“Yeah, well, he said that’s pretty much science fiction at this point. We still need human operators to work as dispatchers and to field the incoming calls from the cats. Which means that Marge, Odelia or Gran have to drop everything and exclusively work for the Baker Street Cats from now on. And none of them are prepared to do that.”
“I’m not going to drop my job to work as a cat dispatcher,” said Odelia.
“Me neither,” said Gran. “So much as it pains me to say, I think your idea is dead in the water, Brutus.”
“My idea!” said Brutus. “This was all Harriet’s idea!”
“I think you’ll find that it was actually Gran’s idea,” said Harriet frostily.
And while they argued about whose idea it was to start this ill-conceived cat watch, I decided to have a little think, and put my thoughts in order. We were now working on two cases, and both of them were as yet unsolved. How is it possible that two people had died, and we still weren’t even close to finding out exactly what had happened?
Of course they were both very different cases, and nowhere near connected or even similar, but still—Hampton Cove isn’t a metropolis. It’s not a major town where murders happen on every street corner every minute of every day. When a murder does happen, it’s so rare and so shocking it still rallies the entire community and puts pressure on law enforcement to come up with answers, and to guarantee that the person or persons responsible are punished to the fullest extent of the law.
“You know,” said Scarlett, “you should stop fighting, you guys.”
“We’re not fighting,” said Gran as she gratefully accepted a cup of tea from Chase, who’d put on the kettle and had made everyone a nice cup of the hot beverage.
Marge and Tex had also joined us, and as the sun set, the whole family was seated around the table, enjoying a balmy night.
“I mean, just look at you,” said Scarlett.
They looked at each other, a little puzzled by her words.
“Look at who?” asked Marge.
“I think she means you,” said Tex.
“Who, me?”
“All of you!” said Scarlett.
“What’s your point, Scarlett?” asked Gran.
“You all have each other, a wonderful family, who all love and care for each other. Me? I don’t have anyone.”
“You have me,” Gran pointed out.
“You know what I mean, Vesta.”
We all knew what she meant. Scarlett had never married, and as a consequence didn’t have kids, or grandkids.
“You have many male… friends,” Marge pointed out carefully.
“Oh, please,” said Scarlett. “They don’t care a hoot about me, those male ‘friends’ of mine.”
“You know we love you, Scarlett,” said Odelia, as she gave Gran’s friend a smile. “And that you’re like family to us.”
“And I’m very grateful for that,” said Scarlett.
“Yeah, we love you, even though you’re lousy at speaking our cats’ language,” Gran grunted.
They all laughed, and Tex said,“Don’t listen to her, Scarlett. I don’t speak that language either.”
“Or me,” said Chase.
“And that’s fine,” Tex concluded.
“You know that I’ve always been jealous of you?” said Scarlett, turning to Gran.
“Jealous! Of me!”
“Sure. When I saw what you had, with your husband and your family.” She gave a little sigh. “Maybe that’s why Jack and I…”
She didn’t have to say more. “It’s fine,” said Gran, placing a hand on her friend’s arm. “That’s all in the past now.”
“I know—and I’m grateful that we put that all behind us.”
“You and me both,” said Gran.
Dooley was staring at me.“What’s wrong, Max?” he asked. “Why are you looking as if you’ve just seen a ghost?”
“Because I have, Dooley,” I said. “I think I’ve just seen the ghost of Josslyn Aldridge.”
“You have?” He glanced around. “Where?”
But it wasn’t the literal ghost of Josslyn I had seen, but the proverbial one.
And suddenly, and just like that, the whole puzzle fell into place. And I knew just what needed to be done to catch one very dangerous and extremely ruthless, calculating killer.
Chapter 28
We had returned to the Bonds, with Odelia and Chase deciding Todd’s parents deserved an update on the investigation. They didn’t want to tell the couple that the case had been closed, though, instead assuring them that the investigation was still ongoing, and that new elements had been recently discovered which made it look promising that a break in the casewas imminent.
“Right now we’re focusing our attention on the tablet computer your son owned, Mrs. Bond,” said Chase.
“Tablet? My son didn’t have a tablet,” said Rosa.
Once again we’d been invited into the Bonds’ cozy living room, and even though Rosa looked wan, she was bearing up bravely—especially in light of the big scene her daughter had created at Todd’s wake last night.
Aisha wasn’t with us—presumably she was upstairs in her room, moping.
“Oh, yes, he most certainly had one,” said Chase. “He got it from Scott. It was an old one that belonged to him, and since Scott’s parents decided to buy him a new one, he gave his old one to Todd.”
“He set it up to sync with his phone and his laptop,” Odelia explained, “which will allow us to finally be able to see all the messages he sent and received.”
“And the phone calls he made on that fatal night.”
“Where is it—this tablet?” asked Tilton, giving us a look of concern. He’d placed a supportive arm around his wife’s shoulder.
“We think we might have a line on that,” Chase said.
“So you haven’t found it yet?” asked Rosa.
“We haven’t. But we think we know who might have taken it.”
Rosa frowned.“I don’t understand…”
“Where is your daughter, Rosa?” asked Odelia abruptly.
“Upstairs in her room,” said Rosa. “Why?”
“Could you ask her to come down? We would like to ask her a couple of questions, if that’s all right with you.”
“Okay,” said Rosa, frowning. She got up and bellowed at the foot of the stairs, “Aisha! Come down a minute, will you?”
“I’m busy!” Aisha shouted back.
“It’s the police—they want to talk to you!”
There was much stomping of feet again as Aisha came down the stairs, her face a thundercloud.
“What?” she said, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Don’t talk to Odelia and Detective Kingsley like that,” her mother admonished her. “Now sit down and be polite.”
Aisha rolled her eyes in a perfectly practiced gesture, and plunked herself down on the couch.“What do you want?” she asked.
“Please try and take an interest, Aisha,” said Tilton. “It’s important.”
“I know, Tilton,” she said. “Todd was my brother, remember?”
“I do remember,” said Tilton, cutting a quick glance to Rosa, who shook her head.
“I’ll go and check on the baby,” she muttered, and hurried up the stairs.
“Aisha, we know about your brother’s tablet,” said Odelia.
Moments later, Rosa returned, carrying the baby.
“What tablet?” asked Aisha morosely.
“The tablet Todd got from Scott.”
“I don’t know about any tablet.”
“We talked to Scott, and he confirmed that he gave his old iPad to Todd last month. He even helped him set it up so that it synced with his phone and with his laptop.”
“So why are you asking me? If it was Scott’s tablet, you should ask him.”
“Aisha!” said Rosa.
“I’m sorry, Mom, but I don’t know anything about a tablet.”
“It wasn’t amongst his personal effects,” said Odelia, “and it wasn’t in his room, so do you have any idea where it might be?”
“No idea,” said Aisha immediately. “Now can I go? I have tons of homework to finish.”
“No, you don’t,” said Rosa. She turned to Odelia and gave her a look of apology. “We’ve been keeping her home from school ever since her brother…” She swallowed with difficulty, and her eyes were soon brimming with tears again.