The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon citm-4

by Leann Sweeney

  “It was a brief encounter. Like I said, Finn can tell you what happened.”

  “Okay, make me wait,” she said with a sigh. “Tom will be so happy to see Finn. I’m sure the answers to who killed Gannon are hiding somewhere in these two telephone logs. I’ve been searching through these calls for hours. It looks like Gannon was even trying to get to Finn through Hilary. A call was made to the Pink House yesterday on Finn’s phone.”

  “How did Gannon know Hilary was staying there?” I asked.

  “How did he know where you lived? Where Karen lived? Where Tom lived? Some of the texts on Finn’s phone might help explain it. Finn asked Tom for his address in a text that went way back, well before he left to hitchhike here. But this texting jargon Finn used is making me crazy. I need a social networking workshop to understand this stuff.”

  “Ah, so Gannon read through old texts and found Tom’s address on Finn’s phone? Maybe hung around and started following whoever came and went from Tom’s house?” I said.

  “Very possible,” she said. “Tom’s gonna be pretty upset when he finds out his dear brother messed with his cameras, though. See, we tried to download the videos, hoping to see if they caught the killer on tape. But Bob managed to screw them up and we got nothing. He claims it wasn’t intentional; he was just curious. But I’m not so sure.”

  “Hmm. That seems suspicious,” I said. “Listen, we might try Tom one more time. In fact, I think I’ll let Finn try to reach him this time.”

  I disconnected and handed my phone to Finn. Yoshi sniffed at it, but since my phone obviously didn’t smell like bacon, he turned his attention to the passenger-side window.

  “Call Tom,” I said. “He programmed his new number into my phone this morning.”

  I didn’t have to give Finn any instructions. Soon he was talking to Tom and, from the kid’s expression, this was the best thing in the world for Finn—and probably for Tom, too.

  As we pulled into my driveway, Finn said, “No, Tom. Don’t come to Jillian’s. We’re dropping off the dog and we’ll meet you at the weird police station—” Finn looked at me. “How long will it take?”

  I said, “We’ll get the dog settled, make sure Dashiell is okay—oh, tell Tom I have his cat. His mom couldn’t quite manage a diabetic cat right now. We should be at the police station within thirty minutes, tops.”

  Finn said, “Did you hear what she said?” A pause and then Finn said, “Good deal. We’ll see you soon.”

  I pulled up close to the back door and Finn took Yoshi to pee before we went inside. No cats greeted me when I went inside. They were probably all downstairs waiting patiently for the door to Dashiell’s guest suite to open.

  I hurried down the stairs.

  Sure enough, my fur kids were parked outside the door and I cracked it hoping to see how Dashiell was faring. The second I did, the waiting Dashiell escaped and made a beeline for the stairs.

  My three raced after him.

  I followed, wishing I had the energy of four cats.

  Finn and Yoshi were just coming inside and the dog decided to join this game of chase.

  “This isn’t how I planned our homecoming,” I said. “Can you corral Yoshi?”

  The animals were all after each other’s tails in my living room. Yoshi was barking, cats were hissing and Finn was shouting commands to his dog. Obedience class works only to a point, I decided. The dog was having way too much fun to obey.

  The pursuit went down the hall and ended up in my bedroom. I arrived on Finn’s heels in time to see Chablis dart under the bed, but Syrah and Merlot have never shown much in the way of fear. They were on my bed, while Yoshi stood on the floor keeping a safe distance. He was barking like crazy. I had no idea where Dashiell was hiding.

  Finally Finn was able to grab Yoshi and hoist him into his arms. “No, Yoshi. You stay with me.”

  Just then, I heard a voice calling my name. Karen’s voice. What the heck was she doing here?

  Finn heard it, too, and we both went out into the hall, with him calling, “Nana? Is that you?”

  She stood at the end of the hall. She’d changed since I’d seen her this morning and wore a pink fuzzy sweater. Mohair? Really?

  She said, “I knew you’d come back and I knew exactly where you’d come. Jillian has been a rock while the rest of us were embroiled in emotion.”

  Just then Hilary Roth appeared behind Karen. “Hope you don’t mind I came along. I’ve been so worried about Finn, but I knew he’d show up here sooner or later.” She looked like she was wearing one of Karen’s skirts—a gray tweed—with the black sweater I’d seen her in the first day we met.

  I walked toward them, but Finn hung back. He said, “I forgot to lock the stupid door.”

  “Finn, don’t be upset with me,” Karen said. “I know you don’t want to see your mother, but we have something so special to tell you. Please. Talk to us? For me, if not for your mother?”

  I was standing halfway between Finn and a confrontation he might not be ready for. I turned to him. “You’re the only one who can decide what’s best for you. If you don’t want to sit down with your mother right now, you need to tell her.”

  Finn’s lips tightened and Yoshi whimpered as he looked up at him. He didn’t look ready, not at all. But Finn and his mother surely had to talk sometime.

  He surprised me by saying, “I’ll hear you out. But only because Nana and Jillian think I should.”

  I led everyone into the living room. Hoping to make this visit brief and to the point, I didn’t offer them tea.

  Finn set Yoshi down by the couch at his feet and told him to stay. His tone was harsher than usual with his beloved friend, but I knew this had more to do with Hilary’s presence than with Yoshi’s earlier failure to obey.

  I chose to sit next to Finn for support, and Hilary and Karen sat in my two easy chairs opposite the sofa. I was still holding my phone and held it beneath my thigh. If this conversation got out of hand, I was ready to call Tom.

  “What lies has she told you, Nana?” Finn said.

  I closed my eyes. Not a great way to begin the conversation. I said, “Why don’t we start with how you knew Finn would be here. I’m not sure I really understand.”

  “Oh, we weren’t sure,” Karen said. “But if Finn would contact anyone, it would be you or Tom. Since Tom has very hard feelings concerning anything involving Hilary, meeting here is perfect. Since you know about the money I’ve saved for Finn, we’re hoping you can convince Tom I have a wonderful plan.” She smiled.

  I was observing Hilary, and something about this whole thing didn’t seem right. Karen’s comment about the money with Hilary present suggested Hilary knew about it. My question was, how long had she known?

  “What money? What plan?” Finn said warily.

  “A plan where you get to go to college,” Hilary said. “I know you want to go, and I’m so sorry I haven’t been—”

  “Save it, Mom,” Finn said.

  I looked at Karen. “So Hilary knows you’ve been saving for Finn?”

  “Oh yes,” Karen said. “When Hilary and Thomas divorced, I assured her I would take care of Finn, though I didn’t get specific except to say he would be comfortable for the rest of his life. Today, we’ve talked about how best to use the money and I’ve decided college seems a wonderful place to start.”

  Her naive smile made my chest tighten. Because Karen had no idea.

  But I suddenly knew exactly who was behind everything.

  I sidled closer to Finn, keeping my hand on my phone and hopefully out of sight. I looked at Finn, who seemed a tad confused at me edging so near. “You want to go to college, don’t you?” I said. I tried to speak to him with my eyes, tried to warn him.

  He knew the truth, probably the same instant I’d figured it out, because he said, “You did all these horrible things. Didn’t you, Mom?”

  I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone completely dry. I thought, Only one extremely angry kid would be fearless enough
to confront a murderer.

  Twenty-Nine

  Karen said, “Whatever are you talking about, Finn? Your mother is contrite. She knows she’s done wrong by you. But now she’s ready to put her personal problems aside and focus on your future. She suggested once before she could manage any money I chose to share with you and we’ve agreed your college fund is a good place to start. Once you graduate, then of course, you’ll be in charge. And you need a car, of course. She’ll get you a car once you return to North Carolina. A little birdie named Tom said you wanted to attend a good college and your mother wants to work with me to make that happen.”

  Poor Karen, I thought, as I stared at Hilary. She has no clue.

  Hilary’s eyes hardened and her sweet Carolina drawl almost disappeared when she said, “Finn and Jillian don’t believe a word of what you’re saying. I could fool you, but not these two.” She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a gun.

  Karen gasped and Finn’s arm, so close to mine, tensed.

  “Do you plan to shoot all of us?” I said, trying to sound bold when I felt anything but. “How will you get your hands on Finn’s money then?”

  “Shut up and let me think,” she said.

  I heard a low growl from Yoshi and was troubled about what he might do.

  Finn must have been worried too, because he started to get up. He looked like he wanted to attack before harm could come to us or his dog.

  If I hadn’t grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back down to the sofa, he probably would have gone after Hilary with fists flying. Yoshi, however, wasn’t about to back down.

  He stood and started barking at Hilary, ears erect. This was a ferocious bark, like none I’d heard from him before.

  “Shut the stupid dog up, Finnian.” Hilary pointed the gun at Yoshi.

  Karen was leaning away from Hilary, her expression one of pure terror.

  “Don’t hurt him,” Finn said. “I’ll tie him up.”

  Hilary was glancing around and locked on to the pantry door in the kitchen beyond. Then she looked at me. “Is that a broom closet?”

  “Walk-in pantry,” I said.

  “That will do.” Hilary stood. “Put him in there. Now.”

  Finn started to reach into his jeans pocket.

  “What are you doing?” Hilary leveled the gun at Finn, her voice bordering on hysteria.

  “Getting his leash,” Finn said. “Or he might charge you, Mom.”

  “Go ahead.” Her face relaxed a tad, but her eyes were shifting left and right. She was thinking hard.

  When Finn bent to attach the leash on Yoshi’s collar, I said, “I’ll hang on to him while you fasten the leash.”

  I bent over, in unison with Finn, and carefully slipped my phone into his back pocket. He turned slightly to acknowledge my action.

  Hilary said, “Those two working together just warms your heart, doesn’t it, Karen? She’d be a much better mother to Finn than I ever was.”

  “I—I’m frightened, Hilary,” Karen said. “I don’t understand why—”

  “You caused all this,” Hilary said. “If you hadn’t waited until after Tom and I were divorced to tell me you planned to share money with Finn, I would never have left your son.” She looked at Finn. “Put the dog away. Now.”

  Finn smartly held the leash in his left hand, covered his back pocket with the balled-up leash and took Yoshi to the kitchen.

  “This is my fault. You’re right,” Karen said, tears beginning to stream down her face. “What do you want? I can give you money. How much do you want?”

  “Bob tells me there’s a million dollars in the account you set up for Finn—and here Nolan and I were only imagining maybe a hundred grand.” She paused and waved the gun in Finn’s direction. “Get back in here where I can see you.”

  I heard the pantry door close and Yoshi started barking immediately.

  Finn returned to the sofa and said, “You will never get away with this. I’ve watched plenty of crime TV and the mothers who kill their kids don’t do too hot in jail.”

  Hilary surprised us all by laughing. “There is so much you don’t know.” She looked at me. “I assume you have a computer?”

  I nodded, though I didn’t want to give her even that much information. But a gun tended to force compliance.

  Hilary narrowed her eyes in thought, seemed to be working through a plan in her head.

  What bothered me more than anything, even more than the gun Hilary held, was Finn. Fear is an almost palpable thing and I didn’t sense any fear coming from him. I remembered my thought from earlier this week—how fear is a gift we all need to protect us. No. Finn wasn’t afraid. He might do something, might risk his life to vent his anger at his mother. Anger that was now so clearly justified. Why hadn’t I believed what he and Tom had said over and over about Hilary’s character? But there was no time for regrets, for the magic time machine to supply do-overs. I should have seen she was capable of murder.

  Yoshi kept yapping and I could tell this was distracting to Hilary. Her face was flushed beneath her ivory makeup and she seemed to be getting angrier by the second.

  Then my fear turned up a notch when Merlot came sauntering into the foyer like nothing was wrong. I took a deep breath, my own very real fear now centered on him. The only good thing about his arrival was that Hilary couldn’t see him.

  Stay there, I tried to telegraph to my big boy. Please stay there.

  Hilary’s back was to him and I was relieved when he sat where the foyer tiles met the wood floor. As he’d done when Hilary was here before, he sniffed the air. Did he smell the fear I felt for all of us? My fear we would all be killed?

  “All right,” Hilary said, her expression one of intense determination. “Here’s what’s going to happen.” She turned to Karen. “But first, you know I’ll use this gun, don’t you?”

  Karen nodded, abject fright still in her eyes.

  Hilary pulled a folded piece of paper from her left pocket. “I was told I’d find this on the floor in your house. Someone who was very upset with you wadded it up.”

  The savings account statement. The one Bob had thrown at his mother.

  Hilary went on, saying, “Bob isn’t happy with you, Karen, so he made a deal with me. Or he thinks he did. I’d get my hands on the money—a college fund was something we knew you’d fall for—then I would share with him. Too bad I’ll be gone before he can cash in.”

  Karen’s eyes were wide as she kept nodding her agreement. “You can have the money. All of it. Just don’t hurt anyone else.”

  “I plan to take you up on your offer,” Hilary said. “Problem is, those two over there will stand in my way. Especially Finn, since he has a stronger dislike for me than anyone I know.” The smile she directed at him was truly malevolent.

  “You’re plain evil.” Finn’s words carried the full force of his hatred for her. “You couldn’t hide it from me or from Tom.”

  She smiled and said, “Your dog is making a lot of noise. And so are you. Both of you better shut up. Now.” She refocused on Karen.

  As Hilary kept the gun trained on us while speaking to Karen, Finn reached around to his back pocket.

  No, I thought. Not now. Not yet. She’ll see. I had no doubt Hilary would use the gun if she were threatened in any way.

  But from the corner of my eye I saw he’d lifted the phone just enough to silence the ringer.

  Whew. Good idea.

  “You understand what I want you to do, Karen?” Hilary said.

  I was so intent on Finn I hadn’t heard. What was about to happen?

  Karen stood and picked up the handbag she’d brought with her. She was so wobbly, she nearly fell. She said, “May I use your computer, Jillian?”

  So polite. So like Karen, even when she was obviously terrified.

  Merlot stood as well and slinked to the left side of the foyer where a potted silk fern hid him.

  “It’s in my office down the hall,” I said. “I’ll have to log on. I assume yo
u plan to have Karen transfer funds?”

  “You are such a bright woman,” she said sarcastically. “I had the foresight to set up an account in the Cayman Islands. Got the number right here.” She tapped her temple with her free hand. “Problem is, there are three of you, too many to handle with only two eyes and one gun while we make the transfer. We’ll need something to tie up Finn. Something in the house, because I won’t be foolish enough to let you near a door to the outside. Stockings? Belts? What have you got?”

  “Quilt bindings will work,” I said. I figured she wasn’t about to let go of the gun, so I would be the one tying up her son. Quilt bindings were flexible enough for what I had in my mind. I just wished I could telegraph my thoughts to Finn.

  Hilary got up. “Come on, then. Get up and lead me to this office of yours. We have work to do.”

  We all started for the hall, Hilary behind us. I still feared Finn might do something crazy, like try to take his mother down. But I never expected what happened next.

  Thirty

  I heard a slight rustle behind me and turned around in time to see Merlot bounce from behind the fern and streak right in front of Hilary’s feet.

  She fell forward and I heard her yelp in pain.

  Finn started for her, but she hadn’t let go of the gun and quickly pointed it up at him. “I don’t need you anymore. Take one more step and I’ll prove it.”

  I grabbed Finn’s arm. “Don’t. She won’t get away with this. You know that.”

  “Aw,” Hilary said as she got to her feet. “Aren’t you good at playing Mommy already?”

  She shook her left hand and I saw her wrist was beginning to swell. But she just said, “Keep going.”

  I stopped at the door to the sewing room. “The bindings are in there. Can I get them?”

  “Bindings. I like the term. Karen, Finn, why don’t we stand in the doorway and watch? Make sure Jillian doesn’t have any tricks up her sleeve.”

  She sounded so confident—and so nasty. My concern for our safety was starting to transform to anger. I grabbed a handful of my quilt bindings, the ones my cats love to play with. I always sew them up ahead and have them on hand for when I finish a quilt.