by Nancy CoCo
Main Street was deserted. The rain was misty and dripping, and the ocean crashed as the tide had come in. Oregon beaches are flat and wide because the tides make them so. People not used to the beaches occasionally park their cars on the sand, and the tide comes in, sinking the cars. Then, it takes a lot of work to dig them out.
The bank was a few blocks down Main Street between Let It Bee and the promenade. I could hear my own muffled footsteps as Everett trotted beside me as if he were on a mission. The remains of Halloween were scattered everywhere. An occasional ghost hung from a rafter. Smashed pumpkin bits littered the curbs, along with candle wax-filled jack-o’-lanterns. The sky was dark, reflecting the streetlights and the fog.
I stuffed the deposit bag into the bank deposit slot, and Everett and I turned to head home. As we rounded the corner a man stepped out of the fog, startling me. “Oh! What are you doing out here?” I asked.
“Foot patrol,” Jim said. “It’s a little late for you to be out isn’t it?”
“Well, it may seem like the streets of our small town roll up at seven p.m. on a Sunday, but they don’t,” I quipped. “Everett and I were putting a deposit in the bank slot.”
“Then I’ll walk you home,” he offered. “Since Josie was supposed to be with you every moment of the day, and I don’t see her.”
“How did you know that?”
“Your lawyer made it a point to call me, and yet here you are, outside alone.”
“I don’t need to be babysat. Besides, she went upstairs to pack. She has to work in the morning. Aunt Eloise will stay with me tonight, and I was just depositing the cash,” I said, feeling the heat of a blush rush up my cheeks. “I always go to the bank at the end of the night. I just wanted a moment to myself.”
“You found Everett,” he said and glanced toward the cat. I swear Everett studied him back. Not a single hiss came out of my cat. It was as if the arching and hissing had never happened.
“Yes, he was on my fire escape last night. I think he’s the cat who was nailed in the box. I’m going to prove it.”
“How?”
“Everett is going to testify,” I said with full confidence. Everett meowed up at me.
“And how is he going to do that?”
“Whoever took him wanted to lure me into that shed. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you found poison in there along with my fingerprints. I was looking all over the shed for a crowbar of some sort to pop the lid off the box.”
“You think someone is trying to frame you and used Everett?”
“Yes.”
“And Everett is going to testify to that?”
“That’s right,” I said. “I’m certain Everett saw the killer tonight.”
“Why?”
“A man walked by the shop and Everett was sitting in the window. Suddenly, my sweet kitty jumped up and hissed and arched his back. Nearly scared the daylights out of me. I went out to see what Everett would do to the man if we confronted him, but the guy was lost in the crowd.”
“What did he look like?”
“Oh, gosh, maybe your height with a tweed coat and a dark fedora. I didn’t get a look at his face, but I’d recognize the coat if I saw it again.”
We were almost back to the shop. “Let me get this straight. Everett reacted to some man walking by and you think that will make for good testimony in court?”
“Everett is gentle by nature,” I said and picked up my damp kitty. “He would only react that way to someone if they scared him.”
Jim reached over and petted my cat. “You really think he’ll hiss at the person who stole him?”
“And locked him in a box,” I said. “Wouldn’t you pitch a fit if you saw someone who did that to you?”
“Who do you think the man was?”
“I don’t want to say without proof,” I said and unlocked the front door to Let It Bee. “I know what it’s like to be falsely accused. Well, this is my stop. Unless you want to come in?”
“No,” he said and tipped the brim of his hat. “I’ve got rounds to make. Please let Josie and Eloise know that I’m not happy to have found you wandering the streets at night alone.”
“First off, I wasn’t wandering, and second, I wasn’t alone.”
“No?”
“No. Everett was with me.”
“Right. Good night, Wren.”
“Good night, Jim.” I closed the door and locked it behind me. The shop was strangely quiet. I could hear the tick, tick of the clock on the counter. “Josie? Aunt Eloise?”
I unleashed Everett and hung up my raincoat. He dashed up the stairs and I wasn’t far behind him.
The door to my apartment was wide open. “Aunt Eloise?” She didn’t answer and I started to get a very bad feeling. “Josie? Maybe they’re in the bathroom or the back bedroom,” I reassured Everett.
Meow.
“Aunt Eloise? Josie?” But there was no answer. My aunt was gone and so was Josie. “Now, where did they go?”
Meow.
“You think Aunt Eloise panicked and they went out looking for us?”
Meow.
“I’ll call her.” I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialed her number. I could hear a faint buzzing sound and searched until I found her cell phone. It was under my couch. “Well, this isn’t good.”
Meow.
“I hope she’s okay. Do you think we should call the police?”
Everett tilted his head at me.
“Yes, I suppose that’s a crazy question seeing as we just saw her not more than forty minutes ago. I’ll call Josie.” I dialed the number but it just rang and rang, and finally went to voicemail.
“You’ve reached Josie. Please leave a message at the beep.” Beep.
“Josie, I’m home. Where are you? Aunt Eloise isn’t here. I found her cell phone and I’m worried. Please call me when you get this and let me know you are okay.” I hung up and tapped my phone. Everett jumped up on the counter and rubbed his head against me. I reached over and stroked him from head to tail.
Then, I made a decision. I called Jim.
“This is Hampton,” he said, his voice gruff.
“Hi, this is Wren Johnson.”
“I just left you.”
“I know, but Josie and Aunt Eloise aren’t here. I thought perhaps you should come and be my witness until one of them gets back.”
“I’m heading on back to you. Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. Josie’s overnight bag is gone, but Aunt Eloise’s purse is on her bed and her phone was on the floor of the living room.”
“Did you try calling Josie?”
“Yes, but she didn’t answer.”
“What about Eloise? What was the last thing she said to you?”
I thought about it. “She was going to bring Mr. Woolright here.”
“Why?”
“So that Everett can rule him out as his captor.” I tucked my hands behind my back and crossed my fingers. It wasn’t a lie exactly, just a different way of saying the truth.
“Why would Everett say Theodore captured him?”
“I’m sorry? I never said—”
“You and your aunt think Theodore took Everett, locked him in a box, and then lured you to the shed to lock you inside.”
“My aunt is missing,” I said very carefully. “You asked me what her last words to me were, and that’s what I remember. Does it help? Call Josie. She can help.”
“I’m sending people over to Josie’s and Eloise’s houses.” he said. “They might have gone home for something. Listen, I’m downstairs. Please let me in.”
“Right.” I hung up and ran downstairs. He stood outside the front door and I unlocked it and let him in. “Shouldn’t you be checking the streets for her? It’s foggy.”
“And she is in great health, correct?”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t on any new medication?”
“No.”
“Then, I suggest you make yourself some tea an
d we wait until she shows up.” He gestured toward the stairs. “After you.”
“I know I asked you to stay with me, but I have a bad feeling about this. You need to be looking for Josie and my aunt.”
“Someone needs to stay with you,” he said. “I can’t be in two places at once.”
“I’ll call my lawyer and get him to come over,” I said. “He won’t like you spending time alone with me. I’m still under suspicion, right?”
“I’m afraid so,” Jim said.
I phoned Matt and gave him the rundown. He was not happy and told me to not say anything until he got to the shop. “Fine.” I hung up. “We should stay here until he gets here.”
“Okay.” He wandered over to the far corner and said something into his radio. I couldn’t hear what he said, but I hoped it was getting someone to check for Aunt Eloise.
Maybe I should ask him to go over to the Woolrights’ house and see if she was there. I mean, knowing my aunt she probably got herself invited in for a piece of cake and a cup of coffee. Then, I remembered that Matt said not to say a word to Jim. I decided to take his advice.
It was a long and awkward twenty minutes, but finally the back bell rang. I hurried off to open the back door.
“Well, it’s cold and raining, but I’m here,” Matt said. “Anything new happen?”
“I just got off the phone with Josie,” Jim interjected. “She said Eloise sent her home. She asked if she should come back, but I told her to stay and get some rest since she has to work in the morning. As for Eloise, we don’t know if she dashed home for something or went out looking for you.”
“Why would she be looking for you?” Matt asked.
“Because I ran to the bank to make a deposit by myself. Well, Everett came with me.”
“Why would you do that?” He crossed his arms.
“Oh for goodness’ sakes, can’t a grown woman be alone for a few moments?”
“No,” they both said at the same time.
“Fine, I was wrong. Come on, gentlemen, let’s go upstairs.”
We all went up and I opened the door. Jim went in and looked in every room and even under the beds and in the closets. I rolled my eyes. “That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”
“I’m doing my job,” he said solemnly. “Walk me through what happened.”
I did and even dialed my phone so he could hear her phone ring and see where I found it. “So, do you see how this is suspicious?”
“It does look a bit off,” Jim agreed. He turned to Matt. “Can you stay with her? I’m going to help the patrolmen see if they can’t locate Eloise.”
“You tried her home?” I asked.
“They did,” he said. “The lights were out and it didn’t appear that anyone was there.”
Concern filled me. “Please find her.”
“I will,” he said. “You stay here.” He turned to Matt and reiterated, “Don’t let her leave your sight.”
I heard the cackle of the doorbell when he exited. “Should we go down and lock the door?” I asked.
“Does your aunt have a key?”
“Yes.”
“Then fine, let’s go down.” Everett ran down the stairs ahead of us. “I see you have your cat back.”
“Yes,” I said. “He showed up on the fire escape yesterday. I am pretty sure he was the cat I freed from the wooden box. I also think he can identify the killer.”
“Why?”
I explained how Everett hissed and put up a fuss when the man in the fedora walked by. “We think it might have been Mr. Woolright.”
“Why?”
“He has the key to the shed,” I said. “That’s where they found the poison, right?”
“You think he killed Agnes and Bernie and set you up. Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I barely know him. That’s why it’s so odd that he and his wife are so bent on seeing me go down for a crime I didn’t commit.”
“It’s certainly an interesting theory.”
I paced for the next thirty minutes but still there was no call from the police. “Can we go out looking?”
“You want to wander around the streets looking for your aunt as if she were a lost pet?”
I winced. “No, but I was thinking we could go by the Woolrights’ and—”
“No,” he said with a grim expression. “You are not to go anywhere near their place.”
“But what if they took Aunt Eloise?”
“Then you have an even bigger reason not to go there.”
“Ugh!” I paced some more. Everett watched me from his perch on the cat tree in the corner.
My phone rang and I rushed to get it. “Hello?”
“Wren, it’s Porsche. What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“I just had a visit from a police officer. He said they were looking for your Aunt Eloise.”
“You haven’t seen her, have you?”
“No,” Porsche said. “What happened?”
“Um,” I glanced over my shoulder and Matt shook his head. I put my hand over the receiver. “She’s family,” I said.
“No,” he said.
“I’m coming over,” she said and hung up.
“I think she’s coming over,” I said. “You can’t stop my friends from coming and helping me. Besides, she said that a police officer came to her house and asked her if she’s seen my aunt. That means the entire community knows Aunt Eloise is missing.”
“It also means the community will be looking at you as the reason she’s missing,” Matt said and crossed his arms.
“What? Why? I love my aunt.”
“They’ll say that she discovered you were the killer and so you killed her in cold blood and then went to the bank to make a deposit, alone, to establish your alibi.”
“Now that’s ridiculous,” I said. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought it would burst. “I didn’t kill anyone, least of all my aunt.”
“Relax, I’m not saying it’s true,” he said and patted my shoulder.
I jerked away from his touch.
“I’m simply telling you that anything you say and do right now can be seen in a negative light.”
The door cackled and I rushed to the top of the stairs. “Aunt Eloise?”
“It’s me, Porsche,” she said and hurried up the stairs. Her jacket dripped with rain. She pulled the hood off. “Are you okay?”
“I’m scared.”
Porsche hugged me.
“I’ve advised my client not to talk to anyone,” Matt said. “Not to have any visitors at this time.”
“Why?” Porsche kept her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “Why do you need a lawyer?”
“He seems to think they might make a case against me in my aunt’s disappearance.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous,” Porsche said and hugged me to her side. She faced Matt. “I will fight every person in the town if they so much as look at Wren sideways.” She walked me into my living area and sat me down. “Now, let me get you some tea. You’re positively frozen with worry.” She gave Matt the stink eye.
He pulled out his phone and studied it.
Everett jumped into my lap, did a patty-cake, and lay down. I stroked his fur while Porsche tried to distract me by chattering on about the boys and Halloween and how her house was a mess and she was glad for the day off but not if it meant Aunt Eloise was missing. She brought me a steaming mug of apple cinnamon tea and sat down next to me. “Do you have any idea what happened?”
I refused to look at Matt. I told her about Everett’s reaction to the man and Aunt Eloise’s notion that maybe it was Theodore. “The last thing she said to me was that she was going to bring Mr. Woolright over to see if Everett would testify that it was Mr. Woolright who locked him in the box and killed the Snows.”
“I guess I can see why you would worry about Theodore Woolright,” Porsche said. “After all, his wife picked you out of a lineup. Why would she
do that if she wasn’t trying to cover something up?”
“He said he had a key to the shed where they found poison that matched the poison that killed Agnes.”
“It all sounds perfectly logical,” Porsche said. “Why haven’t you gone over there and asked him what he’s done to your aunt?”
“Because she has no reason to,” Matt said. “If she confronts anyone at this point, it only makes her look guiltier.”
“Then I’ll go and confront him.”
“For what? What is Theodore’s motive for killing the Snows?” Matt asked. “You have no proof. If you go over there, you’re no better than the people who are framing Wren.”
Porsche crossed her arms in silent protest.
“He’s right,” I said. “Listen, Matt, Porsche’s here now. You can go home. All I need is someone with me all the time, right? I mean as witness to my whereabouts?”
“Yes, but—”
“I promise you that Porsche won’t do anything to put me in jail. Will you?”
“I won’t,” she said. “We’ll stay here and sip tea and wait for the police to act.”
“Why is it that I don’t believe you?” He narrowed his eyes at us. “That said, I do have a meeting with a paying customer very early tomorrow.”
“Go,” I said and stood. “I’ll walk you out.”
“We’ll walk you out,” Porsche said. “I’m not going to let Wren out of my sight.”
“Fine.” He picked up his coat and went downstairs. We followed him to the back door.
“Thanks for coming over and for all your time,” I said.
“Just do yourself a favor.” He looked from me to Porsche and back. “Stay home and wait for the police to find your aunt.”
“That’s good advice,” I said and put my hand on the door between us.
“Take it,” he said, putting on his hat. “Good night.”
“Good night,” we both said and closed and locked the door. It was a silent walk back to the apartment. Porsche looked out the windows.
“He’s gone.” She turned to me. “Well, let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the Woolrights’, of course.” She put her hands on her hips. “We need to check the shed and the basement and anywhere else he might have stuffed your aunt.”
“What do you mean ‘stuffed’ her?” I asked a bit horrified. “Do you think she’s dead? She can’t be dead.” I sat down hard. “I just saw her. She was just here with me.” Tears welled up in my eyes.