“Why is it always my fault?”
“Whippersnapper so you are.” EV intoned.
“Thanks, Yoda,” Chloe deadpanned.
“Just keep picking; you’ll thank me later when you’re sucking down my special mustard spears. The ones I make from my grandmother’s recipe.”
“Which you refuse to give me.”
“I ever tell you about my grandmother and her recipes?”
Chloe loved hearing stories about EV’s family. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Well, she calls them receipts and if she deigns to give you one, she writes it out herself so she can alter the ingredients just a little. Not enough to totally screw up the dish, but just enough so yours won’t taste exactly like hers. When she gave me the pickle recipe, she doubled the amount of alum in it so my first batch was horrific.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“Sneak attack. I waited until she went to sleep, and rifled through stacks of recipe cards and little scraps of paper until I found it. Remind me to make her prize winning blueberry cake sometime. Snagged that one, too, and found out she substituted nutmeg for cinnamon.”
Half an hour later, sweat running in her eyes, EV announced a water break and Chloe followed her to the edge of the field where there was enough shade to drop the temperature by a stingy three or four degrees. Even that small bit of relief felt welcome.
Chloe chugged a bottle of water that tasted like more, so she popped the top on another.
“I finally got access to the tip line yesterday. There were some pretty bizarre comments on there.”
“You’ve been holding out on me. Dish.” EV ordered.
“Most of it was obvious fantasy. Someone actually had an elaborate theory that aliens had taken Luther up in their spaceship, and when they were returning him, something went wrong and he fell to his death.” Skepticism and a healthy dose of derision raised Chloe’s eyebrows. “Oh, and there were no fewer than four calls from people who thought the ‘weird sisters’ cast a spell.”
“None of that surprises me. The alien one was probably Sabra; she’s obsessed with aliens.”
“Well, there’s one that might be useful—someone saw Ashton Worth hanging around the church on the night Luther died. When you add that to his being the one who perpetuated the most gossip about you killing Evan, it’s certainly suspicious.”
“Ooh, that’s interesting,” EV speculated. “Any idea who left the tip?”
“Woman’s voice—stage whisper, hard to tell—but she used the term ‘catting around’ which isn’t something you hear too often these days.”
After a moment of staring into space with a thoughtful expression, EV said, “I can’t picture mild little Ashton having the stones to kill anyone. Or the motive for it, come to that. As far as I know, he hasn’t had any work done by Luther at his place recently,” she ticked off possibilities. “And I don’t ever remember seeing he and Evan together.”
“Maybe he has a thing for Talia and got rid of Luther so he could…” Chloe broke off as the mental image of Ashton and Talia assaulted her mind. “And now I’m picturing it. Quick, say something to make it go away.”
“Aren’t you the one who was convinced Evan was bouncing on Talia? She must be quite the femme fatale under that fluffy exterior.”
“Who else has a motive?”
“Lottie for one.”
“Wait, I’ve heard this all before: how Lottie thought Talia married beneath her, and was jealous that her younger sister found a husband first.”
“No, there’s more to the story. When Talia started dating Luther, Lottie was off in Warren going to college for a degree in hospitality management or some such. Talia worked for an insurance company in Gilmore and lived at home. I guess the plan was for Talia to save up enough to build or buy a place, and then she and Lottie would run it together. “
“How on earth do you find out all this stuff?”
“Talia applied for a grant through the co-op program.”
“Ah, okay.” Chloe gestured for her to continue on. The longer they talked, the less time she would have to spend in sweaty labor.
“I’m not quite clear on how Talia and Luther came to start dating, but once they did, all hell broke loose between her and Lottie. Talia decided she would rather get married than go into the B&B business, and when Lottie found out they had an epic battle in the middle of one of the festivals. I can’t remember which one. Talia and Luther eloped the next night. Lottie never forgave her for that.”
“So how did Lottie end up with the B&B, then?”
“Talia followed through on the grant, put up the difference from her own savings, and presented the whole thing to Lottie as a gift. You’d think that would have brought the two of them together, but it drove them even farther apart. Lottie accused Talia of trying to buy her off; Talia accused Lottie of trying to run her life. They’ve been fighting off and on ever since. More on than off, really.”
“Interesting, but it still only gives Lottie motive for Luther if she thinks getting him out the way would put her ambitions back on track.”
“Unless she knew something we don’t about Evan’s plans once he pushed through the annexation and became mayor.” EV was reaching with that one and she knew it.
“Doesn’t track for me but I guess we shouldn’t rule it out. It’s the best theory we have right now. Maybe we can run some of this by Talia tomorrow when we help her with the thank you notes for Luther and Evan’s funerals.” Butter wouldn’t melt in Chloe’s mouth as she dropped this particular bomb on EV.
“We’re doing what, now? I think I’d remember agreeing to take on something like that.” EV’s withering glare didn’t phase Chloe in the least.
“I ran into Talia yesterday and she kept talking about not being able to face the task. And, I remembered how you thought we should confront her. Before I knew it, I’d volunteered us to help.”
“You were the one who thought we should confront her; I said leave it alone. And just when were you planning to tell me?”
“Right now. Break’s over.” Cucumber picking was starting to look like the lesser of two evils compared to listening to an EV tirade about being shanghaied into doing something she would rather not do.
“Payback will be swift and uncompromising,” was EV’s parting shot.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Chloe grinned.
Chapter 26
Talia greeted her helpers with a hug and a huge mug of coffee, which EV figured she would probably need in order to get the job done. She’d rather be picking squash bugs in the fields. It was all Chloe’s fault for accepting this chore, and EV intended to make her pay for it. A nice blind date ought to do it.
She took a gulp, then nearly choked on the flavor of whiskey. A second, more cautious, sip revealed there was just enough coffee in it to give the whiskey flavor, and not the other way around. It had just gone noon; so a little earlier than EV normally drank alcohol. But then again, this was exactly the type of chore that might require some blurring around the edges. Still, when she set her cup down on the table, it was with the intent not to pick it up again.
From what she could see, Talia probably wouldn’t be winning any awards for her organizational skills: sympathy cards spread across the table like they’d been tossed there without thought. Meanwhile, the normally quiet Talia was talking a mile a minute.
“…I put Mrs. Peeves in the kitchen, but then little Austin cried and cried, so I had to let her out.”
EV nodded absently, letting Chloe field the conversation while taking a moment to look around. She assumed both Mrs. Peeves and little Austin were cats, since the room seemed ripe with them. Talia lived in one of the oldest homes in Ponderosa Pines; it was hard to tell, though, since Luther had remodeled parts of the interior to disguise all evidence of energy efficient building. Sheetrock camouflaged the log ends in the living room half of the open floor plan living-dining combo, and also covered up the spectacular bottle-end window Luther’
s father had worked into the front wall. He would have liked to do more, but the board turned down his request for special dispensation for violating the require percentage of recycled materials.
The kitchen was closed off from the other two main rooms by an old swinging door, with a porthole window that probably came from a fifties-era diner. Presumably, it had been too heavy for Mrs. Peeves to manage.
From where he crouched on the stairs, one yellow tiger cat eyed EV with curiosity, and she could feel more eyes than just his on her: there were cats everywhere. One pair belonged to the fattest white feline she had ever seen; his girth sprawled over a brightly patterned afghan thrown across a pale blue, overstuffed chair. Judging by the way his bugged-out bright green eyes darted around the room, EV sensed that he wanted nothing more than to run and hide, but his inherent laziness kept him firmly in place.
In matching powder blue, the longest leg of an L-shaped sectional sofa divided the dining area from the living room, and faced a massive, open-hearth fireplace set with decorative fieldstone. Regardless of his affinity for duping customers and trying to skate around regulations, Luther had been skilled with mortar and stone. He had set several niches into the wide chimney face to serve as shelves. A couple of these had been taken over by lounging felines.
Really? Talia had never given off the crazy cat lady vibe.
Curiosity finally forced the question from EV, “Which one is Mrs. Peeves?”
Talia pointed to the enormous white cat. “Lottie dropped her off here the night Luther died.”
When Talia excused herself to top off her own coffee mug, both Chloe and EV refused a refill. As soon as Talia left the room, they exchanged astonished expressions.
“Did you see…” Chloe whispered as she waved in the general direction of the cat menagerie.
Nodding, EV whispered back, “Uh, yeah. And the coffee? That stuff would strip the paint off a battleship.”
“I know. It’s…shh, here she comes.”
A pair of Siamese kittens pranced through the kitchen door before it swung shut, upping the total in the room to at least eight. The fatter of the two made a beeline for Chloe, climbed her leg like it was a tree, and then settled into her lap. Contented purring filled the air. Enchanted, she stroked the downy, soft fur of his head while the second little ball of fur went berserk. For no apparent reason, she hopped straight up in the air to land with arched back and tail fluffed out like a bottle brush, then skittered across the floor and disappeared under the couch.
Mere seconds passed before she was back, racing around the room like a miniature tornado. The burst of fury continued as the kitten made a spectacular leap from the back of the sofa to the edge of the table where the three women sat, then scampered across its surface knocking several envelopes to the floor.
At this point, Talia made a half-hearted attempt to catch the tawny ball of energy before it could inflict any more damage.
“Come here, Mummy’s little snuggy wuggums,” Talia cooed to the kitten, who took great offense to the baby talk and renewed her efforts to wreak havoc. When Talia dodged left, the kitten banked right, launched herself off the sofa back to slide across the surface of a nearby console table and send its contents crashing to the floor. That nothing on the table had been breakable was evidence this was not her first time playing the trick.
More baby talk seemed to further enrage the kitten.
“Who’s a cute little sugar baby? Come to Mummy, sweetie.”
It was EV who ended the chase when the kitten swerved around Talia, then leapt onto the table. As the tiny terrorist skated across the table, scattering the envelopes Chloe had once again neatened into a pile, EV’s hand shot out and snatched the little beast on her way past.
Cradling the blue-eyed cutie in her hands, EV held the kitten at eye level and gave her a much needed lecture on proper cat behavior. Instead of appearing chastened, Mummy’s little snuggy wuggums reached out a claw-sheathed paw to touch EV’s nose in reverence. Her purr filled the air.
“What’s her name?”
Talia quirked an eyebrow, “After that performance, I’m thinking her name should be Thing One or Thing Two but I’ve been calling her Sugar.” She pointed to the kitten in Chloe’s lap, “And that one is Spice. Horis found the pair of them in his barn, covered with fleas and hungry. He asked me to foster them while he tried to find good homes. We treated the fleas and got them their shots, but I swear, Sugar hates me. I hope we can find a place for them, but it seems a shame to break them up when they’ve been through so much already.” Talia’s voice turned husky with the sympathy for the kittens. It seemed obvious to Chloe and EV that Talia was projecting her own feelings onto them.
A blind date and a pair of furry new roommates, EV’s revenge would take more than one form.
Chloe changed the subject back to the reason for this visit.
“What can we do to help you with these Thank You notes, Talia?”
It might have been the two cups—at least—of the Irish coffee Talia had consumed, but when she answered, her voice sounded as quivery as an elderly auntie’s. “I wish Lottie and I could find a way to bury the hatchet; she should be the one helping me right now.”
When she felt Chloe’s foot nudge hers under the table, EV decided to take charge of the job at hand, and gently moved little Sugar to a spot on the back of the couch before gathering up all of the condolence cards strewn across the table. The funeral home had provided a list of floral tributes along with more unopened cards.
“I’ll address the envelopes.” Chloe volunteered, having seen plenty of EV’s lousy penmanship.
“Talia,” EV spoke in a soothing voice, “under the circumstances, I think everyone will understand if you combine your notes for Luther and Evan.”. Within a few minutes, they had a working system. EV opened the cards, then handed the envelopes off to Chloe to copy the address. Talia penned a sentence or two of thanks before both card and envelope circled back to EV, who stuffed and stamped them. In this manner, they moved along fairly quickly.
While they worked, Chloe started up a conversation with Talia.
“Was there anyone special in Evan’s life?”
“I don’t think so. He never talked to me about his lady friends, and I never liked to ask. Evan was a private man. He wasn’t interested in settling down.” There was none of the regret in her voice that might come from having been spurned, which put the final death knell to the theory she had ever been the object of Evan’s affection.
They were nearing the end of the pile when EV frowned. There was something about the handwriting on this card that reminded her of something she had seen recently.
Then it hit her.
She had seen that S before.
Trying not to give away anything with her facial expression, EV read out the card, then when she handed it to Chloe, delivered a swift but gentle kick to the ankle along with it. EV ignored Chloe’s dirty look and used exaggerated eye and head movements to get Chloe to look at the handwriting without alerting Talia that anything was wrong.
As Chloe realized what she was looking at, her mouth dropped open, and they both noted the signature on the card. Unless there were two people with that distinctive style, the person who signed this card was the one who had been threatening Luther.
Chapter 27
Why do I let that crazy old bat talk me into these things? Was the main question on Chloe’s mind as two rambunctious kittens zig-zagged across the floor of her formerly pristine living room. At EV’s suggestion—and she used the term extremely loosely—the kittens had been packed up and delivered to her door early this morning. After being released from the prison of their shiny new cat carrier, Sugar and Spice made a beeline for the fireplace mantle, where they systematically knocked over several items of kitsch belonging to Chloe’s mother.
By way of a semi-acrobatic back bend, Chloe managed to catch all but a tiny cat figurine, which she had never really cared for anyway. A cat for two kittens seemed like a good t
rade off, and as she swept the pieces into the dustbin, Chloe began looking around the room for other items that might need to be moved to accommodate her new pets. Spice was currently guarding a spot in the center of the mantle, while keeping an eye on his sister who was alternately sniffing and rubbing against a nubby chenille throw draped across the back of an oversize armchair.
Hearing some noise undetectable to Chloe, four ears perked and both kittens raced through the open porch door and launched themselves onto a window screen, legs splayed in all directions. Gently detaching their claws Chloe admonished them ruefully.
“No, no, these are not climbing posts. You stay down.” They both looked at her, cocked their heads to one side and marched back to the living room. “Good kitties,” Chloe murmured, hoping without much confidence that they would continue to listen this well. She had a feeling she’d need to do less baby-proofing if she had an actual baby.
The vast array of kitten paraphernalia littering Chloe’s floor was similar to the amount of unnecessary accessories often purchased by new mothers. Several catnip-filled mice were already strewn around the living room; a scratching post that would most likely be discarded in favor of an arm of the couch was propped up near the fireplace; and a plastic stick with feathers attached poked out from beneath an end table. Several varieties of cat food, new bowls, and a self-cleaning kitty litter setup were already at home in Chloe’s kitchen and bathroom. As EV had predicted, the two former orphans would certainly be well taken care of.
Chloe gathered her tablet and snuggled into her favorite porch chair to sort through the notes she and EV had made regarding Evan and Luther’s murders. Sugar and Spice nestled themselves in the crevices between her thighs and the arms of the chair, one on each side, and fell asleep purring. Now it was time to get down to brass tacks.
She began compiling a list of evidence for and against their two prime suspects, Lottie and Ashton Worth. Lottie had several marks against her, after frequently and publicly declaring her dislike for both Evan and Luther.
Cat Killed A Rat (Ponderosa Pines Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) Page 14