She looked at the screen. Looked at Nans.
“Jack.”
Nans nodded. “Put it on speaker if he’ll let you.”
He wouldn’t let her so she walked to the corner of the room.
“Hey,” Jack said.
“Hey.” Lexy moved toward the window. “How’s the Everett case coming?”
A pause that meant he was deciding how much to tell her. She’d learned his pauses — which ones meant thinking, which ones meant no, which ones meant I’m going to tell you anyway and I’d like to register my objection first.
This was the last kind.
“Time of death got narrowed down,” he said. “Medical examiner puts it between ten and ten-thirty in the morning. Tighter than we had before. His wallet was on him. Cash still in it. This wasn’t a regular robbery.”
“Do you think anything besides the cat was taken?”
Another pause. Shorter. “Not sure, his bag was full of yard sale finds. Chrome cocktail shaker, fish ashtray, a pair of silver sugar tongs, a class ring, blue stone, class of 96 BRFHS-DS, salt and pepper shakers. Impossible to know if he had anything else.”
Lexy could hear him not saying what he was thinking. She said it for him. “So the theory is they were after the cat and it was worth more than anyone knew, and whoever took it knew that.”
“Either that, or he was killed for another reason.”
“Then why take the cat?” she asked.
“Maybe he’d already sold the cat.”
Lexy hadn’t thought of that. “But Everett had just been in the Cup and Cake with the Cat about twenty minutes before that.”
“We have to check out every theory,” Jack said.
“Of course.” Lexy said, then, “Thanks for checking in.”
“You know I have to call my best girl to make sure she’s okay.”
Lexy snorted. “Or to make sure her grandmother isn’t launching some sort of amateur investigation.”
“Is she?” Jack asked.
“What do you think?”
Jack sighed. “Okay, just try to keep them out of trouble.”
“Will do.”
Lexy and Jack said their good-byes and she hung up, and turned around.
Four faces were looking at her with varying degrees of patience. The only sounds was Ida chewing.
Lexy ran through it: the time window, the bag’s contents, the one missing item.
“So the police think it’s about the cat’s value,” Nans said, when Lexy finished.
“Or maybe some other more personal reason.”
Ruth made a face. “Like what? Someone didn’t like him?”