Fat Cat Takes The Cake

The pudgy tabby was enjoying himself immensely. He didn’t usually get this much time in the kitchen in the morning. Normally, his feeder person let him downstairs, then herded him into the office straightaway. While she lingered upstairs on the phone, though, the older woman was content to let him wander the room, trolling for tidbits that hadn’t been mopped up the night before. If they were there, he couldn’t find them. Too soon, the feeding woman came downstairs and shut him into the office. He checked to make sure the paper he’d hidden was still under the desk. This room was never cleaned nearly as thoroughly as the kitchen. Otherwise, it wouldn’t still be sitting there, right where he had stuffed it.

“How was your date last night?” Anna asked, as soon as Chase took care of corralling Quincy and came to help get the day started.

“Very nice.”

“I can tell from your smile.” Anna set up a racket getting out the metal baking pans.

Chase cocked her head, recalling part of her conversation with Mike. “He said that Mrs. Snelson is one of his new customers.”

“That’s our principal’s wife? Our principal who wants to do real estate scams?”

“Yes, indeed. And he was most likely being blackmailed for that. Even so, maybe he didn’t kill Ron North. He and the little guy he was with spent the night at Snelson’s house. What about Dickie Byrd? He might be a better suspect. I doubt he’ll get elected. If even I have seen him with another woman, I’ll bet a lot of other people have, too. In fact, Ron North was probably planning on blackmailing him.” She was recalling the “BIRD” on the blackmail book. It didn’t have a dollar amount next to it, but surely it would have if Ron had lived longer.

Mallory and Inger arrived at the same time, bringing a burst of frigid air in with them from the parking lot.

Chase sniffed the air. It smelled moist, like it might snow soon.

“You’re both early,” Anna said.

“It’s been so crazy,” Inger said, “I thought I would get a head start.”

“Here are the trays of dessert bars for the case.” Anna pulled some from the refrigerator and Mallory and Inger both started carrying them to the front.

The morning wore on with a few deliveries and lots of customers. After Chase and Anna got several batches of bars baked, filling the shop with the aromas of cinnamon, lemon, and cherry—which blended surprisingly well—Chase decided to get started on payroll. Monday was the fifteenth and she would pay Mallory and Inger then.

She greeted Quincy with a head rub as he jumped up onto the desk, settling beside her keyboard. She toiled over the tax tables and state forms for an hour, then stood, ready for lunch. Quincy jumped down and dislodged a business card he’d been lying on top of.

“What’s this?” Chase bent down to pick it up. “Vita Life for a Vital Life,” she read, puzzling over it. Then she turned the card over and saw a name and room number. She remembered it now. This was the card Bart Fender had given to Julie at the reunion. Julie had handed it to Chase and Chase had ended up taking it home. Where had it been until today, a week later?

“Quincy Wincy, did you hide this somewhere? You naughty boy.” He was developing a habit of secreting away what must be treasures to him. Maybe he was part dog. Or squirrel.

Bart had told Julie that Dillon would like visitors, but the women who had been talking about her said she was in a coma. Chase remembered Dillon as a volleyball player, clean cut and always bouncy. The women said she had attempted suicide. That didn’t square with the cheerful pony-tailed blonde whom Chase remembered. Maybe she and Julie should look in on her and at least find out what was going on. Bart had said something enigmatic about her parents in the shop, too. This was a small mystery, and Chase liked to solve mysteries. She would call Julie tonight and propose they visit on Monday after Julie got home from work.