Interior Motives (17 page)

The hazy picture began to come into focus. “And I bet you gave her a ton of bogus work to keep her busy while you came and busted her window. I have to wonder if this was what lurked behind your supposedly generous job offer.”

“The window wasn’t my fault,” she wailed. “Some know-nothing fool painted the window shut, and when I went to push up the bottom half so I could crawl in, it wouldn’t budge. So I pushed and pushed and pushed until my hand slipped.”

“Oh no! Did you cut yourself?”

She huffed. “’Course not, Haley. I’m a professional. I wore leather gloves. I don’t leave fingerprints, and I do protect my hands.”

Bella might be nutty, but she’s not dumb. “I’m glad you’re okay. But you didn’t make it inside the house, did you?”

“Nope. And now who knows where my kitty cats went. Please find them for me.”

Yeah, I know. I can’t believe I did it either.

On my way down the shabby street, while I called out a series of ridiculous “Here, kitty, kitty, kitties,” I tried to figure out how I’d wound up in this ludicrous situation.

But when I lurched forward, arms outstretched, determination at its strongest, and wrestled one of the Balis into a bad excuse for submission, the answer came to me. I groaned. The realization mortified me.

I couldn’t avoid the comparison.

Now I knew how I appeared to any observer, herding cats and tangled in their dangling leashes, not to mention how I’d appeared to Dr. Díaz forty-five minutes earlier. Bella had nothing on me. In fact, the comparison put me in the most unfavorable light.

I’d become a younger version of Bella—a nosy busybody, and a clumsy snoop to top it all. Maybe Lila should arrest me, if for no other reason than to protect me from myself. Goodness knows jail’s where Bella needs to be. At the rate she was going, the killer would soon get her.

As soon as he—or she—finished me off.

11

“You owe me big time.”

“I’m sorry, Haley girl.” Bella’s sheepish look screamed how well she knew how much trouble she was in. “How could I know I was going to break a window and slip on rotten leaves, and that the Balis would run away?”

I bit my tongue to stop any snotty comment. A box in my trunk that had once held four gallons of paint served to cage the wildcats in the backseat. Then we got into my car, since Bella had taken her beasts on a walk over to Cissy’s.

“Huh? Aren’t you going to answer?” Bella is persistent. “How do you figure I’d know ahead of time all this was gonna happen? Huh? Mental telegraphy or something?”

“Gee, I don’t know, Bella.” I let the blooper go and tried to sit on my sarcasm. “Maybe the window was an out-and-out accident, but anyone who skulks through shrubs has to know what kind of slippery goop lurks beneath.” And now covered my passenger seat. “As far as the Balis go? You have to expect the worst when they’re around. I’ve told you a million times. They’re a fur-covered threat to the universe.”

“Humph! You’re just anti-cat.”

“I have nothing against cats in general. It’s just your two beasts that make me nuts. Look.” I held out my bloodied arms. “See what your two ‘sweetie cats’ did to me? And all I did was try to keep them from becoming urban roadkill.”

“Okay, so you did catch Faux before that truck squished her.”

“I told you so.”

“No need to gloat.”

“No need to pretend they’re cherubs in fluff either.”

“But they only behave like this when you’re around. It’s your fault.”

Yeah, like smog is my fault too. “All right, already. Let’s call a truce. Your cats aren’t the most innocent around, and I have a rotten time around them. Agree?”

She mulled it over a couple of minutes. “Okay. Truce.” I breathed a sigh of relief. I love Bella. Even though she drives me up and down the wall. Now at least we could talk.

“How about you tell me why you want to break into Cissy’s house?”

“Gotta tell you, Haley girl. I really, really like Cissy. And things don’t look so great for her right now. With the murder, you understand.”

“You’ve gone out on a kinda lonesome limb with the murder suspicion.”

She scoffed. “What about that Larry guy? He thinks his mother got whacked.”

“Hey! Watch the language. That’s awful.” She really had to curb her cable news and Court TV habit. “Okay. So there’s the two of you.”

“Cissy’s sure Darlene got killed, and if you quit being Miss Snooty Pants, you’ll admit you think so too. You were the first one, remember?”

I couldn’t lie. “Okay. You’re right. I do think Darlene was killed. But why would you want to break into Cissy’s house?”

“Because I want to find something, anything that’ll show us one way or the other how she’s involved.”

“
If
she’s involved.” I drew a deep breath. “I know it doesn’t look so hot for Cissy, and I like her too. I don’t want her to be guilty, but guilt’s not something you can cook up after the death. Either she did it or she didn’t.”

“So how’re we going to prove she didn’t?”

I stopped for the red light at the corner of Sandy Cove Lane and Whitecap Drive. We were only three blocks away from home, and I didn’t know if I could come up with an answer in that short a time. I didn’t know if I could come up with an answer no matter how long I took to think.

That’s what I told Bella. “But,” I added. “There is one thing I can try. I don’t know how far I’ll get, since I don’t have any great connections at the bank, but I’m going to try to check out her finances. There’s all that money Darlene ‘gave’ her. I want to know why, when, how—everything about that gift.”

“I can help you with some of that. Cissy had a stump put in one of her arteries.”

Stump?
“Do you mean stent? One of those jobbies that open up clogged arteries?”

“That’s what I told you, Haley girl. A stump. And Cissy needs one of them to try to avoid a heart attack. She’s got gunky veins.”

Only Bella would translate technical terminology like that. “So she told you she had a pile of medical bills? And that’s why Darlene gave her the money?”

“That’s what she said. She even showed me her medicines. Not so pretty, so much stuff, you know?”

“I can imagine.” So the stent could be verified by following up with a doctor or hospital. “But do you know if she’s out of debt now? That apartment looked crummy and cheap.”

“What do you want? The Brothers Chromosov kicked her out of the house. She doesn’t have much money besides her skimpy Social Security check. That’s all she can afford until the estate clears prostate.”

I have to pick my battles around Bella. “Karamazov, Bella. The movie’s name is
The Brothers Karamazov
.

” She shrugged. “You know what I mean. Larry and Tommy are rotten, and they’re mean too. Cissy is broke. But I don’t want her to be the one who killed Darlene. Even if she needs Darlene’s money the most. I’d rather the brothers be the perps. You know, like the ones in the old movie.”

I pulled into Bella’s driveway. “I already said I like her too, and I don’t want her to be guilty, but the person who killed Darlene is guilty, no matter who it is.” I jerked a thumb toward the backseat. “Want some help?”

“You want to help me with the Balis?”

“Why not? They already shredded me to pieces. They can’t do much worse.”

We got the cats into the house with less trouble than I expected. I wound up with only two new gouges and counted myself lucky they weren’t all that deep.

“Gotta go,” I told Bella. On my way to the door, though, I turned around and on impulse gave her a hug. “I love you in spite of your cats.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Love you too, Haley girl. I love you too. So take good care of yourself, and make sure you clean up those scratches. You don’t want them to get infracted.”

Is it any wonder I always feel dizzy around Bella? At the door I called back, “See ya.”

How was I going to get the scoop on Cissy?

I’d have to start at the beginning all over again. With her.

I buckled down for the rest of that afternoon and worked on one of the paperwork peaks. Even though I still had a whole mountain range left to go through after four hours, I felt satisfied with that day’s progress.

And I planned my visit to Cissy in the morning.

I brought my secret weapon with me to Cissy’s place. Midas was over-the-top thrilled when I uttered that magical, mystical question: “Ride?”

His exuberance piled on the guilt; we weren’t going to the park as he expected. But he did ride in the car.

At Cissy’s, he spent an eternity sniffing the shrubs. Of course he did. The bushes must’ve reeked of fresh Balis. Midas is no dummy. He loves to give fresh c-a-t a good run for the money.

When I finally dragged him away, I went up the porch steps, avoided the splintered top board, then made my way to the door and rang the bell. Cissy opened up and immediately slammed the door in my face.

“Hey! Do I have cooties or what?”

“Give me a minute,” she called from within. “I have to lock up Garfield. He’s not fond of dogs.”

Great.
I forgot about her love of cats, one of the things she shares with Bella, when I decided to bring Midas. But it was too late to back down. I needed answers, and it was past time for Cissy to give them.

When the door opened again, she was somewhat breathless. “I’m sorry about that. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have made sure Garfield was in the bedroom before you got here. But come on in.”

We did, and I sat on the shabby brown and green plaid sofa she pointed to. Midas became a canine vacuum cleaner again, his nose to the ground, sucking up every last hint of new and exciting scent.

“I’m the one who should apologize,” I said. “I forgot you were of the Bella persuasion. You’re both cat people.”

“And you’re a dog person. There’s nothing wrong with that. They’re all perfectly fine animals.”

Except the Balis. But why bicker?

Midas’s excitement grew by the nanosecond. When he discovered the door that hid the c-a-t, he’d go for it, and then I’d have to drag him away. I had a small window of opportunity here, and I had to climb through it.

“Tell you what. I’m going to cut straight through all the garbage.” I didn’t want to pretend anymore. “I don’t think Darlene died from cancer, but it’s not been easy to find anything that’ll get the cops to open an investigation. After thinking and thinking until my brain went numb, I realized I had a bunch of questions for you.”

“Not more about the HGH, I hope.”

“Not really. Those I’m tagging for Dr. Dope.”

“HGH is not a drug. Not like you mean.”

“Let’s just agree to disagree, okay?” When she nodded— not happy about it either—I continued. “My questions for you are about you. About your finances, to make things clear.”

“You want to know about the money Darlene insisted on giving me. And she did insist. I wanted a loan to pay off my part of the cost of my procedure—I had a stent inserted— but she wouldn’t listen to my arguments. She said her money did no good if it sat in the bank. So she gave me what I needed to cover the bills as they came in.”

“So you have no proof that she
gave
you the money.”

“No, but I have the bills and the receipts from when I paid them in full.”

“That’ll help.” I was glad she could prove at least that much. Her responses were straightforward, and I hoped she was as honest as she appeared. “So you’re all out of debt now?”

“As far as I know, yes. But you know how hospitals operate. Just when you think you’re done, they bill you for one more thing they overlooked. I haven’t received any new statements in the last seven weeks.”

“Would you say you don’t need the money Darlene left you?”

She took a moment to consider my question. “I don’t
need
the money, but I won’t lie and tell you I won’t take it.” She gestured toward the room’s four walls. “This isn’t exactly the lap of luxury—not that I’d want that either.”

“I understand.” And I did. I’d inherited a fortune, and while it provided me with a great deal of material security, I hadn’t used the money to change much in my life. “You wouldn’t—”

The doorbell cut into my question. I fought down my irritation, but when I saw who’d arrived, that irritation mushroomed.

“I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here,” Lila said. “But I am. Why are you?”

“Midas and I went for an r-i-d-e, and since I had a couple of questions for Cissy, I decided to stop by.”

Midas’s wild exuberance went outright ballistic. That’s when I noticed that Lila held a leash in her hand. At the end of that leash I found the cutest golden pup I’d seen since Midas was that size.

I managed to get in a question over the
yips
and
yaps
. “That’s the little sib, right?”

Lila glanced at her furry companion. “None other.”

“Looks just like his older brother did at that age. He’s going to be big.”

“And just as loud.”

I laughed. “Can’t deny the truth.”

The brothers quieted as they sniffed each other. Then Midas cuffed the little one on the side of the head, and the baby latched onto his floppy ear. The game was on, and in minutes the two went rolling over the floor, their delighted grunts and growls a bizarre background to our equally strange threesome.

“I should leave,” I said. “I’m sure you have a reason to stop by, and I doubt it has anything to do with our dogs.

” Lila studied Cissy. Then she turned toward me. Finally she shrugged. “If it’s acceptable to Mrs. Grover, then I don’t care if you stay. It’ll save me the effort of telling you later.”

I glanced at Cissy and saw the color leach from her cheeks. A buzzard or two swooped in my middle. Lila didn’t make visits for no reason at all.

Cissy’s voice came out hoarse. “This is about Darlene Weikert, isn’t it?”

The detective nodded.

I had to know. “The tox screen results are in?”

She nodded again. “I have to swallow my pride. The tests did turn up something unexpected. Mrs. Weikert had unusually high levels of arsenic in the tested tissues. According to the pathologist, she’d been ingesting the poison for some time.”

Although I’d expected it, her confirmation of my suspicion stole my breath away.