Cat Me If You Can

by Miranda James

  “I think he’s in,” I said with a grin.

  Helen Louise laughed. “Like Daddy, like kitty.” She rose from the sofa and slipped her shoes back on. “All right. Let’s go and do this.”

  Celia responded after the second round of knocking. She appeared fully alert when she opened the door. I was glad we hadn’t wakened her from a nap. The moment she spotted Diesel, she smiled. “Y’all come on in. I was getting a little bored in here by myself.”

  Diesel padded after Celia and sat by her when she resumed her place in an overstuffed armchair in the small sitting area near the window. Helen Louise and I chose a sofa upholstered in the same fabric across from her. Celia had a room, rather than a suite, but it appeared to be every bit as comfortably appointed as our suite. The four-poster bed had to be an antique, I thought, but the bed linens and covering would be completely contemporary.

  “The rooms here are certainly comfortable, aren’t they?” Helen Louise said. “Your room is charming, don’t you think?”

  “I’m happy with it,” Celia said. “What do y’all think about this terrible business with Denis Kilbride? I didn’t really know the man, but it’s awful when someone that young dies suddenly.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said. “I think he was close to my age, and that’s a sobering thought.”

  “A few years younger than you, I would have said,” Celia replied. “Though I thought he looked older from all that hard living he apparently did.” She stroked the cat’s head, and he purred for her. “Such a sweet boy.”

  “I didn’t really know him,” I said. “I sure was surprised by what happened last night.” While I spoke I let my gaze travel slowly around the room. No sign of the pin from my vantage point.

  “He did appear to be a man with a temper,” Celia said. “And what on earth could that nice young man have done to make Kilbride upset with him? I’ve always found Zac to be pleasant and respectful.”

  “Yes, he does have nice manners,” Helen Louise said. “I wasn’t aware that the two of them knew each other myself.”

  “Me, either.” I was trying to think of some reason to get up and roam around the room. I could see an assortment of things lying atop the bureau on the other side of the bed, but the light was a bit too dim for me to make out any details. I couldn’t think of a plausible reason to get up and have a look over there.

  Helen Louise got up from the sofa. “Pardon me, Celia, but I need to get up and move around a bit. My back stiffens up when I sit for very long, and we’ve been sitting almost the whole afternoon while we waited for the police officer to talk to us.”

  “Goodness, I certainly understand,” Celia replied as Helen Louise began to move slowly around the room. “I suffer terribly from sciatica quite frequently, you know, and sitting too much only makes it worse. That’s why I walk so much, especially around my neighborhood and to church.”

  I watched Helen Louise covertly as she moved around. “Walking is really good for you,” I said. “I walk to work at Athena when the weather permits. Diesel likes to walk, too, because he always meets people who want to stop and pet him.”

  Hearing this, Diesel warbled and chirped, bringing a smile to Celia’s face. At the moment Helen Louise was behind our hostess, and she looked at me, shaking her head slightly. No pin in sight, evidently.

  “I talked to that maid, the one who’s always falling asleep, you know,” Celia said. “Cora, isn’t it? Yes, that’s her name. Anyway I told her walking ought to help her. Isn’t that terrible, falling asleep like that all the time. She scared the dickens out of me yesterday, but when we talked earlier, she explained it all to me.”

  Helen Louise resumed her seat, and I said, trying not to sound too inquisitive, “Have you seen her today? We thought she had the day off.”

  Celia frowned. “Well, if she had the day off, why was she in her uniform when she came by my room to talk to me?”

  I felt completely stupid. Cora had been wearing her uniform when I saw her as well. That detail had completely slipped my mind.

  “Charlie saw her, too, this afternoon.” Helen Louise gave me a sly wink. “He found her in our room. She said she was looking for a piece of jewelry she lost. Did she happen to mention it to you?”

  FIFTEEN

  I hadn’t expected Helen Louise to ask Celia point-blank about the pin, but she knew more about the woman and her alleged kleptomania than I did.

  Directness achieved results. Celia nodded. “Oh, my, yes, the poor thing was in such distress. She asked if I’d seen it. I mean, I had noticed her wearing it, of course, but I hadn’t seen it elsewhere.”

  “Surely it will turn up soon,” I said. “Someone could have picked it up and not thought anything about it.”

  “I suppose that’s true,” Celia said. “But if you have an eye for beautiful things, you’d spot that pin right away. Such a lovely thing. Quite old, too. My dear grandmama on my mother’s side—her own mother, you know—had one she had been given by her mother. That pin was sadly lost in a house fire when I was a young girl. Grandmama’s house burned down, you see.”

  I got a little lost trying to sort out the mothers and grandmothers, but that didn’t really matter. Celia obviously knew the value of the pin, and this made me wonder whether she hadn’t taken it after all. An object that held such sentimental associations would be too tempting to resist, perhaps. The only way to find out would be to conduct a thorough search of Celia’s room. I wasn’t prepared to do that, nor would Helen Louise be.

  If anyone searched the room, it would have to be Cora herself, I decided. I wouldn’t recommend that to her, however. She would have to figure that out for herself. I was sure that Helen Louise would agree with me.

  Celia startled me with an exclamation. “Good heavens, is that the correct time?” She pointed to the digital clock on the bedside table. “Surely it can’t already be almost five o’clock?”

  I checked my watch. I had set it to the eastern time zone when we were in Gatlinburg, so I knew it was correct. “Yes, seven minutes to five.”

  Celia appeared agitated now. “Oh dear, I’m so sorry to cut your delightful visit short, but I have a dear friend here in Asheville, Betty Milton, and I promised to have dinner with her tonight. Oh, I really must get ready.”

  Helen Louise and I rose immediately. “We understand completely,” Helen Louise said. “We’ll be going now so that you have time to prepare for dinner with your friend.”

  “Yes, come along, Diesel. We’re going back to our room.”

  We showed ourselves out and made our way back to our suite. When we were inside once again, I asked Helen Louise whether she thought Celia really had plans for dinner with a friend.

  She shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Why are you so suspicious of that? Do you think she got rattled and wanted to get rid of us?”

  “Maybe.” I explained my thoughts about the lure of an object with sentimental connotations.

  Helen Louise pondered that for a moment. “That’s possible, I suppose, but why would Celia get suspicious of us and want to get rid of us? We weren’t pressing her for information about the pin that I recall.”

  “Maybe her guilty conscience,” I suggested, although that sounded weak even to me.

  “That’s really stretching it,” Helen Louise said with a chuckle. “You do get some wild ideas occasionally.”

  “I know,” I said ruefully. “Maybe I’m determined to find a mystery where there really isn’t one. I’m addicted, I guess.”

  “And this is a mystery week, after all,” Helen Louise said.

  Diesel chirped loudly then and caused us both to laugh.

  “When the cat agrees, you know you have a problem,” Helen Louise said.

  “I suppose,” I replied, and almost started laughing again.

  “I propose to you, Mr. Harris,” Helen Louise said, “that we forget about lost pins
for the rest of the evening, perhaps even the rest of the week, and focus on enjoying ourselves. Since we have the evening free of group activities, what shall we do?”

  “Miss Brady, I accept your proposal and will gladly forget about lost pins. I believe I can suggest a couple of things we can do to while away the time,” I said.

  “Do tell me of your ideas,” Helen Louise said.

  I did, and she agreed to them at once. We left Diesel on the sofa with the television on while we put the ideas into action elsewhere.

  When we returned, sometime later, we found Diesel sound asleep on the sofa. He woke at my touch and meowed at me. Then he yawned and twisted onto his back so that I could rub his belly. After about fifteen seconds of that, he twisted again and slid down to the floor and ambled toward the bathroom.

  “What would you like to do about dinner?” Helen Louise asked.

  “We can go out, if you like,” I said. “I think Diesel will be okay. I never got around to calling about a pet sitter last night.”

  “Probably too late to get one now,” Helen Louise said. “Where’s that list we were given? Didn’t it indicate some places nearby that would deliver? We can eat in if you like. I’m happy to stay in tonight.”

  That is what we did. We found a Chinese restaurant that delivered on the list, and after I inquired, they agreed to supply some boiled chicken for Diesel as part of the order. The food arrived, hot and delicious, forty minutes later. The three of us enjoyed our dinner in and retired to bed around eleven, looking forward to a good night’s sleep free of drama of any kind.

  Whether it was the Chinese food—which I adored but didn’t have that often—or my devious subconscious, which seemed to love to plague me, I had a night filled with peculiar dreams.

  In one I was a detective faced with sorting out a series of mysterious thefts, and Helen Louise and Miss Dickce turned out to be a pair of international jewel thieves who used cats to help them. Diesel was the leader of the feline cohort, and he could speak English perfectly well.

  I woke briefly from that one, convinced that I had heard Diesel talking to me. I soon lapsed back into sleep and fell into another weird dream. This one involved an elaborate party game in which I was the only one who had no idea what was going on. Everyone else was dashing around solving crimes while I sat in the midst of all the activity, asking someone to explain things to me.

  * * *

  * * *

  When morning came and the sun began to suffuse the room with light, I awoke with a headache and a cat lying across my legs. Groggily I shifted Diesel aside so I could get up. Helen Louise appeared to be still asleep, and I moved carefully so as not to wake her.

  I figured my dreams were meant to tell me that I was too preoccupied with murder and mysteries, like missing hatpins. I had mystery on the brain, as my late mother would have said. I chuckled and finished my shower.

  By the time I had dressed, Helen Louise was up and preparing to meet the day. We went downstairs at eight for the buffet-style breakfast in the dining room, bringing Diesel with us. I had decided that, since the hotel wasn’t open to the public for breakfast—only lunch and dinner—I would be safe in bringing Diesel down with us. We were the first to arrive. I made sure to get extra bacon to share with my cat when I filled my plate. We chose a table against the wall to keep Diesel out of the way of the other diners.

  Miss An’gel, Miss Dickce, and Benjy arrived next. After they selected what they wanted, they chose a table next to ours, and we shared greetings. I was amused to see that Benjy’s plate was piled high. The appetites of youth, when one’s metabolism burned through the calories, I thought ruefully. I had tried to be conservative with my portions, but breakfast was my favorite meal. Particularly a breakfast that featured freshly made biscuits, gravy, grits, sausage, and eggs scrambled to perfection, not to mention four kinds of jam—apricot, plum, blackberry, and grape. I could almost believe that my housekeeper, Azalea Berry, was in the hotel kitchen this morning.

  The rest of the group, including Ellie Arnold, who chose a table to herself despite Melba’s invitation to join her and Paul, arrived soon after. Johnny Ray, with his wife and three children, provided considerable interest. The eldest of the three, J. R., was so well behaved as to be almost invisible. The five-year-old twins, however, made up for that with their antics. Nothing malicious, simply high spirits. Johnny Ray rode herd on them and never allowed them to become obnoxious, for which the rest of us no doubt gave silent thanks.

  Miss An’gel stood and called for silence as everyone appeared to be nearing completion of their meals. “Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was quite eventful in an unexpected way, and we are still awaiting further information on certain aspects of it.” She surveyed the room, and I thought her gaze lingered on the younger Floyds during those last words. I knew she wouldn’t want to say anything that could possibly frighten the twins.

  “We will resume our activities this morning to catch up,” she continued. “I propose that we simply skip the session we were unable to hold yesterday and not try to alter the rest of our schedule. I’m sure we would all like to take advantage of all that this lovely city has to offer this week and not spend extra time indoors.” She paused for comment.

  “That’s fine with us,” Burdine Gregory said. Elmore nodded.

  “We’re good,” Johnny Ray said.

  “Same here,” Paul Bowen said after a glance at Melba.

  Celia, Ellie, and Zac all nodded, and Helen Louise and I said that we agreed. Diesel added his own comment with a loud meow, and that caused the Floyd children to laugh.

  “Excellent,” Miss An’gel said. “Then we’ll gather in the meeting room at nine-thirty as planned.” She resumed her seat.

  “Do you remember what this session is about?” Helen Louise asked me, her voice low.

  “You mean you didn’t commit the schedule to memory?” I said in mock dismay. “Shame on you.”

  Helen Louise kicked my shin under the table, but lightly.

  “All right,” I said. “You don’t have to resort to violence.” Before she could kick me again, I hurried on. “We’re having a discussion of Golden Age conventions. Like snowed-in country houses, small village settings, the all-will-be-revealed scene at the end—that kind of thing.”

  “That should be fun,” Helen Louise said.

  We finished our meal and headed upstairs to freshen up, along with several of the others. I checked my watch when we left the dining room. Already nearly ten minutes after nine.

  The three of us came back downstairs thirteen minutes later, and when I opened the door to the meeting room, I saw that we were the first to arrive. I had expected Miss An’gel to be there, at least.

  As we moved farther into the room, I discovered that we weren’t alone after all. A familiar figure lay sprawled on one of the sofas. Cora was evidently having another of her narcoleptic episodes.

  I motioned for Helen Louise to go and wake her. I thought it might startle her less than if I did it.

  Helen Louise moved forward and bent to tap Cora on the shoulder. She stopped, then drew back abruptly. She motioned for me to join her.

  When I reached Helen Louise, I looked down at Cora, supine on the sofa. She had found her pin, I noticed. Someone had thrust it into her heart.

  SIXTEEN

  “We checked for signs of life, naturally,” I said to Sergeant Bloesch, who arrived within seconds of the EMS personnel. “There were none. No pulse, no discernible breath, although she was still warm.”

  Sergeant Bloesch nodded. “All right, Mr. Harris. You and Miss Brady can go back to the dining room with the others. Him, too.” She pointed to Diesel, her lips twitching into a brief smile.

  “Thank you.” I felt drained, although we had been with the sergeant for only twenty minutes or so. I recalled the shock and horror when Helen Louise and I realized Cora was dead. Obviously mur
dered. She certainly wouldn’t have stuck her pin into her own heart.

  Who would have wanted to murder Cora? Why? Could it have had anything to do with Denis Kilbride’s death? We still hadn’t had word of the autopsy results. If Kilbride’s death turned out not to be natural and was classed as a murder, then Cora’s murder had to be linked to his.

  I didn’t have time to share any of this with Helen Louise before we returned to the dining room. We went to our table and resumed our seats. Diesel lay on the floor by my feet. He could sense the mood, I knew, and as a result was quiet.

  “Any news?” Miss An’gel asked.

  I shook my head. Glancing around the room, I saw pretty much the same expression everywhere I looked. Shock gradually turning into dismay and worry. Johnny Ray had asked permission, and been granted it, to allow his wife and children to return to their room. That had surprised me a bit, but I was grateful. I couldn’t see any purpose being served by keeping the children and their mother here.

  “I can’t believe somebody would harm that poor girl,” Elmore Gregory suddenly burst out. “Who on earth ’ud do such a thing?”

  “A psychopath,” Burdine said fervently. “Some psycho killer came in off the streets and murdered her.”

  Zac Ryan laughed, the sound harsh in the silence that followed Burdine’s melodramatic remark. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Why would some random person wander into this hotel and kill a maid? Use your brain, woman.”

  Burdine flushed an angry red, but before she could form a retort, Miss An’gel spoke sharply. “Let’s keep any discussion on this terrible matter civil, if you please. While I agree with Zac that the likelihood of Cora’s being murdered by someone off the street is slim, we as yet really don’t know anything about her murder. So let’s not indulge in idle speculation.”

  “Quite right, An’gel,” Celia Bernardi said with a surprised glance at Zac. He did not appear at all abashed by Miss An’gel’s words, nor by Celia’s look.