“They could be anywhere,” Dooley said. “This place is huge.”
“Not that huge. And I’ll bet they’ve chosen a quiet spot for their date.”
“So they can have some privacy. Which we should probably give them.”
“Do you or don’t you want to find the killer?”
“Of course I want to find the killer. But I don’t see how Brutus or Harriet are going to help us find him. If we can’t solve this case, and Odelia and Chase and Uncle Alec can’t solve this case, what makes you think they can?”
“It’s the combined intelligence of the four of us that does the trick,” I told him. “It’s the power of the mastermind, Dooley. Four great minds provide a wisdom that is greater than its collective parts.”
He stared at me dumbly, and I was starting to have second thoughts about this mastermind thing. I’d seen it on the History Channel once. How big tycoons rely on the convergence of great minds to come up with great ideas. I wondered if it also worked if some of those minds weren’t as bright as others.
We headed to a denser part of the park, where Brutus and I had climbed that tree that morning. When I spotted a black tabby and a white Persian getting cozy under a bench, I knew we’d found them. “There they are.”
“You talk to them,” Dooley said, shaking his head. “I’m not doing this.”
“Hey, guys,” I said as I walked up to them, Dooley dragging his paws.
Brutus gave me his best glare.“What are you doing here?”
I told him in a few quick words what had transpired at the Kenspeckle place. It didn’t help. “That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”
“Don’t you see?” Harriet said. “Max wants our help to solve the case.”
“You want my help?” asked Brutus, and he seemed genuinely surprised. “I thought you didn’t need my help. Not after what happened yesterday.”
“Well, it turns out I do need your help, Brutus,” I said reluctantly.
A grin spread across his features.“You’re admitting you can’t do this without me?”
“That’s… pretty much what I just said, yes.”
The grin spread.“Just humor me, Max, and repeat that, will you?”
I rolled my eyes. Oh, God. He was back to his old obnoxious self. “Brutus, I need your help solving this case. I can’t seem to do it without you.”
“Like music to my ears. Tell me again, only this time act like you mean it.”
Now it was my turn to glare at him.“Are you going to help or not?”
“You know what? I’ll think about it. Let me get back to you.”
“Oh, sugar plum. Don’t be mean to Maxie. He’s your friend now.”
Brutus gave me a slap on the back.“Just messing with you, Maxie, baby. We’re tree top buddies. We climbed a tree and survived. We’re buds now!”
“Oh, you guys,” said Harriet excitedly. “We’re a team! It’s what I’ve always wanted! We’re best friends! The fearless foursome to the rescue!”
“Whoopee,” Dooley muttered.
I didn’t know what was worse: being Brutus’s enemy or his buddy. We might have bonded to a certain extent up there in that tree, but that didn’t mean we were bosom buddies now. Spend some time staring death in the face with another cat, and you’ll start to feel a strange connection. It’s not friendship, exactly. It’s… complicated. Probably something only a shrink would understand. Still, I needed his help. We needed to figure this out.
“All right,” I admitted. “We’re all friends now. Happy?”
Harriet made funny little sounds, and she looked so excited she was about to spontaneously self-combust. She pressed her paws together.“Very happy.”
“So what do you want us to do?” asked Brutus. “And make it snappy, cause Harriet and I have those dinner reservations at The Hungry Pipe.”
“Dinner is hours away,” said Dooley. “And it’s not a reservation if you’re going to eat leftovers on the roof of some dumb old restaurant.”
“Hey, I’ll have you know The Hungry Pipe is the place to be right now. And it is a reservation if your buddy can get you the best veal in town.”
“All right, all right,” I said, holding up my paws. “Let’s not get into all that. We have a murder to solve, you guys, so we better get cracking.”
“I think the dog did it,” Harriet said decidedly.
“Kane? How do you figure that? Dogs don’t swing meat cleavers with deadly force, or take out people with chloroform.”
“No, but that dog was awfully quiet when the killer was doing his business. So the way I see it is that at the very least he’s an accomplice.”
“She’s right,” said Brutus. “That dog knows something. I mean, he’s been barking up a storm, snapping at the heels of anyone in sight. So why wasn’t he barking when someone killed his human? That doesn’t make sense.”
“You’re right,” I said, and suddenly that little tidbit of information dropped down from my memory banks and into the right slot. My face lit up with the light of intelligence, or at least I think it did. “Brutus! Harriet! You’re brilliant! You just solved this case!”
“Huh?” asked Brutus.
“What?” asked Harriet.
“What are you talking about, Max?” asked Dooley.
“I know who did it! Kane told us!”
“He did? I don’t remember,” said Dooley.
“Neither did I. It was just one of those offhand comments. I didn’t even pay attention to it at the time. But now I see he gave us the killer.” I slapped Brutus and Harriet on the backs. “You solved the murder, you guys!”
Brutus puffed up his chest.“Of course I did.” He paused. “So who is it?”
Chapter 24
Odelia and Chase stood outside the police station, watching as the motorcade slowly passed along Main Street. It stopped in the middle of the street. After a moment’s delay, five Escalades parked on the side of the road.
“I wonder what’s going on,” said Odelia.
“Looks like they’ve decided to put in a little shopping,” said Chase.
Odelia looked back when her uncle came out of the station.
“And? Any luck?” she asked.
“Nope. I talked to the guy in charge. I told him everything you told me, but he insists it’s all circumstantial evidence. It didn’t change his mind.”
“Too bad we didn’t know sooner,” said Chase. “Where did this sudden brainwave of yours come from, anyway, Poole?”
She shrugged.“Just a hunch.”
He eyed her curiously.“You’ve got some great hunches, Poole.”
“That’s Odelia for you,” said the Chief. “She’s always had an uncanny intuition when it comes to crime solving. Remember that time you figured out where Sonny Start had buried the body of his neighbor’s Rottweiler? Everybody said the dog had run off, but you knew Sonny had poisoned him.”
She shared a look of understanding with her uncle. He knew her cats had found the Rottweiler, not her. She watched now as Max and Dooley came trotting up. They looked excited.“We know who the killer is!” Max cried.
She crouched down.“So? Who is it? Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Kane told us that first day. Only I completely forgot.”
“Well, I think I know who the killer is, too. So let’s hear it.” When he gave her the name, she nodded. “Yep, that’s what I thought.”
He looked surprised.“How did you find out?”
“Thanks to you guys. You told me Kane didn’t bark when the killer struck. And then my mother told me who gave Kane to Shana.”
She rose, and saw that Chase was eyeing her wearily.“Talking to your cats again, Poole?”
“They like it when I talk cat.”
“You sound so funny when you do that. You make these little cat sounds. Makes you sound almost like a real cat. It’s the damnedest thing.”
“Yeah, the damnedest thing,” her uncle said, giving her a warning look.
Across the street, three burly FBI agents had stepped out of the first car, and checked around for a moment, probably looking for snipers targeting the Kenspeckles. Her mother was right. They really did look like the Men in Black. After a moment, they sounded the all-clear, and Camille Kenspeckle emerged from the vehicle. She was still dressed in her fur coat, C?line sunglasses on her nose, strappy black heels on her feet. She looked like a hundred thousand bucks, which was probably what she’d spent on her outfit.