He gave her a wry look and halted, right in front of the General Store.“What’s going on, Odelia? Why are you going about half-cocked?”
She flapped her arms again, looking more like a chicken than a reporter.“I have a hunch, all right?”
“A hunch,” he said skeptically. He’d crossed his arms over his chest and stood regarding her with his head to one side, as if wondering what to do with her.
“A hunch! I have a hunch that this Tesla is that Tesla!”
“You never told me who the witness was that saw the Tesla that night.”
“I—I can’t. I—I promised I wouldn’t reveal her name.”
“If you’ll just let me talk to her I might get a confirmation on the license plate.”
She shook her head decidedly.“She didn’t see the license plate.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” She wondered what would happen if she told Chase Max had heard it from Montserrat, the stray Erin Coka had taken under her wing, who’d heard it from some other stray. He’d probably have her 5150ed.
“So let me get this straight,” he said. “Someone—who doesn’t want to be named—told you she saw a black Tesla parked outside the restaurant the night Niklaus Skad was killed. No license plate. Now you see another black Tesla, driven by Ziv Riding, parked along the street, and you want totalk to the man, why, exactly?”
“Don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence? Ziv Riding has this sweatshop in town, and his car was seen at a murder scene?”
“We don’t even know if Riding and Skad knew each other. And may I remind you that we caught Skad’s killer? He’s in custody right now. The case is closed, Odelia.”
“But what about the sweatshop thing?”
“Not our concern! We’re not handling that investigation and we’re not going to get involved, either.”
She shook her head, stubbornly.“I still feel—”
“It’s not about what you ‘feel,’” he said. “It’s about the facts.” He raked his fingers through his mane. “Oh, God. And I almost went along with this nonsense. Me and your uncle.” He held up his hands. “Look, you’re on your own with this. Please don’t involve me. And may Iadd that I have a strong suspicion you’re not telling me everything you know?”
They stared at each other, and then she said.“I know Riding’s Tesla was parked at the restaurant. And I’m going to find out what’s going on. With or without you.”
“Well, it’s going to be without me, honey,” he said, stepping back. “Like I said, you’re on your own from here on out.”
And without another word, he turned around and started walking back to the police station.
Nice, she thought. Nicely played, Odelia. So now what?
Chapter 27
Brutus and I walked out of the police station and back to the alley, where presumably Dooley still sat watching—and having his youthful innocence thoroughly screwed up.
“Odelia should have backed us up,” Brutus said. “She should have had our backs.”
“Odelia has our backs,” I said. “All of our backs, Diego included.”
“But how is that even possible?! Diego isn’t even part of our family.”
“He is to her. The moment that cat set foot inside her home, he became family.”
“It’s just not fair.”
“You don’t get it, do you? Odelia doesn’t play favorites. She doesn’t love one of us more than the others. And she’s right about Harriet. She’s smarter than you give her credit for. Have you ever considered Harriet has Diego’s number?”
“She can’t have his number. She doesn’t even know he’s out here.”
“Let’s just wait and see,” I said. “First things first, though. We have to get Dooley out of there. Diego is a bad influence on him.”
We arrived at the alley. To my surprise there was no trace of Dooley.
“Where did he go?” I muttered, looking around.
“And where did Diego go?” asked Brutus. There were dumpsters parked along the alley, butting up to the bricked-up back walls of the stores that lined the parallel street. We headed deeper into the alley, half expecting to find Gran and Leo cavorting around somewhere. What we found were Dooley and Diego, however, seated behind a dumpster and deep in conversation.
“So that’s the secret, dude,” Diego was saying. “You just snag ‘em, bag ‘em and then throw ‘em back.”
“But won’t they resent you for it?” Dooley asked.
“What do you care? There’s plenty of cats in the sea. When you’re finished with one, you just start tagging another one.”
Dooley laughed.“Tag ‘em, snag ‘em and bag ‘em. That rhymes!”
“It sure does,” said Diego with a smirk. “I’m glad you’re catching on, dude.”
“Let me just stop you right there,” I said, stepping from behind the dumpster.
“Max!” Dooley cried. “Diego’s been teaching me all about his technique for bagging queens! Isn’t that great?!”
I winced.“Not so great. Queens aren’t a commodity to be tagged, snagged and bagged, Dooley. They’re our fellow creatures and they deserve our respect.”
“What a load of nonsense,” said Diego. “Don’t listen to him, Dooley. You just do what I taught you, and you’ll have the females eating out of the palm of your paw for the rest of your life. Just like they do with me. They’ll just swoon!”
“Well, I certainly would like females to swoon,” Dooley said.
“Just think about Harriet,” I said. “And how Diego has been treating her.”
“Hey, I treated Harriet just fine,” said Diego. He grinned. “Just ask her. She said she’s never been with a cat that made her feel the way I did.”
“That’s a lie!” Brutus yelled.
Diego held up his paw.“Straight from the cat’s mouth, brother.”
“Females are not chattel, Dooley,” I said sternly. “You need to treat them with respect, just like you do with everyone.”
“Don’t listen to that wuss,” said Diego. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“Hey, who are you calling a wuss?” Brutus snarled, stepping to my defense.
“You! All of you! You’re just a bunch of pussies.”
Well, he was right about that, of course. We were pussies.
“You take that back!” Brutus yelled.
Diego displayed a wide grin and lifted his paw, displaying sharp claws.“And what if I don’t?”
“Don’t be like that, you guys,” said Dooley. “Diego is our friend. He can teach us stuff. Lots of interesting stuff.”
“Whatever Diego told you, you better forget, Dooley,” I said. “All of it.”
Diego apparently had had enough. He suddenly stepped up and hit me, hard, across the nose.“Ouch!” I cried as blood trickled down my snout.
“See?!” Diego cried. “Your friend is just a dumb scaredy-cat, Dooley. Can’t even defend himself!”
Dooley sat staring at me.“Max? Is he right? Are you a scaredy-cat?”
I would have told him I was a lover, not a fighter, but that just didn’t seem right under the circumstances. Instead, I glowered at Diego. Truth was, I’m not much of a brawler. I like to think I’m above physical violence. And then there was the fact that Diego looked a lot fitter and stronger than me, and I had the sneaking suspicion he was going to beat me in a fair fight.
“Don’t you go hitting my friend, you sneaky snake in the grass,” Brutus growled.
Diego had gone through quite the transformation. His tail was fluffed up and he was making low growling sounds at the back of his throat. His claws were out and his head was down, snarling and hissing at Brutus. Yep. He was ready to fight.
Brutus, seeing this, seemed taken aback.“Go on,” I said. “You can beat him!”
But Brutus didn’t seem entirely sure. “I don’t know, Max,” he said. “He looks really mean.”
And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Diego lashed out, slashing Brutus across the face with his claws. Brutus said,“Eek!” and jumped back just in time to avoid the razor-sharp claws of his opponent, then sat there, his tail between his legs.