Free 1 Nothing Bundt Murder by Leigh Selfman Page B

talking on the phone. “Yes, is this the humane society emergency line? Yes, I know it’s late but I heard a cat outside. I think it might be in trouble.”
    Babette nodded as she talked, her cheeks colored with emotion. “Yes, I went up and down the street but couldn’t find him. Okay, thanks. Do what you can.”
    She took one last look outside then closed the back kitchen door and locked it. Then she put the cake mold into the oven. While it was cooking she mixed the frosting with the spatula, oblivious to the poison that was now inside it. 
    I stopped the film.
    “So she was telling the truth,” Casey said. He blew the air out of his mouth loudly. “You think it was Doug?”
    I nodded. “I think it had to be. He probably stood outside, howling like an injured cat until she came out. Then he snuck into the kitchen and put the poison into the cake, planted the bottle in the cupboard, then left. ”
    Casey shook his head. “All that for a business deal. Hard to believe.”
    “Let’s just hope the police believe it.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN TEEN              
     
    Casey checked his watch and handed me one of the coffees he’d just bought at the Sunrise Palms Coffee Cafe. I took it and yawned. “Stevie, the guy who answered the phone, said the detective won’t be in until Seven a.m. We’re still a half an hour early,” I told him.
    He nodded and looked at his watch. Then he quickly covered his wrist again when he saw me staring. He got into the car and closed the door. “We have time. Would you mind if we make a stop on the way?”
    I shrugged. “Sure. No problem.” I yawned again. We’d both taken a nap at my place—Casey on the couch, me in my bedroom— while waiting for Detective Sanders to start his shift. But  four hours wasn’t nearly enough sleep for me.
    We’d been hoping to bring our evidence in last night, but since it wasn’t exactly an emergency, Stevie refused to call him in, in the middle of the night. And though I assured Casey that I’d be alright alone, he was worried that Doug might come after me, so he valiantly offered to stay at my house until morning.
    Neither of us were in the best shape for our presentation to the detective, but we wanted to do it first thing in order to help get Babette out of jail as soon as possible.
    Casey started the car but instead of taking a left towards the police station, he took a right.
    Five minutes later, just as the sun was starting to come up, he stopped the car in front of a fence, got out to unlock it, then got back in the car and drove us onto a construction site.
    We drove past a bunch of trucks and bulldozers and flattened black dirt, and pulled up in front of a white trailer.
    “Where are we?” I asked, looking around, then at the trailer. “Is this where you work?”
    He nodded. “I just want to show you som ething. Follow me.”
    Inside the trailer, he turned on a light. “Here take a look.”
    I followed him over to a table, upon which was sitting some large, detailed color drawings.
    “What is all this?” I asked, looking at the top one. “Is this the mall you’re building?”
    Casey nodded.
    I looked from one picture to the next to the next. “But it doesn’t even look like a mall really,” I said.
    “Exactly. You see,” he pointed to one of the drawings. “This what it’s all going to look like. It’s not your standard soulless shopping mall, contrary to what Babette told you on that tape.  It’s going to be a pedestrian mall. No cars. A walking area. For families. And couples.”
    “ Not only will it not hurt the local merchants,” he continued. “It will help to revitalize the whole area. And over here, you see, there’ll be a housing development--some of which will be for low income seniors.”
    I tried to follow his excited explanations as he pointed out various aspects of the drawings.
    “It’s really something,” I said, studying the drawings. “It’s beautiful. Nothing