The Cat, The Professor and the Poison by Sweeney Leann

Author:Sweeney, Leann
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: PENGUIN group
Published: 2010-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

The next day, I made pancakes for all three of us. When given the choice of sleeping on the couch, downstairs with a bunch of cats and their litter box or in my king-size bed with me, Candace had chosen my room. I’d told her she shouldn’t feel the need to stay that close to me, but she’d laughed and said her choice was all about comfort.

Though Kara complained that the “overloaded with carbs” breakfast would make her bleary for the rest of the day, she ate twice as many pancakes as Candace did. And that’s a lot of pancakes. Would she have to double up on her Red Bull today? And would I need extra coffee?

When we were finished, I decided to be proactive, take more of a motherly role, and suggested that Kara do the dishes. She agreed without so much as a pout. Progress, maybe? I thought.

As Candace and I left the kitchen, I said, “I have a couple new quilts I want to show you.” I grabbed her elbow and squeezed before she could say anything. Candace had no interest whatsoever in anything that had to do with quilting, but I wanted to talk to her alone.

Chablis had joined us this morning—she does enjoy a few nibbles of pancakes—and she and the two boys led the way to my sewing room. Maybe she was getting over her love affair with Dame Wiggins and the kittens. Once the cats took their usual places—Syrah on the windowsill, Merlot on the cutting table and Chablis next to the sewing machine—I closed the door.

“I saw you were stuck to your laptop last night. Were you working on the case?” I said.

She nodded. “Chief Baca sent me information on the family. Plus he has ties with someone from the college and forwarded an e-mail from this person. A former associate of the professor indicated—and it’s all in university-type lingo and thus kinda fuzzy—that VanKleet was terminated. I mean before he was really terminated. But I don’t know why.”

“Can you find out more today?” I glanced at the pile of unbound quilts I had to finish—and soon.

“Spring break, so it might be hard,” she said. “Maybe a trip to that little college town to find anyone willing to sit down and talk about this guy is in order—that is, if anyone is around and not on vacation.”

“Can’t you have one of their local officers help you?” I said.

“I wish. You think Mercy’s small? In Denman, they depend more on the campus police than their four officers. Baca e-mailed me a couple names of the campus cops. But they could be on spring break, too.”

“I heard you get a phone call last night, too,” I said. “From the look on your face before you left the living room with your phone, I’m guessing it was Billy.”

Candace blushed. “You are way too observant. It was him. The professor’s relatives had arrived in town even before I found Rufus’s body. The sons are staying at

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