Drowned in Cherry Hills

by Paige Sleuth

  Diana laughed. “Look at how cute he is.”

  Thunder turned around and trotted back to Diana, rewarding her with a head bump against her leg.

  Imogene inched toward the kitchen. “You two stay out here and chat. I’m going to have a quick peek around, make sure everything’s cat-proof.” She gave Kat a sly wink before disappearing around the corner.

  Diana didn’t even glance at Imogene. She seemed fascinated by Thunder. “He’s very curious, huh?”

  Thunder was now sniffing the bottom shelf of a bookcase. In the middle of his inspection, he paused to give one of the hardbacks a nudge with his nose. Kat jolted when she saw the book was titled A Terrible Case of Murder. Was he trying to tell her something?

  Diana crossed her legs. “So, besides the home inspection, what do I have to do before I’m approved to foster? Imogene said something about an application.”

  Kat gave herself a little shake and wrenched her eyes away from the bookcase. “The application is simple. There are some questions about why you’re interested in fostering, and we ask for a few references who can vouch for your character.”

  “It also lists some of your responsibilities,” Imogene chimed in, stepping out of the kitchen. “That includes being available when we need to pick up a foster to show at an adoption event and making sure the animals in your custody receive all necessary veterinary care.”

  “Veterinary care?” Diana uncrossed her legs. “How much does that cost?”

  “Rest assured, 4F covers all our animals’ medical expenses,” Imogene said. “But you may need to make yourself available for vet appointments. If that’s a problem, we’ll be sure to match you with only healthy animals.”

  “Oh.” Diana relaxed. “Sounds simple enough.”

  “I’m glad you think so. I’ll give you the form before we leave.” Imogene scuttled across the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just have a look-see into the bedrooms and bathrooms.”

  Diana sat back, a slight smile on her face. “It must be great working with her.”

  “It is,” Kat confirmed, taking a seat on an armchair. Eager to get to the real point of their visit, she added, “How are you holding up after this morning?”

  “Not so well.” Diana’s gaze trailed Thunder as he hopped onto a nearby footstool. “After the police finally let me get my things, I came back here and cried my eyes out.”

  Just saying the words out loud was enough to restart Diana’s waterworks. Her eyes filled with tears that she hurried to blink away.

  Watching her, Kat’s resolve faltered. But she owed it to both Ellie and Thunder to press on. “You didn’t happen to stop by Ellie’s house before you came here, did you?” she asked.

  “What?” Diana swiped at the undersides of her eyelids. “Why would I do that?”

  “I found a prescription for pain pills in her yard.” Kat studied Diana carefully as she said the words. “It was written out to you.”

  Diana didn’t meet her eye, but Kat noticed her stiffen.

  “I was wondering how it ended up there,” Kat said.

  “I—I don’t know.”

  “You didn’t drop it while you were fleeing her house?”

  This time, Diana’s head snapped toward Kat. “Fleeing her house? What are you talking about?”

  Her shrill tone distracted Thunder from pawing at the leash dangling behind him. He glanced at Diana, his whiskers twitching.

  “Someone ran from Ellie’s house when Andrew drove me over there to pick up Thunder,” Kat said.

  Diana no longer seemed to be on the verge of crying. She stared, open-mouthed, at Kat. “Who?”

  “I don’t know. They disappeared before we could identify them. But they did drop that prescription.”

  “And it had my name on it?”

  Kat nodded, then stopped. “I think it was your name. The handwriting was hard to read. Dr. Edward Thompson issued it.”

  Diana bowed her head and folded her hands in her lap. “I guess it could have been mine,” she said. “But I don’t know why it would have been where you say it was.” Her brow furrowed. “Unless . . .”

  “Unless?” Kat prompted.

  “Unless it came from Ellie’s house.”

  “What would Ellie be doing with your prescription?”

  Diana flattened her palms on her thighs, her mouth pinched shut. Thunder had evidently decided there were more interesting things to focus on than Diana’s reactions to Kat’s questions. He climbed off the footstool and began wandering again.

  “Why would Ellie have your prescription?” Kat pressed.

  “Well, I’m not positive she did.”

  Kat squinted at her. “Diana, what are you not telling me?”

  Diana didn’t speak right away. When she did, her words emerged slowly, as though she were choosing them with care. “I guess . . . see, Ellie didn’t like me taking those pills.”

  “And you think she stole your prescription so you wouldn’t be able to fill it?”

  Diana shifted in her seat. “Maybe.”

  “Diana.” Kat scooted to the edge of the armchair. “If you know something, you need to tell me. Or, at least tell the police. It might be relevant to Ellie’s murder.”

  “I don’t see how it could matter.”

  “Somebody broke into Ellie’s house right after she was killed. If the reason they were there was to steal your prescription . . .” Kat inhaled as a thought occurred to her. “It could have been an addict. They could have been so desperate for a fix that they killed Ellie in order to get their hands on your prescription.”

  Diana rubbed her lower lip with one knuckle. “But you can’t fill somebody else’s prescription without knowing whatever information the pharmacy asks for to make sure you’re authorized.”

  She had a point there, Kat thought.

  “And if that was the plan, why kill Ellie?” Diana continued. “When this person saw her at the gym, they would have known her house was empty. They could have broken in without killing her.”

  Kat’s spirits sank. Here she thought she’d finally found a viable motive for murder only to have Diana discredit her theory with hardly any effort.

  Although, Kat considered, maybe she was on the right track. Before now, she had been so focused on who could have killed Ellie that she hadn’t given much thought to why anyone would want her dead.

  “Diana, did Ellie make it a habit to butt into her friends’ lives?” Kat asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You said she didn’t like you taking pain pills, but was there anything else you did that she disapproved of? Anything she made a point of commenting on?”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Kat looked around before pointing to the bookcase. “Maybe she thumbed her nose at the type of books you read, or she wanted you to trade in your foreign car for a domestic model, or she berated you for eating doughnuts after every workout.”

  Diana’s brow furrowed. “Doughnuts?”

  Heat crept up Kat’s cheeks. Apparently finding Ellie hadn’t dampened her appetite as much as she’d thought if she still had doughnuts on the brain. “Or anything. Did she often voice her opinions about your life decisions?”

  “Well, she wasn’t shy about telling me what she thought. Ellie was very . . . honest, I guess you could say.”

  “Hmm.” Maybe in Ellie’s case, honesty hadn’t been the best policy. Perhaps she had offered some unsolicited advice to the wrong person. But what could she have said that would prompt someone to end her life?

  Imogene scampered back into the room. “Well, I’m finished in there.” She gave Kat a questioning look. “What about you? Have you seen all you need to see?”

  Kat stood up. “I think so.”

  “Did I pass?” Diana asked, rising from the sofa.

  Before either one of them could answer, something shattered. They turned to see Thunder perched near the edge of an end table, his gaze pinned on the broken lamp directly below
him. His head was tipped sideways as if he couldn’t fathom how it had ended up there. Then he turned his nose up and sauntered off, undoubtedly deciding he would be a fool to claim responsibility for its fall.

  Kat straightened, the perfect excuse for ending this ruse popping into her head. “I’m afraid we’ll have to request you make your house more cat-friendly before you can pass the home inspection. Right now, there are too many breakable items around with the potential to hurt an animal.”

  Diana’s face fell, and Kat’s guilt returned. If Diana turned out to be innocent in Ellie’s murder, Kat was going to owe her a huge apology later.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  After leaving Diana’s, Imogene dropped Kat off at her apartment before continuing on to her house with Thunder. Kat texted Andrew with what she’d figured out about the prescription, but left out the part about talking to Diana in person. He wouldn’t appreciate her meddling in his case, so why bring it up? Besides, it wasn’t as if she had actually learned anything of value during her visit.

  Tom greeted her at the door, releasing a steady stream of meows without even pausing for air. From the way his eyes darted around, Kat presumed he was asking about Thunder.

  “Don’t worry,” she told him. “He’s safe with Imogene.”

  Matty surprised her when she too came running, although she stopped to stretch along the way. The tortoiseshell typically didn’t acknowledge Kat’s returns home unless she wanted something or she’d been left alone for an unusually long time.

  “Are you worried about Thunder, too?” Kat asked. “Or are you just happy to have the bedroom back?”

  Matty didn’t reply, choosing instead to wrap her tail around Kat’s calf. She gazed up at her human with pleading green eyes that cried out ‘Pet me!’

  Kat felt stiff as she reached down to oblige. The muscles in her back were knotted tight, and her neck ached when she turned her head too far. The events of the past few hours were taking their toll on her. It didn’t help that she had skipped her morning workout. As much as she griped about aerobics class, she did feel more limber when it was all over with.

  She checked the time. She supposed she could stop by the gym now. She wasn’t up for a structured class, but a half hour on the treadmill would probably help to work off some of the nervous energy that had been building ever since she and Diana had discovered Ellie’s body that morning.

  “I’ve got to take off again,” Kat told Matty and Tom. “Right after I eat something.” Not having any doughnuts in the apartment, she settled for a strawberry yogurt.

  At the gym, she changed clothes, tossed her bag—now clean, dry, and repacked—into a locker, and headed for the workout area. Two of the three treadmills were in use, so she stepped onto the free machine closest to the center of the room. She set the speed to one that paced her at a brisk walk.

  As she warmed up, she mouthed the words to the song playing on the speakers. But before long her thoughts turned to Diana. She still sensed that Ellie’s friend was hiding something, but murder seemed like a stretch. For one thing, a fight over pills didn’t strike her as enough of a motive to kill somebody. For another thing, Thunder hadn’t acted the least bit frightened of Ellie’s friend. That made sense if the cat had never witnessed Ellie and Diana arguing, but it also made sense if their disagreements weren’t passionate enough for one of them to resort to violence.

  Kat wiped the sweat off her forehead and sighed. She would have to think of something besides Ellie if she hoped to get any sleep tonight. This stint on the treadmill wasn’t turning out to be nearly as relaxing as she’d expected.

  In an attempt to stay present, she peeked to her right. The woman next to her had set her machine on a steep incline and was running at an effortless pace that would have put Kat in traction. Kat was pretty sure she didn’t punctuate her gym visits with a stop at the doughnut shop.

  The woman met her gaze and smiled. Kat smiled back, hoping her neighbor attributed her flushed face to the exercise rather than her embarrassment over being caught staring.

  When the woman turned back to the magazine she had open on her console, Kat let her gaze drift to the person on the far machine. The long-legged man moved with a fluid grace that seemed incongruous with his height, and maintaining a running pace presented no noticeable hardship for him. Was Kat the only person who struggled to push past a stroll?

  She was about to look away when something about the man gave her pause. Was it her imagination, or was the man’s gait identical to that of the person who had been fleeing Ellie’s house earlier? She was viewing him from a different angle here, but she would swear his movements looked eerily familiar.

  The air leached from her lungs, and Kat abruptly stopped walking. The treadmill, however, kept going. She stumbled, groping for the handlebars as the machine threatened to dump her onto the floor.

  “Hey, watch it.” Mikaela appeared from out of nowhere and grabbed Kat’s arm. “You okay?”

  Kat stepped off the machine, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I’m fine.” She whipped around. The woman next to her was still there, offering Kat a sympathetic smile.

  The man, on the other hand, was gone.

  Kat’s chest tightened. She swiveled from right to left but didn’t see him anywhere.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Mikaela asked, firming her grip on Kat’s arm.

  Kat wheeled around, yanking her arm away from Mikaela. “Where did that man go?”

  Mikaela frowned. “What man?”

  Desperation bubbled up Kat’s throat. “The man who was working out on that treadmill by the wall. He was there a second ago. Now he’s gone.” How could a person disappear that quickly?

  Mikaela glanced around before shrugging. “I didn’t see him.”

  “She’s talking about Dr. T,” the woman on the next treadmill said, not sounding the least bit winded.

  “Of course. Dr. T.” Kat smacked her palm against her forehead, mentally berating herself for not considering earlier that Dr. Edward Thompson himself might have dropped that prescription. “Did you see where he went?” she asked the woman.

  The woman jerked her chin toward the exit. Kat got the message loud and clear. Dr. T was on his way out.

  Without bothering to turn off her machine, Kat dashed out of the workout room, leaving a stunned Mikaela gawking after her. With any luck, Dr. T would detour by the locker room before heading for his car. Kat would wait for him in the corridor, and when he came out she’d confront him about what he had been doing in Ellie’s house that afternoon. He wouldn’t dare try to hurt her here. Or would he? She flashed back to Ellie in the pool, wondering if she was setting herself up for the same fate.

  Either way, she needed answers.

  Kat hurried to the other side of the building, turned the corner leading to the locker rooms, and halted outside the door labeled ‘Men.’ She bounced from foot to foot, tempted to pry the door open a crack to see if she could spot Dr. T inside. She really wanted to call Andrew, but she’d left her phone in her locker and she wasn’t about to risk Dr. T escaping while she went to fetch it.

  To her immense relief, Dr. T emerged a few minutes later, freshly showered and wearing jeans and a jacket, the strap of his gym bag slung over one shoulder.

  His eyes widened a fraction when he nearly ran smack-dab into Kat, but he must have assumed she was waiting for someone else. He averted his gaze and strode toward the end of the corridor.

  She chased after him. “Dr. T!” she called out, yelling to make sure he heard her over the music.

  He stopped, forcing Kat to do the same. “Yes?”

  “I saw you earlier,” Kat blurted out. “Outside Ellie’s house. Ellie Higgins. You were running from the police.”

  The bag nearly slipped off his shoulder, but he managed to grab one of the handles at the last minute. “You must be mistaken.”

  Kat shook her head. If she’d had any doubts about who she’d seen before, Dr. T’s white-knuckled grip around hi
s bag banished them.

  “It was you,” she said. She paused, narrowing her eyes at him. “What were you doing inside Ellie’s house?”

  His gaze skirted to the end of the corridor as though he were thinking of ignoring her and continuing on his merry way. But, as anxious as he looked to escape, he didn’t move. Kat figured he didn’t dare leave until he found out how much she knew.

  “Did you kill her?” Kat asked.

  Dr. T sucked air through his teeth. “What?”

  “Were you the one who knocked Ellie into the pool?”

  His bag dropped to the floor, landing with a thud that made them both jump. Kat reached behind her, using the wall to help steady herself.

  “No, I didn’t kill her,” Dr. T said. “What a ridiculous question.”

  “But that was you at her house. I found the prescription you dropped.”

  He ducked his head as he snatched his bag back up. When he straightened, his eyes didn’t quite meet hers. “Are you sure it was mine?”

  “Of course I’m sure. It had your name and practice on it. You’d written it out to Diana Feather.”

  It seemed to take him an abnormally long time to hook the strap of the bag over his shoulder. Finally, he said, “I’d like that back.”

  “I don’t have it. Detective Andrew Milhone took it into police possession.”

  Dr. T blanched.

  “You can just write another one, can’t you?” Kat asked.

  He appeared to consider that. Then his head bobbed, building momentum until Kat thought it might pop right off his neck.

  “Yes, yes,” he said, “you’re right. I can write a replacement.”

  Kat planted her hands on her hips. “But that doesn’t explain what you were doing at Ellie’s house.”

  “I was there to . . . to check on things.”

  “You trashed her home.”

  “Okay, so I was looking for something.”

  “What?”

  Dr. T tapped his foot on the floor. “It was something of a personal matter.”

  “Were you two in a relationship?” Kat wasn’t sure why she hadn’t considered it before. Love gone bad was one of the biggest motives for murder.