by Paige Sleuth
The room fell quiet. Kat could hear her own heart pounding in the silence. She figured they all knew what part of the story was coming next.
After all, everyone in this room had seen the aftermath of what Anna had done.
Anna started talking again. “After he told me the news, I was devastated. I went home and cried for hours. Then I thought maybe if I could talk to him one more time he’d change his mind. So I took the bus back over here that night to appeal to him in person.”
Kat recalled what Walter Lowry had told her. “That was you sneaking through Eric’s yard?” she asked.
Anna cocked her head. “You saw me?”
“Not me, but one of the neighbors did.” Kat didn’t see any point in mentioning Walter’s name. “He thought Eric had a secret girlfriend.”
“A . . .” Anna shook her head. “I only cut through the woods because it’s the fastest way to get here. The bus stops on the next street over.”
Kat nodded.
Anna took a deep breath. “Mr. Halstead was surprised to see me, but he let me in. I pleaded my case. I told him that even though it was only community college, I’d have to drop out without the scholarship.” She lifted one shoulder, but there was no life behind the motion.
“He didn’t change his mind,” Kat filled in.
“No.” Anna pulled her hands into her lap and twisted her fingers together. “He said he’d let the scholarship committee know I was no longer eligible the next time they met. I knew then I had to stop that from happening.”
Kat wrapped her arms around herself, but the gesture did little to ward off the chill spreading throughout her body.
Anna stared off at a spot behind Kat’s head. “Two days later I was scheduled to work here. Mrs. Whitfield, you were around the other side of the house tending to your garden. And Mr. Whitfield was working on something in the garage. I figured if I snuck out the back door neither of you would see me. And I knew where Mr. Whitfield kept his gun. I’d come across it before when I was cleaning.”
Stacey clamped her hands over her mouth. She shook her head back and forth, as if she could will the story to end differently.
Anna blinked, her gaze coming to rest on Stacey. “I cut through your yard to Mr. Halstead’s back door,” she continued, her tone hollow. “He didn’t see I had Mr. Whitfield’s gun until after he let me in.”
A squeak escaped past Stacey’s lips. Her eyes were as big as saucers.
Anna sagged against the chair. “I told him he had to let me keep the scholarship, that he would ruin my life otherwise. He said okay, I could have the money. But I could tell he was lying. I could see it in his eyes.”
Kat felt sick to her stomach. “So you shot him.”
“What else could I do? I couldn’t have him revealing my secret to the scholarship committee.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I guess the noise scared the cat. It startled me when it ran away, and I lost my hold on the gun. I didn’t mean to leave it, but I knew I had to get out of there fast. So I ran through the woods and caught the bus back home. Everybody was so distracted with what had happened I guess nobody thought to question why I hadn’t finished up my work here before taking off.”
Anna broke down then. She covered her face with her hands and started to shake as sobs wracked her body.
“Oh, Anna.” Stacey fell against the back of the sofa as tears streamed down her own face.
Kat swallowed past the lump in her throat. Then she turned away, pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, and called Andrew.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“We’re tickled you’re adopting Champ,” Imogene said, handing Champ’s leash to George.
George shifted his weight between his feet as he grabbed the handle. “Eh. I couldn’t have him being homeless forever.”
Champ trotted over to George and sat down next to him, his tail thumping against the grass. In the light of the setting sun, Kat thought he looked like an angel.
Noreen grinned. “Face it, George, you care for him.”
George flapped his hand, a wisp of his thin, gray hair lifting in the breeze. “Don’t go spoutin’ nonsense now, woman. I’m only takin’ him in because you weren’t keen on keepin’ him.”
“Oh, I’m very fond of him,” Noreen said, bending over to rub Champ’s ears. “And I loved fostering him. But I’m not at a point where I can commit to an animal for the rest of his life.”
“Well, if you want my opinion, both of you are Champ’s champions,” Imogene said with a chuckle.
Happiness surged through Kat. With Eric’s murder still fresh in everyone’s minds, it only seemed right that something good happened this week to balance out the bad.
Imogene clapped her hands. “Well, Kat and I ought to get going. She’s got a dinner date with Andrew in an hour.”
Kat blushed as George, Noreen, and Champ all swiveled their heads to look at her. She hoped they didn’t probe for details. Although she’d spoken to Andrew briefly after Anna’s confession, their conversation had been purely professional in nature. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to him in private since the night he’d walked out of her apartment, and she still wasn’t sure where things stood between them.
Fortunately, Imogene didn’t bring up Andrew during the drive to Kat’s apartment. She seemed too excited about Champ finding his forever home to talk about anything else.
Inside her unit, Kat showered and changed before sitting on the couch to wait. Tom joined her for a moment but stalked off when she wouldn’t stop fidgeting. No matter what position she tried she couldn’t get comfortable.
By the time Andrew buzzed to be let into the building, she was a nervous wreck. She stood by the door, wiping the sweat from her palms as she waited for him.
The doorbell chimed, and Kat’s heart rate turned erratic. She forced herself to take a deep breath before flinging the door open.
Andrew stood there, a bouquet of flowers in his hands. He thrust them at her.
Kat took them. “What’s this for?”
“Being a jerk the other day.”
Tom meowed. They both looked down at where the cat was winding between Andrew’s legs.
“He missed you,” Kat said.
Andrew locked eyes with her. “What about you?”
The intensity of his gaze gave her goosebumps. “I missed you too.”
A slow smile spread across his face.
Kat cleared her throat and held up the flowers before she could get lost in those dimples. “I’ll go put these in some water.”
She rushed into the kitchen, grateful for a free moment to catch her breath. Evidently, spending a few days away from Andrew only made his effect on her more potent.
By the time she returned, Andrew had shut the front door and settled onto the couch with Tom in his lap. She sat down next to them.
Andrew looked at her, his eyes downcast. “I really am sorry about storming off the other day.”
“It’s okay,” she told him. “I shouldn’t have pushed you. I was just so curious—obsessed, really—that I didn’t stop to consider how I might be putting you on the spot with all my questions.”
He reached out to finger a lock of her hair. “I love that you’re curious. And it wasn’t your questions that made me uncomfortable. It was more the thought of losing you.”
His statement sent Kat swaying backward. “You’re not going to lose me. Why would you—” She broke off, working out the answer herself.
She thought back to all the years they’d spent in foster care together. Although she and Andrew hadn’t always been assigned to the same home, they had shared enough to develop a fairly good idea of each other’s history.
It wasn’t any secret that his relationship with his parents had been rocky.
Kat rested her head against the couch, her heart cracking. She wondered why it had never dawned on her before now that Andrew might have his own abandonment issues. He always seemed so put together that sometimes she forgot he might not be as self-confident as he
let on.
Although being so forward was out of her comfort zone, she leaned forward and took one of his hands. “Andrew, I’ll always be here for you. I’m not going to leave you.”
He looked down at their hands. “Sometimes people leave not because they want to but because they have to.”
Something in her brain clicked. “You mean like Eric Halstead?” Maybe Andrew’s insecurities didn’t have anything to do with his parents after all.
“Knowing you were inside that house seconds after his killer was there . . .” He broke off, swallowing hard. “If something like that happened to you . . .”
Kat squeezed his fingers. “Andrew, you can’t live your whole life never letting anybody in because something bad might happen to them. You’ll never be happy that way.”
He nodded, but didn’t look up at her.
Tom interrupted the moment by pawing at their clasped hands. Kat giggled, some of the tension in her chest easing. Andrew grinned before pulling his hand away and using it to rub the big cat between his ears.
“You think he’s trying to tell me something?” Andrew asked.
“Yes. He’s telling you to relax and let yourself enjoy life.”
Andrew looked at her, his eyes crinkling around the edges. “You ever get the impression that he’s smarter than us?”
Kat reached over and ran her fingers across Tom’s ribs. “All the time.”
“You know, I should take lessons from this guy.”
“Lessons on what? How to be an attention hog?”
Andrew laughed. “I was thinking more along the lines of how not to ruin the present by dwelling on the future.”
“Ah.”
Andrew’s face softened. “Or on the wisdom of accepting love where you find it and not questioning how long it will last or how it came to be.”
Kat’s heart skipped a beat. Although he hadn’t actually admitted he loved her, it was the closest he’d ever come to an outright declaration.
And, at this exact moment, it was more than enough.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for visiting Cherry Hills, home of Kat, Matty, and Tom! If you enjoyed their story, please consider leaving a book review on your favorite online retailer and/or review site. Also join my readers’ group so you’ll be one of the first to know when their next adventure is published.
Please keep reading for an excerpt from Book Six of the Cozy Cat Caper Mystery series, Strangled in Cherry Hills. Thank you!
STRANGLED IN CHERRY HILLS
“Matty, no!”
Katherine Harper raced out of her apartment after the tortoiseshell cat. Matty moved with surprising speed, turning into a tawny-colored blur as she streaked down the hallway. No one watching would have guessed that just two minutes ago she had been sound asleep, snoring contentedly.
At the other end of the corridor, the elevator doors parted. Kat’s lone third-floor neighbor stepped out.
“Kat, hi!” Lucy Callahan waved as best she could around an armload of canvas grocery bags.
“Lucy, don’t let Matty in the elevator.”
“What?” The redhead looked around, but the bags blocked her view of the cat darting right past her legs.
“Matty!” Kat yelled again, but she was too late. Already the elevator doors were closing.
Matty sat down in one corner of the elevator and hooked her tail around her paws. The tilt of her chin suggested she knew she had just done something bad and her human couldn’t do anything to stop her.
Kat reached the elevator just as the metal doors fused shut. “Fiddlesticks!” she said, smacking her palm against the seam.
She jabbed the button a handful of times. When the doors didn’t part, she realized someone must have already called the elevator to another floor.
Her gaze shifted to the stairwell.
“Matty’s out here?” Lucy lifted her bags in an attempt to see what was going on below knee level.
Kat sprinted to the stairwell, leaned against the bar handle, and shoved the door open with her shoulder. “She escaped from the apartment.”
Before Lucy could ask for details, Kat ducked into the stairwell and pounded down the steps. Luckily, she lived on the top floor so there was only one way for Matty to go. And if she hurried, she just might make it to the ground floor before the elevator.
She burst into the lobby, groaning when she saw William Peterson standing there with his hands on his hips.
The older man scowled. “Kat Harper, was that your mangy animal?”
Kat’s eyes swept across the lobby. “Where did you see her?”
“It was in the elevator.” Mr. Peterson glared at her. “You ought to keep it in your own unit. I don’t want to be riding around with flea-carrying vermin.”
“She doesn’t have fleas, Mr. Peterson.” Kat’s brow furrowed when the item in his arms caught her attention. “Why are there naked people on your tote bag?” The picture on the side depicted a shirtless man and a cleavage-baring woman engaged in a steamy embrace.
Mr. Peterson shoved the bag behind his back. “That’s none of your business.”
Kat shrugged, figuring he was right. She shifted her attention to the more urgent matter at hand. “Where did Matty go?”
Mr. Peterson scratched his head as he looked around. “It was here just a moment ago.”
A yellow-and-brown ball tore past them then, rocketing toward one of the windows that someone had left open a crack.
Kat’s heart lurched. “Matty!” She ran for the exit, knowing she wouldn’t be fast enough.
By the time she flung the lobby door open, Matty was almost around the building. Kat caught sight of the tortoiseshell’s gray-striped tail seconds before it disappeared.
She feared Matty would be gone before she could catch up, but as soon as she cleared the corner of the building she spotted the cat sniffing at a patch of grass.
Kat halted, resting her hands on her knees as she worked to catch her breath. “Matty, you’re a bad kitty.”
The reprimand rolled right off the feline. She turned her nose up and sauntered away. When she found a patch of sunlight, she sat down. It was almost as if she knew this might be her only chance to relish the warmth before October turned to November and cold weather came to Cherry Hills, Washington—or Kat dragged her back inside.
Kat took a step toward Matty. “You know you’re not supposed to be out here.”
A dog barked, halting her in her tracks. Her gaze drifted a few feet away, her skin tingling when she saw a dachshund watching them. She scanned the area in search of the dog’s owner, but nobody else was around.
Her thoughts shifted from getting Matty inside to the cat’s safety. The little dog only stood slightly taller than ankle level and looked harmless enough, but his bark struck her as fairly threatening and she didn’t want to take any chances.
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?” she asked the dachshund.
He barked twice, bouncing farther backward each time.
Kat stepped closer. Although he was wearing a harness, it didn’t have a leash or any identification tags attached to it. Maybe, like Matty, he had escaped. From where, she couldn’t say. Kat didn’t recognize him as belonging to one of the neighbors. Still, she figured he must live nearby. Despite the green space around the perimeter of her apartment building, nobody would come over here just to walk their dog.
Kat gave Matty a sidelong glance that hopefully communicated the cat’s need to stay put. Matty hunkered lower in the grass as if she understood.
Refocusing on the dog, Kat crept toward him. When she got within two feet she could see his body quivering. Some of the pressure in her chest eased. Perhaps he hadn’t been trying to threaten Matty after all. Perhaps the show of bravado was only to mask his fear.
The dog twisted around and bounded off. Kat watched him for a second, torn between chasing after him to make sure he returned home safely and getting Matty back upstairs.
But Matty clearly di
dn’t want to go back inside. She darted after the dachshund.
“Matty!” Kat shouted.
The dog wove through several backyards. Matty stayed behind him, and Kat brought up the rear. With the dog in the lead instead of Matty, Kat didn’t have to exert herself nearly as much. The dachshund kept up a steady pace, but his stubby legs couldn’t compete with Matty’s long strides. Plus, he kept pausing to look behind him. It was almost as if he wanted to make sure he didn’t lose them.
He turned right a few houses down and made his way toward a chain-link fence, heading for one of the door-sized entryways cut into it.
Kat surveyed their surroundings as she and Matty followed. From the open space and organized layout of the trees dotting the area, she figured they were in a small park. Straight ahead on the other side of the fence was a much larger and lusher golf course. Both the park and the golf course were devoid of people this Tuesday morning.
The dachshund stopped midway through the park. He waited for Kat to catch up before releasing a whimper.
Kat’s heart clenched. “Are you lost?”
The dog wagged his tail.
Matty ambled over, and Kat scooped her up. She wasn’t going to give her any more chances to run off again.
Matty didn’t protest, letting Kat cradle her in one arm. Assuming she remained this docile, perhaps Kat could carry the dachshund in her other arm. She hated to leave him out here by himself when he sounded so distressed.
She was just reaching for the dog when something at the base of a nearby tree diverted her attention. It looked like a pile of clothes with a couple shoes beside it.
Alarms went off in Kat’s brain. What were the odds that someone would choose to lie in the grass without a blanket to shield their clothes from the dirt?
She forced her feet forward, her worst fears coming true. A man lay prone on the ground, unmoving. His eyes stared blankly up at the sky. Kat could clearly see what looked to be a dog leash cinched around his pale neck, his hands preserved in his final act of trying to pull it away from his throat.