Nine Deadly Lives Page 3

  Gently, she lifted the heavy Persian down from her lap. Carolyn Hawes took the cat before Beth could put it on the floor. “She’s my precious,” Carolyn said. “She’s a magnificent creature, don’t you think? She’s won shows all over the country, and I’m so proud of her.”

  Beth had never gotten that slobbery over any of her pets, and besides she had to get over to the Banning house as soon as she could. She stood up with a smile and said, “Thank you for talking to me, Mrs. Hawes. You’ve been a great help.”

  “I’m not sure how, but if I have, I’m glad. Here, let me show you out.”

  o0o

  Beth went straight to her car and sent it down the driveway to the road. It took her several minutes to reach DeMille Drive, then climb the hill on the other side of the road to the Banning estate.

  That was long enough for her to think through her suspicions. As far as she could see, Nicolette was the only one with a real reason to hurt Chester. Not only would the cat’s death increase the estate she would inherit by a hundred grand, but if Chester wasn’t around, Nicolette would get the whole thing as soon as Delores died, rather than having to wait for the cat to die, too.

  Judging from what Beth had learned this morning about Chester’s nocturnal habits—more than one of the servants in the neighborhood had talked about what a feline Lothario the cat was—he was in the prime of his life and might live a long time yet if nothing unforeseen happened to him.

  And once the cat was dead, who was to say that Nicolette might not try to hurry along Delores’s demise, as well?

  As Beth pulled up in front of the house, she frowned at the sight of a small, sporty coupe parked there. Even though she hadn’t seen what Nicolette was driving the night before, the little car struck Beth as the sort of car the blonde might have. Quickly, Beth got out of the Ford and started toward the door.

  Before she got there, the sound of a raised voice drew her to the side of the house. She recognized it as Nicolette’s as the blonde called, “Chester! Where are you, damn it?”

  Beth’s pulse kicked into a higher gear, just as it did before she attempted a risky stunt. She broke into a run, circling the house and spotting movement in an overgrown garden between the mansion and a large pool. Nicolette was there, wearing pants and a silk shirt today, and as Beth approached, she saw Nicolette suddenly lean over and grab at something. She lifted a squirming ball of orange fur by the nape of the neck and said, “Now I’ve got you!”

  Beth left her feet in a flying tackle and crashed into Nicolette before she could wring Chester’s neck—or whatever other violent end she had in mind for him. Nicolette yelled in surprise as the impact knocked her off her feet. Beth sprawled on top of her as Chester pulled away and bounded off, disappearing around the front of the house.

  Nicolette was still yelling and struggling. Beth got hold of both of her wrists, and with the strength she had developed in her stunt work, she had no trouble pinning the other woman to the ground. “You thought you’d kill Chester so you could inherit everything right away, didn’t you?” Beth said, panting for breath from the exertion and from the adrenaline coursing through her.

  o0o

  Nicolette stopped fighting and stared up at Beth in confusion. “What are you talking about?” she demanded.

  “I know all about your aunt’s will—” Beth began.

  Delores Banning’s voice said sharply from behind her, “Liz! What the hell are you doing, girl? What’s this about my will?”

  Beth twisted her head around and saw that Delores had come out of a side door. The older woman was looking on anxiously. Beth said, “I think Nicolette’s the one who’s been trying to hurt Chester.”

  “Nonsense! Nicolette adores Chester, just like I do, even if she doesn’t always show it.” Delores sounded utterly convinced of that.

  “I’m afraid you don’t know your niece as well as you think you do, Mrs. Banning. Nicolette’s the only one with any reason to harm Chester, and just now I saw her grab the cat and try to break his neck!”

  “I did no such thing!” Nicolette said. “Chester got out of the house, and Aunt Delores wanted him inside so he’d be safe. She asked me to look for him!”

  “That’s true,” Delores said. “I did ask Nicky to find him. I know she wouldn’t hurt him. Why, many’s the time I’ve found Chester curled up in her lap, sleeping peacefully. He only does that with people he can trust.”

  Beth blinked and tried to make some sense of this. She looked down at Nicolette and said, “Then...you didn’t try to murder Chester...?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Oh, shoot,” Beth said softly.

  Between clenched teeth, Nicolette said, “Now will you please get off of me!”

  Quickly, Beth stood up and helped the other young woman to her feet. “I...I’m sorry,” she said. “When Carolyn Hawes told me about your aunt’s will, I just thought—”

  “Carolyn has been gossiping about me again, has she?” Delores cut in. “It’s hard to believe that woman was once my best friend.”

  “She’s not anymore?” Beth said.

  Delores shook her head. “She’s been very cool to me lately, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. I certainly didn’t do anything to offend her, at least, not that I know of.”

  As she brushed off her clothes with curt, angry gestures, Nicolette said, “Mrs. Hawes told you I wanted to hurt Chester?”

  “Well, not in so many words, but I just thought...”

  No, she hadn’t thought at all, Beth realized suddenly. But she was thinking now, and she turned and ran as hard as she could toward the front of the estate.

  o0o

  Chester had been going in that direction when he fled. Beth had no idea how to go about tracking a cat—Lucas might have been able to do something like that, but she couldn’t—but she knew she had to find the animal before something else happened to him.

  She threw herself into her car, backed around, and took off down the drive. Delores and Nicolette probably thought she had completely lost her mind, but she couldn’t take the time to worry about that now.

  She headed straight toward the house where she had spoken to Carolyn Hawes, keeping a close eye on the shrubbery on both sides of the drive, watching for a flash of orange fur.

  By the time she reached the house, she had seen no sign of Chester, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t over here.

  As Beth got out of the car, she heard a sudden squall from the other side of the house, loud enough to carry plainly to her ears.

  She ran again, her long strides carrying her around the large, sprawling house. She could still hear the squalling.

  As she rounded the corner of the house, she saw that Carolyn had Chester backed up into a corner of a flagstone patio. The woman didn’t look so cool and elegant now as she lifted a croquet mallet over her head and said, “All right, you lecherous little beast! You’ll never ruin any more of your betters!”

  “Mrs. Hawes!” Beth called, only a little out of breath from her run. “Don’t hurt him!”

  Chester let out another squall. His fur was puffed up all over and his teeth were bared in a snarl as he faced the woman he instinctively knew was his enemy.

  Carolyn’s head jerked around. “Go away!” she said to Beth. “This is none of your business!”

  “Yes, it is,” Beth insisted, trying to stay calm. “I know what happened now. When are the kittens due?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to destroy them immediately, of course. Edwina will be devastated, but it can’t be helped.” The woman looked at Chester again. “But at least he won’t ever force himself on anyone else’s precious little darling. He’ll be dead!”

  “You knew why I was here this morning,” Beth said. “You tried to point me at Nicolette Banning by telling me about that will. It almost worked, too. But Delores told me how Chester trusts Nicolette enough to sleep in her lap, and I can see for myself how he reacts to you. He remembers the other times you tried to
kill him, doesn’t he?”

  “He doesn’t deserve any less. Now, get off of my property, or I’ll call the police.”

  Beth swallowed hard. She didn’t know how the police would react to this situation, but she had a hunch they would frown more on her trespassing than they would on Carolyn’s attempts to kill Chester. Protecting a cat wouldn’t rank high on their list of priorities.

  “Let me take Chester with me,” she said. “I promise you he won’t ever bother Edwina again.”

  “He certainly won’t, the low-bred little monster. I’m going to kill him.”

  “Maybe I can talk Mrs. Banning into having him fixed.” Slowly, Beth moved closer as she continued, “And Edwina will be okay, she really will. Lots of cats have had kittens.”

  “Not Edwina. She’s high-strung. She’ll never be the same. She’ll never win another show.”

  Beth kept edging closer, and she was almost near enough to make a grab for that croquet mallet. Then Chester let out a howl and tried to dart past Carolyn. The mallet swept down with surprising speed.

  Chester was faster. The mallet smacked against one of the flagstones. Beth leaped toward Carolyn, and the older woman jerked the mallet around, backhanding it at Beth’s head. Reflexes honed by stunt work allowed Beth to drop under the swing and lower her shoulder as she ran into Carolyn. Both of them went down.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Beth saw Chester taking off toward home.

  She wrenched the mallet out of Carolyn’s hands, rolled a few feet away, and stood up. She flung the mallet off to the side. “That’s enough!” Beth said. “I’m going to tell Mrs. Banning everything that’s happened, and I hope if you hurt Chester that she sues you!”

  Carolyn pulled herself up on her knees and glared at Beth. “I told you once to get off my property,” she said coldly.

  “I’m going. But you’d better remember what I said.”

  Beth went back to her car, trembling with anger. She had solved the case—such as it was—but she hadn’t done anything to protect Chester from further harm. Abruptly, she stopped and turned around, striding around the house to face a still-fuming Carolyn Hawes.

  “This whole affair is a secret, isn’t it?” Beth said. “Nobody in your fancy cat-show circles even knows that your cat is going to have kittens. Maybe they’d like to hear about it—including who the father is.”

  The pallor that swept over Carolyn’s face told Beth her shot had struck its target. “You wouldn’t dare,” she said.

  “Sure I would. The rivalry in those shows is pretty fierce, isn’t it? I’m sure a lot of your so-called friends would love to hear about how Edwina was rutting with Chester like a common alley cat.”

  For a second, Beth thought Carolyn was going to pick up the croquet mallet and come after her again. But then the woman pointed a shaking finger at her and said, “You just keep your mouth shut. I...I won’t do anything else about Chester. But tell Delores Banning to keep him away from here!”

  “I’ll tell her,” Beth said. She felt a little better as she went back to her car and drove away from the Hawes estate.

  o0o

  On the way back to the Banning house, she spotted Chester sitting in some flowers and chewing happily on their leaves. She stopped the car and called him, and after a moment’s hesitation, he sauntered over to her.

  His instincts must have identified her as an ally, because he allowed her to pick him up, put him in the car, and drive him back home.

  Delores was overjoyed to see him, and even Nicolette seemed happy. The blonde rubbed Chester’s ears as Delores held him, and she said to Beth, “My aunt and I don’t agree on everything, but I hope you understand now that I would never hurt Chester.”

  “I know,” Beth said. “It was Carolyn Hawes who was after him.”

  “Carolyn!” Delores said. “But why?”

  Beth explained, feeling a little foolish as she did so, and concluded by saying, “Once I realized that Persian cat I saw over there might be pregnant instead of just fat, I figured out what could have happened.”

  “I should hope so,” Nicolette said. “I mean about why somebody else might want to hurt Chester. It seemed a little far-fetched, but...”

  “You’re the detective, Liz,” Delores said. “I suppose I’ll have to have Chester...well, fixed so that he won’t roam so much.”

  “I think that would be a good idea.”

  “I hate to do that. He was just following his instincts, you know. It was second nature to him.”

  Beth nodded. She thought about how Delores had said she was the detective. Beth liked the sound of that. What Chester had been doing was second nature to him...and Beth suddenly realized that, just like stunt work, this private eye business might be second nature to her, too.

  After all, she was Lucas Hallam’s daughter.

  For Scruffy

  About the Author—Livia J. Washburn

  Under the names Livia J. Washburn and L.J. Washburn, Livia Reasoner has been writing award-winning, critically acclaimed mystery, western, romance, and historical novels for more than thirty years. She began to write in collaboration with her husband, author James Reasoner, and soon branched out into telling her own stories. She received the Private Eye Writers of America award and the American Mystery award for her first mystery, WILD NIGHT, and was nominated for a Spur by the Western Writers of America for a novel she wrote with her husband, James Reasoner. Livia recently won the Peacemaker Award from Western Fictioneers for her story “Charlie’s Pie”.

  Shoes, Shades and Faerydust

  Deborah Macgillivray

  True magic can happen on Halloween night under the full moon…if you only believe…

  Dominique Meacham reached toward the cardboard box hidden at the very back of the closet, but then hesitated. Disappointment was rule of thumb in her life. Was it silly to hope after all this time? To think a pair of red leather shoes held magic?

  She glanced to her black cat Pye Wackett. “Oh, once upon a time I had believed, Pye.”

  The long haired cat climbed down from his perch by the laptop, and came to do a dance next to where she knelt. The silly beast then head-butted her arm, almost seeming to push it forward. So strange, the feline seemed to be able to read her mind, and appeared almost as eager as she to see the cardboard container opened.

  “It’s not kitty treats, if that’s what you think.” She scratched his soft black fur that held a strange mahogany cast to it. “Being a cat you probably just want the box to sit in.”

  He meowed loudly as if to say, get on with it, coward.

  Carefully lifting the shoes from the box, she stared at them, recalling a Halloween night three years ago when she’d won them at a high school fair…

  o0o

  The box was covered with red foil paper, the type used at Christmastime; rather odd, since no one else had bothered to wrap their donations. No thrill, surely? Something discarded, unwanted by its owner. She’d won a prize in the cakewalk–time to pick what she wanted. So strange, it was as though she couldn’t focus on anything but that box. She climbed up the wooden bleachers, the glittering foil beckoning, lured as the Sirens had Ulysses. Something extraordinary was inside. In her vivid imagination, she almost could believe her faery godmother left it there for her to discover.

  All the music, laughter and chatter in the gymnasium receded to mute, as she raised the lid.

  Nestled within black tissue paper was a pair of fire-engine red heels. Again, why trouble to wrap the box and shoes? Just a pair of heels someone had worn once or twice and then contributed to the festival as a prize. Other prizes were stuff you’d give to a church bazaar―secondhand toys, clothing or baked goods―pies, cookies or cakes. Obviously expensive, the soft leather called out to be stroked. As she held them, she wondered if Cinderella had felt the same when she’d put on glass slippers and waltzed with her prince.

  Instantly, Bran Mackenzie’s face shimmered in her mind. He was so heart-stoppingly beautiful, with wavy blue-black
hair and pale grey eyes―and, oh, she had danced with him last Valentine’s Day, underneath white crepe streamers and red paper hearts! Oh, what she wouldn’t have given for him to kiss her! Her mama warned her against him―a bad boy―fussing about how he was never without his sunglasses. What was he hiding? she forever complained. Despite all the maternal forbiddings, Dominique wanted her first kiss to be from Bran. Only Bran. No matter how pointless the wish, it wouldn’t die within her heart.

  Rushing through the double doors to the outer lobby, where no one lingered, she kicked off her tennis shoes and slipped on the pumps. They fit as if fashioned for her! Buckling the straps about her ankles, Dominique stared down at the shoes she’d won, pondering if they were magic. She felt different, suddenly, no longer a child, but transformed by the Gucci heels.

  Born on the stroke of midnight on Halloween, she would turn eighteen in two hours. “Time to put aside childish things and embrace the night.” She laughed, and stepped away from the school’s entrance, and into the warm autumnal darkness.

  She had a bit of trouble gaining her balance, never having worn heels before. Never owned a pair. Mama didn’t approve. When she reached the hill, the yellow harvest moon broke from behind the clouds, flooding the nightscape with an eerie gold, as if kissed by faerydust. Once more, she paused to glance down at her new shoes. This was insane! They were just a pair of heels someone had discarded, put up as a prize for the carnival. Only…she’d known as she opened the lid on the box, they were special somehow. Once she’d put them on, all had changed.

  “Do you grant wishes, Ruby Slippers? I could use a little magic in my life.” She closed her eyes, and then clicked her heels thrice. Instead of Dorothy’s mantra of there’s no place like home… words fell from her lips, born from the unrequited hope in her heart, “There’s no one like Bran…there’s no one like Bran.”