Much Ado About Felines (Whales and Tails Mystery Book 4) (14 page)

“You’re late,” Tara informed me the minute I walked through the door.

“Did you hear that Greg Westlake and Sissy Partridge are engaged?”

“Engaged? I didn’t even know they were dating.”

“Me neither. In fact, Finn made it sound as if Greg was still pretty distraught about the whole thing with Roxi. It really doesn’t make sense, unless…”

“Unless what?” Tara prompted.

“When I spoke to Olivia a week ago at the Bait and Stitch, she mentioned that Greg’s mother had someone in mind for Greg once he was done sowing his wild oats. I wonder if that someone was Sissy. Maybe his mom convinced Greg to settle down with this very traditional girl she’d picked out for him after the Roxi fiasco.”

“I guess I could see how that could happen,” Tara commented. “Greg never has been able to stand up to his mom. I’m sure she didn’t have to work too hard to convince him that making decisions for himself wasn’t a good idea after Roxi used him the way she did. I hate to say it, but I doubt either Greg or Sissy will be happy in the long run.”

“Yeah, I agree. Sissy mentioned she’d been waiting for Greg her whole life. Now that she has him, I wonder if she can keep him. I’d better head back to town to set up our booth. I’ll have my cell. Call me if you need me.”

Luckily, I ran into Cody at the street fair, and he helped me set up the booth, so I wasn’t really all that late. The street fair ran from noon until the ball started at eight, although I planned to shut down our booth by six so I’d have time to get ready for my big double date with Cody, Tara, and Danny.

The island was packed with tourists from the mainland who had come over on the ferry to enjoy our seasonal celebration. I did a brisk business the first three hours I was open. So brisk in fact that I had all but run out of inventory by three o’clock. I was trying to decide whether to call Tara to ask her to bring me additional items to sell or to just close down early when I saw Beatrice in the crowd.

“Can you keep an eye on my booth for a few minutes?” I asked the vendor next to me. “I see my cat has wandered downtown and I’d like to catch her before she gets into traffic.”

“Certainly,” the woman graciously agreed. “We wouldn’t want your fur baby to get hit by a car.”

“Thanks. I’ll be right back.”

I hurriedly walked toward where I’d last seen Beatrice. She’d moved away from that grassy area, but I quickly spotted her crossing the street. I prayed she actually wouldn’t get hit by oncoming traffic, but she made her way across the busy parkway without any problem.

I followed her down Main Street toward the wharf. I tried to catch up with her, but the faster I walked the faster she ran. When she turned onto the wooden walkway leading out to the ferry I was sure she was heading for Coffee Cat Books, but she trotted right past it.

She also passed the area for ferry loading and unloading and continued onto the docks, which provided access to the boats that rented slips in the harbor. I thought she might be heading for Danny’s boat, but she ran past his dock and continued on toward the last one on the end.

“Where are you going, you silly cat? There’s nothing out here. Just a handful of fishing boats.”

Beatrice jumped up onto the deck of the last boat on the left. I realized in an instant she’d brought me to Jimmy’s boat.

“Hello,” I called as I approached the vessel. I knew Roxi had sold the boat and I didn’t want to just walk in on the new owner if he should be inside the cabin. “Is anyone there?” I called again.

Convinced the boat was unoccupied, I climbed aboard and then headed belowdecks to find the wandering cat.

The boat was actually fairly large. There was a full cabin that could be used to live in temporarily if one found oneself out to sea for days at a time. Beatrice was sitting on the double bunk in the only bedroom. I walked across the room to pick her up, but just as I reached for her, she jumped up onto a built-in dresser.

“Okay, what’s up?” I asked. I really needed to get going. Not only did I have the ball to prepare for but I still had to take down my booth and return everything to Coffee Cat Books.

Beatrice jumped down onto the floor and began to wind herself through my legs in a circle eight pattern. She started to purr as I bent down to pick her up. Just as I was about to return to an upright position, I saw something under the bed. I got down on my knees to retrieve it and noticed the blood that was splattered on the wall behind the bed.

I picked up the item under the bed, which turned out to be a necklace, and then returned to a standing positon.

“What are you doing in here?” a voice said from behind me.

I quickly turned around. “You scared me.” I put my hand to my chest. “I was just trying to catch my cat, who’d wandered aboard. What are you doing here?”

“I own this boat.”

“You bought the boat from Roxi? Whatever for?”

“I made an arrangement with the whore to buy the boat in exchange for her promise to leave the island. I thought she’d leave right away, but she didn’t.”

I looked down at the necklace in my hand and remembered the blood on the wall. “So you killed her.”

“I didn’t mean to. I followed my loser of a son to the boat one day shortly after I purchased it. I saw what that woman was doing to him. Not only had she not left town as per our agreement but she was defiling my son on the boat I now owned. I’m sure it was Greg’s idea. He probably thought it would be great fun to thumb his nose in my face by doing the very thing I was trying to prevent with the very woman I was trying to keep him away from. It wasn’t right. My boy was meant for another. He had no right toying with that Jezebel.”

“Meant for another? Sissy. You told Sissy she could marry Greg if she waited for him.”

“I promised her, and I always keep my promises.”

“Why? He doesn’t love her.”

Mrs. Westlake shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. The boy will do as he’s told. He always has. I came back to the boat after Greg left that afternoon. All I wanted to do was talk to the woman. Reason with her. We did after all have an agreement. But she got hysterical and told me to butt out of her personal life. She insisted that who Greg slept with was none of my business. I got mad and pushed her. She hit her head.”

“Why didn’t you call 911? She didn’t have to die.”

“I realized it was better if she did. I left, and when I came back after dark she was dead. All I needed to do was bury her in her own grave and no one would ever know. It would have worked if that idiot I got to help me had replaced the sod properly.”

My eyes darted around the room as I looked for a way out. The woman was crazy. She’d just confessed to killing Roxi. There was no way she was going to simply let me go. The very wide woman stood between me and the only doorway. I had to keep her talking until I could figure out a way to get her to move.

“What idiot?” I asked.

The woman just frowned at me.

“What idiot did you get to help you?” I clarified.

She squinted her eyes and puckered her lips. ”Why do you want to know?”

I shrugged. “Just curious.”

I watched as the woman glared at me but didn’t reply. I needed a diversion. If I could manage to slip past her, I knew without a doubt I could outrun her. She didn’t appear to have a weapon, but she had to weigh three times what I did. I was pretty sure I’d be the loser in a wrestling match.

Beatrice had made her way back onto the top of the dresser while we’d been talking. I glanced at her and she glanced back. I was pretty sure we were communicating, as odd as that might sound. I nodded and she jumped off the dresser and onto Mrs. Westlake’s head. The woman screamed and I ran while she was untangling herself from the cat. I paused to make sure Beatrice had escaped as well. The two of us ran as fast as we could back to Coffee Cat Books to call Finn. It looked like Beatrice had come through after all.

The Masquerade Ball was a magical event at which everyone who chose to attend had the ability to pretend for one night that they lived a life much grander than the one they actually led. Most of us dressed in period clothing that represented a person in history we most wanted to emulate. Even those of us who didn’t dress up as a specific personage wore formal attire that would have been appropriate at the grand balls of old.

With the craziness of the past week, Tara and I had borrowed dresses with full skirts and fitted bodices from Maggie, and Danny and Cody wore tuxes.

Cody and Danny picked Tara and me up at my cabin in a horse-drawn coach that looked like something out of a fairy tale. Between the carriage and the old-fashioned ball gown, I really felt like Cinderella. My heart pounded as Cody squeezed into the small seat next to me. I could feel my body welcome his warmth and I knew deep within my soul that I would remember every moment of this magical night for the rest of my life.

I watched in awe as the carriage pulled up in front of the white marble steps that led to the front door of the oceanfront mansion. Cody’s eyes locked with mine as he put his hands around my waist and swung me into his arms. I slid slowly down his body as he set me gently on the ground. He placed my arm through his as we made our way up the steps and into the ballroom, where the orchestra was playing a beautiful waltz that had couples floating gracefully around the dance floor.

Cody led me out to join them. He placed one hand on my back while taking my hand in his. I felt like I was floating on air in a space above the marble floor as the music mixed with the magic of the night.

It turned out the ball was proving to be the perfect end to an exciting day. After the incident on the boat, Finn arrested both Greg’s mother and her gardener, who had been the one she’d convinced to help her bury Roxi. The case was closed and Beatrice returned home to the people who were missing her. I don’t fully understand the link between Tansy, the cats who come into my life, and my apparent role as an amateur sleuth. There are times I question whether becoming involved in these tragic occurrences is something I can continue to do, but for the time being I’ll honor the responsibility that seems to have been entrusted to me.

“By the way, I forgot to tell you that I found out what that mysterious stranger was doing on the island and how he was connected to his own special cat,” I said to Cody after the orchestra switched to a slightly different tempo.

“So what was his story?”

“It’s really very romantic, in a sad sort of way,” I began.

“That’s a wonderful story,” Cody said when I finished. “Sixty years with one person is truly remarkable.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if those kinds of marriages are even possible these days. When I see how easy it seems to be for couples to betray the trust they’re supposed to be committed to, it makes me lose my faith in true love. I almost feel love stories such as Sebastian’s are as much a relic of the past as this ball.”

Cody pulled me just a bit closer. I could feel his breath on my cheek as he spoke softly into my ear. “I believe in true love that lasts a lifetime. With the right person.”

I pulled back just a bit so I could look into his eyes. “How do you know if you’ve found the right person? Tansy didn’t say how Adeline died, but it seems she must have known she was dying. She wanted to continue to take care of Sebastian even after her death, so she used precious moments from her final days to write fifty-three letters. Fifty-three! That’s the kind of love you just don’t see these days.”

“Your parents were married until your dad passed,” Cody reminded me.

“True, but they weren’t really happy. In the end they remained together because that was what the church required. Your parents divorced, and look at all the men we discovered who betrayed their wives during our investigation into Roxi’s death. These are men who, prior to this investigation, I would have sworn were truly in love with their spouses. I’m sure on the day they married they believed their love would endure. But it didn’t. Not like Adeline’s love for Sebastian. How do you know when you’ve found a love that will continue to burn not only for a lifetime but beyond?”

“I don’t know,” Cody admitted. “Maybe love isn’t
just
something you feel. Maybe it’s something you do. Maybe things weren’t always easy for Sebastian and Adeline. Maybe there were times when the fire of their love died to an ember. Maybe the difference is that Adeline and Sebastian made a commitment to their relationship every day of their lives, whether they felt the fire or not.”

“You think so?”

“I do. I don’t think marriage is a commitment you make one time on your wedding day. I think it’s something you renew every moment of every day, whether it comes easily in that instant or not.”

Cody and I locked eyes, and I melted into the depths of his as the orchestra segued into a slow number. While Cody and I still had miles to travel, one day I would look back on that moment and realize it was then that I made a commitment to the man I was certain I had always loved, and it was likewise then that he made a commitment to me that would endure the ups and downs of a lifetime.

Potato Sausage Soup

Chicken Mac and Cheese

Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Caramel Brownies