Free Fat Cat At Large (A Fat Cat Mystery) by Janet Cantrell

attention in their basket, or the plastic dinosaur that, inexplicably, lived on the counter. She had on a high-necked dark red blouse with lace on the collar and cuffs. She looked like a child playing dress-up, trying to be Queen Victoria.
    Chase lifted Laci’s huge cloth purse off the seat next to her and gave her the best greeting smile she could this early in the morning. Laci merely tented her eyebrows. Her eyes glittered, full of tears ready to spill.
    “What is it, Laci? What’s wrong?”
    Before she could answer, they were interrupted by the server, a middle-aged woman in a white shirt as plain as Laci’s blouse was fancy. Laci sighed and ordered coffee and toast. Chase gazed longingly at the eggs Benedict on the plate of the man beside her, but ordered the buttermilk pancakes. If they were going to do a lot of talking, she wouldn’t have time to do justice to her favorite.
    “It’s Violet,” Laci began, then halted with a loud sniff.
    “Just a couple more days. It’s Saturday and classes start Tuesday. We need you both there until then. After Monday, why don’t you take—”
    “No, it’s not that. I’ll work when you need me. It’s Ted.”
    “All right.” Chase was puzzled. She sipped her coffee. Laci had just said “it” was Vi. Now “it” was Ted?
    “She’s spreading rumors. It’s not true!”
    “What rumors? What’s not true?”
    “About him stealing things.”
    Chase braced herself. “Laci, dear, he was taking the boxed merchandise. I saw him.”
    “Not that. The money. Oh, I’m not explaining anything, am I? Vi says Ted is taking money from the cash register.”
    Anna had said she would talk to the young man about that. Chase wondered if she’d had time to do that yet.
    “He’s not,” said Laci, still on the verge of tears. “He wouldn’t do that.”
    What world did Laci live in where Ted would shoplift at college and steal boxes of cookie bars, but wouldn’t steal money?
    “Ted’s always felt so out of place and awkward, he says. He was a late baby and his parents are more the age of grandparents. I think that affects him psychologically.”
    Sure, thought Chase. That makes perfect sense. Most late babies steal things and flunk out of college. Not.
    Their food arrived and Chase busied herself applying butter and syrup to her pancakes.
    “Can you please tell Violet to stop? She’s upsetting Ted.” Laci bit into her toast as if she were biting off Vi’s ear. Chase knew that Ted was a sensitive soul in Laci’s world.
    “I’ll speak to Vi.” She lifted her fork. The first bite was always the best. She closed her eyes so she could taste the buttery, syrupy concoction to the fullest.
    “Hm.” Laci looked suspicious, as though she understood that Chase wasn’t going to tell Vi to stop spreading rumors just because Laci asked her to. “The stuff with his parents is so devastating. Ted has so much anger toward his father. Sometimes he scares me when he talks about him.”
    “Laci, I said I’ll talk to her. That’s all I can do. When the rush is over, you won’t have to work together.”
    Laci’s half smile and nod made Chase sad. She probably thought they were going to fire Vi, when Laci seemed to be the one Anna most wanted to fire. Chase finished as quickly as she could and hurried to the store for her next confrontation, this one with Anna.
    Even at this early hour, the sidewalks were filling with college students and their families, moving their children into the dorms. At the end of the street, a number 6 bus rumbled along University Avenue, flashing its blue and yellow stripe in a stray band of light from the newly risen sun. In an hour or so, the sun would climb above the buildings where it now hid behind the Bar None. This would be a beautiful day if Chase didn’t have so much on her mind. She squared her shoulders as she unlocked the door and entered her shop from the front.
    She found Anna in the office, sitting at the computer with the financial