| |
“Really?”
“It all fits,” Zoe replied. “She was jealous of Cee Cee because Cee Cee got the gossip column and she was an old friend of her boss’s wife. And remember how Thelma told us she’d written some small stories before for the Gazette? But how her boss Phil wasn’t exactly encouraging her to keep at it?
“True,” Lauren replied thoughtfully.
“I bet Thelma thought if she got rid of Cee Cee, she would get the gossip columnist job. Except it hasn’t worked out that way for her – yet. No wonder she’s mad.”
“But she has an alibi,” Lauren pointed out. “She was with Phil at the town council. Someone called them with a red hot lead, remember?”
“Allegedly,” Zoe replied. “We only have Thelma’s word for it that that actually happened. What if she made the whole thing up, to establish an alibi for herself?”
Lauren stared at her cousin. “That’s pretty clever thinking.”
“Thanks,” Zoe sounded modest.
“But even if Thelma did all that, how did she kill Cee Cee in Phil’s office if she was with Phil at the time? And was Phil in his office when she got this “tip”?”
“Hmm.” Zoe tapped her cheek. “I’ll have to give that some more thought.”
“And what about Phil’s behavior this afternoon when we went into his office? He shut his desk drawer pretty suddenly.”
“That’s right.” Zoe brightened. “Maybe he’s the killer and he was making sure the evidence he hid in his drawer was still there.”
“What sort of evidence?” Lauren frowned. “Mitch said Cee Cee was strangled with the cord from the desk lamp.”
“I know!” Zoe pointed a finger at her. “Maybe Cee Cee wrote a piece of gossip that was about him and BAM! he killed her.”
“Why would Cee Cee do that?” Lauren looked at her blankly.
“Because ... she didn’t know it was about him! Remember that weird piece that was in the last column, about a little birdie and whispers. Maybe she wrote something like that because that’s what her source told her to write, knowing it was about Phil but Cee Cee didn’t, and that’s what got her killed. She’s only been here a couple of months. She wouldn’t be aware of who knows who around here, and who is a real local and who isn’t.”
“I guess we’re not real locals then,” Lauren replied. “We’ve only lived here for about three years.”
“True, but your Gramms was a real local,” Zoe pointed out. “People might think of you as one by default, and me as well, by default of you. Mrs. Finch is a real local.”
“So you think Phil keeps the evidence of killing Cee Cee in his desk drawer?” Lauren queried,
“Possibly.” Zoe nodded to herself. “He looked over her column because it sounds like he approves everything before the newspaper goes to print, realized it was about him, didn’t run that bit of gossip and killed Cee Cee anyway. And since Cee Cee is dead she can’t ask why he didn’t publish that tidbit.”
“But he has the same alibi as Thelma,” Lauren pointed out.
“Unless they were in it together!”
Lauren looked at her skeptically. “Somehow I can’t see those two acting together, especially with something as awful as this.”
“That’s true.” Zoe nodded slowly. “They’d probably both try to sell out the other if Mitch started asking them too many questions. Ooh, I bet Thelma would love to blame the whole thing on Phil even if she was part of it, and then she could take over the newspaper!”
“If Phil’s wife allowed her to be in charge,” Lauren commented.
“Hmm. I also think the real estate guy is a possibility. He’s a bit too slick for my taste.”
Lauren nodded, then looked at her watch. Five o’clock. She jumped up and locked the door, then started closing the register.
“Awesome!” Zoe started stacking the chairs on the tables.
“Brrt?” Annie lifted her head, slowly opening her green eyes.
“We’ve just closed the café,” Lauren told her.
“Once we tidy up we can go home!” Zoe winked at the feline.
“Brrt!” Annie climbed out of her basket and poked her head in the nearby corner. Then she moved toward her basket, busy sniffing near the edge of it.
“What is it?” Lauren asked.
“Brrt.” Annie slid her paw under the basket, lifting it slightly. She wriggled her head under it, wriggled her bottom, and then triumphantly pulled out a piece of white paper. “Brrt!” She patted the white scrap with her paw.
“What have you got?” Zoe zipped over to her. “Can I see?”
“Brrp.” Yes. Annie pushed the paper over to Zoe.
“It looks like a phone number written in black ink.”
Lauren headed over to them. “A landline number maybe.” She stared at the numbers scrawled on the paper. “And there’s a smudge on the edge of the paper that looks like the same color as the ink used.”
“You’re right.” Zoe frowned. “The number looks familiar, but I can’t place it.”
“It’s Annie’s Lost and Found again.” Lauren smiled at her fur baby.
“Brrt!”
“But how did it end up under your basket?” Zoe asked.
“Maybe the three cats found it when they were in here earlier,” Lauren proposed, “and hid it under there for safekeeping.”
“Or maybe AJ or Mrs. Snuggle did that behind Annie’s back.” Zoe giggled. “Maybe they wanted it to be a surprise for her or wanted to see if she would find it.”
“Brrt!” I bet it was AJ!
“I bet it was, too.” Lauren shared a smile with her fur baby. “We’d better put this somewhere for safe keeping.”
“Like the drawer behind the counter.”
“Brrt.” Yes.
“I wonder who could have lost it?” Zoe mused. “Who was in here today? Gus, that real estate guy Bryce, Ms. Tobin, a ton of people at lunchtime—”
“Thelma,” Lauren reminded her.
Zoe’s brown eyes widened. “Maybe it was her!”
“But she came in after the playdate.” Lauren put the scrap of paper in the drawer. “I’ll mention it to Mitch tonight.”
“Let me know what he says.”
***
That evening, Lauren watched her husband spoon up the last mouthful of fluffy chocolate mousse.
“That was great.” He smiled in satisfaction. “Thank you.”
“Ms. Tobin gave me the idea,” she admitted. “I’ll have to let her know.”
“You can make that any time.”
“So, how’s the case going?”
When Mitch had come home for dinner that night, he’d looked tired again. Lauren had made sure he ate a good meal first, including hearty beef stew leftovers, and the chocolate mousse.
Annie had been busy eating her dinner, but now she joined them at the kitchen table, hopping up beside Lauren.
“Castern still hasn’t caught the pickpocket, despite his boasting that an arrest is imminent.” He frowned. “And I don’t think I’m getting any closer to catching Cee Cee’s killer.”
“I’m sorry.” She reached out and touched his hand.
“Thanks.” He gave her a small smile. “I’ve interviewed everyone who was close to Cee Cee – Thelma and Phil at the Gazette, and Phil’s wife Katherine who was friends with her. Thanks for giving me that tip about Cee Cee and Katherine poring over celebrity gossip in their college days, but it didn’t seem to lead anywhere, apart from Katherine thinking of Cee Cee for the gossip column. Since Cee Cee hadn’t been in town long, she didn’t appear to have made any new friends that we know of.”
“What that new real estate guy Bryce who came into the Gazette office after Zoe and I found Cee Cee?”
“I’ve looked into him. It could be seen as suspicious that two new people move into a small town around the same time and one of them ends up being murdered, but I can’t find any history between him and Cee Cee. He was able to account for his movements that morning as well.”
Lauren told him about the scrap of paper that Annie had found underneath her basket.
“I’ll grab it in the morning. It should be safe in the café overnight.”
She filled him in on the playdate that afternoon. He chuckled and shook his head at the trio’s antics.
“It sounds like you had a good time, Annie.” He looked at her fondly.
“Brrt.” I did. She yawned, a wide, big yawn that showed all of her pink tongue.
“Maybe Annie is giving us a hint.” Lauren rose and gathered the dishes.
“I’ll help.” Mitch scraped his chair back. “And then I thought we could watch some TV before going to bed.”