Cat Killed A Rat

by ReGina Welling

  “It’s a what-chi? What does that even mean?” his face held the expression typical of men who knew they had treaded into murky waters.

  “He was a famous scarf desi—you know what, never mind. Just trust me when I say that only one person in the vicinity has that scarf. That also doesn’t look like someone comforting his dead brother’s wife; it looks intimate.”

  Nate shot one last look in the direction of Evan and the mystery woman’s table and pulled Chloe out the door. “Let’s not get caught staring. I don’t need him thinking I’m following him, especially if there is something nefarious happening here.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Talia and Evan?” EV mused when Chloe finished bringing her up to speed on what she had seen the night before. “I don’t see it.” She shook her head, “Between you and me, I always thought Talia only tolerated Evan for Luther’s sake.”

  “I know, but I know what I saw, or at least what I think I saw. Seriously, what are the chances that there are two vintage Pucci scarves of the same design in Ponderosa Pines?”

  “Somewhere between slim and none,” EV shook her head again. Evan and Talia? She shuddered at the thought. “It had to be her.”

  “You think she killed Luther? Or was it a Cain and Abel thing and Evan did the deed?”

  Shrugging, EV said, “What did Nate say? He was there; he must have added them to the list of suspects.”

  “I don’t know He dragged me out of there and refused to talk about it again. There’s gossip about Evan seeing a married woman. Talia is definitely a married woman, so it fits. And hey…the scarf. What else could it be?” Chloe shrugged and wave a hand as if it was a foregone conclusion.

  “You’re sure they weren’t just talking family business?” EV asked, frowning.

  Chloe rolled her eyes.

  “Okay.” EV shrugged. “But I still find it hard to picture mousy little Talia shoving poor dumb Luther off a ladder.”

  “What about Evan? You know him better than I do,” Chloe asked, taking a sip of the tea EV’d made when she arrived.

  “That’s the thing,” EV responded, tapping her lip. “I’m not sure I do. I would never have expected him to have an affair with Talia. Not because she’s his brother’s wife, but because she’s Talia. Not his type of woman at all: too much of a homebody. Evan likes them a little less…tamed.”

  Pent up energy pulled Chloe to her feet and had her pacing. “I wish we could get a look at the—” she swallowed hard. “Where it happened. Nate could have missed something, and now that we know who the unsub might be…”

  “You’ve been watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds.” EV shrugged off the heat from Chloe’s glare.

  “Matlock.”

  “Puhlease,” EV said, waving a hand. “Andy Griffith never uttered that word and you know it. Matlock, really? I’m old and I don’t even watch that one.”

  Chloe sniffed and ignored the dig. “I’m merely suggesting we do our civic duty,” she responded primly.

  “You really are a Matlock fan.”

  “And you are twisted and evil.” There was no malice, though, behind the words, and Chloe had to grin when EV loosed her best evil laugh.

  During the hour the two had spent discussing recent events, the summer sky had begun to fill with ominous looking clouds. EV’s weather sense predicted a short burst of rain followed by clearing skies and humidity as the sun beat wet earth into steamy submission.

  “Walk, ride, or drive?” EV hoped Chloe wouldn’t offer to drive. Her little car was a menace and only half because of its driver. Just four years old, not a single fender had escaped some form of injury.

  “My legs could use the stretch,” Chloe responded. “Let’s walk.”

  The Wiggle Leg trail was the most direct route since it cut straight through the woods to bypass a mile-long twisted section of road that took only marginally less time to drive than to walk.

  EV handed Chloe a spare umbrella and a bottle of water before striding off at a pace the younger woman had to push a little to maintain. Not surprising since Chloe’s legs were almost a foot shorter.

  Chloe refused to be outdone, so she picked up the pace.

  EV lengthened her stride.

  Chloe walked faster.

  By the time they reached the center of town, both women were glowing from the effort.

  “Was that a walk or a forced march?” Chloe bent double to stretch out tingling muscles.

  “Just think, you won’t have to get on that hamster wheel you call a treadmill and trudge along to nowhere later,” EV smirked.

  “Bite me.”

  The sight of the church spire in the distance sobered the pair of them. A man had died there. True, he was not one of their favorite people, but neither of them had wished for his death.

  “How are we going to get in?” Chloe asked. It might have sounded like a good idea at the time, but breaking into a church would probably ensure she went straight to hell. “You think one of the windows will be open?”

  “Maybe. Or we could just use this key.” EV pulled a small brass key from her pocket.

  “Fine, do it the easy way.”

  Even from where they stood at the end of the street, the bright yellow crime scene tape stood out in stark relief against the weathered, gray wood exterior of the church. A wall of heavy blue storm clouds hunkered behind the white spire like something evil waiting to pounce.

  Chloe shivered.

  Focused straight ahead, EV strode toward the church, and making no effort at concealing herself or her intent, twisted the key in the lock then ducked under the yellow tape to push the door open.

  Evidence tampering.

  That’s what she would be charged with; Chloe wasn’t looking forward to going to jail.

  She followed EV, who seemed to know exactly where she was going.

  In the end, there was nothing much to see. Scattered tools and an overturned ladder were the only items marking the spot where Luther had died.

  “Epic anti-climax,” Chloe pointed out.

  “You think so?” EV waved a hand toward where the ladder lay folded. “I’ve learned at least two things already.”

  “What?” Maybe it was trepidation keeping her normally keen mind obscured, but Chloe saw nothing suggestive in the scene that lay before her.

  “We’ve been assuming the murderer pushed Luther off the ladder; but, if that had been the case, the ladder would still be standing. Plus, it would have had to be facing this direction,” she indicated the only space wide enough to have held the ladder with both legs spread. “So it had to have been pushed over sideways. I know from personal experience how rickety this ladder can be; it was my turn to change the light bulbs last month, and Luther loaned it to the church.” A touch of sorrow crept into her voice. “He was always good about that kind of thing.”

  It was the first time since the news of his death that she had really taken the time to think about their community losing one of their own. Hapless and short-sighted though he was, Luther, at the bottom of it all, was not such a bad guy.

  “And there’s no way it was an accident?”

  From behind her, Nate answered Chloe’s question, “That’s what we professionals are paid to determine.”

  “Busted.”

  “Totally,” Nate agreed, his face thunderous. “Breaking and entering, tampering with evidence, public nuisance,” he ticked offenses off wryly.

  “I have a key, so I don’t think you can make the B&E stick. I’m pretty sure you can’t get us for public nuisance,” EV held out her wrists. “we haven’t touched a thing. But go ahead and arrest me, Nathaniel. It wouldn’t be my first time.”

  Making a note to grill EV for details of previous arrests at her earliest convenience, Chloe stepped forward to lay a hand on Nate’s forearm. She ignored the tingle of warmth that traveled through her fingertips where they lay over strong muscles. “There’s no reason to do anything hasty.”

  Dalton walked through the door, hands
streaming with the yellow tape he had been instructed to pull down from outside. Catching sight of the tableau before him, he carelessly tossed the tape down on the last pew and hurried toward where Nate and EV faced off.

  “Let’s everybody calm down, now.” Any chance of his getting a date with EV would fly out the window if Nate clapped the cuffs on her. “We were coming here to take down the tape so Pastor could open up for Sunday anyway. Cut them some slack.”

  “A good lawyer would get the charges dropped anyway.” Chloe hoped this was true.

  Nate grinned and the tension fell away. “I was just trying to give her a scare. Besides, I know EV wouldn’t have called just any lawyer; she’d have done something much worse. She would have called—”

  “His mother,” EV finished for him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Chloe threw a bundle of dried sage into the center of the fire pit, leaned in, and inhaled deeply as the scented smoke curled around her face. One by one, she lit the torches encircling the small patio situated in a secluded corner of her backyard.

  An ancient fence covered in clematis and honeysuckle bordered the area on two sides. Pathways led to the house in one direction and through a break in the fence toward EV’s backyard in another. Since Chloe had moved back to town, that path had widened and become as worn with use as it had been when her mother lived there.

  Chloe’s roots in Ponderosa Pines ran almost as deep as EV’s. Her grandparents were among the founding members of the community. Chloe’s mother and EV, born within days of each other, had grown up practically as sisters. However, the two could not have differed more in their opinions of their childhood home. EV had no desire to leave, while Lila’s wanderlust, combined with a heavy helping of ambition, drove her to the ends of the earth, dragging Chloe along for the ride.

  Lila, upon learning of Chloe’s decision to return to the Pines, applied every tool in her arsenal with the intention of changing her daughter’s mind. When those efforts met with no success, she fired a final, parting shot by letting Chloe know, in no uncertain terms, that she herself would not be returning. Ever.

  With the implied ultimatum hanging over her head and resolve stiffening her spine, Chloe had loaded up the meager possessions accumulated during years of moving from one place to the next and driven away. The tears that ran down her face spoke of both sadness and joy as she began the journey toward the one place she remembered being completely happy.

  Arriving in the middle of the night, Chloe felt the rightness of her decision the minute the key slid home in the lock. She twisted the key, then the knob. When the door swung open, her feet carried her without hesitation to switch on what she remembered as the ugliest lamp in existence. She felt the contentment of being home slide over her like a soft blanket.

  If that minute hadn’t been enough to convince her she had made the right decision, forming a firm bond with her next door neighbor and her mother’s oldest friend, EV, cemented the deal.

  “Speak of the devil,” Chloe mused with a grin as EV appeared next to her.

  “I brought stuff for s’mores!” EV replied.

  “Traditional or peanut butter cup?”

  “Both, of course.” EV rolled her eyes. “Not my first campfire.”

  Chloe stuck her tongue out at her friend.

  “It’s not so dark I can’t see that,” she replied, handing Chloe the bag of marshmallows. “So who do we think dunnit? Evan? Talia? Some shadowy figure from Luther’s past? Or just a ticked-off customer who didn’t like the way he installed their bathroom tile?” EV began.

  “Don’t be so flip; people think YOU dunnit,” Chloe replied, tossing a marshmallow at her friend, “and that’s nothing to smile about.”

  “People in this place know it wasn’t me. And since I didn’t do it, the best we can hope for is to help Nate and Dalton figure who did. Do we agree that it had to be someone who was at the town meeting the other night?”

  Taking a moment to ponder, Chloe answered, “I think that’s what everyone is thinking, which in itself makes me suspicious. I suppose we should consider motives and then run through the list of likeliest suspects. But, I have to say, it gives me the creeps in a big way to think one of us would do something like that. This is Ponderosa Pines, after all, and—”

  “Nothing bad ever happens in Ponderosa Pines.” They sing-songed together.

  She pulled out her tablet and sent EV back home for hers before selecting a plump marshmallow and poking it through the center with the end of a stick. They did this so often Chloe had cut and sharpened special s’mores sticks from a stand of alders that bordered the far edge of her yard. These were now tucked into a basket near the edge of the patio.

  No stranger to technology, EV kept up to date with her electronic devices. Where she differed from Chloe was that she preferred human contact to the techno variety. She got her gossip straight from the source whenever possible so she could evaluate the body language that went along with it.

  Yet, she would not argue that people often felt protected by the seeming anonymity of the Internet and let things slip that they never would admit to in person. The result? Between the two of them, they learned just about everything of interest that ever happened in Ponderosa Pines. They heard plenty of things that weren’t interesting as well, come to that.

  EV began noting down names beginning with those who never failed to turn out for every town meeting. Most were long-term residents with a higher stake in how decisions were made—business owners, founding family members—or out and out busybodies who could not bear to have anything happen without knowing every detail.

  Chloe produced the copy of the community census she had begun marking up before her dinner with Nate. “Well, I think we can safely cross your fan club—the Landry’s, Horis, and Priscilla—off the list, since I can’t imagine how any of their lives would change with Luther gone.”

  “And I heard Celia and Bert next door going at it half the night that night.”

  “Fighting?” Chloe smelled gossip.

  “No, the other thing.” A cheeky grin accompanied EV’s waggling eyebrows.

  “Oh. Ew.”

  “Bert has a surprising amount of stamina for a man his age.”

  Laughing but holding up a hand, Chloe declared, “TMI. Seriously. Just way too much information.”

  Nodding, EV crossed the two names off the list, but couldn’t resist adding, “Celia’s a bit of a screamer.”

  “Why?” Cloe asked, shuddering. “Why would you tell me that? You have to stop. Really.”

  “Put that in your column. I dare you.” Another eyebrow waggle garnered EV a set of rolling eyes.

  “Enough of that. I mean it. No more mental images that I will never be able to unsee.”

  “Okay, back to our list.” An unrepentant EV tapped the stylus on the screen thoughtfully. “Goes without saying Talia and Evan take the top two places.”

  “You think?”

  “Love and money are the main reasons for killing someone, and if Talia and Evan really are doing the wild thing on the side, they’d have the most reason for shoving poor Luther off a ladder.”

  “Nate says he’s sure it wasn’t either one of them.”

  “Then we need to see some evidence. Don’t get me wrong, I know the boy means well and he’s good at his job, but we have the deeper insights and way better contacts then he does. If anyone is going to solve this, it’ll be us.”

  “True.” Chloe handed EV a peanut butter cup s’more, exchanged it for the tablet, and jotted down the names of some of Luther’s disgruntled former clients. “Here’s what strikes me funny about all this: I can’t see Evan and Talia together. Okay, I might have seen it, assuming it was Talia in that scarf at the diner, but I don’t know; it doesn’t make much sense at all. He’s just not the settle-down type, and she totally is.”

  “I thought she and Luther seemed happy. She’s always so meek and subdued; I can’t see her getting up the gumption to kill her husband. It just fee
ls all kinds of wrong.”

  “The way they were dancing the other night seemed plenty happy. Maybe a little too happy for a public venue.”

  Chapter Twelve

  On the day of Luther’s funeral, thick fog descended to lay like a pall over Ponderosa Pines, its mass so dense the air struggled to carry its moist weight. From above, the church spire was the only visible landmark as it speared through the heavy vapor that lay close along the ground.

  Knuckles white on the steering wheel and a tension headache threatening, Chloe hunched forward in an effort to see two feet beyond the nose of her car while beads of moisture continually formed on her windshield.

  From the normally throaty purr of the car’s engine to the clicking of the wiper blades, every sound was muted as though the blanket of heavy mist had actually been made of the white wool it resembled.

  “You think there’ll be a big turnout?” Chloe ignored the way EV’s foot kept punching the imaginary passenger-side brake. Maybe a little conversation would help break the tension.

  “Well, you know funerals are always a big deal here in the Pines,” EV replied without taking her eyes off the road just in case, “but with Luther being murdered and the church being the crime scene, it will be packed to the rafters.”

  “Which means the murderer will be in attendance, then.”

  “I think we can count on it, so keep your eyes and ears open.”

  “Duh, gossip columnist, remember? My eyes and ears are always open.”

  “Deer!” EV shouted.

  “I see it.” Chloe stomped the brake hard. She kept the car at little more than a crawl, but the sudden stop still set her heart racing and the pies lining the back seat skittering very close to the edge. The doe stared at them for a moment before meandering out of harm’s way.

  What was normally a five-minute walk had taken nearly three times that to drive. Why had they thought bringing four kinds of pie was a good idea?

  Since they were arriving almost an hour early for the service and more people would be walking than driving, Chloe easily found a parking spot close to the church. Offering to help with setting up had been her idea, and it was a good one. The more time spent with Talia, the better the chance she might let some useful information slip.