Chapter 15
Dooley and I rode in the back in silence for a while, as Odelia seemed to ponder Chase’s words. She now had two cases on her plate: a nasty murder case, and the mystery of the new policeman, and seemed adamant to solve them both. Dooley had stretched himself out on the backseat and was already snoring softly, while I was gazing at the back of Odelia’s head, wondering what else we could do for her. It was obvious the recent meeting with Chase hadn’t gone well, and judging from her silence it had made a great impact.
I wondered why this was. Why would some idiot cop cause her so much distress? She’d gone toe-to-toe with other people before—these things happen when you’re a tough-as-nails reporter—and she’d shrugged off those incidents in a heartbeat. This time the confrontation had left an indelible impression, and I thought I knew why this was. The same reason Harriet had fallen so unexpectedly for Brutus: this new cop was an alpha male. The kind of male human that made a powerful impact on the female of the species.
I’d seen it before and I now recognized the signs: Odelia was developing feelings for this cop, even though she probably didn’t know it herself.
Why else would she care whether Chase Kingsley was innocent in this whole harassment business or not? If he were simply some Mr. Nobody she would have dismissed him out of hand, but now she was almost as eager to solve his mystery as she was to solve the Paulo Frey murder.
And then I got an idea. I know, it sometimes happens, even to cats. I don’t know where these sudden moments of illumination come from, but I’m grateful they do. And no, I’m not saying I’m the smartest cat around, because I’m not, but I do have my moments of sudden brilliance, if I say so myself.
“Hey,” I said, deftly hopping into the passenger seat. “I’ve got an idea.”
“Mh?” asked Odelia without looking up. She was still deep in thought as she steered her pickup expertly down the winding road back into town.
“You want to find out if Chase is innocent, right?”
This time she did look up, and gave me a sideways glance.“Yes? So?”
“Well, if the commissioner and the mayor’s wife are having a torrid affair, it’s bound to have spilled over from his office to other places as well, right?”
“Probably,” she agreed.
“I mean, if the flames of passion are that high, they won’t be able to confine themselves to doing it in his office, right?”
She laughed at his.“I don’t know if this is an appropriate conversation for a young cat like yourself, Max.”
I puffed up my chest.“Young cat? Haven’t you ever heard of cat years? I’m not a spring chicken, honey. I’m a grownup. I can handle this stuff.”
“All right,” she said with a slight smile. “So what’s your big idea?”
“Well, it’s not as if you can walk up to the commissioner and ask him point blank if he’s having an affair with the mayor’s wife, right?”
“No, I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she agreed with a grimace.
“What are you guys talking about?” asked Dooley from the backseat. He’d woken up and was yawning cavernously, inspiring me to follow suit.
“Max has got an idea,” said Odelia.
“Well that’s a first,” said Dooley, joining me on the front seat.
I scowled at him.“I’ll have you know I get plenty of ideas, and a lot of them are pretty smoking hot, too.”
“Sure, sure,” he said. “Just tell us already. Don’t keep us in suspense.”
After a last censorious look at my friend, I continued.“Like I was telling Odelia, if the commissioner and the mayor’s wife have been doing it all over the place, as they probably have, seeing as they’re probably in love and all of that soppy stuff, someone’s bound to have noticed.”
“Someone?” asked Odelia. “I doubt that very much, Max.”
“Did I say ‘someone’? I meant ‘some cat,’ of course. Whatever humans do, there’s usually a cat around, as there’s so many of us, and humans tend not to notice we’re even there half the time. They don’t realize we’re everywhere—and we like to blab.”
“Oh, do we like to blab,” Dooley confirmed, stolidly licking his paws.
“We blab a lot.”
“All the time.”
“So there you have it!” I said triumphantly, settling back to collect my well-deserved round of applause.
But Odelia didn’t seem convinced. “I don’t get it. What are you saying?”
I frowned at her. Sometimes I wonder if human intelligence is as well-developed as they seem to think it is.“I’m saying that there’s bound to be a cat out there who has seen something, and since all cats blab, probably the entire cat community of New York knows about this by now, and since cats also like to wander around, word has probably reached beyond city limits and might even have traveled as far as Hampton Cove. Do you get it now?”
Dooley didn’t seem to think she had, for he explained, “So all we need to do is find us a cat who knows a cat who knows a cat who’s seen—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said, stemming the flow of words. “What Dooley means is that we need to find a cat who knows a cat who’s seen—”
“Hey! That’s what I said!” exclaimed Dooley.
“No, it’s not,” I argued.
“It is, too!”
“Not!”
“You guys!” Odelia cried, laughing. “I get the picture. So you’re telling me you’re willing to look into this whole Chase Kingsley harassment case?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I said.
“And what I’m saying too,” Dooley said.
Odelia glanced at us.“It’s very sweet of you to offer, but I don’t know…”
“Well, I do,” I said. “Not that we need to, mind you, cause us cats have a sixth sense so we already know if Chase Kingsley is telling the truth or not.”
Her eyes widened.“Oh? Sois he telling the truth?”
I stared at her, not sure how to respond. I knew a lot depended on my answer. For one thing, if she started bumping and grinding with this Chase, like humans tend to do, our lives would never be the same again. Sooner or later she’d hook up with the guy, him being an alpha male and all, and then Brutus would become part of our extended family, which would turn our lives into a living hell. On the other hand, if it was Chase she wanted, it was Chase she should get, for deep down I thought he wasn’t as bad as all that, asmen went. And God knows that Odelia deserved to get herself a decent guy for once, especially after that creep Sam she’d dated last time. Dooley and I had warned her the guy was up to something, but she hadn’t listened, and not only had he turned out to be a grade-A creep, but a nasty little thief, too.
“Look, I’ll tell you what I think, but on one condition,” I finally said.
“What’s that?” she asked tensely.
“Yeah, what’s that, Max?” Dooley chimed in.
“You have to get that cat of his neutered! It’s the only way I’m ever going to tolerate him living with us.”
“You’ve got a point, Max,” Dooley admitted. “Fix Brutus or else.”
Odelia stared at us.“Brutus living with us? What are you talking about?”
I sighed.“You know as well as we do that you like the guy, honey. Once you guys move in together and start nesting and making babies, Brutus becomes a fixture. The only way to take him down a peg or two is to fix him.”
“Yeah, that’ll fix him,” said Dooley.
To my surprise, Odelia burst out laughing.
“Hey, this is not a joke!” I reminded her. “Our lives are at stake here.”
“Our very lives,” Dooley muttered, closing his eyes and drifting off.
“You really think that Chase and I…” She shook her head, still laughing. “So you actually think that Chase and I are going to move in together?”
“Of course! Isn’t it obvious? You like the guy and he likes you, so you’re bound to end up together at some point in the future. I know humans, Odelia. I’ve studied the species extensively. I know attraction when I see it.”