The Telltale Turtle (The Pet Psychic Mysteries)

by Jim Lavene;Joyce Lavene

  "You must be roasting out here in that sweater," Mary Catherine commented, thinking about everything that had happened. Was it possible Mindy could be responsible for all of it? It was hard to look at her sweet face and imagine her cutting Ferndelle's throat. Surely she was overly suspicious. What difference did it make that Mindy was wearing a sweater?

  "I was chilly in the office." Mindy played with the end of her sleeve. "You know they keep the air conditioning turned down really low all the time. I'm always a little cold."

  Mary Catherine's eyes almost popped out of her head. Not only was Mindy wearing a sweater, there was a hint of white that looked like a bandage on her arm and a few scratches on her hands. Why didn't I notice those scratches before?

  It was too terrible to contemplate, but all the pieces were starting to fall in place as Mary Catherine looked at Mindy. She wanted to turn away and pretend it wasn't happening but she couldn't. With a determined grasp on Mindy's wrist, she pulled back the sweater sleeve and exposed heavy bandaging on the younger woman s arm.

  "What are you doing?" Mindy jerked her arm back. "Leave me alone."

  "I can't believe it." Mary Catherine shook her head and stared at the bandages that covered Baylor's heroic efforts to save her. "You hit me with a chair. Did you kill Ferndelle too?"

  Mindy pulled a small gun from her pocket and pointed it at Mary Catherine. "Shut up. Get in the house. You couldn't stay out of it, could you?"

  Colin opened the door to the garage, not knowing what had happened between the two women. "We can't go in the house. The police still have that blocked off."

  "What are you doing here then?" Mary Catherine tried to point to the gun Mindy was holding in her back. She had no illusions that the girl she thought she knew so well wouldn't pull the trigger. The image of Ferndelle lying in her own blood came to haunt her.

  "I was just looking around. I guess dreaming about finally living in the family estate." He looked terrible; his hair spiked up on his head from constant frantic hand motions through it. His eyes had dark circles and he was paler than usual. "Something terrible has happened" He grabbed Mindy's free hand, still apparently not noticing the gun in her other hand. "Thank God you're here."

  "What is it?" Mindy took his hand, pressing harder with the gun into Mary Catherine's back. "Breathe, Colin. Remember we talked about you forgetting to breathe when you get upset. You don't want to have a heart attack and die."

  He kissed her. "You're so wonderful. I feel so bad about this."

  Mary Catherine had enough of the drama. If Colin was too dense to notice that his wife was going to shoot her, she'd better point it out to him. "If you're not going to tell us what's wrong, I'm going home."

  "Okay." He took a deep breath. "I talked to my lawyer. Aunt Ferndelle left everything-the house, the money, everything, to her favorite charity, the DAR."

  Mindy let go of Colin's hand. The gun against Mary Catherine's back pushed harder. "What? Is that legal? Can we fight it?"

  "I asked my lawyer that question. He said we could fight it, but Aunt Ferndelle's lawyer is tops in the state when it comes to wills. I'm sure she went there because she knew I'd try to contest it."

  "You mean there's no money?" Mindy's voice was breathless.

  Mary Catherine stepped away as she felt the gun drop from her back. She wished again that she'd brought her revolver to turn the tide at that moment. She looked around for a weapon of some sort, but without lifting a lawnmower or the car, the garage was clean.

  Colin took Mindy's hand again. "It'll be okay. I still have my trust fund and a couple of properties. We both have good jobs. Everything will work out."

  Mindy snatched her hand back with a look of pure hatred on her pretty face. She brought the gun to bear on Colin. "I can't believe this! After all this time. After all I've done. Two years of my life setting all this up. Spending time with you."

  "What are you saying?" Colin looked even more pathetic.

  "I'm saying I killed your stupid aunt for nothing!" Mindy began to pace back and forth, smoothing one hand across her hair. "But we're married. That has to count for something. I could still fight the will."

  Mary Catherine edged to the side of the wall while Mindy confronted Colin. There was a broken rake leaning there. As weapons went, it was pitiful, but it was better than nothing. She kept backing closer, hoping Mindy wouldn't notice her movements.

  "What are you saying?" Colin asked. "You killed Aunt Ferndelle?"

  "You would too if some old lady was standing between you and ten million dollars. I killed her; that was always part of the plan after your parents died. I made it look like you did it after I found out you were cheating on me."

  "Honey bee? What are you saying? The shock has affected you. You didn't even know I was cheating on you until right before we got married."

  "I'm not a stupid moron like you." She noticed Mary Catherine's movements and waved the gun in her general direction. "Don't try to be clever. Both of you sit down over there until I have a chance to think about this."

  "I can see why you'd want to kill Colin," Mary Catherine acknowledged, "but why me? And why break into my apartment? I don't understand how the two things go together."

  "Not that I need to enlighten you," Mindy taunted. "But you almost screwed up everything talking to that slimy turtle. Good thing I got him out of there before he could say anything else. I mean, what are the chances that someone who talks to animals would find Ferndelle's body and talk to her turtle? Colin was supposed to find her. And I wish I'd killed your stupid cat the first night I had him."

  "I hardly think that's a good reason to kill me," Mary Catherine objected.

  "Shut up and sit down. I have to think."

  Mary Catherine sat on the side of the covered riding lawn mower. Colin sat on the concrete floor beside her. Mindy paced the garage with short, frantic steps. Colin tried to speak twice and she leveled the gun at him. He subsided and watched her.

  "This can still be made right," Mindy told them. "After all, I'm your wife. Even when you die, I inherit. I can fight the will. The police investigating the incidents at the clinic can blame Mary Catherine's death on something to do with that. It's a good thing I thought of those things as diversions. The police will be totally confused by all of it."

  "You mean you're the one who paid the psycho caller?" Colin couldn't believe it. "This can't be you. You need help. Don't worry; I'll be here for you."

  She advanced on him until the gun was at his head. "You mean the way you stood by me with Charlene? Don't say anything else."

  She continued to pace until she finally stopped short in front of them. "That's it. We'll take a little drive down to Fort Fisher. I'll wait for the tide to come in and roll the car into the water. Even if they find your bodies, it'll be too late."

  "I'm not comfortable with water, Mindy, you know that." Colin got to his feet.

  "That's not a problem, honey bee, since you'll have a bullet in your head and you won't care about the water." She waved the gun at them. "Now both of you, out in front of me. Colin, open the garage door."

  Mary Catherine needed a diversion. She knew they wouldn't have any hope of surviving if Mindy herded them into the van Colin had brought from the radio station. She'd lost her opportunity to use the broken rake on Mindy while she was arguing with Colin. She needed to distract Mindy long enough for one of them to try and disarm her. She hoped that person would be Colin so she could speed-dial 911, but she wouldn't bet any money on it.

  There was some skittering across the roof of the garage. Squirrels, no doubt. They were busy finding the giant acorns that grew on the old oak trees that surrounded the house.

  Squirrels were sometimes difficult to talk to. They'd been around man long enough to understand many things, but they were like directing two-year-olds. She concentrated on communicating with them. There might be something they could do to make Mindy look away long enough for Mary Catherine to go back in the garage and grab the broken rake.

/>   She wasn't sure what she was going to do after that. She supposed she could hit Mindy in the head with it and hope she went down long enough to get the gun away from her. Somehow she had to get Colin in on the plot. That was even more unpredictable than talking to the squirrels.

  But love could make a woman desperate enough to try anything. She hadn't had the opportunity to spend time with Charlie yet. She wasn't ready to die.

  Colin opened the garage door and walked outside with Mary Catherine behind him and Mindy (with the gun) behind her. As soon as Colin's head appeared, the squirrels in the trees and on the roof of the garage started pelting them with acorns.

  Mary Catherine shielded her head from the barrage and nudged Colin to the left as the hailstorm of acorns continued, smashing into Mindy as well as them. Mindy put up both hands to protect her face. "Is this your doing?" she demanded, turning on Mary Catherine.

  Mary Catherine tried to protect herself from the painful acorn attack. She didn't realize there were so many squirrels and thousands of acorns. She was going to be black and blue in spots she'd missed, but she wasn't going to be able to go back into the garage with Mindy threatening her with the gun.

  With a strange cry, Colin suddenly lunged against Mindy, pushing her to the concrete drive and wrestling with her for the gun. Mary Catherine ran back into the garage and brought the broken rake into the fray. The acorns continued to plummet like painful little meteors, slamming into them.

  She wanted to hit Mindy with the rake, but there was no way to use it with Colin fighting with her. The couple was rolling over and over through plant bits and dirt left from the last storm that had hit the coast. Every time she saw Mindy's head on top, Mary Catherine lifted the rake to hit her only to find Colin's head instead.

  Mindy and Colin rolled off the concrete and into the side of an oak tree. Mindy's gun went off harmlessly into the tree and Colin was able to jerk it away from her. He sat on top of her, pinning her to the ground, while Mary Catherine tried to get the squirrels to stop throwing acorns.

  "You know, we can't go on after this," Colin breathlessly told his wife. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you for a divorce, sweet feet."

  EPILOGUE

  ON THE MORNING OF Mindy Evans-Jamison's first court appearance, the Wilmington Star carried an account of what had led to her arrest at Ferndelle's home. Mary Catherine read it while volunteers assembled to help paint and remodel the clinic.

  Her cousin had donated some money and convinced his banker friends to help out as well. Buck brought a legion of Meaty Boy employees, complete with paint brushes, to speed up the work so he and jenny could go out for dinner that night. The couple had become very close in the past few weeks.

  "You think they ever got the squirrels to stop throwing acorns?" Charlie asked, reading the paper over Mary Catherine's shoulder.

  "It says here the police officers who responded were mystified by the squirrels' actions. They called animal control, but the squirrels left when the van showed up." She smiled at him. They had become closer the last few weeks as well. "They're capricious little animals but they did a good job if you don't count the bumps and bruises I had."

  "But they saved our lives," Colin added, his white overalls without a spot of color on them, despite the fact that he'd been painting. "I can't believe Mindy set everything up with me after my parents' died just to get the money." He sighed. "Oh well. Charlene called me last night. She's leaving her husband. I guess life goes on.

  "What about Tommy?" Danny asked. "How's he doing?"

  "He's fine," Mary Catherine said. "Despite Mindy killing humans, I guess she couldn't find it in her heart to kill that poor little creature. Charlie and I took him out to the swamp with Cheetos yesterday. He was still wild enough to survive. I hope he can get over everything that's happened to him."

  "Quiet everyone!" Buck yelled out. "Here's the new Meaty Boy commercial."

  Everyone paused to watch jenny talk about Meaty Boy's new formula. Mary Catherine was impressed. "You looked great," she told the vet when it was over.

  "As compared to what?" Jenny retorted. "I'm never doing anything like that again."

  Buck hugged her. "Aw, come on, darlin'. You were fabulous! Now everyone will want to eat the new and improved Meaty Boy dog food we created."

  Baylor meowed, a big swath of dark blue paint on his back that refused to come off, no matter how much he licked it. He told Mary Catherine he was glad he wasn't a dog.

  "I think Buck mentioned something about creating Meaty Boy cat food," she told him.

  Baylor hissed and ran upstairs.

  MARY CATHERINE'S

  ANIMAL NEWS

  I'M HAPPY TO BE here with news from the world of animals! For thousands of years, we've heard stories about smart animals-animals that can predict earthquakes or manage to communicate a threat to their owners and save their lives. Many people pretend the stories aren't true, but animal lovers know that pets can be amazing!

  Animals are really much smarter than people think and here are some real-life stories to prove it:

  • Kwanza is a male ape. His trainer, Dr. Sue Limbroke, says he is able to understand more than 3,000 words and a few simple sentences. Limbroke says he can even combine words to create some simple sentences of his own making.

  • Tiki is a border collie being studied by Professor Anna Marsh, an animal behavior expert. Marsh says Tiki can bark and growl his recognition of more than three hundred toys. He can also understand a telephone conversation and act on it. Scientists are currently working to understand how animals can understand human language but are not able to use it.

  • An African parrot named Causa has a vocabulary of more than a thousand words. She uses the words in conversation with her trainer, Larry Rice. Causa is able to express her feelings by using the words Rice has taught her. She can recognize photographs and relate their content to Rice.

  • A cat named Oscar saved the life of a man in Toronto by dialing 911 on the phone to summon police officers. The cat's owner said he had worked to teach the cat how to summon help because of his serious health problems. The owner was found in time when help was summoned and he was taken to the hospital. Of course, Oscar was cared for by friends and returned to his grateful owner.

  • In 1964, a young boy was found surviving with wolves outside a small village in Tibet. According to newspaper reports, when he was taken back to civilization the wolves attacked to protect him. They were all killed. After years of learning to speak, the boy described hunting with the wolves, running on all fours, and eating raw meat. He said the wolves cared for him like their own pups. He couldn't recall his human parents.

  • Goldfish enjoy music as much as people do, according to a new study in animal behavior. Scientists say that fish think and have definite tastes in music that they remember from one session to another. The study took place over a period of three years. Scientists played many different types of music for the fish. Each fish had its own preference between opera and bluegrass.

  • Researchers say the blind mole rat uses crystals in its brain to orient itself on long journeys. They have discovered that mole rats always check where they are in relation to the Earth's magnetic field so they can tell which way they're going. The researchers say there are magnetic crystals in the moles' brains that line up with the Earth's magnetic field, acting like an internal compass.

  • Cheeto, the hamster, has been trained to roll over and play dead, do back flips, and come when called. His owner, Danny Robinson, has been working with Cheeto for more than two years. The hamster can also dance to music and prefers carrots to hamster food.

  Live animal cams are a great way to see what's really going on in the animal world. Check out these live websites:

  MARY CATHERINE'S

  SECRET RECIPES

  FOR ANIMALS

  BRUNO'S FAVORITE ICE CREAM TREAT

  (for those dog days of summer)

  Blend everything together until smooth. Freeze in ice cube trays. Mic
rowave for a few seconds before serving.

  BAYLOR'S EASY CAT TREATS

  Mix dry ingredients together, then add molasses, egg, oil, and milk.

  Roll out flat and cut into small, bite-sized pieces. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes in 350-degree oven. Let cool and store in tightly sealed container.

  Don't forget to talk to your pets and listen for their responses.

  Just because an animal doesn't speak our language doesn't mean it doesn't understand. There are many things we don't understand about animals, but we know they can be loving, compassionate, and caring.

  Until next time,

  Mary Catherine

  If you enjoyed reading The Telltale Turtle by Joyce and Jim Lavene, read on for an excerpt from J. B. Stanley's

  Chili Con Corpses

  available from Midnight Ink

  ONE

  TURKEY BACON

  RANCH WRAP

  "I'M SICK TO DEATH of being on a diet," Bennett complained as he curled two free weights up and down from his waist to his collarbone.

  James heartily agreed. The lunch he had eaten composed of a turkey bacon wrap with lettuce, tomato, and fat-free ranch dressing, served on a whole-wheat tortilla seemed like a faint, unsatisfying memory.

  "I know what you mean." James pushed himself backward on the leg press machine, his thighs and buttocks burning as he moved the grudging stack of weights into the air. "Thinking about the nutritional content of every item I put in my Food Lion shopping cart is killing me. And I used to really enjoy going to the grocery store."