“Flint had told him that if the police got their hands on Tollie, they’d be forced to return him to Veronica, his rightful owner now that Dave was gone, and then the turtle soup scenario would be the most probable future for Tollie, and since Julio didn’t want the old turtle to die, he kept his mouth shut and did as Flint instructed him.”
“So a kiss and Bambi Wiggins told you what happened?” said Harriet. “That’s amazing.”
“Also the fact that I found it very hard to believe that Jayme was guilty.”
“That big, beautiful brain of yours, Max,” said Dooley, rubbing my head affectionately. “That big, beautiful brain has done it again!”
“Of course Max has a big brain,” said Brutus. “He’s got an unnaturally big head. If my head was as big as his, I’d have a big brain, too.”
“Now don’t be nasty, snuggle pooh,” said Harriet. “Max saved a girl’s life, and prevented a miscarriage of justice from taking place, and that’s a good thing.”
Divers had gone looking for the ax, and had found it where Flint had told them it was, along with the blood-spattered clothes he’d worn that day. He’d put everything in a plastic bag, weighed it down with stones and sunk it in the lake. Then he’d driven home and had invented the whole ‘kids stole my clothes’ story to convince his husband. He’d also confessed that he’d put that piece of paper in Dave’s hand, and had scribbled Jayme’s name on it. Since he was practiced in Dave’s handwriting, it wasn’t difficult to imitate it.
All in all, a clever scheme, borne out of necessity and the panic he’d experienced the moment he realized what he’d done. He’d had to think fast, and since he already harbored a great hatred toward Jayme, she’d seemed like the best person to use as his patsy. He’d effectively get rid of the two people who stood in his way: Dave and Dave’s successor.
“I still don’t understand why a man like Dave would leave all his money to a girl he never met,” said Harriet.
“You have to understand that Dave thought he’d live forever, or at least another twenty years or more. He didn’t know he was going to die. But what he definitely didn’t want was for his estate to go to Veronica or Veronica’s son. So he decided to change his will now, and cut her off, justin case something did happen to him. And even though he didn’t know Jayme, he knew Hester, and trusted her to do the right thing. And of course he felt that he’d discovered a rare talent in Jayme, and in due course could train her to take over. And he also wanted to protect Tollie, since Veronica had never made a secret of her dislike for the old turtle.”
“What’s going to happen with Tollie now?” asked Dooley.
“Veronica and Danny will move out of the house, Hester and Jayme will move in, and Tollie will have two people taking care of him who will love him just as much as Dave did.”
“He will have to share his house with Woofle.”
“I think that’s a sacrifice he’s happy to make,” I said with a smile.
“In other words,” said Harriet, “all’s well that ends well.”
“So what’s going on with the photo comic?” I asked. I’d noticed how Gran had stopped bugging us for photoshoots, so now I wondered if there was a fly in the ointment.
Harriet’s face sagged. “She quit on us. Said that the stories about working with animals or kids are true: never do it. She has sworn never to work with us again, and has instructed Scarlett to destroy all the scripts and get rid of all the pictures.”
“But why? What happened?”
“Ask Brutus,” said Harriet, giving her mate an unhappy look.
“Okay, so I bit her, but only because it said so in the script!”
“You bit Gran?”
“I did,” said Brutus moodily.
“But why?”
“The script clearly stated that you had tohide behind Gran’s hand, Brutus,” said Harriet. “Notbite Gran’s hand.”
“Can I help it if she doesn’t always pronounce her words too clearly,” Brutus grunted. “I thought she said ‘bite my hand’ and so that’s what I did.”
“But surely you didn’t bite hard,” I said.
“Oh, I bit pretty hard,” said Brutus. “She’d told me just before that my performance was lackluster, and that I needed to make it more believable. So I said I’d do my best.”
“And drew blood,” Harriet said dryly.
“Just a little bit of blood. A trickle.”
I glanced over to where Gran was sitting. She was showing the others her bandaged hand and talking animatedly about the terrible ordeal that had befallen her as a director, and how she understood why Spielberg had never made another shark movie afterJaws.
“She makes it sound as if I’m a shark,” said Brutus unhappily. “It was just a puncture wound. Nothing serious.”
“At least she found herself another job as a director,” said Harriet, “and Scarlett as her screenwriter.”
“What job?” I asked.
“Well,someone suggested to her that there was a fascinating human interest story just begging to be filmed. Wilbur’s brother Rudolph, who wants to winThe Voice. So now they’re filming his journey from a complete unknown to major star. You know, likeA Star is Born, but without Lady Gaga and hopefully without that terrible downer ending.”
“Someone suggested this to her?” asked Dooley? “Who?”
Harriet gave me a nudge.“I think we all know who put that idea into Gran’s head, don’t we?”
“Well, I just figured the only way for Wilbur and Kingman to get rid of Rudolph was to turn that man into a star and get him out of the shop before he completely ruined it by driving all of Wilbur’s customers away.”
“And a great idea it was,” Harriet agreed. “Only problem is, now he’s infesting our home with his presence.”
We all looked at the elephant in the backyard: Rudolph Vickery, as he shoved burger after burger into his mouth, and when he wasn’t scarfing down food, was regaling the rest of the company with stories about his checkered past and his colorful life, or strumming an imaginary guitar and annoying the neighbors with his frankly terrible singing.
Okay, so maybe getting Gran to invite Rudolph to stay with us wasn’t my best idea ever. Then again, even with a brain as big as mine, sometimes you just strike out.
“Roots, bloody roots,” Rudolph grunted now, playing a mean air guitar and banging his head so wildly he almost headbutted Scarlett.
“You need to get rid of him, Max,” said Harriet. “You know that, right?”
I sighed deeply.“Yeah, I know. And I will, I promise.”
And I proceeded to project optimism yet concern, cheerfulness yet agitation, confidence yet perturbation.
In other words?
I was stumped.
42. PURRFECT LIFE
Chapter 1
We were all gathered in the living room of the cozy little home we share with Odelia and her husband Chase, enjoying the evening watching television as we often do. Only this evening was special, since it was the first time Chase was to appear on TV.
For this auspicious occasion the whole clan had gathered: Odelia and Chase, of course, but also Odelia’s mom and dad, and her grandmother. Even Uncle Alec was there, with his girlfriend Charlene, and Gran’s friend Scarlett. In other words: we were entertaining a full house, and were lucky to have found ourselves a place right in front of the television, awaiting the big debut. With us I am of course referring to myself, but also to Dooley, my best friend and a Ragamuffin of the noblest kind, Harriet, a white Persian who belongs to Odelia’s mom Marge, and Brutus, that black butch cat who belongs to Chase. Though let’s not split hairs: in the Poole household, nobody actually belongs to anybody. In fact it wouldn’t be unfair to say that we all belong to each other, since we all like to do what we can to further the investigations that have put Odelia on the crime-fighting map in Hampton Cove, the small town on the East Coast we like to call home.