Six Cats a Slayin'

by Miranda James

  “You don’t know anything much about her, do you?” I asked, a little surprised.

  “No, I don’t,” Kanesha said. “She just turned up in Athena one day, it seems. No roots, no checkable background, but she seemed to have plenty of money. If I can find out who she really was, I’ll be able to find out who poisoned her, and why.”

  TWENTY

  “That’s really strange,” I said. “She has a driver’s license, though.”

  “Yes, but I don’t quite know how she got one,” Kanesha replied. “You have to have your birth certificate, two proofs of residence, and your Social Security card.”

  “Have you found a Social Security card or a birth certificate among her effects?” I asked.

  “Not so far,” Kanesha said. “If she has them, they’re well hidden. They might be in a safe deposit box at a bank.”

  “Did you find any kind of legal documents?” I asked.

  Kanesha shook her head. “We’re still searching the house. I think something’s surely bound to turn up before too much longer.”

  “Unless she paid cash for that house and the three others she bought, wouldn’t there be some kind of bank trail?”

  “Another angle we’re looking into,” Kanesha said. “This could be a tough one to crack, I have to say. No emergency contact information that I could find, other than that assistant of hers, Jincy Bruce.”

  “Does she know anything?” I asked.

  “If she does, she’s hiding it well,” Kanesha said. “I’m going to be questioning her again, though. She must know something, even if she doesn’t think it’s important.”

  “For your sake, I hope so,” I said. “You said you had some questions for me when you texted earlier.”

  “Right.” Kanesha consulted her notebook. “First, have you remembered anything else about last night, some detail you might have overlooked?”

  I hesitated. This was the point when I needed to tell her about the argument I had witnessed between Gerry and Billy Albritton—plus the fact that I thought I saw him leaving her house last night.

  “There are two things,” I replied. “First, there was an argument I overheard between Gerry and Councilman Albritton.” I gave the few details I had to share, and she frowned.

  “I wasn’t aware that he knew her,” Kanesha said.

  “Melba talked to him about Gerry, and he swore up and down that he didn’t know who she was,” I said. “If he wasn’t lying about that, then what was he doing having an argument with her? It wasn’t too smart of him to let the neighbors see him with her if he’s trying to deny that he knows her.”

  Kanesha snorted. “He’s got a short fuse. In my experience, he usually acts before he thinks about the consequences. If he was really angry with her about something, he probably didn’t stop to think about it.”

  “I don’t know much about him,” I said. “He doesn’t represent this area.”

  “Count yourself lucky,” Kanesha said. “You mentioned two things. What’s the other one?”

  “I think he—Billy, that is—might have been in the house last night during the party.”

  Kanesha’s eyes narrowed. “When did you see him?”

  “I saw him not too long before Gerry collapsed,” I said. “Stewart and Haskell were ready to leave. I was standing in the hall with Stewart, and I looked over his shoulder to see Haskell coming toward us. Behind him, going out the front door, was a man I thought was Billy Albritton.”

  “Are you sure it was Billy?” Kanesha asked.

  “No,” I said with some reluctance. “I’m not prepared to swear to it. It was only a quick glimpse, and I don’t really know him. I simply thought the man looked like him.”

  “Okay, let’s think about this. Earlier during the party, did you ever see a man you thought looked like him?”

  I thought about that, and I could tell that Kanesha was getting restless by the time I replied. “No, I can’t say that I did. I mean, I circulated a fair bit, I suppose, and saw a lot of people, but no man who looked like that.”

  “Then it’s possible you really did see Billy Albritton,” Kanesha said. “And you saw him leave not too long before Gerry Albritton collapsed and died.”

  “Yes,” I said. Now I was concerned that she was going to fasten on the councilman as her chief suspect. I had to admit that she had grounds for her suspicions, but she would have to have more evidence to go on than what I had provided.

  “Haskell didn’t mention seeing him,” Kanesha said, “though it sounds like he could have, if Billy had to pass by him to go out the door.”

  “I couldn’t say,” I replied. “You’ll have to go into that with Haskell. He was ready to go home, and he may not have been paying attention. He was concentrating on finding Stewart, I think.”

  “Melba didn’t mention him, either, when I questioned her,” Kanesha said. “Are they friends?”

  I shrugged. “Friendly, at least. I don’t know that they’re particularly good friends. You know Melba, she seems to know everyone. You’re not thinking she could be protecting him by not telling you he was there, are you?”

  Kanesha responded with a question of her own. “Did she know about the argument you overheard?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I told her about it earlier, during the party. That was my first opportunity to talk to her about it in person.”

  “Did she seem upset by it?”

  “No, not at all,” I said. “Simply curious, like me. She told me she would talk to him again, though, and try to worm the truth out of him.”

  A faint smile creased Kanesha’s lips. “If anyone can, Melba can. It’s a good thing she never went to law school. I wouldn’t want to face her in court.”

  I had to laugh at that. “I wouldn’t, either, and she’s one of my closest friends.”

  “I’ll have to talk to him,” Kanesha said. “Even if you can’t swear to it, it’s a possibility I have to explore. If he was there, he had the opportunity to poison her drink.”

  Kanesha seemed to be in a cooperative mood, and as long as it lasted, I would try to find out what I could. “Did your deputies or the police ever find that snifter?” I asked.

  “No. Whoever picked it up—and it had to be the killer, I think—managed to get it out of there without anyone noticing.”

  “Do you think the killer left the party then?” I asked. “Surely he wouldn’t hang around.”

  “It would have been the smart thing to do,” Kanesha replied. “I gathered from Ms. Bruce that guests were coming and going pretty steadily.”

  “Unless,” I said slowly, “it would have looked odd if he was gone when the police arrived.”

  “How do you mean?” Kanesha asked.

  I thought about that briefly. “Okay, here’s a scenario. The killer has poisoned Gerry’s brandy. He could have left right after he managed to do it, but he might have wanted to stay and watch. Have the satisfaction of seeing her die.” Horrible thought. So cold-blooded. “If he did stay, he might have been having a conversation with a person or several people, and if he disappeared when Gerry collapsed, they might remember that and tell the police. It would look suspicious, wouldn’t it?”

  “To me it would,” Kanesha said. “Good points. I’m going to be questioning a number of the guests for a second time, and I’m going to work that in. It might spark a memory.”

  “I have to confess that I have done my best not to think about last night,” I said. “I wasn’t totally successful, of course, but I didn’t run through the events in my mind. I’ll do that, though, and if I come up with anything else that might be pertinent, I’ll let you know.”

  “Thank you,” Kanesha replied. After scanning a couple of pages in her notebook, she stood. “I think that’s all for now. You’ve given me a promising new lead, and I’m going to follow that up.”

  “Anything to hel
p,” I said as I saw her to the front door. I called to Diesel once the door was shut. “She’s gone now, boy.”

  Diesel emerged from the living room and trilled. He followed me into the kitchen, where I checked the clock. Enough time had passed since Azalea left, I decided. The roast should be ready by now.

  Diesel watched me closely while I ate. I knew he wanted bites of the roast beef, but he couldn’t have any because of the onions Azalea put in the pot with the beef. Instead, I gave him an occasional green bean, and he made do with those. I really needed to stop feeding him from the table, but it was difficult to break the habit. Besides, he could put on the most pitiful look when he wanted something, and I felt powerless to resist.

  After I cleaned up the kitchen and put away the leftovers, I thought about calling Melba to tell her about my conversation with Kanesha. Then I realized that Kanesha probably would not want me to do that. She might have already talked to Melba, but I figured if she had, Melba might have called me by now. I wished I could talk to Helen Louise, but this was one of her nights to close down the bistro. I wouldn’t be able to talk to her until around ten or ten thirty.

  I decided to spend time with the kittens. They needed more interaction with people, and I probably hadn’t been giving them enough of that. I couldn’t let all of them out at once because I might be up all night long trying to find them once they got loose. Instead I settled on bringing two of them at a time out of the cage and playing with them. Two I could manage, and Diesel played with them, too.

  Two hours passed before I was aware of it, and I was ready to turn out the lights and head upstairs. I left the hall light on for Haskell and Stewart. The latter had come back in with Dante and then had gone out again while I was talking to Kanesha. Diesel, after a visit to his litter box, came upstairs and joined me on the bed.

  I picked up my current book and settled down to read. I had chosen an old favorite by Margery Allingham, The Tiger in the Smoke. I had read it at least twice already, but I’ve always thought that my favorites were worth rereading, and more than once. In a way, I considered it spending time with a good friend. By doing this on a regular basis, I knew I was missing opportunities to read new books and perhaps discover new favorites, but the pull of old friends was irresistible.

  I drifted off at some point. When my cell phone rang, my book lay atop my chest and my neck felt a little stiff. I grabbed the cell phone, vaguely noticing that the time read a few minutes past ten.

  To my surprise, the voice on the other end was not the one I expected. Sean said, “Dad, sorry if I woke you, but I need to talk to you.”

  “What’s wrong?” I came fully awake, terrified that something had happened to Alex and baby Rosie.

  “There’s no emergency,” Sean said. “Only this is the first time today I’ve had time to myself long enough to call you.”

  I could hear the exhaustion and stress in his tone. “Alex isn’t doing any better?”

  “No,” he replied. “I’ve been trying to talk to her about a nanny, but she says she won’t listen and starts crying and saying I think she’s a terrible mother. I just don’t know what to do. I’m not sleeping, I’m up to my eyeballs in work with no end in sight, and I can’t deal with Alex anymore. What should I do to help her? We can’t go on like this much longer.”

  I had feared that the situation might come to a crisis point like this. Alex desperately needed help, but the poor child was so wrapped up in misery she was pushing away any attempt to help her. Always a high-achiever in everything she did, she couldn’t cope with a situation she wasn’t able to control. Her loved ones were going to have to intervene to solve the problem.

  The question was, how?

  TWENTY-ONE

  I overslept the next morning by nearly three hours. Having been up until about two a.m., I couldn’t drag myself out of bed at the usual time.

  During my conversation with Sean last night I had suggested he call Alex’s best friend, Caroline, right away and ask her to come to the house to talk to Alex. They had known each other since the fifth grade and had been like sisters ever since. I went over as well. Stewart was in the kitchen when I left, and I hurriedly explained where I was going and why.

  At the last minute I decided to take Diesel with me. He was fond of Alex, and she of him. I thought his presence might help somehow.

  Caroline was there when I arrived. She already had the situation in hand, as I expected she would. She was deeply shocked by Alex’s condition. Alex hadn’t said anything to her about her struggles. Caroline’s husband’s sister-in-law, Anne Marie, was a therapist. Caroline had called Anne Marie to assist, and she arrived not long after I did. While I looked after Sean and baby Rosie, the two women took care of Alex. Diesel stayed with them for half an hour or so; then he came to find me and baby Rosie.

  Much of the time I spent with my son was spent listening to his self-recriminations. Sean insisted on blaming himself for not having asked Caroline for help sooner. I didn’t try to argue with him. Once he’d had a chance to rest and could see things more clearly, I would talk to him.

  Anne Marie turned out to be a godsend. As Caroline told us later, the therapist dealt kindly but firmly with Alex and got her to agree to go to the hospital. Alex was badly run down and at the point of complete collapse. Around one thirty Sean and Anne Marie took Alex to the emergency room, and Caroline stayed with Rosie. She insisted that I go home, and knowing how capable Caroline was, I didn’t argue.

  The hospital planned to keep Alex overnight for observation and to also get her rehydrated; then they would let her go home. In the meantime there was stored breast milk at home for Rosie, along with formula if needed.

  I felt depressed when I got up late the next morning. Christmas would be upon us soon, and Alex might not feel up to being with a large group of people. To celebrate without her seemed wrong somehow, but I knew she would feel guilty if she found out that we didn’t because of her. I would figure something out. We could hardly all crowd into her bedroom to have a party.

  I had completely forgotten that Frank was due this morning to install the video camera to monitor the front door. By the time I remembered and hurried downstairs to see if he was there, he was finishing the setup. I found him in the living room. The kittens were playing noisily, and Diesel lay beside the cage watching them. I rubbed his head briefly before addressing my son-in-law.

  “Frank, I’m so sorry, I completely forgot you were coming,” I said. “I didn’t get to bed until two this morning.”

  He held up his hand. “It’s okay, Charlie, you don’t have to explain. Sean called Laura this morning to let her know what was going on.” He shook his head. “Alex has been needing help, and it sounds like she’s getting it. I feel bad for her and Sean. I feel incredibly lucky that Laura didn’t go through this.”

  “Yes, it’s been such a difficult time for everyone concerned,” I said. “I hope Sean didn’t stay all night at the hospital and then try to go to work.”

  “He came home for a while this morning. He told Laura that he didn’t care if the office burned to the ground. He was going back to the hospital as soon as Azalea’s cousin’s daughter could get there to start looking after Rosie. Caroline has gone home but is planning to come back later.”

  “Then I won’t call him. I’ll wait until he calls me,” I said. “He looked like he was at the point of collapse himself last night. I was afraid he might end up in the hospital with Alex.”

  “Now that Alex is getting the help she needs,” Frank said, “I’m sure he’ll bounce back pretty quickly. One thing I’ve learned about him and Laura is how resilient they both are.” He smiled. “I think they take after you in that regard.”

  “Yes, they are resilient,” I said. “Whether they take after me is another matter.” I decided to change the subject. “Everything is set with the video camera now?”

  “Almost,” Frank said. “We
need to download an app to your phone and install it on your laptop, or the desktop if you prefer.”

  “Phone and laptop will be sufficient, I think.” I gave him my phone.

  While he downloaded the app, I retrieved my laptop from the den. Once he finished with the laptop, he showed me how to access any video from both devices.

  “Pretty simple,” I said. “At least this part is, anyway.”

  “It was an easy job,” Frank said. “The camera is motion-activated, so it won’t record unless movement triggers it. It will keep recording as long as there is some activity. There are actually two cameras. One is hidden in the wreath on the door. The other one is sitting in one of the shrubs, aimed at the living room windows.”

  “That’s great,” I said. “I hope the object of all this didn’t see what you were doing.”

  “I don’t think so,” Frank replied. “I never saw anyone, and it took me only about three minutes to place the cameras outside.”

  “What about wires?” I said. “Are they visible?”

  Frank grinned. “No, I used invisible wire.”

  If I hadn’t still been so tired, I would have picked up on his meaning right away. As it was, I think I stared blankly at him until he said, “They’re wireless, Charlie.”

  “Right,” I said. “Sorry, I’m slow on the uptake this morning.”

  “Understood.” Frank grabbed his tool bag and another bag that I presumed had contained the equipment he brought. “If you have any problems or questions, let me know. I need to get to my office at school to pick up something, and then I’m heading home to take care of Number One Son while Laura goes to the grocery store.”

  I thanked him again and let him out the front door. Diesel meowed at me, rather insistently, and I wondered what he was trying to tell me. Then I realized what it was. The kittens were overdue to be fed. I checked the time: nearly nine forty-five.

  Azalea greeted me when the cat and I entered the kitchen. I apologized for being late, but she shook her head. “No need. I know what’s going on.”