Free The Cat of Christmas Past by Kathi Daley Page A

Five days seemed much too soon to give up completely and leave the island to my mind. Could it be that there was another reason she was driving her car on icy roads in the middle of a storm? The only account of why she had been on the road was that provided by her husband. I supposed he was the logical person to ask, but the whole thing didn’t seem quite right.
    After I finished my coffee I took a quick shower and dressed in warm clothes, then gathered the cats I planned to feature in the cat lounge that day and headed into town. The snow was little more than flurries and unlikely to amount to any accumulation, but the chill in the air was enough to make me want to go home and crawl back into my bed.
    Unfortunately, returning to the warmth of my little cabin wasn’t in the cards. After settling the cats in the lounge, I helped Tara and Alex with the traffic from the first ferry of the day and then headed back out to see if I could track down Tripp and/or Finn. The two resident deputies, one retired and one active, seemed like the best place to start the day’s investigation.
    Luckily for me, I spotted Finn’s car in the parking lot and knew he was in his office. I parked on the street in front of the building and hurried inside.
    “Careful on the driving today,” Finn cautioned. “The roads are as icy as I’ve ever seen them.”
    “Yeah, I basically slid around the corner from the harbor road onto Main and I was only going five miles an hour. What I really want to do is go home and hibernate until spring, but I’m still trying to figure out what happened to Charles Pottage. Were you ever able to track down any additional reports that might have been filed after the one I have a copy of?”
    “There wasn’t a lot, but yeah, I found a few things. I was actually going to call you today.”
    “Well, here I am, saving you the trouble. What did you find?”
    Finn sorted through the files on his desk. He pulled one out of the middle of the pile and opened it.
    “Tripp Brimmer was the deputy who first responded and this is the original report Balthazar Pottage gave you a copy of. There were a couple of other reports generated after that, which I don’t believe you have. One was filed by the sheriff at the time, a man named Bud Brown. He came to many of the same conclusions Tripp did, but he seemed to think Belle Pottage knew something she wasn’t saying.”
    “Like what?” I asked. It didn’t make sense that Belle would hold anything back. Her baby was missing; what motivation could she possibly have to hide anything?
    “I don’t know. Bud never found out. She died the day after he interviewed her.”
    Okay, that was news, although I wasn’t sure what I could do with it.
    “The second report I found was from an FBI agent. He interviewed Belle on the same day as Bud. Apparently there was an anonymous call informing the agency that a baby fitting the description of Charles was spotted in Seattle four days after the kidnapping. The FBI agent came to the island to check out the situation in response to the lead, but nothing ever came of it.”
    “Do you think that baby could have been Charles?” I wondered. “If it was him that would prove someone managed to get him off the island.”
    “I don’t know. The person who called in the tip described the outfit Baby Charles was wearing when he disappeared and his description of his coloring and features were similar, but a photo of the baby had been all over the news, so it could have been a hoax.”
    “Okay, so an anonymous caller phones in a tip that results in a visit from an FBI agent. Later that day Bud interviews Belle and he comes away with the feeling she’s holding something back. Belle leaves the house in the middle of a storm the very next day. Do you think the tip and her plan to leave the island are related?”
    “Maybe. I have no way of knowing what was going through the woman’s mind, but if I had to guess I’d say they were related. Maybe she