The Telltale Turtle (The Pet Psychic Mysteries) Read Free Page A

the pink marble.
    "All right. Detective Angellus will take his statement." He directed the younger man toward the foyer, then turned back to her.
    She sighed as she sat and knitted in the far corner of the wide room, trying not to see the detective's furrowed brow. It would have been like not seeing a hurricane coming up from the sea.
    "Roberts? Is that right? Mary Catherine Roberts" He looked up from the paper in his hand where the responding police officer had written her name and address. He glanced at Baylor. "Does that animal belong to the deceased?"
     
    "No, he's mine." She put aside her knitting and lifted her head, hoping her chin didn't seem to fold into her neck as it sometimes did. Reaching the ripe age of fifty-plus left little room for vanity; she still didn't want a good-looking man to think badly of her. "Baylor, say hello."
    The tabby cat meowed, then tucked himself into the folds of her wide green cotton skirt. He'd insisted on coming inside while she and Danny waited for the police.
    "He's feeling a little shy right now."
    "Of course he is." The athletic-looking man in the dark brown suit shook his graying blond head. "Okay. I'm Detective Walt Abraham of the Wilmington Police Department. I'll be investigating this case. Do you always bring your cat along when you visit friends?"
    She put out her hand to him. This forced Detective Abraham to reach out and shake it. He had good, strong hands. She liked that in a man. It was a sign of character, her mother always said. "Mostly. But I wasn't here on a social call. I don't even know that poor woman.
    She shuddered as she glanced at the splash of red that still marked the pale carpet where the woman's body had been. Blueuniformed people had removed her only a few minutes before. A dozen more police assistants walked around the room, collecting things in plastic bags and taking pictures.
    "Oh?" Detective Abraham looked at her in a different light. Mary Catherine looked like a bag lady, or a caricature of a gypsy from the last century. Green skirt, purple vest, and ruffled white blouse seemed to flow around her. Her hair and shawl were almost the color of the tabby cat at her feet. She was roughly middle fifties, five-foot-five, maybe 180 pounds. "What were you doing here then, Mrs. Roberts?"
     
    "The poor thing was screaming out in pain. I heard him and came to help."
    Detective Abraham eyed his partner near the door, obviously wishing he'd taken the taxi driver to question. "You heard Mrs. Jamison screaming out when she died. Was this as you went by?"
    "Heavens no!"Jamison? That was a strange coincidence. Was the dead woman related to Colin? "I came to save her turtle. Of course I didn't know it was a turtle at the time. Animals aren't very good at classifying themselves the way humans do. I only knew he was in some kind of trouble and his name was Tommy. I came here to help him."
    "Her turtle?"
    She took the yellow-bellied slider out of her purse. "You can see where he must've been in the bowl when it fell. His front leg was cut by the glass. It pains him but I'm sure he'll be fine. He'll probably need a new home."
    "Don't look at me," he said quickly, then checked himself. "Are you for real?"
    She sighed and put the turtle back. "That's part of the problem. No one wants to take responsibility. I'll take him in, at least until he mends. Then we'll see if we can find him a good home. Or he might rather be released into the wild again. I believe someone found him near a stream."
    "So the turtle talked to you? Was that before or after Mrs. Jamison died? Were you here when he told you he was in pain?"
     
    "No. I was down by the river. That's why Danny's here. He drove me up in his taxi."
    "If you weren't here, how did you hear him? I mean, he couldn't talk very loud, could he? He's a pretty small turtle"
    "I heard him, but not the way you mean it. They don't really have a language I can understand. I hear his thoughts. They're strange and disjointed. Non-mammals