Roger was at a total loss what to say to Tabitha when it was clear that Lisa East was dead, and not from natural causes. He didn’t try to exclude Tabitha from the conversation he had with Budgie, a man he’d known for most of his life, but he found he wanted to soften the details—a strange feeling for him.
“How was she killed?” Roger asked the deputy.
“Pretty sure she was shot, but Doc Sawyer will tell me more.”
“Can you tell how long she’s been dead? I have an employee who’s missing. Trudy Wells. She hasn’t shown up for work in two weeks. She was meeting Lisa the day she disappeared.”
Budgie shook his head. “You might have said something before now, Roger.”
“Yeah, I should have.” Roger didn’t even want to defend his lack of action. “She was new. I just thought…young people today move around a lot.”
“They do,” Budgie conceded.
“This is Trudy’s sister, Tabitha. She’s worried about her.”
Budgie studied the tall, slender redhead and nodded. “I’ve heard talk around town that you communicate with the dead.”
“It’s a gift,” Tabitha said, but Roger was aware of the slight flush that touched the delicate skin of her slender throat.
Budgie looked skeptical. “Look, unless you two have something to add to this scene, why don’t you go over to the courthouse and wait for us?”
“What are those cats doing here?” Tabitha asked. “That black one, the thinner one, was out at Long Hall last night. He’s…not a normal cat. He jumped out of my car at the Prince Albert.”
“This one here is Pluto, and he’s a pretty special cat. He belongs to Sarah Booth Delaney, a local private investigator. She sets a store by him and claims he helps solve cases, but she’s out of town at the moment.” He pointed to Trouble. “I have no idea who this black devil is, but he’s smart.”
“His name is Trouble,” Tabitha offered. “Don’t ask how I know.”
Roger turned to Budgie. “Do you have any idea who might have…harmed Lisa? I knew her. She was in the Long offices not so long ago talking up a new strain of cotton she wanted me to try.”
“Is that where she met Trudy?” Budgie asked.
“I think so.” Roger thought about it. “I have four or five young women in that age range working for me and they seemed to socialize together. They talk about going to Playin’ the Bones to dance or driving up to Memphis for fun.” He held up his hands. “I never thought about how they knew each other.”
“My sister was dating a man who farmed a lot of acreage,” Tabitha said. “In the week before she disappeared, things weren’t great with them.”
“Do you have a name?” Budgie asked.
“I’m sorry, no. Trudy is my younger sister. She was so headstrong about her independence.”
“I taught teens for a while,” Budgie said. “I’d rather deal with convicted killers than teenagers. Some never outgrow it.”
“Amen,” Tabitha said softly. “My sister is smart but willful. She’s always poking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Trudy is smart,” Roger agreed. “And the more I think about it, the more I agree with Tabitha. She was too interested in this new strain of cotton. She and Lisa--”
“Let’s not jump the gun and assume the worst,” Budgie said. “Here’s DeWayne and Doc Sawyer. How about you leave and take those two cats with you? We’ve got some forensic work to do and I don’t need cats or humans tromping through it. When I have some answers, I’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks,” Roger said. He put a hand on Tabitha’s shoulder for support as he turned her away from the cottage. She didn’t need to see what was inside. Her imagination was probably already working overtime.
“Hey, can you really communicate with the dead?” Budgie asked. “If we run short on leads, maybe you could get in touch with Lisa East.”
Tabitha turned and inhaled. “The spirit has to want to communicate, and just so you know, I haven’t charged anyone for my services.”
Budgie only grinned. “I’ll let you know if we need your help.”
“Yes, that would be a logical move,” Tabitha said before she started toward the truck. Roger had to admire the way she held her shoulders back and didn’t give anything away. He hadn’t found his missing employee, but he had learned something valuable about Tabitha Kingsley. She had come into his aunt’s home under false pretenses. He’d initially thought she was a con artist trying to fleece his relatives out of hefty fees for “psychic” contact with his grandmother, but that didn’t appear to be the case. No, it was a lot more serious than just a con. A woman was dead and Trudy was missing. Even more worrisome, Trudy appeared to be caught up in serious business—serious enough for murder. He’d wanted to believe that Trudy was simply footloose and fancy free, a young woman who’d moved on to greener pastures. But with each passing hour, he had to consider that Trudy Wells might be the victim of a kidnapping. Or worse. But since no body had been found he was going to hope for abduction. He’d worry about how Tabitha’s betrayal affected his aunt and uncle later. Right now something far more dangerous was going on around the Long family.
At the truck, Tabitha glanced back at the cottage as if to examine it one more time. There were clearly tears shimmering in her eyes, but they didn’t spill. She lifted her chin. “Let me grab that Pluto cat and see where Trouble got off to,” she said.
“What are we going to do with the cats?” Roger asked.
“We’ll take Pluto to his home, and Trouble can come with us. They’re involved in this somehow. Think about it. We’ve had three cats show up, and they all seem involved in this case. The orange one your aunt let in—that’s my sister’s cat, Vesta. I’m sure of it and I have no idea how she got from Trudy’s house to Long Hall. I don’t know what’s going on, but until I find my sister, I’m going to follow every lead I get.”
“Round up the cats,” Roger said, because he knew it would be pointless to argue.
Tabitha put a docile Pluto in the truck and went after Trouble. He was aptly named. She went behind the cottage. She knew he wouldn’t answer to kitty, kitty. He wasn’t that kind of cat. He was somehow distinctly…British? It didn’t make a lick of sense, and she wondered if the stress of Trudy’s disappearance was making her thinking loopy.
She caught sight of the feline on top of two garbage cans where he was frantically digging to get inside them. He didn’t strike her as a cat that enjoyed rank food so she went to help him. Two minutes later he had dug some papers out of the trash. She brushed off a few stray coffee grounds and examined the report from what looked like a laboratory. It was an analysis on some plants, but it was way above her pay grade.
Holding only the edge of the page, she scooped Trouble up in her arms and hurried back to the truck. When she was inside with the door closed, Roger arched one eyebrow.
“What’s that?”
“You’ll have to tell me. I should give it to the cops but not before we have a chance to figure out if it gives us a clue to Trudy.”
“Garbage is a clue?”
“More than that, it may impact your business. It’s an analysis of something. Since Lisa worked for a chemical company, my guess it would be one of their products. “
Roger took the pages from her hand and studied them, his frown deepening. “This is soil analysis. And it was submitted by Trudy—that’s her initials, which means it probably has something to do with Long Agricultural Products. But look, there’s that strange symbol that was on Trudy’s calendar. I’ve never seen it before, and to be honest, I’ve never seen a report like this. It’s from…a company I’ve never heard of. Bitner Labs.”
Tabitha felt her dread grow. Trudy was involved in something. Crop analysis, soil samples—all things that were out of her normal wheelhouse of interests. Once again she wondered what her sister had gotten involved in. “We can check on this report, right?”
“We can and we will. Now let’s get out of here.”
They pulled away and headed out the road to Dahlia House, a place Roger knew of but had never had reason to visit. At the intersection, Trouble once again tried to take control of the steering wheel.
“He wants to go the other direction.” Tabitha knew because he’d done the same to her.
Roger was dubious. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Try the other way.”
He took up the challenge. As soon as he turned in the direction the cat favored, Trouble settled back in Tabitha’s lap.
She didn’t say a word but she couldn’t hide her smile.
“Where do the cats want to go?” Roger asked. “You’re the psychic, maybe you can tell me. Or maybe you’re also a cat in disguise.”
“Me-ow!” Trouble answered. Pluto slipped under Roger’s arm and nudged his right hand. When he turned in that direction, Pluto settled back onto the seat.
“Trudy’s place,” Tabitha guessed.
“Meow!” the cats chorused.
“This is not happening. I’m going to wake up any minute and realize this is a nightmare. Cats do not know how to tell people where they want to go.”
“Dream on,” Tabitha said. “The cats are now in control and let’s hope they know how to find my sister.”
They turned down the driveway to Trudy’s place and parked beside the front porch. Tabitha was aware the little house had taken on a sad and abandoned air even in the brief time Trudy had been gone. Dead leaves had collected at the front door, and pots containing plants had been knocked over. The wind? Roaming dogs? Or an intruder? Trudy had mentioned someone following her.
Tabitha shared a look with Roger.
“Let me go in first,” Roger said. “Just in case—”
“Trudy isn’t here. I checked when I first got to town.”
Roger sighed. “Thank goodness. But nonetheless I think I should go in. So what are we looking for?”
“Her car is missing. I’d like to find her personal computer, which I didn’t see when I looked, but I didn’t search thoroughly. And I couldn’t find her spare car keys. She always used to leave them in the drawer with the spoons. It was something we both did for emergencies.” Tabitha took a breath. “I’d like to find some indication of the man she was dating or the website she met him on. And we need evidence of a connection to Lisa East.”
“Okay.” He opened the truck door and the cats were out. They made a beeline for the front steps. Roger was right behind them.
Tabitha went around the house to the back. Two lawn chairs were beside a fire pit that had been used in the recent past. There was evidence of some burned papers, but they were too charred to be of any use. She did notice that a screen on a back window sat on the ground below. Wind damage or an intruder? She examined the window and had her answer—someone had broken into the house.
She heard Roger call her and she returned to the front and went inside. The house was just as she’d seen it.
“Looks like her clothes and suitcase are here,” Roger said. “There’s no sign of a struggle. Since her car is gone and there’s no sign she was taken against her will, maybe she left on her own.”
“Yeah.” Tabitha’s hope was taking a heck of a beating. “It’s possible she found out that Lisa was killed and ran.”
“Wouldn’t she call you?” Roger asked.
“If she’s afraid, maybe not.” Tabitha knew she was grasping at straws. Trudy was headstrong, rebellious, and often jumped before she thought things through. But she would never deliberately worry her sister. “Maybe she doesn’t want to involve me in this. She might have been at Lisa’s place since they were going to meet up. Maybe she saw what happened to Lisa and…” She couldn’t finish her thought.
“Don’t jump to the worst conclusion,” Roger said. He put a comforting hand on her back. “I’m sorry, Tabitha. Do you know where she kept her computer?”
“The logical place would be the kitchen table. It wasn’t there when I looked before.”
“Then we should look for thumb drives or something she could have hidden. If Trudy was on to something, she’s smart enough to have hidden the evidence.”
Roger was right. They began a systematic search of drawers and other places of concealment. Tabitha went to the closet, remembering Trudy’s love of shoes. She upended numerous pairs until she saw the cowboy boots they’d bought on a trip to Dallas. Trudy loved them. She tipped one over and a bright green thumb drive fell to the floor. The relief was intense. At least they had something.
“Look at this.” Roger came into the bedroom holding a disk marked ‘Interview Delta Dating.’ This may be the dating site Trudy was using.”
“Do you know it?” Tabitha asked.
He nodded. “The address is not far from here. We can check it out while we’re so close. One of us should go apply. That’s the quickest way to get inside.”
“You,” Tabitha quickly said. “That way you can show interest in Trudy. But won’t they know you? Everyone around here knows everyone it seems.”
“That’s true. So it has to be you. We have the video here so maybe we can see what Trudy put on her page.”
“And what about that report on the plants?”
“Another good lead that I’ll pursue. I can ask questions without arousing suspicions. We should photograph that and give it to the deputies. We don’t want to withhold information.”
“You’re right. Thank you.” Tabitha stopped in her head-long pursuit of finding Trudy long enough to appreciate how much Roger had gotten involved. He didn’t have to help yet he was doing so willingly.
“Young women don’t go missing in Sunflower County. We look out for each other here.” It was as if he could read her thoughts.
“Let’s find a computer and check that disk. Someone took Trudy’s laptop.”
“Tabitha, if we involve the law, maybe they could track her cell phone. There’s a GPS. It’s possible--”
“Someone else has her phone. I’ve called her a million times and yesterday someone answered but wouldn’t say anything. If Trudy had it, she would talk to me because she’d know how worried I am. She may be undercover or…” She decided to be honest. “Or she might be caught up in this. Trudy hasn’t always used the best judgment. I’m afraid if the cops show up, she’ll get hurt. If she isn’t hurt already. Let’s see what we can find out on our own. Let’s give it twenty-four hours and then I’ll agree to turn everything over to the law. I have this sense that Trudy was searching for something.”
“The law is already involved.” Roger’s expression was worried. “We have a dead woman.”
“True, but I have to believe Trudy is alive. And I think we have tools now to find her.”
Roger blew out a breath. “It’s your call, but only for the short term.”
Tabitha held up the disk. “Let’s check this out.”
They found the cats ready beside the truck and Roger didn’t suggest taking Pluto home to Dahlia House. He’d accepted that the cats were part of the investigation. The leaner black one rode with his front paws on the dash as if he were scouting the terrain for bad guys. When they arrived at Long Hall they were greeted by the little yellow cat who made straight for Pluto. She licked his head and purred.
“Looks like Trudy wasn’t the only one looking for a date,” Roger said as he opened the door for Tabitha. “Those cats seem to care about each other.”