I jumped out of the car before Charles even had time to put it fully in park. I caught up with the red-headed realtor on her porch step and yanked on her purse strap until she was finally forced to turn around and face me. “Where’s my cat, you…? You… You… Breanne!”
“Don’t touch me,” she snapped back, foisting her designer purse from my grip.
Oh, I wanted to do a whole lot more than touch her. I wasn’t really a slapper, but I would have happily ground her expensive, showy purse into the mud. I only held back due to the urgent need to get to my cat. Was he inside? Had Breanne had him this whole time? So many questions.
“Where is he?” I boomed, taking great satisfaction in how rattled my nemesis looked in that moment. If I kept pushing, she’d crack, easy. “Give him to me right now and nobody gets hurt.”
She took a step back and pressed herself against the door. “What are you talking about?” she ground out, looking at me as if I’d gone crazy even though all of this was most definitely her fault and not mine.
I took a step closer and got right in her face, so close I could smell her cloying perfume. Gross. “Don’t play dumb. I know it’s you who’s been slipping ransom notes under my door. We followed you here, too. Didn’t we, Charles?” I turned back toward my friend, who remained standing by his car, seemingly unable to speak.
“Let me in!” I screamed. “Let me in right now!”
But Breanne stood firm with both arms crossed over her chest. “No. Go away!”
Thankfully, Charles finally snapped out of whatever funk he was in and marched right over, then stepped around us and pushed the door open.
“How could you?” he asked his horrible, no-good girlfriend, but I didn’t stick around to hear her answer.
Once inside, I began to shout for my cat at the top of my lungs. But even after tearing through the entire house, I still couldn’t find him. “Octo-Cat! Octo-Cat! Are you here? Come out! It’s safe!”
When no answer came, I rounded on Breanne once more. “Where is he? Why did you take him? How could you?”
“I don’t have your stupid cat, and I don’t owe you anything,” she answered with a sniff and looked away, almost as if she might feel a little guilty. Yeah, right. I was most definitely not buying that.
“I think you owe me some answers, though,” Charles interjected. “Did you really steal Angie’s cat and send her threatening letters? Why would you do that?”
“You both need to calm down,” she muttered through clenched teeth. “I don’t have the cat. Okay?”
“Sorry. I’m not buying it. You delivered the letters. We caught you in the act,” I exploded.
Breanne narrowed her gaze, looking past Charles so she could focus all of her venom and hostility right on me. “Fine. I’ll admit it. That was me. But I’m not the one who wrote them.”
“Who did? Stop stalling, and tell me what you know,” I demanded. Why wouldn’t she just come out with it already? It’s not like either of us treasured spending time together, and this was serious.
Breanne shook her head. “I don’t know.” She took a step back when Charles stepped back so that we now stood side-by-side. Now we were united against her, and that seemed to break her. Apparently, she’d expected him to take her side in all this.
“How could you not know?” I couldn’t see Charles’s face as he spoke, but his disappointment came out loud and clear. “Why would you ever agree to be a part of this? And then to not get all the answers?” He cleared his throat before continuing. “I thought you were smarter than that, Bree. Kinder, too.”
“I didn’t,” I spat.
Breanne had never liked me, and I’d never liked her. I wasn’t surprised she’d want to hurt me, but it did startle me that she was involved in this terrible thing. Breanne had absolutely no link to Ethel Fulton’s estate, so why would she even get involved in the first place?
“It’s not a big deal,” Bree cried. “So, seriously, calm down. You know my income has been down ever since my brother was branded a murderer. So when an anonymous client turned up and promised me a big commission in my future plus a generous cash infusion now, how could I say no? It’s not like I’m hurting anyone. We were just trying to spook you out of that house of yours.”
“You threatened to kill my cat!” I shook with rage now that I had someone to blame but still had zero idea where my cat might be.
“No, I didn’t do that. I didn’t write the letters. And seriously, who would kill a cat? That’s taking things a little too far.” She seemed to be losing steam by the minute but still wouldn’t admit she’d done a single thing wrong.
“But extortion is just fine,” Charles grumbled as he narrowed his eyes at Breanne. “Really, Bree. I thought I knew you.”
“You do know me, which is why I thought you’d understand,” she pleaded. “You know how hard things have been lately.”
“But you’re working through that,” he argued. “Honest work. Not blackmail and threats.” Despite my anger, it struck me as a bit funny that Charles was berating his girlfriend for blackmailing me when he’d done the same thing to get my help on a difficult case. Granted, he never would have actually hurt me. Breanne, on the other hand…
“No,” she insisted. “I’m trying to, but not succeeding. And you know why? Everyone thinks my brother’s this monster, even after he was acquitted, and it’s all her fault.” She raised a shaky finger toward me. If looks could kill…
Charles put his hand on my shoulder. “She helped me get him acquitted. How have you conveniently forgotten that little part of the story?”
Breanne shrugged. “Her mother, though. That news anchor woman. She’s the one who convinced all of Blueberry Bay that Brock was guilty, and even after he was proven innocent, they’ve had a hard time changing their minds. Oh, and don’t think I’ve missed the fact that you’re trying to steal my boyfriend right out from under my nose.”
“Jeez, what is wrong with you?” Charles yelled. “Angie and I are just friends. And that doesn’t even really matter anyway, because you and I are officially through.”
“Charles, baby. Don’t be like that,” Bree begged, approaching him with hands raised in supplication.
He turned from her and strode toward the front door. “I’ll wait for you in the car,” he informed me before disappearing outside.
“Do you really not know who was sending the letters?” I asked gently. As much as I hated Breanne, she had just been dumped and seemed pretty upset by it. Besides, yelling at her wasn’t getting any of the answers I needed, but maybe a bit of kindness would.
“I really don’t know,” she said with a sniff. “Now please… Just… Just go away.”
I studied her for a moment before finally turning away and following Charles outside. I found him behind the wheel of his car with this head down and tears spilling down both cheeks. “Are you okay?”
He sat up straighter and cleared his throat. “I should have known better. I’ve been so stupid.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, because it seemed like the best response given the situation. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Honestly,” he said, pulling the car back out of the driveway. “I kind of want to forget it ever happened. I can’t believe I wasted so many months of my life on her.”
I found myself torn between wanting to be a good friend to Charles and wanting to scream I told you so from the top of my lungs. I’d always known Breanne was a bad egg, but I’d never known just how rotten she’d become, never would have suspected she’d go to such drastic lengths to make my life miserable.
“I’m so sorry she did this to you,” he said, keeping his eyes glued firmly to the road ahead. “I wanted to find Octo-Cat before, but now it feels like it’s my duty, like somehow this is partially my fault. I know I’m a big part of the reason she hates you, and it’s up to me to make things right.”
“Charles, none of this is your fault.”
“It feels that way, though.”
I put a conciliatory hand on his forearm. “I accept your help, but not because you owe me anything. Thank you for being such a good friend.”
We drove back to my house in utter silence. Had Charles meant it when he told Breanne we were only friends? Or had he also been harboring a secret crush on me all these months?
I pushed these questions from my already overcluttered brain. Only one question mattered now, and it needed all our focus…
Where was Octo-Cat?