by Kathi Daley
A Mew Beginning
A Whales and Tails Mystery
by
Kathi Daley
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Katherine Daley
Version 1.0
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Whales and Tails
Romeow and Juliet
The Mad Catter
Grimm’s Furry Tail
Much Ado About Felines
The Legend of Tabby Hollow
The Cat of Christmas Past
The Tail of Two Tabbies
The Great Catsby
Count Catula
The Cat of Christmas Present
A Winters Tail
Taming of the Tabby
Frankencat
The Cat of Christmas Future
Farewell to Felines
The Catsgiving Feast
A Whale of a Tail
The Catnap Before Christmas
A Mew Beginning
Table of Contents
Whales and Tails
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
NEW From Kathi Daley Books
Preview of Summerhouse Reunion
Chapter 1
Wednesday, April 1
We’ve all had them. Those moments when disquiet slowly creeps into our consciousness, expanding and mutating until it eventually redefines itself as anxiety that consumes our every thought. This apprehension often comes on gradually, beginning as a feeling of unease that builds slowly and steadily, until it grows into a sense of foreboding, demanding that we stop what we’re doing and pay attention.
“Cait. Are you in there?”
I looked up at my best friend, Tara O’Brian, who was waving a hand in front of my face. “I’m here.”
“Is everything okay?”
I looked around the dining room of the newest eatery in town, The Wild Rose Café, where we’d arranged to meet for lunch. For a moment, I’d almost forgotten where I was. I really did need to get a grip. “I’m fine.”
“It seems like you’re a million miles away.”
I took a deep breath and forced my mind to refocus on the conversation we’d been having. “I guess I’ve been distracted lately with everything that’s been going on. Between the explosion at the bookstore, the move out of my cabin and into Mr. Parsons’ house, and my new job helping Cody at the newspaper, I feel somewhat displaced.”
“That’s understandable. I’ve been feeling much the same way. I’m hanging in there just fine, but I will be glad when we can reopen the store.”
“You were telling me about your conversation with the insurance company. Are we making any progress?”
She shook her head slowly. “In a nutshell, we’re still waiting for the money I’ve been assured is due to us to be released. It’s been three and a half months. I can’t believe how long this is taking. In the beginning, I actually assumed Coffee Cat Books would be repaired and open for business by this point.”
I placed my hand over Tara’s. “I know. I’m sorry. Neither of us had any idea how long the investigation would delay things, and I’m not sure either of us realized how much the whole process would disrupt our lives.”
She bowed her head. “I guess there isn’t anything we can do other than what we’re doing. It will be fine. We’ll get through this, and at some point, the insurance company is going to have to make good on our policy and settle our claim.”
Tara and I had decided that the problem with our claim was that the source of the fire had been a bomb that was intentionally detonated by a seriously disturbed man who had set out on a mission to destroy Santa Claus. Because the damage to the bookstore hadn’t been caused by anything as simple as a lightning strike or electrical problem, an investigation into the cause had been warranted. The insurance company had told Tara that they hoped to offset their loss by suing the man responsible for the explosion. I had my doubts that they’d get anything out of the guy, especially since he was going to spend much, if not all, of the rest of his life in prison, but they seemed determined to try, and until they had exhausted all options available to them, they seemed determined not to pay us the money we both felt we were due.
“It has been frustrating,” Tara added as she stirred a teaspoon of sugar into her iced tea. “But I’ve enjoyed working with Danny and Aiden at the bar.”
Aiden and Danny Hart were my older brothers. They’d pooled their resources a while back and bought O’Malley’s Bar. They’d kept the name, but they’d fully remodeled the place and made it their own.
“Did Aiden decide to go on the fishing trip he’d been invited to join?”
Aiden and Danny had both made their living on the sea prior to selling their boats and opening the bar, but as far as I was concerned, they both still have saltwater in their veins. Aiden had been invited on a fishing expedition down south, but as far as I knew, he hadn’t decided whether or not he was going to go.
“He did,” Tara confirmed. “As you know, it’s the offseason here on the island, so the bar is slow anyway, and with the bookstore closed, Cassie and I are both available to help out during the busy times, so Danny managed to convince him this was as good a time as any to be away.”
“I’m glad he went. It seemed like he needed a break.”
Tara nodded. “I feel like Aiden is happy with his choice to sell the boat and buy the bar, but it does seem he needs to get out there on the water every now and again to keep his sanity. He left for San Diego yesterday. I guess he’s meeting up with his friend today, and they planned to head out to sea tomorrow. He thought he might be gone about a month.”
“Good for him. I hope he has a wonderful time.” In a way, it felt odd that Tara knew more about what was going on with my brothers than I did, but she worked at the bar with them, so she saw them every day, and she was in a seriously on-again phase in her on-again/off-again relationship with my brother, Danny. While she hadn’t said as much, based on my own observations, I had the feeling that they were pretty much living together. I really hoped it worked out this time. In my opinion, Tara and Danny had hurt each other more than any two people ought to, but then again, I really believed they loved each other more than a lot of couples I knew.
Tara glanced at her watch. “I should get going. I told Danny I’d come in early today to help with the inventory before the bar opens.”
“Yeah, I should get going as well. Cody left early this morning to go over to San Juan Island to interview a guy who claims to know something about the series of missing persons cases in the area, but he should be back by now.”
“Why is Cody interviewing him? It seems like knowing something about missing persons is the sort of thing Finn and the sheriff should be looking into.” My brother-in-law, Ryan Finnegan, Finn to his friends, is the resident deputy for the island we’d both lived on our entire lives.
“They’ve tried to talk to the guy, but either he doesn’t actually know anything, or he has a problem with cops and isn’t telling everything he knows. The fact that the guy might have information about the missing women came from a tip that was provided by a ba
rtender on San Juan Island. The bartender overheard the man spouting off to his friends that he had inside information no one else had. The sheriff went to talk to the guy, who totally clammed up. Finn and a couple of the other deputies have tried as well, with no luck whatsoever. Cody offered to give it a try, and Finn decided that it couldn’t hurt, so Cody headed over on the first ferry this morning.”
“It sounds like the same guy is responsible for all the missing women. Given that, it seems like it would be easy to catch up with him. I assume the guy is bringing these women over on the ferry.”
“Finn isn’t sure,” I informed her. “Based on what Finn has been told, some random guy seems to be meeting women in a bar somewhere in Seattle. He enters into a conversation with them, and then at some point, he invites them to spend the weekend with him in the islands. Finn isn’t sure if the guy brings them to the islands and then does whatever it is he’s been doing with these women, or if he simply uses the trip to lure them into his car.”
“It’s been months. It seems like the sheriff would know more.”
“Finn told me that when the first woman went missing, no one took it all that seriously. The missing woman’s best friend didn’t even file a report until her friend had been missing for several days, and even then, she filed it in Seattle, where both she and the missing person live. She told the officer who took the report that her friend had called her on Friday of the previous week and told her that she met a totally awesome guy who had invited her on a weekend getaway to the San Juan Islands. She assured the friend she’d be back for work on Monday. When she didn’t return on Monday, the friend assumed the woman was simply having a wonderful time and had extended her trip. I guess the missing woman was prone to spontaneous acts such as dropping everything to head out of town with some random guy she just met. The woman who filed the report said that her friend probably wouldn’t have even called her, but they had plans on Saturday, which she needed to cancel.”
“So this woman meets this guy in a bar who offers to bring her to the islands for a romantic getaway, and she goes with him despite the fact she just met him?” Tara asked.
“According to what the friend who filed the missing persons report told the officer who took her statement.”
“Okay. So the friend of this spontaneous woman wasn’t too worried when the friend doesn’t show up on Monday as planned but begins to become concerned when she’s not back by Tuesday?”
I nodded. “According to Finn, who has a copy of the missing persons report and has spoken to the officer who took it, the friend tried calling the missing woman’s cell when she didn’t show up for work on Tuesday. She continued to call and leave messages over the course of the day Tuesday and into Wednesday. When the missing woman still hadn’t called her back or shown up for work, she decided to file the missing persons report. Finn said that at this point, the officer on duty filed the report but wasn’t overly worried. The missing woman had, after all, been a twenty-four-year-old single party-girl who had a reputation for doing this sort of thing. I’m not sure why the officer even forwarded the report to the local sheriff other than the woman who filed the report did say that her friend specifically mentioned that this man she’d just met planned to take her to the San Juan Islands. It wasn’t until the same officer received another missing persons report almost four weeks later that he even paid much attention to the first report.”
“The second missing woman was coming to the islands as well?” Tara asked.
“According to Finn, she was, and also according to Finn, the details were pretty much exactly the same. Some guy in a bar picked up a woman in her twenties and invited her to the islands for the weekend. She called her sister to cancel the plans the two had made for the weekend before taking off with this guy. The sister asked for his name, which the missing person refused to give. The woman never returned to Seattle and her old life, so the sister filed a missing persons report.”
“That’s actually pretty terrifying,” Tara said. “Danny said Finn found out about a third missing person just last week.”
I nodded. “Exact same story. Woman goes to bar, meets man who invites her to the islands for the weekend, woman calls friend to cancel plans, woman is never seen again. I think, however, the really frightening part of this is that Finn has absolutely no idea how many women are actually missing. He knows about these three because the women called someone and told them they were coming to the islands with some guy they just met. But there could be other victims who didn’t call anyone before they simply left with the guy, so no one knows something might have happened to them. Or there could be other women who did call someone to let them know they were going out of town but didn’t mention their intent to head to the islands, so our sheriff didn’t get a heads up.”
“So, are you saying there could be dozens of missing women?” Tara asked.
I shrugged. “I really don’t know and can’t know for certain, but it does seem to me that it is likely there are more than three. I know the sheriff is working with the Seattle PD to go back through all their missing persons cases involving women in their twenties for the past six months.”
“That sounds like a lot of data to go through.”
“It is, but the Seattle PD has some pretty upscale computer software that can do much of the searching for them.”
“And what will they do once they have a list?” Tara asked.
I frowned. “I’m not sure. I guess Finn will get photos of the missing women and start asking around. If they were in the area, someone must have seen them.”
“Maybe we should volunteer to help out,” Tara suggested. “Maybe get the Scooby gang together.”
“Yeah, that might be a good idea. I’ll call Finn and ask about it.”
“Call Finn, and if he wants to meet, why don’t you, Cody, Finn, and Siobhan come by the bar this evening. Maybe your mom can babysit Connor,” she referred to Finn and Siobhan’s son. “We can share some nachos and a pitcher of beer. It’s been a while since we all hung out, and since the bar has been pretty dead, we should be able to snag a booth out of the way and talk about how we can help Finn.”
“If we come to O’Malley’s, will you and Danny be able to get away?” I asked.
“I think so. Cassie will be there to cover the bar and, like I said, it’s been pretty dead during the week. If it’s too crowded to chat, we can all head to Finn and Siobhan’s after we close. Not only are we closed on Sundays and Mondays, but we’re closing at eight on weekdays until the summer tourist season hits.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll check with Cody, Finn, and Siobhan, and let you know.”
Chatting with Tara had helped me to forget about the knot in my stomach for a short period of time, but by the time I’d paid for our lunch and set out toward the newspaper Cody and I owned, that old familiar feeling had returned. My anxiety had been building for days, and I really had no idea what the source of that anxiety might be. No, I didn’t think I was anxious about the missing women. For all I knew, this man used a weekend on the islands as a lure but never left Seattle. And yes, it had shaken me to the core when the bookstore Tara and I had poured so much of ourselves into had been destroyed, but that had been months ago, and I’d had time to adjust to the loss. And I supposed there had been a period of adjustment when I’d moved out of my cabin and into the mansion where I now lived with Cody and our good friend, Mr. Parsons, but even that seemed to feel a bit more natural by this point. While I did miss the intimacy of my cabin, I found that I very much liked having breakfast with Mr. Parsons every morning. Not only was he a lot more cheerful since Cody and I moved in full-time, but he seemed to go out of his way to make sure I was happy as well. He even allowed me to help him with whichever crossword puzzle he was working on, which was something he’d never allowed anyone else to do.
When I arrived at the newspaper on foot, I found the front door unlocked. I didn’t see Cody’s truck, but he sometimes parked in the alley behind the building and e
ntered through the back door. I entered the building and tossed the small backpack I used as a purse on the counter, calling out his name. When he didn’t answer, I called out again. “Cody, are you here?” I headed down the short hallway toward the office at the back of the building. It was empty. “Cody,” I called again, heading toward the room known as the morgue where we kept copies of all the old newspapers. We had a copy of every newspaper ever printed since the Madrona Island News was established more than twenty-five years ago. “Cody,” I said, pushing the door open.
I’m really not sure what happened after that. I remembered that I’d stuck my head in the door, felt something slam into me from behind, and when I woke up, there was a filthy rag stuffed into my mouth. If that wasn’t bad enough, someone had also tied my arms and legs to a chair with a thick rope. My first instinct was to scream, which I tried doing, although nothing other than a sort of moan came out. I then tried to pull my arms and legs free, but whoever had tied me up had done a heck of a good job. My head was killing me, but otherwise, I seemed to be fine. I looked down at my chest and lap, which was all I could really see from my position and didn’t notice any blood.
Who on earth had done this to me?
I took a deep breath in through my nose since I couldn’t breathe through my mouth. Okay, Cait, I said to myself. Just breathe.
The urge to panic was great, but I knew I needed to keep my head if I was going to get out of this alive. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious. The morgue had no windows, so I couldn’t even see out to gauge the time of day. I knew Cody planned to be back at some point this afternoon, although I had no idea how long his interview might have taken or which ferry he might have managed to catch for his return to the island. I didn’t think whoever had done this to me was still in the building, but I couldn’t be sure. I forced myself to relax and listen. At first, I didn’t hear anything. I figured I was safe until I heard a crash coming from the other room.