by T.C. Lotempio
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GENRE: Cozy Mystery
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Sydney McCall left behind an
ex-fiancé and a New York advertising job to return home to Deer Park, North
Carolina and help her sister, Kat, run the local animal shelter, Friendly Paws.
Determined to save the shelter from financial trouble, Sydney and Kat organize
a cat café fundraising event at a local coffee shop. Things are looking up
until their landlord, Trowbridge Littleton, threatens to shut down the event.
When Sydney drops by his art gallery to make peace, she finds Kat--along with
Littleton's dead body.
Local homicide detective Will
Worthington--who just happens to be Sydney's old high school crush--is highly
suspicious of the sisters' involvement. Desperate to clear their names from the
suspect list, Sydney pounces on the investigation. With the help of one of the
shelter cats, a savvy orange tabby named Toby, Sydney begins poking her nose
into other local businesses whose owners may have benefited from Littleton's
death--until the killer notices she's pawing a little too closely at the truth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT
Will
glanced up. “Pretty observant of you,
Syd. The ME will determine the cause of death.”
He tapped on his notebook with the edge of his pen. “Why don’t you walk me through what
happened. How did the two of you come to
be in Littleton’s shop so early?”
“We
had something we wanted to discuss with Mr. Littleton, and we thought the
earlier the better,” I said.
“I
see. And just what was the nature of
this discussion?”
I
shifted my weight to my other foot. “Friendly Paws has teamed with Dayna’s
Treats & Sweets for a cat café event to benefit the shelter. For a nominal
fee, people can have their coffee and goodies in a room with shelter cats that
are available for adoption.”
Will
glanced up, and I could see a light of interest in his eyes. “I’ve heard of
those cafes. They’re mostly in Europe.”
“There
are a few in the States, big cities mostly.
This will be the first event of it’s kind in North Carolina. We’re hoping to increase
revenue for both the café and the shelter.”
“Let me guess. That idea didn’t sit well with
Littleton?”
Kat
and I both shook our heads in unison and Kat exclaimed, “I should say not! He
was in the shop yesterday, and he made his feelings pretty darn clear. He thought having the cats around would be
detrimental to business. Heck, he thinks-thought-the shelter in general was a
detriment to the town.”
“A
sentiment you two didn’t agree with,” he said slowly.
“I
should say not!” Kat returned, her cheeks starting to flame. “Syd and I tried to reason with him yesterday
but he dind’t want to hear it.”
“And
that’s why you decided to come here this morning?”
I
nodded. “Yes. I put together a pretty
good argument of pros for the event. I
was hoping to appeal to his sense of business acumen.”
“Why
did you feel this was necessary? Had he threatened you?”
“Not
in so many words,” I said carefully. “But he did say yesterday that he was
determined to put a stop to the proceedings, and we hadn’t heard the last from
him.”
“Um-hm.”
Will murmured, scribbling some more.
“And
Leila Addams – do you remember her, Will?
She’s a reporter for the Deer Park Herald now,” Kat chimed in. “Leila said that she thought Littleton was
inquiring about starting a petition against showing the shelter cats – and the
shelter in general.”
Will
made another notation in his book. “So when was the last time you saw
Littleton?”
“Yesterday around one-thirty.” I cleared my
throat. “If that’s all the questions you
have, we need to get going.”
He snapped his notebook shut. “You’re free to go for now,” he said, “but I
will probably need to talk to you some more later on.”
“That’s
fine,” I said. “We’ll be here.”
The
corners of Will’s lips twitched slightly. “Good to know.”
Once
we were back out on the street, Kat hauled off and punched me in the arm – hard.
“Yow!”
I cried. “What was that for?”
“For
thinking that you could come here and face Littleton without me, for one,” Kat
said. “I knew you had your fingers
crossed last night.”
I
rubbed at my arm. “Can’t put anything over on you, can I?”
She gave me a shrewd look. “So, how did it feel, seeing Will Worthington
again after all these years! I heard he
was back in town, but I had no idea he’d become a detective – homicide, no
less.” She cut me a sidelong glance.
“Funny, isn’t it, how you two came back to Deer Park almost at the same time. Like Karma, or something.”
“Well, I’d rather deal with Will than his
partner, Colombo Junior,” I said. “Come on, let’s get my car and get to the
shelter. I hope Maggie isn’t too worried.”
We
walked through the alleyway and when we were almost at the spot where I’d parked, I suddenly stopped
short. “Hey,” Kat cried as she ran full
tilt into my back. “What’s wrong?”
I
pointed to the empty space beside my car. “There was a white Lincoln there when
I came, parked pretty badly. The license
plate read TLITTLE. I thought for sure
it was Littleton’s car, but if it’s gone…”
“A
white Lincoln? That’s his wife Petra’s
car,” Kat said. She glanced around, then
pointed to the gym. “She must have parked it here instead of the gym parking
lot, like she usually does. I wonder why.”
Another
disturbing thought occurred to me as I slid behind the wheel. It would have been impossible for Littleton’s
wife not to have seen the ambulance and police cars parked in front of her
husband’s shop. Why hadn’t she come to
see what was wrong?
Unless,
of course…she didn’t have to. Because she already knew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
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Twitter:@RoccoBlogger
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