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“The killer was in my car,” Imogene said, pacing around Kat’s living room. “A murderer was inside my car.”
“Technically, the killer probably wasn’t actually in your car,” Kat said. “He or she likely just opened the door and dropped the trowel there.”
Imogene glowered at her. “Is that supposed to cheer me up?”
From his perch on the cat tree, Tom watched the humans with curious green eyes. Every time Imogene passed the brown-and-black cat during one of her laps, he took a swipe at her ponytail.
But Imogene was too preoccupied to pay any attention to Tom’s antics. Besides the cursory pat she had given him when she and Kat had entered the apartment, she hadn’t acknowledged the feline at all. It wasn’t like Imogene to ignore an animal, but then again, it wasn’t every day the woman found a murder weapon planted in her car.
“Somebody is framing me,” Imogene said.
Kat didn’t reply. She could think of nothing comforting to say. Unfortunately, she was coming to the same conclusion.
Tom chirruped and scrambled down from the cat tree. He caught up with Imogene on one of her laps and sat down directly in her path.
Imogene paused with her foot in midair. “Goodness gracious, I almost stepped on you, Tom.”
Tom meowed and proceeded to rub against Imogene’s shoe, clearly pleased to finally have her attention, even if he had almost been squashed in the process.
Imogene scooped up the cat and planted a kiss on his head. “Oh, to have your life, Tom. I bet you’ve never been accused of murder.”
Kat sat down on the couch next to Matty and fingered the tortoiseshell’s soft fur. Matty was the only one present who didn’t appear troubled by Imogene’s plight. No way was she going to let a silly human problem like the possibility of someone being wrongfully jailed for murder disturb her beauty rest.
“Chief Kenny and Andrew know you didn’t kill anyone, Imogene,” Kat said. “And they have the trowel now. If there are any fingerprints on it, they’ll find them.”
Imogene grumbled something that was unintelligible to Kat but prompted Tom to rub the top of his head against her chin.
“Even Tom knows you’re not a killer,” Kat said. “He wouldn’t be letting you manhandle him otherwise.” That wasn’t entirely true, as Tom had cuddled up to dangerous criminals before, but Imogene looked so forlorn that Kat felt obligated to say something.
Imogene hugged Tom closer. “This one is definitely a love bug. Have you noticed that male cats seem to be more affectionate than females?”
“Really?” Kat had never thought about it before, but it certainly seemed true when comparing Matty and Tom.
“Don’t ask me why. I don’t even know if there’s any scientific basis for it, that just seems to be my experience.” Imogene frowned. “Oh, listen to me blubbering on. I should go home and let you get some rest, but the thought of some hoodlum, some killer, violating my personal space . . .”
“Stay as long as you’d like,” Kat said. “I don’t think I’ll sleep tonight anyway, not after everything that’s happened.”
Imogene offered her a tremulous smile. “You’re a dear, Kat. I’m so glad you moved back to Cherry Hills.”
Tears sprang to Kat’s eyes. It was hard to believe now how adamantly she’d sworn to never return to her childhood hometown after she’d left sixteen years ago. When she had first moved back over the summer, she had been worried her unpleasant memories of growing up in foster care would make it impossible for her to truly enjoy being back. But what she had found instead was a home—and some of the best friends she could ever ask for.
Kat glanced at Imogene, one of the first people to welcome her back to town with open arms. She recalled how her friend had looked when she realized Chief Kenny considered her to be a person of interest, and when she had been the subject of Melburn’s gushing thanks for killing his neighbor, and when she had first spotted that bloody garden trowel in her car. Kat couldn’t just stand idly by now and watch as someone targeted her friend.
She hopped off the couch. “You know what we should do?”
The sudden movement caused Matty to adopt a fighting pose. Her tail cut from right to left until she realized there was no imminent threat present and settled down again.
“What’s that?” Imogene asked.
“We should conduct our own homicide investigation. The sooner we find out who killed Lenora, the sooner our lives can return to normal.”
Imogene’s face brightened. “What an absolutely fantastic idea.”
Unfortunately, Kat didn’t think the police would agree. In fact, they were more likely to berate her for meddling in their investigation. But Andrew and Chief Kenny would just have to deal with it.
Imogene set Tom on the carpet and bustled into the kitchen. “We can make a list of suspects, complete with motives and opportunities.”
Kat plucked a pen off the coffee table and sat down at the kitchen table. “We’ll start with her neighbors.”
“Perfect.” Imogene snatched a piece of junk mail out of the recycle bin before dropping into the chair next to Kat’s. She grabbed the pen and started writing. “Melburn Duncan is going on the top of my list. Not only is that man insane, but he had the audacity to suggest I did it. It seems only fair I accuse him right back. This,” she said, underlining Melburn’s name three times, “is payback.”
Kat frowned. She didn’t like the idea of organizing their suspect list based on who they wanted to stick it to the most. Then again, did it really matter whose name they listed first?
Tom ambled over to them. After balancing on his hind feet to get a good look at the tabletop, he launched himself into the air, landing right on top of their suspect list. He planted his butt on Melburn’s name, looking immensely pleased with himself.
Kat pulled him into her lap. The big cat laid down and began kneading her jeans with his front paws. Before long the sound of his purring filled the room.
“We can’t discount Audrey Duncan either,” Kat said, getting back to the matter at hand.
Imogene tapped her pen on the tabletop. “But Audrey seemed so pleasant, the complete opposite of her husband. I can’t imagine her killing someone, even a person as odious as Lenora.”
“Even so, that cherry blossom tree obviously created a lot of ill will between Lenora and the Duncans.”
“I suppose.” Imogene heaved a sigh before adding Audrey to her list.
“And then there’s Veronica,” Kat said.
Imogene looked even more dejected as she jotted down her friend’s name.
“I ran into another neighbor while you were talking to Chief Kenny, too,” Kat went on.
“Who?”
“Her name is Kylie. She has a little terrier mix.”
“Oh, yes, Kylie. Sweet girl. Her house is the one on the other side of Veronica’s. Actually, it’s her parents’ house. Her mother is a good friend of mine.”
“So she lives with her parents? Maybe we should add them to our list too.”
Imogene shook her head. “They’re in Europe at the moment. They haven’t been in Washington for months.”
“Well, Kylie should go on the list, anyway. Apparently Lenora had a problem with her loud parties and barking dog.”
Imogene scrunched up her nose. “You think Kylie would kill her over that?”
Kat lifted one shoulder. “It’s enough to merit looking at her as a suspect, don’t you think?”
“I guess.” Imogene started writing again.
“You can put her boyfriend Shaun down, too. He could have offed Lenora on Kylie’s behalf.”
“Good. Good.” Imogene scribbled furiously.
“Say, Imogene, you didn’t happen to notice if Lenora was wearing any jewelry tonight, did you?”
Imogene thought for a moment then shook her head. “Nothing in particular sticks out in my mind, but I didn’t really look either. Why?”
“Kylie said Lenora was wealthy and often wore a lot of expensive gold jewelry. It’s possible whoever killed her only did so to steal her valuables.”
“‘Random thief.’ I’ll add that to the list.”
“And we can’t forget Lenora’s sister. If Kylie’s right about Lenora being rich, the sister could very well have killed her with the expectation that she would inherit.”
Imogene set down her pen. “Except Ronnie said the sister lives on the East Coast.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s not in town right now.”
“I don’t know. It seems odd that Ronnie wouldn’t have seen the sister next door. Besides, even if she is here, why would she frame me? I don’t even know her.”
“She might have seen you two arguing earlier and thought you’d make a good scapegoat.”
Imogene’s lips puckered. “I suppose it’s possible.”
“Right now, anything’s possible.” And Kat was getting too tired to think clearly. “How many suspects do we have now?”
“Seven if you include our random thief, which I guess could be anyone.”
Kat scanned down the list. “And as far as we know everyone on there had both motive and opportunity.”
“Which means this case might just come down to forensic evidence.”
“Let’s hope the police are able to lift some fingerprints off that trowel.” But even as Kat said the words she could feel her spirits sinking. If someone had been intent enough to frame Imogene, it seemed unlikely they would be so sloppy as to leave their prints on the weapon.
Still, Kat thought, resting her hands on Tom as he continued his rhythmic kneading, perhaps they didn’t need fingerprints for that trowel to lead somewhere. If she could figure out who it belonged to, she might just know who killed Lenora. At the very least, they could pare down their suspect list to only those people with access to where it was kept.
Kat made a mental note to swing by Lenora’s neighborhood after work tomorrow. If that trowel belonged to one of the neighbors, she was determined to find out whose it was.
