“Chase never feeds me any meat. He barely notices I’m there. Chase is not a cat person. He just took me in because his mother asked him to.”
Max and Dooley goggled at Brutus.“No meat?” asked Max.
“No juicy steak,” Dooley asked.
“Just generic kibble,” Brutus grunted. “The kind on sale in your local supermarket.”
“Oh, Brutus,” said Odelia, touched.
“Don’t get me wrong,” said Brutus. “I love Chase. But… I love Odelia more.”
Silence reigned in the car for a few beats, then both Dooley and Max gave Brutus a hug, and Odelia reached back and tickled him under his chin.“And we love you, Brutus,” Dooley assured him.
“Well, we do now,” Max corrected him.
“Must have been that lack of meat that made him so intolerable,” Dooley added.
“Thanks,” Brutus grunted, clearly undone by these signs of affection. “Thanks, you guys. You’re the best friends a cat can ever hope to get. I won’t forget this.”
“You’re all right, Brutus,” Odelia said. “I’ll buy you all some meat tonight.”
There was a tap on the roof of the car and they all jumped a foot in the air. Then Chase’s head appeared through the open window. He was panting a little, and he was chewing on a piece of straw. “That’s a sweatshop, all right. Let’s call in the state police. This is a lot bigger than Hampton Cove.” He glanced back at the cats. “Well done, you guys.” He then directed a look at Odelia. “And now I’m talking to your cats. I’m going all screwy.”
“Not screwier than Odelia,” said Max.
Chase whipped his head around.“Was it my imagination or did he just talk back to me?”
But Odelia merely smiled.
Chapter 23
We patiently waited in the car until the state police that Chase had called in arrived. They came zooming down the road, blinkers and sirens off. The first car stopped right next to ours, and Chase quickly switched cars, and rode in with the cavalry. They surrounded the farmhouse. We watched from our first-row seat as dozens of cops exited their vehicles and descended upon the old Tucker farm, weapons drawn, approaching slowly and stealthily.
When finally Chase gave the all-clear sign, Odelia let us out of the car and we walked up with her.
We saw dozens of ill-dressed people being led out of the farmhouse. They looked unkempt and scared. Ambulances drove up and teams of EMTs took care of them. I saw that more than half a dozen of them were children, and they looked as dirty and undernourished as the adults. It was a horrible scene.
Odelia joined Chase, who stood discussing things with the same state trooper we’d seen earlier. It was clear this thing was big, as more cops arrived.
“Who can do such a thing?” Dooley asked as we approached the house.
“Humans,” said Brutus.
“Greedy humans,” I corrected him.
“You’re right,” he conceded. “Not all humans are the same.”
“Odelia would never do something like this,” said Dooley.
“No, you’re right about that,” Brutus admitted. “Odelia is a saint.”
And he meant it, too.
We darted inside the house, making sure we didn’t get in the way of the cops who were still coming and going. We passed what looked like barracks for the workers to sleep. Rickety tables and chairs. Bunk beds with ratty blankets and dirty old mattresses where they spent their nights.
Another large, ill-lit and ill-ventilated room held rows and rows of sewing machine stations, large ironing boards and piles and piles of material used to turn into the expensive, exclusive clothes sold under the Ziv Riding label. There was a pile of those labels, and I wondered who’d written the notes that had been smuggled out sewed inside those labels.
“This is way depressing,” Dooley said.
“Yeah, even more depressing than Diego,” Brutus chimed in.
We quickly took a peek in the lavatories—as dirty and unhygienic as any I’d ever seen—and the canteen where the workforce had taken their meals—and then I’d had enough. This much human misery I’d never seen before. Even cats were treated better in Hampton Cove.
“I hope they catch whoever is responsible for this and lock them up for a long stretch,” I said as we stepped out and breathed in fresh air again.
“Or better yet, lock them up and throw away the key,” said Brutus.
“Must be this Ziv Riding guy, right?” Dooley ventured a guess.
We returned to where Odelia and Chase stood discussing things and parked ourselves at their feet. I didn’t want to be trampled on by the dozens of cops and other personnel that had by now descended on the site, and I didn’t feel like walking all the way back to the center of town, so sticking close to Odelia was our best option. Sticking close to Odelia was always our best option, period.
“So what’s going to happen now?” Odelia asked.
“Now we’re going to talk to our NYPD colleagues and ask them to arrest Ziv Riding,” Chase replied.
“Do you think he knew about this?”
“I can’t see how he wouldn’t. This is his collection being created here. How could he not know?”
“I don’t know,” she said, looking at the dozens of people still being led to the ambulances. “The people at the top don’t always know what’s going on at the bottom.”
“Riding is a control freak. I’m sure there’s no aspect of his business he’s not fully aware of.”
“Then I hope he goes to jail for this,” she said resolutely.
“Hey, that’s what I just said,” I said.
“And I hope they lock him up and throw away the key,” Chase grunted.
“And that’s what I said!” Brutus cried.
Yep. Cats often turn into their humans. Or the other way around.
“So do you think we’re getting meat tonight?” Dooley asked, already losing interest in the human drama in progress right in front of us.
“I hope so,” said Brutus. “I haven’t had a decent piece of meat in ages.”
“And here we always thought you got raw meat every single day,” I said.
“Yeah, I kinda lied about that,” he admitted.
“But why?” Dooley asked.
He heaved an exasperated groan.“It’s complicated.”
“Explain it to me,” said Dooley. “I’m smart. I’ll understand.”
Brutus gave him a dubious look.
“Explain it me, and I’ll explain it to Dooley in two-syllable words,” I said.
“Hey!” Dooley cried. “I’m right here!”
“When I saw how good you guys had it with the Pooles, I kinda got jealous,” Brutus admitted. “So I decided to…”
“Make it look like you had it better than us?” I suggested.
He nodded, a little embarrassed.“Something like that. I just figured if you thought I ate raw meat every day, you wouldn’t feel sorry for me.”
“Feel sorry for you!” Dooley exclaimed. “Why would we feel sorry for you?!”
“Because you don’t know how good you’ve got it!” he barked. “You just don’t.”
“Yes, we do,” I said softly.
“Yes, we do,” Dooley echoed happily. “And now you do, too, buddy.”
“Thanks,” Brutus said in a choky voice. “Thanks, you guys. And sorry that I was such a pest.”
“That’s all right. We haven’t been very nice to you either,” I said.
“Well, I deserved it.”
“Yes, you did,” Dooley said.
We all laughed, and for the first time I was starting to think that we might actually be friends one day. I wasn’t saying we would, but there was definitely a chance.
Chapter 24
Uncle Alec had called to say he had big news. A breakthrough in the Niklaus Skad murder case. So Odelia and Chase had hurried over to the police station for an update. The state police were handling the sweatshop business, and would liaise with the NYPD to establish Ziv Riding’s involvement—if any.
They arrived at the station house and walked right on through to Chief Alec’s office. The big man was lounged in his chair, checking his computer screen. A first for the chief. He usually left all the computer business to younger, savvier officers or Chase.