by Nic Saint
“You know, Marge,” I said as I accompanied her to the counter, where she booted up her computer. “I once heard about a nursing home where the staff keeps all kinds of pets. Piglets, chickens, puppies, cats—you name it. The pets just wander around, and it makes the old folks so happy, lowers their blood pressure, and creates a very pleasant atmosphere.”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to accomplish here,” she said. “Only I try to make it fun for everyone, not just the elderly.”
“Like a petting zoo—but at the library. A library zoo.”
She laughed. “Something like that.”
I jumped up on her desk. “Do you really think the murder case is closed now?”
“I guess so,” she said. “They caught Jeb, didn’t they? Such a shame, though, right? I really liked him. Of course, you never know what people are really like. Some actors that you think are nice turn out to be horrible people in real life. I guess you just never know.”
The kittens were having a great time over in the pirate ship, where Marge had dropped them, and were sinking their tiny claws into the pillows. The library opened in half an hour, and then the fun would begin. Dooley and Brutus and Harriet, meanwhile, had gone off to the kitchen, to see if Marge had filled up their bowls with the right amount of food and drink. There were also plenty of litter boxes and climbing poles and even toys.
As Marge sat typing something on her computer, I allowed my gaze to drift idly to the book cart loaded with plenty of tomes she still needed to put back on the shelves.
I was struck by the title of one of the books: When You Left Me.
“Hey, that’s funny,” I said. “That’s the book Fae Pott is reading.”
“Mh?” said Marge, without looking up.
“When You Left Me. Young adult, probably?”
“What?” said Marge, looking up and taking off her reading glasses.
I pointed to the book. “It was lying next to Fae’s bed. I read the blurb. Something about a girl whose daddy starts a second family. Sounds like appropriate reading for Fae.”
Marge took out the book, and I noticed how her hands were shaking.
“Oh, no,” she whispered.
“Oh, yes,” I assured her. “She must have read it a lot. It was well-thumbed.”
She looked up at me, and I could tell she was distressed.
“I have to call Odelia at once,” she said softly.
“Great,” I said, for lack of anything better to say.
Humans. You think you finally got them figured out, and then you realize you’ve only skimmed the surface.
Chapter 36
Odelia listened carefully. She frowned as the realization hit her.
“Are you sure about this, Mom?”
“Of course I’m sure. Max told me so himself.”
Odelia sank down on the couch. She’d been getting ready to go to work, but this changed everything. “It’s hard to believe,” she said.
“I know!”
“Look, I need to make a few phone calls. I’ll call you back as soon as I know more.”
“That’s fine—do what you have to do, but honey?”
“Yes?”
“Please be careful, all right?”
“Of course. I’m perfectly safe here.” Her mother disconnected and Odelia sat staring before her for a few beats. Then she took a deep breath and dialed her uncle’s number.
“Odelia?” he said, picking up on the first ring.
“There’s something I need you to check for me,” she began.
“Sure. Anything.”
In a few words, she told him what her mother had discovered.
He sounded as shocked as she was when Mom told her about the book.
“I’ll get back to you,” said Uncle Alec. “Have you told Chase yet?”
“Not yet. You know how he is about mystery witnesses and phantom sources.”
“You can always tell him you saw the book but only realized its significance when you picked up a copy at the library.”
It seemed like a good solution. “You better tell him,” she said. “I’m such a terrible liar I’ll probably make some mistake and then he’ll become all suspicious again.”
“And I’m a better liar than you, is that what you’re saying?”
“You’re a cop. You have to be the better liar.”
“Fair point,” he conceded, then hung up.
She waited with bated breath, thinking things through once more. The whiteboard still sat in the middle of her salon, right next to the television. She’d switched on the TV to watch the news, and now saw an item about Jeb Pott. She walked over and turned up the sound. Jeb was about to be arraigned and appear before a judge. Bail would probably be an exorbitant sum, that he almost certainly couldn’t afford. He was going away for a long time.
She turned off the TV and stared at the whiteboard. Amazing. A long list of suspects, and the only person she’d never seriously considered even for a single second…
Her phone rang and she picked up. “Uncle Alec?”
“You were right. There were marks on his back. And we found the pictures.”
“Then it’s true,” she said, and felt her heart constrict.
“Oh, yes, it’s true. No doubt about it. The pictures tell the whole story.”
“Oh, God,” she said and felt tears spring to her eyes. She wiped them away.
“You did good, Odelia.”
“My cats did good,” she said.
“But it’s you that figured it out.”
Just then, her front doorbell rang. She said, “I have to go. Keep me informed.”
“I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve made the arrest.”
She moved to the front door and opened it wide. She was surprised to find Fae Pott standing there, a charming smile on her youthful face.
“Hey, Odelia. I hope I’m not disturbing you?”
“No, not at all,” she said. “Come on in.”
The young woman darted into the house. “I was hoping you had some more news about my father’s case,” she explained, and stepped in front of the whiteboard. “Is this…”
“A list of suspects, yes,” she said, as she joined Fae.
“Wow. I don’t even know who most of these people are.”
“It’s not important. I think I’ve finally figured out what happened.”
Fae turned to her, her expressive eyes wide. “You have?”
Odelia nodded. “I know who killed Camilla Kirby.”
The two women shared a long look, with Fae searching Odelia’s face for clues. “So?” she finally asked with a laugh, when she couldn’t stand the tension anymore. “Who did it?”
She looked so young, Odelia thought. So young and innocent.
“It took me a while to put two and two together,” she said, taking a seat on the couch. “I actually just got off the phone with my uncle. He’s going to make the arrest now.”
“But that’s great! So it wasn’t Daddy?”
“No, it wasn’t your father.”
Fae smiled a dazzling smile. “That’s wonderful news!” She held out her hands. “Is it all right if I just wash my hands real quick? I came over on my bike, and my chain fell off.”
“You can go upstairs. Bathroom is straight ahead.”
The young woman bounded up the stairs like a filly. She was dressed in denim shorts, a white polo shirt and sneakers. As she mounted the stairs, Odelia found herself staring at those sneakers.
“So how did you find out?” asked the girl.
Odelia got up from the couch and moved to the foot of the stairs.
“Oh, just a coincidence, really,” she said.
Water splashed in the bathroom. “Coincidence? What do you mean?”
She slowly took the stairs. “Remember yesterday? When I was at your house?”
“Of course.”
“A friend of mine took the opportunity to look around.”
“A friend? What friend?”
“That’s not important. He searched your room, Fae.”
“My room? Why?”
“Just being thorough. It’s what good detectives do. Crossing T’s and dotting I’s.”
“Oh, sure. That’s how you get your guy, right? Leaving no stone unturned.”
“He saw the book, Fae.”
“What book?”
“When You Left Me?”
The water stopped running.
“You’ll remember the book, you’ve read it more than once. It’s about a girl whose CEO dad one day ups and leaves and decides to start a new family with his executive assistant. Her mother is so unhappy and depressed that the girl devises a diabolical plan. She decides to murder her father’s new girlfriend, and do it in such a way that the blame falls squarely on him, thereby killing two birds with one stone: the girlfriend is dead, and the father will spend the rest of his life in jail, punished for a crime he didn’t commit.”
Silence.
“We also found your footprints on Jack Palmer’s back, Fae. What happened? He saw how you killed Camilla and blackmailed you? So you shoved him down the stairs? You were lucky nobody saw you then.”
“You’re crazy,” Fae said suddenly, materializing next to Odelia.
Odelia was startled, but only for a moment. “No sense denying, Fae.”
The girl laughed. “All this from a book I read? A little far-fetched, Odelia.”
“It’s over,” she said. “My uncle found Jack Palmer’s pictures on his cloud computer. Oh, yes, reporters sync their work with the cloud. Just in case they lose their camera or it gets stolen—or is snatched like you did with Jack’s camera after you killed him. We know you did it, Fae. We have the pictures and you’re in them, murdering Camilla, then putting the knife in your father’s bed and smearing her blood all over him.”
Fae’s face turned up into a wicked smile. “Pretty neat touch, huh? I actually used an eye dropper to sprinkle her blood all over my dad. Some of it even got into his ears. No way to deny his guilt, right? And then I called it in—lowering my voice and pretending to be a neighbor walking his dog. I watched from a distance when the cops came to arrest my dad. I jumped with joy as they led him outside and locked him up. Just what the bastard deserved for breaking Mom’s heart,” she added, her smile morphing into an expression of contempt.
“And what about Jack Palmer?”
She shrugged. “Like you said, he wanted money. A lot of money. So I killed him. Kicked him down the stairs. Too bad about those footprints, though. I was so careful not to leave any prints—didn’t think about the footprints on his back,” she said thoughtfully, staring down at her feet.
“Yeah, too bad about that,” said Odelia softly. “How could you, Fae? How could you do that to your father? I thought you loved him?”
Her face turned bitter. “I loved him and I thought he loved me. Until one day he abandoned us for some stupid bimbo who made his life a living hell. So when he came crawling back to us, I decided my mother had been pushed around enough, and now it was his turn to experience some of the pain he’d caused. I just wish I’d killed him, too. I could have made it look like a murder-suicide but I figured that was too good for him.”
“And what about Camilla? She didn’t deserve to die.”
“Oh, yes, she did. She broke up a good marriage, just so she could advance her career. She was the most horrible woman imaginable. And then when she finally got her big break she dumped my dad like yesterday’s trash. What a bitch.”
“I think you better come with me now. I’ll take you to the police station.”
“You should have seen the look on Camilla’s face when I opened the door. And then when I stabbed her she was so shocked she actually started squealing like a pig!”
“Let’s go,” said Odelia, grabbing Fae’s arm.
But the girl yanked herself free. She smiled sweetly. “I should never have hired you, should I? I thought I was being clever—no one would ever suspect me. Oh, that poor little girl whose daddy is in jail.” The smile suddenly disappeared, and Fae’s eyes turned vicious. “I always wanted to say this. Odelia Poole—you’re fired!” And before she could stop her, she’d given Odelia a hard shove that propelled her backward down the stairs.
Chapter 37
For a moment she was flying through the air, and then she was tumbling, head over heels, the floor racing up to her before she smacked down on it with a painful thunk.
“That’s what you get for messing with me!” Fae yelled from the top of the stairs.
Odelia, who’d miraculously landed without great injury, groaned, and said, “You’ll never get away with this, Fae.”
“Oh, yes, I will. I already told my mom what I did and she’s taking us to a non-extradition country just in case.” She stepped over Odelia, who grabbed her leg.
Fae tried to kick free, but Odelia held on, and managed to drag the young woman down. She was screaming and fighting like a wildcat, but Odelia was bigger and stronger, and pinned her to the ground.
“Get off me, you stupid jerk!”
“Not a chance,” Odelia panted.
“Why couldn’t you break your neck, like that stupid reporter!”
Suddenly, just when she thought she wouldn’t be able to hold onto the squirming woman, the door suddenly flew open and her uncle burst through, followed by Chase and three more cops.
“How did you get here so quick?” asked Odelia, releasing Fae into Chase’s hands.
“We went over to her place to make the arrest,” said Alec. “Her mother told us she’d gone out. We figured she just might have come here to pay you a visit.”
“You’re hurt,” said Chase, crouching down with a look of concern on his face.
“Just a scratch,” she said, then, when she tried to get up, sank back down again. “Ouch.”
“Serves you right!” yelled Fae, but Chase made short shrift of the young woman, and outfitted her with a pair of handcuffs, then handed her over to his colleagues, who read her her rights and escorted her outside.
“Looks like I may have twisted my ankle going down,” said Odelia with a grimace.
“Oh, babe, why does this keep happening to you?”
“Because our Odelia is a born sleuth, that’s why,” said Uncle Alec. “I can’t believe you cracked this case, honey.”
“I had a stroke of luck,” she said modestly.
“More like a stroke of genius,” said Chase. He gently touched her ankle and she winced. “Let’s take you to the hospital,” he suggested.
“Oh, not again,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Just don’t let Fae get away.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” said Alec.
“She’s a nasty piece of work. You know that she actually took great delight in killing Camilla? She was practically glowing when she told me what she’d done. Proud, you know.”
“I could see it in the pictures,” said Alec. “There’s even a video. The woman is some kind of juvenile psychopath.”
“And to think I actually felt sorry for her. Actually thought she was pretty great.”
“She probably is, until you cross her. Then she turns vicious.”
The door swung open again, and Mom burst in, followed by Dad and Gran, and no less than seven cats.
Odelia laughed. The gang was all there.
Max hopped into her arms. “Are you all right?” he asked, his voice husky with worry.
“I’m fine, you guys. Just banged up a little bit.”
Dad knelt down next to her and did a cursory examination. “This is getting old,” he said sternly. “You need to take better care of yourself, young lady. I don’t want to have to keep finding you passed out on the floor of your own home.”
“Dad! You make it sound as if I’m some kind of lush!”
“You do need to be more careful, honey,” said her mother.
“I promise!”
For the sake of her newly arrived audience, she repeated, beat by beat, what had just transpired. They all f
ollowed the story with rapt attention, even the kittens.
And when she finished, Mom said, “I should never have called you about that book!”
Dad said, a catch in his voice, “You could have been killed!”
“But I wasn’t!” she said. “Relax, you guys. I’m fine.”
Finally, Gran said, “So there’s a video of this Fae girl killing Camilla?”
“Yes, there is,” said Uncle Alec, but then caught Gran’s intense look. “Oh, no. You’re not posting that horrible video on your YouTube channel!”
“Oh, yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not! That’s police evidence. Besides, that video is too graphic to post.”
“I need this, Alec. Scarlett Canyon…”
“Not with that woman again!”
And as Alec and Gran took their discussion outside, the others all laughed heartily. Even Odelia laughed, even though her ankle hurt like hell, and other parts of her body that had come into contact with an unyielding staircase were now starting to hurt pretty badly, too.
And as Chase helped her up and moved her over to the couch, there was a knock on the door.
A woman stepped inside and glanced nervously at all the people present. She was pale and thin, her hair limp and lifeless, but her eyes shone with the fire of determination.
“Um... hi,” she said. “Odelia Poole?”
“That’s me,” said Odelia.
“Hi, my name is Elsie Delaney. You don’t know me, but... I know you—or know of you. From your articles in the Gazette? And um... I’m the one that left three kittens on your doorstep a couple of days ago. So…” She was wringing her hands now, and when she suddenly saw the threesome, who were dangling from the curtains again, she haltingly smiled, then released a stifled sob. “I’m so sorry, but... my husband left me last week and I guess I just… lost it. So I thought to give them to you, as you always write about cats with so much love, and…”
“Well, I’ve taken good care of them,” said Odelia.
“Thank you so much,” said Elsie with a watery smile. “And I’m so, so sorry. I should never—I realized the next day I’d made a big mistake. I love cats. And I should never have done this. It’s just that... I was desperate. Desperate to move away from here—far away. I’m pretty sure my husband will get the house in the divorce, and I planned to move back in with my parents in Massachusetts. But then a friend convinced me yesterday to give Hampton Cove one more chance. She’s going to help me find an apartment I can afford, and I realized that I… I have a job down at the senior center… and my colleagues are all so nice to me, and…” She suddenly broke down and started weeping, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.