CHAPTER
twenty-five 
TO UNDERSTAND WHAT possible threat I needed to prepare for, I had to figure out what kind of poison Helen had been exposed to. Her autopsy report would spell it out. Detective Brown had all the answers, but he guarded them like a Doberman. So, I came ready to meet him on his home turf, with not one, but two bribes.
Upon Josh’s recommendation, I’d grabbed a dozen mochi doughnuts from the local Hawaiian bakery earlier this morning. I’d also brought along Nimbus, whom the entire police station had obviously adored before. Marshmallow tagged along, too, but said, “Remember, nobody touches this mahvelous fur.”
I soon arrived at the station with the treats. Detective Brown watched as I put Nimbus down several feet from him and placed a doughnut box on top of his desk. “Thanks for getting someone to monitor the school,” I said.
He grunted. “The officer will only patrol the neighborhood on weekdays. At three in the afternoon.” Then he continued with his paperwork.
A crowd soon gathered around Nimbus. From my purse, I pulled out a cat toy: a wand with a long rainbow swirl of cloth. One eager policeman grabbed the stick and waved it at Nimbus.
She caught it and tugged at the colorful fabric. The policeman laughed and tried the same trick with Marshmallow, who blinked back and said, “Excuse me. Why are you dangling that in my face?”
Nimbus kept getting petted, and her purring grew louder over time. Detective Brown finally broke his concentration and peeked over to where Nimbus lay on her back, with multiple police officers giving her massages.
“Maybe I’ll take a peek at the kitten,” Detective Brown said, “to make sure she’s doing okay. She still doesn’t have an owner?”
“Not yet . . .”
As he ambled toward the kitten, I snuck a glance at the file folders on his desk. Pretending to lean over the doughnut box, I sifted through his paperwork. There. I spotted one marked “Reed.”
Looking over my shoulder, I saw Detective Brown busy stroking Nimbus’s ears. I made an exaggerated motion to open the doughnut box and reach for a sugar-coated treat. In the process, I also happened to knock down the folder. “Oops.”
I crouched down to examine the papers. One scribbled sticky note read, “School’s camera footage shows only staff and students interacting with the victim on campus that day.”
Detective Brown’s voice practically growled. “What’s going on over there?”
I froze while Marshmallow crept close to my side. Detective Brown saw the papers spread on the floor and frowned. “You should know better, Miss Lee.”
“What?” I said, trying for a straight face. “I’m naturally clumsy.”
“True,” Marshmallow said. “Just ask my tail.”
“I’ll pick those papers up without your meddling assistance,” Detective Brown said as he returned my way. He shielded my view of the documents as he gathered them up. Then he kept a tight grip on the file folder as he asked me to leave the station in a firm voice.
I took Nimbus and slunk off.
At the car, I started settling the cats in the back. “What a waste of time. I was so close to reading those papers. And I didn’t even get a doughnut out of this whole mess.” My mouth salivated as I thought of the ringed dough made with the slight chewy give of mochi rice flour.
Marshmallow narrowed his eyes at me as I placed him in his carrier. “Like humans are the only literate ones around.”
“No offense,” I said as I clicked his cage shut. “I really wanted my plan to work, and the cause of Helen’s death was within arm’s reach.”
Marshmallow licked his paw. “Oh, you mean, the one listed on her autopsy report. Like I said, people didn’t corner the market on reading.”
My mouth dropped open. “Did you happen to see the document?” He had been by my side near the scattered papers.
“While you and the detective were having a verbal cat fight, I had plenty of time to spy the chemical responsible for Helen’s death. Mercury.”
Mercury? Something about the element tickled the back of my brain, but I couldn’t quite remember. What I did realize, as I looked at my car clock, was that I needed to get a move on to open up the shop on time.
Five minutes after I unlocked Hollywoof for business, Nicola sailed in with stars in her eyes. Registering her dreamy face, I asked, “Did you land a role?”
She’d mentioned several recent auditions, and I wondered if she’d gotten her big break.
Nicola dazzled me with her halogen smile and said, “I did. I’m going to be an extra.”
“An extra what?”
“You know, a person who’s in the background in a scene.”
From his usual napping spot, Marshmallow turned his head our way. “If you can get paid for lying around, count me in.”
Beside Marshmallow, Nimbus played with a ball of yarn.
Nicola rubbed her hands. “I’ll get an acting credit to my name.”
“Congrats,” I said as the shop bell jingled. Impeccable timing. It had added a celebratory chime to my remark.
Indira glided in, exuding her usual Bollywood star power. Dressed in lycra and wearing her typical fanny pack, she radiated a healthy glow. With one hand, she rolled in a suitcase. In the other, she held a leash attached to a very excited tan Chihuahua.
The little dog started yipping and almost tangled herself in the lead trying to reach Marshmallow. Indira let go of the rolling bag and unclipped the puppy.
Ash rushed toward Marshmallow, and Nimbus shrank back from the excitable dog. Marshmallow meowed, perhaps introducing the puppy and kitten to each other.
I turned to Indira. “Lovely to see you. And Ash is looking wonderful.”
She pointed to her suitcase of merchandise. “All thanks to my popular line of puppy pouches. The profits allowed me to fund Ash’s leg surgery.” The poor doggie had suffered from patellar luxation, a knee condition.
Nicola murmured hello from the side of the room, and Indira gave her a quick nod. “You seem to be enjoying this position more than your last one.”
Nicola turned pale and excused herself to tidy up the back room. No doubt she didn’t want to relive memories of how she’d been let go during her last job as Lauren Dalton’s assistant. The famous producer’s wife also happened to be one of Indira’s acquaintances.
“She’s still sensitive about that,” I said in a low voice.
“Best to toughen up if she wants to survive in this town,” Indira said. “By the way, kudos to you for trying to renegotiate our deal. I’ll agree to the fifty-fifty split for bag sales if you’ll carry my latest versions.”
Wow. I couldn’t believe I’d stood up for myself and gotten my way with Indira. Even though she respected me as a fellow entrepreneur, she was also a skilled businesswoman who always focused on the bottom line.
Indira laid down the suitcase on top of Lassie’s golden star on the Bark of Fame floor. She zipped it open and said, “Tah-da. My latest batch.”
Indira’s hit merchandise were bags made to carry puppies nestled against the chest. However, the new supply she wanted me to stock at Hollywoof didn’t display her usual appealing shades. One looked vomit green. Another—
“Is that the lovely color of armpit stain?” Marshmallow said from his corner.
I rubbed my eyes. The pouches also looked uneven in their coloring. “Why are there spots and streaks on them?”
Indira jutted her chin out. “Can’t you tell art when you see it right in front of your face?”
“Uh, sure.” Though, to be honest, I’d never been one to understand paintings made with splatters and blocks of color. No wonder she’d agreed to a fifty-fifty split with me for these latest designs. “But why the new stock? We still have a few of the other ones left.”
Indira pointed at the suitcase’s contents. “I had a light bulb idea to use naturally derived colors, like beet juice. You can market them as eco-positive bags.”
“That does have a nice ring to it.” I hung up the streaked pouches on the wall rack.
Indira zipped her suitcase shut. “Nice doing business with you, Mimi.”
After she’d left, I turned to Marshmallow. “She’s on top of the latest environmental trends.”
“And alert about her pocketbook. I’m sure beet juice has to be a cheaper alternative to artificial dye.”
Cheap and marketable. That sounded like a winning combination right up Indira’s alley. “A light bulb idea,” she’d called it. And that’s when something shifted in the murder case for me.