Fat Cat Takes The Cake

“That’s about it. Ron’s notes say ‘less than half their value’— his words.”

Chase needed to get over there and ask Ms. Bjorn’s next-door neighbor, Professor Fear, if he had gotten an offer from one of them. “So the short guy, Langton Hail, is on the school board and is a developer?”

“Appears that way.”

“I wonder if Mr. Snelson is really going to quit his job as principal.”

“He’s been there forever,” Julie said. “I’m sure sorry I took on the pro bono, though. The news is starting to report things about the apartment complex. No names yet, but that there are definitely shady dealings. The people at work are giving me dirty looks, like I’m part of that.”

“That’s not fair. Can you tell them that you’re not involved in the land deal?”

“I’ve tried. Some of them don’t believe me. I’m new there and they don’t know me. There’s been some innuendo in a newspaper column. I never read it, but one of our secretaries mentioned that to me. And this is without Ron North writing about it. I’ll be glad to get all of this over with.”

After the call ended, Chase studied her pages of Ron’s notebook, reconsidering the coded sections. Principal and developer, doing dirty deeds. Eminently blackmailable.

There—she had it! PRINCE was the principal, so PHOTO was the developer. These were the two who both had amounts by their names. Rather large amounts, in fact. They must have been paying Ron not to print the real estate story. A real estate scam and embezzlement from two prominent school board members. Wow. Was the J there because he was planning to try to blackmail Julie, too?

Ron hadn’t gotten any money from BIRD, but Chase would bet that was Dickie Byrd, and that it would only have been a matter of time before he had been forced to hand some cash over to Ron. Julie had seen Snelson hand something to Ron at the reunion, but Hail hadn’t paid that night. Sure enough, there was one more entry for Snelson than for Hail. So was he blackmailing Snelson also for the school board funds and not Hail? Did Snelson have twice the motive to murder Ron?

She had figured out the parts in blue ink. She nuzzled Quincy’s head with her nose. “I did it, Quince.” Except for the J that was lightly penciled into the blackmail section.

It was too late to call Julie back. She turned her attention to the pink entries. What she thought of as the Stalking Section. She was pretty sure that M was Monique and J was Julie. But there was also a D. Whoever that was.

The next morning, Anna was dragging. “Too many late nights for me,” she said to Chase as they put out the dessert bars for the day. “I’ll be so glad when the Batter Battle is over.”

“You will be.” Chase gave her a smile. “Because you’re going to win it.”

Anna sighed. “I sure hope I can at least hold my own against that nasty Grace Pilsen. I’d like to know what her entry is.”

“What good would that do you?”

“Then I’d know if I need to be concerned about losing or not.”

“I suppose.” Chase was doubtful that would be any help. And it didn’t matter, since there was no way to find out what Grace’s recipe was.

She waited until midmorning to ask Anna if she thought it would be okay to take lunch out. Her hope was that they would be too busy and she’d have to call Eddie and cancel. No such luck. For once, the doldrums hit the salesroom and stayed all morning.

“Go ahead,” Anna said. “I baked some extra last night since I was here, so I can help with sales if they pick up. Are you doing something exciting? Seeing Mike?”

“No, meeting a high school friend.”

“It’s that Eddie person again, isn’t it? The man who doesn’t like our products.”

“Well, yes. I think he might have some information that would help Julie.”

Anna gave her a sideways glance. “That would be good.” She suspected there was something more, Chase was sure. That woman had Chase’s number, and good instincts.

Chase was able to steer Eddie to a lunch place that was a step up from fast food, but definitely not vegan. She told him she didn’t have enough time to go to his own health bar. He was disappointed.

“You know how it is when you own your own business,” she said. “I can’t be away for too long in the middle of the day.”

“What days are you closed?”

Uh-oh. She’d laid a trap for herself. “We close on Mondays and Tuesdays, usually.”

“I’ll have to pick you up one of those days, then, and take you to the Health from the Heath Bar. You’ll love it.”

Chase gave him what she hoped was an enigmatic smile. That was better than sticking her finger in her mouth with her tongue out.

“We can walk to this place today.” Chase headed up the street to the Meet N Eat, which was only a few blocks away.

“It’s pretty cold out. You sure you don’t want me to drive there?”

Chase paused and took in the clear, crisp sunshine, the dark blue sky, and the merest hint of a breeze. “It’s a beautiful day. It would be healthier to walk.”

She had him there. Chase had to admit, though, that her cheeks were numb and her eyes watering by the time they reached their destination. Eddie was right. It was cold out.