“Will you two shut up about Hollywood for a moment,” Harriet suddenly burst out.
“Well, excuse us if we care about how underrepresented we are in Hollywood,” I said, feigning indignation.
“What I don’t get is how you can still hang out with Brutus after what he did to me,” Harriet said. “I’m your oldest friend, Max—not Brutus. I even distinctly remember you once calling him a usurper and an intruder in your own home. And now you’re taking his side against me? I expected more from you. And you, Dooley.”
“Me?” asked Dooley, surprised. “What did I do?”
“You chose Brutus over your oldest, dearest friend. And it’s something I will never forgive you for.”
Dooley seemed flabbergasted. I wasn’t. Harriet is prone to these spells of drama. It’s all those daytime soap operas she watches with Gran. They have affected her usually sunny disposition and made her prone to extreme melodramatic outbursts such as this latest one.
“I’ll have you know that I haven’t taken Brutus’s side,” I said.
“Me neither,” said Dooley. “I can’t take sides when I care for both sides equally.”
“Well put, Dooley,” I said.
“Besides, what were we supposed to do? Let Brutus drown?”
This was news to Harriet, apparently, for she jerked her head up from contemplating the setting sun and gave us a penetrating look.“Drown? What are you talking about?”
“Brutus almost drowned today,” I said. “If Chase hadn’t been there to pull him out of the duck pond, he wouldn’t be here.”
“Well, he isn’t here,” Dooley pointed out.
“That’s because Harriet chased him away,” I said. “Poor cat. First he almost died trying to extract vital information from a duck, then he had to take a needle in the neck from Vena, and when he finally arrives in his own home, what does he get? A furious female lashing out and chasing him away. He’s probably out there right now, sleeping with the rats and the other vermin, no choice but to live a life on the street, like a common reject.”
Harriet seemed to waver, then her expression hardened.“If he almost died, that serves him right. He shouldn’t have been mooning over Darlene’s backside like that.”
“For your information, he wasn’t mooning over Darlene’s backside any more than Darlene was mooning over his.”
“Darlene was mooning over Brutus’s backside a little, Max,” Dooley said.
“Fine. I’ll grant you that. She lured Brutus into this rendezvous, but the moment Brutus realized his mistake, he immediately set the record straight. ‘Frankly,’ he told Darlene, ‘there’s only one cat for me and that’s Harriet. So I’m very sorry but I can’t do this.’”
“And immediately buried his nose in her butt,” said Harriet scathingly.
“He did no such thing,”
“You can argue your point all night long, Max,” said Harriet, “but I know what I saw, and what I saw was Brutus getting ready to get down and dirty with Darlene and I, for one, am not the kind of cat who will stand for such nonsense.”
Just at that moment, Odelia arrived down the stairs, and Tex waltzed in through the sliding glass door that gives out onto the backyard. I should probably warn you that in this family, nobody ever knocks. People just come barging in whenever they please.
“Hey, Dad” Odelia said. “Brutus!” she added when she saw who Tex was carrying.
Brutus looked a little rattled, and perhaps the fact that Harriet already had her back up again had something to do with that.
“Look who I found roaming the streets like a critter,” said Tex good-naturedly. “And almost being run over, too.”
“I was almost run over by the killer of that Dany Cooper girl,” said Brutus, keeping a close eye on Harriet, who seemed ready to pounce.
“Run over!” Odelia exclaimed.
“That’s the second time I almost died today,” Brutus said, still eyeing Harriet keenly.
If these words were designed to exact a certain effect on the errant feline they didn’t miss it. Harriet’s distended tail shrunk back to normal proportions. But then she growled, “I don’t care how many times you almost get run over, you filthy love rat. I just hope next time someone finally succeeds.”
And after these particularly harsh words, she padded off in the direction of the sliding door, and then out. Before making her grand exit, though, she glanced over her shoulder.“From now on you’re all dead to me,” she said, addressing me and Dooley. “Adieu.” And then she was off.
Chapter 15
Amid all this cat drama, Odelia had only focused on one thing. She approached Brutus, who was still staring after Harriet.“Did you just say you were almost run over?”
Brutus nodded.“The same man who killed Dany Cooper. At least I think he was. He was wearing a yellow parka and a baseball cap and sunglasses.”
Odelia looked at her father.
“I’m sorry,” said Tex. “I didn’t get a good look at the driver.”
“What about the car? License plate number?”
Tex frowned.“Um…”
“Oh, Dad…”
“I’m a doctor, honey, not a detective. I don’t routinely scan cars for license plates or makes and models.” He held up a finger. “I do think it was a blue car, but don’t hold me to that. It could have been a trick of the light.”
“It was blue,” Brutus acknowledged. “And one of those boxy cars that are so popular with the British royal family.”
Odelia thought for a moment, then she and her father said in unison,“Range Rover.”
She took out her phone and brought up a picture of a Range Rover.“Is this the car you saw, Brutus?”
Brutus glanced at the picture and nodded.“Yup. Like I said. The boxy car those British royals are always promoting on TV.”
It was true. For some reason the British royal family were always driving Range Rovers, almost as if they were employed as that company’s PR representatives.
“And was he actually targeting you, you think?” she asked next.
“I think so. At least, he seemed to swerve in my direction and tried to run me down. So if that’s not intentional it was a very strange coincidence.”
“He switched lanes just so he could run down Brutus,” Tex confirmed. “It looked intentional to me.”
“I don’t get it,” said Odelia. “First this man kills my understudy and now he tries to run over my cat? What’s going on?”
“It could be a coincidence,” said Tex. “Maybe this man simply doesn’t like cats, so when he saw the opportunity to run one over, he took it.”
“And it’s possible there’s more than one man in a yellow parka,” Max offered.
Odelia chewed her bottom lip. Max was right. Then again, her gut told her this was no coincidence. That these two events, the murder of Dany Cooper, and Brutus’s brush with vehicular catslaughter, were related. This man was after something. And it had something to do with her.
Dad put his hand on her shoulder.“Odelia, honey. You better be careful. I don’t know what’s going on, but something tells me this man may be targeting you.”
She placed her hand on top of his and gave him a smile.“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll be careful.”
She took her purse from the kitchen counter and moved to the door.
“You’re going out?” asked Dad.
“A meeting with the rest of the Bard in the Park crew. The director called it. We’re going to sit down and try to process what happened this afternoon. Also, we need to decide whether to do the shows or simply cancel the entire project.”
“They’re not seriously thinking about going through with the performances, are they?” asked Dad incredulously.
“You know what they say, Dad. The show must go on. A lot of people put a lot of work into this project. It would be a pity to let them down. As Wolf sees it, we’ll dedicate the performances to Dany’s memory. I think she would have liked that.”
“But there’s a maniac out there, targeting members of your troupe. Not to mention… you.”