Nobody said anything for a moment, and then the back door to our RV swung open.
I stayed where I was in that big bucket seat, mostly because I didn’t want to get caught eavesdropping.
“Thanks, Officer Lenard,” Charles said, his deep voice filling the space.
“You don’t look like the aggravated assault type,” she said kindly. “But just because I don’t believe you committed this murder doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Understood. How can I help?”
The squeaking of leather signaled that they had slid into the booth.
“Walk me through your day,” Lenard instructed after taking a moment to get settled. “Take extra care to mention any contact you had with the deceased.”
“Well, this morning I woke up early to get some work in before picking up the camper, picking up my girlfriend, and hitting the road.”
“Fast-forward to your arrival, please.” Lenard would have made a good lawyer if she hadn’t chosen to pursue law enforcement instead. She and Charles had the exact same way of being assertive while also remaining kind and professional.
“It was about a three-hour drive,” he explained. “We arrived a little before two. I went to check in with the camp manager before taking my girlfriend to a picnic area a short walk away.”
“You checked in with the camp manager? Tell me more about that.”
“There’s not much to tell. She came to the door when I knocked, but didn’t invite me in. When I told her who I was so she could confirm my appointment, she asked me to wait and went back inside. She emerged a couple minutes later with a big logbook in hand and marked off my name. She said to stop on by if I needed anything during my stay, and that was it.”
“Did you notice anything unusual during your interaction with her?” Officer Le-nard pressed, her voice smooth and practiced. She’d likely questioned witnesses hundreds of times before. I imagined her as an older lady. Maybe a few years off from retirement, if she played her cards right.
“Just that she seemed distracted,” Charles said. “But since I’d never met her be-fore, I couldn’t speak to whether or not that was normal behavior on her part.”
“Understood, understood.” They sat in silence for a few beats before Lenard spoke again. “So just to confirm, it was about two o’clock when you went to check in?”
“Yes.”
“And your girlfriend discovered the body. What time was that?”
“Well, we left a few minutes after I checked in and walked about fifteen minutes to the picnic area. All the tables there were filled so we walked another five. We sat and relaxed for close to half an hour and then walked back. As soon as we arrived back at the campground, my girlfriend went to speak with the manager. I’d say that puts us at about three thirty this afternoon.”
“Which gives us an hour and a half window for the death,” Officer Lenard supplied. “What made your girlfriend so eager to check in, if you’d already done so?”
Oh, no. That question would have totally made me freeze up. If Charles explained what we’d really been doing—making business deals with bears—he’d instantly move up the suspect list.
“We thought we heard fireworks while we were out there,” he explained, then stopped and sighed. “As an animal lover, she was quite distressed to think that something like that could be happening in a protected nature park.”
Charles’s reply came out so smooth and convincing that even I believed it. Well, the best lies were based on truth, and this was as close as we could come to sharing the conversation I’d had with Gloria at Pringle’s behest.
“Are you certain you…?” I didn’t hear the rest of the officer’s response because something else caught my focus.
Pringle.
Straight ahead on the roof of the camper parked in front of us. But before I could say or do anything, he dropped through the vent and disappeared from view.
Oh, he’d be in big trouble once I caught up to him!
Chapter Fourteen
I opened the passenger side door just as quietly as I could and slipped outside while Charles and Officer Lenard continued to converse inside.
I crept over to the RV where I’d seen Pringle sneaking about on the roof, all the while trying to figure out what I would say to explain myself to whoever was inside.
But when I knocked, nobody answered—an unfortunate theme of the day.
“Pringle!” I whisper-yelled. “Pringle! I know you’re in there!”
“I think I have some Pringles back at mine if you’ve got a craving,” Sharon yelled from somewhere behind me.
I jumped and did an about-face.“Oh, Sharon. Hi, again!” I cried, wiggling my fingers in her direction. “I was just searching for my cat.”
She squinted at me in confusion.“I thought his name was Octo-Cat?”
“Oh, yes. Yes, it is. Pringle is his middle name. Well, one of them, anyway. His full name is Octavius Pringle Maxwell Ricardo Edmund Frederick Fulton Russo, Esq, P.I. See, that’s why I had to shorten it. He comes to all the names, though, and since I haven’t seen him for a while, I’m running through the list.” I let out a nervous laugh. She was going to see right through me on this one.
But I got lucky.
“Tubby Tabby is missing?” Sharon shrieked, fanning herself with one hand. “Well, why didn’t you come and get me straight away? Of course, I’ll help you look for him. Tell you what, you just come with me.”
When I hesitated, she motioned me forward, saying“C’mon now. C’mon.”
I shot one last look at the camper containing Pringle, then dawdled after her like a lost baby duckling.
“Now, normally I wouldn’t offer up anything on my Chessy’s behalf, but I like you and I have a feeling he will, too.” She stopped outside her RV and waited for me to catch up. “Yes, that’s right. C’mon inside.”
Somewhat reluctantly, I followed Sharon into her camper, which stood parked somewhere between the camp manager’s and the one that Charles and I had rented for the weekend.
And if Junetta’s RV had been straight out of a 1980’s fever dream, Sharon’s was a futuristic space-scape. Everything inside was pristine and white and adorned with polished chrome accents. None of it had sharp edges. Instead, everything flowed seamlessly from one piece into the next. On the sleek leather sofa sat an all-white cat with extra-long hair and stunning blue eyes.
Sharon waddled right over to him and tugged him into her arms.“Oh my sweet, sweet Chessy baby,” she cooed.
“This place is amazing,” I said on the wings of an exhale, still taking stock of the luxury camper and all its amenities. One of the walls sported an enormous TV, which was tuned in to the nature channel.
“Oh, this? It’s Chester’s world. I’m just lucky to live in it,” Sharon prattled on.
I reached out to let the cat sniff my hand, and he instantly began to purr. Wow, she even had the luxury cat model. Octo-Cat never treated me with such kindness, not even when he was at his happiest.
“I do mean that literally by the way,” Sharon confided. When she shook her head, her pink cheeks jiggled. “Chester has all kinds of fe-fans on the social media. That’s feline fans for the uninitiated. Now, when I started posting photos of our camping adventures, one of those Hollywood types reached out to us via private message. One thing led to another, and now Chessy and I are going to be on reality TV. Filming starts this summer. They sent us this new house on wheels so we had time to get used to it before the show starts.”
Wow, there was a lot to unpack there.
First off, why hadn’t she led with this information? I’d have found her a lot more interesting if she had. After all, she was the first person I’d met—other than me—whose cat paid all the bills.
“Chester is such a talented kitty boy. Aren’t you?” she continued to coo as she fawned over her feline life partner.