“I don’t need a lawyer, really.”
He held up the plastic bag of gummy worms. “But it could take hours, and you definitely need junk food.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble.”
He held up his hand. “Not another word. I absolutely insist. You can’t leave me with all this junk food. You’ll be doing me two favors if you let me come with you.”
I let out a sound that passed for a chuckle. “Fine. But I need to come clean and confess something, Logan. You know that crazy landlady of yours? The one you said needs… to loosen up?”
He winced. “That’s you, isn’t it?” He kept wincing. “I knew as soon as I pulled up to the red light and finally put two and two together. I saw your car parked behind your gift shop. There aren’t many people in town who drive a car that nice.”
“You’re right.” I took a moment to look over my car and appreciate it. “This is a nice car, and I especially like the keyless entry and ignition feature. It might have saved my life tonight.”
He nodded. “I must admit I’m quite curious to hear the rest of this story.”
“You’ll hear all about it at the police station.”
He smiled and pointed to the traffic light above us. “Light’s green,” he said. “I’ll follow you to the police station.”
I gave him the thumbs-up gesture and hit the gas.
Chapter 35
When I walked into the police station in a colorful bathrobe, holding an irritated cat, the night receptionist didn’t even say hello to me before she picked up the phone and paged an officer.
Within a minute, Officer Peggy Wiggles came to the front to greet me.
“Gotta another wild theory for us?” she asked, her tone joking. “Did the cat do it? We can run his prints, but I can’t make any promises.”
Logan cut in with a deep, commanding voice I wasn’t yet familiar with, “Excuse me, but I’m Ms. Day’s attorney. I ask that you treat my client with all the respect due to a civilian who’s just cracked the city’s recent shocking murder case… even if she is wearing a bath robe covered in cat hair… plus an actual cat.”
Officer Peggy Wiggles snapped to attention. “Of course, sir. Right this way, please.”
Logan turned and gave me a cheeky wink as we followed Peggy through the office to an interview room. I raised my eyebrows and gave him a cheeky look of my own, hoping to convey that I could have definitely handled this on my own, yet I was grateful to have a friend with me during a stressful time.
We got into the interview room, where Peggy starting setting everything up to record my statement on a laptop. I couldn’t wait, and the words started pouring out of me.
“You were right, Peggy. It was a professional snowman designer! My dad’s girlfriend—well, his ex-girlfriend—used to do movie set decoration and lately she’s been doing all the store windows in town. That’s why the snowman’s head was so perfectly round.”
“Hang on,” she said. “I’m still setting up. Are you saying Pam is the killer?”
“I have her confession recorded on my phone,” I said breathlessly. “Plus there’s a bullet lodged in my car. It’s from my dad’s service revolver, I think, but he’s still in the city, so nobody can dream of saying it was him.”
“Did you say you have a taped confession?” Peggy clapped her hands and whooped. “I do love a good confession.” She tapped away at the laptop quickly. “And that explains the gunshot noises that were phoned in a few minutes before you arrived. Excuse me a moment. I’m going to warn the officers on their way that it’s not just kids with firecrackers.”
I smacked myself on the side of the face. “I should have called 9-1-1 from the car. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just wait here.”
Officer Wiggles got up and left to share the new information.
Now it was just me and Logan in the interview room, plus Jeffrey, who sat on his own chair, having a personal grooming session. I patted his soft gray head, and he gave me a look of annoyance. He’d already cleaned that spot, and now he would have to wash it again.
As I watched him lick his paw and re-clean his pointy ears, I finally connected the name I’d given him with that of my childhood imaginary friend. The realization gave me a shiver—as if the idea of this cat had always been in my mind, and when I saw his face, I recognized the feline equivalent of a soul mate.
Jeffrey Blue was my cat now, of course. There was no doubt in my mind that my father would agree. If Dad missed him, I could bring him over for visits.
Jeffrey took a break from grooming and gazed up at me with love-eyes, unwavering and blinking in slow motion. His purr started up with an impressive rumble.
I almost started to feel like I was at home, except then I looked up and remembered I was at the police station.
Feeling self-conscious, I tried to fix the front of my bathrobe and make it look more respectable, but there was no use.
“You look cute,” Logan said to me. “That bathrobe has good colors for you. This pattern really brings out your eyes.”
I snorted. “How would you know? You’re color blind.”
He gave me a funny look. “How did you know I was color blind?”
“You are?” I feigned surprise. “Lucky guess, I suppose.”
His face took on a professional coolness, and he spoke to me like I was a difficult witness, asking, “Stormy Day, how did you know about my color blindness?”
I couldn’t tell him I’d been cowering behind the counter when he was in the gift shop earlier that day, but what could I say?
“My blue dress,” I explained. “That day I saw you at the Fox and Hound, you said I was in a green dress, unlike the song about the devil in a blue dress, but the dress actually was blue. I didn’t think much at the time, but it must have just clicked. Funny how the subconscious mind works with clues, isn’t it?”
Right then, Officer Peggy Wiggles returned to the interview room. Logan turned to her and said, “My client will need to be hooked up to the lie detector, please.”
She replied solemnly, “That’s not standard procedure, sir. We won’t be doing that, and we also won’t be drowning her to see if she’s a witch.”
Logan chuckled. “A cop with a sense of humor. I think I love this town.”
“Aren’t you that new hotshot lawyer?” she asked. “The one who had the spectacular flame-out and had to move to a small town to start over?”
Logan stopped laughing instantly, then mumbled, “I wouldn’t say I was a hotshot.”
I tilted my head and really scrutinized him. “You had a flame-out, too?”
He shrugged it off. “The people around Misty Falls sure like to gossip, don’t they?” He reached down for the shopping bags he’d brought in with him and started setting out an assortment of candy and chocolate on the table. “Who wants a gummy worm?”
Officer Peggy Wiggles picked up the bag of gummy worms and shook them angrily. “Is this supposed to be a joke? Making fun of someone’s name is childish.”
Logan held his hands up, palms out. “Easy now. That’s just the brand name of those gas station gummy worms. Wrigglers. I swear I didn’t even know I’d be coming here tonight.”
Her cheeks reddened and she took a moment to ruffle her short hair, the way I’d been ruffling my own matching pixie-cut.
“Sorry for jumping to conclusions,” she said. “I’ve been under a lot of stress. We’re so busy here, and short-handed, plus between the snowman murder and complaints about the voodoo lady, I’ve been running around like a house mouse with a backpack full of catnip.”
Logan and I both leaned in at the same time and said, “Voodoo lady?”
“Nothing to be concerned about,” she said as she tapped away on the laptop keys.
“Let’s get started,” she said.
We went through the basics, with me slowing down to explain everything from the beginning, point by point.
Logan was allowed to sit in as my legal counsel
and official junk food dealer, and we left the door to the room open, so that Jeffrey could prowl around the nearly-empty police station, working on The Case of the Mouse Who Nibbled the Snack Room Crackers.
We played the recording from my phone, and Peggy made copies of Pam’s admission of guilt for their records. I kept apologizing for what I’d made up about Mr. Michaels on the recording.
“He wasn’t like that,” I said. “He was a cranky loner, but I don’t want his daughter to hear those terrible things I made up to trick Pam. Mr. Michaels wasn’t bad, deep down. He was the sort of guy who would help you run a profitable lemonade stand.”
“I understand,” she said. “If everything goes well, the public will never hear this recording.”
“Good,” I said.
After a long series of questions, Officer Peggy Wiggles said, “Stop me if any of this is wrong, but as I understand it, your father’s girlfriend, Pam, was upset because Finnegan Day was pursuing his younger physical therapist. Pam was in an agitated emotional state over getting dumped for someone younger, so when she saw Mr. Michaels talking to his long-lost daughter at the diner, she assumed he was her lover, and she snapped. On the recording, she referred to drugging him, so it’s possible she fed him sleeping pills, perhaps claiming they were antacids, as she did with you, and then she strangled him in his sleep.”
“Allegedly,” said Logan. “Allegedly strangled him.”
Jayne’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “Sir, this is your client’s statement.”
“Force of habit.” He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Just got excited and wanted to contribute.”
I gave him a pat on the arm. “And I appreciate it.” I kept patting his arm, which was so warm and muscular. He turned his forearm around and clasped my hand in his, giving it a squeeze for a moment.
He fixed his serene blue eyes on mine and said, “That woman tried to kill you, too, Stormy. She’s not going to get away with this.”
“Lucky for me, she’s a lousy shot.”
His blue eyes stayed locked on mine and expression changed to one of worry. “It wasn’t just the shooting. She tried to drug and drown you. That’s two counts of attempted murder.”
He was still holding my hand, and between that contact and his expression, my heart was melting.
“But you got away,” he said softly.
We both looked down at our hands, and he self-consciously unclasped his from mine and returned it to his lap.
Peggy said, “You are definitely the offspring of Finnegan Day. I never worked with him, but his reputation is well known.”
“I am my father’s daughter.”
“And he’ll be pleased to see you’re still alive.”
I shuddered at the idea and said bravely, “Lucky for me, Jeffrey likes to play hockey, and he knocked those sleeping pills down.”
“My cat does that,” Peggy said. “He loves playing table hockey. Mostly he just wrecks my reading glasses and breaks my favorite mugs. He’s never saved my life before.”
“What kind of cat have you got?”
“The best kind. A chubby ginger with a stubby tail.”
“Sounds cute. What’s his name?”
“Peekaboo. I know it’s silly, but he actually play peekaboo. And he hides in laundry.”
“That is so cute! Do you have a photo?”
Logan interrupted us with a throat clearing. “Ah, I’m sorry to derail this discussion of our feline friends, but we should keep things going.”
“You’re a good lawyer,” I said with a smile.
Peggy didn’t say anything. Apparently, she had not warmed up to Logan as much as I had, which was fine with me. I wanted to be the only woman with a pixie haircut playing a prominent role in Logan’s life.
We were interrupted by the receptionist popping her head in. “They’ve got her in custody,” the receptionist said.
Peggy nodded and got up from her chair.
“They got Pam?” I squeaked.
Logan said, “My client would be more comfortable not confronting the woman who tried to murder her.”
Peggy gave me a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry. She won’t be coming through here while you’re here. Give me a few minutes and wait here, would you?”
“Sure,” Logan and I answered in unison.
“Oh, and Stormy,” she added, “Tony is taking care of everything. He said to thank you for everything, and he’s sorry he couldn’t also be here to say so personally.”
She left the room, and now the two of us were alone.
“Who’s Tony?” Logan asked.
“Officer Tony Baloney. I mean Officer Tony Milano. He was my father’s partner.”
“Oh,” Logan said with a nod. “I thought maybe he was your boyfriend.”
I snorted. “Gross. Tony’s old and gross.”
“Hmm.” Logan looked at me with the cool expression of someone skilled at detecting lies.
“He’s married with kids,” I said.
“I understand.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
He smirked. “Good to know.”
His blue eyes moved down from my face, moving slowly. I adjusted the overlap on the top of my bathrobe to preserve my modesty, and pulled the terry cloth rope belt tighter.
“What about you?” I asked. “Did you move to Misty Falls by yourself, or will someone be joining you at the duplex?”
“Are you inquiring as my landlady?” he asked cheekily. “If there’s someone else living on my side, will I have to pay a greater than fifty-five-percent share of the electricity bill?”
I snorted defensively. “You should pay more if you have excessively long showers.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He sorted through the pile of candy on the table between us and opened a bag of pretzels. He offered me a pretzel, the square-looking chunks of salt sparkling like tiny diamonds of savory deliciousness.
I accepted the pretzel and crunched it in my watering mouth. He’d artfully dodged my question about him having a girlfriend, which meant either he had one, or he couldn’t easily shut off lawyer mode.
After a moment, he said, “I wish I could have seen you jumping out of that bathroom window.” He chuckled. “It’s not too soon to laugh about that, is it? You… running around in the snow in nothing but that bathrobe… it’s quite the image.”
I grinned at the memory. “This has all the makings of a fantastic new Christmas tradition. The hundred-yard-dash, through the yard in a bathrobe.”
“Or forget the bathrobe and go naked,” he said. “Like skinny-dipping, but the more extreme, Misty Falls version.”
“You sound like you know a thing or two about skinny-dipping.”
“I grew up in a small town not unlike this one. I know a thing or two about how to have fun outside of major urban centers.”
“Is that so?” I glanced over to the laptop and recording equipment. “The session’s still recording, Logan. Is there anything you want to confess to, on the record? You’ll feel better once you get it off your chest.”
He gave me a mischievous look. “Not really. Lawyers are good at keeping things up their sleeves and biding their time.”
His eyes went to the gap at the top of my bathrobe again. I pulled the terry-cloth belt tighter and smoothed down the front again.
“Do you always look down your client’s clothing? Is that what got you in trouble at your last law firm?”
He flicked his gaze up to meet my eyes and gave me a foxy grin. “I would have, if I’d had a client as cute and funny as you.” He licked his lips and peered down again.
“Stop it,” I said, giggling. “You’re causing a scandal. This is all on the recording, and the whole police department will hear it.”
He leaned over to the laptop and stated, clearly, “This is Logan Sanderson, and I’d like to state, for the record, that my client, Miss Stormy Day, is dressed inappropriately for this meeting. As her lawyer, I would advise her to don proper attire for the
next one. Maybe a loose turtleneck and a cardigan. Or one of those cat-lady sweaters with the sequins and bells.”
I gasped. “You are so bad.”
He smiled. “Just trying to make you smile. You’ve had a tough night, haven’t you? It’s part of a good lawyer’s job to put his client at ease so she can function.”
“Oh. So you’re just doing your job?” A little squeak of disappointment made its way into my voice. Here I thought he was flirting with me because he liked me. But if he was just trying to make a good impression with me, and with the Misty Falls Police Department, that wasn’t quite as enjoyable.
He nodded and said in a serious tone, “I might joke around here and there, but I do take my work very seriously. Stormy, if you ever need me again in a legal capacity, please don’t hesitate to call.” He smiled warmly. “Or just knock on my door if the light is on. Any time.”
“For legal matters.”
“Sure.”
Just then, Peggy came back into the room and told us everything was under control.
“Lucky for the boys, she was out of bullets,” Peggy said.
Logan leaned forward. “Was anyone hurt?”
She took her seat with a sigh. “Not tonight. Thanks for asking.”
Jeffrey padded into the room on silent feet and jumped up into my lap.
Peggy smiled warmly at the cat. “And Jeffrey solved the The Case of the Mouse Who Nibbled the Snack Room Crackers.”
“Good boy,” Logan said, sounding like a proud father.
Peggy checked the recording equipment, then we continued doing my statement, but the shock of what had happened was finally setting in and everything whirled past me in a blur.
After a while, Peggy said, “One of the crime scene investigators got the bullet out of your car, so at least we won’t have to impound that as evidence. That’s a nice car you’ve got.”
“My car?” I blinked at her for a moment, then remembered. “Oh, right. Sorry, I spaced out there.”
Death of a Dapper Snowman Page 20
