The Cat That Was Bigger Than You
The Cat’s Paw Cozy Mysteries - Book 5
Fiona Snyckers
Copyright © 2019 Fiona Snyckers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Produced in South Africa
Contents
Untitled
A note on the text
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
The Cat’s Paw Cozy Mysteries Will Return
About the Author
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A note on the text
This novel uses American spelling and idiom, conforming to Standard American English.
Chapter 1
Fay Penrose had no trouble sleeping. Normally she went out like a light the moment her head touched the pillow, exhausted by the demands of running a guesthouse on an island off the coast of Cornwall.
It was a popular holiday destination, so her rooms were usually fully occupied.
Tonight, for some reason, sleep eluded her. She decided to pop outside for a breath of air to see if that would help to summon the Sandman. Throwing on a tracksuit over her night clothes, she let herself out the kitchen door and climbed down the cliff steps leading to the boardwalk that ran for three miles along the eastern side of the island.
It was August, the height of the summer holiday season. Bluebell Island had been enjoying a spell of warm weather, but there was no denying that the sun was in retreat. It was only ten o’clock but already fully dark. In mid-June it would still have been twilight. Despite the warm night air, it was a reminder that fall would soon be upon them, presenting new challenges for a B&B owner who wanted to keep her rooms booked up throughout the cooler months.
Fay stepped off the boardwalk and onto the pebbly beach. Bluebell Island had one strip of sandy beach, but it was further north and closer to the village.
The sea was a heaving mass of black velvet. Glimmers of starlight reflected off the waves, and far in the distance were some twinkly lights that indicated ships rounding the eastern side of the island. To the north, the white light of Bluff Lighthouse sliced the darkness. To the south, the yellow light of Penhale Lighthouse guarded the south side of the island. Bluff Lighthouse had recently been dragged into the twenty-first century and now boasted a fully automatic electric light. The ancient system of gas-powered light and reflective lenses was still in place for tourists to admire, but the harbormaster’s office had learnt the hard way that it could be tampered with.
Fay turned so that the sea was at her back. Part of the reason for her sleeplessness was a certain person who was on her mind a lot these days. That person wasn’t to the east in mainland England, but to the west – very far to the west. He was in New York City, trying to reconnect with his girlfriend.
Fay sighed. It had been three weeks now and she was missing him. Even though she had accepted that they would never be more than friends, she missed seeing him on a daily basis.
She turned back to face the sea, overcome by a huge yawn. This was working. She felt as though she could fall asleep now.
She turned and walked along the beach a little way, crunching pebbles underfoot as she went. Tomorrow would be another busy day as they were at full occupancy. She needed to get her sleep.
She walked back, ready to tackle the steep flight of stone steps that led up the cliff towards Penrose House. She had just set her foot on the first step when she heard a sound that froze the blood in her veins.
It was a sound she had only heard in nature documentaries, never in real life. It sounded like a deep cough. Even though she had never heard the sound before, there was a long-ago ancestor inside her that recognized it instantly. It was the sound of a large predator.
Every hair on Fay’s head stood on end. It was a sound that shouldn’t have been there - a sound that didn’t remotely belong on this island, or this country, or even this continent.
Fay began to run up the stairs, her movements jerky and uncoordinated. Her heart pounded as panic threatened to overwhelm her.
There was no way of telling how close the sound had been. In the still night air, sound could travel great distances. It could have been right next to her – the hot breath of the predator tickling the back of her neck. Or it could have been a mile away. Her body didn’t care. Her fight-or-flight reflex had been activated and it had decided on flight.
Fay stumbled several times on her way up the steps, her breath coming in labored pants as she knocked her shins and knees mercilessly against the rocks.
When she got to the top, she set off at a stumbling run towards home. At Penrose House, she flung herself through the kitchen door, slamming and locking it behind her. Two cats that had been dozing in front of the wood-burning range looked up in sleepy surprise as she stood in the middle of the kitchen dragging air into her lungs.
She was already starting to feel foolish. Had she imagined that blood-freezing cough? How could it possibly have been real? Perhaps it had been a rock falling from the cliffs. Whatever it was had spoken directly to her primitive self – the ancient part of her that remembered what it was like to be pursued across the savannah by a large predator.
Fay was starting to think her mind had been playing tricks on her.
Still shaking, she took off her tracksuit and shoes and hopped into bed. Within seconds she had been joined by three much smaller predators. Ivan, Whisky, and Sprite arranged themselves around her. The presence of the cats was comforting. She stretched out a hand and sank her fingers into Ivan’s thick fur.
“Do you have a cousin out there who is much bigger than I am?” she whispered into the dark.
Somehow, it didn’t seem likely. As Fay drifted off to sleep, she told herself she must have been imagining things.
“Maybe it was a fox,” said Morwen. “They can make strange sounds sometimes. But their call is more of a scream than a cough. Badgers make a kind of grunting, barking noise.”
Fay passed a stick of butter to her housekeeper. “Yes, maybe. It must have been something like that. I think I got spooked because it was so dark and lonely.”
They worked together as a well-oiled machine to prepare breakfast for the guests of the Cat’s Paw B&B. Morwen did the cooking, Fay did the baking, and they both set out the buffet and waited at table.
Morwen prepared scrambled eggs in a huge cast-iron frying pan while Fay drizzled frosting over her lemon squares. Morwen’s phone buzzed so she swapped the spatula to her other hand and pulled the phone out of her apron pocket to look
at the screen. The sound she made could only be described as a distressed squeak.
Fay turned around. “What’s wrong?”
“Maggie’s grandmother died.”
“Oh, no! How awful. Maggie said she had been ill, didn’t she?”
“With bronchitis, yes.” Morwen’s voice rose. “Not something life-threatening. You know she moved into that retirement village near us.”
“Yes. Maggie said. What was its name again? Sunset something. Sunset Acres. You can’t see much of it from the road, but it is supposed to be very nice.”
“She went into the frail-care unit while she was ill, but she was only supposed to be there for a couple of days. I can’t believe she’s dead.”
“Poor Maggie.” Fay felt tears pricking her eyes as she remembered how close her young cleaner was to her grandmother. “Poor all of them. They’re a loving family, the Binnies. Tell her to take as much time off as she needs.”
Morwen frowned at her phone. “That’s the strange thing. She says she’s coming in to work today.”
“Oh, no. She mustn’t do that. She should stay home with her mother. She’ll be needed.”
“She says she wants to speak to you.”
“Oh? Well, she’s welcome to do that. But afterwards she must go home.”
They worked on side by side. Whatever else might be happening, the guests had to be fed. There was no time for dawdling. Breakfast service started at seven and there were always a few early birds who arrived at that time.
Fay set out the cereals, mueslis, yoghurts, fruits and fruit salads, cold cuts and cheeses, and various juices on the buffet. Then she went back for the selection of baked goods she had prepared that morning and the night before.
Today, the guests could choose between three types of bread, plain or toasted, two types of muffins – blueberry or choc chip, the frosted lemon squares, and a batch of freshly baked croissants.
Fay returned to the kitchen to find Morwen looking at her phone again and making more squeaking noises.
“Not more bad news?”
“Not exactly. You know I’m on the village WhatsApp group …”
“Sure. One of us has to be. I’m not because I don’t like getting five million messages a day.”
“I like to know what’s going on. But listen to this - you’re not the only person who thought they heard a large animal moving around the island last night.”
Fay turned to look at her. “Really? What happened?”
“Nella Harcourt says it looks as though her garbage was attacked by a large dog last night. And Colonel Trengove says he saw a big shadow move past his window at about eleven pm. He sounds pretty freaked out about it. He swears that it wasn’t a human or a dog. He and Nella are having a bit of a spat about it on the group. Then there was Mr. Trelawney who heard strange noises at around midnight. He lives close to the docks. He says he heard a series of grunts and growls that sounded like they belonged to a wildlife documentary. He thought it was coming from the neighbors’ TV. When he realized it was something outside his house, he bolted his doors and windows and went to bed.”
“How extremely strange.”
“Can I tell them what you heard last night?” Morwen was eager to be the bearer of new information.
“I guess. I can’t see the harm.”
“Thanks.” She started typing fast.
Breakfast service was a whirl of activity until nearly ten when the last of the holidaymakers left to take advantage of the good weather. Fay chatted to all her guests, but not one of them mentioned any sightings of strange animals. It would probably turn out to be an Irish Wolfhound or some other huge breed of dog. Fay was helping Morwen stack the dishwasher when nineteen-year-old Maggie Binnie burst into the kitchen.
“Maggie!” Fay went to give her a hug. “We were so sorry to hear about …”
“There’s no time for that now.” Maggie sounded close to tears. “I need you to investigate my grandmother’s death.”
Chapter 2
Fay encouraged Maggie to sit down. Then she switched the kettle on to make tea.
“You poor thing. You must be so upset. Of course, I’ll do anything I can to help. But what makes you think her death needs to be investigated? She had been ill, hadn’t she?”
Maggie pulled a tissue out of her purse and dabbed at her eyes. Normally the most confident young woman, she seemed to have been shattered by the news.
“Yes, she was sick, but it was just bronchitis. The doctor said she was responding well to the antibiotics. She was getting better every day, Fay. I saw her yesterday afternoon. She was much brighter. And she was only seventy. That’s no age at all in our family. The Binnies live into their nineties.”
Morwen nodded to Fay to keep talking to Maggie while she took over the tea-making duties.
“Was it Doc Dyer who was looking after her?” Fay asked.
“No, it was the young locum doctor that they got in to replace Dr. Dyer while he’s in America. Dr. Farlow, he’s called.”
Fay gave Maggie’s hand a squeeze. “Tell me everything that happened, Mags. You say you saw your grandmother yesterday afternoon? She’s your father’s mother, isn’t she?”
“That’s right. Sophia Binnie is her name. Her friends call her Sophy. We all went to visit her yesterday afternoon. She had been in the frail-care unit for a couple of days and the doctor had put her on cortisone and antibiotics. She was having physiotherapy for her chest. She looked quite well when we saw her. She said that Dr. Farlow was pleased with her progress. Apparently, he told her she could move back to her cottage soon. She was looking forward to it.”
Morwen put a mug of sweet tea in front of Maggie who sipped it gratefully.
“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” asked Fay. “But only if you don’t find it too upsetting. We can do this another time if you like.”
“No.” Maggie sipped her tea and dried her tears. “I’m okay. I want to do this now. It happened sometime in the night – last night. They have twenty-four-hour nursing in the frail-care unit, but it’s not exactly like a hospital. They’re not hooked up to machines with alarms on them. One of the nurses told my mother she heard sounds of a disturbance coming from my grandmother’s room. She pulled open the curtain and she found … she found …” Maggie’s voice was suspended by tears.
“Oh, Mags.” Fay passed her another tissue. “You really don’t have to do this. It’s all too recent and raw.”
Maggie shook her head. “I can do it. The sooner the better. Isn’t that what you always say about an investigation? That the first twenty-four hours are the most important?”
Fay had indeed said this in Maggie’s hearing, probably more than once. But that applied to cases where a crime had been committed. She wasn’t at all sure that a crime had been committed here.
Maggie took a breath and went on. “The nurse found my grandmother having a heart attack. She did everything she could to help her and even started CPR after her heart stopped, but it was no good. They phoned us at five-thirty this morning to tell us that she had passed.”
“The thing is, Maggie …” said Morwen. “I know that seventy might not seem very old to you, especially if your family is long-lived. But it’s not exactly young either. And the strain of illness combined with the medication might have been too much for her heart to bear. I know it’s hard to accept, but …”
“No!” Maggie sounded fierce. “She was fine. I saw her. She was getting better. She was looking forward to going home.” She put her face in her hands and started to sob. Fay and Morwen looked at each other over her head. It was awful to feel so helpless in the face of someone’s grief.
“Tell you what,” said Fay. “I’ll go down to Sunset Acres today to speak to the nurses and to Dr. Farlow. If I pick up any suggestion, even a whisper, of negligence or foul play, I promise I will investigate fully.”
Maggie clutched Fay’s wrist. “Will you? Will you really, Fay?”
“Yes, I really will.”
“Yes, it’s true. Obviously, I don’t have all the resources of a police department behind me anymore, but I know what I’m doing. I need you to trust me, Maggie. Can you do that? If I look into this fully and tell you that your grandmother died of natural causes, I need you to accept that.”
Maggie nodded. “I promise. I just need to know that someone didn’t do this to her. I need to believe it in my heart.”
“Then I should get started.” Fay stood up.
“That’s why I came in today. Otherwise I knew you and Morwen would have to spend all day cleaning the rooms.”
“No really, Mags. We can manage. You should go home now and be with your family.”
“My parents have got my brothers to support them. It drives me crazy to sit around idly. I need to be doing something with my hands. Let me work today, Fay. I need this.”
“Of course, darling. If that’s what you really want.”
Morwen nodded to show that she had the situation under control.
Sunset Acres retirement estate was six years old, according to its website.
It had been built in response to the needs of the aging population of Bluebell Island, but also to accommodate an influx of retired people from the mainland. About ten years earlier, Bluebell Island had become a destination place to retire. The mild climate, affordable standard of living, and leisurely pace of daily life made it an attractive place for older folk to settle.
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