Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Nans’ dining room table had disappeared under a spread of Cup and Cake pastries which consisted of a plate of lemon bars, half a dozen snickerdoodles, two slices of crumb cake, and a small mountain of eclairs that Lexy had pulled from the display case before they left.
The coffee had been refilled twice. Ruth was uncapping a marker at the whiteboard with the focused expression of a woman who believed that a clean column header could solve most problems.
Ida was eating a snickerdoodle.
Lexy sat at the table with her second coffee and her third yawn, trying to get her brain to file the last twelve hours into something that made sense. Laundromat. Mickey. Tina. Two payments behind. Storage units. Cat.
“Can we start?” she asked.
“Ruth’s still writing the headers,” Nans said.
“The headers are four words, shouldn’t take this long,” Lexy said.
“Four important words.”
Lexy’s phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen. Looked at Nans.
“Jack.”
Nans nodded. “Put it on speaker if he’ll let you.”
He wouldn’t let her so she walked to the corner of the room.
“Hey,” Jack said.
“Hey.” Lexy moved toward the window. “How’s the Everett case coming?”
A pause that meant he was deciding how much to tell her. She’d learned his pauses — which ones meant thinking, which ones meant no, which ones meant I’m going to tell you anyway and I’d like to register my objection first.
This was the last kind.
“Time of death got narrowed down,” he said. “Medical examiner puts it between ten and ten-thirty in the morning. Tighter than we had before. His wallet was on him. Cash still in it. This wasn’t a regular robbery.”
“Do you think anything besides the cat was taken?”
Another pause. Shorter. “Not sure, his bag was full of yard sale finds. Chrome cocktail shaker, fish ashtray, a pair of silver sugar tongs, a class ring, blue stone, class of 96 brFHS-DS, salt and pepper shakers. Impossible to know if he had anything else.”
Lexy could hear him not saying what he was thinking. She said it for him. “So the theory is they were after the cat and it was worth more than anyone knew, and whoever took it knew that.”
“Either that, or he was killed for another reason.”
“Then why take the cat?” she asked.
“Maybe he’d already sold the cat.”
Lexy hadn’t thought of that. “But Everett had just been in the Cup and Cake with the Cat about twenty minutes before that.”
“We have to check out every theory,” Jack said.
“Of course.” Lexy said, then, “Thanks for checking in.”
“You know I have to call my best girl to make sure she’s okay.”
Lexy snorted. “Or to make sure her grandmother isn’t launching some sort of amateur investigation.”
“Is she?” Jack asked.
“What do you think?”
Jack sighed. “Okay, just try to keep them out of trouble.”
“Will do.”
Lexy and Jack said their good-byes and she hung up, and turned around.
Four faces were looking at her with varying degrees of patience. The only sounds was Ida chewing.
Lexy ran through it: the time window, the bag’s contents, the one missing item.
“So the police think it’s about the cat’s value,” Nans said, when Lexy finished.
“Or maybe some other more personal reason.”
Ruth made a face. “Like what? Someone didn’t like him?”
“Lots of people didn’t like him,” Helen said.
“I still say it has to be the cat. No other reason for someone to take it.” Lets get this board filled up.
Ruth wrote Kyle first, because Kyle had acted defensive and Ruth said he acts like a man that needs money. Needed money. Angry about June selling without asking. Defensive. Ruth paused, then added: might be desperate with a small question mark.
Margo went up next. Reacted to the cat. Close to June. Believable reason to care.
Next, Ruth wrote Tina. Needs money fast. Storage unit trouble. No evidence yet she has the cat. She stopped, uncapped a second marker, and wrote: livestreams? with a circle around it.
“Her livestreams might have recorded something,” Ruth said.
“I’ve been watching them,” Lexy said. “Haven’t found anything yet.”
“Keep watching,” Nans said.
Ruth wrote Beatrice. Talked the cat down. Knows antiques. Shop currently closed. She underlined shop currently closed. Then: May have recognized value and played dumb.
“She was angling,” Lexy said. “When she gave Everett that low ball number. The way she said it.”
“Like she was hoping he’d take a low offer from her and walk away,” Helen said.
“And when he didn’t—” Lexy stopped.
Nobody finished the sentence out loud. Ruth wrote: when he wouldn’t sell? and left it with the question mark hanging.
Darlene went up last. Always searching the house. Seemed nervous. Ruth capped the marker.
Ida had been quiet for approximately four minutes, which was her personal record. She pointed at the board with a scone. “Darlene should be underlined. Wine-store women are always hiding something. It’s a known fact.”
“That’s not a known fact,” Ruth said.
“Underline it,” Ida said. “I’m serious. She might have been looking for that cat. Maybe she knew there was something valuable in there all along. It was her grandparents house.”
Ida nodded. “Okay then we have all the suspects up, what now?”
“I say we talk to the one person who seems to have avoided our investigation thus far.” Ruth shoved the cap onto the pen. “Beatrice Sloan.”