Clarice, who seemed unharmed, sat casually licking the blood from her claws. “That should teach that misguided Romeo a lesson he’ll never forget.”
“Clarice, you’re my hero!” suddenly a voice rang out behind us.
We all looked around, and saw that we’d been joined by Harriet.
She sat looking at the spot of orange in the distance that was Diego.
“How long have you been sitting there?” I asked.
“Long enough to hear Diego’s mean-spirited and outright horrible advice,” she said softly. “And even long enough to see him with that other cat.” She gestured up. “I was actually on the roof. I’d followed him here when he went out. Said he was going to get a breath of fresh air.” She shook her head. “I knew he was up to no good. A player like him?”
Clarice stared at the spot of orange that grew smaller and smaller. “I don’t think he’ll be back, honey. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t,” she said. “In fact I should have been the one to teach him a lesson.” She nodded at the feral cat. “Thank you, Clarice.”
Clarice shrugged. “Eh. Just a little community service. I had my eye on that player for a while. Nasty little devil. I enjoyed it, actually. It’s not every day that I can take out the good old claws and get a little practice in.”
“I’m so sorry, Brutus,” Harriet said. “I know I hurt you terribly.”
“Oh, sweetie pie,” Brutus muttered brokenly. “Sugar plum.”
“Oh, hugsy wugsy,” Harriet sighed. “My huggy boo. Forgive me?”
“Of course, sweet cheeks. In a heartbeat.”
“Oh, cuddle cakes.”
The big reunion scene was both endearing and massively annoying, and I had to turn away when Harriet and Brutus started sniffing each other’s butts, just like old times.
“Ugh,” Clarice said. “I’m out of here. This is too much for me.”
This from the cat that took on bullies twice her size and fed on rats that would have scared the average human.
“Bye, Clarice,” Dooley said.
“See ya next time,” Clarice said, padding off. “Stay out of trouble, you two.”
We looked on as she gracefully jumped up on a dumpster, then onto a ledge, and then made her way to the roof of the nearest store.
Dooley let out a long sigh of admiration. “What a cat,” he said.
“Yeah, what a cat,” I agreed heartily.
Dooley turned to me. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Max.”
“That’s all right.”
“No, you were right. Diego was a bad influence. It’s just that… he sounded so convincing.”
“That’s the power of the dark side for you, Dooley,” I said.
“Oh, is that what that was?” he asked, eyes wide. “It’s so powerful!”
“Yeah, good thing Clarice showed up and brought you back to the light.”
“Right,” he said. “So Clarice is like Princess Leia, huh?”
“Um… something like that, I guess.”
We looked at Harriet and Brutus, in the midst of their make-up scene, and both turned away and started making our way out of the alley.
“I think I’m way too young for all that dating stuff, Max.”
“I think you’re right, Dooley.”
“It just looks very complicated.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t like complicated, Max.”
“Me neither, Dooley. Me neither.”
Chapter 28
Odelia stubbornly walked on. If Chase didn’t want to confront Ziv Riding about his nocturnal visit to Hampton Cove, she was. She stalked over in the direction of the boutique where Max said he’d seen the Tesla parked, and saw Riding leaving the store and returning to his vehicle.
She hurried over, wanting to catch him before he skedaddled. The store was Riding’s, and exclusively carried the Ziv Riding brand.
“Mr. Riding!” she yelled. “Mr. Riding! A word, sir!”
Riding turned around, his hand on the door of his car. He was a handsome man with smooth, even features and remarkable black eyes. A smile spread on his face when he saw her coming. “Of course I’ll do a selfie, darling. But only one. And only from the right. That’s my best side.”
“My name is Odelia Poole, and I’m a reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette and a civilian consultant with the Hampton Cove Police Department.”
His smile faltered. “No selfie?”
“No,” she said decidedly. “No selfie. Someone saw your car parked behind Fry Me for an Oyster a couple of nights ago.”
Now his smile was completely wiped away. “No comment, Miss…”
“Poole. Odelia Poole.”
He opened his car door and made to get in. “Bye, Miss Poole.”
“It was the same night Niklaus Skad was murdered, Mr. Riding. Would you care to comment?”
“No, I would rather not,” he said as he slid into his seat. He tried to close the door, but Odelia held onto it. “What was your involvement with Niklaus Skad, Mr. Riding?”
“No involvement. I liked his cooking show, though. Now could you please let go of my door, Miss Poole? It’s my door and I need it.”
“What about the sweatshop you built in town? What was your involvement with that?”
“I don’t know about any sweatshop. My clothes are all made in Asia. Now please if you could just…”
“Your clothes were made by Asian workers you illegally brought into this country and then set to work in appalling conditions.”
“Thank you for your interest,” he said. “Please schedule an interview with my publicist. I’m always happy to talk to the members of the press.”
With a press of his finger, he started the car and drove off, closing the door as he moved away. It was amazing, Odelia thought. The car hardly made any noise. It just… glided away ever so gracefully. Then she groaned in dismay. The guy was as slippery as they came. And she had nothing on him. Nothing at all.
She mounted the sidewalk and staggered off, feeling utterly dejected. Chase thought she was a flake and that she was hiding something. She’d just angered a fashion designer who probably had nothing to do with this whole Niklaus Skad thing. And she had to sort out the mess her cats had made. This whole Diego versus Brutus thing was getting out of hand.
She set foot for the alley Brutus had been talking about. Maybe she should sort this out once and for all. It wasn’t as if she had anything better to do. Like her uncle said, they caught the killer. He confessed. The rest was conjecture.
The first thing she saw when she entered the alley was Max and Dooley sauntering towards her. “Hey, Odelia,” said Max. “How did it go with Ziv Riding?”
“It didn’t. Though he drives a really cool car. How did things go with Diego?” Dooley jerked his thumb in the direction of the alley, and she saw Brutus and Harriet, smooching up a storm. “I take it things worked themselves out?”
“They certainly did,” Max said. “With a little help from Clarice.”
“Right,” she said.
“Hey. Isn’t that Grandma?” asked Max.
She looked in the direction indicated, and saw that it was indeed her grandmother, and she was looking just as dejected as she was feeling. She was shuffling along on the other side of the street. So she quickly crossed and joined her. “Gran? What’s wrong?”
Gran looked up, her wrinkly face drawn. “Oh, I won’t tell you.”
“You won’t tell me what?”
“You’ll just laugh at me.”
“I promise I won’t laugh at you.”
“It’s Leo. He left me.”
“He left you?”
“Yeah, for a younger woman. Can you believe it? We were making out in the park when some hot young dame sat down next to us. Leo’s eyes wandered, the hot chick giggled, and then his hands wandered and next thing I knew he was making out with her instead of me! I just left.”
“Some hot young chick made out with Leo? How old was this chick?”
“You know her. Frankie Canolli’s grandmother Jackie.”
“Jackie Canolli? But she’s like a hundred!”
Gran gave her a hard stare. “She’s younger than me!”