Wheeler was. Well, that would do. That would do just fine.
She was still smiling when he stood up and faced her. “Nice place you got here.”
She chuckled. “It’s nothing fancy, but it pays the bills and it helps take care of mistreated cats.”
He nodded and looked around again. “You’ve got some nice stuff here. I mean it. I love shops like this.”
She blushed. “What can I help you with? I’m guessing you didn’t come for a set of dishes.”
He snorted. “No. I came to talk to you about the case.”
“Sure,” she agreed. “Anything I can do to help.”
“You said the plumber comes in here with his family,” he recalled.
“That’s right,” she replied. “Almost everybody does.”
“And you know everybody in this town a lot better than I do,” he went on. “I don’t suppose you could get them talking. Maybe they would tell you things they wouldn’t tell the police.”
“I’m sure I could,” she replied. “People love to talk. I’m like a bartender that way. People walk through that door, and they just naturally start spilling their guts to me.”
“So you could put your feelers out for me?” he asked. “You could make some discrete inquiries about Botchweather and his dealings, and then let me know. I’ll understand if you don’t want to do it. You don’t want to get a name in this town for working with the police.”
“I wouldn’t exactly be working with the police, though, would I?” she pointed out. “I’d just be asking about their lives, the same way I already do. People like to gossip, and they’ll be talking about the murder. I don’t think they’ll tell me anything they wouldn’t tell you, but I’m willing to give it a try.”
“You might be surprised,” he told her.
“Did you talk to Captain Jameson about Alfred?” she asked. “I’m sure he can tell you a lot more than I could.”
“I talked to him,” he replied. “And I read the file. Would you believe I got a lot more information out of you than I did out of that file? It seems our friend Alfred knew how to keep his nose clean. He’d never been arrested in his life, and the police had no more than suspicions about his dealings.”
“Maybe he had help from inside the police force,” Vanessa suggested.
Pete shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t think so. I worked in Chicago for seven years before I moved here. I have a pretty good nose for police corruption, and this department seems pretty clean to me. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to move here. No, I think Alfred Botchweather was just very good at what he did. He paid his taxes, and he never left any paper trail in his back room dealings that could get him into trouble.”
“Then how are you going to find out who killed him?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I'm hoping you can help me. Then again, his killer probably wasn’t so careful. A career criminal can cover all the bases. Your ordinary citizen who decides to rub somebody out doesn’t usually take all the possibilities into account. Our killer is bound to have left some stone unturned, and that’s where we’ll catch him.”
“We?” she asked.
He smiled. “Yeah, we—if that’s all right with you, of course.”
Vanessa held up her hands. “I’m telling you right now. I’m no detective. I’m just going to talk to people about the case.”
“That’s all I want you to do. That’s more than enough.” He looked around. “How many cats do you have in this place?”
She laughed. “Do you really want to know?”
“Sure,” he replied. “I see four.”
“As a matter of fact,” she told him, “I have twelve.”
His eyes popped out of his head. “Twelve!”
She nodded. “Most of them are upstairs. These are just the four that help out in the Shop.”
He glanced down at Teddy at his feet. “They help out?”
Vanessa nodded again. “All the time. They help me remember things, and they make sure little boys don’t steal things, and like I told you, some people come just to see them.”
AngelPie pranced along her shelf again. Her tail shivered and she swiveled her ears around toward Pete. Then she mewed to get his attention. He smiled up at her.
“Mind your own business, AngelPie,” Vanessa told her. “Can’t you see Detective Wheeler is here on official business? He’s not here to flirt with you.”
AngelPie twitched her whiskers and one of her ears flicked backwards and forwards again.
“She really is beautiful,” Pete remarked. “Her coat looks almost pink.”
“That’s why we call her AngelPie,” Vanessa told him. “Or, at least, that’s why I called her AngelPie. I’m the one who named her. To me she looks like some kind of dessert, like Angelfood Cake.”
He scratched the cat again. She purred and leaned over the side of her shelf to press her cheek into his hand. “Where did you get her?”
Vanessa grimaced. “We got her at the same place we got all the others. Some local kids found her in the basement of an abandoned house outside of town. When we got her, she was skin and bones. She was so weak, she couldn’t even stand up. We had to start her on a bottle, just like a baby kitten.”
“Who’s we?” he asked.
Vanessa blushed. “Well, I mean me. I did it. I nursed her back to health.” She waved her hand toward the back of the Shop. “Henry over there got run over by a car. When he came here, every bone in his body was broken. The vet said we ought to put him down to put him out of his misery. And look at him now. You would never know it happened.”
Pete looked around. “Wow! Twelve of them. That's a lot of cats.”
She laughed. She couldn't stop laughing and smiling with him around. “Not all of them are helpful enough to come down to the shop. And some of them have been treated so badly by people that they can’t come out in public. They stay inside where they know they’ll be safe.”
He studied her. “You really have a big heart, don’t you? It must take a special person to care for unwanted animals like that.”
Vanessa’s face turned red, and she dropped her eyes to the counter. “I’m not a special person. I’m only doing what’s right. Somebody’s got to look after these cats, and it just happens to be me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” he returned. “I think you’re pretty special.”
Before she could answer, he turned to leave.
“You let me know if you find anything out about the case,” he called from the door. “I’m counting on you to be my lamppost.”
She laughed. “I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
Vanessa watched him through the front window until he disappeared down the street and around the corner. When she turned around, she almost tripped over Teddy. He stood in the middle of the aisle and gazed up at her.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she told him. “And you can put that nonsense right out of your mind. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay right here and look after Henry and you and AngelPie and the others. I’m too old to get mixed up with a man, anyway.”
The cat tilted his head to one side.
“Oh, I know I’m only forty-eight,” she went on. “But I’ve been there and done all that. I’m not going to run around like a teenager, even if he is a nice-looking man. I’ve got too much on my plate as it is.”
Teddy blinked his languid green eyes and twitched his whiskers.
“Now stop that this instant,” Vanessa snapped. “I won’t stand here and listen to you smart off to your mother like that. You should have your mouth washed out with soap. I swear, where you come up with this stuff is beyond me. I’m supposed to be a dignified older woman, and here you are, making tawdry remarks about my love life.”
Teddy turned his head and rubbed his cheek against the corner of the counter.
“Okay,” she relented. “So I’m not a
ll that dignified, but I am an older woman. I can admire a handsome man without you and all the others jumping to conclusions.”
The cat ran his body along the corner. His tail flicked around the wooden counter, and he took a few steps back.
“I never said I was going to marry him,” Vanessa insisted. “All I said was that I would ask around about the murder case. Is that so bad? You’d think I’d accepted an invitation to the movies for Saturday night. And even if I had accepted an invitation to the movies, you wouldn’t have anything to say about it. As long as you get your Fancy Feast, you should be happy for me. Someone would think you’re getting jealous of Detective Wheeler, Andy, and you wouldn’t want that.”
AngelPie walked along her shelf and mewed.
“Thank you, AngelPie,” Vanessa exclaimed. “I’m glad someone around here agrees with me. He’s the nicest man I’ve met in a long time, and he’s been so helpful ever since Alfred wound up dead. We should all be grateful we have such a nice detective in our town.”
Teddy turned away and slipped back underneath the counter. Flossy stood up from her place on the glassware table. Her tail touched a vase, and it tinkled against a set of whiskey glasses. She let out a loud meow.
“I know, I know,” Vanessa moaned. “All you care about is lunch.” She started for the back of the Shop. In a cupboard between the books and the bike parts, she found several tins of canned cat food and a can opener. She started to open them and empty them into a row of ceramic dishes in the corner.
The instant the can opener touched the first can, cats appeared from the woodwork and clustered around her feet. They rubbed their sleek bodies against her legs and sang. “I’m coming. I’m coming. I can only open them so fast.”
One after another, the cats buried their heads in their bowls and ate the food she put out for them. Only after she finished filling the last bowl did another head pop up from a cardboard box in the book section. Henry surveyed the other cats, but made no attempt to get into line at the feed trough.
Vanessa finished washing the cans in the sink. Then she leaned against the bookshelf and stroked Henry. “There’s just one thing that puzzles me. Why haven’t the police been able to track Alfred’s dealings before now? Everyone in Caspar Crossing knows about Alfred. How can the common people know something the police don’t know? Then again, I guess word gets around. People find out who’s gambling and who’s in debt, but they don’t tell the police. If Alfred never got arrested, the police wouldn’t have anything to go on.”
Henry blinked and licked his paw.
Vanessa gasped. Her hand flew to her heart. “Why, Henry! I didn’t even think of that! I should have known you’d solve this mystery. It’s so simple. We all assume Alfred conducted his nefarious dealings in cash, but what was he doing in the bank? He must have had legitimate bank records for his barbershop. The police must be able to subpoena those records. Maybe they’ll reveal something that gives a clue to his murder.”
Henry got up and stretched. He arched his back and strutted to the edge of the table. He balanced on the spines of the books and looked down at the cats below him with their heads still stuck in their dishes.
“You’re right,” Vanessa told him. “It’s so easy to think Alfred met a violent end as a result of his criminal activities. He could have crossed someone in his ordinary life that led to the same conclusion. He could have cheated on his wife, or made a mistake cutting someone’s hair, or...or just about anything. The evidence could be right there in plain view.”
The cats started to drift away from their dishes until only a handful remained. Henry jumped down to the floor and meandered over the row of vacant dishes. He sniffed at the few with food still in them, but he didn’t eat them. He waited.
Vanessa stroked her chin and stared at the ceiling. “I’ve just been thinking about our suspects. I wonder if Ollie ever did work for Alfred. He had a bathroom in the back of the barbershop. He must have had some call to employ a plumber in all the years he worked there. And then there’s his home. There probably isn’t a single house in this town that hasn’t seen Ollie Fleetwood some time or other.”
Henry sat down next to the very last dish in the line and regarded Vanessa. She paid no attention to him.
“And then there’s Walter,” she went on. “You don’t have to tell me he’s not the greatest doctor in the world, and Alfred has a wife and three children. You don’t have to put two and two together to see where they could have run into each other somewhere along the way.”
Henry sniffed the last dish again and wrinkled his nose.
“And then there’s Penny,” she mused. “I don’t know when Alfred would have used a wedding planner, but you never know. He couldn’t have used her for his own wedding. Penny’s younger than he is, and she wasn’t working as a wedding planner when Alfred and Amelia got married. It would have to be something else.”
Henry looked up and let out a yowl. Vanessa jumped. Her gaze snapped from the ceiling to his face.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Henry dear,” she exclaimed. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She took a new can of cat food out of the cupboard, opened it, and emptied it into a clean dish. She set the dish down across the room, well away from the others, and Henry began to eat. Vanessa collected the other dishes and scraped their contents into one dish. She took the dish upstairs, set it down in the kitchen of her apartment, and returned to the Opportunity Shop.
“I wonder if Detective Wheeler, I mean Pete would let me look into Alfred’s bank.” She flapped her hands. “Isn’t that silly of me? I’m just a little old cat lady to him. What do I want to go poking around in Alfred Botchweather’s bank records for? That should be left for the police.” She sighed and went back to the counter. “I’m just thinking out loud here. That’s all. Just thinking out loud.”
Chapter 5
Vanessa leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her usual afternoon drowsiness crept over her, and her head dropped onto her chest. Teddy snoozed on top of her feet, and Flossy and AngelPie curled up in a fluffy ball on the cutlery shelf. The top of Henry’s head peeked over the top of his box of romances, but he didn’t move, either.
All at once, the doorbells jangled. Vanessa rocketed out of her chair without waking up completely. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. She only got her eyes open in time to see two children race down the aisle toward the books. Poor old Henry.
Vanessa smiled toward the door. “How are you, Ollie? I haven’t seen you in here for a while.”
“I just came by to let the kids say hello to Henry,” Ollie replied. “We’re on our way to the police station. I’ve got to meet that detective and finish giving him my statement.”
Vanessa raised one eyebrow. “I thought he took all our statements at the bank. What more is there to say?”
“He didn’t take mine,” Ollie replied. “At least, he didn’t finish taking it. He got about halfway through it. Or maybe he didn’t get a third of the way through it. I don’t know. I had to leave to meet Alexis for a teacher meeting at Jason’s school, so the detective let me go.”
“I’m surprised he let you do that,” Vanessa remarked. “We’re suspects in a murder investigation. He wouldn’t let me leave until he finished questioning me.”
“He made me promise not to leave town.” Ollie snorted. “Like I’m going to leave town. When I told him I wasn’t going anywhere, he let me go on the condition that I came down to the police station to finish our interview.”
“You’re not taking the children to the interview, I hope,” Vanessa exclaimed.
“Of course not,” he replied. “They’re going to the park with Annette Franklin and her kids.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Vanessa breathed.
“You don’t think I’d take my children along to a police interview about a murder, do you?” he returned. “I might be a lout, but I take care of my family.”
“I know you do, Ollie,” Vanessa replied. “And you’re not
a lout at all. I just hope we can all be cleared of this murder and put it behind us. I hate to think someone in this town has the gall to kill a man in broad daylight.”
“One of us did it,” Ollie declared. “And it wasn’t me.”
“Or me,” Vanessa agreed. “That leaves Walter and Penny. It doesn’t seem possible that either one of them could kill Alfred.”
“You never know what someone is capable of,” Ollie replied. “How much do we really know about those two, anyway?”
“Not much,” Vanessa admitted. “Then again, how much do we know about anyone in this town? How do we really know you weren’t a shameless gambler who owed Alfred thousands of dollars? You could have had a motive to kill him.”
“I won’t lie to you,” Ollie replied. “I bet on a couple of basketball games with Alfred.”
Vanessa gasped. “You did?”
Ollie nodded. “That was back in the day. I know better now.”
“I hope you learned your lesson,” Vanessa scolded. “A married man and a father ought to keep his nose clean.”
Ollie shook his head. “I was young and stupid then. It was when I first started in business for myself. I was making good money, and I guess it all went to my head. I placed the bets and went about my business. Boy, I got a shock when it came time to pay them, though. I had to dip into my business account to pay them off, and then I didn’t have the money to pay my purchase orders. I had the idea to go to Alfred and ask him for an extension, but then I got talking to someone who knew more about him than I did.”
“Who was that?” Vanessa asked.
Ollie cocked his head to one side. “Now that you mention it, it was Alan Braithwaite. He told me not to go to Alfred. He said I should rob the county clerk’s office before I went to Alfred for an extension. He said Alfred would charge me interest, and every day that passed on my unpaid debt would increase it. It would grow and grow until it got so big I couldn’t pay it back at all. After talking to him, I decided to borrow money from my uncle to pay the debt.”
Depawsit Slip (Vanessa Abbot Cat Protection League Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Page 3