I looked down at Mrs. Keller’s package on the seat next to me and sighed. There’d been something in Mr. Paxton’s voice, a nervousness perhaps, that I didn’t like one bit, and I was beginning to wonder what the hell I’d gotten myself involved in. There are all kinds of powders in this world, powders that aren’t necessarily valuable because they’re rare or ancient or may have come from Cleopatra’s makeup kit, but because they can be produced with relative ease and sold to users and dealers for outrageous amounts of money.
Not that I thought for one second that Mrs. Keller’s new hobby was dealing in illicit drugs, but it did make me wonder if she herself had the slightest idea what in God’s name was inside that jar.
22
As soon as I walked into the Village Diner and saw the look in Tanisha’s eyes, I should have known something wasn’t right. She was in the kitchen, her big round face framed in the order window, and when I waved to her, instead of waving back and winking like she normally does, she shook her head slowly and frowned.
There was an elderly couple in front of me, standing by the cash register waiting to pay for their breakfast and holding hands. The man was tall and good-looking, his silver hair neatly combed over to one side to cover his bald spot, and the woman was wearing a baby-blue poodle skirt with two pink appliquéd flamingos at the hemline on either side. Her shoulder-length gray hair was held up in the back with a matching pink hair clasp, and I muttered a silent prayer that when I was her age I looked half as fabulous as she did.
Just then Tanisha came through the swinging door of the kitchen, holding both hands up and massaging the air in front of her like she was trying to soothe a rabid dog. She’s built like a linebacker, almost as wide as she is tall, and the elderly couple in front of me practically flung themselves into the aisle to let her through.
She said, “Now, Dixie, don’t be mad, but I got somethin’ to tell you.”
“Oh, no. Please don’t tell me you’re out of biscuits…”
“No, nothin’ like that. In fact, before you say another word I want you to know I got two big fat cheese biscuits warmin’ in the oven especially for you.”
Tanisha is a kitchen genius. Usually by the time I slide into my booth she’s already got my breakfast started, and without even asking she makes my bacon exactly the way I like it—practically burnt to a crisp with no yucky white spots on it—but the way she was acting made me think she was worried about something more important than my breakfast.
I said, “Tanisha, why do you look so upset?”
She glanced up and down the counter and then lowered her voice. “Okay, you and I both know I got a big mouth, right?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but for now let’s say I don’t disagree.”
“It’s just that poor child is so bad off, and I can’t stand to see her suffer any more than she already has.”
My arms went limp at my sides. “Tanisha, what the hell are you talking about?”
With a sigh she closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly toward the back of the diner. There, in the last corner booth normally reserved for me, was Sasquatch.
“Tanisha…”
“I know, Dixie, I’m real sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“What is she doing here?”
“Well, you know she lives right up the street from me, and all this business with her man gettin’ killed and all, well those cops told her you and me is friends, and that’s how you knew where to find Levi yesterday because I told you where he lives. Or lived…”
“Oh, no…”
“Oh, yes, and so she comes over last night, she’s terrible upset, and she told me how she was so mean to you and says she wants to apologize, and then the next thing I know I tell her you’re here every morning and now she shows up out of the blue wantin’ to talk to you!”
As discreetly as possible, I glanced again toward the back. Mona was sitting perfectly still, her shoulders pressed squarely against the back of the booth. I couldn’t quite tell if she was watching us, or if she was completely lost inside herself.
I pivoted around so my back was to Mona and said, “Tanisha, you don’t understand. This is not good.”
“I know, I know. I was just as surprised as you when she came through that door, but what could I do? I can’t tell the poor thing to go home.”
“Look, I’ll explain it later, but I think you better call the police.”
She took a step back. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“Tanisha, what happened to Levi yesterday…”
I couldn’t quite figure out how to tell her what I was thinking, but I didn’t need to. I saw it register in her eyes.
“No.”
I nodded. “It’s possible.”
She looked as if she might burst into tears. “Oh, Dixie, are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?”
“I could be wrong, but it’s possible she’s dangerous, so we need to stay as calm as possible. I’ll go talk to her, but I want you to walk back to the kitchen like nothing’s wrong and call 911 right away.”
She whispered, “Now, hold on a minute. What if she tries to hurt you?”
I tried to sound as confident as possible. “No, if she wanted to do something crazy she wouldn’t have come here. But we shouldn’t take any chances. Just go on.”
She closed her eyes. “Oh, Lord. I knew I should’ve stayed in bed this morning.”
“You and me both. And by the way, you owe me for this. I’ll expect a couple of those cheese biscuits every morning from now on.”
“Girl, unless you plan on windin’ up fat as me you better think of some other options.”
She hustled back to the kitchen while I took a deep breath and thought, Well, this should be interesting.
For some fool reason, I grabbed the morning newspaper off the end of the counter as I went by. I needed something to do with my hands. When I folded it under my arm I felt a quick jab of pain in the center of my chest, as if someone had poked me with the tip of their index finger, and then I figured out what it was: the Herald-Tribune had already found a replacement for Levi.
Sasquatch was sitting with her arms in her lap and her eyes fixed on the back of the head of the man in the next booth. Her gaze didn’t waver, even as I came to a stop at the table. Anybody else would have looked up, but she didn’t. Her jaw was set like a vise.
I said, “Umm…”
Without looking up, she said “I’m Mona Duffy. We met before.”
She was wearing tight black leggings and a large blouse buttoned up to the neck. It was white, with pink and red dots in crisscrossing lines forming a faded plaid pattern, and I noticed the dots were actually tiny cartoon strawberries. Her dyed magenta hair was messed and flattened on one side, and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy.
She extended her hand. “Tanisha told me I could find you here.”
For once in my life I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just shook her hand limply and nodded. There was a purple canvas handbag on the bench next to her, with black fringe along the seams, and I noticed it was propped open. The shoulder strap was gathered into a neat coil next to it.
She said, “I need to talk to you.”
I laid the newspaper down on the bench and slid in next to it, glancing at the headline on the front page. It read: “Ringling Circus to Hold Local Clown Auditions!” in big bold letters, and for a few blissful nanoseconds I wondered what my chances were. I glanced around the diner looking for Judy, but luckily she was already headed to the table with a pot of coffee and two menus.
My eyes met Mona’s, and for a few surreal seconds I think we both realized how strange it was to be sitting across the table from one another, especially considering how we’d met. Emotions were moving across her face like storms across a continent—fear, grief, anger—and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d been up all night crying.
I said, “Mona, I can’t tell you how sorry I am about Levi.”
&
nbsp; Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, really?”
Before I could react, Judy interrupted, her voice bright and cheerful. “Coffee?”
I nodded as she laid the menus on the table and flashed us a big toothy smile, as if everything in the world was completely hunky-dory. She filled Mona’s cup first and then mine.
“You ladies know what you want or do you need some time to think?”
I said, “Maybe just a few minutes, thanks.”
Judy nodded pleasantly, but as she turned to leave I could tell she was watching me out of the corner of her eye. As soon as she was out of hearing range, I said, “Look, I know we didn’t get off to a very good start, and I don’t blame you for being suspicious, but you have to trust me. I had absolutely nothing to do with what happened to Levi.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Then what were you doing there?”
“I told you. I was just checking on him.”
“Why? What did he tell you?”
I could hear a note of desperation in her voice, and it occurred to me that she wasn’t here for revenge or a confrontation or anything like that. Just like me, she was looking for answers.
I said, “He didn’t say anything. I didn’t even talk to him that morning. I was just worried something was wrong.”
A blush of scarlet appeared on her neck. “I don’t get it. What do you care?”
“Well, I’ve known Levi for a long time. We went to high school together, and—”
Her lips curled, “Oh, I get it.”
“No, it’s nothing like that. We were just friends, and we weren’t even that close.”
“Then how’d you know something was wrong?”
I sighed. “That morning, I was at a client’s house and somebody attacked me, at least I thought they did, and I was worried Levi might have seen something. I was worried that whoever attacked me might have followed him home, and…”
Tears suddenly welled up in her eyes and her lips began to quiver.
“Oh, honey, I’m sorry. I know how hard this must be…”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “You don’t know.”
I took a breath. “I do. I was married once … I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.”
She shook her head and her voice dropped to a whisper. “It ain’t like that … and anyway, it don’t matter now…”
She put her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands just as Judy went past the booth to the back corner. There was a wooden high chair and a couple of folding trays leaned up against the wall, and as she clattered the trays around pretending to organize them, she caught my eye and mouthed, You okay?
I gave her a quick nod and said, “Judy, can you do me a favor and tell Tanisha I said never mind?”
She came around the corner of the booth with one of the trays. “Never mind?”
“Yeah, when I came in I gave her … my order. Can you just tell her I don’t need it anymore?”
She glanced at Mona and then back at me. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Okay, I’ll tell her.”
As she headed back for the kitchen, I looked back at Mona. She’d taken her hands away from her face and put them on the table in front of her. There were red stripes running down her cheeks where her fingers had pressed into them.
I said, “You told me someone came home with Levi the night before…”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah, he always had different girls. Always out drinking with his friends and partying. I tried to ignore it, but…”
“Do you know who she was?”
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. Maybe. He was going through a rough time.”
“Was it about his father?”
Her face darkened. “What do you know about it?”
“I have a friend who’s an attorney. He represents Levi’s father with some stuff.”
She didn’t look completely convinced. “Well, I don’t trust lawyers any more than I trust cops.”
“I trust this one. He’s a very good friend.”
Her voice flat, she said, “I lied to that detective.”
I said, “I know you told them it was me, but there’s no need to apologize. I probably would have thought the exact same thing. And anyway, I used to be a sheriff’s deputy. I promise you no one thinks I had anything to do with—”
“No … I mean I lied about me and Levi.”
The blush of pink on her neck had spread across her face, and now her entire body started to tremble like a volcano about to explode. It took me a second to comprehend the weight of what she was trying to tell me, but then I felt my heart kick into high gear as a rush of adrenaline shot through my bloodstream. I looked over my shoulder to see if I could still catch Judy, but she’d already disappeared into the kitchen. I was beginning to think maybe I’d called off the cops too soon.
Mona was staring straight ahead, unblinking. I noted her hands were under the table and her purse was standing open on the seat next to her, and as I glanced around the diner I heard Tanisha’s voice in my head, What if she tries to hurt you? If Mona was about to confess what she’d done, there was no telling what she might do next. At this point, she seemed completely, utterly capable of anything.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl, and suddenly I was aware of everything around me. There were two young men having an animated conversation in the booth directly behind me, completely oblivious to the drama unfolding right next to them, and I remembered noticing they were sharing a tall stack of pancakes. In the booth directly across the aisle from us were two middle-aged women, business types, one black and one white, both in smart suits and polished high heels, and they were arguing over who was picking up the tab for breakfast.
I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. I had decided if Mona made a move for her purse, I’d have no choice but to lunge across the table to stop her.
I said, “Mona … what did you do?”
23
Love is a funny thing. Of all the emotions, it’s the most profound, the strongest, the deepest, and last but not least—the weirdest. It makes people do things they wouldn’t believe for one second in a book or a TV show, and it can transform the purest soul into the most hideous green-eyed monster. The history of the human race is liberally sprinkled with love-crazed fools. Think Napolean and Josephine, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, Sid and Nancy, Jon and Kate.
Sitting there in the diner across the table from Mona, I wondered how in the world she and Levi had ever found each other. In high school, Levi had been a star athlete, and there was a never-ending line of girls who would have jumped for joy if he’d so much as looked at them. But Mona … she was clearly a mess. Angry, bitter, afraid, and—I was pretty sure—homicidal, too. Luckily, I couldn’t have been more wrong about what she was about to tell me.
She’d been silent for a while, concentrating on a spot in the middle of the table. I said, “Mona, if you’ve done something wrong, for whatever reason, the only way out is the truth.”
She nodded slowly, almost like she was coming out of a coma, and said, “It’s about Levi. We wasn’t engaged.”
I said, “Huh?”
She shrugged slightly. “I just made it up.”
I took a deep breath. I guess I should have been happy she hadn’t just confessed to murdering Levi, which I was … but I’m ashamed to admit I was also thinking: Why me?
For as long as I can remember, people have felt compelled to tell me their deepest, darkest secrets. Only last week, I was in the frozen food section at the grocery store, and a man standing next to me turned and said, “My daughter hates me.” Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t get one of those T-shirts that says ASK ME IF I GIVE A DAMN.
I said, “Mona, I’m not sure I understand … Why would you lie?”
She looked out the window. “When I was little, my parents run off because they couldn’t handle me. So my grandma, she took me in, even though things was tough for her, and she took care of me ev
er since. It ain’t been easy for her, due to problems I got … health problems and such, and sometimes I get in trouble. Even when I had my baby, I thought she’d kick me out, but she didn’t.”
Trying my best not to sound shocked, I said, “You have a baby?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Only he ain’t a baby no more. He’s seven. His name’s Ricky. After Ricky Nolasco. He was a baseball player with the Miami Marlins.”
I nodded mutely.
She said, “Yeah, I know. You’re thinking I’m too young to have a seven-year-old kid.”
I said, “No, I wasn’t thinking that at all.”
“I don’t blame you. It’s true. And now that I got Ricky, Grandma’s been torn up worried about what’s gonna happen when…”
She stopped abruptly and balled her hands into tight fists. I could tell it was taking all of her strength to keep from completely breaking down.
“Two months ago, the doctor told her she don’t have much longer to live, and I know she wishes I had my life more together, but I been fired from every job I ever had. She’s scared … for me, and for Ricky, too, because when her disability checks stop, it’s gonna be bad news. And everybody knows Levi’s dad is filthy rich.”
I sighed. “And you thought if you told her you and Levi were engaged…”
She nodded slowly. “Yeah. And I was right. When I told her, she said she could finally rest. She said she could die happy.”
“And your grandmother … she’s sick?”
“Yeah. She’s diabetic.”
I nodded. I had a client whose father was diabetic, so I knew a little bit about how hard it can be on the elderly. I said, “Oh, gosh, yeah, that’s—”
“But that ain’t all. She’s allergic to insulin.”
The Cat Sitter's Whiskers Page 14