"He didn't say anything. I don't know what he said. I was out of there-came flying down here thinking you were being strangled. We were clear up at Sam's, on the highway. My God…"
Dulcie licked his hand. She was really very touched. "How could I know you were listening? I didn't mean to upset you."
"Why the hell wouldn't I be upset? And can you imagine what would happen if Harper heard you really meow? With all the questions he already has about you two, don't you think he'd just about go crazy? Questions I can't answer for him, Dulcie. Questions I wouldn't dare answer."
Clyde put his head in his hands. "Sometimes, Dulcie, between you and Joe, I can't handle this stuff."
She patted his hand with a soft paw. He looked so distressed that she didn't know whether to feel sorry for him or roll over laughing.
But still, she thought, Clyde handled most situations very well. From the moment Joe discovered he was endowed with human speech, that he could carry on a conversation in the English language and read the written word, Clyde had weathered Joe's-and her own-unusual lifestyle with a minimum of emotional chaos. He had indulged in very few out-of-control shouting spells. He had exhibited no mind-numbing bouts of terror that she knew of. He had even paid Joe's deli bills without undue grousing.
He had even put up with Joe's reading the front page first in the mornings and demanding anchovies for breakfast. Not until this morning, she thought, had he really lost it.
She patted his hand again and rubbed her whiskers against his knuckles. "You shouldn't get so worked up-it's bad for human blood pressure. You can see that I'm all right. It was just a simple phone call."
"A simple phone call? Simple? You should have seen Harper's face." Clyde sighed deeply. "You don't seem to realize, Dulcie, how this stuff upsets Harper."
Wilma rose from the table. Turning away, she took the milk from the refrigerator and busied herself making cocoa.
"Every rime you and Joe meddle," Clyde said, "every time you phone Harper with some wild tip, he gets suspicious all over again. And he starts making skewered remarks, laying the whole damned thing in my lap."
"What whole damned thing?" Dulcie said softly, trying to keep her temper.
"He starts hinting that he wants answers. But he's too upset to come right out with the real question. And that isn't like Harper. He's the most direct guy I know. But this… Dulcie, this stuff is just too much."
She stared sweetly into Clyde's face. "Why is helping him solve a crime a whole damned thing, as you put it? Why is catching a murderer, to say nothing of boosting the department's statistics and impressing the mayor and the city council with Harper's absolutely perfect, hundred percent record…"
"Can it, Dulcie. I've heard all that. You're beginning to sound just like Joe. Going on and on with this ego-driven…"
"Oh, you can be rude!" She was so angry she raised her armored paw, facing him boldly, waiting for an apology.
She would not, several months ago, have dared such behavior with Clyde. When she first discovered her ability to speak, she had felt so shy she'd even been embarrassed to speak to Wilma.
Even when she and Joe began to discover the history and mythology of their lost race, to know that they were not alone, that there were others like them-and even though Clyde and Wilma read the research, too-it had taken all her courage to act natural and carry on a normal conversation. It had been months before she would speak to Clyde.
Wilma poured the cocoa and poured Dulcie a bowl of warm milk. Clyde sat trying to calm his temper. "Dulcie, let me explain. Max Harper lives a life totally oriented to hard facts. His world is made up of cold, factual evidence and logically drawn conclusions based on that evidence."
"I know that." She did not want to hear a lecture.
"How do you think Harper feels when the evidence implies something that he knows is totally impossible? What is he supposed to do when no one in the world would believe what the evidence tells him?"
"But…"
"Tonight, when Harper's phone rang, the minute he heard your voice, he went white. If you'd seen him…"
"But it was only a voice on the phone. He didn't…"
"Your voice-the snitch's voice-has him traumatized. This mysterious female voice that he links with all the past incidents… Oh, hell," Clyde said. "I don't need to explain this to you. You know what he suspects. You know you make him crazy."
Dulcie felt incredibly hurt. "The tips Joe and I have given him have solved three murders," she said quietly.
Wilma sat down at the table, cradling her cup of cocoa.
Clyde said, "Every crime where you and Joe have meddled, Harper has found cat hairs tainting the evidence-and sometimes pawprints. Pawprints, Dulcie! Your marks are all over the damned evidence. Do you think this doesn't upset him? And now, tonight, you yowl into the damned telephone."
"I didn't yowl."
"You know the way he looks at you and Joe. Joe tells you the kind of stuff Harper says to me. How would you like it if Max Harper ended up in the funny farm-because of you two?"
"There is no way Max Harper is going to end up in a mental hospital. Talk about overdramatizing. Half of Harper's comments are just putting you on. And he only talks that way after a few beers."
Wilma refilled Clyde's cocoa cup and tried to turn the conversation. "You didn't find any trace of Mavity?"
Clyde shook his head.
"We'll start early in the morning," she said. "We can canvas the shops that were closed last night, see if anyone saw her."
"The whole department will be doing that. Mavity is a prime suspect." He reached to stroke Dulcie, wanting to make amends.
Reluctantly Dulcie allowed him to pet her. She couldn't believe that Max Harper would really suspect Mavity of killing Jergen. If he did suspect Mavity, he needed to know about Pearl Ann. She rose and moved away from Clyde, stood looking at him and Wilma until she had their full attention, until Clyde stopped glowering and waited for her to speak.
"Mavity isn't guilty," she told them. "I was trying to tell Harper that, on the phone."
"How do you know that?" Wilma said softly.
"Pearl Ann Jamison is the one Harper wants. I was trying to tell him that."
They both stared at her.
"Pearl Ann Jamison," Dulcie said, "is a guy in drag. I believe that he's the killer."
Clyde burst out laughing. "Come on, Dulcie. Just because Pearl Ann's strong, and a good carpenter, doesn't mean she's a guy. You…"
"Are you saying I don't know what I'm talking about?"
"Of course not. I just think you and Joe… Joe's never mentioned this. What would make you think…"
"I know the difference between male and female," she said tartly. "Which is more than you and Wilma seem to have figured out. When you get past the Jasmine perfume, Pearl Ann smells like a man. Without the perfume, we'd have known at once."
"She smells different? You're basing this wild accusation on a smell?"
"Of course he smells different. Testosterone, Clyde. He smells totally male. It's not my fault that humans are so-challenged when it comes to the olfactory skills."
Wilma watched the two of them solemnly.