Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1) (23 page)
Read Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1) Online
Authors: Valerie Tate
Two nights later they had another
combination celebration and farewell party. Shae and Alex were leaving early
the next morning to return to their homes and get back to the routines of their
normal lives, but both promised to return in the spring for the wedding.
It can’t be said that life
completely returned to normal after that. The town of Dunbarton would never be
quite the same. The year of the ‘catnapping’ and the murder would be a
milestone that they would measure time by for many years to come. But the media
circus did finally move on, the pickets disappeared as quickly as they had
appeared, and P.A.W.W. quietly slunk away, their lawsuit canceled as well.
Jennifer Abbot pleaded guilty in return for a reduced sentence, and so Alicia
and Chris were spared the ordeal of having to testify.
What had been the norm for the
Dunbar family was no longer the case. And it was a good thing. With James’
blossoming business success and Alice’s widening social life, the citizens of
Dunbarton were somewhat embarrassed at how ready they had been to believe the
worst of the family and went out of their way to make amends. James and Alice
finally became the happy couple the world had expected them to be when they
married all those years ago.
Alicia and Chris made plans to be
married in the spring. They had decided on the Driftwood Inn, up the lake from
Dunbarton. A family-owned inn, it had grown out of a summer place on the lake
and boasted one hundred rooms, a head chef stolen from a four star city hotel,
a spa, a fitness center, a golf course and banquet facilities. They would be
married under a rose-arbor in the gardens overlooking the water, with the reception
later in the banquet hall. Alex had promised to be her maid-of honor come hell
or high water, even though the Olympic trials were being held that spring.
Chris was given the back-pay he’d
lost during his suspension and a sizable bonus, and so they set about looking
for a house. They found it one day when they were out rambling. It was an old
stone farmhouse a few kilometers out of town on about fifty acres with a pond
and a stream, a small hardwood bush and a stone bank barn. It had been empty
for many years and had a rather lonely, melancholy look about it, but it was
solidly built and with a little, or maybe a lot, of T.L.C., it would be the
home they wanted.
Not that they had much free time.
The idea of the little theater led to plans by the Town Council for the
formation of a Theater Festival such as those found in Blyth, Collingwood,
Jackson’s Point and many other small towns in Southern Ontario, and they had
the outstanding good taste to ask Alicia to head up this fledgling enterprise.
And so, along with rehearsals for the first season’s production, a small but
truly dedicated group met regularly, planning for the following summer season.
And since they had a strong commitment to foster local talent in all stages of
production, from scripting through final performance, they had been overwhelmed
with community support, including plans for the theater pavilion by the lake
that was Alicia’s dream.
Even the APS found itself in
surprisingly improved circumstances. When the Provincial Board learned they were
going to need a new Regional Director, they had the good sense to offer the
position to Hugh who, in turn, had the good sense to accept with the provision
that it would be a more hands-on job than it had been in the past so that he
could continue to investigate abuse and neglect, a condition that was readily
accepted.
News of the change in
administration, the hiring of a local hero, and of the dire financial situation
at the shelter, brought out the best in the animal loving citizens of
Dunbarton, and money and offers of help poured in. Heading the list of donors
was the newly established Marmalade Fund, whose substantial donations allowed
for the much-needed new addition to the shelter, as well as the purchase of a
small farm adjoining the shelter which gave them more room for larger animals.
Not long after his promotion, Hugh proposed to his girlfriend, and the happy
couple made plans to move into the small house on the farm where they would
dedicate their lives to the challenging job of restoring the physical and
emotional well-being of their four-footed charges.
Chris and Alicia never gave up on
finding Horace, and were finally rewarded for their persistence when he was
found and turned in at the shelter, a little worse for wear and missing the tip
of one ear, but otherwise all right. They decided to adopt him and he happily
traded his wandering ways for a steady diet and a warm bed by the fire.
It seemed that old Mrs. Dunbar’s
crazy will had had the unforeseen effect of healing the wounds and malaise that
had plagued them all for years. Chris liked to think that somewhere she knew
and was happy - and perhaps a little surprised - about it.
As for Marmalade, if possible he
became even fatter and sassier than ever, and since, as we all know, for the
well-heeled cat-about-town no door is ever closed, the feline population of
Dunbarton grew to astounding proportions. They really must make that trip to
the vet.
It is said that cats have nine
lives. If that is true, Marmalade has used up at least four of them: the time
before he climbed in Amanda Dunbar’s window, the years spent with her, the
harrowing months following her death, and then the kidnapping.
His fifth life began with his
release from captivity and the solving of the murder of Bill Abbot that finally
put an end to all suspicion of the Dunbars. And it would appear that, for the
time-being at any rate, it would be purr-fect in every way. One might even say,
as Chris had once predicted, only days of cream and catnip for the rest of his
nine lives.
The End
Valerie Tate lives in a 19th century heritage cottage in Ontario,
Canada. She has a degree in English Literature and a teaching degree from
Victoria College at the University of Toronto.
When not working on her
mystery novels, she can be found at the barn with her horse and her Jack
Russell Terrier.
CATNIP is the first in the
series of Dunbarton Mysteries.
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