Ghostly Paws (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series) (17 page)

I shook my head. “There weren’t any other photo albums or scrap books in there.”

“Where’s the box? Could we take a look?” Carson asked.

I frowned toward my car. “Well, I guess so…”

“Great!” Carson took off toward the car and Derek and I followed.

I opened the back hatch and the empty cargo bay reminded me that I’d been in such a hurry to rush out while Pandora was occupied with the catnip that I’d left the box at home. “Oh, sorry guys … I left the box at home.”

“That’s okay. We don’t need those old books.” Derek’s eyes darkened as he looked up at the mansion. “We have enough stuff in there. The photo album is one thing, but forget about all those old dusty books.”

Derek steered Carson back toward the garage and I remembered I wanted to talk to Idris about the bronzes.

“Hey, I was wondering if I could ask your grandfather about those bronzes,” I said. “I knocked on the door but no one answered.”

Derek scowled up at the house. “Grandfather is very ill. We’re not entertaining visitors in the house.”

“Oh, okay.” I felt disappointed about the bronzes, but maybe I could find out more about Felicity. “Maybe your mother remembers?”

“Mother?” No, I doubt it. She doesn’t take much of an interest in that stuff.” Derek reached into his pocket. “Thanks for bringing by the photo album. What do I owe you?”

I flapped my hand in the air. “Forget about it. I couldn’t sell it to anyone else, anyway.”
 

“Great. Then thanks for stopping by.” Derek turned around, dismissing me, and I watched the two of them walk back to the garage.

I had no choice but to get in my car and drive away, disappointment following me like a black cloud.
 

As the stone mansion grew smaller in my rear view mirror, I got the funny feeling that there was something strange about the Bates family, and it wasn’t just because their house looked like it should be in a horror movie.

Chapter Twenty-Four

I took a detour on my way back to the bookstore. I wanted to get the box of books I’d left at home so I’d have some new stock for the store.

Pulling into the driveway, I trotted up the farmer’s porch steps and opened the door, expecting to be greeted by an angry Pandora.

The box sat on the kitchen table, right where I’d left it. I hefted it up against my hip, noticing the odd silence in the house.
 

“Pandora?”

Silence.

She must be really mad. I pictured her silently glaring at me from the living room sofa, or maybe hacking up a hairball on my bed.

I peeked into the living room. No cat, just the sun glinting off the paperweight, which reflected the books from my bookshelf on its curved surface.
 

Putting down the box, I went over to get the one thing that would bring her running—a can of cat food.
 

I popped open the top. Usually, the sound would entice her from even the most remote part of the house, but this time she didn’t come.

I made a lot of noise putting the food into a bowl, but still no Pandora. Glancing over at the cat door, I realized she must have gone out.
 

“Well, I’m sure she can take care of herself,” I said to no one as I picked the box back up and headed for my Jeep.

The books shifted in the box on the seat beside me as I drove to the bookstore. I probably
should
let Derek and Carson look through them before I stocked them on my shelves. I knew there were no more photo albums or scrapbooks, but some of the books were ancient and if they’d had a book in a collection, it should probably go back to the family.

I didn’t have time to go back there now, though. I wanted to open the shop for the full afternoon and hopefully make up for all the time I’d been taking off.

I parked in my spot behind the shop and dragged the box inside, setting it down behind the counter. Potential customers were already peering in the windows, so I hurried over to unlock the door and turn the sign to ‘Open’.

Customers filed in immediately and I enjoyed a busy afternoon with almost record sales. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any time to look at the books in the box or call the Bates’. I’d been so busy, I didn’t even notice it was past five p.m. when the steady stream of customers died down.

The approaching dinner hour emptied the streets and I closed up shop, taking the chance to sneak away and visit Emma over at the church. I doubted she was the one that killed Lavinia, but she did mention she needed money and she
was
hiding something. If nothing else, maybe I could find out what secret Lavinia and Ophelia shared.

***

The white doors of the church loomed in front of me. They were big, standing about twelve-feet tall. And they were locked.
 

Oversized brass latches adorned the front. I pulled and tugged on them, but the doors wouldn’t open. Did the church close? I thought it was always open.

I turned away from the doors, my shoulders slumping. I was batting zero in my investigation today—I hadn’t been able find out anything about the bronzes and now I wouldn’t be able to talk to Emma, either.

“Mew.”

I turned to my left and recognized the ginger-colored cat Pandora had had the altercation with behind the library. Come to think of it, I’d seen the same cat at Lavinia’s funeral.
 

I crouched down and put my hand out.
 

“Here, Kitty,” I crooned, trying to lure the cat over.

The cat looked at me with disdain, then turned toward the woods, walked a few steps, then turned back to look at me again.

“Meow.”
 

The cat swung around and headed toward the woods again, pausing a second to look back over its shoulder at me, almost as if it was trying to get me to follow it.
 

Should I?

I hesitated on the church steps, trying to remember what was in that direction. I knew the church owned a lot of land in addition to the piece I was standing on where the church was built and the large parcel behind it where the cemetery was. The wooded area the cat was heading into was also part of the church property, but hadn’t been developed yet.

The cat was at the edge of the woods now, looking back at me.

“What the heck,” I said out loud, and started into the woods after it.

The dense woods blocked out most of the late afternoon sun and a damp chill settled on me as I followed the cat. Surprisingly, my leg didn’t hurt. I hoped it was finally getting better.

The cat was following a path and we hadn’t walked far when a rustling sound to my right caused my heart to jerk. I whipped my head toward it. Just another cat. I breathed a sigh of relief as I recognized the gray tiger cat as one that had been behind the library when I’d found the embosser.

I kept following the orange cat while the gray tiger kept pace over to my right, but at a safe distance. Just when I was starting to wonder if I’d made a mistake, an unkempt building appeared. It looked like some sort of storage building—large, with a door on the front but only one window on the side.
 

We were about ten feet away when the door opened slowly. My breath caught in my throat as Emma backed out of the building.

Emma whirled around, leaving the door open behind her.
 

“What are
you
doing here? This is church property!” Her voice rose in a pitch of anger … and maybe even a little anxiety.

Stainless steel bowls clanked together in her hands and I leaned sideways to see into the building behind her.
 

She stood her ground, legs firmly planted as if she was guarding Fort Knox. What was in there? A stash of crucifixes? Frankincense and Myrrh? What could possibly be so important in a church storage shed … and what was with those bowls?

Elspeth appeared in the doorway and I sucked in another surprised breath.

“Elspeth?” My brows mashed together as I stared at my neighbor. What was
she
doing here?

“It’s okay, Emma,” Elspeth said sweetly. “Willa is a friend.”

Emma eyed me dubiously as she stepped aside.
 

“Not many people know about this place.” Elspeth held out her arm, beckoning me closer. “We try to keep it secret, because there are some that would do us harm. Your grandma was a big supporter, though.”

“Supporter?” Apparently, I’d been reduced to one-word questions.

“Yes,” Elspeth’s radiant smile lit her face as she stepped aside. “Come on in and I’ll show you.”

***

The windows on either end let filtered light into the dim interior. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. When they did, I stared in wonder.

“Cats?” I raised my brows at Elspeth.

The building must have been about sixteen by twenty feet. The entire perimeter was stacked with wooden platforms loaded with straw. Bales of hay were strewn about. An occasional wooden kindling box lay on the floor. A row of stainless steel bowls holding cat food and water lined the far end.
 

Cats lounged around the perimeter. Several of them ran off as I entered. Others remained lounging, peering at me warily, coiled to spring up and run if I came too close. A few ignored me altogether. I recognized a couple of them from the day behind the library.

“These are feral cats,” Elspeth said. “As you can see, we have quite a few that we try to keep warm and fed.”

I crouched down, trying to coax one over.

“Most of them won’t go near humans.” Emma crouched down beside me, apparently warming to me now that she knew I had Elspeth’s stamp of approval. She stuck out her hand and clucked.

A ball of black and white fur darted out from behind a bale of hay. It was the small black and white kitten with the tattered ear. She came over to Emma and licked her hand, then eyed me tentatively. I held my hand still and she ventured over, letting me pet her behind the ear.

“The friendly ones like her,” Emma nodded toward the kitten as she scampered back behind the hay bale, “we try to adopt out to a good home. The others are too wild to adopt, so we provide shelter and food for them here.”

Now I knew where Elspeth had acquired her growing collection of cats.

“Why in here?” I asked.

Elspeth and Emma looked at each other. Elspeth’s face grew sad.

“Unfortunately, there are some who would harm our cause,” Emma said.

“Really? Why?” Being an animal lover myself, I couldn’t imagine who would oppose feeding starving animals.

“Some people in this town think the feral cats are dirty and will drive away the tourists that come to spend money,” Emma said.

“So we hide back here.” Elspeth looked around the room. “We’ve had to move the operation to different buildings three times in the past few years.”

“And there’s been some from the ‘opposition’ that come sneaking around the church trying to find the location. That’s why I might have seemed a bit unfriendly to you in the church the other day.” Emma looked at her feet.

“That’s understandable,” I said. I remembered the jingly object she’d been hiding behind her back. It had been a cat toy! That day, Emma had also said Lavinia donated to our causes. “Did Lavinia know about the cats?”

Emma glanced at Elspeth who nodded.

“Yes, she came twice a week to feed them and helped us out financially. In fact, she was here the morning she died,” Emma said.

That explained why Lavinia lied about the candles—she was protecting the cats. Did that also explain why Ophelia lied?

“Would Ophelia Withington be one of the opposers?” I asked.

The look on Emma’s face gave it away. “That woman! I hate to speak ill of anyone, but she was one of the worst ones. Once Pete died, it became an obsession with her. Pastor Foley discovered her skulking around the church … she isn’t a member, so I assume she was trying to figure out where we sheltered the cats. She said they got into some of the empty houses she was trying to sell and brought down property values—she wanted them all to be euthanized!”

My heart twisted as I looked at the cats. No wonder I didn’t like her. Sure, she had seemed nicer since she’d been a victim of one of Pepper’s teas, but who knew how long that would last? Besides, anyone who wanted to euthanize animals just because they brought down property values was no one to be friends with in my book. I found myself wishing, once again, that Ophelia was the killer.
 

Ophelia had been in town that morning, trying to find the cats. She’d provided an airtight alibi for the time of Lavinia’s murder, but what if Emma had seen someone else in town that morning? She was out and about early enough and it was worth asking.

“Emma, was there anyone else around that morning … the morning Lavinia died? Maybe someone else who was trying to uncover the cat shelter?”

Emma pressed her lips together. “The Bates family is another one of our opposers. At least, most of them are. I’ve seen that woman sniffing around in the woods trying to find the shelter, but not that morning.
That
morning I saw her son in that chauffeured car they come around in sometimes.”

“Which son? Derek?” I’d known both Derek and Carson since we were little kids and found it hard to believe either of them would be cat-haters.
 

“I think so. Yes, it was Derek. I saw him sneaking around here early in the morning around six. I avoided detection by hiding behind a tree,” Emma said proudly. “It was weird, though, because later on … about seven … I was all done with the cats and getting coffee at the cafe when I saw someone run out of the woods on the other side of the street—about a hundred feet up from the library—and jump into that fancy chauffeured car the Bates’ have. It must have been him, but I have no idea what he would have been doing all that time.”

“Maybe scouring the woods on both sides for the shelter?” Elspeth offered.

Emma shrugged. “Maybe. I’m just glad he didn’t find it.”

“But that would be a good sign. If he had to look on both sides, it means they don’t really know where the shelter is now,” Elspeth said.

“But you’re sure you saw him?” I asked.