Odelia pressed the space bar again.“That was Hendrik Serarols being chewed out by Niklaus. Fun stuff, huh?”
“Pretty brutal,” I said.
“Yeah, that Niklaus guy was not very nice,” Dooley commented.
“No, he sure wasn’t,” Odelia said, swiveling in her office chair.
She picked up the phone. When it connected, she said,“Chase, any word on the Echo alibi?”
She pressed a button on her phone, and suddenly we could hear Chase’s voice. “To get the information from Amazon would take weeks, and require a warrant—maybe even a court order. Luckily the Stowes were so kind to let me listen in on their account. Did you know you can play back your own audio recordings and delete them if you want?”
“No, I did not know that. So was it as bad as I think it was?”
“A lot of moaning and giggling. Turns out they asked Alexa to give them instructions.”
“Instructions on what?”
He laughed.“What do you think, Poole? How to clean the sink? They asked Alexa to read them the entireKama Sutra. They got to chapter five last night. And they ordered a bunch of saucy stuff on Amazon as well.”
I could see that Odelia was blushing slightly, and I wondered what this Kama thing was. I nudged Dooley, but he was still looking depressed. No amount of giggling and moaning could cheer him up.
“So their alibi checked out, huh?”
“Pretty much. First time I had to listen in on a couple’s recordings with the couple present. Brainard looked pretty proud of himself. Isabella? Not so much. She looked like she’d rather be anywhere but there. Still, it got them off the hook, so I’m guessing they’re fine.”
“So that’s one suspect you can scratch from your list.”
“Unfortunately, yes. What have you got so far?”
“I talked to Mrs. Niklaus Skad. Also known as Cybil Truscott.”
And while Odelia regaled Chase with the story of her meeting with Mrs. Truscott, I jumped from the desk, and so did Dooley. Frankly I’d heard enough. The investigation was still nowhere, and what was even worse: I was going to have to face Vena Aleman again, my worst nightmare. Not that the veterinarian is a bad person. She’s not. But she has this penchant for needles. It seems that each time Odelia takes me to see her she has to stick a needle in me. I hate it. They say it’s for my own good, but I doubt it. I secretly suspect her of being a sadist. And a sadist with a medical degree is a very bad thing. Especially for us cats, who are pretty much defenseless.
“So are you happy with yourself now, Dooley?” I asked as we left the Happy Bays Gazette office and ambled down the street. “Now you’ve got us both going to Vena again. And you know what happens when we go to Vena. We get stuck with needles. Needles in the butt, needles in the neck, needles in the tummy. You name it, she sticks it.”
“If only one of her needles will save my life,” said Dooley.
I had to admit he did look like he was about to die. All because of the power of suggestion.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about. Since there’s nothing wrong with you Vena will just give you a clean bill of health and a hit with the needle. Me? She’s going to put me on that scale again and decide I’m still too fat for my size and she’s going to put me on a dietand stick me with the needle.” I sighed. “What did I ever do to deserve this?”
At least Vena would neuter Diego. It was a small consolation.
“Do you think Vena can cure cancer?”
“If she could, she’d be a billionaire now.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
He gave me a sad look.“I want you to know I’ve always considered you my best friend, Max. And when I’m gone, could you look after Harriet for me?”
“You look after Harriet. You’re going to outlive us all, buddy. It’s the thin ones that live to be forty.”
“Forty? There’s no cat alive who’s forty.”
“There was this one cat who lived to be thirty-eight. She’s in the Guinness Book of Records. I’m sure someone will best her and beat her record one day.”
“Well, it won’t be me,” Dooley said gloomily. “I won’t live another week.”
I groaned. Was I really going to have to listen to this for much longer?“You’re fine, Dooley. Even Odelia said you’re fine.”
“Odelia’s no doctor.”
“Her dad’s a doctor.”
“So?”
“So it’s in her genes. That kind of stuff runs in the family.”
He gave me a dubious look.“Being a doctor is a genetic thing?”
“Sure,” I lied brazenly. “Didn’t you ever watchDiagnosis: Murder? Dick Van Dyke’s son was a doctor, too, remember? It’s all in the genes!” He seemed to perk up, so I continued. “So when Odelia tells you you’re fine, you can rest assured she knows what she’s talking about. She’s got the, um, doctor gene.”
“You’re not saying that just to make me feel better?”
I was saying that to makeme feel better.“Of course not! Everybody knows that’s how it works. Trust me. Odelia knows.”
He bobbed his head.“Thanks, Max. It’s like a weight off my shoulders.”
I clapped my paw on those same shoulders.“You’re fine, buddy! The picture of health!”
“Phew. And here I was thinking I was a goner.”
“Imagine that.”
He shivered.“I’ve imagined that ever since we talked to Montserrat, so no thank you. I won’t be imagining that anymore. I was actually feeling really sick.”
“Power of the mind, Dooley. It’s all up here.” I tapped his noggin.
“What is up there, Max?”
In his case? Not much.“Your mind, Dooley. Whatever your mind pictures, your body carries out.”
“So, if my mind pictured a nice juicy chicken wing, my body will somehow get it for me?”
“Sure,” I said. “You just have to think hard enough and it’ll happen.”
“Wow, that’s great, Max. Why don’t I try that right now?” And he closed his eyes, presumably thinking very hard about chicken wings.
You’re telling me that wasn’t a very nice thing to do to my best friend? I think it was the best thing I could have done. At least he wasn’t thinking about his imminent death anymore. Now he was thinking about the imminent death of a chicken. Hey, better a dead chicken than a dead Dooley, right?
Chapter 10
When Odelia ended the conversation with Chase she discovered that Max and Dooley had skedaddled. Which didn’t surprise her. Max hated going to the vet, and Dooley seemed convinced he was about to die. She got up from her desk and found Dan leaning against the doorjamb.
“So? How’s the investigation going?”
“So far the most likely suspect is the chef.”
“Isn’t it always?” he quipped with a twinkle in his eye.
“Chase seems to be convinced the couple running the restaurant didn’t do it, and I talked to Skad’s wife and she claims she has a solid alibi.”
“Which you will undoubtedly go check.”
“Undoubtedly,” she said with a smile.
“So did I hear you talking to your cats again?” Dan asked.
“Dooley isn’t feeling well,” she said cautiously. Dan didn’t know she could talk to her cats, though she suspected he had some idea of what was going on. They’d never discussed it, though, and she wasn’t going to risk her career at the newspaper by admitting that her cats were the source of many of her best and most exclusive stories.
“I can imagine it must be quite a burden looking out for—how many cats do you have now?”
“Four—and it’s not a burden. My mom and Gran take care of them, too, so it’s no biggie.”
“You know, when I hired you all those years ago, I partly did so because I figured you were young and you were going to go after the stories with the freshness and zeal that I’m lacking, due to my advanced age.”