Blurb:
Sydney McCall left behind an
ex-fiancé and a New York advertising job to return home to Deer Park, North
Carolina and help her sister, Kat, run the local animal shelter, Friendly Paws.
Determined to save the shelter from financial trouble, Sydney and Kat organize
a cat café fundraising event at a local coffee shop. Things are looking up
until their landlord, Trowbridge Littleton, threatens to shut down the event.
When Sydney drops by his art gallery to make peace, she finds Kat--along with
Littleton's dead body.
Local homicide detective Will
Worthington--who just happens to be Sydney's old high school crush--is highly
suspicious of the sisters' involvement. Desperate to clear their names from the
suspect list, Sydney pounces on the investigation. With the help of one of the
shelter cats, a savvy orange tabby named Toby, Sydney begins poking her nose
into other local businesses whose owners may have benefited from Littleton's
death--until the killer notices she's pawing a little too closely at the truth.
Excerpt:
Will glanced up. “Pretty observant of you, Syd. The ME will
determine the cause of death.” He tapped
on his notebook with the edge of his pen.
“Why don’t you walk me through what happened. How did the two of you come to be in Littleton’s
shop so early?”
“We had something we wanted to
discuss with Mr. Littleton, and we thought the earlier the better,” I said.
“I see. And just what was the nature of this
discussion?”
I shifted my weight to my other
foot. “Friendly Paws has teamed with Dayna’s Treats & Sweets for a cat café
event to benefit the shelter. For a nominal fee, people can have their coffee
and goodies in a room with shelter cats that are available for adoption.”
Will glanced up, and I could see
a light of interest in his eyes. “I’ve heard of those cafes. They’re mostly in
Europe.”
“There are a few in the States,
big cities mostly. This will be the
first event of its kind in North Carolina. We’re hoping to increase revenue for
both the café and the shelter.”
“Let me guess. That idea didn’t sit well with
Littleton?”
Kat and I both shook our heads in
unison and Kat exclaimed, “I should say not! He was in the shop yesterday, and
he made his feelings pretty darn clear.
He thought having the cats around would be detrimental to business.
Heck, he thinks-thought-the shelter in general was a detriment to the town.”
“A sentiment you two didn’t agree
with,” he said slowly.
“I should say not!” Kat returned,
her cheeks starting to flame. “Syd and I
tried to reason with him yesterday but he didn’t want to hear it.”
“And that’s why you decided to
come here this morning?”
I nodded. “Yes. I put together a pretty good argument of pros
for the event. I was hoping to appeal to
his sense of business acumen.”
“Why did you feel this was
necessary? Had he threatened you?”
“Not in so many words,” I said
carefully. “But he did say yesterday that he was determined to put a stop to
the proceedings, and we hadn’t heard the last from him.”
“Um-hm.” Will murmured,
scribbling some more.
“And Leila Addams – do you
remember her, Will? She’s a reporter for
the Deer Park Herald now,” Kat chimed in.
“Leila said that she thought Littleton was inquiring about starting a petition
against showing the shelter cats – and the shelter in general.”
Will made another notation in his
book. “So when was the last time you saw Littleton?”
“Yesterday around one-thirty.” I cleared my
throat. “If that’s all the questions you
have, we need to get going.”
He snapped his notebook shut.
“You’re free to go for now,” he said, “but I will probably need to talk
to you some more later on.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “We’ll be here.”
The corners of Will’s lips
twitched slightly. “Good to know.”
Once we were back out on the
street, Kat hauled off and punched me in
the arm – hard.
“Yow!” I cried. “What was that
for?”
“For thinking that you could come
here and face Littleton without me, for one,” Kat said. “I knew you had your fingers crossed last
night.”
I rubbed at my arm. “Can’t put
anything over on you, can I?”
She gave me a shrewd look. “So, how did it feel, seeing Will Worthington
again after all these years! I heard he
was back in town, but I had no idea he’d become a detective – homicide, no
less.” She cut me a sidelong glance.
“Funny, isn’t it, how you two came back to Deer Park almost at the same
time. Like Karma, or something.”
“Well, I’d rather deal with Will than his
partner, Colombo Junior,” I said. “Come on, let’s get my car and get to the
shelter. I hope Maggie isn’t too worried.”
We walked through the alleyway
and when we were almost at the spot
where I’d parked, I suddenly stopped short.
“Hey,” Kat cried as she ran full tilt into my back. “What’s wrong?”
I pointed to the empty space
beside my car. “There was a white Lincoln there when I came, parked pretty
badly. The license plate read
TLITTLE. I thought for sure it was
Littleton’s car, but if it’s gone…”
“A white Lincoln? That’s his wife Petra’s car,” Kat said. She glanced around, then pointed to the gym.
“She must have parked it here instead of the gym parking lot, like she usually
does. I wonder why.”
Another disturbing thought
occurred to me as I slid behind the wheel.
It would have been impossible for Littleton’s wife not to have seen the
ambulance and police cars parked in front of her husband’s shop. Why hadn’t she come to see what was wrong?
Unless, of course…she didn’t have
to. Because she already knew.
Author Bio and Links:
While Toni Lotempio does not
commit – or solve – murders in real life, she has no trouble doing it on paper.
Her lifelong love of mysteries began early on when she was introduced to her
first Nancy Drew mystery at age 10 – The Secret in the Old Attic. She (and ROCCO, albeit he’s uncredited) pen
the Nick and Nora mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime – the first volume,
MEOW IF ITS MURDER, debuted Dec. 2, 2014. Followed by #2, CLAWS FOR ALARM. #3, CRIME AND CATNIP, is out this December.
She, Rocco and Maxx make their home in Clifton, New Jersey, just twenty minutes
from the Big Apple – New York. Catch up with them at www.tclotempio.com and
www.catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com
Where to find them:
