Kitten Kaboodle (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 20) (3 page)

I looked out across the grassy area that fronted Edna’s home. The sun had begun its descent and it wouldn’t be long before the sky grew dark. I knew Ellie was waiting for me to answer, but the truth was that I didn’t have one. It really did look like Nona could have done this, which was a reality I simply refused to consider. “Look, I don’t know what happened exactly, but my gut is telling me that neither Nona nor Aspen are the killers, no matter that they make the two most likely suspects.”

“Are you going to lie for Nona even if it turns out she did it?”

Was I? I’d like to think I’d do the right thing, but all I knew at that moment was that I was confused about where exactly the line between right and wrong was drawn. “Once I get all the cats settled in I’m going to see if I can catch the neighbors who live closest to Edna at home. Maybe someone saw something other than Nona’s visit this morning.”

“It’s late. I’m sure the neighbors won’t appreciate being disturbed. Perhaps you should plan to come back tomorrow.”

“We have the events committee meeting in the morning.”

“So come after. I’ll come with you.”

“Okay.” I let out a long breath. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Ellie had a look of concern on her face.

“I’ll be fine.”

Ellie gave me a hard, Ellie hug before we began loading the last of the travel crates. I was sad that a woman had died but happy that now the cats would have the opportunity for better lives. As soon as we received the clearance to do so, we’d spay and neuter them and then find them loving homes in which to live out their lives.

I woke up early the next morning and took the household dogs for a run before I had to get ready for the events committee meeting. The previous evening, after I’d gotten all the cats settled in at the Zoo, I’d called Zak. Originally, he wasn’t supposed to be home until the following week but, given the circumstances, he’d promised to do everything he could to cut his trip short and come home as soon as he was able to arrange it. Alex was visiting her parents, who were on a dig in South America, Scooter was visiting his grandparents in Kansas, and Pi was on tour with the band he played with, so Nona and I had had the house to ourselves for a few days. Initially, I’d been looking forward to the quiet, but now I found I missed the comfort of the noise and confusion brought about by everyday routines. I was just rounding the bend where I normally turn around when my phone beeped, informing me that I had a message. I slowed to a walk and accessed my voice mail.

“Hi, Zoe, it’s Nona. It looks like the fuzz have finally seen fit to release me, but I need a ride back to your place. They offered me a ride home in a police car, but I’d rather walk home naked in a snowstorm than get into one of those cages on wheels again.”

I quickly hit redial and called Nona back. “Nona?”

“It’s Salinger. I let your grandmother use my phone, but she refused a ride and refused to wait. She just left on foot.”

“I’m out jogging, but I’m heading home. If you would be so kind as to catch up to her before she leaves the building, let her know I’m on my way and she should wait for me.”

“That woman is a real thorn in my side. Asking me to go after her is asking quite a lot.”

“I know, but I really want her to wait for me so she doesn’t do something crazy, like try to hitchhike. I’ll owe you,” I said persuasively.

“Okay. But hurry. I’m not sure how much of her lip I’m going to be able to tolerate.”

I ran home as fast as my short legs could carry me. I made sure the dogs had water before I grabbed my keys and headed out to my car. I might have broken a few speed limits on my way into town, but luckily, Nona was sitting on the bench outside the sheriff’s office, waiting as I’d asked. I pulled into the closest parking space, then hopped out to hug the woman who, I had a feeling, was going to get us both into a lot more trouble before this whole thing was over.

“Oh my God, I was so worried,” I cried as I hugged her. “Are you okay?”

“No thanks to that snake of a sheriff. Do you know, he wouldn’t even let me watch my shows?”

“I set them up to tape every week after the last time you missed them,” I reassured the septuagenarian. “Where’s your motorcycle?”

“The fuzz took it. It’s at the impound lot.”

“Okay, let’s get you home and cleaned up and then we’ll go get it. Did the attorney Zak sent say if we needed to meet with him?”

“I don’t need some expensive attorney. I’m perfectly capable of arguing my own case.”

“No, you really aren’t.”

“But the man is just a child.”

“Compared to you, everyone is just a child. Zak went to a lot of trouble to fly the guy out. We’re going to trust that Zak knows what he’s doing and do everything the lawyer tells us to.”

“Oh, all right. We’ll do it your way—for now. But not only is someone intentionally trying to set me up, the cretin stole my best jacket.”

“So I heard. Are you sure it was in the storage compartment of your Harley?”

“I’m sure. It gets chilly in the evenings, so I keep it on hand.”

“Do you remember the last time you wore it?”

Nona bit her lip as she considered my question. “It’s been a few days at least. I remember I had it on the day it rained. I left the house early to meet up with Aspen. We planned to solicit signatures from folks in front of the market, asking for support for stricter animal cruelty laws. The sun came out shortly after we arrived, so I took off my jacket and put it in the storage space behind the seat on my bike.”

“Salinger said the storage space was completely empty. Did you have anything else in there?”

Nona’s eyes grew wide. “Dang nabbit. The moron who stole my jacket also took my flask. Stealing a person’s jacket is one thing, but stealing a person’s moonshine is something else entirely.”

“Moonshine?”

“Gift from the gator wrangler I hooked up with a few nights ago.”

I was tempted to ask Nona where she’d met a gator wrangler in Ashton Falls, but I had a meeting to get to so I let it go.

By the time I got Nona home and we’d both cleaned up and retrieved her Harley I was late for the committee meeting. I considered skipping it altogether so I could keep an eye on the extremely agitated woman, but she had promised to stay home and catch up on her shows and I really did want to follow up on a couple of clues she’d provided when we’d had a chance to chat. It had been my experience that the good men and women of the Ashton Falls Events Committee were more often than not in the know about what was going on in town.

The most surprising piece of news Nona had shared was that she, indeed, hadn’t been the one to steal the kittens and leave them on the doorstep. My next assumption was that it had been Aspen who had taken the sickly babies, but Nona swore she’d headed over to Aspen’s after she spoke to me that morning and the two of them had been together until after four o’clock, when she’d left to meet her newest conquest at the local bar. It was in the parking lot of the bar, where she’d retreated to smoke a cigar, that Salinger had picked Nona up and taken her in for questioning.

So, if Nona hadn’t stolen the kittens and killed Edna, and Aspen hadn’t done it either, who did that leave, other than me, on the suspect list?

When I finally made it to the meeting the wine tasting was being discussed. Ellie suggested that we sell advance tickets at a discount to encourage visitors from off the mountain to commit to the event, and make up maps so which shop would be serving which wine and appetizer would be clearly defined. It seemed that everyone in the room was focused on what can only be described as an extremely boring conversation.

I noticed Levi hadn’t made it to the meeting. He’d all but stopped coming after he and Ellie broke up, although he had attended the four meetings she’d missed when she’d been away. I knew things between Ellie and Levi remained sensitive, especially now that Brady was in the picture, but the three of us had been friends for too long to let the relationship between my two best friends die altogether. In the beginning I hadn’t wanted to interfere, but it had been nine months since the breakup, more than enough time, I decided, for hurt feelings to heal.

I quickly texted Levi and asked him if he wanted to come over for dinner, then texted the same question to Ellie. We were headed for a Zoe Donovan intervention.

By the time I finished meddling in my friends’ lives, the discussion of the wine tasting had come to an end and Willa Walton had asked the group if anyone had anything else to talk about. I realized this was my chance to pick everyone’s brain about Edna Leech’s death. I started off by explaining the situation, and the fact that Nona was the prime suspect, filling the group in on the information I’d already managed to obtain. “So, as you can see, the most obvious suspects are Nona and Aspen, but they were together yesterday afternoon, so I find I’m fresh out of ideas. Does anyone have any input?”

“Are you sure Aspen and Nona aren’t lying for each other?” Willa, the town clerk, asked. “They’ve both demonstrated a decided lack of respect for authority over the past few weeks.”

“I suppose there’s no way to know for certain unless a third party saw them together, but I didn’t get the sense Nona was lying.”

“It seems to me you should speak to this Aspen Woods before Nona has a chance to talk to her. See if their stories line up,” Gilda Reynolds, owner of Bears and Beavers, a local gift shop, suggested.

“That’s a good idea.” I nodded. “I’ll do that when we’re finished here.”

“You might speak to the neighbors in the area,” Hazel Hampton, the town librarian and my Grandpa Luke Donovan’s girlfriend, spoke up. “I know Tilly Palmer lives next door to Edna. Tilly is a very nice woman who comes into the library frequently. Based on some of the conversations she’s engaged in with me and others, I think it’s safe to say she’s very observant, and she likes to share whatever dirt she can dig up with anyone who will listen.”

“Ellie and I planned to do that after the meeting. Edna has been operating the kitten mill for quite some time. I can’t imagine Tilly hadn’t reported it long before Aspen found out about it.”

Hazel shrugged. “It could be that she didn’t think there was a problem with Edna breeding cats in her barn. Not everyone is as impassioned about our four-legged friends as you and Aspen are.”

“Or maybe she did report it but, as with Aspen’s complaint, it went nowhere,” my father, Hank Donovan, replied. “Have you checked with the county to see if there were prior complaints?”

“Actually, I haven’t. It seems, though, that if there had been, that fact would have come to light when Aspen asked them to investigate a few months ago.”

“Maybe. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, though.”

“Yeah, I will. Did any of you actually know Edna Leech? She lived outside the town limits, but Ashton Falls is still the closest town to her property. She must have come here for groceries and other supplies.”

“I remember her coming into Donovan’s a few times, but we didn’t really talk,” Dad said, mentioning the general store he owned and operated. “I didn’t realize who she was or that she was farming cats until after you became involved, and I’m pretty sure she hadn’t been in since.”

“Have you spoken to Scott?” Hazel asked. “If you have a barn full of cats sooner or later you’re going to need the vet.”

When I’d had Scott over to look at the kittens I hadn’t mentioned where I’d gotten them, and he hadn’t asked. I foster puppies and kittens in my home on a regular basis, so there was no reason for him to inquire.

“I haven’t asked him specifically about Edna or her operation yet, but I’ll stop by his place this afternoon.”

After the meeting Ellie and I stopped by my house to check on the kittens and make sure Nona was behaving herself as she had promised. Other than the fact that she not only had all six kittens but one of my cats, Spade, and Alex’s cat, Sasha, on the sofa with her, she was doing exactly what she’d promised to. I’d warned Nona about leaving the kittens unattended because my other cat, Marlow, was a bit of a grouch. My dog, Charlie, Ellie, and I headed over to the elementary school, where we hoped to find Aspen. School was still out for the summer, but Nona had informed me that Aspen had been spending a lot of time getting her kindergarten room ready for the new school year. I took a chance that she’d be in her classroom, and luckily, I was right.

“Zoe, how are you? Is Nona with you?” Aspen greeted me.

“No, Nona’s at home watching her shows. Have you talked to her since yesterday?”

Aspen turned back toward the bulletin board she’d been working on. “No. She came by and we chatted while I cleaned up. I had a planning meeting with the rest of the staff at two, so she left, and I haven’t spoken to her since. Why? Is something wrong?”

I found it suspicious that Aspen had turned so her back was to me as she spoke, but I realized she’d been at the school all afternoon the previous day, so she couldn’t have stolen the kittens or killed Edna. The thing that bothered me more than Aspen’s diverted gaze was the fact that Nona had told me that she’d been with Aspen until her date at four, which had clearly been a lie. I had to wonder why.

I explained about Edna’s death and Nona’s arrest. Aspen seemed to be shocked and dismayed and promised to help in any way she could with both Nona’s defense and rehoming the cats when the time came.

“I know you’ve been actively protesting the kitten mill for months now. Can you think of anyone you might have met along the way who would want Edna dead?” I asked. “Maybe a fellow protestor?”

“There are a lot of people who’re upset about Edna’s operation,” Aspen shared. “She’d been very verbal in her defense of what she was doing and her allegation that what
we
were doing should be illegal. Several of the staunchest supporters of our cause had had words with her during our protests, but I can’t think of anyone who specifically comes to mind.”

“Okay. Well, thanks. If you think of anything let me know.”

“I will.”

“I guess you can check her off your list,” Ellie said when we left the campus. “It sounds like Aspen was at the school all afternoon.”

“Yeah.” I frowned.

“Something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong.” I don’t know why I didn’t tell Ellie about the discrepancy in Nona’s story. I’d trust her with my life and really had no reason to keep secrets from her, but for some reason I hesitated. “Let’s head out to Edna’s place to see if any of the neighbors are home. Maybe someone saw something that will give us a clue.”

“Are you sure you want to get involved in this?” Ellie asked.

“Of course I do. It would kill Nona if she ended up back in jail.”

“I get that, but it seems like Zak hired a really good attorney. Maybe you should just let him worry about keeping Nona out of jail.”