Catnip (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 1) (15 page)

“A fraud?”

“We always knew that was a
possibility.”

They were sitting around the
fireplace in the library, and even though a driftwood fire crackled warmly, it
still felt cold - cold and miserable.

“It’s not fair!” Alicia jumped up
and began pacing. “It should be over. Now those crazies will start picketing
again and we’ll have to go back to court ... and the whispering ... and the
looks ... and ... I just want it to be over.”

What could Chris say? He wanted
it to be over too. “What happened, Dave?”

“Well, they picked him up when he
went for the money. It didn’t take long before he admitted that he didn’t have
the cat, and never had. He’d seen the story in the papers and decided to try
and cash in on it. I’m sorry,” he added lamely.

“Who is he?”

“His name is Ray Price. He’s a
handyman of sorts, does odd jobs around town. They didn’t come right out and
say so, but the police hinted that he was known to them. Petty crime. Suspicion
but no convictions. Anyway, he lives in the subsidized apartments at the west
end of town. The police have searched his place. There is no sign of Marmalade
and no evidence that he, or any animal, has ever been there. He’s being charged
with attempted extortion.”

“And now?” James asked, wearily.

“We’ve informed the Society and
Judge Palmer. Court resumes Monday morning.”

Alicia turned suddenly and walked
out the door. Chris excused himself and followed her. He caught up to her in
the kitchen where the uneaten ‘celebration’ dinner was still keeping warm.

“You need to call Shae,” she said
without turning around.

He was surprised. She hadn’t
seemed all that fond of Shae. “I’ll call and tell her the news after dinner.”

“No, call and tell her to come
over. We need to have that talk. Now!”

“What talk?”

“How we’re going to prove that
Abbot did it.” She turned to him fiercely. “I’m sick of this. It’s time we
stopped being victims in all of this and went on the offensive. Call Shae.”

They were all sitting, once more,
around the fire in the library. Chris had called Shae and filled her in on what
had happened.

“So what we have to decide is
what we do with this.” Chris was holding the fax of the preliminary report. “Any
ideas?”

No-one spoke for a moment, and
then Alicia said, “I think we need to have a look around the animal shelter and
office and we need to do it when no-one else is there so they can’t hide anything.”

“What do you think we’d find?”
Shae asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but we
need to look for more evidence that Abbot is stealing from the APS.”

“But how does that help us?” her
mother asked.

“It shows he has a motive for
taking Marmalade and for getting his hands on the estate. He needs money to
cover himself in case there should be an audit,” Alicia explained.

“There is going to be an audit,”
Chris interjected. “Dave found out, I don’t know how, that it’s scheduled for
sometime early in the New Year.”

“You see!” Alicia said
triumphantly.

“OK. Let’s say you’re right and
there is more evidence of fraud to be found there, how do we get in?” Chris
asked.

Alicia looked thoughtful. “Well,
we could break in.”

Everyone laughed until they
realized she was serious.

“All right, everyone who knows
how to break into a building, raise your hand.” Chris said, sarcastically. No
hands were raised.

Alicia wasn’t about to give up. “O.K.,
so we’re not cat burglars. I may have another way.”

“And that is ...?”

“We ask Hugh to help us.” Alicia
said.

Four stunned pairs of eyes looked
at her.

“We’re going to ask their
investigator to help us break into their shelter?”

“Yes. Listen for just a minute.
Hugh’s a good guy and he doesn’t like Abbot. If we show him what we’ve learned
so far, I think he’d want to find out for himself just what is going on.”

They looked at each other for a
minute and James said, “It’s worth a try. It’s not like we have a lot of
options.”

“We could just take this to the
court and present it as evidence.” Alice offered.

“And before anyone could get out
there with a warrant, you can bet that he’d have destroyed any evidence there
might be,” Shae said. “I agree with Alicia. I think we definitely need to get a
look around, and it would be a good idea to have an impartial witness there in
case we find anything.”

In the end they all agreed, and
Alicia called Hugh. It didn’t escape Chris’ notice that she had his number on
speed dial.

She didn’t give him a reason. She
just asked if he could come over the following morning. Reluctantly, he agreed.

He met them just after eleven. He
was out of uniform and had left his SUV down the road in case anyone was
watching the house. He looked tired.

“Sorry I’m so late. We were on a
raid yesterday and I didn’t get home until very late.”

“What kind of raid?” Alicia
asked.

“We received a tip about some
horses on a farm near Lancaster. Five mares and their foals and two old
geldings. They were starving.”

There were outraged exclamations.

“Will they be all right?”

“It’s too soon to tell. The
younger ones have the best chance. The old geldings are in really rough shape.
Anyway, what did you want to see me about?”

When it came right down to it, it
was difficult to know where to start. Alicia and Chris looked at each other and
he made an ‘over to you’ sign.

Alicia took a deep breath and
started in. “We need your help.”

“To do what?” he asked
suspiciously.

“To prove that Bill Abbot is a
thief and that he is the one who took Marmalade.”

“What?” He stood up as if to
leave.

Alicia put her hand on his arm. “Please,
Hugh. Just listen to me.”

Reluctantly, he sat back down.

“To start with, you have to
believe us when we say that we didn’t harm Marmalade. If you can accept that,
then the next question you have to ask is who else would benefit from his
death. And the answer to that is the APS.” He started to get up again but she
held onto his arm and went on quickly. “We have proof that Bill Abbot has been
stealing money from the APS.” Hugh sat down as if he had been shot. “And we
believe that he took Marmalade so that we would be blamed and lose the estate.
That way he could use the money from the estate to cover what he had taken
before the audit in the New Year.” She had his complete attention. “Shae sent a
copy of the APS books to a forensic accountant and we have his preliminary
report. We’d like you to look at it, and if you agree that something has to be
done to stop Abbot, we have a plan we need your help with.” She let go of his
arm and waited.

Hugh shook his head as if trying
to make sense of what he’d heard. “You know, I’ve never liked the man, but I
didn’t think he was a thief. Show me your proof.”

Chris handed him the faxed report
and they all sat back while he read it. He looked skeptical at first, but as he
read, his eyes widened and a few times he muttered, “That’s not right!” When he’d
finished, he looked up and said, “I owe you all an apology. You’re right. The
man’s a crook. Look at this payroll to start with. These salaries are all way
out of line. We’ve all taken pay-cuts to try to help out. These figures are
more than we made before the cuts. I only wish I made as much as it says here.
And these two people are volunteers. They don’t get paid. And as for the vet,
we can’t afford a staff vet. There are two local vets who come out when we need
them, and they work for free. They just bill us for whatever supplies they use
that we don’t have.” He kept jabbing the paper with his finger as he went down
the list. “Here it shows a bill for remodeling. We haven’t had any remodeling
done.”

“We think that was done on his
house.” Chris said.

Hugh just growled, his face dark
with fury.

“O.K. I’m in. What do you want me
to do?”

“We want you to help us get into
the shelter after hours so that we can look for more incriminating evidence and
maybe find a clue as to what he has done with Marmalade,” Alicia told him. “We
were going to try to get in ourselves, but nobody here knows how to pick a
lock,” she added.

Hugh looked at her to see if she
was serious. She smiled as if suggesting a break-in was an everyday occurrence.

“Well, we won’t need to pick any
locks. I know the security codes and I have a key. We can go tonight. No-one is
on the property at night, and if anyone happened to see my truck, they wouldn’t
take any notice because I often go and check on any new rescues later in the
evening.”

Even though it had been her
suggestion, Alicia felt surprised that it was going ahead.

They made their plans, and Shae
and Hugh and Chris left, agreeing to meet that night. Alicia wondered if she
should suggest synchronizing watches but decided against it. Things were
bizarre enough as it was.

The Animal Shelter was on the
highway leading out of town. They had agreed that it wouldn’t be a good idea
for a lot of cars to be seen outside and so they were to meet Hugh in the
parking lot behind the supermarket. Shae would meet Chris and Alicia at the
house and they would go in Chris’ car to the parking lot where Hugh would pick
them up.

When she got to the house, James
opened the door and let her in.

“I didn’t see your car pull up,”
he said.

“I left it down the street and
walked, just in case. Are they ready?”

“Yes. They’re waiting in the
kitchen.”

She looked a little surprised but
followed him in. They were sitting at the table and she couldn’t repress a
giggle. They were both dressed in black jeans and turtle necks.

“What do you think this is? An
episode of ‘Chuck’?” she asked.

Chris looked embarrassed but
Alicia laughed and said, “I’d really like to be able to kick some butt the way
they do. Bill Abbot’s butt!”

“You might just get the chance,
if all goes well. Are you both ready?”

They nodded and picked up their
jackets - dark-colored, of course - and walked towards the back door.

“We thought it would be better to
leave by this door and go out through the side gate,” Chris said. “My car is
parked around the corner.”

When they pulled up at the
parking lot, Hugh was waiting for them. As they climbed in, he said, “I think
you’d all better scrunch down on the floor. That way, if anyone does notice me
pulling into the shelter, they won’t think anything of it.” It wasn’t very
comfortable but it made sense.

It was a short drive out of town
to the shelter. Hugh stopped at the gate and keyed in the security code. The
gate opened slowly and he drove through, the gate automatically closing and
locking behind him. Once inside, he drove around to the back of the main building
and parked, turning out the lights.

“You can get up now. No-one can
see us from here.”

“Thank God!” Shae said, bitchily.
“If I’d known I was going to be curled up on the floor, I wouldn’t have worn
leather.”

“It’s a lovely suit,” Alicia said
admiringly. “Danier?”

Shae looked pleased. “Yes.”

“Expensive.”

“Absolutely! But they do have
great sales from time to time. Call me next time you’re coming to Toronto and
we’ll go shopping.”

“If you two can wait to plan your
next shopping spree, we’d better get moving.” Hugh shook his head and rolled
his eyes at Chris. Just then there was some loud banging that came from a
building on the other side of a fence behind the main structure.

“What’s that?” Alicia asked,
nervously.

“Just the horses.”

“Horses? You have horses here?”
she exclaimed.

“Yes. The ones we rescued
yesterday. We have a barn with 20 stalls and some paddocks behind that fence
back there. I’m sorry to say, it is almost always full.”

“Poor things.”

“No,” Hugh corrected her grimly, “they’re
the lucky ones. We found them. Pity the ones we don’t know about, the ones
locked up in barns or sheds, no light, no food or water, the air fetid from the
smell of urine and excrement, up to their hocks in manure, or the ones living
out in dirt paddocks, not a scrap of hay, water troughs empty, no shade or
shelter, open sores on the ones still alive because there isn’t enough flesh on
their bones to cushion them from the hard ground, flies covering the carcasses
of the dead.”

There was a searing anger in his
voice and something else. Alicia thought it was despair. She swallowed the lump
that had come up in her throat while she wondered how Hugh could sleep at night
with the things he had seen.

Seeing the look on her face,
Chris squeezed her hand and she managed a small smile. One battle at a time.

Hugh had a key to the back door
of the main building. Again, he punched in a security code and let them in,
switching on the lights.

“Do you think that’s safe?” Chris
asked worriedly.

“If anyone had seen me come in,
they would think it strange if I didn’t turn on the lights. I told you, I come
here quite often at night to check on the animals. We can’t afford to have
staff on the premises twenty-four / seven, and many of these animals are in
pretty rough shape when they’re first brought in.”

Alicia thought what a truly nice
guy he was and it made her even angrier that Abbot had been stealing from these
people who were making so many sacrifices to try and help the animals.

“Where do we start?” Shae asked,
looking around.

“Probably Abbot’s office would be
the best place. Then we can check out the kennels. Follow me.”

He led them down the hall to the
office that Shae had visited during her appointment with the director. It, too,
was locked, but Hugh had keys to everything. Once inside, they turned on the
lights and looked around. There was the usual office equipment: desk, chairs,
computer, filing cabinets. It was pretty Spartan, as befitted a man who was
trying to keep costs to a minimum.

Shae said, “I’ll tackle the
computer. Somebody should go through his files.”

“I’ll do that, “Chris said.

While they got to work, Hugh and
Alicia poked around in his desk and through the things on the book shelves.

“Nothing much here,” Hugh said
after a few minutes.

“Nor here,” said Shae. “He doesn’t
even use a password. If he has any records of what he’s done with the money, he
must have them in his computer at home.” She shut off the machine and stood up.
“We’d better make sure we leave things the way we found them.”

Chris suddenly waved a file at
them. “Bingo!” he shouted.

Alicia ran over to look. “What
have you found?”

“Correspondence with various
contractors, and bills for materials purchased. What do you want to bet that
these figures match some from the books?” Nobody took that bet. “I’ll photocopy
these and you can pass them on to your friend. What’s his name, anyway?” he
asked as he made the copies.

“Tony.” Shae said but didn’t
offer anything more.

When he’d finished, they
carefully put everything back, shut off the lights and locked the door. Alicia
felt relieved when they were back in the more public areas. Whatever Hugh might
say, he would be hard-pressed to explain what he was doing in the director’s
private office when he was supposed to be checking on the animals.

He led them down the corridor to
the reception area. The door behind the reception desk was unlocked.

“The animals are all back here.”
he said as he opened the door.

Immediately, there was a chorus
of woofs and meows, and the sound of claws scratching on the cage doors. Inside
the kennels were two long rows of cages, each containing two or three dogs or
cats, and even the occasional rabbit or ferret. There didn’t seem to be much in
the way of supplies and Shae said so.

“There isn’t,” Hugh said grimly. “It’s
so bad that the staff take turns buying dog and cat food. We’re terribly
over-crowded. This shelter has a no-kill policy. We keep the animals until we
can find homes for them. We could really use the addition we’re supposed to
have had.” Hugh walked down the aisle, patting paws that came through the cages
and speaking softly to their owners.

Alicia thought she was going to
cry. All any of these poor creatures wanted was a home and someone to love
them. They didn’t belong in cages. Some of the dogs rushed to the front,
wagging their tales, but others cowered at the back. Those were the ones who,
if they could speak, would have the worst stories to tell, stories of neglect
and abuse at the hands of the humans whom they had trusted, the ones who were
supposed to look after them. She suddenly understood the anger and the
dedication of the animal rights groups. Maybe they went too far sometimes, but
they had a just cause.

“You know something, Chris,” she
said. “No matter what happens, I want the APS to get some of the money from the
estate. Grandmother wanted to help animals who didn’t have homes, like
Marmalade before he climbed into her room that day, and I want to help them
too.”

Before he could reply, there was
a yowling and the sound of thrashing around that came from a cage in the back
corner.

“What on earth is that?” Chris
asked.

The yowling got louder.

“It’s one of the cats,” Hugh
said. He walked down the aisle to have a look. “It’s Horace. I don’t know what
he’s doing back here in the corner. He used to be up by the door. I don’t know
what’s got into him. Horace, old man, what’s up?”

As he walked over to the cage,
Alicia let out a scream and ran up to the cage. “It’s Marmalade!”

Hugh looked from the large orange
cat, to her, and back. “No, this is Horace. He’s been here for months. It’s
hard to find homes for older cats. Everyone wants a kitten.”

Alicia, ignoring him, was
fumbling with the clasp that held the door closed. The big orange cat inside
continued to yowl and claw at the cage. “I’m telling you that this is
Marmalade. Don’t you think I know my own cat? Open the damn door.”

Chris grabbed her hands and held
them while Hugh opened the door. “Alicia, it can’t be Marmalade. This cat is
all orange. No white.”

“Besides,” Shae added, “don’t you
think they would have checked the shelter? Hugh’s in here all the time.”

“That’s right,” Hugh said,
gently. “We’ve all been on the look-out for him.”

Alicia was crying, pushing Chris’
hands away. “It’s Marmalade, I know it is.”

Hugh sighed, and opened the door.
The big, orange cat flew out and straight into Alicia’s arms where he tucked
his head under her chin and began to purr loudly.

“He does look a lot like him,
honey,” Chris admitted, “but he’s not the right color.”

He looked closely at the cat,
parting the hair on his chest. “Wait a minute, Look at this, this bit down the
middle. This has been dyed, and not even a good job. You can still see the
white under the orange.” He looked in the bright green eyes that peered out
from under Alicia’s chin. “It is Marmalade. Welcome back, old man,” he said
huskily, swallowing hard. He rubbed the furry head and scratched behind his ear
with fingers that trembled.

Alicia was still crying but this
time for joy. “You see, I told you, it’s him.”

“Well there’s one way of making
sure,” Hugh said. “You said that Marmalade has a microchip. If this is really
him, we can read the chip in the office.”

He led them to a back room and
turned on the Pet Identification Computer. Taking the wand, he ran it over the
back of the cat’s neck. Immediately the identification came up. ‘Marmalade’.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he said. “He’s
been here all this time, right under our noses.”

They all crowded around to have a
good look.

“How could this have happened?”
Chris asked.

“Well, I told you, Horace has
been here for months. He was found down by the harbor. He had a puncture wound
in his side and it was infected. He was a mess. The vets cleaned up the wound
and pumped him full of antibiotics. He went to a foster home until he was well
and then he came here to try to find a home. I suppose that once we’d looked in
here for Marmalade, Abbot thought it was safe to make a switch. A little hair
dye and no-one’s the wiser. At least in here he’s been fed and looked after.”

“He’s thinner,” Alicia said,
feeling the ribs under the skin.

“Cat’s don’t eat as much when
they’re upset or under stress,” Hugh told them.

Shae was running her finger under
Marmalade’s chin and down his belly. “He must have recognized your voices,” she
said wonderingly. “That’s why he started yowling.” She looked like she might
cry too.

Chris had to swallow again before
he could speak. “There is more proof. We had a DNA sample taken when he
inherited the money. It’s on file with the lab. We can take a sample now and
send it off. That way, if anyone contests the microchip identification, the DNA
will prove it.”

“That’s easily enough done,” Hugh
said. “We have the forms here. All we need is a mouth swab and I can send if
off tomorrow by courier. I’ll call and explain the situation and ask them to do
the test as soon as they get the sample.”

Hugh took a copy of the form and
a swab kit from the files. Once the sample was safely in the envelope, Hugh
tucked it in his pocket.

“I’ll send it first thing
tomorrow.”

“We have to be in court tomorrow,
“Chris reminded him. “How are we going to handle this?”

“I say we give Abbot enough rope
to hang himself,” Alicia said viciously, “and when he has his head well in the
noose, we spring Marmalade on him. But for now, let’s just get him home.”

Hugh took a cat carrier from the
storeroom. “He’d better go in this,” he said. “We don’t want anyone spotting
him.”

“What about tomorrow?” Shae
asked. “Won’t they notice that Horace is missing?”

“I’ll think of something to tell
them, maybe even the truth. In confidence. Abbot doesn’t have any friends here.
No-one would say anything.”

“Where do you think the real
Horace is?” Alicia asked anxiously.

“Probably back on the street.”
Hugh said, silently hoping a more permanent solution hadn’t been found.

“Poor thing,” she said as she put
a protesting Marmalade carefully in the carrier and closed the door. “We’re
going to have to find him and get him a good home. We owe him.”

Chris nodded and then picked up
the carrier. The cries and whimpers from the other animals followed them out
the door.