The Cat Collector Read online

  “I loved him more than you ever did!”

  Claudia grew still as a statue. The first voice was obviously Jo Louise. The other voice sounded like Sue Ember’s.

  “Just because he gave in to temptation, doesn’t mean he had feelings for you. He begged me to forgive him after I found you together.”

  “Glen and I were lovers in high school,” Sue asserted. “Did you know?”

  “Ridiculous! Why would he have been attracted to you?”

  “At first it was because I was a minister’s daughter. He liked that. But then he also liked my curvaceous figure. Unlike you, I have flesh on my bones. All I had to do was give him a glimpse of cleavage after the prom, and he was all over me. I gave him everything, and I didn’t care if it was a sin. You may have snookered him into marriage. But after twenty-six years apart, he and I still craved each other. God wanted me to be with him, not you!”

  “You scheming hussy!” Jo Louise hissed. “Hanging around the church late to catch him alone. Seducing him on the rug in his office! How vulgar.”

  “We were in the throes of mind-blowing passion when you had to walk in!”

  “How could you bring him so low?” Jo Louise asked, her voice breaking.

  “He should have married me, and I proved it to him.”

  “You’re no better than a harlot! And now he’s gone. He confessed how horribly guilty he felt.”

  There was silence for a moment as Claudia listened, not moving a muscle, afraid she’d give her presence away.

  “You think he killed himself?” Sue asked. “Is that what you think?”

  “The police haven’t figured it out.”

  “Maybe you killed him,” Sue said.

  “You low class piece of filth!” Jo Louise shot back as organ music began to flow from the sanctuary.

  Claudia heard the door slam, then footsteps and the door closed again. She waited a few minutes longer and then carefully opened the door she’d been hiding behind. The bride’s room was empty. Instead of leaving through the door that led to the sanctuary, she went out the other door into the courtyard. Walking around to the church’s front steps, she entered the back of the sanctuary where Steve O’Rourke was still standing. Tapping his shoulder, she motioned him to follow her.

  When they were outdoors and out of anyone’s earshot, she told him all she’d overheard in the bride’s room.

  “Sue seems to think his wife killed him,” Claudia said. “He was cheating, so that would be a strong motive.”

  Steve raised his eyebrows in a thoughtful expression. “It’s a reasonable theory to look into. Good sleuthing.” With an appreciative smile, he raised his hand to her shoulder level and curled his fingers. “That deserves a fist bump.”

  With a shy grin, she tapped her fist to his.

  CHAPTER six

  The Cabinet above the Kitchen Counter

  On Monday afternoon, the lab results came in for Sue’s cat. Dr. Chandler prescribed an antibiotic that only came in pill form. Claudia phoned Sue to tell her, feeling uncomfortable after the lurid conversation she’d overheard in the bride’s room.

  “You’ll come over and give Knickerbocker the pill, like you said?” Sue asked.

  “Sure. Will you be home after five-thirty when I get off work?”

  “That’s perfect. You can do that until the prescription’s finished?”

  “No problem,” Claudia assured her, though in truth she wasn’t eager to see Sue, knowing the tawdry details of her secret affair with their deceased pastor. But she’d promised, and she had to think of Knickerbocker’s welfare, too.

  At about quarter to six, Claudia stood on the porch of the brick bungalow where Sue lived and rang the bell. In half a minute, Sue opened the door, wearing jeans and a long denim shirt.

  “Claudia.” With a smile, Sue invited her in. “You’re so sweet to do this for Knicky.”

  “You’re welcome. It works best for me if we can put the cat on a counter or table to give him the pill.” Claudia pulled a small plastic bottle out of her leather handbag. “I’ve got the prescription.” She showed it to Sue. “Enrofloxacin.”

  Sue squinted at the label. “Glad you know how to pronounce it. I wouldn’t have a clue.”

  Claudia chuckled.

  “Why don’t you go into the kitchen,” Sue said, pointing to the back of the house. “I’ll find Knicky. I think he’s in the bedroom. Just hope the doorbell didn’t make him hide under the bed.”

  “No hurry,” Claudia said. “Say, can I have a glass of water? Had salty French fries at lunch, and now I’m thirsty.”

  “Glasses are in the cabinet above the kitchen counter.”

  Sue headed down a narrow hall. Claudia walked through the small living room, the dining room, and into the kitchen wallpapered in a pattern of quaint teapots. She set her handbag on the blue-tiled counter and reached up to open a white-painted cabinet. It was filled with a set of dishes, so she opened the next cabinet. The shelves were packed full with crackers, granola bars, breakfast cereals, and a box of coffee pods on the top shelf. Claudia closed the cabinet, still hunting for a glass.

  Something made her pause and open the cabinet again. She looked up at the box of pods, which had Amaretto Ambrosia printed on it in yellow lettering, similar to the box she’d seen next to McGrath’s espresso machine. She recalled that over lunch at the Bumblebee, Sue had said she hated coffee. Looking around the kitchen, Claudia saw no coffee machine of any kind.

  Her breaths quickening, she turned to see if Sue was coming. No sign of her. Claudia took her cell phone from her handbag and with jittery fingers found the card Steve had given her.

  She entered his number, growing anxious, her heart pounding as she listened to the phone ring.

  “O’Rourke.”

  “It’s Claudia. I’m at Sue Ember’s house.” She gave him the address. “There’s a box of the exact same pods that McGrath used,” she told him in a low voice. “But Sue hates coffee and there’s no machine here—”

  “Found him,” Sue said, carrying Knickerbocker into the kitchen. She stopped in her tracks as she saw Claudia on the phone. Sue looked up at the top shelf of the open cabinet. “Who are you talking to?”

  “A . . . a co-worker at the clinic,” Claudia improvised.

  Sue dropped her cat onto the kitchen table. “Hang up,” she told Claudia.

  “W-why?”

  “You’re calling the cops aren’t you?” Sue yanked open a drawer near the sink and pulled out a meat-carving knife. She advanced toward Claudia holding the knife in a threatening way. “Hang up and put the phone down!” she ordered in a strong voice.

  Knickerbocker jumped from the table and fled.

  “Okay. No need for a knife.” Claudia pretended to end the call and then set the phone on the counter. She stood in front of it, hoping Sue wouldn’t see that it was still on.

  “So I have coffee pods. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “But you don’t have a machine.” Claudia worked to keep her voice calm as she eyed the big knife in Sue’s hand.

  “That doesn’t mean I killed Glen.” Sue’s face went red, then paled.

  “If you didn’t kill him, why are you holding a knife on me?”

  Sue didn’t seem to process Claudia’s question. “I loved him.”

  “I know. I overheard your conversation with Jo Louise in the bride’s room. You were having an affair with him.”

  “You heard . . . ?” Tears flooded Sue’s eyes. “He was supposed to be mine. Ever since high school.”

  “You always said the man you loved in high school died.”

  “I had to think of him as dead,” Sue said in an earnest, broken voice, as though needing to unburden herself. “We went steady. But senior year I could see he was losing interest. So I offered myself on prom night. My first experience. His, too. It was heaven. But the next day he apologized for sinning with me. And then he stopped seeing me. He went off to divinity school and I never heard from him. Broke my heart. I had
to think of him as dead to me, especially after I found out he married some other minister’s daughter. Jo Louise,” she said with spite.

  Claudia kept an eye on the knife Sue kept wildly brandishing, gesturing as she talked. But Claudia wanted to keep her talking. “So you didn’t see him again for years?”

  “Twenty-six years. And then, as if God had planned it, I was on the Pastor Nominating Committee and his resume came in. So I talked him up, convinced the committee to choose him. I was thrilled the first day I saw him at church. He recognized me and smiled. Jo Louise was on his arm, but I wasn’t going to let her stand in my way.” Sue’s expression grew sullen as she spoke of Jo Louise.

  “So you started volunteering in the church office to be near him?” Claudia prompted.

  “I had to start slow. But before long, I had him in the palm of my hand. He likes a well-endowed body and Jo Louise is such a stick. The last time we made love, Jo Louise saw us. She had a fit!” Angry tears crumpled Sue’s face. “She spoiled everything, that skinny little witch!”

  “So what happened?” Claudia asked.

  “The next day, he phoned and told me he couldn’t see me anymore, to stay away. He chose Jo Louise over me! I couldn’t believe it. I told him how I worked so hard to get the Pastor Nominating Committee to choose him. He owed me. I said we have such a deep passion for each other, why doesn’t he leave her and marry me? He said it would never happen, that I was delusional!”

  “Must have been painful,” Claudia said.

  “It was horrible. Like he’d stuck this knife in my stomach!” She held the knife higher. “I couldn’t let him get away with using me. I asked him to meet me early the next morning in his office. I put on a tragic voice and told him I needed to apologize for seducing him, for the sake of my immortal soul. He agreed. I bought the coffee. Snuck some cyanide from the factory, put it in a pod, hid it in my pocket and went to see him. No one else was around. I went in all abject and guilty, like I was going to tell him how sorry I was. But first I said I’d make his coffee for him. I pulled the pod out of my pocket and pretended to take it out of his box. The machine did its work. As he drank from the cup, I told him I always loved him and always would. But I wasn’t about to let him reject me for Jo Louise. He started to feel sick and fell to his knees. He begged me to call 911. But I walked out and pulled the door closed. I . . . ” she swallowed, “I couldn’t watch him die. I left and drove away.”

  Claudia was feeling sick herself hearing Sue’s description of how she’d committed murder. Still, Claudia needed to pull herself together to ask, “How did you get the cyanide into the pod?”

  “Remember when Knickerbocker had that ear infection a few years ago?” Sue spoke to Claudia as someone would confide in an old friend. “I had to give him a liquid med that I squirted into his mouth. I still had the little applicator and filled it with cyanide. I punctured the top of the pod with a pin, and pushed the tip of the applicator into the hole. It was easy. So easy.” She nodded in a wistful way. “And now he’s gone. Glen really is dead.” Sue’s tone had grown melancholy and she’d lowered the knife to her side.

  Claudia wondered if she should try to grab the knife. Suddenly there was pounding at the front door. And then even louder pounding at the back door off the kitchen. Steve kicked the door in, entered and grabbed Sue, extracting the knife from her hand. Uniformed police came in and cuffed her.

  As Claudia breathed a sigh of relief, Steve set his hands on Claudia’s shoulders. “You okay?”

  She nodded. “I hoped you’d hear what was going on.” She turned to see her cell phone still on the counter.

  “Smart gal,” he said.

  Meanwhile, one of the officers read Sue the Miranda rights. They began to lead her away, but she turned to Claudia. “Will you take care of Knicky?”

  “Of course,” Claudia assured her. “I’ll take him to my house. Give him his medicine.”

  A tear slid down Sue’s face as the cops kept hold of her. “And adopt him?”

  “Sure.”

  “I wouldn’t have hurt you, Claudia.”

  “I know, Sue. I know.”

  While Steve collected the knife and the box of coffee pods as evidence, Claudia found Sue’s cat carrier in a closet. She looked for Knickerbocker and discovered him hiding under the bed. After talking to him softly for a minute, the big, fluffy, grey and brown Maine Coon came out. The cat knew her from visits to the clinic over the years and apparently had grown to trust her. She hugged him. “You’re coming to live with me now.” After putting him into the carrier, she walked through the house to the front door.

  Steve seemed to be waiting for her, holding the knife and coffee pods in plastic evidence bags. “You’re really taking the cat home with you?”

  “Sue asked me to. I assume it’s okay with the police?”

  “Sure. We’d just have to bring him to a shelter. He’s better off with you.” He tilted his head a bit. “You don’t mind adopting the cat?”

  Claudia sighed. “It’s been a long time since my last cat died. Not long after my husband passed away.” She lifted her shoulders. “It’s probably time to have a pet again. And Knickerbocker is a very sweet cat. I’ll give him his medicine and he’ll be fine.”

  Steve’s eyes grew warm. “I’m sure he will be. You’re the ideal cat mom.”

  ◆◆◆

  The following Sunday morning, Claudia felt a reluctance to attend church after all that had happened. She’d skipped the previous Sunday. But Amy had told her that the Chicago Presbytery had sent an experienced minister to act as first responder in the crisis. So she went into the church and sat in the last row. Up ahead she could see Amy and Larry in a pew on the left, midway up the aisle.

  Claudia was reading the program for the service, when a man sat down beside her. She turned to say hello and saw it was Steve.

  “You’re coming to our church?” she said with a smile.

  “Thought I’d give it a try,” he told her. “Some of the members here are very nice.” His eyes twinkled as he gazed at her.

  “Glad you think so,” she replied.

  “By the way, you look fine in regular clothes.”

  Claudia looked down at her corduroy jacket and plaid skirt. “Thanks, but what do you mean?”

  “No cartoon cats.”

  She laughed.

  “Not that you didn’t look awfully cute in your clinic outfit.”

  Claudia still chuckled as she felt her cheeks grow warm. She glanced away and happened to see Amy looking back at them across the pews.

  Amy winked and gave Claudia a thumbs up.

  Novella II

  THE WINGED WITNESS

  By Lori Herter

  CHAPTER one

  “Shut up, Hal!”

  Monday morning at the Briarwood Cat Clinic seemed even more harried than usual to veterinary technician Claudia Bailey. Maybe because Claudia had slept fitfully the night before, wondering, worrying, if it was possible she could find perfect love again. At age thirty-nine. Did all youngish widows question themselves this way?

  Working with white-haired Dr. August Chandler, proud grandfather of three, in the clinic’s treatment room, Claudia heard the squawk of a parrot out in the waiting area.

  “Guess we know who’s here,” she joked to the highly-regarded veterinarian as she held a big tabby still while he cleaned out the cat’s ears and applied a medication.

  “Ethel and Tom Radek?” he replied with a smile. “Everywhere Tom goes, that African Grey sits on his shoulder. Saw them out for a walk along the old railroad path the other day. The parrot took flight, then landed on Tom’s shoulder again, so its wings aren’t clipped. I was glad to see he had a harness and leash on the bird. How’s their cat?”

  “Ethel called first thing this morning,” Claudia told him. “She said Jasmine was throwing up all weekend, and now the cat has stopped eating and drinking.”

  “That’s not good,” Dr. Chandler replied with a concerned sigh. “I’m finished
with Buster, here. You can put the Radeks in an exam room. Do your prelim.”

  Claudia brought Buster back to his “mom” in one of the clinic’s two small exam rooms, informing her that Dr. Chandler would talk to her about Buster’s ear infection. She entered the waiting room with its wood bench, walls painted a cat’s-eye shade of green, and big windows admitting the bright sunlight of a clear winter’s day. It had snowed the night before all over Chicagoland, and the old-town heart of suburban Briarwood looked especially picturesque.

  Ethel and Tom, who appeared to be in their sixties, sat in the corner. Their Himalayan, Jasmine, lay in her cat carrier on the bench next to Ethel. The medium-size parrot with grey feathers, a black beak, and bright red tail, sat on the bald-headed man’s shoulder, its claws digging into his blue wool sweater. The bird’s silver-colored harness matched its feathers.

  “Hello,” the bird said as Claudia approached.

  “Hello,” Claudia replied, chuckling as the parrot turned its head to eye her sideways. She looked at Ethel, whose lined face appeared grim beneath her thick salt-and-pepper bangs. “So how’s Jasmine?”

  “She’s gotten very quiet,” Ethel said in a grave manner. Her naturally strong voice grew imperative. “You know how she usually carries on when we bring her here. Wish this clinic was open on Sunday.”

  Claudia picked up the cat carrier. “Let’s go into the second exam room.”

  The Radeks followed.

  After setting the carrier onto the small room’s stainless steel exam table, Claudia carefully pulled out Jasmine. The cat objected with a weak mew as Ethel and Tom took seats on the provided chairs. The Himalayan’s blue eyes, usually so bright against her dark, seal-point face, were half-closed.

  “She does seem listless,” Claudia observed. “How long since she’s eaten?”

  “Friday morning,” Ethel said. “And she hasn’t gone near her water bowl.”