by Paige Sleuth
“Ian knows about Maya being an escort,” Kat said.
Kat had called Imogene as soon as she’d left The Bark and Meow, eager to meet with her friend so she could relay what she had discovered. Imogene was evidently just as eager to hear it. Kat had barely had enough time to change out of her work clothes and into jeans and a T-shirt before Imogene had showed up on her doorstep.
“Are you sure?” Imogene asked now as she continued into the living room, Tom doing his best to get underfoot. When she sat down on the sofa, Tom didn’t waste any time jumping into her lap. “On Tuesday Maya was practically on her knees begging us not to tell him.”
Kat took a seat on the opposite sofa. “I gather Maya’s not aware that he knows.”
Imogene collapsed against the back of the couch, seemingly baffled by this new twist. She redoubled her efforts to pet Tom, as if he might be able to provide some clarity to the situation. But Tom merely closed his eyes and began purring.
Matty appeared to be equally indifferent to the drama being discussed. From her perch on the cat tree by the window, the tortoiseshell opened her mouth wide, revealing every last one of her back molars as she released a huge yawn. Then she swung her gaze toward Kat, judgmental green eyes narrowed in question. Kat knew that look. Matty was wondering when she could expect to receive her evening portion of wet food. Usually Kat dished it out as soon as she returned home from work.
But right now Kat had more important things on her mind. “How long have Maya and Ian been married?” she asked Imogene.
“Years. For the five years I’ve known them anyway. And I’ve never met their son but he must be around thirty, so I’m guessing a few decades at least.”
“Interesting that her past has never come up.”
“Maya is obviously an expert at keeping secrets.”
“Or she fears Ian will leave her if he finds out. But being an escort is not that big of a deal, is it?” Although most people might not list such a profession on their résumés, Kat had trouble believing it would be grounds for divorce, especially for a couple who had been together as long as the Pickerlings had.
“Evidently Maya feels otherwise.” Imogene pursed her lips. “You’re really positive Ian knows?”
“Fairly positive. He didn’t come right out and admit it, but he did make several oblique references to what she used to do.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“That Maya may have made some questionable decisions, but she did so out of necessity. He also mentioned how the wrong crowd can seduce a person into a less-than-savory lifestyle.”
Imogene lifted one eyebrow. “Seduce?”
“Ian’s word, not mine.”
“Hmm. That’s certainly a curious way of phrasing things if he isn’t aware of Maya’s history.”
“I thought perhaps he was the one who blackmailed her, since he’s the only person in town we’ve identified who’s aware of her past. But now I’m having second thoughts. Honestly, when he was talking about their decision to leave Philly, he almost sounded proud of Maya. It was like he admired her for taking the plunge of starting over from scratch.”
Imogene stroked Tom’s side, prompting the feline to stretch out in her lap. “Huh.”
“I guess he could have blackmailed her as a favor to Keave,” Kat said, thinking out loud. “That’s who he was waiting for at The Bark and Meow. I gather they’re friends.”
“Friends or no, Ian doesn’t strike me as the type to put a pal’s interests above his wife’s. Unless he’s as crafty an actor as Norman van der Veer, Ian truly loves Maya. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”
Matty hopped off the cat tree and onto the floor. She took a few deliberate steps toward the kitchen, watching to see if Kat took the hint. When Kat failed to follow, Matty planted her butt on the carpet and glared at her human. She was clearly reaching the end of her patience for this evening’s dinner delay.
Relenting, Kat stood up and started after the tortoiseshell. But she halted halfway through the living room when another theory sprang into her head.
“Is it possible Ian didn’t think Maya would compromise her ethics by caving to the blackmail demands?” Kat asked, turning back around to face Imogene.
Imogene spread her palms. “Then why blackmail her?”
“Maybe he didn’t send her that note because he cared about defeating the breeder ban, but because he’s tired of pretending he doesn’t know about her past and he hoped the threat of exposure would convince her to come clean.”
“Then why not just admit he knows? Why go through all the trouble of sending her an anonymous threat? He had to realize how upsetting she would find such a letter.”
Kat did have to admit it seemed like an extreme measure for a man who simply wanted to get things out in the open. And if Ian’s goal had been to stop living with secrets, did it make sense that he himself would behave so furtively? It didn’t compute.
“No,” Imogene said, shaking her head. “I refuse to believe Ian had anything to do with this.”
“The only problem is, he’s the only person in Cherry Hills we’ve found who knows about Maya’s past.”
Imogene tapped one finger against Tom’s back, prompting the feline to whip his head around. “There must be someone else who knows.”
“If there is, we haven’t located him or her yet.”
But even as Kat said the words something started niggling at the back of her mind. It was something Bianca Bradley had said.
She sucked in a breath as the memory came back to her. “Imogene, do you recall what Bianca told us when we were talking about Loki?”
Imogene scrunched up her nose. “About him being a nut?”
“No, about the breeder she adopted him from. Didn’t she say they met at a cat show in Oaks, Pennsylvania?”
“I vaguely recall something of the sort.”
“Pennsylvania is where Maya is from. If Oaks is anywhere near Philadelphia, maybe this breeder knows Maya from way back when. Perhaps Bianca mentioned living in Cherry Hills, or something else got them on the topic of Maya, and Loki’s breeder ended up telling Bianca about Maya’s past.”
Imogene pulled out her cell phone and thumbed the screen. “According to the Internet, Oaks is about twenty miles from Philly.”
Kat felt a little thrill of excitement. “Not too far then.”
Imogene jumped off the couch, causing Tom to yelp as he scrambled for solid ground. “Time to go pay Bianca another visit.”
Kat gave Matty an apologetic pat before following Imogene to the door. She tried not to feel guilty when she caught sight of Matty flicking her tail with displeasure. After all, it wasn’t as if the tortoiseshell would starve. There were still two bowls of dry kibble in the kitchen to tide her over until Kat returned home. Surely she could wait another hour for her evening allotment of wet food.
“Maybe you should let me handle the questioning this time,” Kat said when she caught up with Imogene in the doorway.
“I’ll do my best,” Imogene called over her shoulder. She was already halfway down the corridor, having regained her head start as Kat paused to lock up. “But I can’t guarantee anything.”
Kat figured that was the best she could hope for. She just prayed she wasn’t in for another death-defying car ride.
CHAPTER NINE
Bianca looked startled when she opened her front door and found Imogene and Kat standing outside. “Hi,” she said. A slight frown pulled the edges of her mouth down. “Again.”
Leva and Loki scrambled to join them. Leva released an excited trill when she saw they had company, and her fluffy tail began beating against the floor. Loki didn’t say a word, but his dilated pupils told Kat he was in a playful mood. Sure enough, he took one look at her before spinning around and darting into the house at full speed, probably figuring she would run after him.
But as much as Kat would have liked to entertain the Devon Rex, bigger issues required her attention at the moment.
�
�Hi, Bianca.” Kat gestured toward the house. “Do you mind if we come in?”
“If this is about my breeding business again, I don’t have anything more to say on the matter.”
In her peripheral vision, Kat noticed Imogene fidgeting. It must be killing her friend to remain silent, but Imogene was staying true to her word to let Kat take charge of this confrontation.
Loki came skidding back toward them. He canted his head to the side as if to ask Kat why she hadn’t chased him.
Kat scooped up the Devon Rex and gave his bald head a scratch. “I actually wanted to ask you about this little guy,” she said to Bianca.
Bianca’s brow furrowed. “Loki? What’s your interest in him?”
“You said he came from a breeder you met in Oaks, Pennsylvania, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, at the cat show there. Why is that important?”
Loki was starting to squirm. Kat put him on the porch floor, where he promptly made a beeline for Leva. Leva ducked low to the ground as Loki neared, forcing him to jump over her when she didn’t move out of his way. She swatted at him as he soared overhead, and pretty soon both cats were zipping back into the house in pursuit of each other. The sight made Kat smile.
She shook her head, reminding herself to stay focused. She wasn’t here to enjoy the show being put on by the two frolicking felines.
“Oaks is near Philadelphia, isn’t it?” Kat said.
“That’s right,” Bianca replied.
“Maya Pickerling is from Philadelphia.”
“Okay.” Bianca regarded Kat, a suspicious glint in her eye. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Kat was about to ask what Bianca knew about Maya’s former life, but something crashed into her leg before she could voice the question.
Loki and Leva had returned—with a literal bang. Kat wasn’t sure which animal had bumped into her, but neither one seemed particularly bothered by the collision. Their attention was on a crumpled ball of paper lying near Kat’s feet. They must have been batting it around.
Kat squinted, something printed on the page catching her eye. She bent down and plucked the paper off the porch floor, holding her breath as she smoothed it out. Her heart skipped a beat when her initial observation was confirmed.
“There are ink smears between some of the letters on this page,” she said.
“Yeah,” Bianca replied. “So what?”
“Did this come from your printer?”
Bianca nodded. “The inkjet nozzle tends to get clogged up with cat fur. That’s what causes the smears.”
Imogene broke her self-imposed silence. “Let me see that,” she said, snatching the page out of Kat’s hand.
Kat flinched, a sharp pain blooming along the edge of her finger. Imogene’s quick movement had given her a paper cut. Leva, who had been observing the exchange, looked at Kat with sympathetic green eyes.
But Bianca didn’t appear to have noticed Kat’s injury. Her guarded look remained stamped on her face. “Why do you care about my printer?”
“Do you print your business fliers here?”
“I do.”
“But I saw one of your advertisements for the Siberian kittens coming up for sale later this month, and there weren’t any ink smears on it.”
“I print my ads in color. The color nozzles don’t accumulate as much fur.”
Kat could have smacked her forehead. That explained why she hadn’t pieced together the link between Bianca’s printer and Maya’s blackmail note when Keave had given her that flier.
Bianca’s eyes skirted from Kat to Imogene and back again. “I still don’t get why you care about my printer though.”
Kat looked straight at her. “We care because a printer exactly like yours was used to produce the blackmail note left in Maya Pickerling’s mailbox on Tuesday.”
Bianca rocked backward, almost stumbling over Loki who had been hovering behind her. The cat gave a little yelp before darting off.
“Maya was blackmailed?” Bianca squeaked.
“She was.” Kat didn’t figure there was any point in denying it, even if she was starting to regret breaking her promise to Maya about keeping the note a secret. She had been so sure Bianca must have sent it she hadn’t considered the consequences of being wrong. But Bianca looked truly shocked.
Leva chirped. The Siberian stood in front of Imogene, her eyes trained on the wrinkled page in her hand as if she were wondering why Imogene was monopolizing her cat toy.
Imogene didn’t pay Leva any mind. Her attention was on Bianca as she said, “The letter Maya received instructed her to vote no on the breeder ban unless she wanted her dirty laundry aired in public.”
“Bu—bu—but . . .” Bianca trailed off. Swallowing hard, she said, “I had nothing to do with that.”
“The ban would have affected you directly,” Kat pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean I would blackmail anyone over it. There are plenty of other avenues for me to connect with buyers that have nothing to do with The Bark and Meow. I’d still have access to newspaper ads, social media, and online cat groups.” Bianca reached down and scooped up Leva, seeming to need to do something with her hands. “To be truthful, I could probably get by without any of that too. Most of the people who contact me found my website after performing a simple online search.”
“That’s all well and good,” Imogene said, “but that doesn’t explain why the blemishes on this page”—she waved the crumpled sheet of paper around—“match those on the note Maya received.”
“I can’t explain that. All I can tell you is I didn’t send it. Why would I? I’ve never not had a demand that exceeds my supply. On the contrary, I have a waiting list of people eager to know when one of my queens is expecting a new litter.”
The sound of a car door slamming caused Kat to jump. She swiveled sideways, catching sight of Randy emerging from his vehicle.
“Hey, guys.” He gave Imogene and Kat a nod as he joined them on the porch. “Everything okay here?” he asked Bianca, slipping an arm around her waist.
“Fine,” Bianca told him.
Randy’s eyes bounced between Imogene and Kat as though he wasn’t sure whether to believe her.
Leva held her paw out toward Randy and cooed until he grinned and took her from Bianca.
Bianca folded her arms across her chest. “We were just talking.”
Randy sniffed. “If you say so.”
“You sound stuffy.” Bianca scrutinized his face. “And your eyes are red.”
Randy turned his head away a split second before a sneeze erupted from his lungs. The sound startled Leva, who launched herself out of his arms and disappeared inside.
Randy pulled a tissue from his pants pocket. “I was just over at Mom’s house.”
The hairs on the back of Kat’s neck prickled. In her mind’s eye she pictured the Pickerlings’ big, gray tabby cat resting comfortably in Maya’s lap. Hadn’t Maya said she’d once had to forego having pets because her son had allergies? And Imogene thought her son must be around thirty years of age. Kat glanced at Randy—a man she pegged to be around thirty. Could it be?
Maya had claimed her family wasn’t aware of what she used to do for a living, but Kat’s encounter with Ian Pickerling at The Bark and Meow suggested otherwise. And given that Maya’s husband knew about her history, was it that far-fetched to believe her son might know as well?
“Are you Maya Pickerling’s son?” Kat asked Randy.
He rubbed the tissue beneath his runny nose before shoving it back into his pocket. “Yeah.”
A chill crawled down Kat’s spine. The notion of Maya’s own son sending her that letter made her queasy. Could Randy really be so cruel to the woman who had given him life?
She supposed there was only one person who could answer that question. And he was currently standing right in front of her.
CHAPTER TEN
“Did you send your mother that blackmail note?” Kat asked Randy.
Randy took
a step backward, his eyes ballooning to the size of cantaloupes. One second of silence turned into two, then five, until it felt to Kat as if a full minute had passed.
Loki and Leva were back on the porch. They sat side by side with their heads cocked at exactly the same angle. Either they were as anxious as Kat to hear Randy’s response to her question, or, like Matty and Tom back at Kat’s apartment, the felines were wondering when tonight’s dinner would be served.
Bianca was the first to speak. “That’s ludicrous,” she said. “Randy wouldn’t have done that. Blackmailing his own mother?”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Kat replied, not taking her eyes off of Randy.
Randy still had yet to say a word. He crammed his hands into his pants pockets, seeming to fold in on himself as if doing so might enable him to disappear.
Bianca linked her arm through his. “Tell her,” she said to Randy. “Tell her you had nothing to do with this.”
Randy’s face had drained of color, and his mouth kept opening and closing, but nothing more than a croak emerged. He seemed to be at a loss for words.
Bianca elbowed him in the ribs. “Tell her,” she said again, with more force this time.
“Bianca,” Kat said, “does Randy ever use your printer?”
Bianca bit her lip, her gaze drifting toward the crumpled piece of paper still in Imogene’s hand. Kat could see her playing through their earlier conversation about the black-ink smears, and the first flicker of doubt flitted across Bianca’s face.
“Does Randy ever print things here?” Kat asked again.
Loki’s head swung from left to right, his eyes ricocheting between the humans. The Devon Rex appeared to know something was up, but he couldn’t seem to figure out what.
“You know,” Kat said, “Maya gave us the blackmail note left in her mailbox. I’m sure the police could determine if it came from a printer inside this house.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and started tapping the screen. “I think I’ll just give them a call.”