“Katz speaks a little,” Jake said, then realized how stupid it sounded because Katherine wasn’t there. “Did you check the Foursquare? The bungalow?”
“Nada, and she’s not answering her cell.”
Stevie ran up. “Where’s my daughter?”
Jake reached over and touched Stevie’s arm. “I think I know where they are. Chief, there’s a back way to the attic. A few days ago, Katz and I found a secret access way, I mean, back stairs. Can Stevie and I go check it out?”
“Knock yourself out, but stay to the back of the house. I don’t want you messin’ up the crime scene up here.”
“Thanks, Chief,” then to Stevie, “We need to go to the basement back door, where Katz’s classroom is. In the mechanical room, and under the stairwell, there’s this heavy metal tool cabinet. We need to empty it out, and move it.”
Jake started toward the back of the house. He moved down the slippery front porch steps two at a time. Stevie followed.
Jake filled in Stevie with the details of the hidden staircase, while Stevie listened quietly. Then Stevie said, “I bet they’re there.”
Cokey yelled from the front of the driveway. “What’s going on?”
Jake motioned him to join them. He turned the key in the lock of the classroom door, then stepped down. Stevie followed, then Cokey, who was huffing and puffing from the exertion of running through the deep snow.
“Uncle, you’ve got to help us move that tool cabinet from under the stairs,” Jake said.
“That big ol’ thing? It probably weighs a ton. I’m surprised it survived the explosion,” Cokey said, then bit his tongue. “Sorry, Jake, I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Whatever, but for starters, help me empty the blasted thing out. Oh, better yet, get me a step ladder. We’re gonna need a tall one.”
“I’ll get the six-foot.”
Chapter Nineteen
Sam Sanders sat behind his desk, facing the prisoner one of his drug dealers and son, Dave, had brought in through the back door. “Sit him down over there,” he said, pointing to a sturdy, metal chair. “Cuff him to it.” Then, to the prisoner, “Try anything funny and I’ll . . . ” He pretended to shoot the prisoner in the chest. The Russian understood the gesture, and nodded his head ‘yes.’
“Folks around here don’t take kindly to people like you shootin’ up the town. My boys tell me you’re here to get something someone stole from your boss. Something worth big bucks.”
The Russian only understood half of what Sam Sanders had said. “Da,” he answered. “Droga.”
“You mean dope? What kind of drugs?” Sam asked.
The Russian gestured shooting a needle in his arm.
“Heroin?”
“Da,” the Russian answered.
“Well, Mr. — what’s your name?”
“Vladimir.”
“Mr. Vlad man, we don’t want that kind of dope around these parts. We don’t want you sellin’ in our territory, either, got that?”
The Russian started to get up from the chair but the handcuffs held him back. Dave hit him on the head with his revolver. “Back off, buddy,” he said firmly, then to his father, “What should we do with him? Lady in the car said he was the Russian mob.”
Sam leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. He placed his hands behind his head. “Well, now, son, we definitely don’t want to kill him. We’d have those Russian boys coming down on us in larger numbers, so why not drive him to the Indy airport and put him on a plane?”
“I can do that, but I’ll need to take a few guys with me.”
“Yep, for insurance.”
“What about his gun?” Dave asked.
“I think I’d like to have it. Don’t have one in my collection.”
“Now you do,” Dave said, pushing the automatic pistol across the desk.
Sam spoke to the prisoner. “So, you go bye-bye now.” Sam stuck his arm out and waved his hand, gesturing a plane flying in the air. “And don’t come back. If you do . . . ” Sam gestured a gun being fired at the Russian’s head. Borrowing a line from a mafia movie, he said “Bang, you’re dead.”
Chapter Twenty
Jake, Stevie, and Cokey moved the heavy cabinet aside from the wall under the basement stairs, revealing the opening at the bottom of the hidden stairwell. Jake positioned the six-foot-tall step ladder inside the space, and called up from below the sawed-off stairs. “Katz, are you up there?” He climbed up three of the ladder rungs, and shone his flashlight upward on the bottom step.
“Yes,” Katherine answered happily. “I’m with Salina and the cats. We’re coming down.”
Katherine stepped down the stairs, with Salina close behind. She was holding two cats, Iris and Dewey, while Salina held Abby and Lilac. Scout and Abra passed them on the stairs and darted down the rest of the way. On the bottom stair, they eyed the step ladder, and vied for the best position to jump onto the painter’s shelf. Crowie beat them to it. The kitten soared through the air and landed on the very top.
“You little monkey,” Jake said, grabbing the cat, and placing him on his shoulder. Crowie shifted to the other side of Jake’s shoulder, and made himself comfortable by digging his claws into Jake’s wool pea coat. “Stay there, little man. Don’t jump down.”
From the cut-off stairs, Scout gracefully leaped on the top cap of the ladder, then Abra joined her.
“Baby girls. Stay,” Jake commanded.
“Na-waugh,” Scout sassed. In a single bound worthy of Superman, Scout and Abra leaped down, and scampered out from underneath the stairwell, and into Katherine’s classroom.
“Scout! Abra!” Katherine yelled, then muttered, “They do what they want to do.”
Jake beamed his flashlight up the stairwell.
Katherine appeared with a wide grin on her face. “You are a sight for sore eyes,” she said, then to Salina, “You better sit down on a step. I don’t want you to fall.”
“Where’s my dad?” Salina asked excitedly.
“I’m right here,” Stevie said, walking over, and standing at the foot of the step ladder.
Jake said, “Katz, I was worried sick something awful had happened to you. Why didn’t you call or text me?”
“I turned my phone off. I didn’t want the crims to hear it ring or ping when I got a text message.”
“It was only one criminal.”
“Great,” Katherine said dejectedly. “That means the second one is still at large.”
“Afraid so, but Chief London is working on it. We’ve got to put the cats up somewhere. They can’t roam the house. The front turret window is broken.”
“From the awful sound of breaking glass, I figured it was one of the three,” Katherine said.
“I’ll fetch a couple of cat carriers,” Cokey announced. “Katz, are they still in your office closet?”
“Yes, but before you go up there, can you catch Scout and Abra and lock them in the powder room? We don’t want them to get out of the house,” she warned.
“I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee they’ll let me catch ‘em,” Cokey said, leaving.
“Thanks,” she called after him. “Jake, let Salina come down first.”
“Okay,” he answered, then asked Stevie. “Hey, can you steady the ladder?”
“Yep, don’t mind if I do,” Stevie said clutching the ladder’s side.
“Salina, hand me Abby, then Lilac.”
Salina carefully placed each cat in Jake’s hands.
Jake carefully climbed down to the bottom of the ladder, and called up to Salina. “Swing your legs over, then let your foot find the second step from the top of the ladder. Step down and hold on to the top.”
“I’ve been on a ladder before,” Salina said. She followed Jake’s instructions and climbed down the ladder. She bounded toward Stevie.
“Baby cake,” he said. “Daddy is so glad to see you’re okay.” He gathered his daughter in his arms and kissed her on the top of her head.
; Salina said animatedly. “You won’t believe Katz’s cats. They are so smart,” then to Jake, “I can hold Abby and Lilac again.”
“Thanks, Salina,” Jake said, handing her the cats.
“Chirp,” Abby cried sweetly. Lilac belted a happy me-yowl.
Stevie looked up at Katherine and flashed a smile of gratitude. “Thank you, Ma’am, for taking care of Salina.”
“You’re welcome,” she smiled back, then handed Iris and Dewey to Jake.
Cokey returned with the cat carriers and set them on the floor outside the stairwell. Jake opened the grilled metal front door of the first one and placed Iris and Dewey into it, then he removed Crowie from his shoulder and put him in there, as well. Salina handed him Abby and Lilac. He placed them in the second carrier, then he headed back to help Katherine climb down the ladder. Once she’d stepped off the ladder, he hugged her.
Katherine buried her face in his chest. “How was your day?” she asked for want of a better thing to say.
“I’ve had better,” he answered.
Chief London clumped down the stairs from the first floor office to the basement. “I see I’m just in time for the rescue moment. Katz, are you okay?”
“Yes, Chief. I’m good,” she said, stepping away from Jake. “Salina is okay, too.”
“Are your cats okay?” he quizzed.
“Yes. I was very worried that one of them took a stray bullet, but I’ve checked them. They’re fine.”
“Well, you must know that one of them did a number on our perp.”
“How is that?” Katherine asked.
“He’s got a big scratch down the front of his face.”
“Maybe he got cut on the glass,” Katherine offered, deliberately not mentioning that Scout and Abra were in the same room with the intruder when he broke into the house.
“Or maybe one of your cats scratched him. Should I bag their paws for evidence?” he asked with a playful glint in his eyes.
“You’re not going to arrest my cats, are you?”
“What would the charge be — assault with an antique grandfather clock?” Then, he slapped his knee and started laughing.
Salina started giggling. “Dad, time caught up with the bad guy.”
The chief ran his hand through his hair. “That’s a good one. Well listen up, folks. No one is staying here tonight. Katz, I suggest Jake and you go to your bungalow.”
“Okay, that can be arranged,” she answered. Then to Stevie, “Salina told me why you came to my house. Yes, you can stay in the Foursquare before the closing, but tonight, Jake and I want you to stay with us at the bungalow. We have a guest room for Salina and in the living room there is a fold-out sofa bed for you.”
“Oh, Ma’am, that’s good of you to offer, but —”
Salina finished, “We’ll be happy to stay with you.”
Jake said, “Yes, I can vouch for Stevie and me. We are both bone-tired.”
Stevie answered, “But I’m not too tired to grill everybody a big steak.”
The chief asked with a twinkle in his eye. “Where ya gonna get a steak in this kind of weather?”
Salina answered. “I checked out Katz’s fridge. It’s loaded with steaks.”
“Salina,” Stevie lightly admonished.
“Let’s go!” Katherine said, now holding Jake’s hand. “Let’s gather up our stuff, the cats, and head on over to the bungalow.”
“Ma-waugh,” Scout cried from behind the door of the powder room. “Raw,” Abra added, which sounded like I second that.
Cokey said, “If Margie and I whip up some sides, can we come too?”
“Yes, you are quite welcome. Bring Tommy and Shelly, too. Chief, would Connie and you like to come?” After she’d asked the chief, she wished she could retract her words. She had created work for the chief, thanks to Madison and the intruder. She suddenly felt very sad her childhood friend was dead, and wished she could have done something to prevent it from happening.
The chief caught her change of mood. “Katz, I’ll talk to you later. You take care now, ya hear?” He quietly left through the classroom exit door.
Chapter Twenty-One
A day later, and back at the mansion, Jake and Katherine sat in the kitchen at the glass-topped Parsons table with Detective Linda Martin, an investigator for the Indiana State Police. The detective hadn’t come for a social call. Her job was to collect as much information as possible about what had transpired at the pink mansion. She opened her laptop, keyed in her username and password, then looked up. “Katz, I’ve read your complete transcript regarding Madison Orson. Is there anything you wish to add?”
“Not really except Madison’s personality was radically different from when I knew her.”
“How so?”
“It was like she had been invaded by a body snatcher.”
Jake laughed nervously. “Yeah, I saw that movie. I liked both versions.”
“What I mean is,” Katherine began. “Madison didn’t seem to be the same person I knew growing up. She’d changed so much. I didn’t recognize her.” She paused, then added, “I feel sorry I wasn’t there for her. Maybe if I’d kept in contact, her life would have turned out differently.”
Detective Martin said, “There’s an old proverb my mom used to say, ‘Hindsight is better than foresight.’ Katz, you can’t be held accountable for another person’s behavior. Madison made some wrong choices — the last one got her killed.”
Jake reached over and took Katherine’s hand in his. “Sweet Pea, don’t beat yourself up over what you could have or should have done. The past is a done deal. Let’s move on to the future.”
Detective Martin continued, “From what I’ve gleaned from our investigation, Madison was heading to Chicago to assume a new identity. We found several counterfeit driver’s licenses in her bag.”
Katherine asked puzzled, “How did she get them?”
“Bogus licenses are being produced overseas and sold online. The best fakes look incredibly real. Some are blanks onto which photos can be added. You can buy them for about a hundred fifty bucks.”
“Incredible.”
“There was a case in Illinois where fake licenses were mailed from China to a bunch of students, inside a tea set.”
“What happened to the students?” Jake asked.
“Many were kicked out of school. Plus, their real driver’s licenses were suspended for a year.”
“Who did Madison know in Chicago?” Katherine asked. “Was there anything in Madison’s bag — an address book, a contact list on her cell — to point to a person you can talk to? I know she had a cell, because the first time she came to my house, and after I’d locked up the cats, she was texting someone.”
“We didn’t find a cell phone. I combed through the items in her bag. Nada. Only personal items; she had over a thousand dollars in cash. A few credit cards. The fake driver’s licenses, of course. This is a long shot, but did she have family in Chicago?”
“Not that I know of. Madison’s father left her mom when Madison was a baby. Her mom passed away a few years ago. That’s it. No brothers. No sisters.”
“I’ve been dabbling in the psychology of the criminal mind. What was Madison’s mother like?” the detective asked.
“Sweet as pie,” Katherine answered. “She worked very hard to take care of herself and Madison. I loved her.”
The detective shrugged. “Well, we can’t blame genetics. I’m waiting to hear from the New York City Police. They’re searching Madison’s apartment for clues. Particularly, I want to know if there was a person in Chicago she was meeting.”
“If she was meeting up with someone in Chicago, why ask Vinny Bellini to go with her?”
“Katz, from the way you described her, Madison needed to be the center of attention at all times. She needed the attention from others to help support her ego.”
“It’s probably not my place to ask this question, but did you get a hold of any of Vinny’s relatives to tell them he’s dead?�
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“It’s okay for you to ask that question, but what I’m about to tell you is in the strictest confidence.”
“Of course.”
“Scout’s honor,” Jake held up his hand in the official Boy Scouts’ gesture.
Scout heard her name and trotted in. “Waugh,” she cried, in-between yawns. Jake patted his lap, and Scout jumped into it. He began stroking her back. She crossed her eyes and stuck out her pink tongue.
Detective Martin asked, “Is this the Siamese that got outside after your wedding ceremony?”
“Yes,” Katherine said, “And, under the circumstances, and how she saved me, I’m so happy she did.”
“Smart cat, that one,” the detective offered, then returned to the topic at hand. “Vinny’s father said his son had recently started dating Madison. They had been friends, off and on, for years, but only in the past month, things had heated up between them.”
Katherine shook her head. “She didn’t care for him. She used him to get out of NYC.”
“Just a guy wantin’ an adventure,” Jake added. “Poor fool. Didn’t have a clue what he was getting into.”
“Back to you, Katz, why do you think Madison didn’t care about Vinny?”
“Because after Vinny got shot and the shooter was out of the picture, she didn’t check to see if he was still alive. I remember when Jake was shot, I freaked out. Madison was a cold, callous person.”
Jake hugged Katherine. “I know, Sweet Pea.”
Katherine looked at him adoringly.
“Ma-waugh,” Scout interjected, purring loudly.
Jake smiled, then asked, “Just out of curiosity, did Vinny have a criminal record?”
Detective Martin shook her head. “Clean. The NYPD couldn’t find anything on him. Not even a traffic ticket.”
“What about Madison?”
“Several arrests for cocaine possession. Petty theft. Shoplifting.”
“The Madison I knew would never have done anything like that.”
“We’ve been able to trace where Madison bought her airline ticket, from LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare, with the reroute to Indianapolis. She ordered it online at her place of work.”
The Cats that Stole a Million (The Cats that . . . Cozy Mystery Book 7) Page 12
