“I don’t think so,” I said musingly. “Chase is staying at Uncle Alec’s place, and Odelia making out on her uncle’s couch seems… inappropriate.”
“They might have rented a room! Humans do that kind of stuff!”
“Not so soon. It takes a lot longer for humans to get their groove on than with us cats.” Last time we saw Odelia she hated Chase Kingsley’s guts, and I didn’t think one family dinner would have made such a big difference, no matter what Brutus or Harriet said. I knew Odelia, and even though she’d brought home some weird specimens, she never kissed on the first date. “Let’s check her other haunts,” I said now. “I’ll bet she’s over at the doctor’s office.”
But when we went there, there was no sign of Odelia either. We stopped by the library next, and finally headed over to the police station. Now that Brutus had taken over my home, the station house was safe terrain once more. Brutus might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t capable of being in two places at the same time. When we hopped onto our usual perch on Chief Alec’s windowsill, my heart leaped with joy when I saw Odelia holed up in there with her uncle and… Chase Kingsley. But just as we arrived, she left.
So we did the only thing a smart cat would do: we simply barged into Chief Alec’s office through the window, plopped down on the man’s desk, and, before his surprised eyes, hopped down and tripped after Odelia.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” the chief grunted, then bellowed, “Odelia! Your cats are here!”
Odelia turned back, and was all smiles when she caught sight of us.
“Oh, hey, darlings,” she said as she bent down and gave us a cuddle. “Finally up and awake, huh?”
“Oh, Odelia, we have so much to tell you!” Dooley cried.
“Yeah, we know who the killer is!” I added.
She gave us both a keen look but quickly rose again, and I immediately saw why: we were being watched with interest by Detective Kingsley.
“Are these your cats?” the burly cop asked.
“Yeah, they’re mine,” she said with a smile.
“And they just come barging in here like that?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Your cat comes barging into our house, buddy!” Dooley yelled.
But all Chase could hear was Dooley’s plaintive mewling, of course.
“Um…” Odelia stared down at me. I could see she was eager to listen to our story, but she couldn’t very well do it now, with Chase and Uncle Alec watching on. To them it would sound like she was meowing, and might give the wrong impression. So instead she merely said, “Yeah, they’re very attached to me. Sometimes they just follow me around all day long.”
“So you’re not just a nosy reporter but a crazy cat lady too, huh?” he asked.
Odelia scowled at him, and I was happy to see that the two of them weren’t an item. And if my extensive knowledge of human nature was anything to go by, it would take them a while to get to that point, if ever.
“If I’m a cat lady, what does that make you? Crazy cat dude?” she asked.
Chase opened his mouth to respond, but he momentarily seemed lost for words, so he simply closed it again, and Odelia took the opportunity to stalk out of the office. Chief Alec, who’d laughed loudly at his niece’s comment, now said, “Shoo. Follow the lady, cats,” and sent Dooley and me on our way.
I was pretty sure he was one of the few people who knew about Odelia’s ability to talk to us, and I was glad he hadn’t betrayed that secret to Chase. At least one person in this family wasn’t selling out to the newcomers in town.
Dooley and I tripped after Odelia and joined her in a small empty office. The moment the door closed, she turned to us, and said, “I think I know who did it.” And when she told us the name, both Dooley and I were surprised to find that she’d discovered the murderer’s identity all on her own. When we confirmed that she was right on the money, she smiled. “Now to prove it…”
After she had left, Dooley and I shook our heads in dismay.
“There goes our bargaining chip,” Dooley lamented.
“Dayum,” I said, then slapped my face. Now I was starting to sound like Brutus.
Chapter 23
After the disappearance of the laptop, it didn’t take Odelia long to figure out that her initial theory had been correct: there was something on that laptop that revealed the identity of the killer. And then it dawned on her. The Army of No. She quickly took out her phone and started googling. It was just a hunch, but her hunches often proved correct, so…
The mention of this Army of No had stirred a memory of a horrific event that had taken place a couple of years ago. Her father had been marginally involved at the time, and she’d even written an article about the tragedy.
She now walked into Chief Alec’s office and placed her phone on his desk and tapped it. “Check this out, Chief.”
Her uncle quickly read the page indicated, and stared up at her. “No.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“What’s going on?” asked Chase, mystified by this exchange.
Her uncle gave her a slight nod, as he settled back in his chair and gazed out the window for a moment. She took a deep breath before launching into her story. “A couple of years ago, a young teenage boy was struggling with his sexual identity, and finally confessed to his mom that even though he’d been born a boy, in his heart he felt like a girl. After a lot of soul-searching, they finally consulted my dad, who advised they talk to a friend of his, a renowned psychologist in Bridgehampton. They did, and over the course of the next couple of months became convinced that going through the transition was the right thing to do. The boy was still in high school, so they decided to wait until after graduation so that nobody would be any the wiser. He didn’t want to attract attention to himself, and make a difficult and sensitive situation even harder.”
“I remember the case,” said the chief gruffly. “Poor kid.”
“What happened?” asked Chase.
“Everything was going as planned, when suddenly the boy was outed on his school’s Facebook page, pictures of him exiting the clinic where he’d been going posted and the whole story being displayed for the whole school to see. It was a serious blow to the boy and his single mother, but they thought they could overcome it. But then the taunting started, and the name calling and the nasty comments wherever he went. Finally, the boy couldn’t take it anymore and…” Her voice broke.
“It’s all right, hon,” said her uncle. “I’ll tell the story if you want.”
She shook her head, and continued, “A little over two years ago, when his mother came home from work, she found him in his room, hanging from a rope, a note on his desk telling her he was sorry to have caused her so much trouble, and that the world was much better off without him.”
“Christ, that’s horrible,” said Chase, distractedly raking his fingers through his hair.
“Paulo Frey was behind the outing of the kid. I’m sure of it. I googled the affair, and the initial post and the pictures on the school page were posted by the Society of No. I think the boy’s mother discovered that Frey was behind it. That he was the one responsible for her son’s torment and death, and that in a fit of rage she decided to take revenge and killed him.”
“Who was this kid?” asked Chase now.
The Chief and Odelia shared a knowing glance, and finally the Chief said, “Luke Coral. Rohanna Coral’s boy.”
Chase’s eyebrows rose. “Rohanna as in… the cleaning lady?”
“I think you’ll find that the laptop is in her cleaning bucket,” said Odelia. “She must have heard it was here and wanted to make sure we wouldn’t find out about Frey and the Society of No and make the connection with her boy.”
“We better have a little talk with her,” said the Chief now, and swiftly rose from behind his desk. And as they made to leave the office, Max and Dooley suddenly came barging in through the window, hopped onto the chief’s desk, and announced to Odelia they had discovered the identity of the killer.