The Tell Tail Heart

by Cate Conte

  “What about last night?”

  “About Leopard Man being here? And how we’re not supposed to mention that to anyone?”

  Now they both looked interested. “No,” Val said. “Why?”

  “I don’t know, he just asked us not to,” I said.

  Val narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “I said I don’t know. I’m just trying to do what Grandpa asked, and I wouldn’t want anyone like, oh, Sergeant Ellory asking you and you giving a different version than Grandpa.”

  “Why would Sergeant Ellory be asking me that?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Because you live here.”

  “And why would it be a different version than Grandpa’s?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “I don’t know what he said to them,” I said. “So just stick with not mentioning it.” I glanced down as JJ came into the room, squeaking the whole way. He must be hungry.

  Val opened her mouth again, so I cut her off and tried to change the subject as I got up and took JJ’s food out to spoon into his bowl. He watched me intently to make sure I didn’t shortchange him.

  I didn’t want to get too into this, especially since I had no idea how to answer her questions. I just didn’t want Grandpa to get in trouble. “Are you at the yacht club all day?” I asked her, setting the bowl in front of JJ. He attacked it like he hadn’t seen food in days.

  “Who knows? Depends on how long Ava-Rose wants to talk about what kind of seasoning she should have for each of the turkeys. This is going to be a pretty spectacular Thanksgiving dinner. I imagine the Royal Wedding planning was comparable.” But she smiled.

  “Who are you having cater?” I asked.

  “I’m still working on that. She wants to do test runs with her top three choices. Don’t ask,” she said, holding up a hand, when I opened my mouth. “It is kind of fun, though,” she admitted.

  “I’m glad you’re loving it,” I said. “Who would’ve thought? I play with cats all day, and you plan parties. And we’re both in charge of our own schedules. Pretty cool, right? We must’ve gotten all this from Mom.” The thought made me smile a little. Our dad was a lot more buttoned up. He had to be, though, as CEO of Daybreak’s only hospital. And his stability had given Mom the freedom to be even more creative.

  “That’s true,” Val said thoughtfully. Her phone chimed. “Shoot. Gotta go.” She went over and gave Ethan a kiss, waggled her fingers at me, and hurried out.

  I studied my business partner’s back. From where I sat I could see how red his ears were. Pale-skinned as he was, it wasn’t hard. “So things are going well,” I said.

  “Hmmm?” He busied himself measuring out flour for some kind of bread he was making. Ethan made food for all of us most days, even when he was stocking the cafe. He loved to cook and bake, and he only trusted his own cooking to be truly healthy. I think he missed working at our juice shop. He’d loved coming up with new vegan, raw, gluten-free, organic, and any other recipes the crowds out on the pier were looking for.

  Here he’d had to adjust a bit. While the island was slowly attracting more healthy eaters, a lot of visitors came here for quintessential summer fare—like fried seafood and real ice cream—and didn’t necessarily want to worry about their diets. At least for a week or two.

  “You know. With Val.”

  “Oh. Yeah. It’s good.”

  “Ethan?”

  Finally, he turned. “What?”

  “You’re in loooove,” I teased.

  “Knock it off,” he muttered.

  “Why? It’s cute. Lord knows we need to have some fun over the winter here. Trust me. You think the island’s all fun and games, but you haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “Just eat your eggs.” Ethan hated public displays, or being the center of attention for that matter. “Are you trying to make me forget to ask you why we’re lying about the Leopard Man?”

  “No. I just don’t have anything else to say. I only know that he was here and Grandpa told the cops he wasn’t.”

  “And you don’t know why?” Ethan’s tone wasn’t judgmental at all, simply curious.

  “I don’t.” I pushed my eggs around on the plate a bit. “I wish I did.” I picked at my eggs and wondered about Grandpa’s early morning. Had he known about Holt? Had that been part of what Ellory told him last night? Had he gone to track down Leopard Man? Did he know where he was?

  Maybe I could find out. Or maybe I would see him in town.

  I pushed my still half-full plate away. “I’m going to go downtown for a bit. Have a couple things to do.” Ethan was planning to be here all day, so I could get out without feeling like I had to rush back. And it was a big day for the contractors. They were installing a new wall that would break the dining room into two separate rooms. That meant a lot of noise, so the less I was around the better.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I want to look at a storefront,” I said. It was sort of true. There was a storefront I’d been wanting to see, just to see if maybe it would look good with some green juice and healthy food in it. But first I wanted to talk to Becky. And I needed to go to the market for some fish for JJ.

  “And you’re going to do some investigating about our writer?” Ethan winked, happy to take the attention off himself and put it on me.

  “No way,” I said, pushing back from the table. “I’m staying out of it.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Ethan preheated the over. “Can you pick up some berries?”

  “Berries?” I laughed. “Frozen, right? It’s not summer anymore, friend. And you’re not in Kansas anymore.”

  Ethan sighed. “Let’s go with chocolate chips.”

  I headed upstairs to shower and met Lucas coming down. He looked freshly showered. “Hey.” I grabbed his arm. “You aren’t going to believe this.”

  “Believe what?”

  “The guy in the water? It was the famous writer who’d been working in here. And he’s definitely dead.”

  Lucas went wide-eyed. “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. It’s splashed all over the front page.”

  “What happened?”

  “No clue yet. Or at least, it’s not been published yet.”

  “Wow.” Lucas took a minute to let that sink in.

  “Yeah.” I leaned against him for a moment, sliding an arm around his waist, breathing in his freshly clean scent. “You leaving?”

  “I am. I have to open the shop today. Marianne needed the day off since she’s covering all weekend.” Lucas’s other groomer had been on the island for years, doing home visits for people. She’d been delighted when Lucas came to town and opened a real shop, and snatched up the opportunity to work with him. And she’d brought a lot of her customers to the shop, for which Lucas was grateful.

  He squeezed my hand. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. I guess. I feel awful, Lucas. I wonder what happened?”

  “I don’t know, babe. Hopefully the cops are going to be able to figure it out quickly.” He hesitated. “Do you think they were here last night … because of that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, although I was pretty sure the answer was yes. And I hoped the only reason why was because they wanted Grandpa’s expertise. “But I hope they can at least find out what happened to him. I’ll see you tonight?”

  “You better.” He pulled me close and kissed me.

  “You will. Thanks for staying last night.”

  “Of course. Be careful today.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Whatever you’re doing,” he said with a grin. “Which I hope isn’t trying to find out what happened to the writer.”

  He knew me so well. That old saying curiosity killed the cat could definitely apply to me. “No,” I said. “Definitely not that. I’m going to look at a storefront.”

  “Ah, yes. Your diabolical plot to take over the whole island. Pretty soon everyone will be eating and drinking all raw green stuff, all the time. It will be like the island of gre
en people who live forever, even after the destruction of the planet,” he teased.

  Lucas and my family had been poking fun at me for my fixation on bringing a branch of my and Ethan’s juice bar to the island. I loved the cat cafe, but I was an entrepreneur at heart. I needed a couple of ventures to put my energy and attention into, especially given the slowness of the winter months here. Plus, I loved a challenge, and bringing green juice to an island where people came to eat fried clams and French fries was definitely going to be a challenge.

  “With the exception of some pizza every now and then.” I winked. “Call me to say hi between doggie shampoos. And stop in the kitchen and grab some eggs. Ethan needs someone to eat all the stuff he’s making. Our only scheduled guest isn’t coming today.” I let that sink in. It felt bad.

  Lucas squeezed my hand and headed into the kitchen. I hurried upstairs, showered, and dressed. When I came back down, Grandpa was just coming in the front door. He looked lost in thought as he unwrapped the blue wooly scarf from around his neck and hung it with extra care on a hook next to the door. I recognized it as a gift from Grandma, that last Christmas she was with us. He didn’t even realize I was standing on the steps.

  Chapter 14

  I cleared my throat. “Morning, Grandpa.”

  He glanced up, startled. “Morning, Doll. I didn’t see you there.”

  “I know. You look preoccupied.” I studied him for a moment. He wore his private-eye clothes today, as I called them. Grandpa had two modes these days—fun cat cafe owner mode and serious PI mode. Today was serious. “What’s going on? Where’ve you been so early?”

  “Hey, Maddie!”

  I cringed as Adele’s two-pack-a-day voice cut off any hope of getting Grandpa to tell me anything. “Yeah, Adele,” I sighed.

  “Where’s that hunky boyfriend of yours? Thought I heard his sexy voice. He got his razor with him?”

  Grandpa suppressed a smile, winked at me, and took the opportunity to slip into the kitchen.

  “He’s having breakfast, but he has to leave,” I said. “He’ll be back later, though. I’ll have him take a look.”

  Adele sniffed. She liked things done on her own timetable. “When is Muffin going to the vet?” she asked. “He seems a little lethargic. And didn’t eat a lot of his breakfast. Although I know we’re stuck with that jerk vet now, so that trip’s gonna be a whole different ball game.” She wrinkled her nose.

  “Dr. Drake? Yeah, he’s a piece of work. I made the appointment for tomorrow, but would you believe they made me pay two hundred and fifty dollars to hold the time slot?” I’d forgotten about that annoying incident in the midst of everything else. I’d never in my life heard of a vet doing that, and now we were stuck with this guy as the only vet on the island.

  Dr. Kelly, the island’s former vet who had been a fixture in the community since I was a kid, had closed up shop at the end of the summer, announcing that it was time for him to retire and enjoy life. I hadn’t even gotten to tell him about the cafe before he left, two weeks before my grand opening. He’d been Katrina’s go-to for many years and had also been the vet for the former rescue chapter on the island. Katrina was really upset about it. He’d been a kind, older gentleman who had given the rescue people tons of discounts.

  But he was getting older, and with the added competition from Dr. Alvin Drake and his fancy, high-tech practice, he must’ve figured it was time to hang up his shingle.

  However, Drake hadn’t been getting good reviews from full-time islanders. Katrina said he was charging her full price, too, for any rescues she brought in. Which was a crappy thing to do to any rescue. And his full price was apparently a lot higher than Dr. Kelly’s. But maybe he figured since she worked for the town, it was okay.

  Or maybe he was just a heartless jerk only in it for the money. I was starting to think it was the latter after my experience simply booking an appointment. I tried my best not to pass judgment on the man before I’d even met him, but any vet who didn’t go out of their way to help people doing rescue got my hackles up. I’d managed to avoid having to deal with Drake so far, but my luck had run out. And unless I wanted to trek over to the mainland every time one of the cats needed to see a vet, I’d better make the best of it.

  “I’ll let you know how it goes,” I said. “Anyone else need anything while we’re making a list?”

  “Nope. I’m trying to make sure Katrina is taking care of all that business before they get here, if they need something.” She nudged me with her elbow, grinning. “I figure she owes us.”

  “Thanks,” I said, glancing at the kitchen door. I was itching to ask Grandpa more questions.

  But Adele wasn’t done. She continued to watch me. “Any new applications? We haven’t had any new residents in a couple of weeks.”

  A fact that Katrina kept mentioning when she called to check in every couple days. Despite the lack of people on the island, the cats somehow kept appearing. And given that it was winter, they needed shelter more than ever. She was pressing me to take on more than the ten we’d agreed on when we opened the doors. I’d known it would happen eventually—a hazard of cat rescue—but I was standing firm for the time being. I needed the housing remodel finished first. Katrina was desperate, though, and very convincing when she was desperate. So far I’d held my ground, but I was starting to waver. She knew how to lay on the guilt, telling me that she was out of room at the town facility and that any new cats would have to stay living outside in the cold if she couldn’t find a foster home. She knew eventually I would cave, even though we both knew that she’d just take home any cat in the aforementioned situation before letting them live outside in a Daybreak Island winter. Either that or Adele would, and then Adele would just bring the cat here without telling me and let me notice on my own.

  Rescue people rolled a bit differently than everyone else.

  “We had one application,” I said. “A guy who just moved out here to work at the elementary school. He applied for two, actually. Rooster and Timmy. I have to still do a vet check. Do you want to do it?”

  “I’d love to,” she said. “We gotta get these guys moving!”

  “The app is in the top desk drawer,” I said. I was finally getting my office once the construction was done. Gabe, our contractor and Adele’s nephew, was adding a little alcove room off what would be the main cafe room, right as you came in the side entrance. That would be our place to keep all our records, do adoption interviews and paperwork, and, I hoped, where I’d do my cafe business rather than bringing it up to my bedroom with me every night. Val had found an adorable desk at the island thrift shop and picked it up for me. I’d nestled it near the “reception” area—which was currently the front door—until the room was ready. At least it gave me some desk drawers. I wanted to paint it a mint green, but I was saving that project until later, when the dust stopped flying.

  “I’m on it,” Adele promised, and headed back into the cat lair.

  I went into the kitchen. Ethan wasn’t there. Grandpa was eating eggs, drinking coffee, and reading the paper. Rather, he was looking at the front page. About the body in the water.

  Jason Holt’s body.

  “The guy who was in here yesterday,” I said, pulling out the chair across from him and sitting. “The writer. He was pretty famous, you know.”

  Grandpa didn’t look at me. “Yeah,” he said. “I heard. It’s a darn shame. Always is when someone loses his or her life, but especially when they’re so young and full of promise.”

  “For sure. You hear anything else about what happened?”

  Grandpa didn’t answer, just kept staring at the paper.

  “I saw Leopard Man—Carl—leaving here in the middle of the night, Grandpa,” I said. “Why did you tell Detective Ellory he wasn’t here? Not that I’m a huge Ellory fan, by any means, but you’re usually not in the business of lying to your former colleagues.”

  Now Grandpa looked up, and his eyes flashed. I recognized the look. It wasn’t normal
ly one I was on the receiving end of.

  “Madalyn. You’re out of order,” he said.

  “I didn’t realize I was in court,” I said.

  We stared at each other for a moment, and I wondered how this conversation had gone from benign to dangerous in less than ten seconds.

  Then, as quickly as it had come, the spark went out. Grandpa leaned back in his chair, rocking it gently so the front legs left the ground. “You’re probably going to hear about it later anyway,” he said. “But until it’s public, I’d appreciate you keeping it under wraps.”

  “Keeping what under wraps?” I asked.

  Grandpa’s chair returned to the ground. He met my gaze with a level stare. “Holt was murdered.”

  Chapter 15

  That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I leaned back in my chair, trying to process. “Murdered? How?”

  “Hit-and-run, looks like.”

  I let that sink in. “So was he murdered murdered? Or do you mean someone accidentally hit him and panicked and threw him into the water?”

  “I don’t know, Madalyn. Either way, it’s murder.”

  “Actually, it’s murder if it’s intentional and manslaughter if it isn’t,” I said. “There’s a big difference. And I’m guessing I don’t need to tell you that, Chief Mancini.”

  He stared at me, his lips twitching. “And I’m guessing you’ve been watching too many episodes of Blue Bloods or whatever cop show you young people think is gospel these days,” he shot back, folding his arms over his belly and leaning back in his chair.

  I propped my elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Why was Leopard Man hiding here? That’s what he was doing, wasn’t he? Hiding? He didn’t … have anything to do with it, did he?”

  Grandpa’s jaw set. “Of course he didn’t! I don’t really want to discuss this, Madalyn. And as far as you know, he wasn’t here. End of story.”

  I frowned. Why wouldn’t Grandpa tell me? We were a team. We told each other everything. Granted, his version of everything was a little different from most people’s, given his life’s work, but I was always the one he confided in. The oldest granddaughter. I knew I was his secret favorite. My mother had told me many times, including last summer when she was subtly encouraging me to move back here because everyone was worried about how he’d fare without Grandma. We usually didn’t have secrets. It hurt to think we did, and I felt tears stabbing my eyes, threatening to give my hurt away.