A Tale of Two Tabbies (12 page)

“Who do you think was taping this?” Cody asked.

“I don’t know. That’s a good question.”

“If one of the five blackmail victims isn’t the killer, maybe the person recording the video is.”

“Is there a way to backtrack and find out where the video was sent from?” I wondered.

Cody sat back and looked at me. “Maybe. It depends on how tech savvy the person who sent the video is.” Cody pulled the computer over so it was in front of him. “Let me see what I can find out.”

I waited while Cody punched in commands. It wasn’t like he was a cyber genius, but he definitely knew his way around a computer a lot better than pretty much anyone else I knew.

“That’s interesting,” Cody said.

“What’s interesting?”

“The video was sent from one of the computers on the church network.”

“Which one?”

Cody continued to type, exposing rows of code that meant nothing to me. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’m going to guess it’s the one in Father Kilian’s office. Why would Father Kilian send you this video?”

“He wouldn’t. Besides, he wasn’t there that day.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. His office wasn’t locked. Remember, I went in to get the envelope with the notes he wanted me to present at the community dinner meeting.”

“So someone taped the argument and then sent it to you?”

I frowned. “No. At least they didn’t send it to me at the time of the argument. I didn’t receive it until the next day. Whoever sent it must have regular access to the church building. Let’s play the tape again.”

Cody agreed and the scene unfolded once again. I tried to notice any small detail that might lead to a clue. It seemed obvious that neither Theresa nor Felicity was aware of the person taping their argument. Neither glanced in the direction of the person behind the camera at any point.

“Do you think this was recorded with a cell phone?”

“Probably,” Cody responded.

“Based on the vantage point, it looks like the person making the recording was in the room behind the altar. What if it wasn’t planned? What if someone happened to be in that room for some reason? Theresa and Felicity came in and started arguing. The person in the room realized it was significant, so they recorded it.”

“I guess that’s as good a theory as any.”

“So who would be in the church at that time of day? The women from the guild didn’t show up until two.”

“Maybe one of them was early.”

I supposed we could find out who’d been there that day and then ask them who might have been early. If someone was there Felicity might have seen another car in the parking lot when she arrived. I wondered if she might remember what the car looked like. Of course given the fact that she’d left the island and I didn’t have her contact information, it might be difficult to call her up to ask.

Cliff was on the premises that day, I realized. Maybe he would remember who was there before two o’clock.

“Cliff said he was left a note that prompted him to look for the bug,” I informed Cody. “He said he found the note at around two-thirty but waited to confront Theresa until four because he wanted to wait until the other women left and he knew she would stay behind to practice the piano. What if the person taping the argument between Theresa and Felicity is the person who left the note?”

“Then he or she would most likely have used one of the computers in the church.”

“Maybe the person doing the taping had confronted Theresa, or Theresa realized someone was there. She confronted that person, was killed in the altercation, and the killer used her keys to put her into the trunk of her car. Then she took the car to Theresa’s house and parked it in the garage. But why lock Sydney in the confessional, and why trash the house?”

“Maybe Theresa had some sort of evidence on someone other than the five people in the notebook. The killer could have been looking for it.”

“Still, that doesn’t explain the cat.” I looked at the tape one more time. “The flowers.”

“What about the flowers?”

“They were peach on the Sunday before Theresa was murdered. I remember that because they matched Annabelle’s dress. The flowers in the background were pink and white. At least some of them were.” I pointed to the screen. “The flowers on the left side of the altar are still peach, but the ones on the right are pink and white.”

Cody looked at me. “So?”

“So Wilma told me that she changes out the flowers several times a week if there’s been a request for a special event. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Wilma was in the church making the change when Theresa and Felicity arrived.”

Cody appeared to be considering my theory. “Okay, so why did she hide in the back room when they came in?”

“Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she was back there anyway for some reason. There are lockers back there. If she changes the flowers as often as she indicated, maybe she keeps some supplies on site in case she needs them.”

“Sounds like I need to buy you some flowers.”

“Sounds like maybe you do.”

Cody and I headed into Harthaven, where Coming Up Daisies was located. If Wilma had witnessed the fight between Theresa and Felicity, maybe she had additional information as to exactly what had occurred.

The flower shop was a bright and sunny storefront that was decorated in cheerful colors that helped to accentuate the artfully displayed flowers that greeted visitors with a heavenly scent.

“Cait, Cody, how nice to see you,” Wilma greeted us. “What can I do for you today?”

Cody crossed the store to look at a basket of flowers while I approached Wilma. We’d decided I would talk to her alone so she wouldn’t feel like she was being ganged up on. “Actually, I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes, if that’s okay.”

“Sure. As long as no customers come in.”

“I guess you heard about Theresa,” I began.

“Yes, I heard.”

“Someone tipped Cliff off that Theresa was bugging the confessionals. I thought it might have been you.”

Wilma didn’t answer right away.

“I hate to put you on the spot, but I really need to try to understand the sequence of events on the day Theresa died.”

“You think I killed her?”

“Did you?”

“Of course not. I was at the church changing the flowers for a wedding the following day. The bride and groom had arranged to have her uncle, who’s a retired priest, perform the ceremony and Father Kilian agreed to let them use St. Patrick’s.”

I waited silently for her to continue.

“I was in the back room, using the counter to trim the ends of one of the displays, when Theresa and Felicity came in from the hall. They were arguing. I didn’t want to interrupt them; it seemed to be an emotional discussion, so I waited in the back for them to finish. At some point I realized the argument wasn’t just emotional but potentially deadly. I decided to use my phone to record what I could without giving my presence away. To this day I wonder if I should have interrupted, but at the time I was scared. Felicity wasn’t just mad; she was enraged. After she left Theresa went over to the confessional and took something out of it. I realized it must be a device used to record conversations. Suddenly everything I’d heard made sense. I remained hidden until Theresa left to meet the other women who were arriving for the meeting. When I figured I was safe I finished up with the flowers, loaded my van, and then headed down the hall to Father Kilian’s office to type out a note revealing that Theresa had bugged the confessional. I left it on Cliff’s desk and headed back into town.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I wanted Theresa to be caught, but I didn’t want to be the one to confront her. I knew if Cliff found out what was going on he’d put a stop to it.”

“Do you think he did? Put a stop to it?”

“Cliff? Why, no. Cliff wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s protective of the church and has a pretty loud bark, but I don’t think he has much of a bite, if you know what I mean.”

I did.

“And the tape you sent to Felicia and me?”

“I wasn’t going to send the tape until I realized Theresa was dead. I decided I needed to make public what I knew, so I came back to the church and used Father Kilian’s office to send the video. I knew you were something of an amateur sleuth, so I figured you’d know what to do with it.”

I supposed that made sense, but I wondered why she’d sent a copy to Felicia too. I asked that very question.

“I don’t know. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time, but looking back, it might have been better not to tip her off. I heard she left the island before she could be arrested.”

“She was picked up by the Seattle PD.”

Wilma let out a long breath. “Good. I hated to think I was responsible for letting her get away.”

“When you left the church did you notice who else was on the property?”

“There were a few cars. Theresa’s of course, and two others. I’m not really sure what type of vehicles the other members of the women’s group drive, but there was a dark blue Ford, a four-door, and a white van. I’m not sure of the make and model.”

“Okay, thank you. And please do call me if you think of anything else that might help us figure out who killed Theresa.”

Cody and I headed back toward the peninsula after he bought two bouquets, one for me and one for Francine, who had looked in on Mr. Parsons while he was away.

“So if one of the blackmail victims didn’t kill Theresa and Wilma didn’t do it, who are we left with?” Cody queried.

I wasn’t sure. Cody and I had arrived at the church at five and the parking lot had been empty. Cliff had said he’d argued with Theresa at around four and then she left. If she was killed in the parking lot, it must have happened right after arguing with Cliff. You would think someone would have seen something, but it had been a rainy and dreary day so there hadn’t been a lot of people out and about. Besides, the parking lot was behind the church and therefore not visible from the street. It seemed we were running out of suspects.

Unless…“Okay, how is this for a theory: When I ran into Felicity on the ferry she said she was on the way to the island to take care of some business that couldn’t wait. That was on Tuesday. We know she met with Theresa on Wednesday at around one-thirty. Here’s the thing: If you listen to the tape of her confession, she said
we
were just messing around and
we
didn’t see him until it was too late.”

“So there were other people in the car,” Cody realized. “I wonder why only Felicity was being blackmailed.”

“Maybe Theresa didn’t know who Felicity was with. She never really said, and maybe she never did tell Theresa. So Felicity decided she was done making payments to Theresa. She realized that if Theresa spilled her secret it could also affect the other person or persons in the car, so she called them and gave them a heads up that if there ever were an investigation it could end up revealing the identities of everyone involved. Maybe the other half of Felicity’s
we
wasn’t willing to risk that, or taking over the blackmail payments, so they decided to kill Theresa.”

“Okay, so how do we find out who Felicity was with?”

“I guess we fill Finn in on our theory and hope he can get her to talk.

Finn hadn’t been successful in his bid to get Felicity to share who she’d been with in the car. I had to wonder who it was she was protecting that she was willing to turn down a chance at a lighter sentence if she agreed to roll over on her car mate. In a strange sort of way, I almost admired her willingness to protect the person who obviously had been a friend, at least at the time. Felicity had been in Siobhan’s class; maybe my sister remembered who Felicity had been closest to in high school. It couldn’t hurt to ask. At least she might be able to provide a starting point.

Siobhan had stayed over at Finn’s the night before and I had to get to work, so my chat with my sister would have to wait. In the meantime, I decided to follow up on a few other ideas. I’d remembered that Felicity had dated a guy named Brad Jones for a while after graduation. I couldn’t remember whether they were still together up to the point when she moved off the island, but Brad still lived on Madrona and worked at the fish market just down the street from Coffee Cat Books. If I had a free moment I’d head over to see what, if anything, I could find out.

Luckily, Destiny was working a full day, so after the crowd from the first ferry cleared out Tara thought it would be fine for me to take a short break for an interview.

“Halibut is fresh,” Brad greeted me.

My intention hadn’t been to buy fish, but I did love halibut. “I’m working today, but if you can set some aside for me I’ll stop back at the end of the day to buy two filets.”

“Done. Anything else while I’m at it?”

“Maybe a dozen prawns and a tub of your special cocktail sauce.” Cody was coming by for dinner after choir tonight and a home-cooked dinner of fresh seafood would be just the thing to set a romantic mood. “I ran into Felicity when she was here last week.”

“Yeah, she stopped by. It was good to see her.”

“I seem to remember the two of you used to date.”

“For a while. Before I met Olivia. We had a bad breakup, but after Olivia and I got together we ran into each other and we realized we were never really meant for each other.”

I knew Brad had married his wife only a year ago, so it was possible he was dating Felicity at the time of the car accident. I needed to figure out a way to explore that question without seeming obvious. If he’d been involved in the accident a direct question about the night a man had been killed was only going to tip him off that Felicity had talked.

“It’s nice when exes can be friends. Felicity seems to be doing well in Seattle, and you and Olivia seem very happy. I guess everything really did work out for the best.”

“It definitely worked out for the best for me. Felicity was a wild one when we were together. I might have ended up in a totally different place if I’d stayed with her. Luckily, I was able to see that she was going to get me into trouble eventually and broke things off before it was too late.”

“I seem to remember hearing something about some pretty wild parties,” I fished.

“The wildest. Felicity used to hang out with Darcy North, and Darcy was famous for throwing totally insane parties. In fact, it was at one of those parties that I decided to end things. It was hard at the time because I was really in to Felicity, and she took it hard, which made me feel bad. But she moved away not long after that, and things got easier. Looking back, though, it was the right thing to do. I have a wonderful wife with a baby on the way.”

“A baby? I hadn’t heard. Congratulations.”

“Thank you; we’re very happy.”

Another customer walked in, so I promised to be back later for my order and returned to the bookstore. It didn’t seem like Brad was the person I was looking for. I’d watched his face as he spoke and he’d never appeared guarded. It seemed things probably had gone down exactly as he’d said. He did give me a new lead, however: Darcy North. I did remember she’d gone through a wild period, although she seemed to have calmed down after she became a single mother.

Darcy worked as a receptionist at a dentist’s office in Harthaven. It wouldn’t be as convenient to drop by to talk to her, but I was sure Tara wouldn’t mind as long as the bookstore wasn’t too busy. The next ferry was due in half an hour, so maybe after that crowd cleared out.

“Actually, that would work out great,” Tara responded when I broached the subject. “I have an order I promised to deliver to the hygienist in the office. You can drop it off for me.”

“That’s perfect. It even gives me a reason to be there. I was afraid I might actually have to make a dental appointment.”

It was another beautiful spring day and I enjoyed the fact that I was able to get out of the shop and take a drive. It didn’t take all that long to make the trip from Pelican Bay, where Coffee Cat Books was located, to Harthaven, but I rolled down the windows and enjoyed every minute of the journey.

Luckily, the reception area was deserted when I arrived. Darcy smiled as I approached the desk.

“Is it time for your cleaning already?”

“Actually, no,” I answered. “I’m just here to drop off an order for one of the hygienists.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll be sure she gets it.”

“By the way, I ran into Felicity the other day. It was good to see her. I remember the two of you were friends.”

“Yeah, we were. Back in my wild and crazy pre-mom days. I haven’t seen her for years. Did it seem like she’s doing good?”

“She said she has a busy life in Seattle,” I answered vaguely.

“That’s good. She seemed to be in a pretty dark place after she broke up with Brad Jones. I’m glad things worked out for her.”

“It’s funny you should say that. I just spoke to Brad today. I stopped by to buy some halibut, and he mentioned that Felicity had stopped by to see him when she was on the island recently. I guess they managed to retain their friendship.”

“That’s kind of amazing. He was so mad that night when Felicity and I left a party with Cora and some of the others. I wasn’t at all surprised he broke up with her the next day.”

“That must have been the Christmas party you had at your place?” I fished.

“No, before that, at the post-Halloween freaks and geeks party.”

“The one you used to hold every year on the weekend after Halloween?”

“Yeah. That would be the one. Talk about a wild time. Sometimes I miss that wild and crazy time in my life, but then I look at my adorable little boy and realize I wouldn’t trade him for anything.”

Darcy looked up. “It looks like our next appointment is here. I’ll be sure the hygienist gets this.”

After I left I called Finn to verify that the night of the freaks and geeks party Darcy had referred to was the same one on which the man had been run off the road. It was. If Darcy had been in the car that night, it was odd that she was able to speak so comfortably about it. Maybe the accident had occurred after she was dropped off. Either that or she had an awesome poker face. She had specifically mentioned that Cora was one of the people Felicity had left the party with. I assumed she was referring to Cora Belmont, who conveniently worked at the grocer just down the street. I wanted to pick up ingredients for a salad to have with our dinner that night, so a trip to the market seemed like a logical stop.

My conversation with Cora was brief because she was working the meat counter. I was able to confirm that she was one of the girls who left the party with Felicity, who had been driving, and was the last one to be dropped off. She said Felicity had been heading over to some guy’s house who gave her the creeps, so she’d asked to go home. I asked his name and she said he went by Ringo. He was quite a bit older than they were, and while she didn’t know his real name, she did know he played in a band.

Now all I had to do was track down Ringo. By the time Cora had been dropped off it was well past midnight. Chances were this guy was the person who was in the car with Felicity when the man had been run off the road.

“We have a lot of songs to get through tonight so I need everyone to focus,” I said to the children that evening.

“Are we going to practice that new song you’ve been talking about all month?” Annabelle asked.

Were we? I wasn’t sure. The substitute pianist Cody had arranged to play for the choir last Sunday couldn’t do it on a permanent basis, so we were without accompaniment tonight. The kids did fine practicing the songs they knew without the piano, but I wasn’t sure how they’d do with a new song if they couldn’t hear the melody.

“I think we might want to wait until we can find someone to play the piano,” I answered.

“Can’t you do it?”

“I can get by, but I’m not really very good. I’m afraid I might mess you up if my pacing is off.”

“So get Mr. Dayton to do it,” Annabelle suggested. “He’s cleaning the church. I saw him.”

“Mr. Dayton the janitor?”

“Yeah. He used to be in a band. My dad told me he knows how to play lots of instruments.”

I frowned. Cliff was in a band? Surely Cliff wasn’t Ringo? Cora had indicated that the man Felicity was going to meet was a lot older than she was, and if he really was Ringo and realized Theresa knew his secret, that could account for the intensity of his anger.

Suddenly I had a bad feeling.

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll just run down the hall to get him. If Cody gets here, tell him where I went.”

I called Finn as soon as I got into the hall and away from little ears. I told him my suspicion and he said he was on his way over and that I should return to the choir room and not approach Cliff. I decided that was a good idea and was about to do just that when someone approached from behind me and put a hand over my mouth.

“Who were you talking to?” a deep voice I knew belonged to Cliff said.

I pointed to the hand over my mouth to indicate that I couldn’t answer unless he removed it.

“I’m going to take away my hand, but if you scream or make any sort of noise we’re going to have a problem. Do you understand?”

I nodded my head.

Cliff slowly removed his hand. “Who were you talking to?”

I didn’t want to tell him that Finn was on his way. I was afraid it would create a hostage situation. I tried to consider exactly what Cliff could have heard from only my side of the conversation. When Finn had answered I’d said I thought Cliff was Ringo. We’d already discussed the fact that Ringo was most likely the person Felicity was with in the car and quite likely Theresa’s killer in a previous conversation, so I hadn’t needed to say that.

“I was talking to Cody,” I lied. “We’ve been trying to figure out who to get to take over as the new pianist and someone told me there was a man in town named Ringo who used to be in a band. The problem was, we didn’t know Ringo’s real name, but one of the kids just filled us in. I was going to come down the hall to ask if you would play for us tonight. What’s with the cloak-and-dagger stuff?”

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. Why would I lie?”

Cliff grabbed my hand. “How about we take this outside? I wouldn’t want to disturb the kids.”

I couldn’t agree more. The last thing I wanted to do was to get the kids involved. The farther I could get Cliff from the roomful of kids the better, so I let him lead me into the dark night. I hoped he’d stop and we could talk in the parking lot because Finn would be there any minute, but he kept walking until we reached the gardening shed. He opened the door and shoved me inside. The shed had no windows, but it did have a small light. He turned it on, casting an eerie glow inside. I knew Finn would come looking for me, so all I really needed to do was keep Cliff talking and hope he didn’t decide to deal with me the same way he had Theresa until Finn got there.

“Would you mind telling me what this is all about?” I asked.

“I think you know.”

“Know what?”

A slight look of doubt came over Cliff’s face. “You’ve been investigating Theresa’s death.”

“Yeah. So? I already spoke to you. Did you have something to add?”

My heart was pounding, although I tried to play it cool. I couldn’t let him sense my fear. I had to make him think I was as confused as I was trying to appear.

“Where did you hear about Ringo?” Cliff asked.

“I don’t know. Someone mentioned him to Cody. He’s been asking around, looking for someone to take over for Theresa. Some guy he met in a bar said there was a local guy who could pound out a melody like no one else. He said he hadn’t heard him play for a while, but he thought he was still around. He said he went by Ringo, but he didn’t know his last name, and he didn’t even know whether Ringo was the guy’s real first name. Why didn’t you tell me you could play the piano? You know we’ve been looking for someone.”

The look of doubt and confusion on Cliff’s face seemed to deepen. I could tell he was considering what I was telling him.

“So who told you I was Ringo?”

“One of the kids. The kids wanted to rehearse a new song, but I didn’t think we could do it without a piano. One of the kids said to ask you, that you played the piano really well. He said his dad told him you used to be in a band. I was heading down the hall to talk to you when Cody called to say he was going to be late, so I told him that I thought you might be Ringo.”