The Catsgiving Feast

by Kathi Daley

  “It does seem as if she’s been trying to sabotage our wedding ever since she arrived on the island.” I sighed, sitting down next to him. “I don’t understand why. Doesn’t she like me?”

  Cody used one finger to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “She likes you. It’s just that she blames you for ending my military career. I knew that and should have anticipated there was going to be fallout.”

  I sat up straight. “What? How can she blame me for ending your military career? I had nothing to do with that. We weren’t even dating when you decided to leave the SEALs and move back to the island.”

  “I know.” Cody let out a long breath. “It’s just that she really had her heart set on my being career military, like my grandfather. And at one point I considered a career in the military as an option. But after a decade in the Navy, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted for a lifetime. After moving back to the island and buying the newspaper, I had to explain my decisions to her. In the course of listing my reasons, I might have let it slip that one of them had to do with my feelings for you, and my desire to live in one place long enough to see where those feelings might lead.”

  I closed my eyes and groaned. And here I’d been thinking the only problem the woman had with me was my desire to get married on Madrona Island rather than in Florida. For the first time I understood that the loving, close mother-daughter relationship I’d hoped to have with Mrs. West had been doomed from the beginning.

  Cody continued. “I’m sorry my mother is acting this way. I thought she’d have the maturity to behave herself at my wedding despite her feelings, but I can see now I was wrong. I don’t believe she’d kill anyone, but I have no doubt she not only tried to sabotage our cake but that she yelled at the poor woman for hesitating to do what she demanded.”

  I couldn’t help but throw my hands in the air. “So what do we do now? Do we cancel the wedding? For all we know, your mother could be in jail by Saturday.”

  “She isn’t going to be in jail. We’ll figure out who really killed Sally and my mother will be off the hook.”

  I began to pace. “We’re getting married in four days. Four days!” I couldn’t quite keep the screechy, loud tone out of my voice. “We don’t have a venue for the ceremony or a cake. Your mother is not only the prime suspect in a murder investigation, but even if we manage to clear that up, she’ll still hate me.” I took a long breath in, then blew it out slowly. “Maybe this wedding just wasn’t meant to be.”

  Cody put his hands on my shoulders. Turning me toward him, he looked me directly in the eyes. “Are you saying you want to cancel the wedding?”

  I felt my anger dissipate as I looked into Cody’s deep blue eyes. “No. That isn’t what I want. I want to marry you and have your babies and build a life with you, but it seems as if things shouldn’t be this hard.”

  “I know.” Cody pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me. “But sometimes life is hard, and sometimes we’re forced to make compromises. I wish you’d been able to have your dream wedding. I really do. But I know we make a good team. A strong team. If we work together, I know we can figure this out.”

  I squeezed Cody around the middle with my arms. “You’re right. I’m sorry about the meltdown.” I loosened my grip and took a step back and looked at Cody again. “What we need is a plan. A list. We have four days to pull everything together.”

  Cody kissed me on the nose. “That’s my girl. I’ll grab a pen and pad and we’ll get to work.”

  I sat down on the sofa and stared into the cracking fire I’d built earlier to chase away the chill. Cody and I had real obstacles to overcome if we were going to get married on Saturday as planned, but if it took every ounce of energy I had, somehow I was going to make it happen.

  “We have several small obstacles and one very large one,” I said once Cody sat down next to me. “Beginning with what seemed like a huge obstacle this morning and now seems like a minor problem compared to Sally’s murder: We need a place to hold the ceremony.”

  “What about here?” Cody asked. “The reception is going to be here on the estate, so why not just do the whole thing here?”

  “What about the storm? We could cram everyone into the house for the reception if need be, but there won’t be room to set up chairs for as many people as we ended up inviting.”

  “Yeah,” Cody said. “The storm could be a problem. It’s supposed to roll in tomorrow evening and the first wave should blow through by Friday morning, but according to the weather forecast, there should be a second wave blowing through shortly after that. If we’re going to get married on Saturday, we need an indoor venue. Maybe the recreation center?”

  I made a face. “That seems cold and impersonal. What would you think about postponing the wedding?”

  “Until when?” he asked.

  “Father Bartholomew is still waiting for the contractor to get back to him, but he hoped the church would be repaired in time to reopen on Sunday, November 25. If that happens, he offered to let us have the ceremony after the morning services. I know that isn’t ideal, but we’ll need to call everyone we invited anyway, so other than your mother and cousin, who came from out of town, I’m pretty sure everyone else will be able to come on the twenty-fifth.”

  “And if it doesn’t reopen by then?”

  “Then we’ll need to move on to plan B, or maybe by that point it will be plan C. I know there’s quite a bit of uncertainty involved at this point, but Father Bartholomew should have a better idea when the contractor will be done by the first part of next week. I’m inclined to wait to see what he comes back with.”

  Cody paused. From his frown, he wasn’t happy with the idea, but eventually, he admitted that postponing the wedding to see if the church could still work out might be the best idea.

  “So, about the cake…” Cody said.

  “I’ll ask Tara to make it. I should have asked her in the first place. I didn’t want to make such a huge request because she’s already going to be maid of honor and she’s covering for me at the bookstore, but I kind of think she was hurt when I decided to order the cake from Sally.”

  “Okay.” Cody jotted down a few notes. “We’ll ask Father Bartholomew about doing the wedding at some point after the church reopens and Tara to do the cake. Are you still thinking of having the reception here at Finn and Siobhan’s place?”

  I nodded. “If it turns out to be nice by the time we get around to doing the ceremony, we’ll have it in the yard, and if the weather is bad, we’ll all cram into the house.”

  “Okay. Anything else?”

  “It sounds like we have it covered, although it might be a good idea to find Sally’s killer so your mom is no longer a suspect and we won’t have that hanging over our heads.”

  “Let’s call Father Bartholomew, then talk to Siobhan and Tara. Once we have those details ironed out, we can focus on proving she didn’t kill Sally.”

  “Are you sure she didn’t?” I asked.

  “Of course I’m sure she didn’t. I know she’s been acting irrationally since she’s been here, but she wouldn’t attack anyone. At least I don’t think she would.”

  “Has your mother always been this domineering?”

  Cody shrugged. “She’s the sort of person who likes to get her way. I know that’s why my dad left. I suppose it’s also why I went into the military. She had it in her head that I was going to have a career in the military, and she isn’t the sort of person you say no to. I think she means well, but she does have a way of steamrolling over anyone who disagrees with her.”

  “Have you ever witnessed her taking out her frustration in a physical manner? Could she have been so frustrated that she hauled off and hit a woman who wouldn’t do as she asked before she had a chance to think about the consequences?”

  Cody frowned. “Honestly? I’ve seen her become physically aggressive. Not hit anyone, but she used to throw things at my dad. Dishes and knickknacks mostly.” Cody groaned. “Maybe I was playing wit
h fire to even invite her here. I’m beginning to think we should have eloped after all.”

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

  Chapter 2

  Thankfully, Father Bartholomew was happy to fit our ceremony in at some point after the church reopened, and Siobhan was fine with moving the reception to whatever date that might be. Tara was delighted to bake the cake, so all that was left to do was to prove Cody’s mother didn’t kill Sally so we didn’t have her potential arrest looming over our heads. This, I decided, was going to be extra-hard because even Cody and I weren’t certain she was innocent. All we could do was to proceed with the idea that she was innocent and hope we discovered someone else was guilty of the murder.

  Siobhan suggested the sleuthing gang get together to come up with a plan to find Sally’s killer. Our brothers, Danny and Aiden, had to work at the bar they’d recently purchased that evening, so it was Finn and Siobhan, Cody and me, and Tara and Cassie who met at my place, because Aunt Maggie and Michael were staying at Finn and Siobhan’s and had offered to put their son, Connor, to bed. Siobhan had made snacks and set up the whiteboard in my living room. I could see she was anxious to get down to business and solve the crime. One of the things I loved most about my older sister was that she was an organized, take-charge sort of person. I guess that was what made her a good mayor as well.

  “Let’s start with the suspects and witnesses Sheriff Fowler has already identified and take it from there,” she suggested, dry erase marker in hand.

  “The sheriff has interviewed six people so far, including Mrs. West,” Finn said. “He first spoke to Carla Hudson, Sally’s assistant, who was the one who found Sally’s body in the walk-in refrigerator this morning. While the bakery is open from nine to four every day, Sally usually arrived at eight and stayed until four, and Carla worked from seven to three. She helps with the baking in the morning, then leaves at three to pick up her daughter from her dance class. When she left yesterday, Sally was speaking to Mrs. West about the changes she wanted on the wedding cake. According to Carla, the conversation had turned into a shouting match by the time she left.”

  “So the bakery closed at four and Carla left at three. Do we know if anyone else came in between three and four?” I asked Finn.

  “I’m not sure. I’d need to check with the sheriff. I do know Carla told him that the front door was unlocked when she arrived this morning, the cash was still in the cash drawer, and Sally was wearing the same clothes she’d had on the previous day, which led her to believe Sally was killed before she had a chance to lock up and cash out for the day. Carla said Sally was pretty rigid about closing at four because she had an exercise class she attended at five. Based on that, Carla is pretty sure Sally must have been killed between three o’clock, when she left, and four o’clock, when Sally would have locked the door and cashed out.”

  “And the witnesses who heard them arguing?” I asked. “What time was that?”

  “Diane Grimes and Nicole Jenkins walked past the shop at around three thirty. Neither noted the exact time, but from their recollection of other stops they made, they estimate the time to be fairly accurate, give or take ten minutes. Both women saw a tall, heavyset woman with short, platinum hair shouting at Sally. They both remembered the woman wore tan slacks and a bright pink sweater. They didn’t recognize her but said she was livid. They considered going in but decided Sally could take care of herself and walked on.”

  “So Mrs. West was in the shop yelling at Sally for thirty minutes?” I asked.

  Finn shrugged. “Based on the eyewitness accounts, that seems to be the case. Of course, the women said give or take ten minutes, so it could have been closer to three twenty, and Carla might have been off by a few minutes too. Still, I think we should assume Mrs. West was on the premises for at least twenty minutes.”

  “I’m having a hard time believing anyone would be willing to put up with being yelled at for that long. Maybe the timeline is off somehow.”

  “Perhaps,” Finn agreed. “The important thing is that Mrs. West was seen at the bakery and she was more than just a little irate.”

  I could see Cody’s lips tighten. This had to be hard on him. Especially given his doubts about his mother’s innocence. I wanted to help him and certainly didn’t want to make things even harder. I needed to keep true to the purpose of the meeting and not fuss on timelines that seemed off.

  “You must be right. Who else did the sheriff speak to?” I asked.

  “After he spoke to Mrs. West, the sheriff interviewed Eric West, Cody’s cousin. He’d been out drinking and wasn’t even aware his Aunt Beverly had gone into town. He did say she’d been worked up about something when they had breakfast that morning, but she hadn’t said what had her in a tizzy. As of now, the sheriff isn’t considering any other suspects. At least not any I know of. He’s aware of my relationship with Cody, and while he hasn’t taken me off the case, I have the feeling he isn’t sharing everything he knows with me.”

  “I assume he spoke to Sally’s husband?” Siobhan said.

  “He did. I don’t know the outcome of that conversation, other than that Nick Enderling mentioned his wife had planned to have dinner with some friends from her exercise class the evening she died. I know the sheriff planned to call those friends to see if Sally had been in touch with any of them about being late or missing their dinner date altogether.”

  “We know Mrs. West was at the bakery at three o’clock, when Carla left for the day. If she’d been the one to kill Sally—and I’m certainly not saying she was—she would most likely have killed her before she left. We need to get a look at the bakery cash register log to find out if anyone stopped by to pick up an order or to make a purchase at any time after three o’clock,” I said. “If anyone came after Mrs. West left, an argument could be made that she wasn’t the last person to see Sally alive.”

  “I’m assuming the sheriff has already taken the items in the cash drawer as well as the cash register tape,” Siobhan said.

  “I believe so,” Finn said. “The crime scene guys were in the shop for most of the day. I doubt there’s much left on the premises to find. I’ll see whether I can find out if anyone came in after three.”

  “I think tracking down potential witnesses is important, but it sounds like the sheriff is already all over that. What he doesn’t seem to be doing is coming up with an alternate list of suspects,” Tara pointed out.

  “Tara is right,” Cassie said. “Maybe our time would be best spent figuring out who had motive to kill Sally.”

  “I guess we can start talking to people,” Siobhan said.

  “Willow told me that she attends the same exercise class Sally did. I’ll talk to her to see if I can come up with a list of other attendees who might have been close to Sally,” I said.

  “It would make sense that Carla and Sally would chat while they work together all day. One of us should talk to Carla,” Siobhan added.

  “I’ll do it,” Tara offered. “I know her from a baking class we both took on San Juan Island a while back.”

  “And I’ll talk to the other members of the chamber of commerce to see if anything was going on in that group,” Siobhan offered. “It seems there’s pretty much always one controversy or another with them.”

  “I’ll talk to my mom to see if I can find out exactly what happened,” Cody said. “It would give us a reference point if we had her timeline. She also might remember if anyone else came in while she was in the bakery.”

  “What can I do?” Cassie asked. “I’m the only one without a job.”

  “Why don’t you talk to the owners or employees of the businesses on either side of the bakery?” I suggested. “Chances are, if things got that loud, they must have been disturbed by the noise.”

  “Let’s all meet back here tomorrow after the bookstore closes,” Siobhan said. “We can share what we found out then. If anyone finds a smoking gun they should, of course, call Finn right away.”

  Everyone
agreed to the plan. We all chatted for a while longer and then everyone took off, leaving Cody and me alone. I hated the stress lines around his eyes and the tightness of his jaw. I was sure this had to be killing him. I wanted to help him deal with things, but I had no idea how to do it.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, tossing another log on the fire. “This must be awful for you.”

  Cody ran a hand through his thick brown hair. “It isn’t fun.”

  “I know things look bad now, but I’m sure once we start to ask around, we’ll find there are other suspects much more likely to have hit Sally with a rolling pin or something like it. Let’s not forget that Danny was suspected of a murder only last month, and despite the evidence, he turned out to be completely innocent.”

  “I’m sure you’re right.”

  I cringed just a bit at the tone of hopelessness in his voice. “I’m going to take Max out for a walk. Do you want to come?”

  Cody nodded. “Yeah. I could use some air.”

  After bundling up against the cold night air, we headed out onto the beach. Cody took my hand in his as we walked along the waterline, where waves rolled gently onto the shore. The storm that was predicted hadn’t arrived yet, so the billions of stars that were sprinkled across the night sky shone down on us as we made our way across the sandy beach. I figured Cody needed a break from talking about the wedding, his mother, and Sally’s murder, so I decided to fill him in on the things I’d firmed up that day for the giant Thanksgiving feast we planned to hold at Mr. Parsons’s house because we wouldn’t be on the island for Christmas. At least I didn’t think we would be. If Mrs. West did end up in jail, our Christmas trip to visit her in Florida would be off.

  “I spoke to Francine today,” I began. “She said the number of people coming to Mr. Parsons’s dinner has passed seventy. She assures me that she and her group of volunteers have the food handled, but she suggested we might need to rent additional chairs and tables from an off-island vendor. She’s already reserved every table and chair the one and only local rental company has, but she doesn’t think that will be enough.”