“So, she wants to continue saving the whales through her scholarship fund,” I summarized with a dreamy smile. “That’s beautiful.”
Another knock sounded at the front door, this one fast and light.
“Coming!” I yelled, jumping to my feet then squealing with happiness when I saw Nan through the stained glass.
“Okay, I’m here,” she said as she stepped inside. She was wearing bright green galoshes and leggings patterned with rainbows. Up top, she wore an old T-shirt that had lost much of its original color from having gone through so many wash cycles. “Now catch me up on these riddle-speaking cats.”
I turned toward Matt and made a funny face. “It’s this book we’re reading together,” I explained quickly. Books really made the best excuses because few people would ask follow-up questions. It was sad but convenient nonetheless. “Anyway, this is my nan. Nan, this is Matt. Senator Harlow was his mother.”
“Oh, you poor dear,” Nan said, rushing over to sit beside him and pressing the back of her hand against his forehead. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Matt answered, though it sounded more like a question.
“I voted for your dear mama each and every time,” Nan announced proudly. “They didn’t come any better than her.”
Matt raised his mug. “I’ll drink to that.”
I returned to my spot in the wingback chair across from them. “Matt was just telling me a bit more about his mom’s legacy. Also, I’ve volunteered to watch the senator’s cats while Matt gets the rest of the estate sorted out.”
“One can never have too many opinions or too many cats,” Nan said with a nod and a chuckle. Neither of these seemed true to me, but I let it pass.
Matt took another long drink of tea, then set his empty cup back on the coffee table. “I should probably be going,” he said, rising to a stand. “Thank you again for the hospitality and the kind words about my mom.”
Nan stood, too, and gave him a warm hug. She looked so tiny wrapped around his big, bear-like form. Even so, I could tell he appreciated the gesture.
After Nan let him go, I got up and followed Matt to the door. “Let me know when you want me to come by for the cats,” I said as we lingered at the doorway.
“Oh, right,” he said in a way that suggested he’d already forgotten—or was pretending to have forgotten after Octo-Cat’s little hissy fit from earlier. “Are you sure it isn’t too much of an imposition?”
“I’m sure,” I said, perhaps too quickly. The truth was I needed those cats. They held the key to busting this murder mystery wide open, and I really wanted to know what they would say. “In fact, maybe I should just come with you now? Give them some time to settle in before nightfall.”
I couldn’t risk him changing his mind, and now that I had Nan here, she could help keep Octo-Cat in a good enough mood to actually be useful. Even though I was supposedly his best friend, he clearly preferred her company to mine. I tried not to let that hurt my feelings.
Matt’s brows pinched together as he studied me. “Are you sure you’re sure?”
“The more, the merrier!” Nan said, slinging an arm around each of our waists and pulling us closer. “Now let’s go get our guests.”
Matt didn’t say anything more as the three of us exited onto the porch. I searched around but didn’t see any extra vehicles—other than Nan’s souped up sports coupe—which meant Matt must have chosen to walk through the woods to pay me a visit.
And, even though he’d been a perfectly lovely companion for afternoon tea, this realization did not sit well with me. If he felt comfortable traipsing through the woods after our mutual scare last night, might he be willing to come through them again by the cloak of night?
Maybe I wasn’t as safe as I’d hoped after all.
Chapter Thirteen
At the Harlow manor, Matt begged off to take a call, leaving Nana and me to locate and load up the two Sphynx cats. Despite our best efforts to be quick, it still took nearly an hour for us to find Jacques and Jillianne, catch them, and then get them back to my house. Apparently they were every bit as adept at hiding as they were at telling riddles. So that we wouldn’t risk them slinking off again, Nan and I carried them straight up to the room I had dubbed my future library and closed the door tightly before letting them out of their carriers.
I’d also brought Octo-Cat in to join us, and I had the fresh scratches to prove how very not thrilled he was to be there.
“I object!” he cried, hurling himself at the closed door in protest.
“Oh, hush, or I’ll give you something to object about.” I had no idea what that might be, but luckily my mostly empty threat worked.
“C’mere, my sweet kitty!” Nan cooed, tapping her fingers on the hardwood floor where we both sat with our legs crossed.
Octo-Cat hated being called kitty but he loved Nan, so he traipsed over and climbed into her lap. She immediately fussed over him and began to scratch that special spot right beneath his chin. I could see the rage melt right out of him. Thank goodness.
“Let’s make this quick,” he said, eyeing me with obvious disappointment. Luckily I was used to his theatrics and his disappointment, so this didn’t thwart my plans in the least.
The two Sphynx cats had retreated to the far corner of the room and sat shivering near the central cooling vent. They looked so miserable that I almost felt bad confining them here. Still, they had intel that we needed, and they were the ones who’d chosen to sit right beside the cold air pouring into the room.
The little one let out a croaky meow, and Octo-Cat sighed. Like he’d suggested, I’d do my best to make this as quick and painless as possible. If not for him, then at least for our two visitors.
“Let’s go,” Nan said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “I can’t wait to solve some riddles.” I’d already told her everything she needed to know on the phone that morning, and now she was primed and ready to see some action.
“Okay.” I focused my gaze on Octo-Cat, who did not return the eye contact. “Octo-Cat,” I said again to get his attention. “If you want this to be quick, you have to pay attention.”
He turned toward me with ears back and tail poofed. “Fine. What do you want me to ask the two hairless wonders?”
“Ask them who killed their owner,” I said with the same impatient attitude I’d perfected as a teen.
Nan giggled gleefully, and Octo-Cat remained seated on her lap as he shouted toward the Sphynxes.
They remained in their dark corner, almost as if they’d been glued there. It took much longer for his back and forth with them than it had with our former terrier witness, and I’ll admit I started to get a bit bored as the minutes passed by without any further answers.
Then, suddenly, Octo-Cat snapped his eyes toward mine, his whiskers twitched, and he did not look happy. “I knew it!” he cried. “You thought I was being breedist or whatever, but my first instincts were absolutely right.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, rubbing my hands on my legs to awaken the sleepy nerve endings.
Nan glanced down at Octo-Cat with the dearest admiration as he revealed, “They killed the senator.”
“Oh, c’mon!” I shouted. Was he really coming back to me with this?
He remained steadfast in his insistence of their guilt. “No, really. They just admitted it.”
“Yeah? Then tell me what they said,” I demanded, wishing I didn’t have to rely on him to be my translator when there was a clear bias at play here.
“It would be a whole lot easier if you’d just take me at my word, you know? But fine.” He sighed then recited back their latest riddle. “‘Excuse us while we provide this breakthrough, for the guilt lies with the ones you see before you.’”