Odelia frowned.“Grandma was talking to Angela Merkel? But why?”
“Giving her advice on world peace or something,” said Max, waving an impatient paw. “The thing is, before she got adopted by Dieber, Shanille said something.” He raised a whisker and paused for effect. “She was there when Dieber’s bodyguard was shot.”
“She saw who did it!” Dooley cried triumphantly.
“She saw who did it!” Max said, giving Dooley a nasty look. “It was—”
“—one of the other bodyguards!” Dooley caroled, at which point Max gave his shoulder a slap. Dooley returned the slap, and for a moment a lot of slapping ensued.
“Break it up, you guys,” said Odelia. When Max and Dooley were staring up at her, panting slightly from the exertion, she asked, “Can you repeat that last thing?”
“One of the bodyguards killed the other bodyguard,” said Max.
A trill of excitement shot through her.“Are you sure?”
“Yes, we are!” said Dooley. “Shanille is a big Dieber fan, so she had a front-row seat to his radio show thingy. She said one bodyguard approached the other bodyguard and spoke to him in a menacing tone of voice. There was some kind of scuffle and some shoving and then, suddenly, the bodyguard was shot! She saw everything because she was on the ground and had the dog perspective!”
“Frog perspective,” Max corrected.
Dooley frowned.“Yeah, I don’t get that.”
Her heart bouncing against her breastbone, she crouched down and took Dooley’s face in both hands. “This is very important, Dooley. What did the shooter look like?”
“Shanille didn’t say,” said Dooley.
“She did say he had the same color as me,” Max said.
“Oh, that’s right,” said Dooley. “Orange.”
“Blorange. I’m blorange. How many times do I have to repeat it?”
Just then, Brutus came trudging up, looking like something the cat dragged in. A different cat than himself, obviously, for cats can’t drag themselves in. “Blorange is not even a color, Max.”
“It is, too!” Max cried, cut to the quick.
In spite of her excitement about having solved the case—or, rather, of Shanille, Max and Dooley having solved the case, Odelia couldn’t help giving Brutus a worried look. “What happened to you, Brutus?”
“He broke his heart,” said Dooley knowingly.
“I had my heart broken,” Brutus corrected him.
“Oh. Diego and Harriet,” she said, understanding dawning. “I’m so sorry, Brutus.”
When you communicated with cats the way she did, you soon realized that their lives were a never-ending version ofThe Bold and the Beautiful. Or maybe evenThe Young and the Restless. Though neither soap opera could hold a candle to the drama cats could create.
“I’m going to put myself up for adoption,” Brutus announced somberly.
“But you can’t,” said Odelia. “This is your home now, Brutus.”
“I can’t share a home with Harriet and Diego,” said the cat morosely. “I’m going to elope to Charlie Dieber.”
“Charlie doesn’t adopt male cats, you know that, Brutus.”
“He’s going to have the transformation,” said Dooley.
“Transition,” Max corrected him.
Brutus gave her a wan smile.“From now on please call me Bruta.”
Chapter 20
Odelia parked her pickup in front of Uncle Alec’s house and got out. It was still early, and the street was pretty much deserted. But this couldn’t wait. So she walked up to the house, which was a modest row house in a street of similar houses, and rang the bell.
It took a long time before there was movement inside, but finally a bedraggled-looking Chase opened the door. He was dressed in boxers and a flannel shirt that was open and displaying his chiseled chest and stomach. She gulped slightly and had a hard time dragging her eyes away from his washboard tummy and up to his face again.
He gave her a lopsided grin and rubbed the stubble on his chin.“Hey, Poole. I thought you said I had to bring a cannon to wake you? And look at you now, up and about.”
“My cats woke me up,” she said.
“Tough luck. So you decided that if you were up, I should be up, too?”
“I, um… had another hunch, Chase.”
“Who is it?” a voice yelled in the background.
“It’s your niece! She says she’s got another hunch!”
Uncle Alec appeared, rubbing his eyes. He was also dressed in boxers and a checkered flannel shirt that was unbuttoned, only his revealed a sizable belly and a pair of impressive man boobs.“Odelia, honey, do you know what time it is?”
“No idea. All I know is that we need to go out to the Dieber place again. I think I know who did it.”
Chase grinned.“Isn’t she amazing? Keeps getting those hunches.”
“Yeah, she is,” said Uncle Alec, stifling a yawn. “So who did it?”
“Do you remember Toby Mulvaney? The red-headed guy?”
Chase frowned as he tried to recollect.“The security guy?”
“When Regan told us about her affair with Ray Cooper, she shot a quick glance at Mulvaney, and he looked away. I’ll bet there’s something going on between those two.”
“You seem to forget that whoever shot Ray was actually going after Dieber.”
“What if that’s not the case? What if Ray Cooper was the real target?”
Chase gave this some thought, and finally Uncle Alec clapped him on the shoulder.“Listen to Odelia, Chase. She’s always right.”
Chase nodded slowly.“So we’ve been looking in the wrong direction all this time? Is that what you’re saying?”
It wasn’t what she was saying—it was what her cats were saying, but she nodded. “Maybe we should talk to Toby. I have a feeling he might be able to tell us something.”
“You know what? Why don’t the two of you go out there and talk to what’s-his-face,” said Uncle Alec. “While I go over to Odelia’s and give Tex a hand with that pet door before he wrecks the damn thing.”
Odelia gave her uncle a grateful look, and he returned it with a wink. Unlike Chase, Uncle Alec knew all about the Poole gift of being able to talk to felines. He’d told her many times he wished he shared her facility. But unfortunately only Poole women had the gene.
Chase held up his hand, fingers spread.“Five minutes. Quick shower and I’m all yours.”
“All mine?” she asked with a cheeky grin.
He returned the grin, then pulled her in for a kiss.“All yours,” he repeated.
“Oh, boy,” said Uncle Alec, and watched Chase jog into the house, then up the stairs. Moments later, they could hear the shower running. “Max told you about Mulvaney?” he asked.
“He heard it from Shanille, Father Reilly’s tabby? She was there when Ray Cooper was shot. Saw the whole thing. Said it looked like this Mulvaney guy was picking a fight with Cooper, getting into his face. Moments later the shot was fired and Cooper was dead.”
“Those cats of yours are a godsend, Odelia. I just wish I could deputize them.”
“If you want to see your face on the front page of theNational Enquirer you should do just that,” she said with a laugh.
“If they solved this case, I’m giving them a medal. I swear to God.”
“And where are you going to pin it?”
He mussed up his hair.“Good question. Maybe I’ll buy them a toy instead.”
“Cat Snax. You can never go wrong with Cat Snax.”
“Imagine paying your best detectives in cat kibble.”
“Wouldn’t that be something?”
“Easy on the police budget, too.”
Chase came jogging down the stairs, now dressed in jeans and a fresh shirt, and they were off. His hair was damp, a lock dangling across his brow, and he smelled of musk and cologne. As they climbed into her pickup, the heady scent of manliness made her swoon.
“Are you all right?” Chase asked. “You look kinda feverish.”
She swallowed.“I’m fine.” And so was he.
It didn’t take her more than twenty minutes to make the drive to the Dieber place, and this time the guards greeted them like a couple of old friends. Inside, there was sheer pandemonium, as usual, only this time it wasn’t because of Charlie’s antics but because of a lack of Charlie.