The Catsgiving Feast

by Kathi Daley

  He picked up on the first ring.

  “Where are you?” I asked. “I can hear waves crashing in the background.”

  “I’m at the old lighthouse on the east shore, interviewing witnesses from the fire.”

  “The lighthouse? There was a fire? I hadn’t heard.”

  “A small fire that fortunately was caught early on. The damage was minimal, but the lighthouse will be closed indefinitely. The building is old and its structural integrity will have to be looked at very closely before it reopens. I imagine you’ve spoke to Cody.”

  “Yes. And while I’m extremely relieved Mrs. West has been allowed to leave the island, I’m still concerned.”

  “You don’t think Miranda Wells is guilty.”

  I sighed. “I have no idea. She seemed to have motive, and she was right next door. She could easily have snuck over to the bakery at almost any point. It isn’t that I necessarily think she’s innocent; it’s more that I find the anonymous tip and the rolling pin suspect.”

  Finn groaned. “Yeah, me too. I was shocked when the sheriff arrested Miranda before he was able to obtain the lab reports on the rolling pin, which did seem to turn up conveniently.”

  “Were Miranda’s fingerprints on it?”

  “No. There weren’t any prints at all, which seems odd. It could be it was fresh out of the dishwasher, and the killer might have been wearing gloves.”

  “No. Hitting someone over the head with something close at hand is a crime of passion. Wearing gloves to carry out a crime would be premeditated. It feels like Miranda is being set up.”

  “That’s what she’s claiming,” Finn informed me. “She’s insisted from the beginning that she was alone in her store until around four, when a group of tourists came in and made some purchases. They paid cash, and because they were out-of-towners, they’re likely long gone from the island. She has sales receipts to back up her story, but they could have been faked, and without names and contact information to go with them, she doesn’t really have an alibi at all. She’s adamant that she’s innocent and has no idea where the rolling pin came from, though she’s certain it was planted.”

  “I have a feeling she’s right. I think she is being set up. I have to ask myself, why did this anonymous witness wait so long to come forward? Most of the locals knew Sally had been murdered on Tuesday, and anyone who didn’t would more than likely have seen the article in Wednesday’s newspaper. Why wait until Thursday to call it in?”

  “Good question. I find the fact that she didn’t think to dispose of the rolling pin hard to understand. A guilty person would have been stupid to keep the murder weapon.”

  “Exactly. I’m glad Mrs. West is off the hook, and more relieved than I can express that she and Eric are on their way back to Florida, but I can’t let go of this yet.”

  “There’s something odd going on. The sheriff was really intent on finding Sally’s killer, which I understand, especially given their relationship. That makes it even stranger that he was willing to accept the anonymous tip so easily.”

  “Is it possible the sheriff knows something about Miranda we don’t? Something that would convince him the evidence he found was real and not planted?”

  “Perhaps,” Finn admitted. “I gotta go. The fire marshal’s here. I’ll call you later and we can compare notes.”

  I made a sandwich, then sat down at my dining table to eat it. I’d grabbed a notepad and pen in the event inspiration struck, but so far all I’d accomplished was a fairly intricate doodle. If Miranda hadn’t killed Sally, who had? And why out of all the possible suspects had the real killer decided to set Miranda up? It would have been easier to pin the murder on Mrs. West. Pretty much everyone already thought she’d done it anyway. I’d suspect her of making the anonymous call to get herself off the hook, but she’d been in the hospital when it came in. Maybe Eric? I should have asked Finn if the caller was male or female. I couldn’t resist calling him back.

  “I know you’re busy, but I just have one quick question: Was the anonymous call made by a male or a female?”

  “The voice was muffled and obviously disguised, but the sheriff thought the call was made by a woman.”

  “And there’s no record of the number used to make the call?”

  “Actually, it was traced to the business line at the Driftwood Café.”

  I frowned. “That’s a public place. Wasn’t anyone able to figure out who made the call?”

  “The sheriff interviewed every staff person on duty Thursday afternoon, and no one admitted to making the call or knowing who did. Someone could be lying, but the manager told the sheriff the office is in a hallway that also leads to the bathrooms. The office door is usually kept closed, but it isn’t always locked. It would be possible for a customer to sneak in and make the call without anyone noticing if they were familiar with the layout of the restaurant and knew the phone was there.”

  “What time did the call come in?” I asked.

  “Around three o’clock.”

  “So the restaurant would be fairly deserted. Not only was it raining hard yesterday, but three o’clock is between lunch and dinner. It should be easy to get a list of all the customers who were there at three o’clock.”

  “Good point. I imagine the sheriff’s already thought of that, but we haven’t had a chance to speak much because he’s on San Juan Island today, and I’ve been stuck up here on the east shore all morning.”

  I bit my lower lip, a habit I seemed to have developed during the stress of the past couple of weeks. “I’ll go by the café to chat with Kimmy. I was there to speak to Eve earlier in the day yesterday, so I know she was working the reception desk. I bet either Eve or Kimmy can tell me who was dining at around that time.”

  “If you’re going to continue to snoop around, be careful. If Miranda isn’t guilty, Sally’s real killer is still out there.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

  I grabbed my backpack and jacket. Both Max and Cosmo looked at me with hopeful eyes. If they came with me, they’d just end up waiting in the car, and I said as much to them, but neither appeared to care. Of course, Max most likely had no idea what I was yammering about. I suspected Cosmo understood every word I said, and his desire to accompany me on my errand inclined me to take him. I still intended to have a heart-to-heart with the cat, but maybe his presence today would lead me to the clue I suspected was still to be found.

  “Okay, you can both come, but remember, I warned you about having to wait in the car while I visit the café.”

  Cosmo meowed and Max barked. I looked out the window at the dark sky. I had a feeling the pause in the rain wasn’t going to last much longer. According to the weather report, the second band of the storm wasn’t due until later this evening, but it looked as if it was going to be early.

  I opened the cabin’s side door, then headed to my car. Both animals jumped in when I opened the back door. I closed it and climbed into the driver’s seat, started the motor, and pulled onto the peninsula drive. I wasn’t sure if either Kimmy or Eve would be working today, but the odds were one of them would be on shift and willing to talk about the mysterious caller, who, in my mind, had the potential to either confirm what the sheriff already believed or blow the case wide open.

  Chapter 9

  The Driftwood was slightly more crowded than it had been yesterday, but not by much. Kimmy was at the front counter, as I hoped. She was with a customer when I arrived, so I indicated that I’d grab a table, then made a motion to let her know I wanted to speak to her when she had a minute.

  “Hey, Cait; what can I get you?” the waitress asked.

  “Just coffee. I’m waiting to talk to Kimmy. Were you working yesterday?”

  “No, I’m just Fridays and Saturdays. I have another full-time job. This is just to supplement it so I can make my rent payments.”

  “I’ve heard rents on the island have gone up quite a bit.”

  “A lot. It won’t be long before the peop
le who work here won’t be able to afford to live here. I’ll go grab that coffee.”

  By the time I’d drunk half the cup, Kimmy came over to join me. “Hey, Cait. What’s up?”

  “Sheriff Fowler must have already talked to you about the anonymous call that was made from here yesterday.”

  “Yeah, he was in. He talked to everyone on shift yesterday. I worked breakfast and lunch, so I got off at two thirty, but I hung around, so he interviewed me too.”

  “You hung around after you got off?”

  “I’d gone into the kitchen to grab something to eat. One of the perks of working here is the free meals you can order either before or after your shift. When I work the early shift I usually eat after.”

  “Who worked the hostess shift after you?”

  “Alice Porter. She was here from two thirty to nine o’clock.”

  “So you were in the kitchen at three o’clock?”

  Kimmy nodded. “Sort of. Right off the kitchen is a small room with a table where staff can eat. If you’re wondering if I knew who was here at the time of the call, the sheriff asked me that, and I don’t. Other than Alice, me, the cook, and Eve, who worked a double shift because a dinner-shift waitress called to let us know she wasn’t going to make it in.”

  “I didn’t see Eve when I came in just now. Is she here?”

  Kimmy shook her head. “She’s off today. In fact, she won’t be in until Monday.”

  “Was the sheriff able to speak to her?” I asked.

  Kimmy wrinkled her brow. “I’m not sure. He might have tried calling her cell. I think she’s on San Juan Island visiting her boyfriend on her days off.”

  “Is the cook who was here yesterday here today?”

  “He has the dinner shift today, so he’ll be in later. Alice is waiting tables in the back room. Of the staff who were here both yesterday afternoon and right now, she’s the most likely to have noticed which customers were in.”

  I chatted with Kimmy for a few more minutes before she had to get back to work. She promised to send Alice over as soon as she had a minute to take a break. I sipped my coffee while I waited. The café was far from packed, but there was enough business that I knew Alice wouldn’t have long to chat. Fortunately for me, she was able to make her way to my table in just a few minutes.

  “Hey, Cait. Kimmy said you had some questions for me. I have maybe two minutes before I have to get back to work.”

  “I’ll make it quick. I understand you worked the hostess station yesterday afternoon.”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “Do you remember who was here at around three o’clock?”

  “The sheriff asked me the same thing. As far as I can remember, there were six customers and five staff. Herman Vincent was the cook on shift until four, when the dinner crew arrived. Eve Donner was waiting tables, after agreeing to a double shift. Polly Simpson was waiting tables too. She came in late, but I’m pretty sure she was here by three. Kimmy was off but still on the premises. And I was here, of course.”

  “There weren’t any managers working?”

  “No, not at that time of day. Technically, Herman is in charge when no one else is around.”

  “So the business office was deserted?”

  Alice nodded. “As far as I know it was, and yes, the door is often left open. I know Eve went in to make a call after she agreed to stay for a second shift, and I’m pretty sure Polly used the phone to check in with her babysitter.”

  “Why would staff use that phone? Why wouldn’t they just use their cells?”

  “We aren’t allowed to have our cell phones on us while we’re on shift. Most of us leave them at home or in our vehicles. There’s a place to leave purses and other personal possessions in the office, but most of us just don’t bring our things inside with us.”

  “And your car keys?”

  “We leave them in the cash register. We drop them off when we come on duty and pick them up when we leave. I have less than a minute left, so I’ll go ahead and tell you what I can anticipate you’ll want to know. There were six customers here between about two thirty and three thirty: Francine Rivers was having coffee with Nora Bradley, Carla Hudson was having a late lunch with a man whose name I didn’t catch, but I’m pretty he’s an attorney from the bits of conversation I overheard, and Eli Alderman was having coffee with Oliver Patton. Now I really gotta go. We’re short-staffed today.”

  I felt a bit shell-shocked by the quick list of customers. Francine and Nora were close friends and often dined together. I had no reason to suspect either of them of any involvement in Sally’s death, so I immediately crossed them off my mental list. The fact that Carla had been having lunch with a man who appeared to be an attorney was interesting. They could just be friends, but I’d be interested to learn what they were discussing. I still hadn’t found out who’d inherited the bakery from Sally and wondered if she had some sort of contract that would give Carla first option in the event of a sale. She’d been with Sally since she moved to the island and had been the one doing most of the baking. It seemed to me that she’d served as more than a mere employee and therefore could have had a contract of some sort.

  The most interesting customers in my book were Eli Alderman and Oliver Patton. Eli certainly had a lot to gain from Sally’s death, and while Oliver claimed not to have heard anything when Sally was killed, I suspected he knew more than he was letting on. It had crossed my mind that Eli had been the one to kill Sally and Oliver knew it, and might be using his knowledge to get something from Eli. Of course, Finn had indicated that the anonymous caller was most likely a woman, so it was unlikely it was either of these men.

  I finished my coffee, said goodbye to Kimmy, and headed out to my car. I’d hoped knowing who’d been in the café would help me narrow in on a suspect, but I still didn’t have a strong feeling about who might be setting Miranda up, if that was what was going on.

  “So, what now?” I asked Max and Cosmo. Neither animal answered in any way, but I felt I needed a minute to think and didn’t want to sit in my car in front of the café, so I headed down the street to Coffee Cat Books. Tara, Cassie, and Willow, were all working today. Maybe they could help me work through the information I’d just gathered.

  When we arrived at the bookstore, I opened the back door, lifted Cosmo out, and told Max to jump down. With another storm on the horizon, there were very few people out and about, so the three were decorating the shop for the upcoming Christmas season.

  “Oh look, it’s Cait and the kids.” Cassie laughed.

  “Cait and the kids are out running errands and decided to stop by,” I said, putting Cosmo on the floor. I glanced at the empty cat lounge and then back at Cassie. “You didn’t bring in any cats?”

  “Tara and I talked about it and decided to give the lounge a really good cleaning. There isn’t anyone around to adopt the cats anyway.”

  “I guess that makes sense. The whole town is dead. I stopped by the Driftwood and they had a few customers, but nowhere near what they’d normally have at this time of day.”

  “I heard the sheriff arrested Miranda Wells for Sally’s murder,” Willow said.

  “So I’ve been told.” I couldn’t help but frown.

  “You don’t seem as happy and relieved as I expected you to be,” Tara said.

  “I’m relieved. And I’m very happy Mrs. West is off the hook and on her way home to Florida. It’s just that things don’t feel right.”

  “Miranda’s arrest did seem sort of sudden,” Tara admitted.

  “I understand it was brought about by an anonymous witness,” Willow joined in.

  “And therein lies the problem,” I said. “Who is this witness? Are they credible? And what’s up with the anonymity?”

  “All good questions,” Tara said.

  “According to Finn, the call was made from a landline at the Driftwood Café. I just went by to speak to some of the people who were on duty at the time the call was made. Alice Porter told me th
ere were only six customers then: Francine Rivers was having coffee with Nora Bradley, Carla Hudson was having lunch with a man Alice believed might have been an attorney from what she overheard of their conversation, and Eli Alderman was having coffee with Oliver Patton. I have no reason to suspect either Francine or Nora, though Finn said the call was most likely made by a female, which seems to eliminate Eli and Oliver, so that just leaves Carla. The thing is, Carla said she went to pick up her daughter at three o’clock. We suspect Sally’s time of death was closer to four, so she could have come back, but why would Carla sit on the news that she’d seen Miranda with the rolling pin once she discovered Sally was dead? That makes no sense.”

  “And Carla’s the one who told me about Miranda and the dispute with her lease,” Tara reminded me. “If she’d seen Miranda leaving the shop at around the time of death, that would have been the perfect time to bring it up.”

  “Still, the fact that three of the six customers when the call was made are in one way or another involved in the case seems odd to me,” Willow said.

  She had a point. Carla had been Sally’s employer and had been the one to find her body the morning after she was killed, Oliver owned the business in the shop next door to Sally’s bakery, and Eli and Sally had been feuding over the development of a second chamber of commerce.

  “It seems like Eli had the most to gain from Sally’s death,” I said. “His alibi was weak and he seemed to be feeling a lot of rage toward her. The possibility that he killed her and then tried to place the blame on someone easy makes sense, but the sheriff told Finn the caller seemed to be female.”

  “It’s not all that hard for a man to disguise his voice to sound like a female,” Cassie said.

  “I guess that’s true.”

  “What does the cat think?” Willow asked.

  I looked around for Cosmo but didn’t see him right away. “I’m not sure. I was going to try to talk with him, but I keep getting distracted and haven’t gotten around to it. Did you see where he went?”