The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon citm-4

by Leann Sweeney

  “You survived, though,” I said. “No, you did more than survive. You found your way.”

  “I always knew what I wanted to do. Help people. Fix problems. I was long gone when she met her final husband, Gordon. Went to the police academy in Virginia and stayed out of her life. Stayed away from Bob and Charlie, too.”

  “Y’all didn’t get along?”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” he said, adding a derisive laugh. “We beat each other up regularly. I stayed pretty angry with Bob. He was a shoplifter, plus he charmed every rich girl he could find. Charlie didn’t piss me off quite as much, but he was a do-nothing. Wouldn’t communicate with anyone, was flunking out of school and finally ran away to New York as soon as he could drive. If Mom had only been sober enough to see how much we were all hurting, maybe things would have been different.”

  “But Gordon came along. Someone who finally helped your mother get sober, right?” I said.

  “Yup. Don’t know how, but he did. Bob and Charlie and I had all left Mom on her own by then. She cared for Gordon, though I’m not sure she ever loved anyone as much as she loved my father. I’m not sure she even loves her own sons.”

  “I don’t buy it, Tom,” I said. “I see how loving she can be—to you and to Finn. I guess that’s the reason I don’t understand her problems with Bob and Charlie.”

  “Finn brought Mom and me back together. Like I said, Mom favored him. Loved him from the minute she met him. She finally had the grandchild she always wanted. Bob suddenly reappeared—like he realized he might be shut out, so he had to insert himself back into my mother’s life. Of course, what did he do? He stole the diamond earrings Gordon had given her.”

  “Diamond earrings, huh? Are those what he referred to as rightfully his?” I said.

  “He’s so full of it. For some reason he believed Gordon didn’t buy them. He thought Mom bought the earrings herself, with money she got from his father. See, Bob even lies to himself. True enough, his father had money.” Tom shook his head sadly. “Great guy who eventually died of cirrhosis because he had a worse drinking problem than my mother. She did find out he was sick, tried to help him like Gordon helped her, but it was too late. He left Mom money in his will. More money than he left Bob and Charlie, from what I understand. She never said how much, and I never asked.”

  “Bet the reading of the will didn’t go over too well. No wonder Bob’s resentful,” I said.

  “The earring theft happened around the time Hilary and I split up. Mom came racing to town—I was in North Carolina by then— and got involved. She thought she’d lose Finn. Bob was living with her at the time—guy’s never had a job for longer than a month. She’d just bought her little house in Mercy. Anyway, he took the earrings while she was gone.”

  “He admitted it?” I said.

  “I was a cop at the time. I know how to make a suspect talk—and I did. Can’t say I’m proud of how I’ve handled the problems with Hilary or with Bob. I was proud of my mother, however, for throwing Bob out when she discovered her earrings were gone. They were a sobriety anniversary gift. We couldn’t get them back, either. The pawnbroker sold them for cash. No way to find the buyer.”

  I said, “You didn’t have your brother arrested, I take it? Because Morris, who’s been around probably since Mercy was founded, never mentioned he even knew about Bob or any legal problems.”

  “Bob spent very little time here, never got to know anyone. My mother didn’t want me to turn him in. I reluctantly went along with her.” Tom took a long hit off his soda and made a face like he’d just drank lemon juice. “This stuff is not for me. Anyway, notice she has my father’s name now? She changed it back about the same time she and Bob became estranged. It’s her time machine mentality I was talking about before. When my dad was alive, everything seemed perfect in her mind. She still talks about him like he was a saint. Maybe he was, but I don’t remember him. Obviously his death wounded her enough she went down a dark path for years afterward.”

  I stroked the purring Chablis and noticed Syrah had taken his spot above my left shoulder on top of the couch. “When I lost John, I felt the same kind of grief. Wounded is the right word. But you talked earlier about how you failed. I don’t see what you could have done to make anyone in your family act differently.”

  Tom stared down at the can he held with two hands. “I just wish I could have made things right.”

  “Who wants to play with a time machine now?” I asked.

  He looked at me and smiled slowly, as if something was shifting in his mind. “You’re right. Regrets are a wish for time travel, aren’t they?”

  “Yes. You are a good man,” I said, matching his smile. “Time to let go of the should haves, don’t you think?”

  He didn’t answer because the back door opened and Yoshi came racing in. Chablis took off like her tail was on fire, leaving a bleeding claw mark on my arm. The dog greeted me and then Tom by putting a paw on each of our legs, his stubby tail wagging ferociously.

  I called, “There’s Dr Pepper in the fridge, Finn.”

  He joined us, holding a can. When he saw what Tom was drinking, he said, “Isn’t this the best?”

  Tom said, “Mmm. So good.”

  I almost laughed. He was a terrible liar, but Finn didn’t seem to notice.

  Finn said, “Did you know they make this in Texas? Every now and then, you can get it in little bottles made with the original recipe. With cane sugar. But this is dope even with the high-fructose whatever.” He held up the can and admired it.

  “Dope? You’re using slang like that with an ex-cop in the room?” Tom said with a laugh.

  “Okay,” Finn said. “It’s sick. How’s that?”

  We all laughed.

  My phone rang and I pulled it from my pocket.

  The male voice said, “Tom’s got you on speed dial. You know what that means.” It was Bob—being Bob.

  “You want to talk to Tom?” I said.

  “Nope. Just tell him to come home pronto. His dumb cat got out again.”

  Twenty

  Fearing Tom might deck Bob given half a chance, I decided to ride along and help find Dashiell. Maybe I could keep Tom focused on what was important. Too bad his poor kitty got outside again, not only because a cat shouldn’t be wandering around in the dark but because Tom had just been mellowing out, getting a lot of old business off his chest.

  We left Finn with the security system armed and instructions not to open the door for anyone. I expected to see Bob outside with a flashlight looking for Dashiell, but he was sitting in Tom’s living room watching TV. I’d tried to understand Bob, had realized after Tom’s story he was probably a bitter man, but any morsel of compassion disappeared when I realized he felt no compunction to find Dashiell. Guess we should be grateful he’d made a phone call.

  Tom, to his credit, only offered his brother a dirty look, not fighting words. I followed him into the kitchen and he found a couple flashlights. We went out the back door, which, I noted, was still ajar. Did Bob think Dashiell would come back if he left the door open?

  “Be careful out here, Jillian. The drop-off to the creek is pretty steep.” He swept his flashlight left and right, revealing the sparkling, dewy lawn.

  I pointed straight ahead. “Last time, I found him by a tree over there near the slope.”

  We both hurried toward the creek. Tom’s neighbor to the left had a fence, and I went that way while Tom jogged in the opposite direction calling Dashiell’s name. Slowly we shined our lights over the grass and up into the trees.

  I passed the spot where I’d found him last time. Not there. If he’d slipped into the creek, we’d need more than flashlights to find him. I pushed such a horrible thought to the back of mind. He wouldn’t go far, I wanted to believe. But if his blood sugar crashed, he could be lying unconscious anywhere.

  When I reached the fence and ran my beam along the bottom, I took a deep breath and thought about cat behavior. Sick cats hide. This was their inst
inctive reaction, seeing as how a vulnerable cat could become prey to a larger animal. While Tom eased his way down toward the creek, I called out to him. “I’ll search the shrubs around your house.”

  I continued to focus my flashlight on the ground, looking right and left as I walked back toward the house. Tom had thick holly bushes lining his house in the back and as I turned the flashlight on them, bright red berries glowed like tiny Christmas ornaments. A great hiding place, I thought.

  “Dashiell,” I called. “Come here, baby.”

  A tiny meow in response. Plaintive. Afraid.

  My heart sped, but not wanting to scare Dashiell, I kept a quiet, even tone as I knelt and extended my hand in the direction of the sound and said his name again.

  I moved the light along the ground, but at first I didn’t see Dashiell—though I heard him again.

  I did find something, though. Something my brain couldn’t make sense of at first.

  A hiking boot.

  But as the flashlight captured the shape completely, I realized to my horror the boot was filled by a foot and the foot was attached to a bent leg. The rest of the person was hidden beneath the prickly holly.

  “T-Tom,” I said. But I spoke too softly for anyone but Dashiell to hear. I backed up and then ran in Tom’s direction. When I reached him, I said, “Come with me. Now. Something’s very wrong.”

  “Did you find him? Is he hurt?” Tom said, following me as I ran back toward the house.

  I shined the light on the blue-jeaned leg.

  Tom knelt and tried to push aside the thick shrubs, but the holly wouldn’t budge much. Tom’s presence did have a positive effect because Dashiell made his way out. Tom swooped him up.

  He said, “Do you have your phone?”

  I called 911 and it took only five minutes for a squad car to come squealing around the corner of Tom’s street, siren blasting. It was followed close behind by not only the paramedics, but the fire department. In Mercy, it’s an all-out effort when there’s an emergency.

  Deputy Rodriguez rushed to our side. He shook the foot, saying, “Hey. You stuck under there?”

  No response.

  Tom handed Dashiell to me and ran into his garage. He returned with his hedge cutters.

  “Can you pull whoever it is out?” I said.

  “Don’t move them,” Marcy, our paramedic friend, said as she came up and dropped to her knees by the prone figure. “I can check for a pulse on the foot. Might need help taking the boot off, though.”

  “Let’s do it,” Rodriguez said, untying the dirty boot.

  Once the foot was bare, looking waxy in the artificial lights, she pressed two fingers on the ankle. She moved her fingers around the top of the foot, searching for what was apparently an elusive pulse. Finally she looked up, her lips pressed tightly together, and shook her head. “His foot is cold and there’s no pulse. Unless this is a woman with very large feet, you’ve found a dead man.”

  Firefighter Billy Cranor came running up, holding a gigantic battery-powered light. “Will this help?”

  “Light him up, Billy,” Rodriguez said, still kneeling by the body.

  Billy only illuminated what we all could see—the leg and bare foot. Nothing more. He said, “How the heck did he get under there? Unless someone was trying to hide him under one of the meanest bushes I’ve ever tangled with.”

  “You’re gonna have to cut away the holly to get to him,” a voice behind me said. “Let me get my camera before you start. We’ll probably need crime scene tape, too.”

  It was Candace. She wore sweats and no makeup. Even in the dim castoff from flashlights, I saw dark circles under her eyes.

  “Tom, Jillian, can you go inside, please?” she said.

  “Sure,” I replied.

  Dashiell was purring, but I knew he was purring more from stress than from anything else.

  Tom said, “I’ll step aside, but I’m not leaving until I know who died in my backyard.”

  Candace uttered an exasperated sigh. “All right. Just stand back.”

  I was glad to leave, but when I remembered who was inside the house, not quite as relieved.

  “All this firepower for a cat?” Bob said with a laugh when I came in through the front door—the door Candace had suggested I use. “Tom is the man in town, I guess.”

  The police cars, fire engine and paramedics had gotten Bob’s attention.

  “Are you kidding me?” I said, feeling all my Southern upbringing abandoning me. But I regrouped and said, “There’s a dead man out there. Right under the dining room window.”

  The TV still blasted, sounding about ten times louder than it probably was. I went over and stabbed the off button. When I turned around, Bob was headed for the dining room.

  Holding Dashiell close, I followed.

  “Wow,” he said, peering out the window. “Who is it?”

  I pulled the drapes shut because I didn’t want to be like the people who stop and gape at an accident scene. I said, “We’ll find out soon enough.” I went to the kitchen to test Dashiell’s blood sugar before we had a feline emergency to deal with, too.

  After I finished, with Bob hovering behind me, I read the monitor and found though Dashiell’s sugar level was a little high, he wasn’t in trouble. I picked up his water dish, walked past Bob and took Dashiell to Tom’s room, where his little cat bed sat in one corner. I wanted to find him a safe place to stay because I expected the house would soon be flooded with emergency responders all wanting to hear what Tom, Bob and I had to say. Now what? I thought. I was stuck in this small house with a narcissistic, overgrown adolescent. Heck, Finn was more mature than Bob. Finn. I needed to call him, let him know the situation.

  I’d no sooner disconnected after telling Finn we’d encountered a problem and didn’t know how long I’d be, when Billy Cranor came busting through the front door with Karen in tow.

  “Billy Cranor,” she was saying, “you take your hands off me or I’ll have a serious talk with your mother when we meet at church on Sunday.”

  Billy gave me a pleading look. “Mrs. Hart, could you keep Tom’s mother company while we’re busy outside?” He looked past me and saw Bob. “Who’s he?”

  “One of my other sons,” Karen said, shaking free of Billy’s grasp.

  Billy’s mouth agape, he seemed to be processing this information. All he said in response, however, was, “Okay. Whatever.” He left.

  “What in heaven’s name is going on?” Karen said. “I heard sirens and saw the lights. Where’s my Tom?” She looked back and forth between Bob and me and I saw panic in her eyes.

  “He’s fine,” I said. “He’s outside helping the police.”

  Her shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes. “For a minute there, I thought something terrible had happened.”

  “Don’t worry. Tom’s okay. But something terrible has happened,” I said. “There’s a body in Tom’s backyard.”

  “Oh my sweet good Lord. Who is it?” she said.

  “We don’t know yet,” I answered.

  Her fear resurfaced. “Where’s Finn? Where’s my grandson?”

  “He’s at my house,” I said. “I just finished talking to him. He’s safe.”

  Karen rushed to me and gave me a giant hug. “Bless you, Jillian.”

  I glanced at Bob, who’d gone unacknowledged by his mother. I could see the hurt in his expression. Old hurt. The kind of disappointment he’d probably experienced most of his life.

  “This is all very heartwarming,” Bob said. “But since it looks like we’re stuck here for the duration, anyone want a drink?” He eyed his mother. “Wine, Mom? Oh, I forgot. You prefer vodka.”

  Any sympathy I might have felt for Bob a second ago disappeared.

  Karen paled and pulled her fleece robe around her. I looked down and could see she was wearing emerald green silk pajamas with cream piping around the hems.

  She said, “I will forget you said those words, Robert. This is a difficult situation. I could u
se a glass of water about now. My mouth is so very dry.”

  Not wanting to leave her alone with Bob, I took her hand and we went to the kitchen together. I hadn’t noticed what a mess the kitchen was while attending to Dashiell. Knowing Tom as well as I did, I decided the overflowing garbage, the dishes in the sink and the beer cans lined up on the counter were all Bob’s doing. Tom may have been stubborn enough not to pick up after him, but I wasn’t.

  But before I could tackle the kitchen mess, I heard Candace’s voice in my head: Evidence can be anywhere. I always preserve the crime scene as thoroughly as I can.

  If the man outside had been the victim of foul play, Tom’s home would become part of her crime scene. As difficult as it was to do nothing about garbage, cans and dirty dishes, I poured both Karen and myself glasses of water. With my hand on her back to guide her, we went out to the living room. Karen sat in a padded dining room chair in the corner by the TV. Tom’s dining room was too small to accommodate all the chairs around his table, so he used two of them for living room seating.

  Karen still seemed stunned but finally looked around and realized Bob was present. “Oh. You’re staying here. I forgot. What do you know about this horrible turn of events?”

  “About as much as you do. Dumb cat gets out again and then all hell breaks loose in the neighborhood.” Bob chewed on his thumb, glancing anxiously back to the dining room.

  “Dashiell’s smarter than a tree full of owls. Some cats are even smarter than certain humans,” I said. I didn’t add aloud that Dashiell was probably smarter than Bob, but from his expression, he got the message.

  I heard the muted jumble of voices outside and those sounds, combined with the whirling police lights flashing blue and red through the front curtains, made me feel as uneasy as Bob appeared to be. I wondered then if he knew who was lying dead under a holly bush outside. I even went so far as to consider the possibility he had something to do with the man’s death. I blinked away these thoughts. The thought of Karen and me sharing space with her son, possibly her murderer of a son, was too unsettling.