Farewell to Felines

by Kathi Daley

  “That won’t be a problem at all,” I replied. “I imagine Finn will be by to speak with you too at some point. I’m wondering if you know anything that would explain what happened to Thea.”

  “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to kill her. She did have a way of getting under the skin of some of the people she interacted with, but I don’t think she made anyone mad enough to attack her.”

  “Do you remember the last time you spoke to her?”

  “Friday. She called me to say she had some things to take care of for her most recent temp job, so she needed to cancel lunch on Saturday.”

  “Do you know who she was temping for?”

  “I think it was the real estate office in Pelican Bay. She temped here for two weeks when I was visiting my sister in Portland, and then she worked for that photo shop down by the wharf. I think that gig was only for a weekend, so she may have started at the real estate office on Monday; I’m not sure. I worked a lot of extra hours last week, trying to get caught up after being out of town, so other than two very brief phone conversations, Thea and I hadn’t spoken since before I left on my trip.”

  “Did she say anything that would indicate she was worried about anything?” I asked.

  “No. We spoke briefly on Monday of last week to set up the lunch on Saturday, and then for a minute when she called to cancel on Friday. She didn’t say anything that would make me think she was in some sort of trouble.”

  “Gigi from the library said Thea asked her about county legal codes. Did she say anything to you about that?”

  “No, never. I do know she temped at a law office a while back. I’m not sure which one, but I bet the temp agency she worked for would know.”

  “Thanks. I’ll check with them.”

  Cody and I chatted with Kim for a few more minutes and then said our good-byes. We decided to stop off at the real estate office she’d referred to before going to the grocery store to pick up something to make for dinner and then heading home for our meeting with the entire sleuthing gang. We learned from the Realtor that Thea had been hired to answer phones and take messages, but it had been strictly a Monday-through-Friday thing; he hadn’t asked her to do anything for him on Saturday. He did remember her mentioning she had a job on Saturday but would be available the following week if he needed her. I asked if she’d given any indication where that job was, but he hadn’t asked and she hadn’t said. We thanked him for his time and headed to the market.

  Chapter 4

  By the time Cody and I reached the market, the rain was coming down in sheets. He found a parking space as close to the door as he could and we made a mad dash from the truck to the store. News of the building storm must have made the rounds because most of the people we ran in to were stocking up on batteries, bottled water, and candles. Deciding we’d buy ingredients for a meal that could be made on my gas grill should the power go out, we settled on thick steaks, fresh salad, and crusty sourdough bread. For dessert, I chose brownies from the bakery.

  We gathered everything we thought we’d need and got in line. While a stormy night didn’t seem like a good time to hold a strategy session, everyone except Tara lived on Maggie’s property. I’d called her earlier to tell her to bring her cat and an overnight bag and plan to stay with me rather than attempting to drive home. When she called back she said Parker Hamden, the doctor she’d been dating, had asked her to have dinner, so she’d have to miss the meeting. The repairs to the cat lounge had been completed and she was planning to be open the following day.

  “I see you’re stocking up just in case,” Erica Jennings, one of my former history teachers, said as she got in line behind us.

  “Better safe than sorry,” I answered. “We’re supposed to get quite a bit of rain and the peninsula road does tend to flood.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, this storm can move back out to sea. A little rain is a good thing, but this storm has already brought more than anyone needs.”

  “Cassie told me school was closed today.”

  Erica nodded. “And if there’s flooding they’ll close it tomorrow too. By the way, I ran into Finn at the gas station this morning and he told me that Thea Blane had died. I didn’t know her well, but I did meet her once at the library. He was in a hurry, so I didn’t have time to ask him about the details. Was it an accident?”

  “I can’t speak to the specific cause of death, but it appears foul play was involved. We’ll know more once an autopsy is performed.”

  “It’s such a shame. It seems our little island has suffered more than its share of violent deaths in the past couple of years.”

  “I don’t disagree with you about that. I’ve been talking to some of Thea’s friends and co-workers, but so far no strong motive has come to light.”

  “I’m not sure I should say anything, given the fact she’s gone and therefore unable to defend herself, but one of the other teachers at the high school told me that Thea had been fired from one of her temp jobs for inappropriate conduct.”

  “Inappropriate conduct? What do you mean by that?”

  “I understand she was caught going through files she hadn’t been cleared to access. Please keep in mind I came across this information secondhand and have no direct knowledge of any wrongdoing on Thea’s part, but it might be a good idea to check with the temp agency she worked for.”

  “I will. And thanks. At this point any lead is a worthwhile lead. They may not pan out, but I’ve found the more you dig, the more you find.”

  Cody and I didn’t get home until it was after five. I went to see to the cats in the sanctuary while Cody took Max out for a quick walk. Siobhan saw us pull in and let us know she’d be over in a bit, though Finn was running late and wouldn’t be joining us before six. The steaks wouldn’t take long to grill, so I figured we’d put them on when he arrived.

  ******

  By the time everyone arrived at the cabin the storm had intensified. Not only was the rain coming down at a rate of more than an inch an hour, but the wind had picked up, which caused the surf to pound the island from the west. It was warm and cozy in my cabin and we still had power, so I decided to enjoy my family and friends and not worry about what the storm was going to do.

  Finn started off by telling us that he’d received a preliminary report from the medical examiner. He’d verified that Thea had died as a result of trauma to the head. It appeared as if she had been hit with a cylindrical object, but a search of the house hadn’t resulted in any objects that matched the size and shape the ME had identified being found. Finn also said that lividity put the time of death at between two and five on Saturday afternoon.

  I asked if he had spoken to Thea’s neighbors. Only two of the five closest neighbors had been home on Saturday, and of the two, neither had noticed anything suspicious. Finn planned to interview the people who lived behind Thea the following day.

  “How about you?” Finn asked me. “Have you uncovered anything that might be relevant?”

  “Not really. Kim spoke to Thea on Friday, but only briefly. Thea told her that she had a job and needed to cancel their Saturday lunch date. So far no one I’ve spoken to seems to know who she planned to work for on Saturday. I think we need to contact the temp agency to get a list of her assignments.”

  “I did that today,” Siobhan spoke up. “Thea temped at the dentist’s office where her friend Kim works two weeks ago. She had a job for a photographer over the weekend and then worked in a realty office this past week. According to her supervisor, she wasn’t working this weekend, and other than the job with the photographer, she didn’t normally take jobs on Saturday and Sunday.”

  “So, if she did have a job on Saturday it must have been something she got herself rather than going through the agency,” I said. “I ran into Mrs. Jennings at the market just now. She’d heard from another teacher that Thea had been fired from one of her temp jobs when she got into files she hadn’t been authorized to access. Did the person you spoke to at the temp agency m
ention that?”

  “No,” Siobhan said. “But I didn’t ask about it either. I can call back tomorrow.”

  “Find out if Thea had a temp job at a law office recently. Gigi at the library told me that she had been looking for information pertaining to local statutes.”

  “Okay. I’ll ask about that as well.”

  I glanced at Finn. “We need to take another look at her house. Maybe she left a note about where she planned to be on Saturday.”

  “The crime scene guys have been over the place. I’m sure they would have found a note if there was one.”

  “Maybe. But I’ve found in the past that they’re so busy looking for blood, hair, and clothing fibers they miss clues that are a bit subtler.”

  Finn shrugged. “Okay, but it’s raining pretty hard. We should go now, before the road floods.”

  It was at that point that Apollo jumped up and ran to the door. It appeared he was in favor of searching Thea’s house again as well. We decided to take Cody’s truck because it was four-wheel drive with a high road clearance in case of flooding. I let Siobhan sit in the front, where there was more room, and was sandwiched in the back between Finn and Danny, with Apollo on my lap. It was slow going making our way through the flooded streets, but eventually we arrived at our destination.

  Finn had a key he’d had the locksmith make, and we all followed him inside. As he’d indicated, it appeared the crime scene guys had gone through things. I set Apollo on the floor and watched to see what he would do while Danny and Cody headed upstairs and Finn and Siobhan went into the kitchen.

  “Okay, kitty. Time to do your thing. What do you want us to find?”

  Apollo trotted over to a small desk against the wall near the stairs, where the hallway separated the den and the main living area. There was a potted plant on top of the desk, and cubbies at the back of the writing surface, packed with paperwork. To the left of the writing area, in front of a cubbyhole filled with envelopes was a small calendar. On the page with last Saturday’s date it said Coffee Café at nine. I wondered who Thea was meeting. Maybe someone from the coffee bar would remember who she was with.

  I pulled the envelopes out of the first of the cubbyholes. It looked like Thea had filed recent bills there for easy access. I found a bill from the power company as well as one from the refuse company. There was an envelope from the bank and one from a credit card company. None seemed to be related to her death, so I replaced them and pulled out the envelopes in the middle cubby. The envelopes there looked like personal correspondence: cards she received for her recent birthday and several letters from friends. I felt strange reading her private mail, so I replaced them as well.

  The third storage space—the one that had been behind the calendar—held a small notebook. Inside was a list of what looked to be initials followed by dates. I wasn’t sure if these were important, so I decided to show it to Finn. The only other thing in that cubby was a coupon for two-for-one drinks at Shots on Thursday evenings.

  I opened the center desk drawer and began rummaging around. There was an assortment of pens and pencils, sticky notes, and paper clips. Apollo was sitting on the floor next to me, seemingly content, so I had to think whatever I was supposed to find would be exactly where I was looking. In addition to the shallow center drawer were two deeper ones to one side. The top of the two held file folders that I quickly thumbed through. I didn’t find anything of interest, though Thea’s laptop was in the bottom drawer. I was about to try to log on to it when a loud crack of thunder shook the small house. Finn and Siobhan joined me from the kitchen.

  “I think we should get back before the road floods and we can’t,” Siobhan said.

  I looked toward the stairs. “I’ll let Cody and Danny know.”

  “We’re right behind you,” Cody said as he came down the stairs with a box in his arms.

  “What do you have?” I asked.

  “Danny found a box of photos. I don’t know if they’re important or will lead to any clues, but I figured we could bring them with us and take a closer look at the cabin.”

  The trip back to the peninsula was a tense one as rain drenched the landscape and lightning lit up the sky. By the time we made it back I’d pretty much decided it had been foolish for us to have gone out into the storm in the first place. Max was anxiously awaiting our return, which made me feel bad we’d left him behind, although there really hadn’t been any room for him in the truck.

  Cody tossed a log on the fire, I made coffee, and Finn got Siobhan settled on the sofa with one of Aunt Maggie’s homemade quilts. It did my heart good to see the way he doted on her even more than usual while she was pregnant.

  “One thing’s for sure,” Danny said as he began thumbing through the photos. “Thea took a lot of pictures.”

  I sat down next to him as he sorted through them. Some of the photos were recent, some were old. It seemed there were photos of almost everywhere on the island. “It looks like some of these were taken in the hollow,” I said.

  “Do you think that’s relevant?” Siobhan asked.

  “I’m not sure. On one hand Thea has photos of the entire island, so having photos of the hollow isn’t odd. However, Apollo is the one who led me to Thea’s body, and he did first appear to me at the entrance to the hollow. It makes me want to find a link between the two. I suppose it’s possible there is a link, but it’s probably more likely there isn’t.”

  “Some of these photos are pretty old,” Danny pointed out. “This one was taken before the new wing was added onto the church.”

  “Look how young Father Kilian is,” I said after Danny handed me a photo that showed him standing in front of the church with a young woman I didn’t recognize.

  “I doubt we’ll find any clues among the photos unless we know what we’re looking for,” I concluded. “Although I guess the photos taken from the hollow do tell us Thea was most likely there at some point. Some of these photos look like they were taken recently.”

  “Do you recognize this man?” Danny asked, handing me a photo of a man who looked to be in his mid to late twenties. He wore a fishing vest and a floppy hat and was staring at something off in the distance.

  “He doesn’t look familiar. Why? Do you know him?”

  “I don’t think so, but he looks familiar. I guess I might have seen him around town. Maybe at O’Malley’s.”

  “That’s a good bet because you spend a lot of your time drinking and playing pool there,” I teased.

  “I’m bored. It’ll be better when the whales return and I’m back to eighteen-hour days.”

  “Isn’t this Thea with her ex?” Siobhan asked, passing me a photo of Thea and Steve Blane at the park during what looked to be a community picnic.

  “It is. And they look so happy.” Both were smiling at something that must have been beyond the view of the camera. Steve had his hand on Thea’s shoulder and she had her head tilted toward his. “I’m pretty sure this was taken last summer. I can just make out the faces of the people in the background and I’m sure this one here,” I pointed to the photo, “is Father Bartholomew.”

  “If Lilly was jealous of the fact that Steve was friends with his ex she may have had reason to be,” Siobhan said after I passed back the photo. “Although there’s nothing in the photo to suggest Thea and Steve had been hooking up romantically, the photo does have an intimate feel to it.” Siobhan looked at me. “Did you ever have the chance to talk to Lilly?”

  “No, not yet. But I see what you mean about the photo. I’ll make a point of speaking to her tomorrow.” I looked at the photo again. I knew Lilly and Steve were engaged, but the photo of Steve and Thea seemed to have captured an intimacy you wouldn’t think would exist between two people who had been divorced for a decade. I wondered if we’d just stumbled onto our motive.

  Chapter 5

  Wednesday, March 14

  After we’d looked through the photos last night we’d tried to access Thea’s computer, but it was password protected. Cody
said he’d work on getting into it and Finn took the photos. By the time we broke for the night we were all exhausted. Cody helped me with the cats in the sanctuary and then we settled in with Max and Apollo, while Finn, Siobhan, and Danny went to the main house. When I woke up in the morning the storm had passed.

  Luckily, I didn’t have to be at work until ten during the winter, which gave me plenty of time to take Max for a quick run. Living on the beach and being able to run along the water’s edge was renewing and inspiring on any day, but the day after a storm, when everything was fresh and damp, was one of my favorite times. Today’s jaunt would need to be a short one, so I took a deep breath and relaxed as I settled into a pace that allowed me to meditate on my day as I enjoyed the beauty around me.

  The residents of Madrona Island generally enjoyed a slower pace in the winter. The ferry only stopped here twice each day; during the busy summer months it docked five times during the weekdays, six times on Saturday and Sunday. Given that a large percentage of the bookstore’s sales came from visitors as they debarked the ferry, Tara and I enjoyed a slower pace as well.

  I was at the point in my run when I was preparing to turn around and head back to the cabin to get ready for work, when Max trotted up to me with something in his mouth. “What do you have?” I asked my wet, sandy dog.

  Max dropped the object, which turned out to be a man’s black leather wallet, at my feet. I picked it up and opened it to find a wad of cash, several credit cards, a frozen yogurt punch card, a University of Washington ID card, and a driver’s license that belonged to Travis Long. The wallet was completely soaked and the yogurt punch card had all but disintegrated, but I figured Travis would want his driver’s license and credit cards back, so I took the wallet with me.