Six Cats A Slayin'

“You’re going to check the old yearbooks at the public library,” Kanesha said. “Aren’t you?”

Was I that readable? I wondered. It was uncanny the way her mind and mine were synching. “Yes,” I said.

“Don’t bother. I’d really like to find some trace of her as soon as possible, so I’ll put a deputy on it,” Kanesha said.

“You don’t know anything much about her, do you?” I asked, a little surprised.

“No, I don’t,” Kanesha said. “She just turned up in Athena one day, it seems. No roots, no checkable background, but she seemed to have plenty of money. If I can find out who she really was, I’ll be able to find out who poisoned her, and why.”

TWENTY

“That’s really strange,” I said. “She has a driver’s license, though.”

“Yes, but I don’t quite know how she got one,” Kanesha replied. “You have to have your birth certificate, two proofs of residence, and your Social Security card.”

“Have you found a Social Security card or a birth certificate among her effects?” I asked.

“Not so far,” Kanesha said. “If she has them, they’re well hidden. They might be in a safe deposit box at a bank.”

“Did you find any kind of legal documents?” I asked.

Kanesha shook her head. “We’re still searching the house. I think something’s surely bound to turn up before too much longer.”

“Unless she paid cash for that house and the three others she bought, wouldn’t there be some kind of bank trail?”

“Another angle we’re looking into,” Kanesha said. “This could be a tough one to crack, I have to say. No emergency contact information that I could find, other than that assistant of hers, Jincy Bruce.”

“Does she know anything?” I asked.

“If she does, she’s hiding it well,” Kanesha said. “I’m going to be questioning her again, though. She must know something, even if she doesn’t think it’s important.”

“For your sake, I hope so,” I said. “You said you had some questions for me when you texted earlier.”

“Right.” Kanesha consulted her notebook. “First, have you remembered anything else about last night, some detail you might have overlooked?”

I hesitated. This was the point when I needed to tell her about the argument I had witnessed between Gerry and Billy Albritton—plus the fact that I thought I saw him leaving her house last night.

“There are two things,” I replied. “First, there was an argument I overheard between Gerry and Councilman Albritton.” I gave the few details I had to share, and she frowned.

“I wasn’t aware that he knew her,” Kanesha said.

“Melba talked to him about Gerry, and he swore up and down that he didn’t know who she was,” I said. “If he wasn’t lying about that, then what was he doing having an argument with her? It wasn’t too smart of him to let the neighbors see him with her if he’s trying to deny that he knows her.”

Kanesha snorted. “He’s got a short fuse. In my experience, he usually acts before he thinks about the consequences. If he was really angry with her about something, he probably didn’t stop to think about it.”

“I don’t know much about him,” I said. “He doesn’t represent this area.”

“Count yourself lucky,” Kanesha said. “You mentioned two things. What’s the other one?”

“I think he—Billy, that is—might have been in the house last night during the party.”

Kanesha’s eyes narrowed. “When did you see him?”

“I saw him not too long before Gerry collapsed,” I said. “Stewart and Haskell were ready to leave. I was standing in the hall with Stewart, and I looked over his shoulder to see Haskell coming toward us. Behind him, going out the front door, was a man I thought was Billy Albritton.”

“Are you sure it was Billy?” Kanesha asked.

“No,” I said with some reluctance. “I’m not prepared to swear to it. It was only a quick glimpse, and I don’t really know him. I simply thought the man looked like him.”

“Okay, let’s think about this. Earlier during the party, did you ever see a man you thought looked like him?”

I thought about that, and I could tell that Kanesha was getting restless by the time I replied. “No, I can’t say that I did. I mean, I circulated a fair bit, I suppose, and saw a lot of people, but no man who looked like that.”

“Then it’s possible you really did see Billy Albritton,” Kanesha said. “And you saw him leave not too long before Gerry Albritton collapsed and died.”

“Yes,” I said. Now I was concerned that she was going to fasten on the councilman as her chief suspect. I had to admit that she had grounds for her suspicions, but she would have to have more evidence to go on than what I had provided.

“Haskell didn’t mention seeing him,” Kanesha said, “though it sounds like he could have, if Billy had to pass by him to go out the door.”

“I couldn’t say,” I replied. “You’ll have to go into that with Haskell. He was ready to go home, and he may not have been paying attention. He was concentrating on finding Stewart, I think.”

“Melba didn’t mention him, either, when I questioned her,” Kanesha said. “Are they friends?”