Poisoned in Cherry Hills (Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Book 3)

by Paige Sleuth

  Andrew grinned at her. “I would have buzzed, but somebody else was opening the outside door just as I arrived.”

  “It’s okay. Come in.”

  He stepped inside. He still wore the same slacks and button-down shirt he’d had on earlier, but his clothes were noticeably more wrinkled now. She supposed that was what happened when you spent all evening interviewing potential witnesses as part of a homicide investigation.

  Kat shut the door and folded her hands in front of her, resisting her urge to smooth out his outfit. She was about to tell him to have a seat, but before she could voice the invitation Matty came tearing through the room, Tom at her heels. They both disappeared into the kitchen, then reappeared a second later. Matty flopped onto the carpet, and Tom pounced on top of her. They rolled around for a little while before Tom jumped up and ran back the way they’d come. This time Matty did the chasing.

  Kat had to laugh at their antics, even though she’d witnessed this exact scenario every evening since Tom had come to live with them two weeks ago.

  Andrew sat down on the sofa. “I’ve never seen them so rambunctious. Have you been slipping caffeine in their chow?”

  “No, I’m not that generous. I keep anything caffeinated for myself.”

  Andrew chuckled, his eyes never leaving her face. His dimples grew more pronounced the longer he stared at her.

  Kat broke her gaze away from his, feeling awkward all of a sudden. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Sure.” He propped one ankle on his knee. “A scotch would be great.”

  She frowned. “I don’t have any scotch.”

  “Then anything alcoholic will do.”

  Kat fetched him a beer, opting for water herself. Drinking this late would keep her up all night.

  “Thanks,” Andrew replied, taking a swig from the bottle she handed him.

  Kat settled onto the sofa opposite him. “How familiar are you with the local drunk driving cases?”

  He paused mid-sip. “Are you trying to tell me something? I’ll make sure this beer has worn off before I head home.”

  “No, I didn’t mean to imply anything like that,” she assured him. “I know you’re a responsible driver. I’m wondering specifically about the charges against a guy named Jake Lobeck.”

  Andrew grimaced. “Yeah, I’m familiar with that one. I helped put the case together for the D.A.”

  Kat arched an eyebrow. “Detectives work on drunk driving cases?”

  “I work on whatever I’m assigned.” His brow furrowed. “But why are you asking?”

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure really. I’m just curious if there could be a connection between what happened to Heidi’s parents and what happened to her.”

  “I don’t see how that’s possible. Her parents’ car accident was just that—an accident.”

  “But it was serious enough to send a man to jail,” Kat pointed out.

  “Yes,” Andrew conceded.

  “How long is Jake being put away for?”

  “We built up enough charges to get him a ten-year prison term. Whether he’ll serve the full sentence remains to be seen.”

  “And Heidi wasn’t involved in his sentencing?” Kat asked.

  “No.”

  “She didn’t testify or anything?” Kat pressed. “She didn’t vouch for what upstanding citizens her parents were or convince the jury that Jake should get the maximum for taking their lives?”

  Andrew shook his head. “Nope. And there was no jury. Jake pleaded guilty, and the judge himself doled out the appropriate sentence.”

  Kat considered that. “So whoever killed Heidi must have disliked her for another reason.”

  “It would look that way. That’s the angle I’m focusing on anyway.”

  As they lapsed into silence, Kat’s gaze drifted to Matty and Tom. Both cats had calmed down and were now sprawled out on the carpet. They looked beat—exactly how Kat felt.

  She looked at Andrew again. “Were you able to determine anything useful from that vial I found?”

  “It’s too soon to tell. I sent it off to be tested. If any substances found inside match what the lab guys separated from the iced tea, we’ll at least have a partial lead.”

  Kat tilted her head. “Iced tea?”

  Andrew pressed his lips together, looking sheepish. “Forget I said that.”

  Kat gripped the edge of the couch. “I can’t do that. And you can’t make a comment like that then refuse to tell me what it means.”

  He sighed. “Fine, but this stays between us.”

  “My lips are sealed,” she promised, pinching her thumb and index finger together and air-zipping her mouth closed.

  “It was Heidi’s iced tea that tested positive for the poison.”

  Kat absorbed that. “It would have been fairly easy for somebody to slip something into her drink when she wasn’t looking.”

  “Yes, and, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to lift any fingerprints off the vial.”

  “Well, just locating it in the women’s restroom gives you a bit of a clue, right?” Kat asked hopefully.

  Andrew didn’t look convinced. He merely shrugged one shoulder and took another sip of his beer.

  Kat slouched against the sofa, trying not to get too discouraged by the lack of leads.

  “Kat.” Andrew set his beer aside and rested his elbows on his knees, peering at her with an intense look. “I know you have a habit of involving yourself in police investigations—”

  “That’s not true!” she protested, straightening.

  “—but we—meaning me and the other authorities—will catch whoever did this. There’s no need to put yourself in harm’s way.”

  Kat screwed up her face. “How am I in harm’s way?”

  “You’re not—yet. But if you start going around looking into things and sticking your nose into a murderer’s business, you could be putting yourself in danger.”

  Kat’s stubborn streak flared. But, as much as she itched to argue, she did have to silently admit that Andrew’s point was a valid one. She hadn’t considered before now how getting too close to the truth might give someone incentive to kill her too.

  Andrew slapped his palms on his thighs. “Well, I’ve imposed on you long enough.”

  “You’re not imposing.”

  He stood up anyway. “Still, it’s almost midnight. You have to be just as eager to put this day behind you as I am.”

  Although she couldn’t disagree, his imminent departure still sparked a twinge of disappointment. “This certainly wasn’t the day I was expecting to have when I woke up this morning.”

  “Me neither.” Andrew smiled. “We’ll have to arrange for a makeup dinner after I solve this case.”

  “Sure.”

  He regarded her for a long moment before saying, “I’ll catch you later then.”

  “Okay.”

  After locking the door behind him, the events of the past twelve hours finally caught up to her. It took all of her remaining energy to drag herself down the hallway and into bed.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Kat!”

  The sudden shout nearly caused Kat to trip over herself as she stepped out of her apartment the next afternoon. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone in the corridor, considering that she was the only building resident on the third floor. Although, now that she was recovering from the shock, she wasn’t completely surprised to see the landlord and manager standing before her.

  “Hi, Larry,” Kat said, approaching the burly, bald man. “You startled me.”

  “That’s only because you had your head in the clouds there.” Larry chuckled, then spread his hands toward the woman beside him as if showcasing a game-show prize up for grabs. “Kat Harper, meet your new neighbor, Lucy Callahan.”

  Lucy grinned. “Hey, neighbor.”

  Kat’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re moving in already?”

  “Yep, thanks to your tip about the vacancies.”

  Kat mentally kick
ed herself for opening her big mouth at the benefit event. But how was she to know that Lucy would end up becoming a murder suspect an hour later?

  “After everything that happened yesterday, I realized if I don’t get my life in order now, I may never get the chance, ya know?” Lucy said. “I mean, when somebody you know keels over not fifty feet away, it really makes you reevaluate your own life. I’ve been thinking about making some changes for months. Yesterday forced me to see that if I didn’t get rid of all my old baggage now I might never get the chance. Heidi’s death was like a wake-up call for me.”

  Kat squinted at Lucy, trying to deduce whether her animated tone was the result of her new lease on life or because she no longer had to worry about her archenemy stealing another one of her boyfriends ever again.

  “I heard about poor Heidi,” Larry said, pursing his lips. “Guy’s gotta be crazy to kill a sweet gal like her.”

  “Who said it was a guy?” Lucy argued, leaning against the wall. “I’m banking her sister did it.”

  Larry screwed up his face. “Becca?”

  Lucy nodded. “You know their parents died recently, right? With Heidi out of the way, she stands to inherit everything.”

  Kat frowned. She couldn’t tell whether Lucy truly believed her proposed scenario, or if she were only trying to deflect suspicions from herself.

  “Does Becca even need the money?” Larry asked. “She’s a pretty successful professional gal, ain’t she?”

  Lucy stared at Larry as if he’d sprouted fairy wings. “Money is money. It doesn’t matter how much you have, you always want more.”

  “All right, I’ll give you that,” he conceded, eyeing Kat as if he might be thinking of raising her rent.

  Lucy crossed her ankles. “Besides, a man wouldn’t kill by sprinkling poison on someone’s food. Haven’t you noticed it’s always the women who do that sort of thing?”

  Kat didn’t miss Lucy’s reference to the food being contaminated. Was that because she wasn’t aware of the toxic iced tea, or because she wanted to mask her guilt by pretending she didn’t know the specifics?

  “Nah,” Larry said, shaking his head. “Becca doesn’t have it in her to do something like that.”

  Lucy shrugged. “Believe what you want, but it couldn’t have been fun having Heidi as a sister. And Becca was sitting right next to her, giving her opportunity as well as motive.”

  Lucy did have a point there, Kat admitted. Although she still had her doubts about Lucy’s innocence, she hadn’t yet figured out when she could have slipped the poison into Heidi’s drink.

  Kat made a mental note to ask Andrew if he’d checked Lucy’s cell phone records for calls or texts to potential accomplices.

  “Hey, Kat,” Larry said, pulling her back to the present. “Lucy tells me you convinced her to get a cat.”

  Kat raised her eyebrows. “I did?”

  “Yep,” Lucy concurred. “I’m going to adopt that tabby I saw yesterday. Willow will be bringing her over in a few days, after I get settled in. I’ll need some pointers on how to take care of her before she arrives. Think you can help me out with that?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Kat replied absently. Typically the news of a homeless animal finding a permanent home would have made her ecstatic, but right now she was having trouble concentrating on anything other than Heidi’s murder.

  Larry clapped his palms together. “Well, I’ll leave you two neighbor gals to get acquainted with one another.”

  Lucy waved as he headed down the corridor. “Thanks, Larry.”

  “If you need help carrying your furniture up, give me a holler. I’m in 1B,” Larry called out, stepping into the elevator.

  “Will do.” Lucy turned her attention back to Kat. She smiled and raised her key up as though in toast. “Here’s to fresh new starts.”

  Kat could barely manage a return smile.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Kat mulled over her recent run-in with Lucy Callahan during the drive to Rebecca Smith’s house. Although Lucy hadn’t seemed particularly bothered by Heidi’s murder, she also wasn’t giving off a guilty vibe, at least not one that Kat had detected. Or, could her satisfaction over eliminating an old rival be enough to mask any remorse she felt over taking another person’s life?

  Kat took a deep breath, the delicious aroma of Jessie’s lasagna filling her nostrils and causing her stomach to growl. If she didn’t have to keep her hands on the wheel she might be tempted to eat the whole thing herself, leaving her with nothing to offer Heidi’s grieving sister.

  That assumed, of course, that Rebecca really was grieving and hadn’t murdered her sibling so she wouldn’t have to split their parents’ estate.

  But Larry was right that Rebecca certainly didn’t look as if she needed the money, Kat considered as she pulled up to the address Imogene had given her. The yard was immaculate, and the house’s exterior didn’t sport so much as a single fleck of peeling paint or a solitary gutter dent. Still, Kat couldn’t overlook the possibility that maintaining appearances had driven Rebecca’s savings into the ground and she was more desperate than her beautiful home would suggest.

  Kat groaned, wishing she could shut off her mind. She was here to pay her respects to a woman who had just lost a close family member, she reminded herself, not to evaluate her as a murder suspect.

  Imogene’s car pulled up to the curb, and Imogene and Willow climbed out, both of them holding foil-covered casserole dishes. Kat got out of her own car and waited for them to catch up.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Kat said as they approached the house together. Not ever having met Rebecca, she had been nervous about being the first to arrive.

  Imogene inhaled and depressed the doorbell. “Smells like you persuaded Jessie to make her famous lasagna.”

  Kat shifted the still-warm pan in her arms to keep it from singeing her skin. “She was all too willing when I told her who it was for.”

  The door eased open, revealing a woman who looked vaguely similar to Heidi. She shared Heidi’s bone structure and blond hair, at any rate, but her eyes were red-rimmed and her nose looked ruddy from crying.

  “Becca, meet Kat Harper, our new 4F treasurer,” Imogene said, jerking her elbow toward Kat. “And I believe you already know Willow Wu, our secretary.”

  Rebecca nodded at them. “Yes, come on in.”

  Imogene stepped inside first, with Willow and Kat following. “We felt the least we could do was bring over some sustenance,” Imogene said. “Especially after you were kind enough to agree to see us after suffering from such a terrible personal loss.”

  Rebecca twisted around to shut the door, obscuring her face before Kat could study it for a reaction.

  Imogene bit her lip. “I must say, I feel somewhat to blame for what happened.”

  Rebecca faced her, her head cocked to one side. “What do you mean?”

  Imogene grimaced. “As the 4F president, the benefit dinner was my responsibility.”

  Rebecca flapped her hand, but the motion lacked any energy behind it. “You couldn’t have known.”

  “Nobody could,” Willow said, looking pointedly at Imogene.

  Imogene nodded, but the creases framing her mouth suggested she was still mentally castigating herself.

  Rebecca collapsed onto the loveseat as if someone had ripped her spine out. “You can set your stuff on the coffee table.”

  They did, then Willow and Kat took seats on the larger couch while Imogene planted herself next to Rebecca.

  Rebecca’s eyes filled with tears. “I still can’t believe she’s gone.” She snatched a tissue from the box on the end table and swiped at the corners of her eyes.

  Imogene patted her hand. “We can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now. To lose your only sister like that.”

  Rebecca blew her nose. “She was my last remaining relative. I mean, I have some aunts and uncles and cousins, but they all live on the East Coast. I haven’t seen them since Mom and Dad’s funeral.” She frowned. �
��Though I guess they’ll have to fly out here again now.”

  “Is there anything we can do for you?” Willow asked.

  Rebecca shook her head. “There’s nothing anybody can do except catch the slimeball who did this.”

  Kat folded her hands in her lap, unable to think of anything to say that might provide even an ounce of comfort. Plus, as much as she didn’t trust Lucy’s judgment when it came to Heidi Smith, she also couldn’t dismiss her speculation that Rebecca might be the guilty party.

  Rebecca looked at Kat. “Imogene said your boyfriend is that police detective who was there last night.”

  Kat felt her cheeks flame. “He’s not my boyfriend. But yes, we attended the benefit dinner together.”

  “They’re good, good friends,” Imogene piped up.

  Rebecca hunched forward, her eyes boring into Kat’s. “Does he have any guesses as to who killed her?”

  “I’m not sure,” Kat admitted.

  Rebecca’s eyes darkened. “I bet it was that tramp Lucy. I saw her and Heidi arguing before the dinner started.”

  Kat didn’t respond, unable to fault Rebecca for her conclusion. The image of Lucy leaning against the wall of her apartment hallway while she chattered about new beginnings and old baggage flashed through her head.

  Rebecca’s hands balled into fists, crushing the tissue she was holding. “They’ve hated each other ever since they became interested in boys back in middle school. Lucy always blamed Heidi for stealing her boyfriends, but I don’t know of any sane man who could spend more than a week with that shrew.”

  Imogene cleared her throat. “Well, I’m sure the police are conducting a thorough investigation.”

  Rebecca ignored her, her eyes never leaving Kat’s. “Tell that detective friend of yours that I want to see justice served. I want to see Lucy Callahan behind bars before the summer is over.”

  “Assuming she’s guilty,” Imogene interjected.

  Rebecca scoffed. “Of course she’s guilty. Heidi didn’t have any other enemies. Nobody else had any reason to hurt her. In fact, I don’t know why Lucy wasn’t arrested on the spot.”

  Kat bit the inside of her cheek. She was tempted to ask exactly how much Rebecca had to gain financially from her sister’s death, but such an insensitive inquiry was sure to get her blacklisted from not only Rebecca’s social circle but quite possibly Imogene’s and Willow’s too.