Out of the Dying Pan Read online

  Talia eased the Fiat into the driveway and shifted into Park. The engine was still running when Kelsey leaped out of the car and trotted up to the front door.

  Talia shut off her engine, pulled her key out of the ignition, and trailed Kelsey up the front steps. “Wait,” she called to Kelsey. “Maybe she’s sleeping or resting.”

  “No,” Kelsey said glumly. “She drives an old Taurus and it’s not here.” Kelsey pressed the doorbell. From inside the house came the soft sound of a melodic, dual-toned chime. Kelsey pressed the bell again, several times.

  “It’s okay, Kelsey,” Talia said, trying to soothe her. “We’ll come back again. There’s a memorial service for Ria in the morning. Maybe we can come by after that. It’s a little late for a visit anyway.” She looped her hand gently around Kelsey’s upper arm.

  “It’s not okay,” Kelsey said, her teeth clenched. “Princess is alone in there, and there’s not a single light on. At least she could’ve put one on a timer!”

  Kelsey scurried down the steps and marched over to where the bay window rose about five feet from the ground above the dense shrubbery. She squeezed her slender form between two of the shrubs until she was standing directly below the window. The curtains had been drawn closed, preventing even a glimpse inside. “Princess,” she called out in a singsong voice. “Are you in there?” She reached up with one hand and tapped her fingers on the window.

  Worried that someone might spot them trying to peek through the window, Talia cast a look around at the nearby homes. If an alert neighbor decided to report two peepers to the police, they’d have to do some fast talking to explain why they weren’t trying to break in.

  Kelsey rapped the window with her knuckles and called the cat’s name again. All at once, a small head appeared through the opening in the curtains. Talia flicked on the mini-flashlight dangling from her ladybug keychain. It radiated a faint beam, barely enough to create an inch-wide circle of light on the window. “See, she is in there!” Kelsey cried.

  A gorgeous pair of feline eyes gazed curiously at them through the glass. Kelsey reached her hand up and touched the window. Princess rubbed her face against the pane, as if she could feel Kelsey’s tender touch. “Oh, Princess, you’re in there all alone in the dark, aren’t you?”

  Talia moved closer to get a better look. The cat didn’t appear to be in any distress. No doubt she was bored, but there was no reason to believe she was in any danger. “Kelsey, I’m sure Princess is fine, even without a light on. Don’t cats see better in the dark than humans do?”

  In the dull beam afforded by Talia’s mini-light, Kelsey’s face appeared pale and fragile. “Yeah, they do. Cats can’t see with the same level of detail as humans. But in the dark, their retinas allow them to see about five times better we do.” She splayed her gloved hand against the windowpane.

  A sudden low swoosh from behind the house sent Talia’s heart bumping up against her tonsils. She’d swear someone had just opened a window at the back of the unit.

  No, not a window. A slider.

  “Kelsey,” she whispered. “We have to go. I heard something in the back.”

  “But Princess—”

  “Princess is fine. If it will make you feel better, I’ll call Mrs. Butterforth a little later.”

  Another, harsher sound left no doubt that someone was behind the duplex. Whoever opened the slider had pushed it shut.

  That time Kelsey heard it. She grabbed Talia’s sleeve and yanked her into a crouch. They huddled between the shrubs, and Talia quickly shut off her light. A cold rhododendron leaf poked at her eyelid, and she pushed it aside with her hand. They remained stock still for at least a minute, listening for any signs of the interloper. If it was an interloper. It might also have been Ria’s mother, trying to avoid opening her door to visitors.

  But that didn’t make sense. If she’d wanted to hide from them, why wouldn’t she just remain in the darkened house until they gave up and went away? And where was her car?

  Another, more jarring noise rent the frigid December air—the sound of a car door closing three or four houses away. Then the street brightened, illuminated by a pair of headlights cutting through the gloom. An engine growled, and a dark pickup truck roared past the duplex.

  Talia felt Kelsey’s fingers curl around her own, and she squeezed Kelsey’s hand in silent support. As if by unspoken consent, they waited another minute. Kelsey’s fingers finally loosened, and she breathed a noisy sigh and rose from her crouch. “God, that was a close one, wasn’t it?” Her voice was shaky.

  “Not to mention a very uncomfortable one.” Talia’s knees crunched as she stood, and she gave out a little groan. “Come on, we’d better go. This didn’t exactly go as planned, did it?”

  Kelsey shuddered and shook her head, then dashed toward the Fiat.

  Talia scampered inside her car and flicked the heater on high. Kelsey was quiet as she pulled her seat belt over and snugged it into place. Their attempt to visit Ria’s mom had been a bust, a failure. In the muted light afforded by the dashboard, Kelsey looked as if she was ready to burst into tears.

  Talia thought about the pound cake, tender and moist, infused with lemon and topped with a sugary glaze. It sat in a decorative tin in the back of the car, aching to be sampled.

  “Kelsey, would you like to come over to my house for a little while? I’ll make us some tea, and we can test out that pound cake sitting back there.”

  “Oh, Talia, I’d love that,” Kelsey said. “But aren’t you going to save the cake for Mrs. Butterforth?”

  “I’ll buy another one tomorrow. I’m sure this one would stay fresh, but why give her a day-old cake, right?”

  Talia also had something in mind that she wanted to try with the cake.

  “Then it sounds good to me.” Kelsey’s grin shone in her voice. She dredged her phone out of her macramé tote. “I’ll let my mom know where I’m headed in case she starts to get worried.”

  What a good daughter, Talia thought.

  *

  Fifteen minutes later, Kelsey was seated at Talia’s kitchen table rubbing noses with the calico cat. “Oh, you are so lucky to have a cat like this,” Kelsey beamed. With her finger, she scooped up a smidge of glaze from the slice of pound cake sitting in front of her and held it out to Bo. The kitty licked it off her finger and then rubbed her face on Kelsey’s hand, her purr rivaling that of a jet engine revving up for takeoff.

  Talia refilled each of their mugs with steaming, fresh-brewed mango tea spiced with ginger and cloves. The blend came from Time for Tea, the specialty tea shop in the Wrensdale Arcade, and was one of Talia’s favorites.

  “I got her quite by happenstance,” Talia explained. “An elderly woman in the neighborhood had died, and her son apparently dumped her outside and left her.” Talia shook her head.

  “That’s horrible!” Kelsey cried. “He should go to jail for that.”

  “It was heartless, that’s for sure,” Talia agreed. She recalled how frightened Bo had been—hungry, but leery of trusting anyone. She returned the teapot to the trivet on the table. “I tried luring her with tuna for a few days, and eventually she realized I wasn’t going to harm her. She was also very hungry. Once she decided I was a safe bet, she strolled through the front door, sniffed around for a bit, and then curled up on my grandfather’s ratty old chair.” Talia grinned at the memory. “I took that as a sign that she wanted to stay.”

  “That’s so adorable,” Kelsey said. “So this was your grandparents’ house?”

  Talia related the story of having bunked there temporarily until she could find a permanent place to live. At the time, the bungalow had been for sale and was attracting some interested buyers. Heartbroken at the thought of turning over her nana’s beloved home to strangers, Talia was ecstatic when her mom and twin aunts came to the rescue. They sold her the house and took back a zero-interest mortgage, making it a deal she couldn’t refuse.

  Kelsey stroked Bo’s head absently. Her face darkened. “
I want that cat, Talia. I want Princess for my mom. Ria’s mother doesn’t care about her—I just know it! All she cares about is her stupid boyfriends.”

  “Boyfriends?” Talia said, lifting her mug even as her interest rose. “Does she have more than one?”

  “Let’s put it this way. Any male who crooks a finger at her is her boyfriend.” Kelsey curled her lip in disgust. “But the one she’s with now is this guy Ralphie. He works with her at Wrensdale Dry Cleaners. Weird-looking guy. Has hair growing out of his ears and a belly shaped like a doughnut.” Kelsey gave a little shiver.

  Ralphie. Now why did that name sound familiar?

  Of course! He was Vivian’s cousin. The one who supposedly told Vivian that Kelsey had been arrested for assault. If only she could figure out a way to ask Kelsey about it without revealing where she’d heard it.

  “Kelsey, tell me more about Ria,” she pressed quietly. “I knew her once as a lonely little girl. But after she and her mom moved out of town, I never saw her again until I walked into the shop that day. Even then, I didn’t know who she was. The thing that shocked me was how angry she seemed. She nearly took your head off!”

  Kelsey paled. She rested her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands. Bo must have sensed her change in demeanor. The cat jumped off her lap and relocated onto Talia’s.

  “We used to be good friends,” Kelsey said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I looked up to her. She was like the big sister I never had, you know?” She paused for a long moment, her dark brown eyes growing moist.

  “But something changed,” Talia said.

  Kelsey pushed a lock of her dark hair behind one ear. “One night after we left the Wiltshire Inn, she asked if I wanted to come over to her house and hang out. Her mom was out with some guy that night, as usual. Of course I said yes. I liked the idea of Ria and me becoming better friends.”

  Talia held up the teapot, and Kelsey nodded. She refilled both their mugs and added a dot of cream to her own.

  “Anyway,” Kelsey went on, “we sat in the living room and Ria opened a bottle of her mom’s burgundy wine. Cheap stuff, but we didn’t care. We started chugging, way too fast, and got very silly. It felt good, having a friend like Ria that I could be myself with. She was so much more sophisticated than I’ll ever be.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Kelsey,” Talia said.

  Kelsey blushed. “Anyway, after we’d gone through the first bottle, Ria got this crazy idea. She said that we should each tell the other a secret about herself—something no one else knew.”

  Talia felt her heartbeat kick up a notch. Trying not to look anxious, she took a slow sip of her tea.

  “We swore—we swore—never to tell another soul,” Kelsey said, her voice rattling. “So I went first.” She shook her head, and her hair fell forward. “If I tell you, you have to promise me you won’t breathe a word, okay?”

  Inwardly, Talia winced. She hated to promise. What if Kelsey’s secret was relevant to Ria’s murder? “Kelsey, I’ll promise, but only if you’re sure it has nothing to do with Ria’s death.”

  “It doesn’t,” Kelsey said. “Okay, here goes. About two and a half years ago, I was visiting my aunt Nancy in Maine. She’s like my favorite aunt, and I used to spend a few weeks with her every summer. Anyway, we were out in her back yard soaking up some rays when I heard this awful, agonized cry. I turned around and saw my aunt’s neighbor beating a cat with a heavy stick.” She sucked in a strangled breath. “Talia, it was so horrible. The cat was trying to get away but she’d grab it before it could run and then she’d just keep hitting it. If you could have heard the poor thing squealing …”

  Sickened by the story, Talia placed a hand over Kelsey’s arm. “That’s terrible, Kelsey. Did you call the police?”

  Kelsey shook her head. “By the time they got there, it would’ve been too late. Plus, I was like a … a crazy person, you know? I just reacted. I ran over and shrieked at her to leave the cat alone. She turned and gave me this evil grin and told me to get out of her, you know, bleeping face. She said the cat wrecked one of her plants and she was going to teach it a lesson it wouldn’t forget.”

  Talia felt her stomach twist into a knot. Instinctively, she placed a protective hand over the tri-colored angel curled in her lap. She pushed aside her half-eaten cake. “Then what did you do?” she prompted quietly.

  “Like I said, I just reacted. There was a kid-sized lounge chair close by. You know, the kind made with interwoven vinyl strips? I snatched it up and bashed her over the head with the seat. I wasn’t trying to hurt her—I only wanted her to leave the cat alone. I guess it threw her off balance because she tumbled to the ground. I was so enraged I”—she swallowed—“I kicked her in the butt with my bare foot.” She choked out a sob, and tears began trailing down her cheeks.

  Talia pushed the pink-flowered napkin holder closer to Kelsey. Kelsey snagged three at once and blotted her eyes, then took a noisy sip of her tea.

  “After that she turned on me like a cobra, spewing filth you wouldn’t believe. I guess the edge of the chair scraped her cheek because blood started running down her face. Next thing I know the cops were there, along with an animal control officer.” She gave out a bitter laugh. “Turned out the witch’s husband had already called the police, and Aunt Nancy had called Animal Control to take the cat away.”

  Talia squeezed Kelsey’s arm. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

  Kelsey rubbed her face. “Everything happened real fast after that. The cops took us both into the station, and the Animal Control lady rescued the cat. The cat was so frightened it was cowering.”

  Talia’s stomach clenched. Just hearing the story made her blood steam. She couldn’t imagine having to watch it go down in person.

  “Next thing I know the bimbo files an assault charge against me, so we both ended up in front of a judge the next morning. It was a one-horse town, and the courthouse was in the back of the library. The judge took us in her chambers.” Kelsey clenched her fists in her lap. “You should’ve seen that awful woman, Talia. All sugary sweet, wearing a bow in her hair and a dowdy, pin-striped skirt. In this syrupy voice she told the judge she only hit the cat once, very lightly, to get it away from her plant. Said she was totally shocked when I attacked her, and showed the judge the scratch on her cheek where I supposedly mauled her.” Kelsey made air quotes with her fingers.

  Bo squirmed out of Talia’s lap and padded in the direction of her litter box, almost as if she couldn’t bear to listen any longer.

  “The judge asked me what I had to say for myself. I very calmly told her what really happened. Luckily, the AC officer backed me up. She’d seen how terrified the cat was when she put her into the carrier.”

  “It was a good thing your aunt had the sense to call her,” Talia said.

  “Yeah, I know.” Kelsey’s gaze clouded. “The judge still looked torn, and I was terrified she’d sentence me to a few months in jail. Then the best thing happened. My aunt asked the judge if she could show her something. Turned out she’d used her phone to video the whole thing.”

  “Oh, that was so smart of her,” Talia said. As much as she found some people’s addiction to their cell phones irritating, there were times when the devices came in darned handy. “So what did the judge do?”

  “She was very professional,” Kelsey said, a glint in her eye. “She asked the woman—whose name was Dotty, by the way—if that was her in the video. The fool could hardly deny it. My aunt got some excellent close-up footage.” Kelsey grinned, displaying perfect white teeth. “Anyway, the witch turned bright red and started apologizing to the judge. The charges against me were dropped, but she had to pay a hefty fine for animal cruelty. The judge also barred her from ever owning a cat.”

  Talia was thankful to hear that the judge had wielded her gavel wisely, but the cold glee in Kelsey’s eyes was a tad frightening. “So … what happened to the cat?”

  “Believe it or not, the judge ado
pted her. She was so incensed by what she saw on my aunt’s video that she took the cat home herself. It was an almost perfect resolution.”

  “Almost?” Talia said quizzically.

  Kelsey’s jaw tightened. “Dotty is still walking free.”

  The words themselves made sense, but the hostile undertone in Kelsey’s voice sent chills up Talia’s arms.

  All at once, Kelsey flushed pink, as if she feared she’d revealed a part of herself that she wasn’t altogether proud of. “I’m sorry that story got so long-winded,” she said with a nervous laugh.

  “You don’t need to apologize.” It struck Talia that in trying to learn more about Ria, she was finding out plenty about Kelsey.

  Kelsey twisted her hands. “I was only trying to explain why I got so angry with Ria. She promised not to breathe a word of it to anyone, but apparently anyone didn’t include her clueless mother.”

  “You think her mother blabbed it?”

  “I know she did. A couple friends of my mom’s mentioned it to her. Poor Mom defended me, but I know she felt weird about it. Anyway, I confronted Ria and she admitted she hadn’t exactly kept it a secret. In her eyes it was just a silly story that didn’t amount to a hill of coffee beans. She didn’t understand why it bothered me so much.”

  “I do,” Talia said. “She violated your trust, and your privacy.”

  Kelsey nodded. “Exactly. I gave her a real hard time about it. She repaid me by stealing Princess!”

  It wasn’t exactly a “theft,” Talia thought, but Kelsey obviously saw it that way.

  “Put it behind you, Kelsey,” Talia suggested. “People have short memories. Once they latch on to the next bit of gossip, they won’t even remember you. Besides, you did the right thing, rescuing that cat. Think where the kitty might be today if you hadn’t intervened.”

  “Thank you. That makes me feel better.” Kelsey frowned. “Problem is, I’ve been seeing my boyfriend for, like, five months now? His name’s Josh and he’s just the sweetest guy. He’s smart, and works really hard at his job. I think he might even be, you know, the one?” Her cheeks morphed into two ripe apples.