A Story to Kill

by Lynn Cahoon

  “You okay?” Shauna picked up a rug and straightened it back under the end of the bed. “Linda’s downstairs in the living room with the sisters and a double whiskey sour.”

  Cat gratefully sipped the cold liquid. It was almost half-gone before she leaned against the dresser and answered Shauna’s question. “Maybe this writer retreat thing was a bad idea. All we’ve had this week is chaos.”

  “I don’t think you planned to have a murder in the house your first week out.” She led Cat over to the bed and lowered her down to the edge. “And then this thing with Sara. That one you have to blame on the school. They paid for her retreat. Didn’t they know she was a kook?”

  “I think she’s a mixed-up kid who got tied up with the wrong guy.” Cat finished off her bottle. She thought about the angry scene out on Sugar Hill. Had that been Sara and Dean Vargas breaking up? Uncle Pete should get that information out of Sara tomorrow once she sobered up, but Cat felt in her gut she was correct. Especially after that crack about her and Michael. She turned to her friend. “Do you think I was stupid for marrying Michael?”

  Shauna shrugged. “I didn’t know the guy, but I don’t believe you could have done anything else at the time. Why beat yourself up over old decisions? Besides, if you hadn’t married him,” she raised her hands in an inclusive gesture and pointed around the room, “we wouldn’t be here.”

  “That might just be a good thing after this week.” Cat put her forearms on her knees and leaned forward. “A murder, a vandalized room, and now an attack on one of our guests. What else can go wrong this week?”

  Billy stuck his head into the room. “Hey, I don’t mean to intrude, but there’s something burning in the kitchen.”

  “Oh, no. My pasta …” Shauna leaped up and ran out of the room.

  Cat stood to follow, but Billy blocked the door. “What’s going on? I heard your uncle was here again last night? And just now? Man, you’ve got issues here.”

  “Nothing important.” Nothing that I want to tell you about, Cat said internally.

  “I think you’re holding out on me. I know trouble when I smell it.” He tilted his head and studied her face. “Maybe you all found out who killed Tom already? In the movies, it’s always the wife or her new lover.”

  “Nothing as exciting as that, I’m afraid.” Cat pushed her hand against his shoulder and not expecting him to move out of her way, she tumbled out into the hallway. Her foot caught on the carpet and she went flying. A pair of arms caught her before she hit the hallway floor and pulled her to her feet.

  “You okay?” Seth held her tightly but adrenaline had pumped through Cat’s body from the almost-fall and she could feel herself shaking.

  “I wish people would stop asking me that.” She took a deep breath and watched Billy leave the hallway and re-enter his room. After the door closed, she muttered, “Jerk.”

  “Me or him?” Now she could see humor in Seth’s eyes.

  “Definitely him. I don’t know, I just don’t like the guy.” Cat shook off his hands. “I better get downstairs. Linda’s drinking after the attack and Shauna’s burning food. It’s been a crappy Friday.”

  He fell in step beside her. “I don’t have good news either so I better say it now so tomorrow can start fresh. There’s a fake wall in the attic. I thought my initial measurements were way off so I went with the outer measurements of the house when I drew up my plans for the room. Now that I’ve begun destruction I can tell the measurements were spot on, but there’s a wall where there shouldn’t be.”

  Cat stopped at the stairwell and glanced upward, even though she couldn’t see the attic entrance from where she stood. Her mind was racing with thoughts of Michael. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying the project is going to take longer than I’d planned.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Hell, I’m not even sure I can take the wall down. Maybe it’s a retaining wall they added to bolster the structure. I need to think about this some more.”

  “Do you think there’s a room behind the wall?” Cat was surprised how calm she sounded, even with the alarm bells going off in her head.

  “There’s definitely space there. Now, it might just be unfinished area, planks and rafters. Maybe the original owners only needed part of the attic, so they blocked off the other section so they wouldn’t have to heat the space. This is a big house you know.” Seth now looked upward too, like he could imagine the secret area. “I need to go to the courthouse and see if I can find the original building permit. It should be there.”

  “Or at the college. This house was built for the college as the first president’s home when it opened in 1920. They sold it to a private party to keep the college open after the stock market crashed.” Cat recited the information from memory. It was part of the charm when she and Michael had purchased the house.

  “Either way, I’m not comfortable just swinging a sledgehammer into the wall before I figure out its purpose. So I’ll be checking it out on Monday, but until then I’m kind of at a standstill with the attic project. You want me to work on something else this weekend?” Seth leaned against the wall, his smile widening. “Or we could take off and spend a day in the woods. The fall fishing is pretty amazing, but we’ll have to keep our orange vests on so some novice deer hunter doesn’t see us as prey.”

  “As charming as that sounds, especially the unspoken part about no running water or bathrooms for the weekend, I have guests. I can’t just leave in the middle of a retreat.” Cat started down the stairs.

  “We would have a good time.” Seth lifted his body off the wall where he’d been leaning and they made their way down to the first floor. The smell of burned tomato sauce became more pungent as they came closer to the kitchen door.

  Seth kissed her quickly on the lips as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “If you’re sure, I’m taking off. There’s a game tonight over at the high school that I said I’d attend. If I don’t hurry, I’ll miss the last quarter. You want to come?”

  “Again,” she held out her arms in the same gesture Shauna had used to indicate the house, “writer’s retreat happening. I need to be here for my guests.”

  “A guy’s got to try.” He looked at the kitchen door, then walked the other way. “I’m going out the front. Whatever she killed in there smells awful.”

  Cat watched Seth leave. A smile came unbidden to her lips. There really could be something there after all these years. More mature, but the spark was still there between them. Not for the first time that day, she questioned her first marriage. “Water under the bridge,” she muttered as she took a deep breath and plunged into the smoky kitchen.

  Chapter 15

  It took over an hour to get the smoke cleared out of the kitchen. While Cat and Shauna positioned another fan to blow the air out the screen door, Linda stepped into the room.

  “Whoa. This reminds me of when I used to cook for Tom when we were first married. He swore I could burn boiling water. After a few months, he took over the cooking duties. His mom was Italian, so he knew how to make spaghetti. When his book took off, the first thing we did was hire a full-time chef and housekeeper. Now Helga and I will be lost in that big old house.” Linda sank into a chair, watching the others use towels to move the remaining smoke out of the room.

  Cat opened the fridge and grabbed another beer. She held a bottle toward Linda and Shauna, who both nodded. They joined Linda at the table and twisted off the caps.

  Shauna was the first one to speak. “I’m not a counselor, but when I was bartending, I talked to a lot of people who were grieving the loss of a loved one. All of them were told the same thing by their real counselors. You’re not supposed to make any decisions for a year.”

  “I’m not running home, selling the house, and giving my money away to a charity, girls.” Linda took a sip of the beer. “This is good. I don’t think I’ve had a beer for years.”

  “Keep hanging with us and you’ll be a beer connoisseur in no time.” Cat took a sip of her o
wn beer considering how to bring up the subject. “What a crazy night. Any idea why Sara would attack you?”

  Linda shrugged and squirmed in her seat. She cast her gaze down at the bottle of beer and cast a sideways glace at Cat.

  “You know why, don’t you?” Cat sat straighter in her seat, leaning toward the other woman. “Come on, spill the beans.”

  “It’s stupid.” Linda waited for a minute but when neither Cat or Shauna spoke, she filled the silence. “Larry told me he’d been dating the girl. He claimed it had started out platonic, but one night she tempted him and he fell.”

  Cat snorted and Shauna laughed out loud. “Oh, the horror. I’ve heard this story from so many married men. They were walking down the street, fell, and their manhood accidentally entered some poor, insanely beautiful, and young girl.”

  Linda held up her hand. “Look, I didn’t say I believed him. Larry always did have a thing for young, beautiful blondes.”

  “Like Gloria,” Cat prompted.

  Linda shook her head. “He was madly in love with that girl. When she took off that semester, he wouldn’t even talk about her. He said they’d broken up that summer and he didn’t care to look back.”

  Shauna looked perplexed between the two of them. “I thought we were talking about Sara. Who’s Gloria?”

  Cat explained about the fourth member of the group’s college crew and that she’d disappeared. When she finished, Shauna stood up and picked up her laptop from the desk. “What’s her full name?”

  Linda answered and watched as Shauna keyed the name into a search engine. “Too many hits on name alone. What was her major? Maybe we can find where she is now by her profession.”

  “She was going into business management, if I remember right. It’s been a long time,” Linda mused.

  “Hold on, I’ve got an idea.” Cat left the room, and when she returned she had the yearbook. Opening the book, she flipped through the pages until she found the right one. “Here. She listed her future goal as international tax accountant.”

  “I didn’t remember that. That’s weird.” Linda rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Gloria was a party girl. I never even heard her talk about her classes or being interesting in tax stuff. She did like to travel, though. She kept talking about us going to Europe the summer after senior year. In fact, when she disappeared I figured she hadn’t waited to graduate and had gone without us.”

  Shauna stared at her screen. “Still nothing.”

  “Where did she grow up? Maybe we’ll find something in her local newspaper, like a hometown-girl-does-good story.” Cat peeled the label off her beer and took another sip.

  “A small town in Iowa. Near Davenport, maybe?” Linda rubbed her face. “Look, it’s been a long day. I’m going up to my room to take a long soak.” She held up the empty beer bottle. “You have another one of these I can steal?”

  Cat stood and got her a fresh bottle from the fridge. “You need anything else?”

  Linda rolled her shoulders. “Maybe the name of a good masseuse?” She took the bottle. “For tonight, the hot bath and this beer should do the trick. See you girls tomorrow morning.”

  Cat took two more bottles out of the fridge and set one in front of Shauna who was still staring at her laptop. “Dead end?”

  “Not really.” Shauna turned the screen around so Cat could read what was on the screen.

  Cat peered at the screen, then whistled and read the front-page headline aloud: LOCAL GIRL MISSING AT COLLEGE. PARENTS PUT UP $10,000 REWARD FOR LEADS. Under the headline was the same picture of Gloria that Cat had found in the yearbook.

  Neither woman spoke for a minute, then Cat said the obvious. “This isn’t good at all.”

  A quiet knock sounded at the door and Daisy peeked her head into the room. “Oh, I’m sorry, but have you seen my sister?”

  “Not since we were all three talking earlier.” Cat motioned the woman into the room. “What’s going on? Do you need a drink? Or a snack?”

  Daisy shook her head. “I went up early to bed after we spoke. Rose said she was following as soon as she finished her chapter. When I woke a few minutes ago, she still hadn’t come up.”

  “Did you look in the living room?” Cat stood and took a couple steps to the door but Daisy stopped her with a hand on her arm.

  “First place I looked. I figured she’d fallen asleep in one of those chairs of yours. She’s always doing that. You wouldn’t believe the places I catch her sleeping at home.” Daisy sank into a chair. “I guess I would like a cup of tea, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  Shauna turned the laptop screen away from Daisy and stood. “I’ll just put the kettle on then. Something herbal to help you get back to sleep or full-on Earl Gray to keep you up?”

  “I’d love more of that apple cinnamon we had this evening.” Daisy smiled up at Shauna and for a second, Cat forgot all the bad things that had happened in the last few days. It was moments like this that she’d imagined when she decided to put together a writer’s retreat. Not all the drama. Just writers, sitting around talking about life and the craft.

  But that wasn’t why Daisy was in her kitchen at—Cat peered at the clock—eleven-thirty. Where had the evening gone? “I’m sure Rose just went for a walk or something. Do you want me to go out and look for her?”

  Daisy shook her head. “She’s a grown woman. I just worry sometimes. I guess it’s my curse.” She peeked at the computer screen. “You researching a new book? I didn’t think mysteries were your genre.”

  Cat looked up at Shauna who was putting a tea bag into a cup at the stove. “We were just checking out some local history.”

  “I always feel so sad when young girls go missing. We had a classmate who disappeared the summer after senior year. Rose always thought she took off for New York City or Las Vegas. The girl did yearn for the big city. Thank you.” Daisy accepted the cup that Shauna brought over and started dunking her tea bag. “I thought the worst. Tina’s stepdad was a drunk and he liked to beat up her mom.”

  “So you figured he decided to start beating on Tina, too?” Cat guessed the end of the story.

  “I think Tina was finally getting out of that crazy house and he didn’t want to lose her.” Daisy lowered her voice. “She told me once he would visit her bedroom at night. I told her to tell the cops, but she said no one would believe a kid.”

  Everyone around the table was silent. Cat stood and dumped out the rest of her beer in the sink and got a soda out of the fridge.

  “Get me a Coke, too.” Shauna pushed her own beer away.

  When she returned to her chair, Daisy continued with her story. “A few years after Rose and I had graduated college and moved away, Mom told us they’d found the girl’s body in the cornfield behind the old house. I guess the stepdad had died of a heart attack and the mom had sold the place to a subdivision developer.”

  The hum of the refrigerator was the only sound in the room for several minutes. Daisy stood. “Well, I can see I totally ruined the mood here. When my sister gets back from wandering, I’ll be in our room. I bet she went down to that little convenience store for a treat. She likes to sneak a Payday every once in a while. Especially when she’s writing.”

  After Daisy left the room, Shauna tapped the laptop. “If that’s what happened to Gloria, that’s a secret worth killing over.”

  Cat didn’t answer at first, thinking over what they’d learned. “All we know is the girl didn’t come back to school and she didn’t go home. Maybe she ran off to Paris or Europe like Linda suggested. I’ll see if there’s anything else in the library about her.” Cat paused. “Maybe Uncle Pete keeps missing person’s files. She could have been found since that article.”

  As Cat went up the stairs to her room, she couldn’t help but think about the missing girl and where she might have disappeared to. She said a quick prayer for Gloria’s safety, but in her heart she felt like she knew the answer to the mystery surrounding the girl’s long-ago disappearance.

  *<
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  The next morning, Cat arrived in the breakfast room around nine, after spending three hours in her office finishing a chapter. The book was still on her mind and if the house hadn’t been filled with writing retreat guests on their last full day of the session, she would have stayed locked up in her room until the characters stopped talking to her. As it was, she itched to get back to the writing, so she’d written a quick must-do list and headed downstairs to make an appearance.

  The breakfast room was empty. Cat went over to the sideboard and poured coffee into her travel mug she carried around most of the morning. Then she poured a glass of orange juice and chose a banana and one of Shauna’s chocolate-chocolate chip muffins.

  As she sat at the table to eat, Shauna floated into the room with an empty tray. “Good morning. I was just about to bring you something. How’s the writing going?”

  “Great. If I stay on this path, I might just make that deadline.” Cat waved a hand around the empty table. “Did everyone else sleep in?”

  “Heavens, no.” Shauna laughed. “Rose and Daisy left just a few minutes ago to head to the library. Billy is back in his room with a carafe of coffee and a dozen muffins. He said not to bother him for anything until he comes up for air. He’s deep into his story.”

  “And Sara? Did you hear from Uncle Pete yet?” Cat had hoped the girl would be back in her room this morning feeling embarrassed about yesterday’s outburst.

  “Nothing.” Shauna loaded the tray with the baskets of muffins and set it on the table next to Cat. “Linda took off early, saying she was doing a day of sight-seeing, trying to remember the good times. I worry about her. She seems to be missing her husband terribly.”

  “I think reality is finally setting in.” Cat finished off her orange juice and took a banana nut muffin from the basket. “He traveled a lot; maybe she’s used to being alone. Now, she has to deal with the fact he’s never, ever coming home.”

  Shauna poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down next to Cat. “She told me she’s heading home mid next week, if that’s okay. We’ve never dealt with a real guest outside of the retreat schedule. I’m okay providing her breakfast, if it’s okay with you for her to stay on.”