Cars and Cold Cases

by Diana Xarissa

  “Yes, it was a very different time,” Daniel agreed. “No internet, no mobile phones, no text messaging or anything like that. Even cancelling the credit cards simply meant putting them on a list of stolen cards that was distributed to retailers. Cards weren’t processed instantly in those days.”

  “But no one ever tried to use her cards?”

  “There’s nothing in the file to suggest that they did,” he replied. “But there wouldn’t be any record of attempts made that failed.”

  “I remember working in retail in the eighties,” Fenella said. “We used to take an imprint of the credit card and then check the number in these little books that came out every so often. It wasn’t great security, was it?”

  “No, but it has improved dramatically in a relatively short space of time.”

  “Would it have been hard for her start a new life somewhere else?”

  “As herself, maybe; as someone else, maybe not,” Daniel said. “And even as herself, she might have managed it in Australia or New Zealand or Canada. The missing person report was sent out worldwide, but different countries police such things in different ways, and I don’t think anyone had a central database for such information in those days.”

  “I don’t think we’re getting anywhere,” Fenella said with a sigh.

  “On the contrary, I’m going to do some looking into Kay’s past before she married Mel. That wasn’t really something I’d considered before, as it never formed part of the original investigation.”

  “Why not?”

  “I suppose the inspector in charge didn’t think it was relevant, since she’d been married for nearly three years,” Daniel said. “And missing persons don’t get the same sort of scrutiny that murder victims get, either. I’m sure he assumed, when he first looked at the case, that Kay would turn up in a day or two, having gone to visit a friend or something. It’s very rare for a missing person to stay missing for thirty years.”

  “Speaking of murder victims,” Fenella said. “Everything I’ve heard about Christopher Manderly suggests that his wife was involved in his death.”

  “I believe the inspector who first dealt with the case would have agreed with you on that,” Daniel said. “I don’t get the feeling that he liked Sophia or that he believed anything she told him.”

  “Have you interviewed her yet?”

  “No, I’m working my way through Kay’s disappearance first. Once I’ve spoken to all of the witnesses from that case, I’ll start on the other.”

  “I understand that Sophia was the kind of woman who could persuade a man to kill for her,” Fenella said.

  “I can’t imagine it, but I’ve heard something similar.”

  “Someone suggested to me that she was having an affair, possibly multiple affairs.”

  “Yes, the original investigation revealed a great deal of innuendo and gossip, but no hard facts.”

  “And you think you might get some now?”

  “I’m hoping someone might be willing to talk about what was really going on in those days now, yes,” Daniel said. “

  “Maybe we should wait to discuss the case until you’ve had a chance to meet with the various witnesses,” Fenella said. “I’m sure you’ll be able to form your own opinions about them.”

  “I’m tired, anyway,” Daniel said, yawning. “I don’t think I have the energy to talk about Sophia and her many male friends tonight.”

  “So when should we meet again?” Fenella asked as the man stood up.

  “I’m crazy busy for the next few days,” Daniel told her. “How about next Monday?”

  “Monday is fine,” Fenella said, without bothering to glance at her calendar. She knew it was sadly empty.

  “I’ll bring Chinese,” Daniel said.

  “And I’ll bake a cake,” Fenella offered.

  “A cake for no reason, that sounds good.”

  “Chocolate?”

  “Of course,” he replied.

  Fenella locked the door behind him and sighed deeply.

  “He compared you to his mother,” Mona said.

  “He compared your shortbread to his mother’s shortbread,” Fenella replied testily. “That’s hardly the same thing.”

  “And he didn’t try to kiss you when he left,” Mona pointed out. “You’re just friends.”

  “Which is fine with me,” Fenella snapped.

  “And that’s why you’re so grumpy about it,” Mona suggested.

  “Oh, be quiet,” Fenella said. She walked into the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. When it was quietly chugging away in the background, she decided that a long soak in the bath with a glass of wine was just what she needed. She was halfway to her bathroom when someone knocked on the door.

  “Pub?” Shelly asked.

  Fenella thought about it for a moment and then shook her head. “Katie is having her surgery tomorrow,” she explained. “I want to stay home with her tonight.”

  “Mr. Stone keeps his surgical patients overnight,” Shelly said. “So you’ll have no excuse tomorrow night for not joining me.”

  “I’ll come tomorrow night,” Fenella promised. “As long as Katie is okay.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Shelly said firmly. She gave Fenella a tight hug. “What time is your appointment tomorrow?”

  “Nine, but I need to be there a little bit early.”

  “I shall be here at half eight to walk over with you, then,” Shelly said. “And then we’ll spend the day together, doing all sorts of nothing, until we hear from Mr. Stone that everything is fine.”

  “Are you sure you have the time?” Fenella asked with tears in her eyes.

  “We just talked about how I have nothing to do with myself,” Shelly reminded her with a laugh. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Fenella gave the woman another hug and then pushed the door shut. She was embarrassed when she realized that she’d lived in the same small house in Buffalo for many years and had never made friends with any of her neighbors there. She’s been so busy with work and Jack that she’d never even bothered to introduce herself to the people on either side of her. Now she wasn’t sure what she’d do without Shelly in her life.

  The long bath turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. Fenella added too much bubble bath to the running water and ended up with far too many bubbles long before the tub was full enough for a soak. She scooped as many as she could into the sink, but there were too many to allow her to read, and every time she tried to take a sip of wine, she got bubbles in her mouth.

  “That wasn’t one of my better ideas,” she told Katie as she pulled the plug on the bath.

  Katie looked at her for a moment and then walked over and swiped a paw at a cluster of bubbles that had made its way onto the bathroom floor. Fenella scooped up a handful of them and blew them toward Katie. Katie swung at them in midair and then slipped on the slippery floor and landed in another pile of bubbles.

  “Yooowwww!” Katie shouted as she ran out of the bathroom, bubbles flying up behind her.

  Fenella couldn’t help but laugh as she dried the floor and then rinsed the tub. “Next time I’ll just drink my wine and read my book on the couch,” she said to her reflection.

  “Darling, I can’t stay,” Mona said when Fenella finally walked out of the bathroom. “But I wanted to make sure you weren’t too nervous about tomorrow. Katie will be fine, you know.”

  “I know, but I am nervous,” Fenella admitted. “And now that I’m thinking of it, why is the vet called Mr. Stone and not Dr. Stone?”

  “He could be called doctor, if he wanted to,” Mona told her. “But veterinary surgeons only received the right to call themselves doctor last year. They have the choice as to which title to use, and Mr. Stone has clearly chosen not to use it.”

  “Why not?”

  “How should I know?” Mona asked. “I’ve never even met the man.”

  “Sorry,” Fenella said. “I just assumed you know everything about everyone.”

  “Not qu
ite,” Mona said. “I’m afraid I have somewhere else to be tonight, but I’ll be around tomorrow, if you need me.”

  “Shelly has offered to spend the day with me to keep me distracted,” Fenella told her.

  “She’s a lovely woman,” Mona said. “I miss her.”

  “I’m sure she misses you as well.”

  “Perhaps, but she seems to be enjoying your company quite a bit. I’d hoped you two would become friends, but as I didn’t really know you, I wasn’t sure.”

  “Well, we have,” Fenella said.

  “I must get off. One of my former gentlemen friends is taking me out. He died twenty years ago, and I’d assumed he’d moved on, but then he found me on social media and we reconnected.”

  “There’s social media in the ghost world?” Fenella asked.

  Mona laughed as she slowly faded away, leaving Fenella frustrated. One day she was going to get her aunt to properly explain how the whole ghost thing worked. Clearly that day wasn’t today, though.

  A bag of microwave popcorn in front of the television filled the rest of the evening. Katie sat on the couch next to Fenella, chatting at her during commercials.

  “I do wish I spoke cat,” Fenella told the animal after Katie had come out with a particularly lengthy series of noises.

  “Merrrowww,” Katie told her.

  “Perhaps you should learn to talk people,” Fenella replied.

  “Yooowwwlll,” Katie said. She jumped down from the couch and stalked off to the bedroom.

  Fenella looked at the clock. It was nearly midnight. She needed to get to bed. Katie was in her usual spot when Fenella walked into the bedroom. No matter how hard she tried, Fenella simply couldn’t get comfortable. She found herself tossing and turning nearly all night. After the first couple of hours, Katie had jumped off the bed with a disgusted “yow” and disappeared into the guest room.

  “I don’t blame you,” Fenella had called after her.

  When the alarm went off at seven, Fenella dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. She was washing her hair when she realized she should have switched the coffee pot on before she did anything else. It was going to be a long day, she thought with a sigh as she wiped shampoo out of her stinging eyes.

  “Only a third of your normal breakfast,” she told Katie when she finally made it into the kitchen.

  “Mmmmmeeeeeerrrrrrroooooowwwww!” Katie complained loudly.

  “It’s for your own good,” Fenella said as she slid bread into the toaster.

  Katie ate her meager breakfast and then stomped out of the kitchen without a backwards glance. Fenella watched as the animal settled into her favorite chair.

  “I am sorry,” she said as Katie stared at the sea. “But I really am doing what’s best for you.” Katie didn’t reply.

  Shelly was right on time and she greeted Fenella with a hug. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I didn’t sleep well,” Fenella told her. “And Katie is mad at me because I couldn’t give her much breakfast.”

  “I’m so glad Smokey had all of that taken care of before I adopted her,” Shelly said. “I’m not sure I would have been able to go through all of this.”

  “It truly is for her own good,” Fenella said.

  “Yes, so let’s get going.”

  Fenella picked up Katie and hugged her close. “Come on then, angel. Let’s go and see your friend Mr. Stone.”

  They’d been to the man’s office three times previously, and Katie had become good friends with the young vet. She might not like him so much after today’s visit, though, Fenella thought.

  The walk was a short one. “It might rain,” Fenella said to Shelly as they went.

  “It might, but it’s going to be almost warm, which should make up for it.”

  The woman behind the reception desk was new. “But where is Bethany?” Fenella asked. Bethany Carter, the regular receptionist, had been mixed up in the first murder investigation that Fenella had stumbled into. Fenella had come to like the woman, who had had her heart broken by the first victim.

  “She’s taking a few days of holiday time,” the girl at the desk said. “Her brother and a friend have come across for a visit and she’s showing them around the island.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Fenella said. “Good for her.”

  The girl gave Fenella several forms to fill out. Shelly was happy to hold Katie while Fenella filled in the blanks. She’d also been given several pages of instructions for looking after Katie after the surgery. She read through them all carefully, making sure that she didn’t have any questions. When she’d finished signing everything, Mr. Stone called them back.

  “There’s my little girl,” he said to Katie. Fenella hesitated for just a moment when he held out his hands for the kitten. Katie immediately snuggled into the man’s arms and began to purr.

  “She does like you,” Fenella said.

  “I just hope she still likes me once this is over,” the man replied. “It is entirely up to you whether you stay while I put her under or leave. Leaving is usually easier on both the pet and the owner, but the choice is yours.”

  “Let’s go,” Shelly said. “Let Mr. Stone take care of Katie and I’ll take care of you.”

  “Oh, but, I don’t, I think…”

  Shelly cut Fenella off. “You’ll just upset yourself and Katie if you stand here watching. Mr. Stone is an expert and Katie is happy with him. Let him handle this.”

  Fenella looked at her kitten. Katie looked back at her and Fenella was sure that she could see apprehension in the kitten’s eyes.

  “Mmmmmerrrow?” Katie said, wiggling in Mr. Stone’s arms.

  “She’s picking up on my nerves and getting upset,” Fenella said. “I should go.”

  Shelly took Fenella’s arm and led her back to the waiting room. Fenella could feel tears threatening as they walked out of the veterinary office.

  “Have you been to the used book shop yet?” Shelly asked.

  “There’s a used book shop?” Fenella replied, feeling a little bit excited.

  “It isn’t even far away, but you have to know it’s there to find it,” Shelly told her. “Let’s go.”

  The old Victorian terraced house didn’t look like a used bookstore on the outside. It looked like someone’s home. Fenella followed Shelly up the short sidewalk to the door, wondering if her friend was in the wrong place. A small sign on the door reassured her. The sign read “Ellan Vannin Books,” and when Shelly pushed open the door, the smell of paper, ink, and old books made Fenella smile.

  What had once been the ground floor of a large Victorian house was now nothing but rooms full of bookshelves. They were separated into categories and then alphabetized by author, but that didn’t stop Fenella from wanting to simply spend hours browsing.

  “I’m going to go and look for a few new romances,” Shelly told her in the doorway to the first room. “They’re upstairs, perhaps appropriately in what was once a bedroom.”

  Fenella laughed. “I want to look at everything,” she said.

  “I’m not sure we have time for that,” Shelly said. “But we can stay until I get too hungry for lunch to wait any longer.”

  “Deal,” Fenella said.

  She was halfway through the first room of nonfiction when her mobile phone rang.

  “Ms. Woods? Katie is out of surgery and resting comfortably. Everything went exactly as it should. She should be ready for you to collect her at nine tomorrow morning.”

  “Can I come and see her later today?”

  “You can. Mr. Stone would never turn an owner away, but we don’t suggest it. She will be very groggy and maybe a bit grumpy. We suggest you let Mr. Stone deal with her for today and overnight. She should be almost back to normal by morning.”

  “I may drop in,” Fenella said. “Just for my own peace of mind.”

  “You can always check the kitty-cam,” the woman suggested.

  “Kitty-cam?”

  “Did I forget to give you the
information about the kitty-cam?” the woman asked. “I’m so sorry. Bethany trained me before she went on holiday, but I still forget things sometimes. Kitty-cam is our webcam that is in the recovery suite. You can look in on Katie at any time, day or night, and see how she’s doing. Mostly she’ll be sleeping, of course.”

  Fenella carefully wrote down the web address that the woman gave her and then disconnected the call. It only took her a moment to pull the site up on her phone. Kitty-cam proved to be exactly as promised, and Fenella felt teary again as she watched Katie sleeping on a comfortable looking cat bed in one of the very large cages along the wall in the recovery room.

  “She looks happy enough,” Shelly said when Fenella found her a short while later and showed her the link on her mobile phone.

  “She does,” Fenella agreed. “I don’t think I’ll visit. I don’t want to upset her.”

  “Have you found any books you want yet?” Shelly asked.

  “No, but I shall now enjoy looking more, knowing that Katie is okay.”

  By the time Fenella’s stomach started growling, she’d found a dozen books she wanted to buy. Shelly’s pile wasn’t much smaller.

  “I barely glanced at half the rooms,” Fenella complained as the pair left the store and headed for home.

  “Now that you know it’s here, you can visit every day if you want,” Shelly said.

  “That would be dangerous,” Fenella replied, looking down at the two large bags she was carrying. “I’d get through my entire inheritance and then I’d have to find a job.”

  “You don’t want to do that,” Shelly laughed.

  “No, I really don’t,” Fenella agreed. “I’d better find the library next.”

  “Maybe we could do that another day,” Shelly said. “For now, let’s get some lunch.”

  After they’d dropped off their heavy bags of books at their respective apartments, Shelly and Fenella went to the little Italian restaurant that was near their building for lunch.

  “Now I’m too stuffed to move,” Fenella said after she’d finished.

  “Maybe we should waddle back home and watch telly all afternoon,” Shelly suggested.

  “I feel like I should go for a long walk,” Fenella replied.