The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon: A Cats in Trouble Mystery (23 page)

“He was different this time, Candace. Nice, even,” Karen said. “I let him in.”

I glanced down and saw Tom’s hand balled in a fist in his lap. Was he thinking about what might have happened to his mother after she let an unstable man into her house? Or did he think Karen had something to do with Gannon’s death?

“In the hall,” Liam said in a soft voice, “you mentioned you needed to tell us what he said. Is that what has you so rattled now?”

She nodded. “I could tell the man was troubled. Maybe not quite right in the head, though not in a vicious way like before. He kept saying he was sorry. He had to make things right. I’ve been in the ‘sorry’ boat on a rocky sea myself. I asked him what he wanted to apologize for and he told me no one would let him near his son, which didn’t really answer my question.” Karen looked at the ceiling. “He said—let me get the words exactly right—‘The phone call started everything.’”

I swallowed hard and moved my hand over Tom’s cold fist.

Candace, seated on my other side, leaned toward Karen. “A phone call from who?”

“Why Finn, of course. Who else could he be talking about?” Karen said.

Candace seemed to ponder this while Liam tried to clarify by saying, “The exact words were
the
phone call, not
Finn’s
phone call?”

“He was talking about Finn before, so I simply assumed he meant Finn. Then the man just got up and left. When I learned he was dead, I guess I was afraid for my grandson. But Finn would never hurt anyone. He’s had such a difficult time. Then Hilary called looking for Finn again—right after Deputy Rodriguez brought me home from Tom’s house.”

Tom said, “What did you tell Hilary, Mom?”

Candace sighed, but she didn’t interrupt with another warning.

“I didn’t tell Hilary anything—well, except about the body poor Jillian found,” Karen said.

“You never told her where Finn is staying?” Tom said.

“No. I knew you wouldn’t want me to. Besides, she hung up so abruptly and—”

Candace said, “You honestly believe Mrs. Roth has no idea Finn is at Jillian’s house? She’d already seen him there once.”

Tom cleared his throat. “Since I’m done giving my statement, I’m out of here.” He almost made it to the door, but Liam stepped in his path.

“I’ll drive,” he said, looking Tom straight in the eye. “We were about to head to Jillian’s to talk to Finn anyway.”

“We’ll compromise. I’ll follow you,” Tom replied.

“Wait.” Candace stood. “Call Finn. We need to ask him if his mother’s been there or called the house.”

I smiled at Candace, grateful for her sounding so in control, for not racing out of here as if the world was on fire. I took my phone out of my pocket with a shaky hand and dialed my landline number—and let it ring until the answering machine picked up. “Finn? If you’re there, could you pick up?” I waited and he didn’t answer. “Listen, if you get this message, I’m on my way home now.” I disconnected and looked at Candace. “Let me check the cat cam, too. Maybe he fell asleep watching TV.” With Candace looking over my shoulder, I saw that all the rooms on my feed—the foyer, living room, kitchen and my sewing room—were empty. No Finn, no Yoshi and not a cat to be seen. Now I was more nervous than ever.

“We need to head over to your house.” Candace then looked at Karen. “But, Mrs. Stewart, would you mind returning home in case Finn calls you there?”

“I’ll do whatever you think is best,” she said.

Since both Tom and I had driven on our own to the police station—only Bob came in Rodriguez’s squad car—Tom’s work van and my minivan were right on Candace’s bumper as she and Liam sped toward my home. Could Hilary have convinced Finn to talk to her? Open the door? Even go somewhere with her? I doubted it, but in the courthouse parking lot before we’d taken off, Tom seemed to think it was possible. He’d said, “She is his mother. Kids love their mother no matter what.”

When we pulled onto my block, a dark-colored sedan was parked in the street in front of my house, a car I didn’t recognize.

Candace had pulled up beside it while Tom and I drove into my driveway. We both walked back down the drive to see who Candace and Liam were talking to in the sedan.

My stomach lurched. Hilary Roth was out of the car and conversing with them. As we joined them, I could see tears glistening on her cheeks in the moonlight.

When she saw Tom, she addressed him. “I only wanted to talk to him. I called through the door, I begged him to let me in.”

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Tom said.

She shook her head. “I went back to the car. I waited. I went back several times hoping he would just say something. Anything. See, I knew he was in there. I just knew.”

Candace said, “You kept talking through the door?”

“Yelling actually,” she said. “So he could hear. He needed to know about Rory. The man was his father, after all.”

“You didn’t yell out the juicy piece of information about his father’s murder by chance?” Tom said angrily.

“I—I did mention Rory died unexpectedly. He had to know. I thought if I told him, he’d open the door. But he didn’t.” She hung her head and sniffled.

This woman’s son ran away and she’d lost her husband all in the last week. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. But Tom was not swayed by her tears or by the fact she’d been parked here for maybe several hours hoping to talk to Finn.

He said, “You may think you’re fooling us with all this fake concern for Finn, but you’re not.” Tom looked at Candace. “Can you make her leave?”

“Why don’t we talk to Finn and see what he wants to do?” Candace said.

Tom said, “Are you kidding me?”

I took his hand and drew him away. His back was to them and I said, “You can’t protect Finn from her forever. With all of us here, what harm can it do to let her see her son?”

“Hilary being in the same room with him is harm done, as far as I’m concerned,” he whispered harshly.

But I could tell by his face he was willing to give a little.

I said, “Finn needs to see his mother’s concern.”

“Jillian, she is
not
concerned. All you’re seeing is what I call her beautiful facade. This woman has something else in mind, probably something to do with money. She may not love her kid, but she does love money. You’re right, though. With all of us around for support, Finn can decide whether he wants to talk to her or not.”

I turned back to Candace. “I’ll go in first. Tell him we’re here to talk to him, okay?”

We walked around back where I could disengage the security alarm.

And realized it wasn’t set.

Tom stood right behind me and knew this instantly.

“Open the door,” he said, the urgency in his voice alerting Candace.

She grabbed Tom’s arm. “Stand down, Tom. I’ve got this.” She took my keys and unlocked the door—the dead bolt wasn’t locked, just the door—and then Candace went into my house with her weapon drawn.

Twenty-three

I saw lights go on in the kitchen and heard Candace calling Finn’s name.

Hilary had been standing a few steps back from the rest of us, but moved closer and said, “Does she think Finn is hurt? I don’t understand.”

Tom turned and glared at her, his mouth white-ringed with anger. “Keep out of this.”

Sounding conciliatory, Liam said, “He may be asleep. This is just a precaution.”

He isn’t asleep,
I thought.
Not with the security system disarmed.
Before Tom and I left, we’d made sure he’d armed the system and knew how to work it if he had to take Yoshi outside. He’d picked up the directions easily and wouldn’t have forgotten.

Candace returned a long minute later, her face impossible to read. How she managed not to share so much as a morsel of emotion always surprised me. She said, “Come on in.”

Chablis was the first to greet me, so I knew immediately Yoshi wasn’t here. And if Yoshi wasn’t here, Finn wasn’t either. I picked my cat up and held her close.

All the lights were on, thanks to Candace’s search. Once we’d all stepped into the kitchen, she said, “He’s gone.” She glanced back and forth between Hilary and Tom. “Either of you know where he might be?”

“How would I know? I’ve been talking to you about a dead guy I didn’t even know from Adam for the last two hours,” Tom said.

Syrah arrived to greet us, but stopped before reaching us. Tom’s raised voice made him wary. Neither I nor my cats had ever heard Tom sound so upset.

Syrah hissed, turned and raced out of the room past Merlot. My biggest boy hadn’t even bothered to come close. He was sitting on the tile near the breakfast bar, his gaze trained on Hilary, his nose in the air trying to catch her scent. Chablis snuggled into my neck and began to purr. She knew I was troubled and wanted to comfort me. How I wished my cats could tell me what had gone on here in my absence.

“Maybe Finn took Yoshi for a walk,” Hilary said, a tinge of panic in her voice. “If he went out this back door, I wouldn’t have seen him leave.”

I said, “Even though the security system was disarmed, the door was locked. You
can
lock it from the inside and leave. If he went to walk the dog, he may have accidentally locked himself out.” Why was I being such a Pollyanna? In my heart, I knew Finn was gone, reverting to what he’d done before. He’d run.
Unless,
I thought,
someone lured him outside and snatched him and his dog.
Something pretty darn hard to do with Hilary parked out front. Besides, who would do such a thing?

Just then Tom spotted a Post-it note stuck on the fridge door. He took it down and read aloud,
“Thanks for everything, Mrs. Hart. Finn.”

Hilary looked over Tom’s shoulder at the note. “Oh no. I recognize his handwriting.”

Tom bolted for the back door and Candace called, “Where are you going?”

“To find him,” he shouted.

“Let him drive around,” Liam said. “Maybe he’ll cool off, and who knows? He might just spot the kid.”

The helplessness I felt at watching Tom run out the door made it impossible to speak. He wanted to do right by Finn and, after all he’d told me about his past, I was sure Tom believed he’d failed.

Liam said, “Did you notice if Finn left anything behind, Deputy Carson?”

“Now that I think about it, I didn’t see anything that might have belonged to him in the guest room,” she said solemnly.

I blinked hard, feeling the unexpected sting of tears. Worry for Finn and for Tom, plus the night’s horrific events finally converged. But I managed to fight back the tears and said to Candace, “You’ll put out one of those BOLO things for him?”

“If he were simply an adult runaway, I couldn’t. But since he’s wanted for questioning anyway, I’ll do just that.” She took her cell phone from her utility belt. “But not out on the radio for the whole town to pick up on their scanners. Don’t want the do-gooders in town to spook Finn if he’s just walking around, thinking about what he heard his mother say. What was he wearing last time you saw him?”

I described the jeans and shirt Kara had bought. While Candace called in the “be on the lookout” alert with Finn’s description, the rest of us listened in silence. I was stunned by the evening’s events and I’m sure Hilary and Liam were, too.

After she hung up, Candace looked at Hilary. “We need to talk to everyone who knew Mr. Gannon. You can follow me to the police station.”

She pointed at herself with a manicured nail. “Me? There’s nothing I can tell you about Rory aside from the fact he’s battled mental illness most of his adult life. I mean, he did. Before he—he… died.” With the money troubles she had, she still got her nails done. Not unusual, I decided. Denial was a huge issue in a country where people hurt by the downturn in the economy still wanted all the perks they were used to.

“I just need to write down everything you know about Mr. Gannon for the chief. Paperwork never goes away. Let’s go.” She started for the door and Liam got behind Hilary as if to herd her out.

I stood at the back door and watched them leave, but before Candace disappeared around the side of the house, she turned and said, “I know you’ll call right away if Finn shows up.”

I shut the door and locked it, making sure the dead bolt was fastened, too. Setting Chablis down, I turned on the deck lights in case Finn decided to come back. Gosh, I hoped he would.

As I walked back into the kitchen, I remembered Candace’s words when we were talking about her job once and got a shiver up my spine. She’d said, “The innocent? They just stick around. Guilty folks run.”

I opened the fridge and took out the sweet tea. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten, but I wasn’t hungry. I poured a glass and went into the living room, grabbed a lap quilt and curled up in John’s recliner. All three cats soon surrounded me.

I stared out through the picture windows, the deck lights casting faint glimmers on the black lake. Stars shone like brilliant specks through the trees and I hoped one of those stars would lead Finn back here. Why did he feel the need to run away? He seemed to understand we all wanted to help him. The thought puzzled me, and deep down I feared that maybe he didn’t run away after all. Maybe someone
made
him write the note and leave it for me to make it seem like he ran. I shook my head.
No
. I couldn’t dwell on dark thoughts. There was an explanation. Finn would come back and he would tell us why he left. I was sure of it.

My phone rang and the sound made me jump. Maybe it was Finn. Instead it was Kara, making sure I was all right after what had happened. I told her I was okay and before I could even mention Finn’s disappearance, she said she was in a hurry to get a headline in for tomorrow’s
Mercy Messenger
. She disconnected.

My eyelids felt weighted and, with Chablis resting on my chest, I closed them. Next thing I knew, a knock at my back door awakened me. I’d dozed off. I rose from the chair so quickly I frightened poor Chablis and she leaped from my arms and scampered off down the hall. But Merlot and Syrah were already waiting in the kitchen ready for me to answer the door.