Drowned in Cherry Hills

by Paige Sleuth

  Kat shook her head, dumbfounded by the extent of the chaos.

  Books, DVDs, kitchen utensils, and small appliances were scattered all across the floor. Furniture and electronic equipment lay on their sides, and the door to the coat closet had been flung open. Kat could see a few empty hangers dangling from the rod inside the closet, but everything else looked to have been dumped on the carpet.

  Thunder bumped his head against Kat’s leg and cooed.

  She reached down to stroke him. “Who did this?” she asked Andrew.

  “My best guess? The guy who took off.”

  “What could he have been looking for?”

  “I was hoping you could help answer that.”

  Kat blinked up at him. “How would I know?”

  Andrew’s narrowed gaze took in the room. “You see anything unusual here? Besides the mess.”

  “I—I have no clue. I’d have to walk around.”

  Andrew swept his arm toward the living room. “Have at it. Just don’t step on or touch anything.”

  Kat didn’t see how she could accomplish that. But when Andrew failed to comment after she nudged a magazine out of the way using the toe of her sneaker, she figured he was okay with her clearing a path on the floor as long as she didn’t leave her fingerprints anywhere.

  She made her way through the living room, taking inventory as she went. She didn’t see anything unusual, but she’d only been to Ellie’s house a couple times and always for 4F business. She and Ellie had been more acquaintances than friends.

  The bedroom didn’t look much better than the living area. Clothes and shoes were strewn everywhere. The clothes all looked to be Ellie’s. Ellie had favored girly attire, much like the pastel-colored dresses, flowery skirts, and frilly blouses currently heaped on the floor.

  It made Kat’s heart hurt to think of Ellie never getting to wear any of this stuff again.

  She took a deep breath. Right now, she needed to focus on helping Andrew nab Ellie’s killer. She could mourn later, when she was alone.

  A soft trill sounded behind her. She turned around to see Thunder standing near a wrinkled file folder in the center of the room.

  She stepped over a pile of shoes and patted the top of Thunder’s head, hoping he didn’t find this scene too distressing. This had been his home for several weeks now, and he had to hate seeing it like this.

  She froze when her eyes snagged on a familiar number scribbled on a scrap of paper poking out from beneath the edge of the folder.

  “What is it?” Andrew said from where he stood in the doorway.

  Kat pointed at the paper, unable to prevent the tremor in her finger. “Your phone number’s written down here.”

  Andrew approached her and squatted on the floor. He stared at the scrap of paper without touching it.

  “That’s your number, right?” Kat had it programmed into her phone, so perhaps she was remembering it wrong.

  Andrew dashed that hope. “Yep, that’s my direct office line.”

  “Did she call you recently?”

  Andrew shook his head.

  “What could she have wanted to talk to you about?” Kat mused.

  Instead of responding, Andrew stood up and headed for the door. “Get the cat, and let’s get out of here. I’ll get a team over here to conduct a thorough search.”

  Kat considered pushing him to let her have another look around, but he clearly had reached the end of his rope. She wondered if he was just as unsettled about seeing his number in Ellie’s possession as she was.

  She made her way back out to the living room and picked up the leash and harness she’d spied tangled on the floor earlier, figuring Andrew wouldn’t mind if she removed it. Thunder didn’t protest when she slipped the harness on. It was tight on the big Maine Coon, but it fit.

  “You’re going to come with me, and we’re going to find you a new foster family,” she told him.

  Thunder followed her willingly, and Kat found herself wondering if he knew something had happened to Ellie.

  They made it halfway to Andrew’s car before Thunder stopped moving, his ears at attention. Kat looked around in search of what had distracted him. She didn’t see any other animals in the nearby vicinity.

  “Keep walking, Thunder,” she said, tugging on his leash. “It’s time to go.”

  Thunder started moving again. But instead of following her to the car, he made a sharp left.

  Kat tried to rein him in but ended up stumbling after him. She supposed when you weighed as much as Thunder, you went where you wanted.

  “Where are you going?” Andrew shouted.

  “I don’t know yet.” Kat threw the words over her shoulder, struggling to maintain her hold on the leash as Thunder dragged her across the lawn.

  “Come on, Kat. I don’t have time for this.”

  She didn’t have a chance to reply. Thunder was on a mission, and Kat had no choice but to go along with the ride.

  The Maine Coon finally slowed his steps when they reached the backyard. Sensing her chance, Kat stooped over to grab him. He sidestepped her with ease.

  Andrew caught up to them. “You need to get him under control.”

  Kat was on the verge of asking him to help her when Thunder reached one paw out and batted at something in the grass.

  “What’s he doing?” Andrew asked, peering over her shoulder.

  “No clue. It looks like he found a note or something.” She plucked it from the grass and unfolded it. “It’s a prescription.”

  “‘From the desk of Edward Thompson, MD, family practitioner,’” Andrew read.

  She squinted at the handwritten portion, then held the paper up to Andrew. “Can you make out what it’s for?”

  Andrew took it from her. “Nope. Name looks like Dion though. Dion—” He held the paper up to his nose, his eyes squinted nearly shut. “—Panther.”

  “Dion Panther? Do you think that’s who was running away? He could have dropped this after you startled him.”

  “It sure looks that way.” Andrew pinched the edge of the prescription between two fingertips. “I’ll look him up when I get back to the station. Whoever he is, he’s got some explaining to do.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “The prescription was for a Dion Panther,” Kat said, pacing back and forth in front of her coffee table while Imogene Little watched her from the sofa. “Do you know him?”

  Kat had phoned Imogene after Andrew dropped her off at the gym to pick up her car. She had invited the 4F president over to discuss Thunder’s situation, but all she could think about was the cat’s discovery in Ellie’s yard.

  “Never heard of him,” Imogene replied while stroking Tom, Kat’s brown-and-black cat, as he sprawled across her legs. Imogene was petite, and the feline hung half off her lap.

  “Maybe he’s new in town.” Having lived in Cherry Hills for all of her fifty-six years, Imogene would undoubtedly have heard his name before otherwise.

  “Are you sure he lives here?”

  “If he doesn’t, he’s commuting here to see his doctor. The practice listed on the prescription has a Cherry Hills address.”

  “Who’s the doctor?”

  “Edward Thompson.”

  “Ah, yes, Eddie Thompson. He goes by Dr. T now, but I still think of him as little Eddie. I remember when he was running around in diapers.” Imogene grinned at Kat. “In fact, I remember when you were running around in diapers, too.”

  Kat opted not to comment. Now was not the time to reminisce about her potty-training days. “How long has Dr. T been practicing here?”

  “Since he graduated from medical school. He’s around forty, so maybe ten years now.”

  “I guess that rules out Dion Panther deciding to stick with a beloved doctor who was relocating his practice to another city. He must have chosen Dr. T for another reason.”

  They fell silent. In the quiet, Kat could hear scratching sounds coming from down the short hallway that led to her bedroom. Thunder hadn’t been h
appy when Kat had left him there, but she couldn’t risk him fighting with Matty and Tom.

  Both of her cats had been fascinated by the Maine Coon when Kat had walked in with him clutched in her arms. Before Imogene had arrived, they’d spent a good twenty minutes sitting outside the bedroom, their eyes expanding to the size of their heads whenever they caught a glimpse of Thunder’s toes reaching under the door or a tuft of his fur poking through the crack. But all that surveillance must have taken its toll, because as soon as Imogene showed up the cats wandered back out to the living room and crashed.

  Now, Tom lifted his head, his ears pricked. He rotated his head around until he faced the hallway, looking as if he expected aliens to emerge from behind the closed bedroom door. Tom was a big cat himself, but he looked like a dwarf next to Thunder. Kat wouldn’t be surprised if he had never met a cat larger than himself before now.

  “What do you think he’s doing in there?” Imogene asked, flipping her auburn ponytail over her shoulder before smoothing back the fur around Tom’s ears. “Digging a tunnel under the door?”

  “That sounds about right.” Kat stopped pacing. “I’m guessing you didn’t find anybody to foster him.”

  “You’d guess right. All our volunteers already have a full house.”

  Kat sighed, her heart going out to the Maine Coon. “I’d let him stay here, but there’s no room.”

  “Worst case, I’ll keep him in my spare bedroom.”

  “Will Clover go for that?” Although he didn’t mind people, Imogene’s territorial white cat wasn’t big on sharing his domain with other four-legged creatures.

  “He won’t be happy, but he can deal with it for a few nights.” Imogene smirked. “I’ll wear earplugs so I won’t have to listen to his nonstop complaining.”

  Thunder didn’t make any more noise, and after a moment Tom’s eyes slipped shut. He gently beat Imogene’s arm with the tip of his tail, clearly relishing her company.

  Watching him, a wave of exhaustion washed over Kat. She flopped next to Matty on the other sofa and rested her hand on top of the yellow-and-brown tortoiseshell. Matty didn’t open her eyes, but she did stretch her front paws out until they grazed Kat’s thigh. She seemed happy to have her human within reach.

  Kat eyed the clock as the hour approached three, thinking of the jelly doughnut she should currently be digesting. Instead, she’d skipped not only her typical Saturday morning doughnut, but a regular lunch as well. But it didn’t really matter. After seeing Ellie floating in the pool, she’d lost her appetite.

  “Didn’t you say you had another candidate thinking of joining our foster crew?” Imogene asked Kat.

  “That would be Diana Feather. But we should probably hold off on encouraging her to apply until after Ellie’s murder is solved.”

  “Why? You don’t think Diana did it, do you?”

  “I don’t know. She was acting funny at the gym.”

  “Finding a friend drowned in a pool will do that to a person.”

  “I guess.”

  Imogene clamped her hands around Tom’s body to keep him from toppling to the floor as she adjusted positions. “Besides, I thought this Dion Panther was your main suspect. Doesn’t that let Diana off the hook?”

  Kat’s brain tingled. “Say that again.”

  “Say what again?”

  “What you said just now.”

  Imogene frowned. “All I said was I thought Dion Panther’s presence at Ellie’s house bumped him above Diana on the suspect list.”

  Dion, Diana.

  Kat bolted upright so fast that Matty jumped off the cushion next to her, her gray-striped tail puffing up to three times its normal size. Was it possible? Could the prescription actually have said ‘Diana’ instead of ‘Dion’?

  “Your face just turned a ghastly shade of white,” Imogene said. “Are you feeling okay?”

  Kat tracked Matty’s progress as the tortoiseshell stalked toward the kitchen, but her mind wasn’t on the cat at all. “What if the prescription was for Diana?” she said. “That would explain why you’ve never heard of Dion.”

  Imogene traced one of Tom’s stripes with her fingernail. “The names are quite similar.”

  “Now that I’m thinking about it, I couldn’t even read the prescription. Andrew was the one who deciphered it.”

  “Doctors are notorious for having hideous handwriting,” Imogene agreed.

  “And Panther and Feather have quite a few letters in common.”

  Imogene’s mouth crooked. “But you said a man was running from Ellie’s house. How could Diana have dropped that prescription if she wasn’t the person fleeing?”

  “I thought it was a man, but what if I was mistaken?” The more Kat played through the scene, the less she trusted her recollection.

  Tom pawed at Imogene’s hand. When he was confident he had her attention, he stretched his legs out to expose his belly. Imogene got the hint and scratched his downy stomach.

  “I should go talk to Diana about submitting a foster application,” Kat murmured.

  “Goodness, no!” Imogene straightened, an indignant tilt to her chin. “I’d rather suffer through Clover’s wrath for the rest of my days than endanger one of our animals by leaving him with a suspected murderer.”

  Kat flapped her hand. “I’m not talking about approving her. But we could use Thunder’s displacement and her interest in 4F as an excuse to start up a conversation. Then, after she’s agreed to meet us, we can spring our knowledge of the dropped prescription on her and see what she says.”

  Imogene drummed her fingers against Tom’s rib cage. “Now that’s an interesting plan.”

  Kat jumped off the couch. “You’ll have to accompany me, of course.”

  “Naturally. You can’t go meeting potential killers all by your little lonesome. Do you have her number?”

  Kat shook her head.

  “No bother.” Imogene eased her cell phone out of her jeans pocket with minimal disturbance to Tom. “I’ll call up her mother.”

  “You know Diana’s mother?”

  “She headed up the cheerleading squad back when we were in high school. Now she does hair.” Imogene punched some buttons on the phone. “She even styled mine once, before I decided I couldn’t be bothered. But I still have the number to her salon.”

  “Right.” Kat was always amazed at how connected Imogene was to the other town residents.

  Imogene lifted her phone up to her ear. “Delores? It’s Imogene Little! Listen, we have a slight fostering crisis. Did you hear what happened to Ellie Higgins?”

  Kat swallowed. If it turned out Diana was guilty, she hoped Delores wouldn’t hold this phone call against her old high school friend.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  While Imogene drove them to Diana’s house, Kat sat in the back seat with Thunder. They had agreed not to let Diana foster yet, but Kat had wanted to bring the feline along to observe his reaction to Ellie’s friend. Perhaps his body language would clue them in as to whether Diana truly was the person who had trashed Ellie’s house.

  The Maine Coon didn’t appear to mind car rides. He sat in Kat’s lap without a single complaint, his eyes trained out the side window as he drank in the changing scenery. His vigilance made Kat wonder if he might be searching for Ellie, and a hole opened up in her chest.

  Ten minutes later, Imogene pulled up behind a Nissan parked in the driveway of a modest, single-story house. Diana was sitting on the porch, but she stood up as they exited the car. A huge smile threatened to split her face in two when her eyes landed on Thunder cradled in Kat’s arms.

  “Hey, big boy,” Diana said, hurrying to meet them. She cupped Thunder’s face in her hands and planted a kiss on the black spot atop his head.

  Thunder’s purr vibrated against Kat’s breastbone. His reaction comforted her somewhat. Surely he wouldn’t be so welcoming of Diana’s affections if she had been the one to toss him out in the cold earlier, would he?

  Imogene circled around the car. “Dia
na, you look marvelous.”

  “Thank you, Imogene. You’re looking good yourself. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

  “Working with animals keeps me young.”

  Kat adjusted her hold on Thunder. “Do you mind if we go inside? He’s getting heavy.”

  “Sure.” Diana motioned them toward the house. “So, what’s involved with a home inspection?”

  Imogene and Kat exchanged glances as they scaled the porch stairs. That had been the excuse they’d used to meet with Diana.

  Imogene fidgeted while they waited for Diana to get the door. “We just need to have a look around, make sure the environment is suitable for animals.”

  “Sounds easy,” Diana said.

  The hint of excitement in Diana’s voice caused guilt to clench Kat’s insides. What would Diana think if she knew they were really here to suss out whether she had murdered her friend?

  Diana held the door for them. “Have at it. You can let Thunder explore too, if you’d like.”

  Kat stepped inside and set Thunder on the hardwood floor before offering the end of his leash to Diana. “Would you like to hold this?”

  “Sure.” Diana took the leash and moved over to the sectional sofa. She flinched a little as she lowered herself onto the cushions.

  “How’s your knee?” Kat asked.

  “A little sore, but fine.”

  Diana began absently massaging the knee in question, and Kat thought again of the person she’d witnessed running away from Ellie’s house. The runner hadn’t acted hampered by a knee injury. Did that rule out Diana?

  “What happened to your knee?” Imogene asked Diana.

  “I slipped at the gym, and it took the brunt of my fall. Nothing a little rest won’t fix.”

  Thunder strained at the end of the leash, obviously itching to explore his new surroundings.

  “Is it okay if I let him go?” Diana asked.

  “Sure,” Kat said.

  Diana released her hold on Thunder’s leash, and he promptly headed for a potted plant by the window. He braced his front paws on the edge of the pot, then swatted at some of the low-hanging leaves.