Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1) (18 page)

Chris was right. Within hours of
the announcement of the murder, there was an encampment of media vehicles once
more outside the gate. Although no mention of the family had been made in the
announcement, the press was quick to link them to the death, if only to get
their reactions in the wake of all that had previously transpired.

Chris read a prepared statement
deploring the murder and declaring the family’s willingness to assist the
investigation in any way possible. Marmalade also made a brief appearance and
had his picture taken in Alicia’s arms, a gesture Chris hoped would distract
the photographers from the rest of the family. It appeared to work as they then
moved on to camp out at the shelter, hoping to interview APS staff about the
grizzly details.

Since the police wanted Shae to
stay in town for the time-being, and she had already checked out of her hotel,
Alice and James invited her to move into one of their many spare rooms. She
accepted gladly.

Alicia was glad as well, and said
so at dinner that evening. Hugh had been invited too, but he was having dinner
with Emily and her parents on the farm in Lancaster. “It’s perfect that you are
staying here. It will give us a chance to make plans.”

“Plans for what?” Chris asked
suspiciously.

“Plans for how we’re going to
find out who murdered Bill Abbot!” she replied emphatically. “And I think we
should get started right after dinner.”

“Alicia, dear,” her mother began
tentatively, “I think you’re letting this detective business go to your head. I
know we all did an amazing job in solving the Marmalade mystery, but this is a
murder case. The police will solve it.”

“The police think we did it!” her
daughter retorted. “And I for one don’t intend to wait for them to decide
whether or not they are going to arrest one of us. And, in case you’ve
forgotten, they were my fingerprints they found on the murder weapon.” Since no
one could argue with that, they followed her into the library.

When they were all seated, she
got out her laptop and typed the heading OPERATION: MURDER INVESTIGATION.

“You know, if we had a Smart
Board like they do in those high-tech cop shows, I could put this up on it and
everyone could see it.”

“Or,” her mother’s tone was dry, “we
could just bring in the whiteboard from the kitchen and you could write on
that.”

Alicia muttered something that
sounded like ‘Killjoy’, and proceeded. “Now, I think that the obvious place to
start is to make a list of anyone who would have a motive for killing Abbot.
Once again we have an advantage over the police. We know that none of us did
it. We don’t have to waste time investigating us. So who would have wanted him
dead? Who would have benefited? Who had a motive? Obviously, Ray Price goes on
the top of the list, but I think we should leave him to the police for now
since he’s already under scrutiny. We can concentrate on the less obvious
suspects.” She looked expectantly around the room, her fingers poised for
action on the keyboard. “Well?”

Chris looked around the room at
the blank faces that mirrored his own. “I suppose that his bosses at the APS
were pretty upset with him. Not only did he steal from them but he sullied the
reputation of the Society,” he ventured with no real enthusiasm. “I’d wager to
say that fund-raising is going to be difficult for a while.”

“That’s good,” Alicia said,
typing quickly. “And it’s possible that someone who worked at the shelter or
one of the volunteers could have been angry enough to kill him. After all, the
funds he stole from the shelter affected everyone there. Hugh said some people
even took pay-cuts to help cover costs, and meanwhile Abbot and his wife were
spending a fortune on clothes, cars and properties.” She was adding staff and
volunteers to the list when she had an uncomfortable memory of the anger in
Hugh’s voice when he talked about people who abused animals. And he had said he
often went to the shelter late at night to check on the animals. She tried to
dismiss the idea. Hugh wouldn’t do anything like that, would he? Was it
possible he had gone to the shelter to check on the horses, found Abbot in his
office, fought with him …? Reluctantly she mentally added his name to the list.
“Also, some of those animal rights protesters are pretty tightly wound,” she
continued, forcing herself to put the thought of Hugh out of her mind. “One of
them could have snapped and killed him.”

Chris admitted it was possible. “They
were all over the street around the station when we left. They might have still
been there when he made bail.”

“How can we find out if they were
still there?”

“I’ll call Dave and get him to
call the station and ask the desk officer. He could say we’ve been having
problems with them and are checking on their movements.”

“That sounds good.” She added
animal rights protester to the list. “OK, who else?”

When no-one volunteered a new
idea she said in all seriousness, “Well, it could have been a Mob hit.”

There was another stunned
silence. Chris refused to meet her eye and James covered his mouth with his
hand to hide a smile.

But her mother shook her head and
said, “Alicia dear, this isn’t Chicago.”

But she persisted. “Just hear me
out. Perhaps he borrowed money from a loan shark promising to pay it back with
the money from the estate. Then, when he lost the case and was arrested, the
loan shark realized he wasn’t going to get his money back and killed him to
make an example of him.” She looked expectantly at the faces around her.

“I don’t want to burst your
bubble, honey,” Chris said, unable to hide his amusement, “but I don’t think we
have many loan sharks in Dunbarton.” All the same, she added loan shark to the
suspect list. “Does anyone else have any ideas?” she asked with some annoyance.

Chris stood up. “I don’t think we’re
going about this is in the right way. When we look at suspects, we have to
consider how he was killed. If someone had gone there intending to kill him, he
would have taken a weapon with him. Clearly this was not the case.” The others
nodded agreement and Alicia reluctantly deleted ‘loan shark’. “This was a crime
of opportunity, or even passion. Detective Samuel didn’t say if there was a
struggle, so it’s difficult for us to know which, but we need to look for
someone who killed in the heat of the moment, someone who was there when he got
to his office or who saw the lights and went to confront him.” The idea of a
crime of passion made Chris think of the passion Hugh felt in his job and how
much he had hated Bill Abbot. He had access to the shelter. He could have confronted
Abbot, fought with him even. But while he could see Hugh punching Abbot hard
enough to kill him, he couldn’t see him picking up a golf trophy and smashing
his head in with it so he dismissed the thought.

Shae was sitting, her head
propped up on her hand, an introspective look in her eyes. “You know, I’ll bet
his wife was plenty pissed with him. It’s possible that she didn’t know what he
was doing, and once faced with his criminal activities and the prospect of
losing everything, was angry enough to kill him.”

“Yes,” Alicia said excitedly,
forgetting her annoyance, “and maybe she did know about it and was furious that
he was stupid enough to get caught.”

Shae was on a roll. “And you can’t
tell me that she would want to have to start shopping at Walmart! That woman
has ‘high-maintenance’ written all over her.”

Alicia was typing furiously.

“I wonder if he had a life
insurance policy,” James suggested, getting into the spirit of things.

“I could get Dave to try to find
out without arousing any suspicions.” Chris said thoughtfully. He looked over
at Alicia and smiled. “You know, we might just be able to do this.”

“I never doubted it,” she said,
without looking up. “Okay, are we agreed that our prime suspect is his wife,
Jennifer?” They all nodded. “Then we need to find out everything we can about
her.”

“Not only about her,” Chris
added. “We need to know about their marriage as well.”

“And we need to do it without
anyone realizing what we’re up to. I can imagine that the police would take a
dim view of our meddling in their case.” James interjected a sobering note of
caution. “After all, we don’t want to give them any more reason to suspect us
than they already have.” He was right and the others knew it. They all had a
lot riding on the outcome.

Alicia had made careful notes of
all their plans. Under the heading ‘Plan of Action’, she had listed each of the
lines of investigation they were pursuing and who was doing what.

PLAN OF ACTION

Chris - call Dave and get him
to find out about the insurance policy and find out anything he can about the
Abbot household finances and if P.A.W.W. was still at the station when Abbot
left

Mom - find
out where J.A. gets her hair done and make an appointment - hair stylists know
all the dirt about everyone

Shae - try to
discover where she shops for clothes - it’s unlikely you’d find Armani in any
shop outside Toronto and Shae has connections in all of the exclusive stores in
T.O. (Just how much does she spend on clothes?)

Me - visit
the shelter on the pretext of learning if Horace has been found - chat with the
staff and see what they have to say about Abbot’s death

She mentally
added, ‘Call Hugh and find out what he was doing when Abbot was killed’. She
felt disloyal even thinking about it, but if he had an alibi, she could stop
worrying.

James had said he was going into
the office. Someone had to make a living.

Chris spoke with Dave that
morning and he agreed to make discreet inquiries with the local insurance
companies and to speak with the desk officer at the police station about the
protestors. It didn’t take long to discover that Bill Abbot carried a $500,000
insurance policy which paid double for accidental death, including foul play.
It came as no surprise to anyone that his wife was the beneficiary. A quick
internet credit check revealed substantial credit card debt as well as large
mortgages on the house and the other properties, and monthly lease payments on
the two cars.

They had less joy with the
protestors. The desk officer informed him that they had left early in the
evening when it seemed as if Abbot would be in jail overnight.

Chris called Alicia with the
information. She crossed P.A.W.W. off the list and recorded the Abbot financial
information on the whiteboard under the heading ‘Results of Investigations -
Motive’. It was a good start.

She hated to admit it, but her
mother had been right about the Smart Board. Besides being too expensive, by
the time she figured out how to use it, the real killer would have gotten away
and she would be in the dock. The whiteboard worked just fine.

Meanwhile, Alice had been busy
probing the rumor and gossip mills. It wasn’t difficult. The tea shop on the
main street was the central drag for the silver-haired brigade. Each afternoon
a small but faithful group met to have tea and pastries, and discuss the news
of the day. Not world news, town news. Alice happened in that afternoon and was
greeted enthusiastically. It was no problem to steer the conversation to the
most exciting news around town, the Abbot murder, and then to slip sideways
into a discussion of his wife. The poor widow. So brave. Carrying on despite
her grief. Did you see the black dress she was wearing in the newspaper
picture? So appropriate. So expensive! And the new haircut. So stylish! Took
years off her. Ah well, of course, she was much younger than her husband.
Still, you couldn’t get a haircut like that in town. Jennifer always went to
Hair Affair in Walkerton. It cost more but then the Abbots never seemed to have
any money worries, not like poor pensioners like themselves who had to watch
every penny. And then the conversation shifted to Maggie McEwen whose daughter
and son-in-law were taking her on a cruise to celebrate her eightieth birthday.

Alice finished her tea and
excused herself, saying that she had to make a hair appointment. And they all
privately thought that it was time she had a new look.

She went home sporting this new
look. It had been expensive but she had been thrilled with the results. And the
information she’d pried out of the stylist was good too.

When everyone had finished
exclaiming over the new, shorter cut that swept back from her face and tapered
into her neck at the back, she settled into a chair by the fire and told her
story.

“I called the shop and said that
my friend, Jennifer Abbot, had recommended her stylist but I couldn’t remember
the name she’d given me. Hair salons are always happy to have referrals and
they told me that Jennifer always had Tia. She’s their best hair-cutter. She
moved home after training and working in Toronto and is up-to-date on all the
latest styles and techniques.” She ran a casual hand back from her brow through
the soft curls. “I was lucky they’d had a cancellation and I was able to get in
without delay. Tia was pleased to hear what a sensation Jennifer’s new cut had
caused, and so it was easy to get her talking about the Abbots. Jennifer hasn’t
been very discreet in her conversations with Tia. She frequently made disparaging
remarks about her husband and Tia had the impression that the marriage wasn’t
going to last much longer. Jennifer hates country life and only agreed to the
move here because she thought that Bill would be making a lot more money as the
Director. Even with the big house and the expensive clothes and the flashy car,
she wasn’t satisfied.” Alice finished her story and sat back feeling quite
pleased with herself.

“Well that fits with what I’ve
learned,” Shae said, nodding at the older woman appreciatively. “I phoned a few
of the stores in Toronto that I know carry the designers I’ve seen her wear.
They all know me.” She caught Alicia’s amused smile and grinned. “All right, it’s
not
my
shopping addiction that we’re discussing right now. Since they
know me,” she continued, “they were willing to give me information on what she
buys and how often. From what I have learned, she seems to go to Toronto at
least once a month and spends several thousand dollars each trip in the various
stores I called. ‘Addiction’ is probably a fair description of her shopping
habits.”

They sat silently for a minute,
digesting what they’d heard. Alicia was recording it all under the ‘Motive’
heading.

“It all seems to make sense,” she
said when she’d finished.

Shae nodded. “With her spending
habits and what they owed on the properties and the cars, there’s no way they
could live on his salary. She must have known what he was doing. No one could
be that dense.”

“And with his theft exposed and
the cash flow gone, he was definitely worth more dead than alive,” Chris
agreed.

Alicia added that - ‘Worth more
dead than alive’ “He would be to me,” she muttered.

“I’ll make note of that for
future reference,” Chris said wryly.

Alicia just grinned.