“Doggie!” I loud-whispered. “We need to ask you a few questions.”
“Yeah, it’s not as if we’re going to bite you or something,” Dooley chimed in.
We both laughed at that. Just the idea. Cats biting a dog! Ha ha.
But the Chihuahua didn’t laugh along. He probably wasn’t in on the joke.
“Look, we’re cat detectives,” I said, “And we’re trying to figure out who killed Dany Cooper.”
“Do you know who Dany Cooper was?” asked Dooley.
“I know who Dany was,” the dog said, in a scared little voice. He didn’t sound or behave like any dog I’d ever met.
“Well, she was murdered this afternoon,” I said, “so we’re trying to figure out who did it.”
“You’re not going to hurt me?” asked the doggie.
“Of course not. Why would we want to hurt you?” I said, more abruptly than I intended.
“Oh, please don’t scratch me,” said the doggie. “A cat once scratched me and I didn’t like it.”
“We’re not the scratching kind,” I assured him.
“I’m sure glad Harriet didn’t come along,” Dooley whispered. “She would have scratched him for sure.”
“Dooley, shush,” I said. Addressing the Chihuahua, I repeated, “We don’t scratch dogs, dog. Usually it’s the other way around.”
“Yeah, dogs like to bite us, for some reason,” Dooley added. “No idea why. We’re not that tasty, as far as I know.”
“I’m not going to bite you,” said the doggie. “I never bite anyone—except my bone, of course. I like to chew my bone.”
“Well, that’s all right,” I said. “You won’t bite us and we won’t scratch you. Deal?”
“Um, okay,” he said, then reluctantly came crawling out from behind the nightstand.
He looked funny, with his big ears and his short body. His tail was down and he still looked pretty scared.
It was a novel experience. No dog had ever been afraid of me before.
“So what do you know about Dany Cooper?” I asked.
“She was nice. And my master liked her a lot. And I do mean a lot.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, they were putting their lips together a lot, and they spent an awful lot of time naked in bed together.”
Dooley and I were silent for a beat, then Dooley said,“Yeah, I guess they did like each other a lot.”
“Do you think your master could have something to do with Dany’s death?”
“Like what?”
“Like maybe he killed her?”
The dog cocked his head and stared at me.“I don’t get it.”
He didn’t strike me as the sharpest dog in the shed, so I repeated the question. “Did Wolf kill Dany?”
“But why would he kill her? He kept telling her he loved her. He’d also bought her a big ring and he said he was going to marry her as soon as his wife signed off on the divorce.”
“Divorce? Wolf was getting a divorce?”
“Sure. At least that’s what he told Dany. I don’t think he told Emily, though.”
“Emily?”
“Wolf’s wife. She’s very sweet. She was here, and then she wasn’t. I don’t think she liked it that Wolf spent so much time with Dany, even though he said he didn’t.” He shook his little head. “Humans are weird.”
“Tell me about it,” I said with a sigh.
“Anyway, Wolf loved Dany, so he would never hurt her. Besides, I was sitting next to him the whole time, so if he had killed her, don’t you think I would have noticed?”
So there went that particular theory.“I guess so.”
“This is just so sad. Dany always gave me lots of cuddles and kisses. I liked her.”
I suppressed a shiver. Who would want to kiss and cuddle a dog? Now that I was this close to him, I discovered Harriet was right. Dogs did smell. Some type of musky odor. Yuck.
“So exactly where were you when Dany was killed?” I heard Dooley ask. I was already moving back to the door, writing the interview off as a huge waste of time.
“I was right there. I actually saw her getting killed.”
“Wait, what?” I said, turning back.
“Yeah, it wasn’t pleasant,” said the dog. “This human stood chatting with her, then suddenly they made a move and her face went all weird, and then she dropped down.”
“Doggie,” I said intently.
“You don’t have to keep calling me doggie,” said the doggie. “I have a name, you know, and it’s Ringo.”
“Ringo. Listen to me. This is very important. Who was that person?”
“I don’t know. I think it was a man, judging from his posture, though I can’t be sure. He had his back turned to me so I couldn’t see his face. All I know is that he was wearing—”
“A yellow parka. Yeah, we know.”
“If you knew already, why do you ask?” he said indignantly.
So maybe dogs are not so dumb after all.
“You never saw his face?” I asked, just to make sure.
“No, I didn’t. But I can tell you who did. Mr. Owl.”
“Mr. Owl,” I said dubiously.
“Yeah. He always sits in that tree. I’ve seen him every time. He’s very friendly, too. Always greets me with a nod and a kind word. He was in that tree today, so he must have seen the whole thing. You talk to Mr. Owl and he’ll tell you who killed Dany.”
I held out my paw and Ringo winced, probably expecting me to scratch him. Instead, I patted him on the shoulder.“Ringo. You have given us a vital clue.”
“I have?” he said.
“You sure have. You may even have solved Dany’s murder.”
A smile slowly crept up Ringo’s narrow face, and his big ears distended even wider, giving him an owlish look. “I like that,” he said. “It’s not nice when people kill other people, especially when they’re sweet and kind, like Dany Cooper.”
“You’re absolutely right. And we’re going to make sure the killer won’t get away with it.”
“Our human’s boyfriend is a cop,” Dooley explained. “So we tell our human who the killer is, and Chase makes sure he goes to prison.”
“Wait, you can talk to your human? And they understand what you’re saying?”
“She does. She’s one of those rare humans who understand cat language.”
Ringo cast a hopeful look at his inert human.“Boy, oh, boy. How I wish Wolf could understand me. The stories I would tell him!”
We said our goodbyes, and just as we left the room, Odelia and Chase entered. From behind us, Ringo asked,“And who are these people? Should I bark? Alert my master?”
“No, Ringo,” I said. “These are the humans I was talking about. They’re looking for your master’s phone.”
“On the nightstand. See ya, guys.”
“See ya, buddy.” To Odelia, as she entered, I said, “the phone is on the nightstand.” She gave me a wink in return.
“I have to say, Max,” said Dooley as we descended the stairs. “I may just have had a change of heart about dogs. They may not be as horrible and nasty as I always thought.”
“We met nice dogs before, remember?”
“Yeah, but I always figured they were the exception that proved the rule. Now I’m not so sure.”
“I’m not so sure either.”
“When Odelia gets a dog, I sure hope it’s a nice one like Ringo.”
And I sure hoped she wouldn’t get a dog. Nice or not, frankly speaking I was having enough trouble navigating the complicated relationships in Odelia’s menagerie as it was.
Chapter 25
Odelia snuck over to the nightstand, and grabbed Wolf’s phone. So the stories of the director sleeping with his phone under his pillow were greatly exaggerated.
“Hello, little one,” she whispered as she turned over the phone in her hand.
Next to her, Wolf stirred in his sleep, muttered something, then turned to his other side and went right back to snoring softly.
Meanwhile, the Chihuahua sat studying her every move. He’d clearly been briefed by Max, or else he would have barked his little head off.
She tiptoed back to where Chase was checking the pockets of Wolf’s jacket and together they clicked the phone to life. The screen lock was one of those password patterns.