Cat Me If You Can

by Miranda James

  TWENTY-SIX

  “Really?” I said, taken aback by Doris’s blunt proclamation about her former coworker. “Why do you think she was murdered?”

  Doris sniffed again as Diesel rubbed himself against his new friend’s legs. The maid patted his head for a moment before she answered me. “Well, it’s like this. Cora was just hard-down nosy. Nosiest woman I ever did know. Had to find out everything she could about everybody. Asked questions like you wouldn’t believe. Course, she didn’t dare do that too much with the guests, because Mr. Hindman, he don’t like us pestering guests at all. So Cora snooped around in their rooms.” Suddenly she let out a cackle of laughter.

  “Did you see her narcoplexy routine?” Doris asked.

  “I did. We found her on the sofa in here when we first came into the room,” I said. “Why do you call it a routine?”

  “’Cause that’s exactly what it was. Cora wasn’t narcoplexic any more than I am.” Doris laughed again. “That’s how she covered up her snooping. She’d hear the lock click and down she’d go and pretend to be asleep. I reckon what happened is that she tried it on the wrong person, and that’s the person that killed her.” She frowned. “She wasn’t even supposed to be in your room. This isn’t her floor.”

  “I didn’t realize this wasn’t her floor,” I said. “I did find her in our room again. She was in the bedroom, but she was awake. She said she was looking for her pin, the one she used to keep her little cap on. Was that part of the routine?”

  Doris shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. First I heard of it. Course with Cora, you never could tell. She could be slick as eel snot when she wanted to be.”

  I would have to remember Doris’s colorful image and repeat it to Helen Louise. In the meantime I tried not to visualize it.

  “When we found Cora on our sofa, supposedly asleep,” I said, “we were with Arthur Hindman. He seemed to think Cora’s condition was genuine.”

  “Now, that Arthur is a nice boy, and he sure is something good to look at,” Doris said, “but he don’t have the brains the good Lord gave a goose. I figured he’d done told his grandpa about it, but Cora must’ve begged him not to. He’s kindhearted, I’ll say that for him.”

  “I’m surprised that Mr. Hindman hasn’t found out for himself,” I said. “Surely guests have complained about it.”

  “Cora’s only been working here for about nine months,” Doris said. “I reckon nobody’s said anything—none of the guests, I mean—and the other staff don’t care. Ain’t their business.”

  “How many maids are there usually on duty at a given time?” I asked. “This isn’t a large hotel, but there’s still a lot of work, I imagine.”

  “There sure is,” Doris said. “And we stay booked for most of the year, too. People love coming to Asheville. There’s usually two of us on duty, and there’s one on call during the night, in case of emergencies.”

  “Surely you don’t work seven days a week,” I said.

  “Lord, honey, we sure don’t. There’s a couple girls who do weekends and fill-ins when either me or Cora was sick. One of ’em is working Cora’s shifts now. She’s got taken on full-time, and she’s happy about that. She has a family to feed.”

  I wondered why Helen Louise hadn’t joined us. Surely she had finished in the bathroom. I found out later that she hadn’t wanted to break the flow of the conversation, thinking that Doris’s fountain of information might dry up if she came into the room.

  I had one question more that I wanted to put to Doris. “You said Cora was really nosy and liked to find out things about people. Did she try to do anything with what she found out?”

  Doris looked hard at me a minute. “You mean like blackmail?”

  I nodded.

  “Don’t really know about that for sure,” Doris said after a pause.

  “Did she ever show signs of having more money than she could have earned working here?” I asked.

  “Not so much money,” Doris said slowly. “More like things.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Jewelry, sometimes, like that hatpin of hers, the one she claimed was a family heirloom.” Doris gave a derisive snort. “Family heirloom, yeah, but not her family. Some older woman stayed here about a month ago with her nephew in the biggest suite. I saw her wearing that hatpin, and from things Cora let drop, that wasn’t no nephew with the woman.”

  I coughed to hide a laugh that I couldn’t quite suppress. “Cora managed to talk the woman out of the hatpin somehow.”

  “Sure did,” Doris replied. “And wouldn’t you know, the killer used that hatpin on poor ole Cora.” There was a note of grim satisfaction in her voice.

  Cora had obviously seen or heard something connected to Denis Kilbride’s murder, I figured. Had she tried to get some trinket, or perhaps even money, from the killer in return for silence? Or had she even attempted blackmail?

  “Have you told the police about this?” I asked.

  Doris looked pained. “I talked to that Sergeant Bloesch, but all she wanted to know about was my schedule, and how often I saw that man that was murdered. Which was once, by the way. He was in Cora’s section, not mine, thank the Lord. After the sergeant found that out, she wasn’t too interested in anything else I had to say. You reckon I ought to tell her this stuff anyway, I guess.” Doris shrugged. “I don’t mind doing it. Ain’t no skin off my teeth, like my old granny used to say. Problem will be getting her to listen.”

  “I think you should talk to Lieutenant Wesner, her boss,” I said. “He seems like a pretty good guy. I bet he’ll listen to you. I’ll even talk to him first, if that will help, to make sure he listens.”

  “Well, aren’t you Mr. Big Shot?” Doris didn’t appear impressed, despite her words. “Suppose I can talk to the cop on my own, but if I need help, I’ll tell him about you wanting me to talk to him.” Suddenly she picked up the fresh towels and rose. “How about these towels? You need ’em, or don’t you?”

  Helen Louise entered the room. “Good evening. Oh, fresh towels, how lovely. Yes, we could use them. Thank you.”

  Doris nodded and headed for the bathroom. She soon emerged with the used towels and marched to the door. She paused after opening it, turned back, and nodded at me. “I’ll go talk to the cop.” Then she was out of the room, the door swiftly pulled shut behind her.

  “Goodness, what a character.” Helen Louise took the chair Doris had vacated, and Diesel meowed loudly, as if in agreement.

  “She certainly is. Did you hear everything?” I asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” she replied. “Based on what she told you, I can understand why Cora was murdered. She must have blundered into the murderer’s path at some point.”

  “And if we knew when, we’d probably know who. Zac is working on it,” I said. “I really ought to put together my own timetable of everyone’s movements, to figure out who was where when and why.”

  “I’ll work that out later, after I’ve had a glass or two of wine,” Helen Louise said, smiling.

  I laughed. “Speaking of wine, what would you like to do about dinner?”

  “I would love to get out of the hotel for dinner,” Helen Louise said, “but I don’t think that’s going to happen. We might as well have dinner in the restaurant here. There are a couple of items on the menu I haven’t tried yet.”

  Diesel meowed and chirped as if he were trying to communicate urgently with us, and I wondered what it was he wanted to tell us. I also wondered if he knew that he was the reason we felt compelled to remain in the hotel.

  “Let me call Miss An’gel,” I said. “Remember, she said she’d ask her friends about pet sitters. Who knows, she might have found someone for us.”

  “At this hotel? With two murders?” Helen Louise sounded impatient. “It’s highly unlikely anyone would care to.”

  “We’ll never know if we don�
�t ask.” I resisted the urge to use the same tone with her. This situation was wearing on all of us. I picked up my phone and called Miss An’gel.

  “Hello, Charlie, what’s up?” she said.

  “I was wondering whether you had asked your friends about pet sitters, by any chance. Helen Louise and I would really like to leave the hotel for dinner. A change of scenery, you know.”

  “I do,” Miss An’gel said. “As a matter of fact, Sister and I are going out to meet friends tonight, but Benjy is staying in. I think he would be happy to watch Diesel for you.”

  “Are you sure it wouldn’t be an imposition?” I asked.

  “Not at all. I know he’s been missing Peanut and Endora dreadfully,” Miss An’gel said. “Spending time with Diesel will perk him up. I’ll arrange for dinner to be sent up to your suite for him. He has his laptop with him and several of his favorite DVDs, so he’ll be fine.”

  “That would be great,” I said. “If six o’clock is agreeable to him, we’d appreciate it.”

  “I’ll let you know if it’s not. Otherwise you can expect him at six,” Miss An’gel said.

  I put my phone down and smiled at Helen Louise. “Benjy will come watch Diesel while we go out.”

  “I’m not going to question how you got this to happen,” Helen Louise said. “I’m simply going to give you a big kiss and go get ready.” She put her words into action so heartily that she left me a little breathless.

  By the time Benjy knocked on our door, precisely at six, we were ready. “That’s Benjy at the door,” I told Diesel. “He’s going to stay with you. Isn’t that great?” Diesel scampered to the door and meowed.

  Laughing, I opened the door to admit young Mr. Stephens, a laptop carrying case slung over one shoulder.

  “Come on in. I told Diesel it was you, and he’s really happy.”

  Benjy smiled as he scratched the cat’s head. “I’m happy to see you, too, boy.” He advanced into the room with the cat rubbing against him every step.

  “Diesel, be careful, you’ll trip Benjy,” I said, but Benjy laughed.

  “It’s okay, Charlie. At home I’m used to having two of them doing it.” Benjy set his laptop case on the coffee table. He seated himself on the sofa, and Diesel immediately jumped up and climbed into Benjy’s lap. He butted his head against Benjy’s chin, and the young man laughed again.

  I left the two of them enjoying each other’s company and went to the bedroom to see if Helen Louise was ready.

  A couple of minutes later we left the room after having made sure that Benjy had our phone numbers. We walked slowly down the stairs. “You look lovely tonight,” I said. “I’m not sure I’m dressed well enough to be escorting you.”

  Helen Louise laughed. “You look fine, but thank you for the compliment.”

  We reached the reception area, and I spotted the policeman on duty, one elbow propped on the reception desk while he surveyed the area. “I’ll just let him know where we’re going,” I told Helen Louise. I stepped away to talk to the officer.

  He listened politely and made a note of our destination and approximate time of return. “Thank you, sir.”

  I went back to Helen Louise, struck by her odd expression. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” I said in a joking tone.

  “Not a ghost,” she said. “I think I just saw Kanesha Berry.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Where?” I said. “Why would Kanesha be here, of all places?”

  “Going into that meeting room,” Helen Louise said. “I don’t know why she would be here. I’m telling you the woman looked like her.”

  “Did you get a good look at her?” I asked, still incredulous.

  “No, not really,” Helen Louise said. “I saw her out of the corner of my eye, a flash of movement. When I looked all I saw was her back as she disappeared into that room. The door shut, and that was that.”

  “If all you saw was her back,” I said, “then it was obviously someone else.”

  “Probably,” Helen Louise said. “But sometimes you do recognize people from behind. I do.”

  “I do, too.” I took her arm and led her toward the street door. “In this case, you probably saw someone with a similar build and so on. Let’s forget about it and focus on enjoying ourselves during our escape from the hotel.” The taxi I had called was waiting for us, and we hurried toward it.

  We thoroughly enjoyed our time away from the hotel. With Benjy looking after Diesel, I relaxed and was able to focus on dinner. We talked of personal things, ideas for the wedding and the honeymoon, nothing to do with the two murders at all. After an excellent meal, superb wine, and a dessert that was heaven on the tongue, we made our way back via another taxi.

  By the time we reached our room, the time was nearly eight-thirty. I knocked on the door to alert Benjy that we had returned; then I unlocked the door. As the door opened I caught the sound of two voices, both of which I recognized. I swung the door wide open and let Helen Louise precede me into the room.

  “I didn’t imagine it,” Helen Louise cried. “It was Kanesha.”

  Sure enough, Chief Deputy Kanesha Berry of the Athena County Sheriff’s Department occupied one of the chairs in our suite. Benjy, seated in one corner of the sofa, had Diesel’s head in his lap while the rest of the cat stretched out almost to the other end.

  “This is a pleasant surprise,” I said, advancing to shake Kanesha’s hand.

  While I greeted Kanesha, Helen Louise gave Benjy the dessert we had brought back for him. He loved sweets, and since I knew he wouldn’t accept money for taking care of Diesel, we decided to bring him a piece of the chocolate turtle cheesecake that I had sampled at the restaurant.

  Amidst thanks and greetings, Benjy extricated himself from Diesel, and Helen Louise took his place. I walked with Benjy to the door and saw him out.

  “Thanks again for the dessert, Charlie.” Benjy flashed a grin. “You know I have a big sweet tooth, but it wasn’t really necessary. You know I love spending time with Diesel.” With that he headed on his way, and I turned to our new guest.

  “It’s nice to see you,” I said to Kanesha, “but of course I have to ask what brought you here.”

  “You’d do better to ask who, rather than what,” Kanesha said with a mischievous smile.

  “In that case, I don’t need to ask.” I chuckled. “That force of nature otherwise known as Miss An’gel Ducote.”

  “Exactly,” Kanesha said. “Miss An’gel called me last night and told me what was going on. Of course, I’d already responded to queries from Lieutenant Wesner here, but Miss An’gel asked if I would come and assist, as she put it, since I know some of the people involved.”

  “Are you using up personal time to do this?” I asked.

  “No, the sheriff agreed to let me come as a personal favor to Miss An’gel.” Kanesha laughed. “I’m not sure how I feel about being a personal favor, but given the situation, I thought it might be a good idea. Someone has to keep you out of trouble with the police here, Charlie, and it might as well be me. I have the experience, after all.”

  I decided not to dignify those jesting remarks with a response.

  “Have you met Wesner yet?” Helen Louise asked after a quick glance at me.

  Kanesha nodded. “Yes, not long after I arrived from the airport. Talked to him until about fifteen minutes ago, when I came up here to wait for the two of you to return from dinner.”

  “How did he react to your presence?” I asked.

  “Guardedly,” Kanesha said. “As I would have if the situation was reversed. It is what it is, and he’s a pragmatist like me. Basically, he wants this case solved, and I might have information and contacts in Mississippi that can help him do that more quickly than if he was working on his own.”

  “I really am glad to see you,” I said. “The Mississippi connection is important, becau
se the roots of Denis Kilbride’s murder surely must be there, not here in North Carolina.”

  “I agree,” Kanesha said.

  Diesel meowed loudly, and the chief deputy shot an amused glance at him.

  “Apparently the cat agrees, too,” she said.

  “He likes to contribute to the conversation every once in a while,” Helen Louise said, “so we don’t forget he’s here.”

  “You probably can’t tell us anything that Wesner shared with you in confidence,” I said, “but Helen Louise and I have been wondering whether the lieutenant is planning to arrest someone anytime soon.”

  “You’re right, I can’t share much with you,” Kanesha said, “although Wesner agreed I could use my discretion about that. I told him, face-to-face, how useful you have been in the past. He’s not totally convinced, but at least he’s taken you off the suspect list, unofficially.”

  “Meaning that officially I’m still on the list, along with Helen Louise,” I said, and Kanesha nodded.

  “Did he tell you whether one of the hotel maids, a woman named Doris, had been to see him?” I asked.

  “He mentioned interviewing her,” Kanesha said. “Does she have pertinent information?”

  “She’s full of it,” Helen Louise said wryly. “She told Charlie a lot about the other murder victim, Cora Apfel, and it could have a bearing on the case. In fact, we think it probably explains why she was murdered.”

  Kanesha shook her head. “You do have a knack for getting people to talk to you, Charlie. Care to fill me in on what this Doris had to say?”

  “I will, and I’ll attempt to do it in less time.” I launched into a résumé of the facts from Doris’s revelations. When I finished about ten minutes later, slowed down by a couple of additions provided by Helen Louise, Kanesha looked pensive.

  “I think you’re right,” she said. “Cora Apfel must have, knowingly or not, found out something the murderer thought would give the game away. Otherwise I can’t see any reason to kill her.”