Overdosed in Cherry Hills

by Paige Sleuth

  She eyed another page, disappointment weighing inside her when she saw it was more of the same. If one of these clients had killed Xander, nothing printed on these receipts would help to pinpoint which one was guilty.

  Kat flopped against the couch and sighed. “I don’t know why I’m so dejected,” she said, scratching Tom’s head. “I mean, what did I really expect to find? A printed confession signed by Xander’s murderer?”

  Tom pressed his head into her palm and started purring. He wasn’t going to let a little thing like an unsolved murder dampen his happiness.

  Matty grew bored and relocated to her cat tree by the window. After making sure she had Kat’s attention, she looked pointedly at the window and meowed.

  “I don’t have time to take you out right now, Matty.” The tortoiseshell would stay outside all day if she could.

  Matty pawed at the window latch.

  “Ah, good idea.”

  Kat stood up and opened the window. A slight breeze blew through the screen, and Matty turned her face into it, her nose twitching as she worked to identify all the different scents floating her way.

  The wind lifted the corner of one of the receipts wedged under Tom. He slapped it back into place, one claw punching a hole in the cat silhouette logo. Then he laid on his side and stretched out to cover as many of the receipts as he could reach. The contented look on his face suggested he had finally found his calling in life as a feline paperweight.

  Kat snorted. “At least stealing those wasn’t a total waste.”

  She petted Matty for a few minutes before she became aware that something about those receipts was bothering her. She walked over to the coffee table and looked once again at the information she could see around Tom’s body. But whatever was niggling at her stayed just beyond her grasp.

  Her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her jeans pocket, noting her boss’s name on the caller ID.

  “Hi, Maura,” she answered.

  “Hey, Kat. Sorry to bother you on a Saturday, but I was wondering if you might have a few minutes to work on that program due to our clients on Monday. I was looking over the code you modified yesterday, and I have a few suggested changes.”

  “Sure, I could spend some time on it.” At the very least, work might help to get her mind off of Xander’s murder.

  “Oh, Kat, you’re a lifesaver. I really appreciate you sacrificing your weekend. Do you want to meet me at the office in, say, half an hour?”

  “Or you could come over to my apartment,” Kat suggested.

  “Whatever works for you. And I’ll try not to keep you long. I’m sure you have other things you’d rather be doing today.”

  “It’s not a problem.” Kat paused, her brain churning. “Say, Maura, if it’s not too much trouble could you bring all your Ritter Veterinary documents with you?”

  “You want Stumpy’s medical records?”

  Kat heard the worry in Maura’s voice and figured her boss was still fretting over the pain medication charge on Stumpy’s dental bill. “Not because I think anything’s wrong with him,” Kat assured her. “Something’s bothering me about the clinic’s paperwork.”

  “That sounds vague and intriguing.”

  “Only because I have yet to figure out what’s bugging me. I’m hoping if I look at enough of their documents something will click.”

  “Knowing you, you’ll figure it out in no time. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Maura arrived less than fifteen minutes later. Never one to let a guest feel unwelcome, Tom abandoned the receipts to greet her. In fact, he beat Kat to the door. She had to nudge him away with her foot in order to let Maura in.

  “Well, hello there, handsome,” Maura crooned as the big cat weaved between her ankles. “Look at how pretty you are with your colorful coat and those expressive green eyes.”

  “That’s Tom.” Kat frowned as her gaze drifted to the huge stack of papers in Maura’s hands. “Don’t tell me all that is from Ritter Veterinary.”

  “Just the top few pages. The rest of this is work related.”

  “Phew. I was starting to think Stumpy had more health problems than you’d let on.”

  Tom chirped, then laid down on the floor, eyeing Maura over his shoulder.

  She laughed. “You’ll have to let me put this stuff down before I can pet you, honey.”

  “I’ll take that,” Kat said, relieving Maura of the paperwork. “Tom’s not one to let anyone past the entryway until they give him a tummy rub.”

  “Well, then, I guess I’ll have to do as ordered.” Maura bent down and scratched Tom’s downy stomach. He stretched out for more. “What a charmer. Stumpy lets me get two stomach pats in at the most. Then out come the teeth.”

  “You’ve just described Matty to a T,” Kat told her, jerking her chin toward Matty.

  “Oh.” Maura’s face brightened upon spotting the yellow-and-brown tortoiseshell eyeing them from the cat tree. “What an adorable cat.”

  Although she knew she had nothing to do with Matty’s looks, Kat still couldn’t prevent the swell of pride she felt at Maura’s compliment.

  Maura crossed the room to pet Matty. Tom watched her, but when she showed no sign of returning anytime soon he reclaimed his spot on top of the Ritter Veterinary receipts.

  Maura angled her face toward the window. “That breeze feels so nice.”

  “Matty insisted I open that window. For her, it’s the next best thing to going outside.”

  “Smart cat.” Maura twisted back around. “So, why do you want Stumpy’s paperwork anyway?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” Kat flipped through the pile Maura had given her. “My sixth sense is telling me something isn’t right though.”

  “Are you referring to the pain medication charge?”

  “In part. Plus, between yesterday and today I’ve heard of four clients who received bills for charges they’ve already paid.”

  “Oh!” Maura straightened. “I got one of those too. It was the invoice for Stumpy’s checkup a couple weeks ago, when Dr. Mark first told me he needed his teeth cleaned. It came in the mail yesterday. The receipt they gave me when I paid is in there too. I figured the second bill was just a mistake.”

  “It was. Not to speak ill of the dead, but Xander clearly didn’t know his way around a database as well as Dr. Mark thought he did.”

  Maura smirked. “Dr. Mark should hire us. Speaking of which, you ready to get to work?”

  “I am if you are.”

  Maura sat down on the couch. “My suggested changes are in that pile somewhere. Mainly, I’d like to see if we can tweak your code to flag any transaction that gets stuck in Billy Bob’s approval process for more than three days. Their accounting checks are good from an oversight standpoint, but timewise . . .”

  Kat stilled, the words ‘accounting checks’ ringing in her ears. She looked again at Stumpy’s dental bill, then at the receipts currently serving as Tom’s bed. And, in a flash, she knew exactly what was bothering her.

  “Of course,” she breathed.

  Maura grinned. “So you’re on board?”

  Kat clutched Maura’s veterinary paperwork to her chest. “Maura, do you mind if I borrow these documents for a little while? I’d like to show them to Andrew and get his take on what might be going on.”

  “What do you think’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” Kat also didn’t want to make any accusations until she had a better idea of whether the theory taking shape in her head was rooted in reality.

  “Well, if you think my stuff will help, show whoever you want,” Maura said. “You going down there now?”

  Kat gave her a sheepish smile. “If you don’t mind. I know you came all the way over here to work on that program . . .”

  Maura flicked her wrist. “I think solving a murder takes priority over that. Besides, we have until five p.m. Monday to get these modifications finalized.”

  Kat nodded. With any luck, by five p.m. Monday Xander Holliwell’s kill
er would be well on their way to prison.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Kat could hardly sit still during the drive to the Cherry Hills Police Department. She kept fiddling with the radio, turning it on and off then on again. She flipped aimlessly through the stations, but nothing interested her. All she could think about was Xander’s murder and the theory developing in her mind.

  She was grateful to see Andrew’s car in the parking lot when she reached CHPD headquarters. She had been so anxious to see him that she hadn’t thought to verify he’d be here before she left her apartment.

  The officer manning the front desk greeted her with a wave when she walked into the building, her arms full of Ritter Veterinary paperwork. “If you’re looking for Milhone, he’s in back.”

  “Thanks,” Kat said, continuing on her way.

  Andrew was seated behind his desk. He smiled when she squeezed into the tiny space he called an office. “Well, this is a nice surprise.”

  “I have some information about Xander for you,” she said without preamble.

  “Yeah?”

  Kat kicked the door closed, set the papers she’d brought on Andrew’s desk, and dropped into the visitor chair. “I believe someone was embezzling funds from Dr. Mark.”

  Andrew’s eyebrows crept up his forehead. “And how did you come to this conclusion?”

  “For one thing, an embezzlement scam would explain why Ritter Veterinary is struggling to stay in the black despite how they always seem busy. But the clincher is that I know of at least five Ritter Veterinary clients who recently received bills they’d already paid. Ivy told me Xander misidentified them in the database, but I don’t think that’s true.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  “I think Xander knew exactly what he was doing when he queried that database, only as far as Ritter Veterinary was concerned those invoices really were unpaid because the transactions were never recorded. That way the books would still balance even though someone else pocketed the cash.”

  “You’re thinking the embezzler only stole cash?” Andrew said.

  “I’m not positive, but it seems to fit,” Kat replied. “I know for a fact that one of their clients, Mr. Pedapudi, only uses cash. And yesterday Maura said something to Ivy about stopping by the bank. That seems to suggest she intended to pay cash.”

  “And both of them received one of these duplicate invoices?”

  Kat nodded. “Not only that, but I have a hunch the thief inflated the bills of anyone with a history of paying cash.” She sifted through the pages on the desk until she found the invoice for Stumpy’s teeth cleaning. “This is Maura’s most recent invoice. There’s a charge on here for pain medication, but I don’t believe it was actually administered. And Mr. Pedapudi made a comment about Ritter Veterinary’s escalating cost of services, something I’ve never noticed through my dealings with 4F. But then again, 4F always pays by check.”

  Andrew rubbed his chin. “This is all very interesting, but how do you propose it fits with Holliwell’s murder? You think one of the targeted clients snuck through the back door and killed Holliwell over a duplicate invoice and some extra charges?”

  Kat grimaced. “About that door. Ivy admitted to being the person who opened it.”

  “What?” Andrew nearly fell out of his chair. “When I talked to her yesterday she made it sound as though the staff never leave it open.”

  “They don’t. But Ivy confessed she opened it yesterday to deflect suspicion from Dr. Mark. She also let those animals out, hoping you’d think the killer released them as a distraction.”

  “So she was covering for Dr. Ritter.”

  “Yes, but only because she’s convinced he’s innocent.” Kat paused, then added, “And I agree with her.”

  “Why’s that? Dr. Ritter’s prints were the only ones on that syringe.”

  Kat frowned. “Are you sure? Ivy mentioned that Xander was the one preparing the euthanasia needle. Wouldn’t you at least find his prints on it, too?”

  “Dr. Ritter’s prints could have obscured Holliwell’s. And, I have to say, the only hole in my case against Dr. Ritter is a lack of motive. But you’ve just handed that to me on a silver platter. When he found out Holliwell was stealing from him he could have felt betrayed enough to kill him.”

  Kat held up one palm. “Hang on a minute. I never said Xander was the person stealing from Dr. Mark.”

  “You don’t think he did it?”

  “He wouldn’t have mailed out those duplicate invoices if he’d known they had actually been paid. That could only draw attention to his scam.”

  Andrew rested his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers beneath his chin. “But if he wasn’t the embezzler then how does all this fit in with his murder?”

  “I’m thinking he was killed because he figured out who the embezzler is.”

  “And who would that be?”

  “Winona Oren. She’s the only person who makes sense.”

  “How do you figure that? She’s not up front at all times. It wouldn’t have been all that hard for Holliwell or Ivy to pop behind the counter when she was in the bathroom or looking for Dr. Ritter, grab a handful of cash, then delete the corresponding payment records from their system.”

  “Yes, but only Winona could have done up those receipts.”

  Andrew’s mouth puckered. “Receipts?”

  Kat pawed through the papers on the desk. When she found the pages she wanted, she yanked them from the stack. “Take a look at this paperwork Maura gave me.”

  Andrew took what she handed him. He studied the papers for a minute, then set them back on the desk. “What am I looking at here exactly?”

  “See this?” Kat pointed to the page header. “This is an invoice, and printed at the top is Ritter Veterinary’s contact information but nothing else. This is the same format I see on all the Ritter Veterinary documents I receive for 4F.”

  “Okay.”

  “But this,” Kat went on, pointing to another page, “is a receipt. Maura was given this when she paid for Stumpy’s wellness check a couple weeks ago. And it has the Ritter Veterinary logo on it. See the cat silhouette here?”

  “I see it, but I don’t see the significance.”

  “The invoice, the one without the logo, came from their database. Winona walked me through their system earlier, and none of the forms generated by that database have the Ritter Veterinary logo on it.”

  “Okay.”

  “That means this receipt didn’t originate from their database. It had to have been done up by the embezzler, and it had to have been done up outside of the system. And given that everyone expects to receive a receipt as soon as they pay for something, the embezzler had to have created these fake receipts right when the money was collected. That means the embezzler has to be the person who handles the payments.” Kat let a pregnant pause elapse. “Which means it can only be Winona.”

  They stared at each other across the desk. Kat could feel her heart pounding as she watched Andrew’s mental gears turn. She wasn’t used to collaborating with him on homicide investigations, and a part of her wondered if he would berate her for butting in now.

  Without warning, he stood up. “I’m going to go have a little chat with Winona.”

  Kat jumped out of her chair, banging her knees against the underside of the desk in her haste. “You’re not going alone, are you?”

  “I’ll get one of the guys to come with me.”

  “I can go.”

  “No way.” Andrew gave his head a hearty shake for emphasis. “You are to stay away from Winona Oren and Ritter Veterinary until further notice.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Go home, Kat. If you’re right and she’s guilty, she could be dangerous.”

  Kat huffed. She knew he was right, but still. She felt invested in this thing now.

  Andrew gave her a level look. “Promise me you’ll stay out of it.”

  Kat sighed. “Fine, I promise. But I want an update as s
oon as you have one.”

  “Deal.” And with that, Andrew disappeared.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As she drove home, Kat tried not to think about everything that could go wrong when Andrew confronted Winona. He was a trained police officer, she reminded herself. He knew how to handle criminals, even dangerous ones.

  By the time she reached her apartment building she was relatively calm. She took the elevator upstairs and let herself into her unit. Silence greeted her, prompting her to look around for Tom. He was nowhere in sight. For that matter, she didn’t see Matty either. Usually the tortoiseshell could be found on either the couch or the cat tree, her two favorite napping spots.

  She walked through the living room toward the kitchen. As she passed by the open window a breeze whispered across her skin, giving her goosebumps. The goosebumps only intensified when she didn’t see the cats in the kitchen. She had the uneasy feeling that something wasn’t right.

  She had just swiveled around to search the rest of the apartment when she saw Winona standing at the edge of the short hallway that led to the bedroom. Her heart almost exploded out of her chest.

  “Winona,” Kat said, reaching out to steady herself against the wall.

  “How did you find out?” Winona asked, her voice like ice.

  Kat didn’t say anything, still recovering from the shock of finding this woman—this killer—inside her home.

  Winona took a step forward. “I know you know, but I don’t know how you figured it out.”

  “I don’t know wh—what you’re talking about,” Kat stammered. The denial was automatic, a knee-jerk reaction.

  “Don’t play dumb. I knew something wasn’t right when you left the clinic earlier. You had this look on your face, like you couldn’t get out of there fast enough. And then I noticed a bunch of the receipts I’d made up yesterday were gone.” Winona’s eyes narrowed. “You figured out I was mocking up those receipts myself, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted to look at our database, so you could verify for yourself that they didn’t come from our system.”