Fat Cat Takes The Cake

“I’d really like to have it, though. I’d like to . . . show it to some other people.”

“Sure, if you want.”

She gave him her e-mail address and he said, “I’ll get to it later today. I’m not at the store now. So, a walk later?”

“I . . . I’d better not chance it. I’ll wait until I’m one hundred percent healthy. I’m afraid I’ll relapse.” That much was true. “Thanks anyway.”

“Sure thing. See you later.”

“Well?” Tanner asked after she finished the call.

“He’ll e-mail it ‘later.’”

“Remind him if he doesn’t do it today.”

She thought that would be a very good idea. Then, when she was sure, she’d call Detective Olson with some real evidence and he’d have to investigate Eddie instead of Julie. Unless she could get a little more information from him. Dare she?

“Tanner, you’re a gem,” she said. She leaned over and kissed the top of his head.

“Aw. Thanks.” His skin reddened on his neck and the flush rose to the tips of his ears.

“You’d better go tell Mallory you’re here.”

He rushed out of the office.

She picked up the copies of the notebook and turned to the section where Ron kept track of his stalking victims. Maybe there was a tie-in with HULK and the women. The ones listed first, which she presumed were older, were M and J. Monique and Julie, they had assumed, since he had harassed and terrified both of them in high school. Then there were the others: D, K, L, and the mysterious Q. They could be anyone.

Julie called and she put the papers down.

“Sorry I was busy before. Do you have any good news for me?”

“I might. I think a page fell out of that notebook we gave to the police. Quincy must have shoved it under my desk. It was there with my gloves.”

“Your good gloves? You found them? Great.”

“Yes, I’m happy to finally have them back. But this page is the real find. The paper is old, maybe from an older notebook. He lists someone he calls HULK.”

“Do we know any large, green people?”

Chase laughed. “Tanner was here and he performed another miracle. He hacked into Ron North’s e-mail account again and found an angry exchange between him and someone beginning with H, hunkyb.”

“Someone named B?”

“I thought it meant ‘hunky bod’ and this guy thinks a lot of himself.”

“Could be. Or hunky boy, I guess.”

“Julie, I’m afraid this might be Eddie Heath.”

“Really? Eddie? Wow. If he’s the killer that would be bad. Do the e-mails give a motive for murder?”

“They’re angry and threatening. The hunk person mentions smashing in Ron’s ugly face.”

“Ouch. And you think this is Eddie? Are you going to stop dating him?”

“I’m not dating him!”

“Right. Are you going to stop seeing him? How long has it been since you’ve seen Mike?”

Too long. Much too long.

“Chase, we could use you out front,” Anna called from the kitchen.

“I’d better get to work,” Chase said to Julie.

“Me, too. Call me later.”

The salesroom was humming with activity. It seemed that, all of a sudden, everyone in Dinkytown and beyond had decided that goodies from the Bar None would make excellent Christmas and Hanukkah gifts.

Chase looked up from counting change when she heard a familiar voice.

“Patrice,” she said, “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Patrice was next in line for Mallory. “I’ve been helping Mike out at the clinic. His assistant has the flu.”

“That’s terrible. So far all I’ve had is a cold.” She rapped her knuckles on the wooden top of the display case for luck.

“I haven’t seen you either. I asked Mike about that the other day.”

Chase handed the change to her customer. “Thank you and have a nice day.”

“What I mean is, are you and Mike seeing each other anymore?” Patrice went on.

Chase wasn’t sure how to answer that. “We’re not not seeing each other. It’s, well . . . things are busy right now.”

“He isn’t that busy.” She looked around the crowded shop. “I guess you are though, huh?”

“Yah, it’ll let up after Christmas.”

Patrice handed her box of Hula Bars to Mallory, who had taken about fifteen minutes telling Tanner good-bye in the kitchen, and who was now back at work. “Shall I tell him anything from you?”

“Sure. Say hi.”

“You want him to call?”

“Sure.” Yes, she did want him to call. “Tell him I’m thinking of him and would like to get together soon. I’ve been sick or I would have called before.”

Patrice didn’t seem convinced that Chase was sincere, but she left, promising to relay the message.

After the shop closed at 6 PM, and Mallory and Inger had both left, Chase helped Anna with the last of the cleanup.

“Anna, I need some advice.”

Anna looked eager to give it. Chase knew that she liked to keep track of Chase’s life, and recently Chase hadn’t been quite honest with her about Eddie Heath. Anna hitched herself onto one of the stools and patted the other one. “Come on. Sit here and tell me. This sounds serious.”

“It’s about Eddie Heath.”

Anna nodded her wise-grandmother nod. “I thought it might be.”