Poisoned in Cherry Hills (Cozy Cat Caper Mystery Book 3) (6 page)

Kat was relieved to find Andrew at the police station. She had been in such a rush to see him she hadn’t bothered to call ahead.

He stood up when she barged into his office. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise.”

She shut the door and dropped into the visitor seat, winded after running across the parking lot. It was a miracle she hadn’t been pulled over for speeding on her way here.

“I need to run something by you,” she said breathlessly.

Andrew sat back down and folded his arms on the desk. “I have an update for you too.”

“On Heidi’s poisoning?” When Andrew nodded, she said, “You go first then.”

“That container you recovered from the restroom tested positive for the same type of poison found in Heidi’s iced tea.”

Although she didn’t think it was possible, Kat’s heart beat a little faster. “It did?”

“Yep. The lab guys say it was some sort of lye-based substance, similar to what might be found in an industrial cleaning solution.”

“Have you been able to link it with anybody?”

Andrew shook his head. “My understanding is that type of product is pretty common.”

Kat’s heart sank. “So really, the vial doesn’t provide you with any leads.”

“Nope,” Andrew agreed, looking unfazed. “Okay, your turn.”

“So, I’ve been thinking,” she began slowly.

“About what happened to Heidi?”

Kat nodded.

Andrew’s jaw tensed. “You’re not involving yourself in this case, are you?”

“Not really,” Kat lied.

He studied her for a long moment, clearly not buying it. But he didn’t challenge her.

Kat coughed. “Anyway, I was thinking maybe that cleaning solution wasn’t meant to be ingested by Heidi after all.”

Andrew picked up a pen and rolled it between the tips of his fingers. “What makes you think that?”

“Because you and I were originally supposed to sit where Heidi and Rebecca ended up.”

When Andrew didn’t reply right away, she looked at him, her stomach clenching when she envisioned how differently the benefit dinner might have turned out if they hadn’t switched places with the Smiths. Instead of sitting here discussing the case with Andrew, she could be sitting at home crying her eyes out while another detective sought justice for his colleague.

“You think the poison was meant for one of us?” Andrew said at last.

“I’m not sure. It’s just a thought that had crossed my mind.”

“It’s certainly an interesting theory.” Andrew braced his elbows on the desk. “Okay, run it by me.”

Kat tried to find a more comfortable position, but Andrew’s tiny office severely limited her range of motion. She finally gave up when her knees banged into the desk for the third time. “Heidi ended up sitting in one of our seats, right?”

“Mine,” Andrew confirmed.

Kat had already figured he was the intended victim, but his words still chilled her. She couldn’t imagine she would feel any more terrified if she were the person being targeted.

Swallowing hard, Kat said, “That means Heidi likely drank the iced tea originally set out for you. Whoever put that cleaning solution in there might have meant for you to drink it, not Heidi.”

“But who would want to kill me?”

“You
are
a police detective,” she pointed out. “You don’t exactly run across the most law-abiding citizens every day.”

He tapped the pen on his desk. “True.”

“Maybe somebody you put away once was just released and decided to exact revenge,” Kat suggested. “Or it could be somebody you haven’t actually convicted yet. Maybe they think the case against them won’t be as strong if you’re not around to work on it.”

Andrew’s lips thinned. “Those are rather flimsy reasons for killing me. First of all, I can’t see somebody who was recently released from prison risking their newfound freedom by putting out a hit on a cop. Second, CHPD would operate just fine without me. Most of these cases are pretty straightforward. I just put the evidence together to tell a complete story. Almost anybody on the force could do that.”

“What about a friend or family member of somebody you put away?” Kat pressed. “Do you think one of them could want you dead?”

Andrew spread his hands. “What would a friend have to gain by crossing over to the wrong side of the law?”

“Revenge for their friend. Don’t the friends and family of criminals ever get upset over the trial verdicts?”

“Sure, all the time,” Andrew replied. “But killing me isn’t going to get their loved one’s conviction overturned. The only thing that will do is increase their own chance of going to jail.”

Kat snapped her fingers. “Then maybe it was somebody who wanted to be reunited with a person already in jail.”

Andrew lifted one eyebrow. “That would have to be one desperate friend.”

She slumped into her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, whoever tried to kill you has to be pretty desperate.”

“We’re still not sure that poison was meant for me,” he reminded her.

He was right, of course, but now that the idea had popped into her head, she couldn’t shake it. “Just promise me you’ll be careful until the killer is caught,” she pleaded.

“I’m always careful.” His expression shifted as he fixed her under his gaze, his penetrating blue eyes sending a flare of heat surging through her insides. “Kat,” he said softly, “I’m a trained police officer. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

She nodded, praying he wasn’t lying.

As Kat left the police station and headed across the parking lot, she was jarred by a series of sharp barks.

She stopped and surveyed the surrounding area but didn’t see any dogs. Just as she was about to resume her trek to her car, movement in the distance caught her eye. Squinting, she could make out something jumping in the back seat of a rusted red sedan parked across the street.

Kat veered toward the car, trying to see whether anyone was inside. Although the driver’s side window was open halfway, it was much too hot for anyone to leave an animal unattended inside a vehicle. She wouldn’t hesitate to storm back into the police station to report this if necessary.

But as she got closer, she saw there was indeed someone in the driver’s seat. They were turned around, presumably to calm down the dog—a dog who looked eerily similar to Champ.

“Tasha?” Kat called out, inching across the road after checking for oncoming traffic.

Tasha’s head spun toward the window. “Oh, Kat. Hi.”

Kat circled around to the passenger side so she wouldn’t be standing in the street. “What are you doing here?” she asked, peering through the open window.

Tasha bit her lip. “I was just taking a drive and decided to pull over for a second.”

The way Tasha’s eyes flitted sideways when she said the words sent a tingling sensation crawling up Kat’s back. “You weren’t headed anywhere in particular?”

Tasha’s gaze drifted to the back seat. “Champ wanted to go out.”

Kat glanced at Champ, who had his nose pressed against the back window, his tail wagging. She’d never had a dog, but she suspected they preferred to roam around when they were outside. They didn’t typically beg to be loaded up into a car that would then be parked on the side of the road, did they?

She reasoned that Tasha could have been in the process of driving Champ to the park, but that still didn’t explain why she was now stopped with no green areas in sight.

Kat stilled as her eyes locked on to a white, plastic bottle on the floor of the back seat. From this distance, she could barely make out the words ‘super cleaner.’

Every hair on the back of her neck stood up. She thought back to what Andrew had said about the poison responsible for Heidi’s death. The container in Tasha’s car certainly looked like the type that might hold an industrial-strength cleaning solution.

“You just went really pale,” Tasha said, wrenching Kat back to the present. “Are you feeling okay?”

Kat didn’t reply, her mind a whirl as she recalled the extent of Tasha’s distress after Heidi had died. Not long after their encounter in the women’s room, Kat had found that empty vial almost on top of the garbage can. She could kick herself now for not suspecting that Tasha had thrown it away herself.

“You’re not going to faint or anything, are you?” Tasha said.

“No.” Kat tried to muster up a smile but found she couldn’t. “I’m fine.”

“You certainly don’t look fine.” Tasha reached across the passenger seat and pushed the door open. “Sit down for a second.”

Kat had to strain to hear Tasha’s words over the blood rushing through her ears. Her overworked heart combined with the August heat
had
made her a little woozy. If she didn’t sit down there was a very good chance she might pass out.

Besides, if she could keep her composure this might be her chance to coerce Tasha into blurting out something that would confirm her suspicions.

She opened the door the rest of the way and perched on the edge of the seat.

Champ leaned his head over the console and licked her face. Kat nudged him away, the sensation of warm dog saliva on her skin doing nothing to help her building nausea.

“Close the door,” Tasha said. “I’ll turn the AC on until you cool off.”

“I’m okay.” Kat didn’t make any move to pull her dangling legs inside. She wanted to be ready to run if the need arose.

“I said, close the door.”

The sharpness of Tasha’s voice prompted Kat to turn around. That was when she saw the gun pointed at her.

Time seemed to stop, and every muscle in her body tensed. After an indeterminate number of seconds had passed, she somehow managed to lift her tongue high enough to stammer, “Wh—what are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m covering my tracks.”

“What tracks?”

Tasha rolled her eyes. “Don’t play dumb. I saw your expression when you spotted that bottle in the back.”

Kat pried her mouth open to deny it, but realized there wasn’t much she could say. Even if she hadn’t seen what Tasha thought she had, with Tasha holding her at gunpoint there wasn’t much chance of walking away now.

“I should have tossed it earlier, but I thought it might come in handy again,” Tasha went on. She looked Kat right in the eye. “For when I needed to get rid of your little cop pal.”

The air caught in Kat’s lungs. “So it
was
Andrew you meant to kill last night.”

“Yes. Last week I overheard somebody saying how he was going to attend the 4F dinner. That’s when I bought my own ticket and filched that bottle of cleaner from the janitor’s closet where I work. I made sure to carry some in my purse in case I found the opportunity to use it.” Tasha’s face fell. “I never thought I’d end up killing the wrong person.”

Kat wrapped her arms around herself as a shiver traveled through her body. The extent of Tasha’s premeditation turned her blood cold.

Tasha jabbed the gun into Kat’s ribs. “Now get in the car.”

Kat reminded herself to breathe as she pulled her legs into the vehicle, despite how each inhale seemed to bring the gun’s muzzle that much closer to her skin. Her motions felt rigid and unnatural, as though she were learning to move again after spending months in a coma.

“Good. Now close that door,” Tasha ordered.

Kat reached for the door handle, briefly entertaining the wild idea of throwing her body onto the sidewalk. But when her brain kicked into gear a moment later, she realized how pointless such an attempted escape would be. Even if she somehow managed to make it out of the car alive, Tasha would undoubtedly either run her over or shoot her before she could get far enough away.

Kat pulled the door closed, a sickness spreading throughout her insides when she heard the locks engage.

“That’s better,” Tasha said.

Kat forced her gaze to the driver’s side, trying not to panic. She looked out the window, scanning the outside of the police station in search of someone she could signal for help. The parking lot was empty.

Her eyes traveled downward to Tasha’s hands, and she wondered if she should make a pass for the gun. Given how it was pressed up against her rib cage, she didn’t dare risk it.

As much as she hated the thought, her best option seemed to be to do whatever Tasha wanted until a better opportunity to escape presented itself. Meanwhile, maybe she could keep Tasha talking, giving her more time to think of a way out of this situation.

“I don’t understand,” Kat began. “What do you have against Andrew?”

Tasha’s face darkened. “He put Jake away.”

“Your fiancé,” Kat filled in.

Tasha nodded. “All he did was drive home drunk once. Nobody deserves to go to prison for that.”

“But he killed two people,” Kat reminded her.

Tasha’s head reared back as if she’d been slapped. “Not on purpose! And it was snowing. Anybody could have lost control of their car in those conditions.”

“The snow was all the more reason why he should have called a cab, or you,” Kat argued, a spark of anger penetrating her fear. “Even if the weather did contribute to the accident, his reflexes were compromised.”

“I know that,” Tasha spat. “And I’m not saying he wasn’t in the wrong. But to be convicted of homicide?” She shook her head. “That was completely unnecessary.”

“What kind of punishment do you think he deserved instead?”

“Something like community service. Revoke his license or whatever. But not prison. That’s going overboard.”

Kat didn’t say anything. She couldn’t help but recall how stricken Rebecca had looked this morning. Kat was pretty sure that from her point of view, Jake couldn’t possibly receive a sentence severe enough to fit his crime.

“And your cop pal Andrew is the main reason why Jake’s been sent away to rot,” Tasha continued, her voice hard. “If he hadn’t been so gung ho about building that case, Jake would have gotten a sentence more in line with his crime. Then I wouldn’t have been left all alone.”

Kat stared at Tasha, the pain etched on her face illuminating her motive with crystal clarity. Tasha wasn’t as upset about Jake serving time for vehicular homicide as she was about how she had lost her fiancé as a result. In her mind,
she
was the one being punished for a crime she had no control over.

“What about you?” Kat said, jerking her chin toward the cleaning solution in the back. “What kind of sentence do you think you deserve for deliberately murdering somebody?”

Tasha glared at her. “What I’m doing is making sure justice is served.”

“Justice?” Kat scoffed. “You killed an innocent person.”

“That was an accident. If Andrew had been sitting where he was supposed to, she never would have died.”

Kat’s hands curled into fists. If it weren’t for the pistol jammed into her side, she would be sorely tempted to reach across the console and strangle the woman seated next to her.

“You know Andrew and Jake used to belong to the same bowling league?” Tasha said. “This was years ago, but my point is that he knew all about Jake’s good qualities too. But did he bother to include any of that in his case report?”

“No matter what his relationship with Jake was, he has to present the case as he sees it.”

Tasha snorted. “Please. He was the lead detective. He could have convinced the D.A. or the police chief or whoever to go for a lighter sentence. He could have shown Jake some leniency. But did he bother to do any of that? No.”

Kat didn’t say anything. She knew no matter how she tried to defend Andrew it wouldn’t matter. To Tasha, it wasn’t a question of whether Jake had deserved his sentence. It was whether she had deserved how that sentence affected her.

Tasha sighed. “We were happy, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Tasha said softly. “He was the only guy I’ve ever loved.”

Kat realized the gun was no longer pressed as firmly against her body. If she could distract Tasha with talk of Jake, perhaps she could wrest her weapon away.

“Tell me about him,” Kat said, sitting back as if they were just two girlfriends settling in for a chat about relationships.

“He was great. I’d never met anybody like him.”

“How’d you meet?” Kat asked, shifting a millimeter closer to the door.

“He rescued me. My car broke down when I was on my way to Seattle. I managed to pull over to the side of the road, but my phone had died, I didn’t have a clue what was wrong, and everybody just kept driving by.” Tasha smiled. “Then there was Jake, pulling up behind me like a knight on a white horse.”

Although Tasha’s eyes were on Kat, she didn’t seem to be really looking at her. Her face now had a dreamy expression on it, as though she were getting lost in her memories.

“After he fixed up my car, he asked for my number,” Tasha said. “He called me later that same day, and that weekend he took me to this fancy restaurant in Wenatchee called . . .”

Kat tuned out as her gaze drifted to the gun. Tasha was no longer gripping it with enough force to cut off the circulation in her fingers. Kat was tempted to make a grab for it, but her palms went sweaty whenever she noticed how close it still was to her ribs. If the gun went off during a struggle the bullet would most likely hit her, even if Tasha didn’t have time to aim at anything in particular.

“I mean, he had his faults,” Tasha was saying. “Everybody has their faults, right? I wasn’t perfect either. But when I was with him everything just seemed easier.”

Kat almost jumped out of her skin when Andrew slid into view outside the window.

“Don’t move,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.

Tasha gasped, her head whipping around. She blanched when her eyes alighted on the service weapon Andrew had aimed squarely at her chest.

Kat choked down a cry of relief. She didn’t think she had ever been more thrilled to see anyone in her entire life.

“Wh—what are you doing here?” Tasha stammered.

“Arresting you.”

Deciding to take advantage of the situation, Kat fumbled for Tasha’s now abandoned gun. She somehow managed to pick it up and toss it through the passenger window in spite of how badly her fingers were trembling.

Andrew didn’t even glance in her direction. Kat wasn’t sure if he already knew about the gun, or if he was too focused on Tasha to notice what she was doing.

“You need to exit the vehicle,” he said. “Slowly.”

Tasha’s eyes grew wider, but she dutifully reached for the door lock. Her hands were now shaking as violently as Kat’s were.

Champ barked and tried to clamber into the front seat. Kat reached behind her and held onto his collar. If Andrew ended up discharging his weapon, she would hate for the Labrador to be injured incidentally.