by Morgana Best
“The one thing that bothers me,” Carl said, “is why Mick was at the party.”
“We can rule out a genuine invitation, because Minnie hadn’t been involved with Mick for a while. That means it was either Minnie, or someone who had access to her phone. Or perhaps someone was setting up Mick to take the fall.”
“You know,” Carl began, “all this thinking can’t be good for us. It’s making my head spin. How about we just follow Jake, and then everything will fall into place.”
“I hate to disappoint you, Carl, but what if Jake just goes back to the gym? Exactly how long do you intend to follow him for? You invited The Purr-suader to my place for dinner tonight, remember?”
“I didn’t say it was going to be easy, Narel,” Carl admonished me. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
I held my hand. “Please never say that again.” I reached into my purse for another Chinese herbal patch. I peeled off the protective layer and stuck one on the side of my neck. “Would you like one, Carl?”
“Would I ever,” he said with feeling. “Can you spare five?”
We sat there for some time, peeling the protective layers off herbal patches and sticking the patches all over us. “You know, I just remembered something. Remember that Daphne said Jake worked weekends?”
“Yes!” Carl exclaimed. “I did notice that. I made a mental note to tell you afterwards, but being chased out of the house with a knife made me forget everything.”
I pulled a face. “You and me both. That means Jake does something on weekends that his mother doesn’t know about.”
“You know, Jake might simply be some sort of common criminal and not the murderer, after all. I hope he hurries up, because the forecast is for heavy rain.”
I was about to reply, when Carl grabbed my arm. “It’s Jake’s car!”
“Lucky we saw it when we ran out of Daphne’s house,” I said.
“It’s probably the only car around for miles that isn’t a ute,” Carl said. “I’m excited, Narel. He might lead us straight to his accomplice.”
“Or he might lead us straight to the gym,” I said.
To my relief, Jake wasn’t driving over the speed limit. Speed still terrified me, and even though I was getting better at being a passenger, I was still a long way from buying my own car. Still, I was making improvement and that was the main thing.
I was zoning out, looking at the scenery of paddock after paddock dotted with sheep and the occasional cow, when Carl tapped my arm. “That’s not the way to the gym!” he said with excitement.
“It’s probably just the way to McDonald’s or KFC.”
Carl snorted rudely. “Jake certainly wouldn’t go near any fast food places.”
“I didn’t mean it literally,” I pointed out. “I just meant that he could be going anywhere. Maybe he’s going to do his grocery shopping. Maybe he’s going to see his steroid supplier. Who knows?”
Just then the rain came down in buckets. Carl switched on his lights and put the wipers onto maximum. “I can’t see a thing,” Carl said, leaning over the steering wheel. “I’m going to have to speed up and sit just behind Jake. He won’t know it’s me in the rain, and I need lights to follow, otherwise I won’t be able to see where we’re going.”
The car in front slowed down, no doubt due to the heavy rain, and made its way through some of the side streets on the outskirts of town. “I don’t like this,” Carl said.
I sat upright. “What’s wrong?”
“This road goes down past the golf course. It’s a dead end road. What if he sees us?”
“It’s raining too hard to see anything,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. You can turn around now and go back if you want. Maybe he’s just going to play golf.”
“In this rain?” Carl said.
We had come to the end of the road and Carl turned the car slowly. “Can you see anything? The rain’s easing now. Where did he go?”
“No idea.” I rolled down my window to peer out. I stuck my head out the window, and just to my left was Jake’s car. Jake was walking up the steps of a little cottage, and standing in the doorway was Minnie. Jake turned around and looked straight at me.
I hit the button to roll up the window and leant back. “Quick, Carl, drive!”
“What happened?”
“Quick! Drive off!” It wasn’t until Carl sped up that I breathed a sigh of relief. “I saw Minnie at the door of the cottage back there, and Jake was walking up to her. It must be their little love nest.”
“Did he see you?”
“I think so. Then again, I can’t be sure. I thought he was looking straight at me. Carl, what are we going to do?”
“We’ll go to your place, and I’ll make dinner,” Carl said calmly. “Before I start dinner, I’ll call Detective Rieker and tell him what you saw.”
“I can’t believe that Minnie would kill her father,” I said in disbelief. “Minnie and Jake, in it together.”
Carl turned onto the main road. “We don’t know that for sure. At least if I tell Rieker that we saw the two of them together, and how Jake acted at his mother’s house, Rieker should be able to connect the dots.”
“It all fits now,” I said, thinking it over. “Mick said Minnie texted him, and at first we thought someone had gained access to her phone. Now it seems she probably did text him. She wanted suspicion to be thrown onto him. So Minnie and Jake didn’t intend there to be two diversions, after all. They wanted Mick to get the blame for killing Stan, and Jake told his mother about Stan’s involvement with Peaches so she could create the diversion. That must have been when Minnie poisoned the chocolates.”
Carl stopped his car in my driveway. “Oh good, The Purr-suader isn’t here yet. Yes, I do think you’re right, Narel. As you say, it all fits. Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t another explanation. Maybe three or more people are in it together. Stan must’ve been worth millions, and if his fortune is divided a few ways, everyone would still get enough.”
I shuddered. “Please tell me you don’t think The Purr-suader was in it with them?”
“It remains a possibility,” Carl said solemnly. “I’m going to ask him what he’s doing in town. Anyway, let’s get inside. I’ll call Rieker and tell him what’s going on.”
“And make sure you tell him that you invited Peter The Purr-suader for dinner,” I said. “Maybe the detectives know something about him that we don’t. It will put my mind at rest if they know he’s at my place.”
“Please don’t worry about it too much,” Carl said. “Don’t forget, Mongrel likes him.”
I bit my lip. “What if he hypnotised Mongrel or something?”
Carl clutched his stomach. “Oh Narel, you crack me up. Please don’t make me laugh until my muscles recover.”
Carl and I made a run for the door, but the rain was now only light. I hurried to feed Mongrel, while Carl made the call to Rieker. I went to my bedroom and changed, putting on some dry clothes. I rubbed some liniment into my back, arms, legs, shoulders, neck, and feet. “There, that should about do it,” I said to my reflection in the mirror.
When I walked out, Carl was already in the kitchen making a start on dinner. “What did Rieker say?”
Carl turned around. “It went straight to voicemail. I left him a message, and I texted him as well.”
I frowned. I was a bit worried about The Purr-suader coming for dinner. I was worried that Rieker didn’t know about it, but there was nothing we could do about that now. I was sure Rieker would come across Carl’s message sooner or later. And then there was the fact that Mongrel did seem to like The Purr-suader.
I jumped at the knock on the door. “He’s here already,” I said. “Hasn’t he ever heard about being fashionably late?”
Carl caught my arm. “Look out the window first, and make sure it’s him and not Jake.”
“You don’t think Jake would come after us?” I said in horror.
Carl shook his head. “No, but it’s
better to be safe than sorry.”
I looked out the window, but couldn’t see a car. My pulse increased and I broke into a cold sweat. “There’s no car out there. It might be Jake.”
I crossed to the front door and called out, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Peter Patterson, the Cat Expert, The Purr-suader.”
I peeked around the door, and it was indeed Peter. “Come in,” I said urgently. “I couldn’t see your car outside.”
“I got a taxi,” Peter explained. “I thought maybe there would be wine with dinner, and I didn’t want to drink and drive.”
I locked the door behind him. “Please come in. I’m afraid dinner might be a while. Carl and I got held up this afternoon. We’re running late.”
Peter sat on the sofa, and placed his cat training bag next to him. Carl sailed into the room and pressed a glass of bubbly into his hands. “Cheese platter coming up!” Carl said before exiting.
I sat opposite Peter, and then thought I should maybe get myself a glass of bubbly, but before I could leave my seat, Carl reappeared and handed me one. “Thanks, Carl. Would you like any help with dinner?”
Carl declined. I expected he wanted what he called a proper dinner, and that was a dinner without chocolate, or to be precise, the main course without chocolate. It wasn’t to my personal taste, far from it, but I was trying to get healthier.
Carl presently returned to the room with a huge cheese platter. Peter helped himself. Carl came straight to the point. “So, Peter, how are you enjoying life in this little town?” Before Peter could answer, Carl pressed on. “Do you happen to know somebody by the name of Jake Delamare?”
Peter shook his head. “No, I can’t say I’ve ever heard of him. Who is he?”
“Do you know somebody by the name of Minnie Wellings?”
Peter shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
I was starting to get a little worried. I hadn’t had time to give Carl the please-be-tactful-for-once speech.
Carl sighed. “The thing is, Peter, Narel and I were wondering what brought you to this little town? A famous Cat Whisperer like you, coming to a quaint little town like this? It just doesn’t make sense, if you don’t mind me saying so. And what’s even stranger, is that you happened to be in town right when your old nemesis, Stan Wellings, was murdered.”
Peter gasped and reached into his bag.
Chapter 20
I thought Peter was going to pull out a gun, but to my enormous relief, he pulled out a white linen handkerchief and proceeded to dab at his brow.
“Carl!” I admonished him.
“You wanted to know just as much as I did, Narel,” Carl said, rather put out. “You know you did!”
“I didn’t murder Stan Wellings, if that’s what the two of you are thinking,” Peter said. “Sure, he did run off with my wife, but that was years ago, and we had an unhappy marriage, anyway.”
“Go on,” Carl said in a steely voice.
“I came to town to get away from all the attention. At first I was excited when my career took off, the television show, and everything, all the money. But I had a large social media platform.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Carl asked him.
“Do you know how many inboxes I get a day on Facebook?” Peter said. “Hundreds, and most of them are asking the very same questions that I have in my books. People even say they can’t find the information in my books. To give you an example, someone inboxed me and asked me how to litterbox train her cat. I told her which book that was in, but she said she couldn’t find the information in that book. There was a whole chapter on it, a chapter called Litterbox Training. It might sound lame, but I’ve been hounded by the public, and I just want to go somewhere I’m not well-known. In fact, I decided to retire, but I just love what I do so much that I couldn’t give it all up.”
“That makes sense,” I said, before I had really thought through whether or not it did.
Peter shot me a grateful look. “I shut down my Twitter and Instagram accounts. It’s just all too much, and when I give people advice, they argue with me, or they don’t take my advice, but sure enough, they come back and tell me they still have the same problem with their cats. If they had taken my advice in the first place, they wouldn’t have a problem. It’s all too much,” he said again.
“So you don’t know anyone called Jake Delamare?” Carl asked him again.
“No, I’ve never heard of him,” Peter said. “I just wanted to find a small town, a small quiet country town where nothing ever happened, and where no one would notice me. I just wanted to be anonymous.”
“If you wanted to be anonymous, you should have gone to a big city,” I said. “I think a person’s far less anonymous in a small country town. Everybody knows everyone else’s business, and what they don’t know, they make up.”
Carl agreed. “And they know what you’re doing before you’ve even done it. And there are factions, too. You need to choose your sides wisely.”
Peter looked confused, so Carl topped up his glass of bubbly.
Mongrel at that point noticed we had a visitor, and came out to sit on the spare chair opposite Peter.
“Aww, isn’t that cute, he likes you,” I said. “He only comes out of his basket to sit with people he likes.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to let cats sit on furniture,” Peter said.
I waved a hand at him. “Okay then, feel free to tell him he can’t sit there.”
An unmistakable look of fear flashed across Peter’s face. “I’m sure it’s fine, in his case.” He picked up his cat training bag and put it in front of him. I suppose it was a defensive gesture.
“You’re perfectly safe,” I said. “He only attacks people if there’s rope around.”
Peter held up his bandaged hands. “Yes, I noticed that.”
Just then, Jake burst into the room from the back of the house.
He was wielding a large knife.
Carl screamed. I wanted to, but no sound would leave my mouth. Mongrel jumped from his chair and ran away. “Put your phones on the table where I can see them,” Jake bellowed.
Carl and I did so, but Peter put his hand in his large bag. Jake was at his side in a flash and held up the knife in a threatening manner. “What’s in your bag?” he snapped. He snatched the bag from Peter and looked in it. He pulled out Peter’s phone, and then threw the bag back at Peter. He tossed Peter’s phone on the table with the other phones.
“So you figured it out, did you?” he said to me.
I didn’t know whether to protest my innocence, or whether it would make him more angry if I did so.
“I’ve told the police,” Carl said. “How did you get in?”
“I know how to get through a locked door. That back door is ancient.” Jake reached for Carl’s phone and then thumbed through it, while glancing up at us at intervals and brandishing the knife. “Oh, you did tell them,” he said angrily. “Never mind, I’ll take you all as hostages.”
“Why would you need hostages?” I asked him. “The police aren’t here yet. Just make a run for it.”
“Minnie had nothing to do with it,” he said. “It was me. I poisoned the chocolates.”
“But you had an alibi,” Carl said. I kicked him in the shins.
Jake appeared to be thinking that over. I was terrified, but I was running through it all in my mind, nevertheless. In this country, people are not allowed to profit from crime. That meant Minnie wouldn’t get the inheritance if a jury convicted her of poisoning her father.
Jake seemed to have come up with a solution. “Okay then, you told the detective you saw me at Minnie’s cottage. So what? If the cops can prove that we were seeing each other, that’s one thing, but it’s quite a jump to say that we both murdered her father.”
“You’re right,” I said. “No one can prove anything, but it doesn’t look good that you’re in here waving a knife at us.”
Jake sighed. “Shut your mouth, you skinny-fat wom
an. You know, you might be skinny, but you have no muscle tone.” He said it as if it was the worst insult imaginable. “Okay then, we all know that Minnie and I killed Stan, so let’s not beat about the bush. I came here to stop you telling the police, but you already did it. Now I just gotta figure out how to fix this situation.”
“There is no way to fix this situation,” I said.
Jake sneered at me. “Yes, there is. Minnie’s on her way to get Mick. She’s going to bring him here under some pretext, and then we’ll make it look like a murder-suicide.”
Peter spoke for the first time. “What do you mean?” he squeaked.
“Mick will shoot you all, and then shoot himself, at least that’s how it will seem to the cops.” His tone was menacing. He turned his attention to Carl. “But before that happens, I’ll send the cops a message from your phone saying something to implicate Mick.”
“You’ll never get away with it.” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. I always thought it was lame when someone said it on TV, and now I thought it was even more lame.
“Shut your mouth. In fact, no one speaks, or you’ll get it.” He waved the knife at us to emphasise his point.
This couldn’t be the end, not like this. I had survived a terrible car accident and had spent months in hospital, having surgery after surgery. Surely I couldn’t die now at the hands of a nasty personal trainer. I only hoped that the police were on their way, but as soon as the thought occurred to me, I dismissed it. Rieker was likely to call, rather than simply turn up at my house.
I had been in this situation before, twice in fact, and on those occasions Mongrel had saved me. That gave me a glimmer of an idea, but I found it hard to concentrate because I was in fear for my life.
“I suppose it’s good that you’re going to shoot us and not hang us,” I said, risking speaking after I had been told not to. “My cat hates rope.” I gave Peter a significant look, but unfortunately, he didn’t seem to catch on.
