He rummaged around, trying to push the hangers to one side, but there just wasn’t room. I kept my feather duster at the ready, just in case.
“Okay, all right, that’s where it is,” he said.
“Are we talking alive it or dead it?” I asked.
Glenn pulled his head out of the closet.
“Neither,” he said. He pointed to the ceiling. “I found a hole from the attic. I’m going to have to go up there.”
“That’s probably how whatever that was that Elvis caught got in here.”
Glenn ran his hands back over his hair. “There’s no way Beth and I can get this place straightened out in a week.” He blew out a long breath. “Were you serious about what you said before? That you could sell some of this stuff at Second Chance?”
I struck a Statue of Liberty–style pose with the feather duster. “Don’t I look serious?” I asked.
That made him laugh. I set the duster back on the night table. “We can do pretty much whatever will work for you. You can bring things to the shop and we’ll get them ready and sell them for you. We can come out here and pick things up. We can even take over the cleanup. Talk to your cousin. And talk to Clayton. Then let me know what you need.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I owe you.”
“No, you don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “You let your business be used for a sting, for heaven’s sake. I still owe you.”
“Hey, that was the most excitement I’d had on a Tuesday afternoon in years.”
“You need to get out more,” I said.
He laughed. Then his expression grew serious. “I mean it, Sarah, I appreciate this.”
Glenn went downstairs and came back with a box of steel wool. He jammed about half the package into the hole in the closet ceiling. “That’s going to have to do for now. I’ll come back tonight and do something a bit more permanent.”
We found Elvis out on the back stoop with Clayton McNamara. The cat was licking his whiskers. He smelled like fish.
“I hope you don’t mind, Sarah,” Clayton said. “I gave him a couple of sardines.”
Elvis looked at me, seemingly daring me to say that had been a bad idea.
“I don’t mind,” I said, picking up the cat. “I think he earned them.
Glenn looked around. “Where is the—?”
“Evidence?” his uncle said dryly. “Don’t worry. I took care of that.”
“There’s a hole in the ceiling of the closet in that room,” Glenn said. “I stuck some steel wool in there for now, but I’ll be back after supper to fix it properly.”
“I appreciate that,” Clayton said. He turned to me. “And it was very good to meet you and Elvis.”
I smiled at him. “It was nice to meet you, too.”
Glenn and I walked back to our vehicles.
“Glenn, are you sure it was yesterday morning that you saw Jeff Cameron?” I asked as we stood next to my SUV.
“I’m positive,” he said. “Beth got here on Wednesday, and since Clayton gets up at the crack of dawn, I said I’d come out for breakfast and see what we could work out for a plan of attack.” He pulled the keys to his truck out of his pocket. “Like I said, I recognized the Jeep, and it was definitely a man driving. I’m pretty sure it was Cameron.” He narrowed his blue eyes. “Is it important?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. It wouldn’t hurt to mention it to Michelle.”
Glenn shrugged. “Sure.”
I unlocked the door of the SUV and set Elvis on the seat.
“If you’re not in a hurry, why don’t you follow me back to the shop?” Glenn said. “After all this, you at least have to let me give you half a dozen of those chocolate cupcakes with the mocha frosting you like.”
“There’s no way I’m going to say no to your cupcakes,” I said.
I slid behind the wheel. Elvis had settled himself in his usual spot on the passenger side. He looked at me and yawned. “Tiring work,” I said.
“Mrr,” he said in agreement.
“You did a good job,” I told him as we started for the sandwich shop. “What do you say? If Glenn ends up hiring us to clear some of the things out of that house, are you willing to go back for another safari?”
He looked up at me and licked his whiskers. I took that as a yes.
Chapter 13
There was very little traffic on the way to the sandwich shop. I’d already decided I was going to get another big cup of coffee to go along with my cupcakes. As usual Elvis was watching the road intently. We both saw the moving van blocking the street at the same time, which was, unfortunately a little too late to take a different direction.
I looked in the rearview mirror. There were three cars behind me. “It’s just backing up,” I told the cat. “It shouldn’t take long.”
There was just enough space in the alley for the truck to back up. I watched how skillfully the driver used his mirrors as he inched his way back. Glenn had taken a different route, and up ahead I saw him pulling into his parking lot. And then I caught sight of Liz. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of McNamara’s with . . . Michelle? As I watched, Liz gave her a hug. Michelle crossed the street and Liz got in her car, which was parked right in front of the shop.
“What were they doing?” I said to Elvis.
He gave me a blank look.
“Please tell me Liz isn’t trying to get information out of Michelle.”
The cat almost seemed to shrug. I tipped my head back and looked at the roof of the car. There were no answers up there, either.
Glenn sent me back to my own shop with a large cup of coffee and six of his chocolate mocha cupcakes—which became five very quickly.
I was in my office changing my shoes when Rose poked her head around the door. “Sarah, do you have a minute?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said. “What is it?”
“Did you know Cleveland has a younger sister?”
“Our Cleveland?” I asked. I’d been buying from the trash picker since Second Chance opened.
She nodded. “Actually he has three younger sisters and four younger brothers, all half-siblings. Cleveland’s father was not the poster child for monogamy.”
“Duly noted,” I said. “Why is Cleveland’s sister important?”
“Because she goes to Cahill College.” Rose gave me a knowing smile. “I won’t bore you with all the details about Logan’s friends—that’s Cleveland’s sister’s name, Logan. Lovely young woman, by the way.”
“Is this the reason you didn’t come to the library?”
“I was waiting for one of them to call me back.”
“And?” I nudged.
“And it seems that Chloe Sanders was what we would have called a teacher’s pet in my day, although that’s not the expression Logan used.”
I had a pretty good idea what expression Cleveland’s sister had used. “Dr. Durand,” I said.
She nodded. “It appears that Chloe was an excellent student. She even did a couple of projects for extra credit.” Rose twisted the thin gold wedding ring she still wore around her finger. “Unfortunately that kind of thing doesn’t always make you very popular with your fellow students.”
“What does this have to do with Jeff Cameron?”
“It seems that when he was giving that lecture at Cahill, he said he was planning on hiring an assistant for the summer. Two of Logan’s friends said that Chloe really wanted that job. She called it her big chance.”
I rubbed the side of my neck. “Big chance for what?”
“I’m still working on that,” Rose said. “I just wanted to keep you in the loop.”
“I appreciate that,” I said. “Before you go, Glenn told me something that may or may not be important.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “What did he say?”
“That he saw Jeff Cameron early Thursday morning.”
She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. “More evidence that he faked his death.”