Pattie continued, topping up her own tea with fresh brew. The tea chuckled into her cup as she poured slowly. “Well, once Mister Mosby fell, breaking the ladder that I saw around the side of the house today, Rebecca was in a sticky situation. Like she told us earlier: it would be a little suspicious for her to be connected to his death in some way. Even an accident would attract attention. Not knowing what else to do, she buried him in his own garden until she could figure something out, and hired a young lad from out of town, Alfred Hague, to fix the windows. A shame she never got around to removing the pieces of the ladder too, which is the only other evidence of the accident.”
“I asked that idiot handyman to do it,” Rebecca said quietly.
“I presume he was more preoccupied with his stolen van,” said Pattie. “Biscuit?”
The officers took one chocolate digestive each. Pattie put the plate back on the trolley, then took her tea to sit down comfortably. Jasper moved out of her spot and then repositioned himself on her lap.
“Rebecca hadn’t counted on a witness,” said Pattie – and gestured to Macy, who twitched her ears. “Even I didn’t know that Mister Mosby had a cat. Presumably the little one was very fond of him, because she kept coming back to her home to find him. I thought she was following me, but I suppose even old ladies can allow themselves a little vanity once in a while. Probably even the day of Mister Mosby’s death, Macy had already pawed away enough earth for Francine to discover the body of her husband-to-be. It must have been awful for her, especially suspecting that it was the man’s own daughter that had done the deed. I expect she would have rushed off to the police station the second she spotted it, desperate to get out of the house. Like me, she must not have gotten around to figuring out mobile phones yet. Anyway, desperate to stop Francine from reporting to the station, Rebecca did the first thing that came to mind and jumped into Master Hague’s van to chase her. It was probably some awful instinct that made her simply veer off the road to run Francine down. After that, it was just a matter of racing out of the village and abandoning the van.”
Pattie took a bag of treats out of her pocket and held one out for Macy. Macy sniffed and pinched the treat from her fingers, then crunched it noisy. “Horrible to think that it must have only been an hour or so later that you came to my doorstep with what you called a ‘stray cat’, hoping to ditch the one living soul in the village who knew your secret. Did you feel guilty about injuring Macy’s paw as you roughly caught her? For someone as ruthless to secretly bury her father and murder his fiancé, I’m surprised you didn’t just do away with Macy altogether.”
Rebecca looked at Macy mournfully. “I love cats. I really do. I know how weird it is, to care for a strange cat more than I did my own father…”
“That’s not too strange,” Pattie said quietly, stroking Macy gently. “What’s strange is that the man you dated, Jonathan, suspected you might do something like this and came all the way here to keep an eye on you. It was a shame that he was just as clueless as the rest of us, or he might have tried to stop you sooner. But I suppose that tonight was when he finally knew he had to get the truth out of you, and confronted you outside the house. I bet you must have thought you’d gotten away with everything once he fell and injured himself. It would have been terribly convenient if he’d died too, wouldn’t it?”
At first, Rebecca said nothing. She looked at Macy, then at the other cats around her, and finally at her own hands, which she wrung together. “You must think I’m a real monster. But I never meant for my father to … We were arguing, and he was up the ladder, and then I got angry and shook it … He fell, but I didn’t mean to kill him! But once he was gone, what could I do? You would all have thought I’d done it for the inheritance. And then when Francine found out, I panicked … God, I wish I’d never come to this village…!”
“You aren’t the only one,” said Pattie lowly. “Two bodies, one man in hospital, that poor boy nearly framed for what you did, and an injured kitty.”
“Not that I’m complaining, Mrs Lansbury, but how did you even piece all this together?” asked Constable Downey, scratching his head.
Pattie smiled. “It wasn’t me, exactly. It only became apparent to me ten minutes ago, when Jasper reacted to Rebecca’s lie. ‘I just don’t understand how someone could do something so evil, just for money,’ you said. Well, in reality you understand it all too well, don’t you, Miss Mosby?”
Juliette leaned forward to stroke Jasper. “Amazing. This cat should be on Britain’s Got Talent or something.”
“That’s what I said,” Constable Downey replied, delighted.
Rebecca lashed out with her foot. “I wish I had killed that stupid cat now! If it wasn’t them…”
Pattie stood. “One last thing. What is Macy’s real name?”
“I don’t know. If Dad ever told me, I didn’t remember it…”
“Well, perhaps you should think about what that means, in prison.”
The two police officers stood also. Constable Downey took out his cuffs. “Rebecca Mosby, I’m arresting you on suspicion of double homicide. You do not have to say anything. However, it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court…”
Chapter 8
~ 8 ~
As it happened, Doc Knight called on Pattie an hour or so later, worried that she might have been in shock after the ‘attack’. Pattie filled him in on the whole story.
“Good Lord, that’s quite a tale,” said Doc Knight, helping himself to a third shortbread biscuit. “We haven’t had such excitement since your son was in town!”
“Please, don’t remind me.”
“Well, it’s a good job some of his sleuthing skills rubbed off on you. Patricia, you can tell me. Are you feeling alright? It must have been quite an ordeal for you.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine. I’m a tough old bird. And I got a new lodger for the Home, who more than makes up for it.”
“Macy’s paw seems fine to me, and she certainly gave that young man a battering when she leapt at him. Poor chap, he’s gotten the worst out of this, when it seems he was just trying to help. He looks rather stable and I’m sure will wake up very soon, and then we can have some answers for sure.”
“Rebecca Mosby gave a full confession,” said Pattie. “Good for her. Any more lying and I think she would have burst. I don’t think she was cut out to be a villain; it just sort of happened to her. She made a lot of very bad decisions, and now she’s paying for it.”
Elliot smiled sadly. “You and I both know, everybody makes bad decisions. We just have to make the best of what happens after that.”
Pattie returned the smile and they clinked teacups with a bittersweet chime.
“I think it was poor Archie, that cat in the corner there, who made me think about runaways. Who knows what made Rebecca run away from her father in the first place, but life can be hard on the youngsters.”
“Many of them don’t have our ability to deal with things,” laughed Elliot. “Or rather, our resilience to not knowing how to deal with anything!”
“Here, here!”
“Well, I’d best be going, Patricia. Thanks again for the tea.” Doc Knight stood and gave Pattie a warm hug.
“Don’t worry, Elliot,” said Pattie, smiling over his shoulder. “Tea costs nothing, you know.”
*
*
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Other books by Nancy C. Da
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Diedre the Cat lady sleuth
Cat Sleuth: A Pattie Lansbury MysteryCrosswords and Puzzles
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