Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

C at and the retreaters were halfway down the block when Maggie Martin caught up. She slowed down as she walked next to Cat. “Sorry, John was going on and on about the issues with the fundraising department and I lost track of time. You would think he’d talk these problems out with his vice president rather than me.”

“Shauna could have driven you to the library,” Cat heard the wheezing in the woman’s breath as she tried to talk and walk at the same time.

“I haven’t run that fast in years,” Maggie coughed. “You and your retreat are good for me. I got an entire chapter written last night. I haven’t ever done that. Who knows if it’s any good, but words are words, right?”

“Exactly. And if you’re looking to add a workout to your day, there’s a little gym in the basement with a treadmill and weights. I like running outside, but sometimes the weather stops me. Getting moving, even just walking, like this, helps keep the words moving in my opinion.” Cat watched for cars as the group crossed over Main Street and headed onto campus. “You’d be surprised how much.”

“We’ll see. I may be asleep before the writing sprints even happen tonight.” Maggie must have seen Cat’s face react because she laughed. “I’m just kidding. I’ll be there with bells on and a huge cup of coffee to keep me awake so I can run them. But if the younger guys want to stay up late, they’re on their own.”

“I appreciate you volunteering,” Cat said as they headed up the stairs to the library. Alicia was at the front of the group, leading them to the library. The good thing about having a Covington student in the group was that they took their unofficial role as tour guide seriously. Alicia was a natural. As they gathered in the hallway next to the first-floor conference room, Cat handed everyone their temporary library card. She didn’t have one for Alicia, who had a student card, or Maggie. “You have a library card, right?”

Maggie dug into her designer tote, Gucci, if Cat was right, and pulled out her wallet. “Right here, somewhere.”

Ms. Applebome greeted the group. “Good morning, please go inside and find a seat. We’ll be starting in a bit. Alicia, great to see you. How’s the Hemingway studies going?”

“Really well. I think my thesis is going to rock the committee, thanks to you,” Alicia followed the group inside.

Ms. Applebome stared at Maggie who was now flipping through credit cards looking for her library card. “Mrs. Martin, can I help you with something?”

Maggie looked up and smiled, “I’m part of Cat’s retreat this week. Isn’t that wonderful? Now if I could just find my library card.”

“You left it in a book you returned six months ago. I have it at the reference desk. We can go and retrieve it after my class,” she pointed toward the doorway to the conference room. “Please go inside and find a seat. I need a minute with Catherine.”

Cat’s stomach dropped. What was it this time? Had last month’s retreat guests been too rowdy in the library? Had she missed returning a book?

After Maggie went inside the room, Ms. Applebome closed the door behind her. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. I heard there was a body found at Dante Cornelio’s party this weekend.”

“I’m fine. I didn’t find Allen Johnson’s body, one of my guests did. Debra Jennings. She’s the tall blond.” Cat explained, nodding toward the door.

“I was talking about you and Dante. Rumors are going around that you two are an item. What about Seth?” Ms. Applebome drilled Cat with a stare that could freak anyone out.

“My love life is no one’s business but my own,” Cat responded. She wanted to tell everyone what was going on, but as Ms. Applebome said, rumors floated around the school like puffy clouds. She tried to “I’ve been hearing rumors about Allen stealing from the donor fund. Have you heard those?”

The librarian glanced around them before she answered. “The rumors say it wasn’t Allen who was stealing, it was Dante. Is that the kind of man you want to hitch your star to, young lady?”

“I’m not hitching,” Cat scrubbed at her face and then pointed to her watch. “You’re one minute late to your lecture.”

Ms. Applebome’s eyes widened as she looked at the clock and she hurried to the door. Before she went inside, she turned and looked at Cat. “You need to be careful. The college, well, it isn’t what people think.”

The fear in the librarian’s face made Cat’s heart soften a bit. She’d come back and tell her that she wasn’t really dating Dante as soon as she could.

Now that Cat had delivered the guests to their library orientation session, she headed to the administration building and took the stairs to the top floor. The president’s office was up here as well as the donor department. Dante had an office on this floor too as the family’s representative. But he had a different title. Vice President of Family and Community Relations. He drew a salary, but the money came from the family’s funding and not the schools. He was there to keep the peace. He was there in kind of an undercover cop role, although if you called him that, he’d laugh.

She decided to kill two birds with one stone. She’d visit Dante after seeing what she could find out about Allen Johnson from his grieving co-workers.

Except when she opened the door to the fundraising department, there was no one at the front desk and there was a party going on in the conference room. Not the somber atmosphere she’d expected. She half expected the small group in the conference room eating cake to start singing a round of, “Ding Dong the witch is dead,” at any moment.

She walked over and knocked on the open door of conference room. The cake had a big Congratulations, Mike , written in icing on the top. “Excuse me, is this the fundraising department?”

A woman broke away from the happy group and closed the door behind her. “I’m sorry that no one was out at the desk to greet you. We’re celebrating the promotion of one of our staff to department head this morning.”

“Oh, is that because Allen Johnson was killed?” Cat asked and the smile fell off the woman’s face.

“Yes, that was a terrible tragedy and Mr. Johnson will be missed, but the world goes on,” she folded her arms, clearly tired of the banter. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m Cat Latimer. I was at the party the night Allen died,” Cat glanced at the room where Mike was now talking to his new crew. “I had some questions.”

“I’m Kim Stage. I’m the office manager for the department,” she looked around and nodded to the waiting area. “Let’s sit and I’ll see if I can answer your questions. You realize we already talked to your uncle this morning.”

So they knew who she was and who she was related to. Kim probably also thought Cat was dating Dante, which is why she was even open to chatting with her. If she hadn’t been linked to the mobster, the office manager would have sent Cat packing. Dante would hate Cat even using that word to describe him, but right now, it worked in her favor. People were afraid of Dante.

“I realize this might be a bit unorthodox, but thank you for talking with me,” Cat pulled a notebook and pen out of her tote. “I take it that Allen was head of fundraising? I talked to him at the party and he didn’t seem to like donors.”

“That described Allen to a tee. He hated talking to people about giving money. Mike was our biggest fundraiser for the last five years running. Allen liked pushing papers and going to parties. Then he’d send Mike and Roxie, that’s Mike Tosan and Roxie Scarsdale, the contact information of the people he met. They did all the work. Allen got all the credit.” Kim shook her head. “I shouldn’t talk ill of the dead. I’m sure his wife is heartbroken.”

Cat wrote down the names as she thought about her next question. “You’re the office manager. Did you deal with donor gifts and the accounting?”

She nodded. “You’re asking about the missing money. Somewhere from the gift letter that Mike and Roxie have all the donors sign with the check, to when it got recorded, money started going missing. It was about a year ago. We thought the leak was out of the office, somewhere in accounting. Those people get paid chump change for all the money they handle every day. Most work here to get their kids a free education. Then once the kids are out on their own, the parents quit here and go and make real money.”

“We thought? You and Allen?”

Kim glanced back at the conference room. “Mike and I have been researching the problem for the last month. We told President Martin about it two weeks ago. He said he’d handle it and keep quiet. It wouldn’t look good to certain invested stakeholders.”

“You mean Dante and the family.” Cat decided not to play coy. She knew the college’s special circumstances. And apparently, so did Kim.

A long breath released as Kim nodded. “I never know exactly what to say about that. I came from a small Denver college when my husband got a job teaching in the mathematics department. He told me after we were here and I was applying for this job. He said I’d get it or another one because they wanted to make sure we both had jobs. He said not to worry about what I might hear. He was wrong. I worry all the time, especially now that we’re divorced.”

“The college is legit,” Cat told her. “My uncle wouldn’t be police chief here if he thought there were issues. Aspen Hills is a safe place. Safer probably than most places.”

“Except Allen’s dead,” Kim pointed out as the door to the conference room opened and people started piling out. “That’s my cue. I’ve got to transfer all of Allen’s files over to Mike and get him up to speed on Allen’s job. If I find anything odd, can I call you?”

“Please,” Cat handed her a business card she’d made for the retreat business. “I’d appreciate it.”

As they stood, Kim paused. “I’m not sure why you’re doing this. You might be putting yourself in danger.”

“I hope not,” Cat agreed, “but I don’t think anyone should get away with murder just to cover up stealing money. Where does it stop?”

She thanked Kim for her time, then left the office and headed to Dante’s suite across the hallway.

As she walked into the plush outer office, a conservatively dressed woman at a large dark oak desk smiled at her and said, “Good morning Ms. Latimer, Mr. Cornelio is in his office and available to see you. I’ve already let him know you’re here.”

As she walked past the woman’s desk, she saw one of the two screens was a security monitor that showed the front door, the elevator, the hallway outside Dante’s office, as well as the stairs. Suited men stood in the stairwell, waiting.

Dante had Secret Service level of security. At least here at the school. She opened the oversized door and stared at the large office. “I’ve never been in here before. This is bigger than the college president’s office. And you have better security.”

“No one wants to kill a small Colorado college president. Me, on the other hand, I somehow keep ticking people off.” He stood to greet her and squeezed her hands. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

I’m trying to keep up the rumors about us. So, I need to show my face,” she sat in one of his visitor chairs. It invited people to curl up and stay a while. Not like any other office she’d visited. “Is the woman out front office staff or security?”

“Who says she can’t do both? Jodi is an excellent analyst. I hired her out of the CIA. She’s a black belt and used to compete in world competitions. She stopped after she’d won every title out there. I like having excellent people around me.” Dante reached for the intercom. “She also makes great coffee. Do you want some?”

Cat shook her head. “I’m good. I drank a pot before I brought the retreat guests over for their library orientation. The book’s going well but I’ll need to clean it up before I send it in next month.”

“Then, why are you here, just for appearance's sake?” He glanced at his watch. “You have a coffee date at one.”

“I happen to be aware of that, thank you, Dad.” Cat teased. “I wanted the fundraising department to see I came in here to chat with you. Did you know they already replaced Allen?”

He pointed to his computer. “I did. The college sends me an update if anyone is hired or promoted. Just in case.”

“What did you think?” Sometimes talking to Dante was like pounding nails. You never knew what question would get a real answer.

“Mike Tosan is a good guy. His wife is a history professor here. I was kind of expecting them to promote Roxie though. She’s been with the college longer and has excellent contacts out in the funding world.” He peered at her. “What did you think of either of them?”

“I didn’t meet them. I talked to Kim Stage, the office manager. She said they were all happy for his promotion because he brought in a lot of donor money.” She stood, taking another look around the professionally designed office. “I need to walk into town now and have coffee.”

“I could drive you, or have my car take you,” he offered, but he didn’t rise.

“I like walking, it’s almost warm out there today,” she paused at the door. “If Allen wasn’t on the take, maybe someone killed him to frame you.”

“I’ve thought about that. I hear my name is getting high odds in the betting pool. Or is it low odds when they think I’m guilty? I’ve never understood all the ins and outs of gambling.”

Caught off guard, Cat laughed. “I don’t think you want to admit that to anyone who works for you. You’ll lose your mobster reputation quickly.”

“Especially if they find out I’m more partial to tea than bourbon.” He shot her a quick salute. “Go forward and be careful. I don’t want you doing anything dangerous.”

“You sound like my uncle. Remember, walking across the street can be dangerous if you don’t look both ways,” she threw back at him. He wasn’t going to control her actions, even though he wasn’t the first man to try. She left his office and took the stairs down to the first floor, surprising the security guard who was stationed inside the stairwell.

People must not take the stairs often here.

As Cat walked, she texted Shauna to let her know she was stopping for coffee on the way home and to not expect her for lunch.

The text back was short and mouthwatering. Potato soup would be waiting when she finally arrived home.

It was nice to live with someone who loved cooking. Shauna had taken over all the comforting parts of the retreat. She fed the guests breakfast and supplied drinks and treats for the rest of the day. She cleaned their rooms in the middle of the week as well as after they left. And she did a light touch-up on the days in between. She was like a really cool dorm mom from college.

Then when the retreat wasn’t in session, Shauna still fed the three of them. Cat had hired a cleaning service that came in before every retreat session and did a deep dive clean. They all did their own laundry, but the kitchen was Shauna’s domain.

Someday, Shauna would find the one and move out on her own. But for now, Cat loved the way the house felt more like a home than it had even when she’d been married to Michael. Shauna’s touch was part of the reason why. And having Seth there.

Cat wondered why she had been so sentimental the last few days. Had Allen dying at the party thrown her more than she’d realized? She didn’t have time for even a mental exercise on this. She had a retreat to run. And to help Dante clear his name. Everything else would have to wait until next week.

She should have told Grace Evans she would have coffee with her then. But she was out and about today and the writers were engaged with library things so she didn’t have to feel guilty. And yet, she did. Besides, Dante thought she might have information about Allen.

She felt uncomfortable about going off on an investigation without telling Seth or her uncle. Shauna knew what was going on and where she was going. So she wasn’t one of the basement girls that you knew were going to get slashed in the first five minutes of the horror film.

That was her story and she was sticking to it as she walked into the coffee shop to meet Grace Evans. She hoped she hadn’t made a huge mistake and trusted the wrong person.

She’d done that before too.