The Catsgiving Feast Read online

  Connie shook her head. “She didn’t call me, but she got in touch with Eve to let her know.”

  Funny that Eve hadn’t brought that up when I spoke to her. “Do you have any idea what time Sally called Eve?”

  Connie shook her head. “She didn’t say. At the time, none of us knew Sally was dead, so it didn’t seem important.”

  “No, I guess not. I understand there was a rumor that Sally might have been having an affair.”

  Connie shrugged. “I’ve heard that, but you know how it is with rumors. Most don’t have much truth to them once you dig around a bit. Sally’s been involved in the community theater for a while, and it’s true there’s a new man in that group. I don’t know his name or anything about him, but I’ve heard he’s very good-looking. I suppose with her husband away so much, Sally could have let her eye wander.”

  “So when Sally didn’t show up on Monday night, was it just you, Eve, and Connie who met for dinner?”

  “And Darla.”

  “Darla? No one’s mentioned her to me before.”

  “Darla Smith was the one who suggested we all have dinner on Monday. She said she had a business proposition she wanted to present to us.”

  “A business proposition?”

  “She wants to open a Pilates studio and is looking for investors. She attends the same exercise class the rest of us do and hoped we might be interested in a lower-impact form of staying in shape.”

  A Pilates studio might do well on the island. “Did you decide to invest?”

  “No. I don’t have the money to do something like that. None of us do, with the exception of Sally. Eve and I talked about it and decided Sally was actually Darla’s target, but she didn’t want to be quite that obvious, so she invited the rest of us as filler.”

  Sally had an accountant husband and owned her own business. It was reasonable to think she might have extra cash to invest. But the others? Not so much.

  After I spoke to Connie, I headed out into the storm once again. The rain was coming down even harder than it had been, but I wanted to try to speak to Beth before I went home, so I made a left turn and drove toward Harthaven. I’d never been formally introduced to her, but after I heard where she worked, I realized we’d come into contact when she had a cat she couldn’t place and wondered if we’d take him at the Harthaven Cat Sanctuary, which, at the time, had been owned and operated by my Aunt Maggie.

  The rain had sent most locals running for cover, so the main street near the marina, which was usually packed with people walking between the shops was all but deserted. I pulled up in front of the pet store and parked on the street. The rain was coming down in sheets with the wind blowing, so I pulled my hood up over my hair and made a run for it.

  “It’s really coming down out there,” Beth said after I jogged in through the front door and shook the moisture from my jacket.

  I had to laugh at the absurdity of even being out in this mess. “Yeah, it really is. It’s really time for me to head home once I’m done here. I’m surprised you’re still open.”

  “I was just about to lock up. Can I help you?”

  “I wanted to ask you about Sally Enderling. I understand you saw her with a man who probably wasn’t her husband in a restaurant not long ago.”

  Beth grinned. “Oh yeah, I saw them. And the guy was a babe. There was no doubt in my mind that Sally was getting some on the side. Not that I blamed her. Her old man was never around.”

  “Do you happen to know the name of the man you saw Sally with?”

  “Hugo. Sally said his name was Hugo when I asked her. He’d recently joined the community theater group Sally belonged to. She said they were just friends, but they sure looked like more than that when I ran into them. Heck, they were holding hands across the table.”

  “Does Hugo have a last name?” I asked.

  “I’m sure he does, but I don’t know it. You aren’t thinking Sally’s Italian lover offed her?”

  “Not necessarily. I was just curious about him.”

  “Sorry I don’t have any more information. You ought to check with some of the other members of the theater group. Sue Boatnick is producing the Christmas play. If Hugo is involved, she would know his name.”

  Chapter 7

  Later that evening, everyone gathered in my cabin to go over the status of the investigation. The storm was still raging outside, so Tara had picked up her cat, Bandit, and arranged to spend the night with the others in the main house. She was the only one at the meeting who didn’t live on the estate, and it made sense for her to stay.

  “Before we begin, I have something to say,” Cody began. “As much as I hate to even consider that my mother could have done what she’s suspected of, several people have suggested she was acting strangely on the day Sally was killed. I went to see her today, and I have to admit her behavior could only be described as agitated and irrational. I’d spoken to Cait earlier, and she’d spoken to someone who used to be a nurse. This woman told Cait that on the day Sally died, it appeared to her my mother was strung out on drugs. I’ve never known her to take anything illegal, but I do know she takes several prescription drugs, including a blood pressure medication and sleeping pills. I asked if she’d changed any of her prescriptions or added a new medication recently, and initially, she denied it. We spoke for a while, and she finally admitted she’d been anxious about the wedding, so when my cousin Eric offered her some of his antidepressants, she accepted them. I suspected they interacted with one of her other meds in a negative way, so I took her to the ER. The hospital is keeping her overnight for observation, but the doctor I spoke to said a drug interaction could very well lead to agitation and aggression.”

  Cody paused, but no one spoke. I didn’t think any of us knew what to say. Was Cody throwing in the towel? Was he convinced his mother was guilty of killing Sally?

  “What are you saying?” Finn finally asked.

  “I don’t know. I really hope my mother is innocent, but things seem to be stacking up against her. She’s confused about what occurred on Monday afternoon. When I asked her about it, she said she wandered around after she left the bakery. She didn’t remember where she was or what she’d been doing. Cait’s putting a lot of time into this, and I wanted to be up front about what I’d learned. I know you’re all on my side. On my mother’s side. But I also know that the truth can end up in a different place than we’d hope.”

  “I appreciate you being up front with us,” Finn said, “and I’m not sure how this investigation will turn out. Sheriff Fowler is fairly convinced your mother is guilty, but he hasn’t made an arrest yet, so in my mind that indicates he doesn’t have enough evidence to do it, or he has other viable suspects. I think the best use of our time this evening is to discuss those other suspects. Just in case.”

  “I agree,” Siobhan spoke up. “I have something new, and so does Cait. Let’s present it to the group.” Siobhan looked at Cody. “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you, but I think it would be a mistake to give up now.”

  “Okay,” Cody said. “I’m prepared to go on if the rest of you are.”

  “Let’s go over the suspects to see who should remain on the list, who should be eliminated, and who, if anyone, should be added,” Siobhan suggested. She pulled the cap from her dry erase marker. “First, we have Miranda Wells, owner of the trinket shop Sally threatened to put out of business by taking over her lease. I spoke to Miranda today, and she admitted to being angry about the lease. She’d been in negotiations with the owner of the building and hoped she would be able to remain as a tenant. I sensed her irritation, but I didn’t pick up on anything that would suggest aggression to the point of murder. If you remember, Miranda told Cassie she’d heard the ruckus in the bakery and went out onto the sidewalk to take a peek. She looked in the window and saw someone, probably Mrs. West, arguing with Sally, but a group from the ferry went into her shop, so she headed back in. Today, Miranda was able to provide sales receipts that seemed to back u
p the fact that she had customers to deal with during the time we suspect Sally might have died.”

  “Do we have a better idea of when Sally was killed yet?” I asked Finn.

  “As we know, the two witnesses who were passing the bakery saw Sally arguing with Mrs. West at around three thirty, and there’s an entry in the register tape for a sale at three fifty-five. We don’t know if Mrs. West was still there then, but we have no reason not to believe Sally was the one to record the sale. She usually locked up at four, but Carla found the door unlocked the next morning, so we’re operating under the assumption that someone was either already in the shop when four o’clock rolled around or arrived at about that time. It’s even possible whoever made the purchase at three fifty-five is the one who kill her.”

  “Is it possible Sally was distracted and forgot to lock up but was killed later in the afternoon?” Cassie asked.

  “Sure, I guess so,” Finn answered. “The ME has put the time of death at between three and seven. We’ve been focusing on a time of death of around four o’clock due to the information we have. But something might have happened to distract Sally to make her forget to lock up at four. After her last customer left, she could have headed into the kitchen to clean up and prepare for the next day’s baking, allowing someone to take advantage of the open door, slip in, and kill her.”

  “Might there be someone else who had a key?” Cassie asked.

  “According to Carla, she and Sally, and possibly Sally’s husband Nick, who was three thousand miles away in Virginia at the time of Sally’s death, are the only ones with keys,” Finn said.

  “Are we sure Nick Enderling really was in Virginia on Monday?” I asked.

  Finn glanced at me. “That’s where I was told he was when I first spoke to Carla, and that’s where he told me he was when I spoke to him on the phone.”

  “I’ve spoken to several people today who’ve indicated Sally may have been having an affair with a new man on the island, someone she met through her theater group. I don’t have any proof of that yet, but if Sally was unfaithful to her husband and he found out about it, that would give him a very good motive for murder.”

  “I’ll talk to him again,” Finn said. “I’ll see if he has proof of where he was on Monday.”

  Siobhan highlighted Nick Enderling’s name on the suspect list. “Does anyone else stand out?” she asked.

  “Has anyone spoken with Eli Alderman?” I asked.

  “I know the sheriff has,” Finn answered.

  “What about Devita Colter?” I asked.

  “The sheriff spoke to her as well. She was alone in her bakery getting a head start on cookies and pastries for the following day on Monday, so she doesn’t have an alibi. Even without one, the sheriff isn’t considering her a strong suspect. I can speak to her personally tomorrow.”

  We chatted for a while longer, but we didn’t have a lot of new information to narrow things down. The subject changed to the upcoming holiday, and once that conversation had been exhausted, we said our good nights and the others made their way to the main house. I suspected that despite our efforts to find an alternate suspect, we were still pretty much convinced Cody’s mom was going to end up the one still standing when the others had been eliminated.

  I poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Cody. “You know we’re going to figure this out.”

  He let out a long sigh. “I know. I guess I’m kind of afraid of the truth.” He set down the wine I’d just handed him. “I’m not very good company tonight. I think I’ll go back to my place.”

  I nodded, though I wanted to cry. “Okay. I understand. Will you call me tomorrow?”

  “I’ll come by in the morning before I head to the hospital.” Cody pulled me into his arms and kissed me. “Thanks for understanding that I need some time to think.”

  I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll miss you tonight, but I do understand. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Cody went out to his truck, and I picked up my wine and drank it down in one gulp. Up until a couple of days ago, I’d expected to be married on Saturday. The way things were going now, I wondered if the wedding I’d been putting off for so long, then finally committed to, was going to happen after all. I pulled both Max and Cosmo into my arms and wept until I had no more tears to shed.

  Chapter 8

  Friday, November 16

  I’d barely slept a wink the night before, as I tossed and turned and fretted about the situation and where it might lead. I hated seeing Cody so upset. It wasn’t at all like him to choose to spend time away from me when he knew Mr. Parsons was taken care of, so I was happy and relieved when he showed up at my cabin the next morning with a huge smile on his face.

  “You look happy,” I said with a feeling of hope tinged with uncertainty.

  Cody pulled me into his arms and gave me a lingering kiss. “I am. Finn called me early this morning to tell me the sheriff had made an arrest.”

  “I assume based on your smile that the person arrested was someone other than your mother?”

  Cody nodded. “Sheriff Fowler received an anonymous tip from ‘a concerned citizen’ yesterday afternoon, saying they’d seen Miranda Wells leaving the bakery at around four fifteen, after it should have been closed for the day. The witness said Miranda seemed sort of spooked and was looking around a lot as she exited the shop. Based on the tip, the sheriff was able to obtain a warrant to search Miranda’s shop and home and found a rolling pin with blood on it hidden in the storage room of the store.”

  Talk about something being just a tad too convenient. “Did the blood belong to Sally?”

  “It’s being tested, but it seems obvious what happened. Sally was threatening to put Miranda out of business by taking over the space she leases for her trinket shop. The suspicion from the beginning has been that Sally was hit over the head with a rolling pin, or something shaped like it, and a rolling pin with blood on it was found in Miranda’s storage room. Seems open and shut to me.”

  I was less convinced this mess was really over, but he looked so happy that I forced a smile to my face. “I’m so relieved this seems to be cleared up. How’s your mother?”

  “She’s obviously happy she’s off the hook. I spoke to the doctor in the hospital, and he said she should be fine. She’s been instructed not to take anything but her blood pressure medication until her doctor in Florida is able to do a full workup.”

  “So she’s going home?”

  Cody nodded. “We discussed it and decided that would be best. We aren’t sure when the wedding is going to take place, and Mom and Eric can’t stay here indefinitely. Mom already has an appointment with her doctor next week, so I booked them on a flight out of Seattle tomorrow morning at six a.m. I’ll take them over on the ferry today and spend the night in Seattle with them. I should be home by midafternoon.”

  “That sounds like a good plan.” I hugged Cody. “I’m so happy things worked out.”

  Cody ran a hand through his hair. “Me too. I have to say, I was really sweating bullets for a while. I hated thinking my own mother was guilty of taking another person’s life, but the way things were stacking up, I couldn’t help but consider the possibility.”

  “I know how hard this has been on you.” I hugged Cody again, wished him a safe trip, and sent him on his way. Then I looked at Cosmo. “This isn’t over, is it?”

  “Meow.”

  “Yeah, it seems too convenient to me too. I’m glad Sheriff Fowler isn’t focusing on Mrs. West anymore, but Miranda as the killer doesn’t work for me.”

  “Meow.” The cat began to wind through my legs.

  “There are too many loose ends and unanswered questions.”

  “Meow.”

  “For one thing, if someone saw Miranda come out of Sally’s bakery on Monday afternoon, why did they wait all this time to make the anonymous call? Her body was found on Tuesday. Why would anyone wait until Thursday to tell what they knew?”

  “Meow.”r />
  I picked up the cat and cuddled him to my chest. “The rain has let up a bit, although I understand there’s more on the way. I’m going to take Max for a quick run while it’s still dry out. When I get back, I’ll work on this some more. I don’t want to do anything that might cast doubt on Mrs. West again, but if Miranda is innocent, I don’t want her to go to jail.”

  I bundled up against the cold and Max and I headed out. The sky was still dark and the beach wet, but the wind had died down and the rain had ceased, at least temporarily. Max was happy to be outside no matter the chill in the air. He showed his joy by running up and down the beach chasing seagulls. I didn’t blame him for having so much energy after being cooped up inside for the better part of two days. The island depended on regular rain for its water supply, but long days of rain without end had both of us feeling antsy.

  Of course, unlike Max, I’d had plenty to occupy my mind and time during the storm. The stressful week had left me and Cody miserable, and everything was still so up in the air. Although I wasn’t at all comfortable with the way things had ended up, the anonymous caller had done us a huge favor. Cody was happy. Mrs. West was on her way home, which made me happy. I had a wedding to try to get back on track, and it certainly wasn’t my responsibility to find the real killer if Miranda was innocent. I was sure she’d hire a competent attorney who would help her out. Wouldn’t it be best for everyone if I let it go?

  “Damn.” I picked up a long stick and tossed it for Max. As much as I wanted to, my conscience wouldn’t let me turn a blind eye when a woman I was pretty sure was innocent might be locked up for a murder she didn’t commit. Hopefully, if Miranda was innocent, we’d find the real killer, and all roads wouldn’t lead back to Mrs. West.

  When Max and I returned to the cabin I decided to call Finn before I did anything else. He, like me, had Cody’s best interests at heart, and both of us would want to see that the right person did time for Sally’s death.