AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Archie jumped down from the chair and meandered over to his bowl, and lapped delicately at the water within. Since I knew he was just giving me payback for making him wait while I drank my own water, I tried not to react beyond leaning up against the counter until he was done.
“His family owns a big cattle ranch just outside town,” Archie explained once he was done drinking. “The Ortegas have always had a lot of money — they were prosperous when I came here in the late 1940s. I suppose it would have been Danny’s great-grandfather running things back then.”
The cat paused there, looking almost wistful. Maybe he was thinking of all the years that had passed since he’d been cursed into his feline form, of all the people who’d grown old and died and left children and grandchildren behind while he was forced to remain as he was, unchanging, unnoticed.
A wave of pity went over me. I allowed myself to acknowledge it and then put it aside. Yes, I wanted to help Archie, but I’d also made a promise to Danny to find out who’d killed him.
“If the ranch is still in the family,” I said, “why wasn’t Danny working on it?”
“Younger son,” Archie replied briefly. “His older brother runs the place now, since their parents have retired. They still live here in Globe, though.”
And how terrible for them to have outlived one of their children. I thought of poor Sasha Young, Brant Thoreau’s girlfriend, and how she’d had to come here to Globe to collect Brant’s remains after the medical examiner released his body. Who would come to claim Danny? His parents? His older brother?
Once again, I was forced to push a sad thought aside, even as I realized that helping Danny would also help his family. If the mystery was solved, they might not have their son or brother back, but at least they’d have some kind of closure.
“So, you’re saying Danny’s family exerted some pressure on the school board to hire him as principal?” I asked.
Archie returned to the dining room and jumped back up on a chair, although he selected a different one this time. He probably wanted to make sure he spread his cat hair around evenly — he was just thoughtful that way.
“Well, no one would ever admit that,” he replied. “But Danny went directly from being the football coach and a part-time biology teacher to getting the position as principal.” Another sniff, as if to show what he thought of coaches masquerading as “real” teachers. “The school board offered all sorts of reasons why he got the position and not Patrick Symes, who’s vice principal and should have been next in line for the job.”
It seemed that Archie was a trove of information about Globe’s high school and the goings-on there. But then, it did sound as if he’d enjoyed his job back in the day — as much as he was able to enjoy anything, that is. I thought it made some sense that he’d pay more attention to the high school than other centers in the community, if only so he could live vicariously through the people working there.
I didn’t think I’d ever met Patrick Symes, or, if I had, it had been in passing. Because of that, I had no way of knowing whether he’d been at Josie’s party. “Do you think Patrick might have resented Danny enough that he would have killed him?”
Archie made a noise that sounded like a kitten sneeze but which I knew was the closest he could come to a laugh. “I highly doubt it. Patrick Symes doesn’t have that kind of gumption.”
Whether or not “gumption” was a required trait for committing murder, I didn’t know and probably didn’t want to contemplate. “Not the take-charge type, I guess?” I said.
“No,” Archie replied. “Which is part of the reason why not too many people questioned the school board’s decision to promote Danny Ortega to principal when Louise Klein retired a few years ago. Patrick was, of course, far more qualified, but since there were those who thought he wasn’t temperamentally suited to the position, it made more sense to hire Danny.”
Which seemed a little odd to me, if only because my hazy memories of high school seemed to indicate it was the vice principal who tended to hand down any actual punishments. You’d think a person would need “gumption” for that kind of activity, but maybe because meting out those punishments generally followed some kind of rulebook, Patrick Symes wouldn’t have had to do much independent thinking of his own.
In a way, it was too bad. I could have tied this whole thing up neatly in a bow if I could prove that the high school’s vice principal had murdered Danny out of revenge for being passed over for a coveted position.
However, as past experience with murder had taught me, these things were rarely that easy.
My phone rang from inside my purse then, and I headed back to the dining room table so I could pull out the iPhone before it rolled over to voicemail. A glance down at the screen told me who was calling.
“Calvin,” I said aloud, and Archie made a harrumphing noise and leapt to the ground before scurrying off down the hallway to my office.
Since I was used to that sort of behavior from the cat, I ignored him as I held my phone up to my ear. “Hi, Calvin. What’s up?”
“I just got back from helping to get Armando Littletree’s cow back in his pasture, so I thought I’d give you a call and see how you’re doing.”
Because Calvin couldn’t see me, I thought it safe to grin. “I don’t know how you can stand the constant excitement.”
“Thrill a minute around here, that’s for sure.” He paused, then went on in a much more serious tone, “Any new developments?”
“Why would there be?” I asked, my tone all innocence.
“Because I know you, Selena. I somehow doubt you’ve been able to leave this whole thing alone the way you should.”
There wasn’t any accusation in his voice, just a sort of weary amusement. He knew me far too well.
“I honestly meant to stay out of it,” I said. “But that was before Danny Ortega walked into the store this afternoon.”
A long pause, followed by, “What?”
