The Legend of Tabby Hollow (Whales and Tails Mystery Book 5) (9 page)

“I guess you never really want what you have,” I mused.

I tensed as we approached the ferry dock. I could see the boat in the distance. I didn’t know what I was going to do if Maggie didn’t drive off the car deck with the other travelers.

Cody parked near Coffee Cat Books. He took my hand as we walked to the disembarking area. I could feel my stomach begin to churn as the boat approached the dock. It took a few minutes for the crew to tie up before the passengers began to file off. I held my breath as first one car and then the next began to drive off.

“I don’t see her,” I said with a tone of panic in my voice.

“They still need to clear the lower level.” Cody squeezed my hand.

“Maggie hates the lower level. She says it’s too tight to park comfortably. She always arranges to park on the main level.”

“Maybe she was late and didn’t have a choice,” Cody suggested.

I watched as red cars and blue cars and vans and trucks all filed from the vessel, but no Maggie. When the crew gave the all-clear signal I began to cry.

The drive back to the peninsula seemed to take forever, but it actually took just a few minutes. I was never so happy in my life to see Maggie’s car in the drive and the lights on inside her kitchen. I hopped out of the car and ran inside, where Maggie was having a cup of tea and chatting with her cat, Akasha.

“Oh my God, where have you been?” I threw myself into Maggie’s arms and continued to sob.

“What’s wrong?” Maggie hugged me tightly. “I told you I’d be away until today.”

“But you weren’t at the yoga retreat and then there were the murders.… I was so scared.”

Maggie took a step back and looked me in the face. “What murders?”

Cody and I spent the next half hour catching Maggie up on everything that had been going on since she’d been gone, including the fact that Siobhan was currently staying with her.

“I can’t believe Grover and the mayor are dead.” Maggie looked as if she were in shock. “Who would do such a thing?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out. We have a lot of theories, but none of them have panned out so far. Given the fact that both Bradley and Grover were members of the Island Council, we think their deaths might be related to something the council has going on.”

“No wonder you were worried. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Where were you?” I asked.

“I just needed to have some time to myself.”

I wanted to push it, but I could see I wasn’t going to get any more out of her. At least not for now. I looked out the window at the darkening sky. “I really should go to let Max out. The others are coming over to strategize. Why don’t you join us? You knew the men as well as any of us. Maybe you can help.”

“I’d be happy to come by. Just let me grab a sweater.”

“Oh…” I turned just as I was about to go out Maggie’s back door toward my cabin. “Siobhan borrowed your whiteboard so we could create a murder board. I hope you don’t mind.”

Maggie laughed. “I don’t mind at all. Do you?”

“Why would I mind? It’s not my board.”

“That’s not what I meant. Siobhan has a way of taking charge even when the thing she’s taking over isn’t really hers to control.”

“I don’t mind,” I confirmed. “I’m just happy to have her home.”

When Danny, Tara, Finn, and Siobhan arrived everyone greeted Maggie and then we set to work to try to figure out our next move. It seemed our little Scooby gang was growing. With the addition of Maggie this evening there were seven of us, plus Max and Ichabod.

Siobhan once again began the discussion. “I guess we should start by following up on the cats,” she suggested. She looked at Maggie. “Francine informed us that Mayor Bradley was planning to have the cats removed from the hollow. Can you elaborate?”

Maggie glanced at me with a guilty look on her face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to worry you, and I was determined that I was going to stop him, one way or another.”

“That’s okay,” I said, but I was certain my expression said anything but.

“I really am sorry.”

“I’m not a baby anymore. You don’t have to protect me.”

“I know. Again, I’m sorry.”

“So about the cats…” Siobhan brought us back on topic. “Why did Bradley want the cats gone anyway? I get that he isn’t a fan of the species, but the cats in the hollow tend to stay there. They don’t bother anyone.”

“I really don’t know why he was so adamant that the cats had to go,” Maggie said. “And I find it more than a little disturbing that he died in the hollow. What was he doing there in the first place?”

“We don’t know,” I admitted.

“Are we thinking that someone killed Bradley over the issue of the cats?” Maggie asked.

“Honestly, I kind of doubt it,” I answered. “For one thing, we have two council members dead, and I can’t see how Grover ties in with the cats. For another, I can’t think of anyone who would actually commit murder over the cat issue except for you and me, and I’m pretty sure we didn’t do it. At least
I
didn’t do it.”

I looked pointedly at Maggie.

“
I
didn’t do it,” Maggie defended herself.

“Okay, then, if the mall isn’t the motive and the cats aren’t either, what is?” Siobhan asked. “Are there any other hot-button issues the council is working on?” She looked at Maggie.

Maggie sat quietly. I imagined she was considering Siobhan’s question. Although the reason we were all gathered was unsettling, it was nice to have everyone working together.

“There’s one thing, but I have a hard time believing anyone would kill two men over it,” Maggie began. “Shortly after Francine and I were elected to the council, Bradley suggested we might want to take a look at some of the companies the island contracts with for certain services.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like garbage removal and street maintenance. These services are provided by private companies based in larger cities such as Seattle. The parent companies hold the contracts with the council and they staff a local office to actually provide the services. Bradley seemed to be pushing for the council to put the services out to bid. I’m not sure why it came up at this point, but the rest of the council were of the opinion that the companies we currently contract with were doing a good job. No one really wanted to mess with a competitive-bidding process.”

“Yeah, why fix what isn’t broken?” Tara commented.

“Why would Bradley even want to mess with such an expensive and time-consuming process if the council is happy with the contractors they’re currently working with?” Siobhan asked.

“Kickbacks,” Danny guessed.

“After considering the issue I believe Danny is probably right,” Maggie confirmed. “Although I should state that I have no proof of it one way or the other.”

“So someone was bribing him to turn the contracts over to them,” I clarified.

“Yes. The issue seemed to heat up about six weeks ago, when out of the blue Bradley managed to get Grover to go along with his idea. Byron was on the fence, but I could see he was waffling under pressure from Bradley and Grover.”

“So who would have motive to kill them?” Tara asked.

“The men who currently hold the contracts,” Maggie answered. “The refuse contract alone is worth millions of dollars a year. If the service went out to bid chances are a new company hoping to get a foothold in the area would underbid the current contractor to force a change.”

“Can you get us a list of all the companies that would be affected, as well as the names of the owners of those companies?” Cody asked.

“I can. If I had to guess I’d say the person with the most to lose should the council vote to put the contacts out to bid would be Dougan Flounder. He’s the only contractor who’s based locally.”

“And what does he do?” Siobhan asked.

“He takes care of the landscaping and maintenance of all the public areas such as parks and walkways. He has a year-round staff that’s been with him for a number of years, and I know he pays them well. I won’t say he’s expensive exactly, but I do think he would lose in a bidding war to a larger corporation should it come down to that.”

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow,” I offered. “He comes into the bookstore for coffee most mornings, so maybe I can catch him then, although I’d say the guy doesn’t seem like he has a violent bone in his body.”

“I have to agree with that,” Maggie offered her opinion.

Siobhan turned and looked at the board. She held the marker to her chin as she appeared to study what we had. I sat back and tried to make sense of it all. The issue with the cats provided an emotional motive, whereas the one with the contracts provided a financial one. I couldn’t help thinking of the saying about love and money.

Ichabod jumped into my lap and began swatting me in the face. I hadn’t paid as much attention to him as I probably should have since he’d been with me. I was admittedly busy, but that really wasn’t an excuse. I knew my time with the cats that came into my life was short, so I usually tried to make the most of what we had.

“I’m going to check Ichabod’s food and water,” I announced. “I’ll be right back.”

I headed toward the kitchen, but the cat headed up the stairs. Maybe it was the cat box that needed attention. I followed my feline friend up to the loft and headed to the cat box. Ichabod jumped up onto the dresser and began swatting things onto the floor. I was about to tell him to knock it off when I remembered previous feline visitors and their fortuitous rearrangement of my personal possessions.

I looked closely at each item as I picked it up. I doubted my hairbrush held a clue, or the new earrings I’d recently purchased at the farmers market either. There was a flyer for the Halloween party the town was holding on Main Street next weekend. The event was usually a lot of fun. Maybe I’d ask Cody if he wanted to go with me. I put the flyer in my pocket so I’d remember to ask him and then picked up the only other item on the floor: my car keys. Cody had picked me up that morning, so I hadn’t needed to take the keys with me. I picked them up off the floor and looked at them.

Then I looked at Ichabod. “These are my car keys.”

He meowed and rubbed against my leg.

I remembered that I’d found it odd that Bradley’s car hadn’t been found at the entrance to the hollow, from which one was required to continue on foot. Grover had floated in from a boat, we’d assumed, so his vehicle hadn’t been on-site either. I wondered if Finn had managed to track down either car yet.

After I checked Ichabod’s cat box for good measure, I headed back down the stairs. The group had taken a break and Tara was serving them beverages and cake left over from my mother’s dinner.

“Did you track down either Bradley’s or Grover’s car?” I asked Finn.

“No. Neither vehicle was at the victim’s home. Grover’s wasn’t parked at any of the marinas on the island and Bradley’s wasn’t on or near any of the access roads to the hollow. I’ve told everyone who works law enforcement on the island to keep an eye out for both vehicles. It’s a small island, so I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually.”

I thought about the keys. I had the feeling Ichabod wanted me to do something more proactive than just wait for someone to stumble across the vehicles.

“Yes, the island is small, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the vehicles will be found,” I countered. “They could be inside a shed or a garage, or camouflaged in some way. I think we need to actively look for them. I wonder if either vehicle had a GPS system. Both sedans were fairly new.”

“I’ll check.” Finn excused himself to make a phone call.

“Okay, where were we?” Siobhan asked after everyone except Finn returned to the living room.

“While my gut tells me that the motive behind the murders is one that would apply to both men, I can’t help but remember when I believed Maggie’s poisoning and Keith Weaver’s death were related,” I began. “I was wrong about that and we could be wrong about this as well. There’s speculation that Bradley was having an affair. While I’m not sure that’s a strong motive, it still might be interesting to find out who Bradley was sleeping with. I’m willing to bet someone saw them together.” I looked at Maggie. “The Bait and Stitch is gossip central on the island. Ask around. See who knows what.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Maggie saluted me while Siobhan wrote our aunt’s assignment down on the murder board.

Finn came back into the room. “I have a hit on Grover’s car. I’m heading out to check it out right now.”

Siobhan handed me the dry erase marker. “I’ll go with you.”

Now there were five.

“I’ve had a long couple of days,” Maggie announced. “If you’re done with me I think I’ll head back to the house.”

I wanted to demand that she tell me where she’d been all week, but I supposed it was none of my business, so I just kissed her on the cheek and told her that I’d catch up with her the next day.

“I really should go as well,” Tara announced. “I hate to leave Destiny alone.”

“I thought you were staying at Maggie’s.”

“We were, but now that Maggie’s back it seems silly. I doubt we’re dealing with some random serial killer. I think Destiny and I will be fine on our own.” Tara looked at Danny. “I let Destiny use my car to take her sisters home after dinner at your mom’s. Can I catch a ride with you?”

“Absolutely.”

And now there were two.

I looked at Cody. “Do you need to go as well?”

“Do you want me to?”

“No.”

“I can stay. Do you want to go over the murder board some more?”

“No.”

“Are you thinking of picking up where we left off in my office?”

“Yes, please.”