by Molly Fitz
“We already know that,” he said, condescension dripping from each syllable.
I shook my fist at him and growled, which was enough to get him to cooperate for a little bit longer.
When he returned to me with their message, he stated it plainly with no commentary. “‘Up it goes and at the same time down, it is here that the answer’s found.’”
“Stairs,” I said, recognizing a version of this riddle from my school days. “Okay, so that was where. I still need to know how.”
He batted a paw in my direction. “You’re insufferable. You know that?”
I could tell his patience hung on by a single frayed thread—mine did, too—but we weren’t done yet. “Oh my gosh, please just ask them already!” I exploded. I’d wrongly assumed that his fondness for the senator would make him more cooperative this time around. Then again, this whole time he’d been certain that he’d already single-handedly solved the case. Who needed facts and testimonies when you have an ego the size of our entire home state?
Octo-Cat groaned and said, “You owe me. You owe me so big for this.”
“Bigger than the mansion you requested after that last favor?” I shot back, refusing to be bested by a cat… again.
He rolled his eyes but revealed the Sphinxes’ next riddle despite his protests. “‘Sure of foot and light of heart, this is how she fell apart.’”
“Now I feel like they’re just volleying my question back at me. This is going to take forever,” I whined, resettling myself on the uncomfortable floor. I couldn’t wait to fill this room with comfortable furniture and wall-to-wall shelves of books. I would have sat in the window seat for this exercise had Nan not settled on the floor first. Seeing as I was more than forty-five years younger than her, I shouldn’t have been having this hard a time.
She reached forward and put her hand on my knee. “Honey dear, if you trust your cat, just let him do all the talking. It seems that might be easier for everyone involved.”
If I trusted him. That was a huge if. Colossal.
Octo-Cat had clearly made up his mind before he’d heard even a single detail about Harlow’s death. But still, I couldn’t deny that the Sphynxes did seem to be confessing to the crime in their own special round-about way.
“You’re right,” I told Nan with a small smile, and then to Octo-Cat, “You don’t need to translate for me. Just talk with them and then catch me up later.”
He eyed me wearily, then hopped out of Nan’s lap and joined our two hairless witnesses in the corner. After several minutes of mixed meows, he trotted back and took up his spot in Nan’s lap once more.
“They did it. They killed her by tripping her when she was on the stairs. They are sorry and say they feel really bad about it. As much as I despise them, it doesn’t seem like they did it on purpose, but who knows?”
“Thanks,” I murmured. I felt a little better, seeing as he’d conceded one point. Earlier he had been certain that they murdered their own in cold blood. Now he was saying that they did it accidentally. Could this whole investigation really been all for naught? Were my instincts that wrong? I was supposed to be getting better with each case, not worse.
Just then, the phone in my pocket buzzed. I fished it out and read the new text message from Mom that popped up on my screen:
Police ruled H’s death an accident. I’m coming over.
Well, that answered that.
I passed my phone to Nan so she could see the message, too.
“You don’t really believe that, dear,” she informed me, setting Octo-Cat to the side so she could push herself up from the floor in one smooth, fluid movement.
I struggled to a stand with far less grace. “I don’t know what to believe any more,” I admitted. The last couple days had passed in a dizzying whirl, from moving to snooping and everything in between. Both my mind and my body were exhausted. Was it possible I was seeing clues where none existed?
One look at Nan told me she hadn’t given up on this yet.
And that was enough for me to keep going, too.
Chapter Fourteen
Mom arrived about ten minutes later. That was the thing with small towns like Glendale—it never took long to get where you were going. I was a bit removed from the main village action, now that I lived on the swanky East side, but everything remained incredibly close and the traffic was generally light.
Nan pranced through the foyer to let her in, a fact which Mom did not seem happy about.
“Angie?” she asked, charging into the living room where she found me sitting with my smart phone. “What’s she doing here?”
Not her politest moment, but my mom and Nan also preferred each other in small doses. Apparently personality types in my family skipped a generation, so if I ever had a daughter of my own, I’d find myself with a little girl who was both too garrulous and too ambitious for her own good. Nan and I had gotten the weirdo gene, and that suited me just fine.
“We were discussing the senator’s death,” I answered, hating the way the corners of my mother’s mouth dipped even further.
“I thought we were working on the case together?” she said, her usual confidence strained. She glanced back toward the door as if debating whether she should make a run for it.
“We were,” I said gently, hating that I’d hurt her feelings yet again. “I mean, we are, but…”
Nan breezed past Mom and plopped down onto the couch. “Oh, come off it now, Laura Jean. We’re all in this together. Right?” She patted the seat beside her and motioned for Mom to join us.
“Right,” I said, offering my mom a quick hug to lift her spirits. “Besides Nan hasn’t been here long. Right?”
“Right,” Nan answered with a wink that I doubt my mother missed. Sigh.
“Well,” Mom said, shaking her head and tilting it to either side—a nervous tic she’d picked up during my toddler years, or so I’d heard. “As long as I’m still part of the club, I have some news to share.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out a notepad. “First off, the death was ruled an accident. They think she may have had too much to drink at a charity fundraiser and then tripped and fell down the stairs.”
Tripped over her cats, I thought, but didn’t say anything. I still wasn’t ready to talk to Octo-Cat in front of my mom and didn’t want to invite questions that would require either doing so or telling her no when her feelings were already very clearly hurt.
“The next of kin came in last night,” Mom continued. “Matthew Harlow, a divorced salesman from Chicago.”
I nodded along mutely.
“The county has assigned a police detail to guard the place whenever he’s not at home,” Mom continued.
“A police detail. Why?” I remembered seeing Officer Bouchard there yesterday afternoon and how unsettling I’d found it. Nobody had been there this morning, though, when I stopped by. Well, except for Brock the handyman.
She set her notepad down and fixed her eyes on me. “Because the senator was such a prominent person in the area, they’re worried that people might come by to loot or take souvenirs. It certainly doesn’t help that she has one of the nicest homes in all of Glendale.”
Mom widened her eyes at me. And so do you, her body language yelled loud and clear.
“So, what now?” I asked, that familiar sense of disappointment creeping up on me again. I should have been happy that the death was solved, but something still didn’t feel right. “Case closed?”
“Ha!” Mom shouted. “Hardly! They can call it an accident all they want, but I know something fishy is going on here.”
I grinned and gave Mom a high five. I was so glad we agreed on this vital point.
“And when the cops won’t do their duty, it becomes the reporter’s responsibility to find the truth. Right, dear?” Nan said with a placating smile.
“Right,” Mom said, although she seemed less sure of herself now.
“I agree,” I said, grabbing my phone and handing it to Mom. “Th
ese are my notes. Granted, I have a few things to add after talking with Matt this afternoon.”
“You met Matt? Without me?” Mom shook her head and kept her focus on the phone, but I could tell it really hurt her feelings.
“I’m sorry, Mom.” And I meant it. I needed to try harder, now that the two of us had started spending more time together, now that we shared this interest. “It wasn’t exactly planned.”
“She ran into him in the forest last night,” Nan said, leaning forward and clasping her hands together.
“Nan,” I cried. “Would you please just stop helping?”
I caught my mom up on all that she had missed in the past day and a half. “Sorry for not calling sooner. It’s just been one thing after the next,” I said when I’d finished.
“Thanks for filling me in,” she said a bit too cordially for my liking. “But I should probably be off. Bye, Mom,” she told Nan, who remained seated in her chair as I walked my mother to the door and said goodbye.
“Why do you do that?” I asked my grandmother when I returned. “You know it bugs her.”
“That’s why I do it,” Nan said with a chuckle.
I placed both hands on my hips and stared down at her.
“What? She does the same thing to you!” Nan insisted, and she was right about that.
“Maybe let’s all work a little harder on getting along.” I fell back into my chair with a sigh. “I mean, we’re all grown-ups here.”
“As you wish.”
“Great.” Now, that Nan was properly chastised, this brought us to our next matter at hand. “So, will you please stay the night?”
A naughty expression crossed Nan’s face as she laughed and asked. “To protect you from the monsters under your bed?”
I just glared at her, refusing to play these games. “You know why.”
“I do,” she said, nodding thoughtfully and appearing completely somber as she did. “I just had to get one last jab out of my system. I promise I’ll play nice from now on.”
“And you’ll stay?” I asked, making no attempt to hide how important this was to me.
Nan nodded. “I’ll stay.”
I let out a giant sigh of relief just as Octo-Cat returned from wherever he’d been during my mother’s visit. I assumed this was because he still hadn’t forgiven her for the teacup incident yesterday.
“Um, hello there. Hi. What are we going to do about the two murderers you invited to live with us?” he demanded, nodding his head toward the upstairs.
“Oh, Jacques and Jillianne!” I cried. “I guess I should let them out of the library now. Huh?”
He took several steps back and squinted angrily, not unlike the expression I’d expect him to make if I ever dared punish him by spritzing a water bottle. That is something I would never in a million years do, though—especially now that I knew he could murder me with ease, should the inclination arise.
“Absolutely not,” he said emphatically.
“But you said it was an accident,” I reminded him, making slow work of rising to my poor, tired feet.
Octo-Cat flicked his tail so crazily that it looked like one of those giant, wavy armed blow up guys outside of an auto dealership. “Yeah, and do you want them accidentally killing you? You only have one life, right?”
“Okay, you have a point.” I’d give him that. As much as I felt for the two Sphynxes, I really didn’t feel like dying today.
Nan watched with amusement as my cat and I talked, even though she only understood one side of the conversation. “If those two Sphynxes are staying in there, we should probably take them food and water. And a kitty box,” she added.
“Good point.” They were our guests. The least I could do is make them a bit more comfortable. “Octo-Cat, where did we put your spare litter box?”
“Oh, no. No way. No how. You have absolutely got to be kidding me. You give them my litter box, and I’ll make extra sure I use your bed for all my kitty business going forward.” Well, that wasn’t what I wanted, but it also felt wholly unnecessary to need to head to the store to buy new supplies when we had everything we needed right here.
I sighed and asked a question I was almost certain I would regret. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to send them home. I don’t like having them here.” He remained tense, standing between me and the stairs.
“But don’t you want to find out who killed the senator?” I asked, taking several steps closer.
“Uh, hello? We know who killed the senator.”
I thought about this. Perhaps there was still a way I could get through to him. “Then shouldn’t we keep them locked up until they can… um, stand trial?” I was reaching, I knew. I had no idea what animals normally did to mete out justice, but I knew Octo-Cat was a big fan of legal television shows. Hopefully appealing to his fondness for all things crime and punishment would convince him to start seeing things my way.
“Oh, Angela, you’re absolutely right,” he ground out, as if this possibility shocked him to the core. “I’ll go stand guard.”
“He’s going to keep watch,” I explained to Nan, wondering how I’d just managed to add kitty prison warden to my resume and if it would ever even come in handy.
Well, at least Octo-Cat was occupied.
For now.
Chapter Fifteen
I slept better with Nan staying the night. I still locked the door to my tower, but at least we were making progress in turning the giant manor house into a home. Soon my boxes would all be unpacked, Nan would officially move in with all the colorful old knick knacks that reminded me of growing up, and we’d hopefully catch Harlow’s killer, too.
Lately, that was the stuff of dreams—or at least my deranged ones.
Feeling wonderfully rested, I awoke the next morning to the most glorious smell in all of human history.
Coffee!
Taking the stairs two at a time, I bolted toward the kitchen. There, I found my dear, sweet, beautiful Nan standing with a polka-dotted apron tied around her teeny waist and a giant, steaming pot of coffee in her hand.
“Good morning,” she trilled.
I’d have given her the hug to end all hugs if I wasn’t worried that doing so might spill the coffee. In my huge rush to get everything moved in time, I hadn’t even thought of what having Nan as my roommate would mean. So what if I was terrified of coffee makers after my near death experience? I still longed for that delicious, life-giving brew, and now, thanks to Nan, I would actually have it.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I cried as she grabbed my freshly washed crazy cat lady mug and poured me a cup. “Where’d we get the coffee maker, anyway?” I asked, after that first glorious sip of heaven on my tongue.
“I brought it with me,” she explained, bending down to check on whatever she had in the oven. I hadn’t initially smelled anything over the intoxicating aroma of the coffee, but now that I’d adjusted a bit, the scent of banana bread became unmistakable.
“You’re still afraid of coffee makers, right?” Nan turned back to me with a bright smile. She’d always been a morning person. Me, not so much.
I nodded anyway, too deliriously happy to be embarrassed as I took another gratifying sip.
“Well, then I guess I’ll just have to be in charge of breakfast from here on out,” she declared as she continued to move about the kitchen like she owned the place. I guess, in a way, she now did.
“Hey,” I said after I’d consumed enough caffeine to perk up my brain. “Where did you sleep last night?” I’d had Ethel’s old bedroom set hauled away, and Nan hadn’t officially moved in yet, which meant her bedroom set wasn’t here yet, either.
“I roomed with our two hairless visitors,” she said her eyes aglow as she squeezed my bicep. “That window seat was so comfy.”
“Nan,” I scolded. “You’re not supposed to sleep there.”
She brushed off my concern by waving a dish towel in my direction. “I slept perfectly well, thank
you.”
“Regardless, I should probably call someone to at least get your bed moved here.” I drained the rest of my coffee as I thought.
Seeing I’d finished, Nan immediately plucked the mug from my hands and topped it off.
“Oh, I could ask Brock,” it struck me as my brain continued to wake up. “He was going to come by today to offer me some quotes on a few rennos I have planned. I’m sure he’d be happy to haul whatever you need over in that truck of his.”
Suddenly, I remembered another thing we hadn’t yet discussed. “When I ran into him yesterday, he said you had an offer on your house?”
Nan gloated at this news. “That’s right. And I bet you’ll never guess who.”
Normally I didn’t like guessing games, but I was still so happy from the coffee that I became a willing participant. “Mom and Dad?”
“Ha! Like they’d ever leave their place by the bay. Guess again.” She wiped at the counter distractedly as she watched me try to puzzle out an answer.
“Is it somebody I went to school with?” I guessed. I couldn’t think of anyone I knew in town who was looking for a new place, so I was completely stumped here.
Nan smiled and shook her head. “Nope, but it is someone we both know. Someone who’s quite handsome.”
I leaned back against the counter, mug still in hand. “Hmm.” Nan was a shameless flirt and found half our town handsome by my most recent tally. I knew her latest crush was on the much younger Officer Bouchard, but he didn’t strike me as the type to appreciate a retro, cozy Cape Cod in a landlocked neighborhood.
Unable to control her excitement anymore, Nan burst out with her big reveal. “Why, it’s our very own Charles!”
I laughed at her joke, but Nan just kept staring at me with that earnest look in her eyes. “Wait. You’re serious?” I squeaked.
She bobbed her head enthusiastically and did a happy, little twirl. “Dead serious. He said it was time he put down some roots now that he’d made partner.”
