The Purrfect Murder

danger.”
    “You’re not supposed to tell.”
Cazenovia sat up, too.
    “We can tell. Poppy can’t tell.”
    “What did he do?”
Pewter loved Herb, as did they all.
    “He didn’t do anything,”
Lucy Fur announced firmly.
“Letters. Some of his parishioners received threatening letters, and when Will was killed they came to him. Others came when Little Mim stepped forward about her own past.”
    “Great day.”
Tucker sighed.
    “Why didn’t he go to Rick straightaway?”
Pewter thought this very strange.
    “He can’t. He’s a minister, and if a person confesses to him, that information is sacred. He has been carrying this around, knowing what could happen.”
Cazenovia thought her poppy very brave.
    “Do you know what was in the letters?”
Pewter had a good idea.
    “Sure. We all sat there during these tearful confessions. The first letters asked for money, not huge sums, but then the sums escalated. After Will was shot, they really skyrocketed,”
Lucy Fur informed them.
    Elocution, head more clear now, added,
“Greedy.”
    Cazenovia, her long calico hair lustrous, worried.
“Penny Lattimore came in Tuesday. Her latest letter from Jonathan Bechtal—supposedly from him, anyway—reminded her she was number two on the list if she didn’t pay up. She decided she had to go to Rick and she’d have to tell her husband. She asked Poppy to go with her.”
    “Did he?”
Mrs. Murphy wanted to be certain of her facts.
    “He did. I guess the hard part was telling Marvin that she’d had an affair; the abortion was due to that. Whatever became of that talk, I don’t know.”
Elocution took a deep breath.
“I do know that Rick and Coop have taken her into protective custody. Even Marvin doesn’t know where she is. They’ve put out this story that she’s missing to see if they can flush out the blackmailer.”
Lucy Fur eyed the front of the house.
    “Well, that might work,”
Pewter said.
    “Might,”
Cazenovia agreed but qualified it.
“But what we’re worried about is, what if the blackmailer figures out that some of his victims have confessed to Poppy? He’ll come after him.”
    “I hope not.”
Tucker’s voice rose.
“Mom thinks that Mike McElvoy may have killed Carla. But if you think about it, he could be part of this. He’s against abortion—Tazio told Mom that—but he presents himself as a reasonable person. So he makes money twice, first through his job, if he has been inventing problems at these construction sites and getting paid off, then through this.”
    “I don’t know.”
Mrs. Murphy inhaled, for the catnip scent remained strong.
“Mike would have to have his hands on Will Wylde’s records and he’d have had to set up Jonathan Bechtal.”
    “Set up? Jonathan confessed.”
Cazenovia thought that was that.
    “I think that Jonathan Bechtal is being used as a cat’s paw, forgive the expression.”
Mrs. Murphy’s tiger coat glistened.
“Is he a fanatic? Obviously. Does he expect to get out in a few years’ time to enjoy whatever money he and whoever have extorted from the patients? Maybe. But even if he isn’t in this for the money, I’m willing to bet one of my nine lives that he believes the money goes to Love of Life, all the money. If he finds out otherwise, it could get ugly for whoever is on the outside.”
    “Mike McElvoy would be that person. And he might have a way into Will’s records if he’s a computer whiz.”
Elocution was considering all that had been said.
    “He’s up to no good, but is it that bad?”
Tucker had learned that Mrs. Murphy eventually found the right path.
    Cazenovia, thinking about all this and remembering the conversations women had with Poppy, piped up,
“Who was number one if Penny is number two?”
    “Dr. Wylde.”
Lucy Fur stated this with conviction.
    “But he wouldn’t have been blackmailed.”
Mrs. Murphy felt sure of this.
“He’d stood up to death threats before. I don’t think he was number one.”
    “Little Mim,”
Pewter declared.
    “More likely, but I don’t know.”
Mrs. Murphy flicked the tip of her tail.
“What I do know is that the other women who have been paying off have not gone to Rick. Herb knows those of his parish. He can’t be the only minister hearing their stories. The other thing is that Harry will blunder right into it. We’ve got two of our people to protect.”

30
    W hy don’t you buy your own car?” Susan grumbled as she drove her Audi station wagon from the vestry-board meeting.