Slay in Character

by Lynn Cahoon

  “I’d appreciate that. Look, I’ve got to go. I may miss dinner. Please don’t come looking for me. I’ll eat when I’m done with this.”

  And he hung up. Cat tucked her cell into her pants and stood staring at the tree line in the backyard for a long time. Then she headed back into the living room to join the sprints.

  CHAPTER 19

  Cat made Cora promise to call her as soon as they got their check for the dinner. “Jessi might make noises about walking, but I’d rather be safe than sorry, you know?”

  The good thing was she didn’t have to press very hard, Cat could see that Cora was still worried about the girl too. Coming into the kitchen, she saw Shauna at the stove, grilling burgers.

  Hearing the door open, she grabbed a towel and wiped her hands. “I saw your note. Driving them from now on is probably a smart idea. Who knows when that crazy will show up again. Isn’t Seth here?”

  “He’s out at the barn. Apparently, he was busy.” Cat didn’t expand on what he’d been busy with, because honestly, she didn’t know. “He said he might not make dinner, so just set a plate in the refrigerator for him.”

  Shauna frowned. “That’s not like him. He never misses a meal. I wonder if he’s going to be able to do the reveal tomorrow?”

  “Who can understand the mind of a man?”

  “Isn’t that the truth.” Shauna poured a glass of iced tea. With her back to Cat, she spoke again. “I had my first grief support group meeting this afternoon. I should have told you I was going, but I wasn’t sure I was actually going until it was time to go.”

  Cat sat at the table and waited. Shauna didn’t say anything else, just set her tea on the table in front of Cat. “How did it go? Or do you want to talk?”

  “I’m about all talked out for today.” Shauna’s smile was sad, but it was a smile. “I’m going back next week. I think it helps.”

  “Whatever you need.” Cat sipped her tea, not sure what else to say, but she didn’t have to worry because Shauna kept talking.

  “The leader is a counselor who teaches part-time at Covington. Sally O’Bryan? Maybe you met her when you were teaching?”

  Cat tried to remember, but the faces of professors and students swam in her mind. “Sorry, I don’t remember. Of course, if she wasn’t in the English or Economics departments, I probably didn’t know her.”

  Shauna stood and went over to turn the burgers. “She’s good. Intelligent, sharp, and she doesn’t let people get away with deflecting. I hadn’t realized how mad I was at Kevin for dying and leaving me until today.”

  “Anger is part of the process.” Cat thought about her first few weeks in California. If she had seen Michael, she would have physically attacked him. It was a good thing she’d put miles between them after the divorce.

  “My head knew that, but my heart wouldn’t let me feel it. Like I was being disloyal or something.” Shauna laughed, and the sound made Cat’s heart lift just a little. Her laugh was almost back to where it had been before Kevin’s murder. She was starting to heal.

  Cat stood and went to the sink to wash her hands. “What can I do to help for dinner?”

  An hour later, they’d eaten, the dishes were cleaned up, and Seth’s plate was wrapped up and waiting for him. Cora still hadn’t called.

  Cat picked up her phone again, glancing at the display to make sure she hadn’t missed a call. “Maybe I should just go down there.”

  Shauna refilled Cat’s tea glass. “Just relax. They’re probably having a great time. It’s the next-to-last night for them. I love watching their friendships grow and the bonds tighten over the retreat week.”

  Cat felt the smile creep on her face. “Me too. It’s like they finally found their tribe. Of course, this group was different, as they already had a tribe when they came here.”

  “But they enveloped Jessi into their group almost seamlessly. It meant a lot to her to be included, especially with the week she’s had.”

  Something about Shauna’s words made Cat’s alarms go off. “It’s about Jessi. It has to be about Jessi, right?”

  “I don’t understand.” Shauna was looking at Cat like she didn’t understand the words.

  “I don’t think Danielle’s death was random or some crazy ghost town serial killer. Jessi’s the clue. Danielle was working Jessi’s shift. She drove Jessi’s car to Outlaw. She was wearing Jessi’s costume. What if someone thought Danielle was Jessi?” Cat leaned toward Shauna. “And when he found out he had the wrong girl, he came back to kill her again. Only this time, she was on her guard.”

  “So you don’t think this hit-and-run was an accident or even the first attempt. Maybe it was a last-ditch effort to finish the job, which made him sloppy.” Shauna added on to Cat’s theory.

  “I need to talk to Uncle Pete.” Cat reached for her phone, but it buzzed as soon as her hand got close. “After I pick up the group, apparently.”

  Shauna waited for Cat to get off the phone with Cora and walked her to the door. “I’ll call Pete. Maybe he can swing by here before he goes home.”

  Cat thought about all that had happened that week as she drove to the restaurant to pick up the gang. The problem was there were too many suspects. Except Max wouldn’t have wanted to kill Jessi; he was still in love with her. Dante said there wasn’t anything with the family, and Keith had an alibi. Besides, Danielle and Jessi had been his golden goose. He’d be stupid to cut off his money supply. Which left Joseph John Robertson. But was being rich and weird enough of a motive to try to kill two women? Somehow Cat didn’t think so.

  Anyway, she’d tell Uncle Pete everything, including Dante’s information, and let a real professional take over the worrying. All she had to do was get through tomorrow and hand Jessi over to Dante on Sunday. Then she was out of the picture.

  The logic sounded good to her head, but her heart was arguing that she did have a responsibility to help keep Jessi safe, even after Sunday. The problem was she didn’t have a clue how to even begin.

  * * *

  Uncle Pete sat at the table, a piece of strawberry shortcake in front of him with a cup of coffee. Shauna smiled as Cat came into the kitchen. “Taxi duty over?”

  “The group has been returned to the house and I’ve locked the front door early.” Cat grabbed a soda out of the fridge. “I was thinking on the way to pick them up that I really didn’t need to bother you. I have nothing to help you with the investigation, well, except for what Dante told me.”

  The raise in Uncle Pete’s eyebrow was slight, but Cat noticed it. “Well, I’m here and enjoying some of Shauna’s delights. You might as well tell me what you’re thinking.”

  So Cat walked him through her reasoning on why the intended victim had always been Jessi. She went through each of her contacts with Dante and handed over the message that Tammy had delivered. She didn’t want to hold anything back from her uncle. Not if it was the piece that broke the case for him. “And that’s why I think it had to be about Jessi. The only thing that doesn’t fit is who’s stealing her money.”

  “She lost a lot of cash.” Uncle Pete had taken his notebook out and made several notes during Cat’s monologue.

  “Oh, no. The cash isn’t lost.” Cat explained Martin’s unhelpful logic. She frowned when she remembered his explanation. “Someone has been spreading a rumor that Jessi is hooked on drugs and making bad decisions. Her mother heard it and told Dante, who told Martin. Her money manager told me, but that might have come from her mother. But Jessi swears she doesn’t do drugs. She doesn’t really even like to drink.”

  “When you look at someone stealing her money, spreading rumors isn’t that big a deal.” Shauna sipped her hot chocolate.

  “If you take each thing separately, you’re right. But this seems like a massive attack on the girl. Of course, there were a lot of players in this drama.” Uncle Pete set down his pen. “There is one explanation we haven’t looked at yet.”

  “The ghost killer of Outlaw?” Cat yawned. It had been a long day.<
br />
  Uncle Pete smiled, “No, but I’ll add him to my list of suspects. I was thinking about Jessi. Could she have been orchestrating all of this herself?”

  “You have got to be kidding.” The tiredness fell off Cat, and she was angry that her uncle would even think that Jessi might be doing this all to herself.

  “Cat, I have to question her about everything. She was at Outlaw when Danielle was killed. Maybe she knew about Max.”

  Cat shook her head. “There’s no way. I saw her confront him. She was shocked and hurt.”

  “I’m not saying she did any of this, and believe me, there’s a lot of people out there who have been taking advantage of the girl. Maybe she just got tired of being the victim?”

  Cat stared at her uncle. “Then who tried to run her over with a car? She didn’t do that by herself.”

  “She could know someone to hire.” Uncle Pete sent her a sympathetic look. “Don’t look at me that way, it’s just a theory I have to disprove.”

  Shauna went to get Jessi, and Cat waited for her at the door to the kitchen. When the girl bounded down the stairs, she smiled at Cat. “What’s going on? Are we doing a movie night?”

  Cat put a hand on her arm. “No, but maybe tomorrow. Look, my uncle is here and wants to talk to you about a few things. You don’t have to do this. You can call your lawyer and have Uncle Pete schedule an interview through him. Or you can have me or Shauna sit in with you. Or call your mother.”

  “Why would I want to do any of those things?” Jessi shook off Cat’s arm. “You think I don’t know he’s looking at me for some of this? But see, that’s the thing. I know I didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s nothing he can do to make me say something that could hurt me later in a court setting. I’m the victim here.”

  “If you need anything—” Cat started, but Jessi cut her off.

  “Stop pretending like you care. You’re just hired for the week to provide an environment for my writing development. You’re not my mother or my family. You’re staff.” With that, Jessi flipped her hair back and squared her shoulders. Then she marched into the kitchen, fully prepared for war.

  “Cat, she didn’t mean—” Shauna started, but this time, Cat was the one who cut someone off.

  “She meant it all right. She’s hurt and striking out. But see, she doesn’t know everything about me.” Cat smiled as she headed to the living room to wait for Jessi and Uncle Pete to finish. “She doesn’t know I don’t give up on people I care about. And for some reason, that kid falls into that category.”

  It was over an hour before Cat heard the door to the kitchen open. She stood in the doorway watching as a clearly upset Jessi dragged her way to her room, one stair at a time. She waited for the sound of Jessi’s bedroom door closing before she moved toward the kitchen. Seth was standing by the microwave, heating up his burger. And he was the only one in the kitchen.

  “Where’s Uncle Pete?”

  Seth yawned and stretched. “No clue. Was he here?”

  “Yeah, he was interviewing Jessi.” Cat grabbed a soda. It was her second of the night, but she didn’t feel like sleeping, not yet.

  “When I came in, Jessi was sitting at the table crying. I asked if there was something I could help with and the poor thing looked at me with such pain.” Seth put the hamburger on a bun he’d slathered a ton of mayo on as well as a slice of cheese and a slice of onion. “So I stepped toward her and she held up her hands. Then she told me she was radioactive and ran out of the room.”

  “Poor thing.” Cat sank down to watch Seth eat. She laid her head on the table. “She doesn’t have anyone she can truly count on. That’s got to be the hardest part of this whole thing.”

  Seth sat next to her and rubbed her neck. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. She has you.”

  Cat laughed bitterly, thinking of the last exchange she just had with Jessi. “I don’t think she sees it that way.”

  “It doesn’t matter what she sees. I know you’re standing up for her. You love fighting for the underdog.” He kissed her head. “Now, can I eat? I’m starving.”

  “Go ahead. I think I’m going to join you for some dessert.” Cat went to the cabinet and got out a plate. She set up a brownie and put it in the microwave for thirty seconds. Then she got out the vanilla ice cream and a scoop from the drawer. When the bell went off, she took the plate out, scooped up the ice cream, and put everything away. Then she took a bottle of chocolate syrup out of the fridge and added a final touch. When she took it back to the table, Seth was staring at her. “What?”

  “Stress eat much?” He looked down at his burger and coleslaw. “You’re making my plate look like diet food.”

  “Then hurry up and you can make your own brownie delight.” She ran her spoon down the ice cream into the brownie, making sure she also got some of the syrup. Taking the bite, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the flavor. Besides the words she got in the sprinting session, this was the best thing that had happened to her today.

  “Your relationship with food is a tad unhealthy. I don’t think I make you smile like that.” Seth chuckled as she opened her eyes and blinked at him.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you, I was in bliss.”

  He took a bite of his burger and watched her. “We really need a date night. I think I can massage some of those kinks out of your shoulders.”

  “Can’t be next week, I’m on deadline then.” Cat considered her calendar. “But the week after I’m free. Maybe we could do a couple of nights away?”

  “I’m off with the boys next week anyway. The week after would work. We could go into Denver and hit some of the clubs. I hear they have some new bands that are killing it.” He polished off his coleslaw and took his plate to the sink. Then he got out a new one and repeated her movements with the brownie dessert, except he added a sprinkling of walnuts over the top. “Remember the Ice Cream Palace that was downtown when we were kids?”

  “I loved the Court Jester. It was amazing.” Cat took a bite of the ice cream and then went to the cabinet. “I wonder if Shauna has some salted peanuts. It would almost be the same.”

  As they reminisced about the past and the hangouts of their youth, Cat put Jessi’s problems away for the night. Maybe not thinking about them would bring her some clarity in the morning.

  Otherwise when Jessi left the writers’ retreat, she’d be stuck at Dante’s while Uncle Pete solved Danielle’s murder. Being taken care of might be stifling for a young woman, but it beat the alternative. And it definitely was better than being in the Aspen Hills jail.

  CHAPTER 20

  Cat lay in bed Saturday morning, thinking about the retreat and the last day. They had dinner plans at the upscale Mexican place just outside town. She loved the last night, where everyone knew each other and made plans for future contact. And it gave her time to hear what the writers had accomplished during the week. This group’s word count, with Kelly in the mix, would probably be through the roof, even with the distractions that came with Danielle’s murder and Jessi’s issues.

  Frustrated, she threw the covers off and got out of bed. She didn’t know where Uncle Pete was looking, except at Jessi herself, and Cat didn’t have any other suspect to point him toward. But she knew the girl. There was no way Jessi could have orchestrated Danielle’s murder or the failed attack on herself. The girl had a positive streak a mile long.

  When she came downstairs for coffee, Shauna and Seth were already eating. Cat poured coffee and grabbed a slice of toast and smeared on huckleberry jam. “So what’s on the schedule today? Any changes I need to know about?”

  “Cora and the girls want me to drive them over to the library right after breakfast at nine thirty.” Shauna glanced at her calendar that was open on the table next to her. “Then Seth has his thing at ten. I’m picking the group up at Reno’s at two. And dinner tonight. Are you doing a farewell session like you normally have last day?”

  “Yeah, I will. Just let them know to meet me in the living room at thr
ee. Do we still have some treats we can serve with lemonade and iced tea?” If they debriefed the work part, dinner would just be about fun and friendship. Cat nodded, pleased with the change from her morning thoughts.

  “It’s not just a Seth thing at ten. You two have to be there too.” Seth stared at Shauna. “You are going to be back from dropping them off by then, right?”

  “Of course. I’m dying to see what you’ve been working on all week. It better be worth the hype. I’m thinking a nice spa area.” Shauna picked up her plate and went to the sink. “Maybe with a hot tub and a personal masseur to ease the kinks out of my shoulders in the mornings.”

  “Ha, I thought it was a new gathering spot, with more bookshelves. We could call it the Annex.” Cat poked Seth’s arm. “Want to tell us who’s right?”

  “At ten, all will be revealed.” Seth finished his breakfast, then went to the coffeepot to fill up a travel mug. “And no peeking before. Man, you two must have been bad to live with as kids around Christmas. Neither one of you can wait for a surprise.”

  “He’s really good at keeping secrets. It’s kind of scary,” Shauna said as Seth left the kitchen.

  Cat stood and walked to the back window, where she watched as Seth made his way out to the backyard. “I wonder what he’s up to?”

  “I have no idea, but he didn’t flinch when either of us made guesses. Your man has a tell. When he’s lying or he’s trying to hide something and you guess, he flinches. It’s not much, just around the eyes, but it’s definitely there. I’ve tested him several times when he’s bought you a surprise gift or is planning on some romantic getaway. When I hit the nail on the head, he reacts. So no personal masseur for me.”

  “I’m sorry for your loss.” Cat thought about Seth’s tell. She’d known him longer than Shauna, and she’d already picked up on one of his habits.

  Shauna grabbed a bowl of freshly cut fruit for the dining room out of the fridge. “I know. And I was going to call him Ricardo and teach him to speak Italian.”