Kitty Litter Killer (2 page)

As I walked, I speculated about how small my world had become since the birth of my fifth child. Well, technically my second, but I viewed my stepchildren as my very own.

I used to work part-time for our family self-storage business, one of Max’s family’s ventures. But I’d taken time off after Chris was born, and now the biggest event of my day was buying supplies for a new cat and visiting my mother’s shop. Unlike many women who adore being home all the time, I missed working.

I opened the glass front door of Doris’s Doughnuts, and a bell announced my entrance. A blast of cold air blew past me, tangling my already messy hair and riffling the papers hanging on a bulletin board on the wall.

The cheery red and white dining area was almost half full, even at midmorning. Ma’s shop was the place in town to get a good cup of coffee. It rivaled that of any specialty coffee chain. She’d started out in the catering business, and then she’d opened the shop. Once it began to take off, she stopped catering on a regular basis. And a few years ago, she’d expanded the shop hours, adding lunch sandwiches and other baked goods.

Chris was wiggling in my arms as I walked toward the glass-enclosed counter.

“Well, look who the wind blew in,” Gail, my mother’s right-hand gal, said. “Doris didn’t say she was expecting you. Then again, she doesn’t tell me much these days.”

“You know everything you need to know,” Ma growled at Gail while she snatched Chris from me. “You come right here to your granny.”

I let him go and looked at the two women in surprise. They rarely fought. When they did, it was the proverbial battle of the titans and rarely lasted more than a few hours, which was a good thing. The force of their joint anger had the potential to destroy half the town.

“I’m glad your mommy finally decided to come by and visit Grandma,” Ma said to Chris, who grinned at her. “Your auntie Abbie has been here for two days straight.”

I blew out an exasperated breath. “Of course she’s been here, Ma. You’re catering her reception. She needs to talk to you about it. Besides, I was here two days ago.”

I don’t know why I bothered defending myself. It was a lost cause. I dismissed her manipulation and perused the menu.

“We’re selling Abbie’s latest book.” Ma pointed at the counter near the cash register. “She came by with some copies. April May set up a display this morning.”

I’d missed it due to my son’s squirming, but I looked now, and I was impressed. April had done a good job. The black book cover with the profiles of a man and a woman, with the graphic of a sparkling gray bullet superimposed between them, was simple but attention-grabbing. This book was Abbie’s best suspense yet and her first to win real accolades. It was a cleverly plotted story about a man who plans his ex-wife’s murder and almost gets away with it.

“She’s going to be a celebrity bride,” Ma said. “We might have to keep the paparazzi away from the church during her wedding.”

“I doubt that.” I grinned at her flair for the dramatic.

“Your mother just wants the publicity so she can expand and leave her friends behind,” Gail snarled as she sideswiped my mother on her way to make a shot of espresso for a customer.

Ma glared after her, then she turned back to me, jiggling Chris on her hip. “Are you and Max still thinking about buying a new house?”

“Maybe—why?” I couldn’t decide what to eat.

“Linda Faye King has her real estate license now. And she’s working for me part-time in the mornings.”

Gail snorted and slammed a ceramic mug on the counter. I blinked, surprised it didn’t crack.

“Those cost money, you know,” Ma snapped.

Gail replied by slamming another one on the counter.

“So Linda’s not working in the hospital emergency room anymore?” I asked before they started throwing things.

“No.” Ma was glaring at Gail.

“She says she quit, but. . .” Gail’s words trailed off, leaving no doubt that she was suspicious of Linda’s exit from her job.

“Linda just got tired of the hospital.” Ma turned her back on Gail. “I told her you and Max need to move, so she’s looking for houses for you.”

“I didn’t say it was a for-sure thing.”

“You know what they say,” Ma intoned. “The early bird gets the worm. You can never be too prepared.” My mother has an encyclopedia of platitudes embedded in her brain.

Gail snorted louder and stomped to the back room. I wondered what was up with the two of them. I also realized I wasn’t going to be able to stop my mother from doing what she wanted to do once she set her mind to it—like finding me a new house. My best course of action was to just nod and agree. Or change the subject.

“Have you heard anything about Philip Grenville being in town?” I asked.

Lips pursed, she nodded. “He came by for a cup of coffee this morning. Linda Faye served him, and we were all polite, but I didn’t want to be. I haven’t seen him in years. He’s really aged. Looks older than he should, and no wonder. Pervert.”

The word was one of my mother’s favorites to describe men who slept around on their wives.

“Did you tell Abbie?” I was worried about how she would feel being so close to her wedding and having her ex-husband show up.

“No. I haven’t seen her since he came. Really, why would it be important? That man broke her heart.” Ma drew herself up in indignant anger, and Chris laughed in her arms. He couldn’t understand her words and probably thought she was playing. “Her book should have been about a woman killing her ex-husband instead of a man killing his ex-wife.”

“Ma!” I glanced around the shop, hoping the lull in conversations was coincidence and not customers trying to eavesdrop.

“Well, nobody could have blamed Abbie if she’d shot Philip dead. He deserved it years ago. Now she’s finally got a chance at happiness with Eric. He’s such a nice man. A good man. A successful man.”

She sounded a little bit like the Jewish matchmaker in
Fiddler on the Roof.

Ma kissed the tip of Chris’s nose. “I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that some relative of some woman Philip slept with shot him in the head.”

I wasn’t comfortable with the direction this conversation was going. I lowered my voice, hoping she’d take a hint. “So why is Philip in town? Do you know?”

“To ruin Abbie’s wedding, of course.” Someone walked up to the cash register, so Ma handed Chris back to me. He bleated in disappointment, and I stuck a pacifier in his mouth.

As Ma rang up the ticket, she looked over her shoulder at me. “He’d better not bother Abbie. That’s all I have to say. Or you and I will pay him a visit, and I’ll shoot him myself.” Her voice was just as loud as it had been before.

“Well, let’s hope he doesn’t get killed.” I forced a laugh. “You’d be a prime suspect now. You really should be careful about what you say.”

Ma waved at the customer as he left. “I’m always careful about what I say.” She trounced over to the coffee machines.

Ah, the beauty of self-deception. I didn’t bother to argue. It’s my policy not to argue with someone who is always right.

April May Winters walked up to the register. “You have to admit it’s weird timing, given Abbie’s new book and her wedding. Maybe Philip thinks he can somehow get a cut of the money she’s making.”

I shook my head. “Unless an author is a big name, they don’t make a lot.”

April looked skeptical, but I knew for a fact that Abbie was barely making enough money to live.

“You want something to eat?” April May asked.

“Yeah, I do. A turkey club. And a Mountain Dew. And would you please hand me a sugar cookie for Chris?”

“Mountain Dew?” April asked with raised brows. “Not your regular coffee?”

I shook my head. “No. I’ve developed a new bad habit. Caffeine in the form of green sugary fizz.”

A minute later, as she handed me a paper-wrapped cookie and the drink, face squished into a frown, she glanced over her shoulder at Ma. “If this keeps up with Gail and Doris, I’m going to look for another job.”

I followed her gaze. If looks could kill, Gail and Ma would have killed each other dead. Gail had worked for Ma since she’d started her business. And April had been working here for several years.

“You mean this isn’t like one of their normal fights?”

She shook her head a smidgen and leaned toward me. “No. I’ll tell you about it when I bring your food.”

I got a table and put Chris, whose mouth was still plugged with the pacifier, in a high chair and then dropped into my own chair. Although the dining room was full and people were back to talking again, the place seemed strange without the background of Ma and Gail tossing comments back and forth. I never thought I’d say it, but I missed them ganging up to snipe at me.

April was on her way to my table with my order when a big blue WWPS truck pulled up outside in the parking lot. When the blue-uniformed man leaped from the driver’s side and strolled toward the shop door carrying a box, April stopped midstep to stare at him. As far as I could see, every other woman in the place turned to look, too. Even my mother.

“April!” I stage-whispered.

“Huh?” She ripped her gaze from him as he walked through the door.

“You’re gawking.”

“Oh. . .oh.” She almost tripped hurrying with her tray to my table. After she set it down, she slipped into a chair, positioned so she could still see him. “Wow.”

I had to admit, the man was fine. I should know. I’m married to a man who has the same kind of effect on women. But despite his attributes, this guy didn’t have the same
whatever
it was that Max had.

“He’s new,” April said. “His name is Clark.”

“As in Clark Kent? Like Superman?”

“Mmm.” April smiled. “But his last name is Matthews.” I checked him out. He did have a certain resemblance to the man of steel. I wondered if this was the same guy who had broken open the bags of kitty litter at Adler’s Pet Emporium. He and my mother were in conversation at the counter. He told her how good her coffee was and that he could never get enough. Her angry persona melted. Then I heard her giggle. My mother never giggles.

While I wanted to stare at my mother’s unusual behavior with the same freakish fascination with which a person rubbernecks at the aftermath of a car wreck, I had to find out from April what was going on with Ma and Gail, so I tore my attention from the front of the shop and put it on April. Chris slapped his chair with open palms and rocked back and forth.

“What’s with Gail and Ma?”

“What?” She turned dreamy, unseeing eyes toward me.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “Come on, April. Snap out of it.”

She blinked. “Oh. Sorry.”

I leaned toward her. “If you like him so much, why don’t you go say hello?”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. He’s just too. . .well. . .no way.” This did not sound like the April I knew, but whatever.

“All right. Then tell me what’s going on with Gail and Ma.”

April tensed and finally met my eyes directly. “They’re fighting. Over Linda.”

“Linda?”

“Yeah. Linda Faye King. Your mom hired her part- time to help early in the mornings because Gail has to temporarily come in two hours late. Linda is also helping to cater Abbie’s wedding reception. Gail is really mad.”

“Why?”

April shrugged. “I don’t know. Gail won’t say. Linda always seemed nice to me, although sometimes she seems to be living in another dimension.”

“How did Ma end up hiring her?” I asked.

“She was here at the right time when your mother was super busy. Gail hadn’t come in yet. She has to take her granddaughter to school right now. Well, Linda’s gotten into real estate and was coming in here every morning to get coffee. She overheard your mom talking about needing some temporary help in the morning. She needs some extra cash.”

Chris spit out his pacifier and began to cry. I gave him the sugar cookie. I’m not above bribing my kids with sweets to get them to cooperate.

April glanced over my shoulder, and her eyes widened.

I turned around to see what she was looking at, and lo and behold, Clark was approaching our table.

“Hey, April.”

She gaped up at him and said nothing, so I kicked her under the table.

“Uh. . .” She inhaled. “Hi.”

He smiled. The man had it. But unlike Max, Clark seemed to know the effect he had on women and used it.

“You doin’ okay, April?” Clark stretched, showing off his biceps.

“Uh-huh,” she grunted.

“Well, good.” His gaze lingered on her, and he rolled back and forth on his black walking shoes.

He had a copy of Abbie’s book in his hand. Since April was stunned into silence, I thought I’d fill the gap to give her time to recover.

“Are you going to read that?” I asked.

His gaze slid to me, as if seeing me for the first time, and the fingers of his empty hand drummed a spastic rhythm on his thigh. He glanced down at the book and shook his head. “No. It’s for my mom. She’s a big mystery reader, and she’s been waiting for this one.”