Mimi Lee Gets a Clue

by Jennifer J. Chow

  I nodded. Who knew male cats would feel uncomfortable around feminine hygiene talk?

  Before we walked toward the back of the store, I said, “Bathroom’s down the hall, Tammy. First door on your left.”

  “Okay, thanks,” she said, moving toward the space beneath the cash register.

  I marched Kale into the back room, with Marshmallow following me. After easing the puppy onto the table, I said, “This won’t hurt a bit, Kale. Just a regular cleaning. I’ll make your mouth feel fresh.”

  Marshmallow translated and then gave a soft, continuous purring that soothed even me as I gathered the tools I would need. I brought out a dog toothbrush and some poultry-flavored toothpaste. Then I proceeded to place a dollop of paste on the soft bristles of the toothbrush.

  I knew I only needed to brush the exterior teeth. Kale’s tongue would naturally work the paste around to clean the inside of her mouth. She didn’t even need to spit out the toothpaste like a human would.

  I finished brushing and checked her teeth. They seemed clean. “You’ve been such a good sport,” I said to Kale.

  When I returned to the front with Kale, her teeth sparkling, I found Tammy sitting on the pleather bench watching a movie play on the flat-screen TV. She looked much more comfortable than when she’d first come in.

  “Kale smells so much better,” Tammy said as she paid the grooming bill.

  “I’m glad you’re getting out,” I said. “You seem in a healthier place. I mean, emotionally.”

  She looked at me with a steady gaze. Her eyes didn’t appear teary or red-rimmed. “Yes, things are improving,” she said. She cradled Kale in her arms and rocked her like a baby. “Everything will be fixed soon.”

  * * *

  • • •

  No walk-in clients or phone calls came for me the rest of the day. Instead, I handled some lookie-loos who’d walked in because of the local beach volleyball tournament. The curious observers came into my store to check out the fees and riffle through my merchandise. As a result, I did ring up a few collar and doggie pouch purchases.

  Around four o’clock, Nicola showed up. True to her word, she actually brought in her résumé. She even wore a proper pantsuit, as though she’d prepared for a formal interview. Seemed like Nicola had really fallen for my excuse when I’d dropped by her apartment. Maybe I deserved an Oscar.

  “You look like you rested up,” I said, as she handed me the thick ivory paper listing her recent jobs.

  A delicate pink hue colored her cheeks. “Must have been one of those twenty-four-hour bugs. I feel much better.”

  I looked at her résumé. My finger tracked her list of recent positions, mostly duties at fast-food restaurants. She’d also listed her crew work on a few local productions. She’d placed them at the end of the page under the “Other Experience” heading.

  “Have you worked with animals before?” I asked her.

  “Only Sterling,” Nicola said. “But you remember how much he adored me.”

  “Actually, I’m not sure I can hire new staff at the moment.”

  She grasped my hands with hers. “I know you’re biased against me, what with my sour attitude toward Mrs. Dalton and borrowing her jewelry—”

  “It’s not that.” I just didn’t want to hire a possible killer. Plus, I really couldn’t afford it. I decided to tell her my second explanation. “I took a closer look at my finances and can’t justify the expense.”

  “I don’t believe that’s your real reason. Please give me a chance.” She squeezed my hands tightly.

  I wondered why she even needed an income now. Couldn’t Russ Nolan’s money tide her over? But maybe he hadn’t kept a lot of loose cash in the house. Or perhaps he’d depleted it by bribing too many people. I disentangled her hands from mine and peeked over at Marshmallow.

  “Why are you looking at me?” he said. “You’re the one with the psych degree. I can’t tell if she’s a good candidate or not. I wouldn’t know where to begin figuring out that mess you call the human mind.”

  “People can become improved versions of themselves.” Nicola’s gaze flitted around the room. “That’s one of the reasons I fell for Russ. I knew I could change him for the better.”

  The classic rescuer mind-set. How many people acted in a like manner? Thank goodness I didn’t fall victim to the My Fair Lady sort of thinking that got people into trouble. Besides, my wonderful Josh didn’t need improvement.

  Nicola continued, “My personal philosophy is that you can always start over and begin again.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll hold on to your résumé,” I said. “Maybe I can use my connections to find an open pets-related position.”

  “Thanks, but I guarantee you won’t regret it if you take me on. I can work real hard.” She pumped my hand. Ouch. She had some muscle behind her gazelle frame.

  I waved to Nicola as she left. Her words about wanting to “start over” rang in my head. Had she meant with this new job? Perhaps getting fired had propelled her to start looking for different employment.

  Likewise, her recent loss of Russ Nolan could lead to a new relationship in the future. The question remained, though: Had the loss been predetermined—one which Nicola herself had caused?

  CHAPTER

  thirty-eight

  AROUND CLOSING TIME, I started cleaning up the back room. Marshmallow stayed nearby, watching while I worked.

  “If only you could hold things with your paws,” I said.

  “What can I say? Cats are meant to be served, not the other way around.”

  I grunted at him as I wiped down the table with antiseptic. Suddenly, the lights turned off.

  “A power outage?” I said. “That’s never happened before.”

  “How bad is business if you can’t pay the electric bill?” he asked.

  “Not funny.”

  I’d never had issues with the electrical system in the past. Hollywoof had its own subpanel, so I wondered if it had gotten shorted somehow.

  A faint chime sounded from the distance. Could it be the front door? But no customer would walk in so late for my grooming help.

  I sighed. I’d better call the power company to figure out what had happened and how to have the electricity restored. Too bad I couldn’t see well in the dark. I groped my way back to the main room by placing my hands against the walls to guide me.

  As I passed by the waiting area, I thought I heard a soft plopping noise. I shook my head to clear it. The darkness must be heightening my imagination.

  Near the front of the store, dusk let in some dim light through the glass window. I could make out the bulky shape of the cash register. Staggering over to the counter, I fumbled for the phone. When I finally lifted the receiver to my ear, I couldn’t hear a dial tone. Strange. Had I tripped on the cord and unplugged it?

  Oh well. I could use my cell. Bending below to reach under the counter, I found my purse and started digging through its contents by touch. I felt odds and ends in there, but nothing shaped like my phone. Where could I have put it?

  That’s when I heard the muffled footsteps. Straightening up from the counter, I found the silhouette of a female figure looming over me. She held up some sort of slender tube. A weapon?

  Grabbing the item closest to me, I ended up lobbing the doggie biscuit jar at her. The woman shrieked, dropped whatever she’d been holding, and fell back into the shadows. Disaster averted.

  From the sitting area across the way, a familiar tune started playing. “Chapel of Love.” Ma’s special ring tone.

  I could see the top of my phone glowing in the dark, poking up out of a handbag. What was going on? I moved toward it, but something—or, rather, someone—tripped me.

  Ouch. I landed on my side. A sharp pain seared my right ankle. I must’ve twisted it during the fall.

  Sprawled close to the waiting area, I g
lanced at the nearby bench, already knowing what I’d see. My phone had been pickpocketed, and I recognized the metal-studded bag it lay in. Aunt Flo had been a decoy.

  Tammy marched over to me. “I put my bag down on the bench so I would have my hands free to deal with you.” So the soft plopping noise I’d heard earlier hadn’t been my imagination.

  She continued, “But you still startled me by throwing that jar. I even dropped the syringe. Good thing I don’t need it anymore. That fall knocked you down flat.”

  Wait, she’d said something about a syringe? Injections. The cap I’d found had come from a needle. “Ketamine,” I said. The medication Dr. Exi had prescribed to numb Kale’s leg pain. “You used it on Russ Nolan.”

  Tammy chuckled. “Sure I did. I knew it would make him drowsy.”

  “You mean, make it easier for you to kill him?”

  She shook her head. “No, I only wanted to knock him unconscious. He’s a big guy. I figured I’d need to drug him first to conk him out. I must have swung too hard.”

  I tried to wriggle my foot. My ankle pulsed with pain. “Why didn’t you just wait for the lawsuit to go through? Do it all aboveboard?”

  “Mimi, it was a frivolous claim.”

  Josh had told me the lawsuit had been dismissed. Why again? The original contract terms had forbidden suing. What if it hadn’t been Tammy’s inept lawyer who’d made a mistake? “You knew all along the lawsuit would never work.”

  “Of course I did. It was a brill move on my part, don’t you think? Filing it cast suspicion away from me.”

  My phone rang. “Chapel of Love” again. Tammy reached into her bag and silenced the song.

  “You must have hated Russ Nolan for tricking you with an inferior puppy,” I said. “And the canceled dog show fundraiser didn’t help, either.”

  She huffed. “I bet nobody could stand that doofus. It was only fair he paid for the problem he introduced.”

  “That’s not a good enough reason to kill him.”

  She shrugged. “My only real regret is that you got curious and followed my trail. Pretended to be Soo Yi at school, talked to my vet, and even impersonated me over the phone.”

  I gritted my teeth so I could endure the pain in my foot while I inched toward the bench. Maybe I could snatch my phone and make an emergency call. Three simple numbers.

  Tammy wagged her finger at me. “You were trouble from day one, Mimi. You even blocked my way at the house.”

  A sudden realization hit me. “So that’s why I ran into you the day after the murder. You came back to look for the cap from the syringe.”

  “I didn’t realize I’d lost it until way after and figured I’d have better success searching for it during daylight.”

  “But a man dying for your sense of fairness, to cover Kale’s surgery?” I shuddered. “It’s not like you even need the cash. You married into money.”

  Her voice turned bitter. “And that fairy tale has ended. I’ve no regrets Russ Nolan died. An eye for an eye. After all, he killed my marriage.”

  “He did?”

  Coldness seeped into her every word. “Yes, by selling me a horrible pup. Kale was supposed to be a substitute for the child I couldn’t conceive. A new pet that would help our ailing marriage.”

  “Your fur baby.”

  “A wonderful addition to the family,” she said. “Instead, Kale broke things and chewed on wallets. And then the leg problems showed up and added too much stress to my marriage.”

  “That’s why you tried to take Kale back to get a refund from Russ Nolan, but he refused.”

  “So I did the next best thing by taking Russ Nolan’s money to pay for the surgery. I thought if Kale got better, somehow everything would go back to normal.”

  “Why did you want your money back from the surgical center, then?” I asked.

  “I need everything I can get to survive, now that he’s filed the divorce papers.” She pointed at me. “By the way, you’re not looking too hot.”

  I had, however, managed to drag myself to the edge of the bench during the past few minutes. If only I could sit up, then I might reach my phone. I had to keep Tammy talking to distract her.

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “If your husband doesn’t like Kale, why is he paying for the procedure now?”

  “His brat of a daughter whined about it. Ironic. He’ll keep the dog but kick me out.”

  She rummaged in her bag and retrieved something. A water bottle. “Mimi, it was so easy to sneak up on you. People are very clumsy in the dark.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You were the one who shut the lights off?”

  “Easy squeezy. I asked an electrician who’s part of the PTA. He walked me through how to access the subpanel over the phone.”

  She lifted her bottle up.

  I flinched and tried reaching for her bag. It was still too far away. I’d have to sit up to get it. “What’s in your bottle?” I asked as I pulled myself up.

  “Some seashore.”

  Panting, I rested my back against the bench. Then I processed her previous words.

  A memory flashed before me. The first doga class I’d attended, when Lauren had borrowed Tammy’s water bottle and wiped off—“Sand,” I said.

  “You figured it out. I weighted this bottle down. But don’t worry, I know exactly how to make the strike quick. Second time’s the charm.”

  “The police will catch you,” I said.

  “Not that clueless detective,” Tammy said. “Excuse the pun, but he’s always barking up the wrong tree. How confused will he be when his prime suspect goes kaput.”

  I tried to shrink back but found myself stuck against the bench with nowhere to go.

  She lifted the bottle high above her head. “I’m not going to prison because of some meddlesome pet groomer.”

  Before she could come any closer, blue eyes glinted in the dark. A giant fluffball launched at the woman from out of nowhere. Marshmallow started clawing Tammy. But like a woman possessed, Tammy kept pressing her attack.

  It was too late for me to grab the phone now and call for help. I had to defend myself.

  CHAPTER

  thirty-nine

  WITH THE BOOST of adrenaline, I snatched the bag off the bench and swung it hard at Tammy’s knees. The combo of Marshmallow’s clawing and my smacking pushed her off balance. As Tammy stumbled, I threw all my muscle into whacking her in the middle of her stomach.

  She doubled over in pain, dropping the water bottle. It rolled away, out of her reach. Thank goodness for her own bag’s hard metal studs. They must have made strong contact with her body, because Tammy lay on the floor, groaning.

  I heard the wail of a siren approaching. Tammy continued to moan and curled herself into a fetal position.

  A few moments later, the door burst open. The shop bell jangled with fury.

  A man’s figure filled the doorway. “Miss Lee, are you all right?”

  I knew that voice. “Twisted my ankle, Detective Brown. But still alive.”

  He tried turning on the lights but couldn’t. After cursing under his breath, he used a mini penlight to shine a faint beam around. Maybe he kept the small tool handy in his magical jacket pocket.

  “What happened here?” he asked.

  I pointed to Tammy and said, “She tried to attack me, to kill me the same way she did Russ Nolan.”

  Detective Brown strode over to Tammy and handcuffed her. “Sounds like you and I need to have an in-depth conversation.”

  First, though, he called for extra police. Once he’d finished talking to headquarters, an insistent meowing filled the air.

  Detective Brown swung his light in the direction of the sound. Marshmallow sat near a tube-like item: a medical syringe. The cap at the end of the needle looked exactly like the one I’d discovered in Russ Nolan’s backya
rd.

  “What do we have here?” Detective Brown bent over it and read the label. “Ketamine. The autopsy report finally came through and showed the very same chemical in the victim’s body.”

  “Uh-huh,” I said, not disguising the I-told-you-so tone of my voice.

  He cleared his throat. “I was in the process of following up on ketamine prescriptions, I’ll have you know. That doctor-patient confidentiality is a tough nut to crack.”

  All of a sudden, the lights came back on with full force. Backup must have arrived, and somebody had restored power to the store.

  Detective Brown turned toward Tammy, who still remained in a huddle. “Time to take your statement.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “If I confess everything, the judge will be lenient, right? After all, I didn’t mean to hit Russ Nolan so hard. And I didn’t actually kill Mimi or anything.”

  “The police department will value your full cooperation,” Detective Brown said. Which really didn’t promise her anything, but Tammy nodded at him. She let Detective Brown haul her up from the floor.

  He pivoted to me. “Miss Lee, I’d advise you to get some rest. You’ve had a rough night.”

  “I have a question for you, Detective,” I said, searching his face. “How’d you realize I was in danger so fast?”

  “I didn’t. But your mother kept calling the station, wanting us to check on you. She said you weren’t answering your phone and hadn’t told her you’d gotten home safely tonight.” He gave me a wry grin. “When I heard your name being tossed around, I volunteered to check Hollywoof myself to see what trouble you were causing.”

  Huh. Ma’s constant worrying had come in handy for once.

  Before we could leave, a few paramedics checked out my foot. Diagnosing it as a mild sprain, they provided me with an ice pack.

  Then they proceeded to fuss over Marshmallow, who hissed at them.

  I patted his head. “After your paw-some attack, they’re just making sure you’re fe-line okay.”