Read Online Spotted Cats by William G. Tapply - Free Book Online Page B

knows about the cats. He knew about the dogs, too.’
    ‘Good,’ said Maroney, again writing in his notebook. He looked at Lily. ‘Miss? Miz? Anybody else? How about you? Boyfriend?’
    She shook her head.
    ‘There must be other people who come here. To visit, to make deliveries. Relatives?’
    Lily shrugged. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘The usual meter readers, oil delivery men. We had an exterminator last May. Carpenter ants. Does that help?’
    ‘Sure,’ said the policeman. ‘Everything helps.’
    ‘I can’t think of anybody particular,’ said Lily. ‘We don’t have a great deal of company. Occasionally one of Jeff’s old friends will drop in. I mean, how can we tell you every single person who’s ever been here, who might’ve known about the jaguars?’
    Maroney shrugged. ‘Sure. Right.’ He turned to Kinney. ‘Anything else?’ This struck me as a courtesy to his partner, who had not seemed interested in any of the interrogation, and who did not appear to have a question—or, for that matter, much of anything else—in his head.
    Kinney shrugged.
    ‘Well,’ said Maroney, pushing himself to his feet with a sigh, ‘we better have a look around, then.’
    He flipped his notebook shut and jammed it into his shirt pocket. ‘That gate have a lock on it?’ he said.
    ‘Of course,’ said Lily.
    ‘That fence, it goes all around the property?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘So someone could sneak over anywhere.’
    ‘The dogs would get him,’ she said. ‘No matter where they came over.’
    ‘Wait a minute,’ I said.
    They all looked at me.
    ‘The gate was unlocked.’
    ‘When?’ said Maroney.
    ‘When we went down there this morning. When the EMTs came, it was ajar. I didn’t think about it at the time.’
    ‘Is it always locked?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Lily.
    ‘Did you lock it after Sauerman left last night?’ I said to her.
    She nodded slowly. ‘Sure.’ She paused, frowning. ‘At least, I think so.’
    ‘You could have forgotten to lock it?’ said Maroney.
    She shrugged. ‘I could have, I guess. I don’t think I forgot. I mean, I always lock it, but I can’t specifically remember…’
    ‘Mr Newton had a key, right?’
    Lily nodded. ‘Sure.’
    ‘Who else?’
    ‘Just me,’ she said.
    Maroney and Kinney exchanged glances. Then Maroney stood up. ‘You folks just sit tight,’ said Maroney to us. ‘We’ll have a look outside. We’ll be back in a few minutes, see what we can see in here.’
    After the cops left the room, Lily said, ‘Do you think Jeff let them in?’
    ‘Maybe he did,’ I said.
    She shook her head. ‘Sure. So they could bash in his skull.’
    I shrugged.
    She stared out the window for a minute. ‘That Maroney,’ she said. ‘He suspects me.’
    ‘I don’t think so. I told him it was two men.’
    ‘He thinks I left the gate unlocked for them. He thinks I set it up.’
    ‘He might think that,’ I said.
    She turned to me. ‘I didn’t, you know.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Professionals,’ said Lily. ‘It was professionals. They were prepared for the dogs. They came for the jaguars. They had it planned.’
    ‘I agree,’ I said. ‘Could somebody else have a key?’
    ‘Jeff could’ve given somebody a key, I don’t know.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t know what to think. To tell the truth, I don’t much care about figuring it out. Figuring it out isn’t going to change anything.’
    ‘I’m pretty interested in revenge, myself,’ I said.
    Lily and I remained in the living-room while the policemen prowled around outside. We had more coffee. We didn’t talk. There wasn’t much to say.
    Maroney and Kinney came back in about fifteen minutes later. ‘We found the crutch,’ Maroney said. ‘It was fifteen or twenty feet away from where it looked like his body was.’
    ‘As if he threw it or something,’ added Kinney.
    ‘Don’t you folks touch those glass cases,’ Maroney said. ‘We’ll get some forensics guys over here. Maybe we’ll get lucky.’
    ‘What else did you