Odelia decided to ignore her cats’ odd behavior. “You guys. I need to ask you a huge favor.”
“Anything,” said Max instantly.
“As long as it doesn’t involve groveling to Harriet,” said Dooley. “Because that doesn’t work. And believe me, we tried. Oh, boy, did we try.”
“Right,” said Odelia after a moment’s hesitation. “The thing is, I think Dany and Wolf Langdon were having an affair.” In a few words, she briefed her cat menagerie about the events that had transpired at the meeting.
“So you want us to break into the manor and take a peek at Wolf’s phone?” asked Max.
“No, I’ll take care of that part myself. What I want you to do is talk to Wolf’s pet. If Wolf and Dany were having an affair that ended badly, he’ll know about it.”
“Oh, Wolf has a pet. How nice. What kind of cat is it?” asked Max.
“It’s not a cat. It’s a Chihuahua.”
Her three cats were silent for a beat, then Max cried,“A dog?! You want us to talk to a dog?”
“Not just any dog. A Chihuahua. I’ve seen him. He’s a very sweet and cute little fella. I’m sure you’ll get along great.”
“Chihuahuas are dogs, Odelia,” Dooley pointed out. “And as a rule we’re not all that fond of dogs.”
“We got along fine with the French bulldog that belonged to the Kenspeckles, remember?” said Max.
“That was an exception to the rule,” said Brutus. “Most dogs are terrible creatures.”
“Not this sweet, precious Chihuahua,” Odelia insisted. “He’s just so cute and cuddly and he has the sweetest, kindest disposition. You’ll see. You’ll just love, love, love him.”
All three cats stared at her. Then Max took a deep breath and asked,“You’re not thinking about adopting a dog, are you, Odelia?”
“N-no,” she said, but her hesitation gave her away. They all started howling again, so she held up her hands. “I have no concrete plans in that direction. Honest! But Chase likes dogs, and since he lives here now, it’s only fair to assume that at some point he’ll want to get a dog again. As long as he hadn’t settled down, that was out of the question, but now…”
“Oh, God,” said Max, breathing heavy. “Oh, my God.”
“This is the end,” said Dooley. “Finished. Kaput.”
“I hate my life,” said Brutus. “I just hate it.”
“You guys. I’m not saying we’re going to get a dog right now. At some point in the future, though, we might. Just might. Teensy, tiny chance.” She didn’t want to lie to them, even if they didn’t like it. Chase loved dogs, though, and she did, too. Most people fell into one of two categories: they were either a cat person or a dog person. Odelia, in spite of the fact that she could communicate with cats, loved both. And she was fairly sure that her cats would love whatever dog would grace their home with his or her presence in the future, too.
“Dogs eat babies, you know,” said Dooley. “They do. I saw it on the Discovery channel.”
“You did not,” said Max, then realized what Dooley was trying to accomplish, and quickly changed his tune. “It’s true. Dooley is right. I saw it myself. Dogs are notorious baby eaters. Snack on babies all the time. They like babies even more than bones. Truth.”
“Not funny, Dooley,” said Odelia. “Now are you guys ready? Because as soon as that house is quiet I want to be ready to move. And in order to know when the coast is clear, we’re going to have to go on a stakeout.”
“Stakeout!” Max cried. “Yay!”
“What is a stakeout?” asked Dooley. “Does it involve steak?”
“No, it does not involve steak,” said Odelia. “It involves us sitting and watching in a car and looking at Whitmore Manor until all the lights are out and it’s time to make a move.”
“Is Harriet coming, too?” asked Brutus.
“Of course!” said Odelia. “It wouldn’t be a stakeout if the gang wasn’t all there, right?”
Brutus nodded morosely. The prospect of Harriet joining them didn’t seem to fill him with joy, as she’d expected it would. Then again, her cats were acting weird tonight.
“Max, you better go and fetch Harriet. Tell her to get ready,” she said, then went up the stairs to change into something stakeouty.
Five minutes later, she was dressed in black from head to toe: black leggings, black sneakers, black sweater. And she was toying with a black balaclava she’d once picked up at a second-hand store when suddenly she sensed she was no longer alone. She turned. Chase was studying her from the doorway.
“Going on a stakeout?” he asked, an expression of amusement on his face.
“Um, no, of course not. I’m… taking the cats for a walk.”
“Babe, I may not know a lot about cats but one thing I do know is that you don’t take a cat for a walk.”
“Most cats, no. But my cats are special.”
“That, they are.” He walked up to her and pinned her arms to her side until he’d grasped the balaclava she’d been holding behind her back. He held it up. “Most dog walkers or, if such a thing exists, cat walkers, don’t wear a mask. You’re going to break into Whitmore Manor, aren’t you?”
She laughed what she hoped was a careless laugh.“Of course not! Are you crazy? Why would I go and do a silly thing like that?”
“Because you discovered that Wolf Langdon and Dany Cooper were having an affair and you’re hoping to find out more by breaking into Langdon’s room and digging through his phone.”
She laughed again, with less conviction.“How—how did you know? About the affair, I mean?”
“I’m a detective, Odelia. It’s my job to know stuff like that. And I had a long talk with Langdon’s wife this afternoon, who told me all about the affair. She also mentioned she assumes Langdon and Dany had been sexting a lot, but every time she tried to get her hands on her husband’s phone he made sure he had it on him. He even sleeps with that phone, keeping it tucked away underneath his pillow, his hand on top of it, just in case.”
“That’s very unhealthy. All that radiation.”
“That’s more urban legend than scientific fact, though, isn’t it?”
“Still,” she said, and swallowed. Gazing into Chase’s eyes it wasn’t hard to see why criminals would succumb under the pressure of his quiet determination and confess all.
“All right!” she finally cried, throwing up her hands. “I’m going to stake out Whitmore Manor and break in under the cover of darkness to check out the guy’s phone. So are you going to tell me I can’t go?”
“Of course not. I’m going to tell you I’m coming with you. And I hope you won’t tell your uncle, because this operation will be one hundred percent unsanctioned and if we get caught you’ll have a great front-page story but I’ll probably get fired.”
“I won’t tell my uncle if you won’t,” she said with a low voice and a smile on her face.
He tilted up her chin, then pressed a warm kiss to her lips.“Hey, there, partner in crime,” he murmured. “I missed you tonight.”
“You did? It wasn’t clear from the way you were chatting up that blonde.”
“I wasn’t chatting up that blonde. I was trying to extract information from her.”
“Hard to know the difference.”
“That’s what makes police work so fascinating: nothing is what it seems.”
She smiled.“Do you still prefer brunettes over blondes?”
“I prefer this brunette,” he said, then deepened the kiss.
A soft cough sounded behind them. When they turned, she saw it was Max. He was staring at them with a horrified expression on his furry face.“We’re ready when you are.”
Chapter 20
“I’m only doing this for Odelia,” Harriet said for the tenth time since we’d gotten into Chase’s truck.
The four of us were in the backseat, with Chase at the wheel and Odelia riding shotgun.
“We know you’re only doing this for Odelia,” I said. “And I, for one, think it’s very noble of you to put aside your differences and join us.”