Thirty-eight

Oma and Zelda gazed at me like I had lost my mind.

“Don’t you see? I thought the person lurking around didn’t follow me because he wasn’t Hank. But what if that person was waiting for Hank?”

Oma said, “Sky and Nessie were at Tequila Mockingbird, ja? And if it was a woman, then we can count out Macon and Bob. Who does that leave?”

Zelda and I spoke simultaneously. “Paige.”

“I will call Dave to inform him,” said Oma.

“Ben!” I shouted his name.

“Ach. The Ben. What can he do?” asked Oma.

“He’s with Paige.” I beat Oma to the phone and dialed his number. It rolled over to voice mail.

Reluctantly, I handed her the phone. “We have to warn Ben.”

“Do you know where they went?” asked Oma.

“I bet they’re at Hair of the Dog.” Zelda jumped to her feet. “Grab a jacket and let’s go.”

Oma held out her hand. “Just a moment. It is not wise for the two of you to confront Paige. She has killed two men already.”

“We won’t do that. We’ll make an excuse to get Ben away from her. We’ll fabricate an emergency. Meanwhile, you will have reached Dave, and he’ll show up and everything will be fine.” I dashed up the hidden stairs to my quarters for a lightweight jacket.

An odd sound distracted me. What was that? I gazed around. No sign of Zelda’s cats. I peeked in the guest room. Ben had left clothes in a mess on the bed. Zelda’s kitties had stretched out on them and barely acknowledged my presence. It looked like a cat opium den.

The odd sound came from his duffel bag. It wiggled and shook. I used one finger to pull it open a bit. Twinkletoes gazed up at me with big eyes and a guilty look.

“Get out of there!” I picked her up. “What’s this?” I looked more closely at the tiny flakes on her fur. Setting her on the floor, I took a better look inside of Ben’s duffel bag. The smell was undeniable. Catnip.

That’s why all the cats were attracted to Ben all of a sudden. He was wearing catnip-scented clothes! It was all so clear to me. No wonder Marmalade and Twinkletoes had shredded his T-shirt. There had probably been a kitty fight going on about it while I’d slept.

“Everyone out!”

Not a single cat moved. I carried each of them out of the guest room and closed the door. “No more catnip for you.”

Trixie and I left the catnip-intoxicated cats and met Zelda in the lobby. “You won’t believe what Ben did.”

I told her how Ben had morphed into a cat whisperer.

Zelda laughed aloud. “You have to admit that it was a sweet gesture.”

“I guess he was tired of Twinkletoes hissing at him.”

“He can’t fool her with catnip. Twinkletoes and Trixie knew Ben wanted you to give them up. Animals are very perceptive about these things. People are far easier to fool.”

As we walked along the sidewalk, Zelda said, “I will be so relieved once Paige is arrested. The only downside to going home is no tea in my jammies first thing in the morning unless I get up and make it myself. What do you think Mr. Huckle would charge to bring tea and chocolate croissants to my house every morning?”

“That sounds like a great business. I wonder why no one does that? You should suggest it to one of the bakeries in town.”

I took great comfort in the fact that the streets teemed with visitors. The outdoor dining tables were packed. Couples gazed into each other’s eyes.

“I hope Axel is still speaking to me,” Zelda said. “I’m pretty jealous of all these budding relationships.”

“Focus, Zelda. What kind of excuse are we going to make for dragging Ben away?”

“That’s easy. Preliminary results on the jacket indicate that it’s yours and it has Hank’s blood on it. Dave is on his way to arrest you, so you need Ben’s help.”

“No way! Everyone will think I’m guilty. Besides, he can’t represent both of us,” I said.

“She probably doesn’t know that. It’s a small price to pay for rescuing Ben, don’t you think?”

When she put it that way . . .

“Besides, it will feed into her plan. Don’t you see? She’ll feel safe knowing that her plan to make you look guilty succeeded.”

I didn’t like it, but it made sense to me. We approached Hair of the Dog. Music blared, even outside. Spotlights shone, illuminating the crowd. People mingled with drinks in hand all the way out to the sidewalk.

“Do you see them?” I asked.

“They’re probably inside.”

Afraid she might be stepped on, I picked up Trixie and carried her through the crowd. Someone sang karaoke off-key. I made my way to the bar, where I recognized the owner.

“Have you seen Ben tonight?” I shouted to her.

“Not tonight,” she yelled.

Zelda came up behind me.

I spoke directly into her ear. “He hasn’t been here.”

“Should we try the Alley Cat?”

I motioned to her to follow me outside.

“Zelda! Zelda!” Axel broke through the crowd.

I hurried outside and waited for her.

Zelda towed Axel toward me and explained where we were going. “If I had wanted a romantic dinner, I would have gone to the Alley Cat,” said Zelda.

I didn’t relish the idea of going over there in the dark. But all the other options were on the west side of town. “Let’s get this over with.”

Dave had said they were putting out undercover officers around the Shire. I hoped they were still patrolling.

We crossed the street and picked up lanterns.

“You’d think they would have increased the lighting after Randall’s death,” said Zelda.

“I have a feeling Oma will hear about it at the next town meeting.” I watched as Trixie trotted ahead, her nose to the ground, the moonlight shining on her white fur.

Zelda filled in Axel about Paige as we walked. He held her hand and listened.

“I’m sorry about Hank,” he said.

“Don’t be. I was the fool who married him.”

“Macon said he might have actually loved you.” I thought that might make her feel better.

“Then he had a funny way of showing it. The sad thing is that he could be really nice and fun to be with. But he had that sleazy side that drove me nuts.”

We passed the spot where we had turned off to find Randall’s body. I slowed and gazed in that direction. We heard voices and giggling, which was a little incongruous.

A sense of relief washed over me when Axel opened one of the double doors at the entrance of the Alley Cat. No one was dead. We hadn’t encountered anything creepy. Under other circumstances, it would have been a lovely, calm evening walk.

I picked up Trixie again because there was such a huge crowd. But I did notice the expression of concern on the bartender’s face when he spied Trixie in my arms.

Axel leaned over and shouted in my ear, “It’s noisy in here. Is there a patio outside?”

I motioned for them to follow me. We wedged through the jolly crowd of flirters and out the back way onto the large patio.

“Much better,” said Axel. “I feel like I can breathe out here.”

I had to agree.

Zelda tugged at my arm and whispered, “There they are!”

Ben and Paige had snagged a table at the far end. A candle flickered between them as they ate.

Like in the rest of the Shire, the lighting on the terrace was discreet. Oma would have thought it too dark, but it was soothing and sort of magical. The partiers on the stone patio were much quieter. We heard occasional laughter, but overall, it was a very different crowd from the gang inside. Beyond the patio, fields and hills lay silent in the dark. I had been there before during the day, so I knew a walking path wound around the Alley Cat far back in the distance. A few pasture fences were visible in daylight, but beyond those fields were woods with hiking trails.

I sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”

Trixie ran ahead to her friend, Huey. Unfortunately, the three of us approached their table at the exact moment that Ben chose to feed Paige a spoonful of chocolate mousse. She was taking a little lick off his finger when they saw us.

In spite of the darkness, I could tell Paige was embarrassed. It bothered me that I felt for her. How could someone who spent her days rescuing animals possibly have murdered two men? It didn’t make sense to me.

Zelda launched into a panicked recitation of my imminent arrest because of a preliminary match to Hank’s blood type.

Ben listened to her, but I didn’t think he was convinced. I let her babble.

“I can’t represent both of you. What a mess. Excuse me, Paige.” Ben rose from his seat. “Holly, could I have a word, please?”

He walked to the other end of the terrace and whispered, “Zelda is making no sense at all. What’s up?”

“Paige is the killer.”

Ben frowned at me. “On what basis did you come to that crazy conclusion?”

I told him our logic.

Ben placed his hand on my shoulder. “Go home. You’ve got nothing. Not a single shred of evidence tying Paige to the murders. So she has a scarf. You had two of them.”

“I thought you liked Laura better.”

“Can’t a guy change his mind? Besides, Laura’s out with some guy Macon picked for her. If you don’t mind, I’m going to finish having dinner with Paige. We can discuss this in the morning.”

I had been dismissed. He returned to his table. I had half a mind to stick around just to be on the safe side. But Dave would be there soon. And she wouldn’t murder him in front of all these people.

Zelda and Axel couldn’t believe that Ben refused to leave his date. There wasn’t much we could do. I whistled for Trixie, and we left.

On the way back, when we neared Hair of the Dog and the karaoke blared, Zelda grinned. “Would you mind if Axel and I stayed here for a while?”

“Of course not. Have fun.”

Trixie and I continued in the direction of the inn. I couldn’t help thinking that I must be the only single person in town without a date. “What happened to John?” I asked Trixie.

She probably wondered where Cooper was.

“Yoo-hoo! Holly!” Macon waddled toward us with his peculiar little walk. “Are you headed to the inn?”

“We are,” I said.

“I’m glad you’re still speaking to me after that little stunt I pulled on you today. You and John just needed a big fat push. Where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him since then.”

“Really? I thought for sure the picnic would bring you together.”

“Macon, maybe it’s time to admit defeat on the John and Holly project.”

“I will not hear that kind of attitude.”

“I heard you set up Laura on a date tonight.”

“You heard wrong. Laura has never signed up to be matched. It’s not a requirement, of course. And she’s done fairly well for herself with Ben. I don’t much care for her interest in John, though.”

“They’re old friends.”

“Mmm-hmm. And she’d like them to be something more. That girl has had her eye on John since the day Animal Attraction began.”

“She lied to Ben.” I said my thought aloud.

“I imagine Ben isn’t the first man she’s ever lied to.”