Gone with the Whisker by Laurie Cass

Author:Laurie Cass [Cass, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

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* * *

Early the next morning while crunching my cereal as quietly as possible because Kate was still in her sleeping bag, snoring gently, I spent a few minutes in a text exchange with Deputy Ash Wolverson. Early on, it became clear that he did not want to drag Detective Hal Inwood into another meeting with Ms. Minnie Hamilton, even if it did mean fresh baked goods from Cookie Tom’s.

Ash: Anyway, Hal’s wife wants him to drop 20 pounds.

Minnie: One doughnut isn’t going to make that much difference.

Ash: Try telling Mrs. Inwood that.

Minnie: Isn’t she downstate this week with grandkids?

Ash: She has spies. Don’t do it.

I smiled at that, but the spy thing was probably true, and I would have bet it was the sheriff herself who tattled on Hal. Women in an overly male environment tend to stick together, especially when the health of the men in their lives is involved.

Minnie: OK, but I still want to stop by on the way to the library.

Ash: Hal won’t like it.

Minnie: Didn’t figure he would.

Ash: Do you have something new for the investigation?

Minnie (after a pause): A theory.

But not Kate’s soap opera theory, although it was possible the wispy thoughts I’d woken up with had their roots in her ideas. Then again, it might have been Eddie’s cat food breath in my face half the night. One never knew.

Ash (after an even longer pause): Fine.

I could almost hear the sigh as he typed. Before I could thank him, the dots indicating that he was still typing popped up. Then: I can get you 10 minutes, right when he gets here.

Minnie: When’s that?

Ash: 8, straight up.

Minnie: You’re . . .

I glanced at the clock. It was all of five minutes to eight. I finished the text with: getting as bad as Hal, sent it off, slung a sleepy Eddie off the houseboat’s dashboard and into his carrier, and hurried to my car.

Up at the sheriff’s office, I parked in the shade and jogged into the reception area. Ash was waiting for me, arms crossed. “As bad as Hal?” he asked.

I colored a bit. He hadn’t deserved the comment. “What I meant to say was ‘getting as good as.’ Detective Inwood is a highly competent law enforcement officer, and if you’re like him, that means you’re also highly competent.”

Ash, since he knew me well, ignored all that and led me into the interview room, where Hal Inwood was already seated and sipping a mug of coffee. “Ms. Hamilton, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

I sat in my chair. “Did you notice I asked for an appointment?”

Hal eyed me over the top of his mug. “I’m not sure that texting Ash five minutes ago counts as asking.”

Once again we would have to agree to disagree. But I didn’t want to start our conversation with more disagreeableness than necessary, so I gave him a tiny nod. “What I wanted to talk about was the relationship between the murder of Rex Stuhler”—I took a deep breath, because this was the tricky part—“and the murder of Nicole Price.

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