To Catch a Leaf (36 page)

I crab-legged backward, but she kept advancing. “No one would've been the wiser if you hadn't found that stupid cat and brought her back here.”

“Mrs. Dunbar, you don't want to compound your crime by hurting me.”

With a crazed look in her eyes, she planted her heavy rubber boots on either side of me and raised the pruning shears. Apparently compounding her crime was not a concern.

I tensed my leg muscles, preparing to kick her in the knee as hard as I could. But suddenly her gaze shifted to something behind me and her arms froze. Before I could turn to see what had caused her reaction, she gasped and staggered backward, clutching her chest. She collapsed onto the ground, gave three loud gasps, and went limp, her head lolling to one side.

Stunned, I scrambled over to her to see if she was breathing. As I felt for a pulse, I heard someone coming and turned to see Lindsey hurrying from the far end of the row, carrying Charity in her arms.

“Lindsey,” I called. “I think Mrs. Dunbar had a heart attack.”

“Here, take Charity,” she said, handing me the cat. “I've had CPR training. I know what to do.”

She laid her head against the woman's chest, felt the pulse in her neck, then sat back on her heels. “That's odd. She's breathing fine and seems to have a strong heartbeat and a steady pulse. What happened?”

At that, Mrs. Dunbar moaned, blinked a few times, and came to. As soon as she saw Lindsey, she began to tremble so violently, her teeth clattered. “I d-didn't mean to p-push Mrs. Connie,” she whimpered.

Lindsey glanced up at me with a questioning look.

“
That's
what happened,” I said.

“Why don't you tell us about it, Mrs. D.?” Lindsey said soothingly. “You'll feel better.”

The housekeeper squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “I can't.”

“Take a deep breath,” Lindsey instructed. “Get it off your chest.”

With a strangled sob, Mrs. Dunbar said, “If only she hadn't kept shaking that collar in my face, accusing me of stealing those diamonds, I wouldn't have lost my temper. I didn't realize how close she was to the stairs.”

Mrs. Dunbar covered her face and began to sob. “When I saw what I'd done, I panicked and snatched the collar from her hands.”

“Was she still alive when you ran out to the garden?” Lindsey asked.

“Yes,” she wept. “God help me, she was. I buried the collar, but before I could get back to the house to get rid of the body, Mrs. Bingham arrived. Now what am I going to do?”

“Say a lot of prayers, Mrs. D.” Lindsey rose and brushed off her knees. “Abby, I think you'd better get Marco now.”

“Thanks for your help,” I said, backing away. “I owe you.”

“I'll hold you to that.”

Clutching the struggling Charity against me, I hurried back to the house and saw Marco coming out the door.

“There you are,” he said. “I thought you got lost again. I see you found the heiress.”

“Marco,” I said breathlessly, “Mrs. Dunbar just made a full confession. She pushed Constance down the stairs!”

“Where is she?”

“In the garden.”

“Call the cops,” Marco said, and ran.

 

Once the police arrived, Marco and I gave statements and answered questions for over an hour before we were able to leave. Marco phoned Dave with the news that the murder had been solved and was assured that the DA would be notified immediately.

We stopped at the vet to have the doctor examine Charity and ended up having to leave her overnight. On our way home, I called Grace to let her know Charity's situation, and she said she would make arrangements for the cat's care. I could tell by the tone of her voice that she had already heard from Dave, and at the end of our conversation she confirmed that for me in her usual inimitable way.

“Abby, love, no words can adequately express my gratitude.”

I waited for a quote, but none was forthcoming, so after an awkward pause, I said, “Thank you, Grace.”

“Please pass along my thanks to Marco.”

“I'll do that. See you tomorrow morning?”

“Absolutely, dear. Enjoy your evening.”

I glanced at the handsome man beside me and smiled. “I will, Grace.”

 

It was after five o'clock when we stopped at Down the Hatch for dinner. We had purposely kept our plans for the evening private so we could relax and enjoy each other's company, but in the middle of our meal, Marco's mom, my mom, and Grace and Lottie came crowding into our booth.

“We heard the news,” Lottie said, “and couldn't wait to get the full report.”

“Grace knows what happened,” I said.

“This is your story to tell, love,” Grace said, thwarting my last-ditch effort.

“Your dad would have come,” Mom said, “but he had physical therapy tonight.”

“How did you know we were here?” I asked.

Francesca pointed toward the bar. I glanced over and saw Rafe lift his hand, a sheepish grin on his face. Marco signaled for him to come over to the table, and I thought his little brother was in for a lecture.

Instead, my hunky groom-to-be said, “Bring three bottles of Prosecco.”

Then, over flutes of sparkling wine, the women got to hear about how Constance Newport had met her end, and my near-death experience in the garden.

“That explains the letter
g
that I saw,” Grace said, and then had to tell everyone about her dreams.

“All I can say is, thank goodness for Lindsey,” I told them. “She saved my life.”

“Who is Lindsey?” Lottie asked.

“Juanita's friend,” I said. At their blank looks, I added, “Cute little blonde about my age?” Still no recognition, so I said to Marco, “You saw her. She was with Mrs. Dunbar in the garden.”

“There was no one but Mrs. Dunbar in the garden, Sunshine.”

“That's impossible. She found Charity. You remember her, Lottie. She came to Bloomers with Juanita. About my height. Red jacket?”

More blank looks.

“Come on!” I said. “You have to remember when Juanita came storming into the shop. I was about to close the door when Lindsey slipped in after her.”

“We were in the workroom when Juanita arrived, sweetie,” Lottie said.

“But Lindsey was in the workroom, too,” I said. “She came in with me.”

They were watching me as though I was one floor short of a skyscraper. “Why are you staring at me like that? I didn't imagine her.”

“Did Lindsey tell you her last name?” Grace asked.

“No. Why?”

“This is just a theory, love, but Mrs. Dunbar had an older sister who died when she was your age. Her name was Lindsey Ann, and from what I was told, she was quite an adventuress, always getting herself into some scrape or another. Perhaps that's who Mrs. Dunbar saw.”

“What are you saying, Grace? That Mrs. Dunbar collapsed because she saw her sister's ghost?”

“Stranger things have happened,” Grace said mysteriously.

“Hey, now,” I said, starting to get annoyed, “I saw Lindsey up close. She was as real as I am.”

“I'm sure you did, dear,” Grace said. “What were the occasions when you saw her?”

“Well,” I said, “there was the time she came to Bloomers with Juanita . . .”

“And then the time I thought I saw her at the racetrack . . .”

“And in the hallway outside of Virginia's studio . . .”

“And yesterday when I took the cat photos to the Newport house . . .”

“And today in the garden.”

“She certainly popped up at the right times, didn't she?” Grace asked. “Lindsey may have been your guardian angel.”

Mom, Francesca, and Lottie nodded in agreement, while Marco swirled the wine in his glass, looking uncomfortable.

Time to change the conversation. “Marco, why don't you tell them about the rest of the Newports?”

Marco looked relieved, so I stuck my chin in my palm and let him fill them in. He started with the missing cat heiress and her diamondless cat collar.

“Juanita wasn't the least bit embarrassed about stealing the diamonds,” he told them. “She said she wasn't about to be poor ever again. So in Juanita's struggle to remove the cat's collar, she grabbed Charity's hind leg and held on as the cat jumped off the counter. The cat ran out the door when the housekeeper came in from the garden.

“And since Mrs. Dunbar was a witness, Juanita made her promise not to tell Constance what had happened or else she'd reveal that the housekeeper had been stealing crystal birds, a little fact she'd learned from Burnett. Juanita then planted the stripped-down collar in Mrs. Dunbar's bedroom, where Constance found it. And you know the rest of that story.”

“What a family,” Lottie said. “Is Juanita going to be charged with theft?”

“I'm sure she will, but that's in the DA's hands,” Marco said. “I expect charges to be brought against Virginia, too, for her part in the art theft.”

“Will Mrs. Dunbar be charged with murder?” my mom asked.

“In some form,” Marco said.

“That poor, tortured soul,” Grace said with a sad sigh.

Suddenly, a tall, shapely copper-haired woman wearing a black spandex cat costume complete with ears and a mask squeezed onto the bench beside me. “What did I miss?” Jillian said, adjusting her tail so she wouldn't sit on it.

“Are you going to a costume party?” I asked.

“No, silly. We're going to stake out the Newport house tonight and catch that cat burglar. I've got it all worked out.” Jillian glanced around at us. “What?”

“We caught the cat burglar,” I said.

Jillian's face fell. “You mean I'm too late?”

“Yep,” I said.

With a sharp huff, she pulled off the black mask. “Someone could have told me.”

Grace cleared her throat. “Let us remember what Miguel de Cervantes wrote so eloquently in his masterful novel,
Don Quixote
, “‘There is a time
. . .
'” She hesitated; then a look of panic flickered across her face.

My heart jumped to my throat. I met Lottie's gaze across the table and knew she was as concerned as I was.

Come on, Grace
.
You can do it!

Grace drew a breath. Then she straightened her shoulders, and said forcefully, “‘There is a time for some things, and a time for all things; a time for great things, and a time for small things.'”

We all clapped. Relief flooded Grace's face. She was back!

“A time for small things,” Jillian said to Grace. “You're talking about Abs, right?”

At that moment, a bartender rang the brass bell at the end of the bar to signal that he'd received a tip.

“Hey, sweetie,” Lottie said with a laugh, “maybe that was your friend Lindsey earning her wings. Remember Clarence in the movie
It's a Wonderful Life?
”

“I love that movie,” Jillian said with a sigh. “Jimmy Cagney was so good in it.”

“Jimmy Stewart,” I said.

“That's who I meant,” she said. “I always mix them up.”

“Right,” I said. “They're so much alike.”

“Girls,” my mom said, “let's not fight. I might be forced to make you wear my sea glasses as punishment.”

I stared at Mom in surprise. “What?”

“It's okay, Abigail,” Mom said. “I know all about it. I saw several of the girls in town wearing the glasses and they told me. Frankly, I'm glad I don't have to make them anymore. I was feeling a little burned out. Now I'm free to find new inspiration.”

Grace lifted her glass. “And on that note, I would like to propose a toast.”

That was more like it.

When all the glasses were in the air, she said, “Abby, Marco, thank you from the bottom of my heart for finding Connie's killer. Now that I've been cleared, I shall be able to sleep at night again. Cheers.”

“Cheers,” everyone said in unison, clinking glasses.

“I'd like to propose a toast, too,” my mom said. “Here's to a successful, united wedding shower.”

“Hear, hear,” Jillian said.

We touched glasses all around.

“And now for our news,” Francesca said, smiling at us. “Right, Maureen?”

Uh-oh
. I grabbed Marco's hand beneath the table.

“Abby, bella,” she said, “and Marco, my boy. You will be very pleased to know that Maureen and I have planned something very special for your shower.”

My stomach gave a tiny lurch. “Are you talking about the menu?”

Our mothers giggled like naughty children. “No, honey,” Mom said, “you wanted to select the menu, and we want you to do whatever makes you happy.”

“Games, then?”

“No games,” Francesca said, “just as you asked. You'll have to wait and see what our surprise is.”

My stomach lurched harder. “You can't even give us a clue?”

“I'll tell you one thing,” Jillian said. “You are going to l-o-v-e the bridal shower outfit I found for you. All I'll say is, think copper and think big.”

I was thinking more about puking.