CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) by Kassandra Lamb Page A

“Oh, she’s already done that on a couple occasions.”
                Knowing her laid-back husband well, Kate added, “You may need to be rather forceful with her at times, not let yourself worry about whether or not she’s going to fire you later.”
                “I’m not sure I’d be all that broken up if she fired me at this point,” Skip said. “There are moments when I feel like she’s more trouble than the case is worth.”
                “Last but not least,” Kate said, “I’ve taught her some techniques for keeping herself calm in a crisis, but she may not remember to use them when the time comes. The words I told her to say to herself are, ‘It’s going to be okay. Skip has things under control.’ So those are the words to use with her, even if it’s blatantly obvious that you don’t have it under control.
                “She’s a bit of a control freak, and knowing what I now know about her childhood, that makes sense. She survived by taking control of her own life at a very young age. But she seems to trust you, so if she believes you have things under control, she should be more manageable.”
                Skip nodded. “Let me run one of our suspects past you and see what you think. He’s her latest ex-boyfriend. Broke up about nine months ago, after he’d been staying with her at the farm most of the time.” Skip told Kate everything they knew about Timothy Lansing.
                Kate thought for a moment. “He doesn’t quite sound like the type to carry a torch this long. Too self-centered himself.”
                “I’d agree with that, but he was definitely still quite angry with Cherise,” Skip said.
                “Yeah, but notes from him would be much heavier on the threats and much less about love, I would think. Even if he was still in love with her, he would probably deny that he is, even to himself. And cover up those feelings with anger.”
                “Could he have sent the notes and killed the cat just to mess with her head?” Skip asked.
                “The cat sounds more like him than the other notes. Do you have any other suspects?”
                “A whole list of them. Rose is slogging through it, but so far they’ve either had an alibi for the time period when the cat would have been left on her porch, or they just aren’t ringing any bells with Rose for other reasons.”
                “Keep in mind that narcissists–and the type of people Cherise would hang out with are likely to be cut from that same cloth–they’re often quite excellent liars. And the line between narcissist and full-blown psychopath is a thin one. Your guy may not look like the kind of whacko who would send threatening notes and kill cats. He may come across as charming and completely harmless.”
                Skip grimaced. “So in other words, he could be anybody.”
     

CHAPTER FIVE
     
                The family had just sat down to dinner the following evening when Skip’s pocket started purring. He took out his cell phone and checked the caller ID, grimaced, then put it back in his pocket. He turned his attention back to his daughter’s efforts to lobby for a pony for her next birthday.
                “I’ll be five years old, Daddy. I can take care of a horse.”
                “Whoa there. A minute ago it was a pony, now it’s a horse?”
                “We never should have given her that rocking horse her first Christmas,” Kate said, just as Skip’s pocket vibrated again. He ignored it.
                “I think five is still a bit young,” Skip decreed. “We will revisit the question when you are say, seven, and in the meantime, we’ll look into some riding lessons. You may discover you don’t even like real horses once you get to know