“Not by much.” Odelia had been in school with Frankie. They were the same age.
“Didn’t you tell her off? Or Leo?”
Gran shrugged her bony shoulders. “Ah. No use talking to Leo. We were never much for talking anyway. Ours was more a physical bond.”
“I’ll say,” she muttered.
“And I’m not speaking to Jackie. Haven’t said a word to her since she took my roast beef recipe and passed it off at the pinochle club as her own.”
She placed an arm around her grandmother’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. I didn’t like Leo, but that’s just because I didn’t think he deserved you.”
“I know he didn’t deserve me, but at my age you can’t afford to be choosy, honey.”
They walked in silence for a while. “Chase is mad with me,” she finally said.
“Oh? And why is that?”
“He thinks I’m hiding something from him.”
“About the cats, huh?”
“Yeah. He knows something is going on but he can’t figure out what it is and now he’s mad I’m not telling him.”
“So tell him.”
She looked at her grandmother. “What?”
“Just tell him. See how he reacts. If he’s fine with it, he’s a keeper. If not…” She held up her hand. “Well, then at least you know he doesn’t deserve you.”
She gave her grandmother a hug. “Thanks, Gran. I won’t tell him but still, thanks.”
“If you’re not going to tell him, and he’s going to stay mad at you, can I have a shot at him?”
“Gran!”
“Just asking.”
Chapter 29
Chase had placed his long legs on Chief Alec’s desk, while the chief had done the same on his side. They sat staring out the window. Chase still couldn’t get over the fact that Odelia would stubbornly insist they needed to go after this Ziv Riding character. The only thing the guy had done wrong—apart from running a sweatshop in this town—was drive the wrong car.
“I mean, you see that, right?” he asked for the umpteenth time. “It’s a Tesla! Everybody drives a Tesla these days. A buddy of mine is visiting Belgium and he said it’s full of Teslas over there. Frickin’ Belgium, for crying out loud!”
“Is Belgium even a country? I thought it was a city.”
“Pretty sure it’s a country, Chief. Beer, chocolate and waffles?”
“Oh, right.”
He lapsed into silence again. “And what about this cat business? There’s something going on with those cats of hers. Like she’s got some kind of intuition when it comes to Max. Is that even possible? Or normal?”
“Why not? It’s called women’s intuition, Chase. And Odelia loves her cats.”
“But cats are just a bunch of dumb animals. They can’t figure out that there’s a sweatshop in town. Or that there’s a black Tesla parked outside a restaurant. She’s hiding something, Chief. She’s got some secret informant and she won’t reveal her name. Yeah, it’s a she. She admitted that much.”
“Odelia is a reporter, Chase. Working with informants is what she does. And you know how a reporter feels about protecting a source. It’s important.”
“I know that. I just…” He gave an annoyed grunt.
“You just hoped she would tell you all her secrets,” the Chief said with a grin.
“Well, yeah. I mean, why wouldn’t she? We work well together. She knows she can trust me. I won’t reveal her sources to anyone.”
“Just give her time, Chase. And don’t push her. The more you push her to give up her secrets the more she’s going to clamp up.”
“So what you’re saying is I should just let her harass this guy Ziv Riding?”
“He’s no boy scout. He did organize a sweatshop.”
“That doesn’t make him a killer.”
“No, it does not. It does make him a very bad man. Though it looks like he’ll walk away from this mess. Guy lawyered up big time.”
“Sure he did. He’ll pay a big-ass fine and he’ll go on making millions.”
“Oh, before I forget, the NYPD guy I talked to said they found a link between Niklaus Skad and Riding. Wanna hear about it?”
He jerked up, almost dropping out of his chair. “What?”
“Yeah. Funny thing is, I found the same email in Skad’s account.”
“And you’re only telling me this now?! Show me!”
“Hold your horses, cowboy. Now where is this darn thing…” He messed around on his computer, cursed a lot, and finally found it. “Here you go,” he said, swiveling the screen and stabbing at it with his finger. “Read it and weep.”
Chase scanned the email, then his eyes landed on the crucial paragraph. “I know about your dirty little secret and I’m not going to keep quiet unless you double your investment,” he read with rising surprise. “This is non-negotiable, Riding. You better do as I say or else.” Say what?
“Huh? Pretty explosive stuff.”
“Jeez…” he said, absolutely dumbfounded. “Oh, my God…”
“What?” Chief Alec asked with a chuckle. “Just proves these celebrities are all in bed together. All one big happy family, huh?”
His brain worked feverishly. “So Riding was an investor in Skad’s business. And somehow Skad had found out about the sweatshop and was threatening to expose it unless Riding doubled his investment.”
“Do you think that’s what he meant with ‘dirty little secret?’”
“What else could it be?”
They stared at one another. “We have our killer, Chase. He confessed.”
“What if Konrad isn’t the killer? What if Riding’s car really was parked outside the restaurant that night and he’s the killer? Wanting to shut Skad up before he blew the lid on this whole sweatshop affair?”
Chief Alec shook his head. “I’ve got a confession.”
“That wasn’t a confession, Alec. That was a nervous breakdown. The guy didn’t know what he was saying. He would have confessed to killing Kennedy or being Jack the Ripper.”
The Chief thought about this as he picked up something from his desk. It was a fortune cookie. He absentmindedly toyed with it, then crumbled it under his fingers, took out the little piece of paper and popped the cookie into his mouth, munching down.
Chase stared at him. “What’s that?”
“Huh? Oh, something the guys picked up at the sweatshop. They had bags and bags of the stuff.” He lobbed one at Chase and he deftly caught it. He studied the fortune cookie and something clicked inside his mind. There was a nicely designed logo printed on the cookie. A Z and an R. Ziv Riding. Probably PR swag. “Alec?”
“Mh?”
“Remember how the coroner found a fortune cookie in Niklaus Skad’s stomach?”
The Chief stopped munching, and then his eyes went wide. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.”
Odelia’s uncle drew his hands through his few remaining wisps of hair. “Oh, Jesus. I locked up the wrong guy, didn’t I?”
“And Odelia was right about Riding,” said Chase, nodding.
“I should have known,” said the Chief with a groan. “That damn niece of mine is always right!”
Chapter 30
We were finally on our way home. This whole business with Diego had brought home to me the fact that I needed a break. I’d been up all day, and I needed to lie down and get some shut-eye. And we were just passing by the General Store when Kingman called out, “Max! Hey, Max!”
“Ignore him,” I told Dooley. “I just want to go home and sleep.”
“Max! Dooley!”
“I can’t ignore him, Max,” Dooley said. “He might have something important to say.”
“He always has something important to say, but I need to get some sleep.”
“Max! Dooley! Yoo-hoo! Over here!”
“Just ignore him,” I said through gritted teeth.
But Dooley had already veered off course. I followed him with a tired moan.
“Max!” Kingman said. “Meet Norma.”
I stared at the small white cat splayed out next to Kingman. The name didn’t ring a bell. “Hi, Norma,” I said out of sheer politeness.