Cat Trick

“I wish you could figure out for certain what happened to Mike,” Mary said. “I think it might give Wren a little peace. She’s a sweet child. You know, she brought me some of her mother’s jewelry this afternoon. She said she was never going to wear it and she wanted me to have it.”

“I like Wren,” I said. “She’s already had way too much grief in her life.”

“She told me she met Hercules and Owen.” I could hear the smile in her voice. “Thanks for that.”

“Anytime,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I hung up and set the phone on the footstool. Hercules was still staring intently at me. I glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. “I don’t know,” I said.

I looked at the cat again. “What do you think? It wasn’t the Scott brothers. It couldn’t have been Liam. It wasn’t Wren. So who killed Mike?”

After a moment, he hung his furry black-and-white head.

I reached over to stroke his fur. “I know,” I said softly. “I don’t know either.”

20

Just then there was a knock at the back door. Hercules leaned sideways and looked in the direction of the kitchen.

“That’s probably Taylor,” I said. She’d called to say she’d be over after supper.

It was Taylor. Her long red hair was in a loose braid over one shoulder, and she was wearing jeans and a lime green sweatshirt.

“C’mon in,” I said. “The books are in my briefcase in the kitchen.”

She smiled. “Thank you so much for bringing them home with you. Now I can practice before the next class.”

“It was no problem,” I said. My bag was on the floor under the coat hooks. I reached down to get the books. Hercules was sitting in the doorway to the living room, watching us.

“That’s Hercules, right?” she asked.

“Yes, it is,” I said. The cat came about halfway into the room, sat down and studied Taylor.

She put the strap of her purse over her shoulder and leaned forward, hands on her thighs, to smile at him. “Hi, Hercules,” she said.

“Merow,” he answered, whiskers twitching.

She looked back at me. “Hercules was the son of Zeus, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, he was,” I said. The fact that I’d been thinking mostly about actor Kevin Sorbo when I’d named Herc really wasn’t relevant.

“Yeah, we did Greek myths last year in English,” she said. She straightened up, turned and took the books from me.

“I like your purse,” I said. It was a brown leather bucket bag with a braided leather strap and four rows of what looked to be wooden buttons around the top edge.

Taylor slid a hand over the caramel-colored leather. “It’s from the nineteen eighties, as far as I can tell,” she said. “I just got it today and I didn’t have time to do any research, but for ten dollars I figured it was okay.”

“It’s in great shape,” I said. “Where did you find it?”

“My dad has a building up on the highway where he rents storage space.”

I nodded.

“Someone’s been clearing out one of the units for the past couple of weeks, and she has some great stuff from back in the seventies and eighties.” She shrugged and the strap of her bag slipped down her shoulder a little. “The first time I asked her about maybe buying a couple of the bags she said no, because they were her mother’s, but then today she said if I still wanted the bags I could have them.” She frowned. “I kind of felt like maybe I was cheating her, you know, because all she wanted was ten dollars for this one and a little black evening clutch purse, but Wren said no, she didn’t want any of the stuff anymore.”

“Wren Magnusson?” I said.

Taylor was smiling again at Hercules, who had moved a little closer to us. “Uh-huh,” she said. “The stuff all belonged to her mother. You wouldn’t believe some of the things that she’d kept—platform shoes, hot pants, elastic belts. There was a big old trunk and even a pair of roller skates. Wren just packed most of the stuff in big garbage bags and took it to Goodwill.” She turned to look at me again. “I should get going,” she said. “Thank you again for getting the books for me. I’ll see you at class on Tuesday.”

I walked her out, and when I turned around, Hercules was behind me. I dropped onto the bench and pushed my bangs off my forehead. He jumped up and sat beside me. Uncertainty was gnawing at a point just under my breastbone.

I looked at Herc. “You heard what Taylor said. Wren might as well have just given her those two purses. All she asked for was ten dollars. And she did give Mary some of her mother’s jewelry. Not to mention she took the rest of her mom’s stuff to Goodwill.”