A Tale of Two Tabbies by Kathi Daley Page A

Bodies in Motion. It didn’t seem to fit.
    Being an island, Madrona didn’t have a bus or train terminal. There had been employee lockers in the old cannery before Tara and I’d bought it, but we’d taken them out when we remodeled. It seemed to me that there had been lockers at the ferry terminal left over from the days when it was used to offload fish, but I was pretty sure they had been taken out as well.
    I tried to remember if there were lockers at Harthaven Marina. It was still a working marina and local fishermen still docked there, so I supposed there could be lockers somewhere on the property, although I couldn’t think where they’d be. The other problem was that Harthaven Marina didn’t begin with the letters SP. About a decade ago there had been a restaurant on the north shore of the island named Seafood Palace, but it had burned to the ground several years ago and I doubted that lockers, if there ever had been any, would have survived.
    SP. I rolled the letters around in my mind. The letter combination felt familiar, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think of a single place beginning with SP that might have lockers. Seal Point had an observation area, but I couldn’t remember any lockers. They had put in picnic benches in an effort to create more of a parklike atmosphere, so I supposed they could have added lockers for some reason. I hadn’t actually been there in years, but I could take a drive over to the east shore after lunch at my mother’s the following day. If the weather held it would actually be a pleasant drive as long as my car didn’t die on the way.
    I looked at the two cats, who were curled up together on the sofa. They were no longer fighting, but they hadn’t really done all that much to help either. I supposed Sydney had helped some, but Lucie hadn’t contributed a single thing.
    “Can I get a little help here?” I asked aloud.
    Max barked, but the cats looked up, then went back to sleep.
    I sat down on the sofa, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes. God, I was tired. I hadn’t slept well since Cody had shared his upsetting news and I had a feeling a good night’s sleep wasn’t on the horizon until things worked their way out one way or the other. Having the investigation to focus on was helping, but even that seemed to have hit a dead end. How hard could it be to find lockers in a location with the initials SP?
    “Smith Packing,” I said out loud to no one in particular. Smith Packing had been closed down for almost five years, but before it had gone under it was a large packing plant that employed quite a lot of people. It made sense that the plant would provide lockers for their employees. The plant was on the other side of the island, so it was a little late to check it out tonight. But tomorrow, tomorrow I’d take a drive to check out both Seal Point and Smith Packing. It stood to reason that one of the two locations held the final secret in the puzzle I was desperately trying to piece together.
    I realized I was starving; I never had eaten lunch. I was trying to decide between cereal and takeout when my phone rang.
    “Cody?”
    “Yeah, it’s me.”
    He sounded tired. More than tired. Defeated.
    “Is everything okay?” Though, based on the tone of his voice, everything didn’t sound okay.
    “Everything is fine. I just missed you and wanted to hear your voice.”
    “Oh. I’m glad you called.” It felt odd that Cody and I were having such a stilted conversation. We were usually so comfortable and casual with each other. “I missed you too.”
    “Is this not a good time?” Cody asked. Apparently he was picking up the same weird vibe I was.
    “Of course it’s a good time. Any time is a good time,” I assured him. “I just didn’t expect to hear from you until Monday. I guess when I did hear from you I was surprised, and my natural reaction was to assume that something must be wrong.”
    “I wasn’t sure if I’d have the opportunity to call