Strangled in Cherry Hills Read online

  Kat grinned. “It’s part of his charm.”

  Andrew draped one arm around her shoulders. “Yeah, well, he just drained the last bit of energy I had.”

  Kat snuggled into him. “I take it you’ve been working on Jeff’s murder case all day.”

  “You know I can’t talk about an active investigation, right?”

  Kat hid her disappointment behind a shrug. “I was just wondering if you’d caught his killer yet.”

  “No, we haven’t.”

  “I hope you at least verified my alibi.” Kat couldn’t prevent a note of annoyance from creeping into her tone.

  “I looked into it.”

  Kat squinted at him, not missing how he had phrased the statement. “And?”

  Andrew eyed her. “And what?”

  She huffed. “Andrew, I can tell you’re keeping something from me. What is it?”

  He blew out a breath, sending a piece of his hair flopping over his forehead. “Okay, fine. Lucy vouched that she saw you running out of the building this morning. She said you looked like you had somewhere urgent to be.”

  “I was chasing Matty.”

  “The thing is, Lucy said she never saw Matty.”

  “What?” Kat leaned away from him, her heart rate spiking. “That’s ridiculous.”

  Andrew’s arm fell away from her shoulders. “Well, that’s what she said.”

  Kat felt a flash of irritation toward her neighbor until she remembered the armload of grocery bags Lucy had been juggling. “I suppose it’s possible. But she knew I was chasing Matty.”

  “She did say that’s what you claimed to have been doing.”

  “Claimed?” Heat crept up her cheeks. “That’s how she chose to phrase it?”

  “She didn’t say you’d lied, Kat. And her story matches up with what you said, she just wasn’t as sure. That’s not unusual when it comes to eyewitness testimony.”

  Kat counted to ten, then took a deep breath. “Well, it doesn’t really matter why I was running out of here, does it? Just the fact that I was here when Lucy came home means I have an alibi for when Jeff died, right?”

  “The thing is, given the window of Jeff’s time of death, you could conceivably have killed him after you ran into Lucy.”

  Kat absorbed that, her stomach tying itself into a knot. “You can’t honestly believe I killed him.”

  “No, but I have a professional obligation to follow the evidence.” Andrew averted his eyes, looking sheepish for the first time since this conversation had started.

  Kat slapped her hands on her thighs, prompting Matty to turn away from the window long enough to look at her. “Well, what about Mr. Peterson? Did you talk to him?”

  “He said basically the same thing Lucy did, that you were sprinting out of the building this morning as if you had a bug up your pants.”

  Kat’s hands balled into fists. “But he saw Matty! He had to know I was going after her.”

  “Kat.” Andrew twisted toward her, a muscle in his cheek tensing. “Mr. Peterson seems to think you and Jeff knew each other.”

  “What?” Kat swayed against the couch. This conversation was starting to make her head spin.

  “Mr. Peterson reported seeing Jeff in the building a few times. Apparently they crossed paths in the elevator. He figured Jeff was going to visit you, that the two of you were—” Andrew swallowed hard. “—dating.”

  Kat shot off the couch, her hands jamming onto her hips. “That’s crazy! I’m dating you. Did you tell him that?”

  “It’s not my place to correct eyewitnesses. I just take their statements.”

  “But you know it’s not true.”

  Andrew didn’t reply, and panic bubbled inside her. Did he actually think she was seeing another man behind his back? The notion was ludicrous.

  Still, she couldn’t deny that he looked a little sick over the prospect. His pallor had turned ashen, and his shoulders had folded in on themselves.

  “Andrew.” Kat sat down next to him and laid her hands on his arm. “I had no idea who Jeff was until this morning. I’d never seen him before in my life. You know I wouldn’t lie to you about that, right?”

  Kat could feel her heart thudding against her ribs as he searched her face with his eyes. At the moment, she wasn’t sure if she were more worried about her alibi not holding up or Andrew thinking she might have a second boyfriend.

  Finally, he relaxed. “I know you’re not lying. However, that doesn’t explain Mr. Peterson’s observations.”

  “I have no idea why Mr. Peterson would have told you something like that.” Kat sat up and snapped her fingers. “Jeff must have been here to see Lucy.”

  “I asked. Lucy says Jeff never came to her apartment.”

  “She knows him then.”

  “Yes.”

  Kat grinned. “Well, there you go. Maybe he and Lucy are involved. Maybe he stopped over while she was out, and Mr. Peterson spotted him. Then he left before Lucy even knew he was here.”

  Andrew pursed his lips. “Possibly.”

  Her smile faded. “You believe me when I say he wasn’t here to visit me though, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I believe you.”

  They were interrupted by a loud meow. Kat swiveled around, spotting both Tom and Matty standing sentry by the front door. Matty apparently had grown bored with staring out the window and was now ready to implement a sounder action plan.

  When the cats saw they had captured her attention, Tom tried to stick his paw between the door and the frame and Matty gazed up at the doorknob as if it might rotate just from the power of her stare.

  Kat turned to Andrew and grimaced. “I don’t think they’re going to give up.”

  “They will eventually.” Andrew fingered a lock of her hair. “We’ll just have to wait them out.”

  “Yeah?” Kat’s heart rate increased. “How do you see us passing all that time?”

  Andrew kissed her forehead and stood up. “Gorging on Chinese food, obviously. If we want to beat a couple of stubborn cats at their own game, we’re going to have to keep our strength up.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “So she just sits on the windowsill for hours at a time?” Lucy asked Kat, regarding Matty across the living room.

  “Yup. I don’t know what she’s watching. Birds, I guess.” Kat certainly hoped the feline wasn’t looking for more dead bodies.

  “Huh.”

  Kat studied Lucy’s profile. As neighbors they chatted occasionally, but Kat didn’t consider them to be friends per se. Still, she usually enjoyed their interactions.

  At the moment though, Kat felt more tense than anything. Andrew’s words from yesterday niggled at her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Lucy was the person Jeff Parr had been visiting those times when Mr. Peterson had seen him in the building. Lucy was the only other person currently living on the third floor.

  “Think she’s looking for him?” Lucy asked, breaking into Kat’s thoughts.

  “Looking for who?”

  “Jeff Parr.” Lucy twisted sideways on the couch, tucking one of her legs underneath her. “You said Matty saw his body, right? Do cats understand death? Maybe she thinks he’s still out there.”

  Kat glanced at Matty, her stomach tightening. She certainly hoped the tortoiseshell wasn’t dwelling on the dead body the dachshund had led them to the day before.

  Lucy rested one arm along the back of the couch. “I remember when my uncle died a few years ago. He wasn’t even a close uncle, but he kept popping into my head for weeks after the funeral. Once I even thought I saw him in the grocery store. It’s like he was haunting me. Maybe it’s the same for cats.”

  “What about Jeff?” Kat asked. “Has he been haunting you too?”

  “No.”

  Kat didn’t miss the way Lucy’s lips had puckered, as if she’d bitten into a lemon. “I gather you didn’t like him.”

  “I know it’s bad form to speak ill of the dead, but no, I didn’t.”

  “Why not
?”

  “He was always trying to take advantage.” Lucy twirled a strand of her red hair around one finger. “Like, well, there was this one time in high school when he kept badgering me to let him copy my algebra homework.”

  “You guys were in the same grade?” Kat didn’t know exactly how old Lucy was but figured she was in her early twenties.

  “Yeah. And Jeff was a terrible student. He was always looking for ways to get by without doing any work.”

  “Did you guys keep in touch after school?”

  “Not really. I mean obviously I saw him around. Cherry Hills is a small town.”

  “But he never sought you out on purpose?” Kat asked, studying Lucy for a reaction.

  Lucy swayed backward. “No way. He knew I couldn’t stand him.”

  “That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have a reason to talk to you. Maybe he’s been thinking about high school and wanted to apologize for trying to steal your answers.”

  Lucy snorted. “You’re giving Jeff too much credit. He hadn’t changed much from when we were teenagers. Honestly, I’m not sure why his parents never kicked him out of the house and made him get a real job. They couldn’t have liked him mooching off of them.”

  Kat took a deep breath, fortifying herself for the next question she needed to ask. “Lucy, did you tell Andrew Jeff had been stopping over to visit me?”

  “Not like that, no. But when he asked me about Jeff seeing somebody on the third floor here I knew it wasn’t me. That left you.”

  Kat pondered that. “I wonder how Mr. Peterson formed the impression he was involved with one of us.”

  “Who knows?”

  Who knew indeed, Kat thought. She wondered if Mr. Peterson had lied about seeing Jeff in the building. Remembering the scowl on his face when Matty had been in the lobby, she wouldn’t put it past him to try to get her convicted of Jeff’s murder just so he would no longer have to see her cats.

  The thought made her blood boil.

  “Maybe Jeff came to see that new girl who moved in last week,” Lucy said.

  “There’s a new girl on our floor?” Kat wondered how she’d missed that.

  “Not on our floor. She lives on the second.” Lucy tapped her finger against her lips. “But Mr. Peterson wouldn’t necessarily know what floor Jeff was going to, right? I mean, he would have seen him getting off on the second floor if they rode up together, but if they crossed paths in the lobby Mr. Peterson wouldn’t know where he was headed. He could have just assumed Jeff was going to the third floor.”

  That was true, Kat had to concede, some of her anger fading away. “What’s the new person’s name?”

  “Janice Something-or-other.”

  Kat stilled. “Janice? Does she happen to be African American and own a dog? An Irish setter?”

  Lucy’s face brightened. “So you have met her.”

  “Briefly.”

  Kat replayed their conversation at Cherry Hills Veterinary. When she had mentioned Jeff being killed, Janice hadn’t behaved as if she knew him. Had that been an act?

  “How long can she sit there for?” Lucy asked.

  “Janice?”

  Lucy pointed to the window. “Matty.”

  Kat shifted her thoughts to the tortoiseshell, who was still in the same spot, looking out at a place she couldn’t be. Kat’s heart ached for the little feline. She had hoped her obsession with the outside would have faded away overnight, but after breakfast she’d jumped right back on the windowsill. Kat had the sinking sensation she would sit there until Lucy left, when she’d have another shot at escaping.

  “I don’t know what to do about her,” Kat admitted, turning to Lucy. “This might sound crazy, but I think being inside actually depresses her now. It’s like she caught a glimpse of this whole new world, and now that she knows it exists she’ll never be happy confined to her old world.”

  “Funny how we become attuned to their thoughts, huh? I’m getting to the point where I can read Tabitha’s just from the look on her face. She has different meows for different moods too. Like, her voice changes depending on whether she’s hungry or wants attention. And when I come home she has this routine she goes through to greet me. She follows me around, pacing her meows as if to tell me what she did all day.”

  Kat grinned. “Tom and Matty have different inflections too.”

  “Sometimes I swear Tabitha and I can communicate just like we’re speaking the same language.”

  Kat bit her lip as her gaze slid over to Matty. “What do you think she’s trying to tell me now?”

  “She wants to go back outside,” Lucy said. “Obviously she liked what she saw out there.”

  Kat frowned, envisioning the dog leash wrapped around Jeff’s neck.

  Lucy pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I should get going. I need to pick up my dry cleaning before work.”

  “Okay.” Kat relaxed against the couch, glad she had cleared the air about Jeff’s building visits. “I’ll see you later.”

  Lucy stood up and walked over to the windowsill. She rubbed Matty between the ears. “Matilda Harper, you keep an eye on things while I’m gone, okay?”

  The cat peered at her for a moment before turning her forlorn gaze back toward the window.

  An ache bloomed in Kat’s chest. She didn’t know what she was going to do about Matty, but she was pretty sure she couldn’t go on watching her drown in her own misery for much longer.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Half an hour after Lucy left, Kat couldn’t take it anymore. If she had to sit and watch Matty pining to venture outdoors one more minute she was pretty sure the guilt would eat her up from the inside.

  “You win,” she said, tossing the book she’d been trying to read aside and jumping off the couch. “I’ll take you out.”

  Matty twisted away from the window to stare at her. She seemed to believe the words were too good to be true.

  Kat put on her sneakers and started lacing them up. “Just give me thirty minutes to buy you a leash.”

  Clearly miffed by the delay, Matty turned her nose up and resumed watch.

  Shoes secure, Kat grabbed her purse and keys off of the coffee table. She had already swung open the front door before she remembered to check for cats lingering by her feet. She didn’t realize her mistake until too late.

  Matty streaked into the hallway and made a beeline for the elevator.

  “Matty!” Kat yelled, throwing her purse inside her unit.

  Fortunately, nobody was in the corridor, leaving the tortoiseshell with no path to exit the building.

  The mischievous feline wasn’t going to give up though. She trotted out of Kat’s reach, opting to sit by the stairwell door where, apparently, she thought she was untouchable.

  Kat crept toward her, hoping she wouldn’t bolt again. “I’m lucky you’re not tall enough to reach the door handle.”

  Matty let Kat pick her up, although she gazed wistfully over her shoulder while Kat toted her back down the hallway. Kat had just reached the entrance to her unit when the ding of the elevator sounded.

  Lucy stepped out, her dry cleaning in her hands. She smiled when she spotted Kat. “Hey. Long time no see.”

  Kat lifted up Matty. “She tried to run away again.”

  “Aw, you naughty kitty,” Lucy crooned.

  Matty squirmed. Kat adjusted her hold, but she wasn’t any match for Matty’s gymnastics. The tortoiseshell executed what could best be described as a backflip pirouette, maneuvering out of Kat’s grip. She landed on her feet, then took off for the elevator.

  Kat lunged after her. “Matty!”

  Lucy attempted to block the cat with her dry cleaning, but Matty dodged around the garments. She slipped through the elevator doors seconds before they closed.

  “Not again,” Kat groaned, veering toward the stairwell.

  The elevator reached the lobby before Kat did. By the time she burst out of the stairwell, Matty was already heading toward the building exit—Mr. Peterson trailin
g behind her.

  “Kat,” he said.

  The word froze Matty in her tracks. She evidently hadn’t realized her human was present to witness her bad behavior. She had probably planned to be long gone before Kat made it downstairs.

  Mr. Peterson shifted the postal packages in his arms. “This is the second time this week your menace of a cat has been in the elevator.”

  For once, Kat actually had to agree that Matty certainly was turning into a menace. “She got out of the apartment again, Mr. Peterson.”

  He glared at her. “You ought to let it out.”

  Matty meowed as if to second the suggestion, and Kat darted her a sharp look.

  “Good riddance, I’d say,” Mr. Peterson continued, his eyes darkening as they zoomed in on Matty. “I don’t even know why this place allows pets. They’re filthy, disgusting creatures.”

  Matty strolled over, her tail held high. Kat was torn between picking her up so Mr. Peterson couldn’t kick her and waiting to see if Matty would pee on his shoes.

  Mr. Peterson clutched his boxes a little tighter. “It better not get any closer. And if it transfers so much as one flea onto me, you better believe Larry will be hearing about this. I’m sure he doesn’t want his tenants inviting fleas to live in his building any more than I do.”

  Kat plucked Matty off of the floor. “She doesn’t have fleas.”

  “You better hope so.”

  Mr. Peterson stepped around them and crossed the lobby. The force of his exit sent the door swinging back as far as the closer allowed.

  “That man is so miserable I don’t know how he can stand himself,” Kat muttered.

  Matty meowed her agreement.

  Kat shifted her attention to the cat. “And I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you’re not getting any treats today.”

  Matty didn’t seem concerned. She eyed the door as if to communicate it wasn’t treats she craved but freedom.

  “No way,” Kat told her, shaking her head for emphasis. “We’re going back upstairs.”

  She was halfway to the elevator when the feline twisted unexpectedly, causing Kat to lose her hold. Matty dropped to the ground and made a mad dash for the closing building door.