Deadly Diamond: A Murfy the Cat Mystery (13 page)

“A cat can maintain a position of curled up somnolence on your knee until you are nearly upright. To the last minute she hopes your conscience will get the better of you and you will settle down again.”

––
Pam Brown

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:
David Hunter’s Competition

Jonathan Steele walked in, coincidently dressed like Alyx. His khakis and tee shirt matched Alyx’s outfit, except her khakis were cropped, and her shirt was tucked in. Misty ran towards him to sniff his shoes, his pants and then his hands as the man reached down to stroke her head.

“Welcome to
my
fine establishment,” Alyx said, smiling and swinging her arm wide.

“Very nice,” he nodded appreciatively.

“Feel free to browse, if you want.”

“Today is not a good day to look around as I only have an hour for lunch. I think I mentioned that I don’t have any help at the store, so I can’t leave whenever I want. I do close for an hour everyday at this time; I’ll definitely look around next time though. I know it’s too late for lunch, but how about a cup of coffee next door. I hear their homemade muffins are the best in town,” said Jonathan. “I’m interested in hearing what you have to say about the next Association meeting.”
 

Alyx didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation for coffee. She reached for a copy of the meeting agenda from the stack on the counter and handed it to him. He folded it and put it in his pocket.

“I’ll be ready to go in a minute, I have to tell Nelda I’m leaving and put Murfy on a leash.”

They walked out smiling with me bouncing along beside them. Alyx was explaining about my protectiveness, and I don’t think she saw David Hunter get out of his car across the street––but he saw her. He stood there for a moment, and then got back in the car and drove off.

“I’m glad you could get away. Do you always have two people in the store?” asked Steele.

“As often as we can manage it without making it a hardship for anyone. Our design business keeps Maggie and me out of the store more than we like. We have two wonderful, trustworthy employees and we’re possibly looking to hire a third to help with the decorating part. Maggie and I both miss the hunt for antiques and collectibles and we want to do more of that.”

“That’s the same with me, except I search for items that will someday become an antique or collectible. I still intend to travel; I’m limiting my trips to faraway places in this country for the time being though.”

“Given the state of the world these days, I’d say that’s a wise decision on your part.”

They talked about the business climate on Ocean Street, but most of the conversation was about his travels. Alyx asked him about the Taj Mahal.

“Stop me if I start to sound like a tour guide.”

Alyx laughed; she was doing a lot of that.

”As you know, the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum.”

She said she didn’t, and he continued. “The Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built in memory of his wife, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. It took twenty thousand men and seventeen years to build it. The main building material is white marble inlaid with red sandstone, jasper, jade, crystal, turquoise, sapphires, and diamonds. In all, twenty-eight kinds of rare, semi-precious and precious stones were used.”

“Do they allow people to tour the inside?”

“Yes, they do. There’s a central chamber, a crypt immediately below and four octagonal corner rooms originally intended to house the graves of other royal family members. In the center are the cenotaphs of Shah Jahan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. According to custom, she rests immediately below the dome and he is to the left and a little higher. Above the tombs is a Cairene lamp, which is not supposed to burn out. Both tombs are exquisitely inlaid with semiprecious stones, and surrounded by a marble screen of trellis work.”

He leaned back in his seat, “I hope I haven’t told you more than what you wanted to hear,” he said apologetically as one who loves his subject matter, not sure when to stop.

“No, not at all. I’ve never known anyone who’s actually seen it. Is it true that the emperor planned on building a black marble Taj for himself?”

He shrugged, “It’s often mentioned in historical guidebooks, but many scholars believe it’s a myth. What do you think?”

“I think that he built the mausoleum in memory of his beloved wife and is happy to be buried with her.”

“I agree.”

Maggie was standing behind the cash register grinning at Alyx like the proverbial Cheshire cat when we returned. “Nelda said you were having coffee with a very good-looking man who wasn’t David,” she said.

Two creases formed between her eyes at the mention of David’s name, and then disappeared as she told Maggie about Jonathan Steele.

“He’s so interesting… and the more he talked, the more I liked him. I started noticing little things about him, like the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. I noticed he used his hands a lot––strong, with well-manicured fingernails. I had to fight the urge to touch the dimple on his chin to the point that I had to fold my hands on my lap for fear of actually doing it.”

She suddenly stopped talking as if she’d said more than she wanted to say.

“That’s enough about Jonathan Steel. What’s up with you?”

“I just spoke with George, and we’ll be leaving for the Keys this Friday––back in a few days. I asked Nelda if she could help you with Althea’s estate sale Saturday, and she said she would. Now, are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Yes, don’t worry. Go have fun. And don’t forget; I’m here when you’re ready to talk.”

Maggie hugged her. “I’m hopeful that it will be resolved by the time we get back.”

“‘What’s your name?’ Coraline asked the cat. ‘Look, I’m Coraline. Okay? ‘Cats don’t have names,’ it said. ‘No?’ said Coraline. ‘No,’ said the cat. ‘Now you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names.’”

––
Neil Gaiman,
Coraline

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:
Murfy’s List of Suspects

Althea’s next-door neighbor, Bill, was talking to a woman with tomato red hair, wearing a pink sleeveless housedress, the hot pink nail polish a perfect match to her lips. We drove up in front of Althea’s condominium.

“Hi, Bill,” said Alyx. “How are you doing?”

“Fine. Fine. At my age, what else can I say that won’t bore you to death?”

Alyx introduced herself to the red haired woman.

“Wanda, here, was telling me about Althea’s niece,” Bill said.

“What about Althea’s niece?” asked Alyx.

He looked at Wanda for an answer. “She and a young man were here earlier today,” she answered in a gravelly smoker’s voice.

“She must have decided she wanted something before the estate sale,” suggested Alyx.

“If she did, she didn’t take it with her. It looked to me like they were angry about something,” said Wanda. “They came out, slamming the front door shut, and then slamming their car doors.”

“Did they say anything?”

“I heard her son say something about it not being his fault.”

“How did you know it was Carole’s son?”

“I happened to be outside when they came over one day,” explained Wanda, “and when they left, Althea told me who they were, and she didn’t seem too happy about the visit, either. The young man––Carole’s son––was here with another man the night before her body was found.”

“What did the other man look like?” asked Alyx.

“I was walking my dog, and not paying attention. All I noticed about him was that he was rather portly.”

“Did the police talk to you?”

“Yes, and I told them all this.”

Alyx chatted with Bill and Wanda for a few more minutes before we went inside.

“Okay, fur-baby,” she said to me, “let’s see what else you can find today.”

She stood in the living room thinking aloud. “What were they looking for––do you think it was that pill case–– or something else?”

I raced up the stairs and she followed slowly talking to herself.

“Okay, let’s think about this. As things stand, Carole will inherit quite a sum of money, and due to her family’s financial problems, she had motive to kill Althea. For the same reason, Carole’s son could have killed her so his mother could get access to the money; that pill case could belong to either one of them, and they came back looking for it.”

I agreed with her assessment. It was also possible that Althea’s long-lost son had gotten in touch with Carole––she would be, after all, his cousin and only family. Maybe Carole was worried that Althea’s son would contest the will, and so she came back looking for something having to do with that.

Carole and her son weren’t the only suspects on my list. There was also Carole’s husband––his own financial situation could be worse than Carole knew or admitted to. He could have killed Althea.

Finally, although I had nothing concrete to go on yet, there was one other person who had motive and opportunity––Althea’s son. According to the letter from the private investigation firm, he’d planned to see Althea. He could be the murderer––his motive the same as the others––money.

Alyx had her question answered as to what Carole and her son were looking for as soon as she entered Althea’s room and saw the contents of the lingerie chest she’d previously boxed, spilled on the bed.

“They most definitely were looking for something, weren’t they, Murfy?”

I meowed in agreement. No sense in looking through that; it looked like they did a good job. Regardless, she quickly went through it as she put it all back into the box, not bothering to sort it this time, and found nothing to back-up the scenarios she’d mentioned––or mine––for that matter.

“Well, that’s that. The only thing left to do is to go to Carole’s house and find out if either her son or husband has a heart problem.”

Alyx paused in the living room, and her eyes fell on a small Imari porcelain bowl sitting on a console table against the stairwell. The bowl didn’t have a tag, and she picked it up for closer inspection. When she did, an amber bead fell out.

I figured the bead had broken off of something, and when I saw a basket of jewelry sitting on the coffee table, I called attention to it with my ‘I want something’ meow that I’d trained her to recognize.

She rifled through it, didn’t find anything to match the amber bead, and dropped it in the basket. Something must have popped in her mind as she did that. She shook her head as if to clear it, and said, “Come on, Murfy, let’s get out of here,” expecting me to follow. I wasn’t ready to go yet though, and I turned my back, and quickly pawed through the jewelry until I found the bead that Alyx had tossed in the basket. I secreted it in my mouth thinking it would serve as evidence later, if needed.

“The dog has a human master; the cat is the master of his human.”

––
Murfy

CHAPTER THIRTY:
Antiques & Designs–A Midnight Visit

Alyx sat up in bed, none of us sure what she’d heard until the doorbell rang again. She grabbed her robe and peered out the kitchen window before going to the door or turning on any lights. A Beachside police cruiser was in her driveway and she hurried to the front door.

The shorter of the two officers spoke first,” Are you Alyx Hille?”

“Yes. What’s wrong? Did something happen to my son, Ethan?”

The officer introduced himself and his partner.

“No, ma’am, we’re here to report a break-in at your store on Ocean Street.”

She took a deep breath, “Okay, tell me what happened,” she said, opening the door wider, inviting them into the foyer.

“We were patrolling the area and didn’t see anything outstanding until we drove around to the parking area in the rear of the stores and saw the back door to your establishment wide open. We investigated and found no one inside. We believe the perpetrator or perpetrators fled when they saw us. We’d like you to come with us and identify any missing items for our report.”

She wished Maggie were around. As if he read her mind, the taller officer said, “We also tried to contact Maggie Broeck; there was no answer.”

“Maggie is my business partner and she’s out of town, but you already know that, don’t you?”

They gave her one of those polite smiles that isn’t a real smile and fools no one.

She started to walk away and remembered her manners. “Excuse me while I put some clothes on. I’ll meet you there.”

“A cat sees no good reason why it should obey another animal, even if it does stand on two legs.”

––
Sarah Thompson

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:
The Estate Sale

Early Saturday, the morning of the estate sale, Alyx called Maggie to tell her about the break-in.

“I’ll have Bernice take inventory today to make sure nothing is missing,” she said. “The items from Althea’s condominium are in shambles, though. The furniture was turned over on its side, drawers pulled out, chair seats removed, apparently ready to be torn apart, possibly interrupted by the appearance of the patrol car…” She paused. “They searched under, behind and in all the drawers.”

“I’m speechless,” replied Maggie. “What could they have wanted?”

“I think someone was looking for something that belonged to Althea.”

“So you don’t think it was a robbery?”

Alyx took a deep breath before answering. “No, I don’t. At first, I thought it might have been bored teenagers out for an evening of mischief, but now I think maybe not. The police are calling it a break-in, and said they’ll conduct an investigation accordingly. They did say they found the alarm disabled. Apparently, it’s an old-fashioned model, and anyone could have disabled it. I don’t necessarily agree with that; I couldn’t.”
 

“I’m sorry, Alyx. I shouldn’t have left you with the estate sale going on––and now this to deal with too. We’ll leave right away, and I’ll investigate the cost of putting in a new alarm system as soon as I get back.”

“No, it’s not necessary for you to leave, Maggie. I can handle it. The only reason I called was to let you know about it. If I need you, I promise I’ll call. I’ll let you know if there are any developments and don’t worry, okay?”

Although Alyx rushed to get to Althea’s place early, Nelda was already at her condominium when we arrived for the estate sale.

“I’ve got coffee and pumpkin muffins,” Alyx announced, and handed Nelda the bag of muffins.

They unloaded and set up a card table in the garage, grabbed a couple of chairs from the kitchen, and Alyx tied my leash to her chair, which was totally unnecessary since I wasn’t about to go anywhere with a crowd of people stomping around, not watching where they stepped, I’m sure.

The women barely had time to take a sip of coffee when a caravan of trucks and vans arrived.

“Fasten your seatbelt, Nelda. Here we go.”

Nelda took a bite of the pumpkin muffin and smiled. “Got coffee. Got food. I’m ready.”

Most of the early birds were local dealers hunting for bargains. Alyx said she remembered all those times when she’d arrive at a sale at the advertised time, and half the items would have been gone because the dealers beat her to the sale and made tempting offers that the homeowners couldn’t refuse.

She ignored the slamming car doors and the murmuring of the mini-crowd until one man––the owner of the collectibles store down the street from Antiques & Designs––asked in a loud, brusque manner, why she wasn’t letting them in.

“In the interest of those who want to buy items for their own use and not for resale, I’ve decided to make it fair, and open the sale at the time stated in the ads. According to my watch, it’s not nine o’clock yet.”

“Aw, come on. You know how it works; this isn’t the only sale going on.”

“It’s the one I’m running, and I’m opening at the time advertised.”

The man clenched his fists, pushed past a couple of other people, made a show of slamming his truck door, and peeled away. No one said anything, except the thumbs-up sign from the young mother in the back of the group.

As the day progressed, the estate sale was going well. Most everything sold for the asking price, and by the middle of the day when the crowd had trickled down to one or two people at a time, Alyx started marking items half-price to move them more quickly.

Alyx and Nelda had everything wrapped up by three in the afternoon. Nelda was helping her carry a few items to her truck, when she saw a note under the windshield wipers and handed it to Alyx, who scanned it and shoved it in her pocket without comment.

“Thanks again for helping out, Nelda. I hope it wasn’t too much for you. Estate sale customers can be trying.” She turned, unlocked the car door, buckled my carrier into the passenger seat, and climbed in without further conversation. She didn’t notice that Nelda hadn’t left, and rested her forehead on the steering wheel.

“Did that rude man from this morning leave you a nasty note?” said Nelda through the window.

“Don’t worry, Nelda; it’s not the first time I’ve made someone angry. Thank you for all your help. You worked hard today. Enjoy what’s left of the day, and I’ll see you Monday.”

Alyx drove straight to the police station, and she asked to see Detective Smarts. He wasn’t in, so she left a message for him to call her as soon as possible regarding a threatening note someone had left her.