Alec and Chase stood conferring by the vending machine. Alec was nursing a styrofoam cup of watery coffee, wondering why the brew in these places always tasted like sewage.
“What do you make of Vesta’s wild accusations?” Chase asked.
Alec shook his head.“You know what my mother is like.” He just hoped she wouldn’t go out and start some kind of private vigilante search for this gang of men in yellow parkas.
“Yeah, but she’s not completely unhinged. There are signs that something is seriously wrong here. Like that mast dropping on Marge. That was tampered with, right?”
Alec heaved a deep sigh.“I know that’s what I said but now I’m not so sure.”
“What do you mean you’re not so sure?”
“At first glance, I’d say that yes, someone sawed through that thing, but now that I think about it, it could have simply been shoddy construction. An expert will have to determine what caused that mast to collapse when it did.”
“And what about Tex and his flowerpot incident?”
“Coincidence,” said Alec. “We searched that house top to bottom. No indication anyone was even in there when that flowerpot fell down. I’m blaming it on a draft that kicked open a window and knocked down that pot. Like I said, just a coincidence.”
“And the roller skate? Or Odelia’s rug?”
“Accidents. Anyone could trip over a roller skate, or a rug. How would an attacker even know Vesta would be the one to walk by at that exact moment, and step on that exact skate? Unless he was psychic, which I think we can agree is just crazy talk. Nah. That skate was left by some kid, and Vesta just happened to trip over it. Same thing with Odelia’s rug.”
“What about Brutus almost being run over?”
“Same thing. Cats get run over by careless drivers every single day. Why would this be any different? The only thing that makes this a strange case is the fact that all these accidents happened within the space of a day, to members of the same family. That is weird. But not criminal.”
Chase nodded.“I’m glad you say so cause I think you’re absolutely right. Only thing worrying me is Vesta going off like a loose cannon, stirring up trouble all over the place.”
Alec wholeheartedly agreed with his younger colleague. Then again, Vesta would do what Vesta would do. Not a damn thing they could do about it.“All in all I’m pretty satisfied only one crime was committed here. And that’s Dany Cooper’s murder.”
“And we have her killer in custody, so case closed.”
“Case closed,” Alec agreed. The comment about the mole had been the final piece of the puzzle. Now he was fully convinced Wolf Langdon was the man they’d been looking for.
“Then I only have one question for you,” said Chase as he took a sip from his own cup and winced, then dumped it in the trash.
“Yeah?”
“Who is Ringo?”
Uh-oh.“Um… Ringo?”
“The witness you mentioned? You said a new witness came forward and he testified that Dany’s murderer had an owl-shaped mole on the back of his right hand?”
“Yeah, that wasn’t a witness, per se,” he said, backtracking.
“So what is he? And can I talk to this Ringo character?”
“Ringo is, um, not someone who reached out to us,” said Alec carefully. “He actually came to Odelia. He’s one of her sources. And you know how Odelia is about her sources.”
Chase groaned.“Not again. What is it with Odelia and her mysterious sources?”
“Reporters, Chase. That’s how they operate.”
“So when can I have a crack at this Ringo?”
“You’ll have to ask Odelia. But I think you already know the answer.”
“Dammit. I wanted to have a chat with this Ringo. Tie up the case with a neat bow.”
Alec suppressed a smile. Tough to have a chat with a Chihuahua.
Though Ringo would probably love the bow.
Chapter 37
Tex and Marge were the only ones left in the small hospital waiting room. And they weren’t going anywhere. Even though the doctor had said there was nothing they could do there, and Odelia slept peacefully, Marge couldn’t imagine going home, or going to work, while her little girl was laid up in her room. She would have preferred to sit by her side, but after the doctor had left, a nurse had told them it would be a little while before they could go back in there, as they needed to run some tests and take care of some other stuff.
“I don’t get it,” she said, rubbing her arms. “What tests? What stuff? Odelia is sleeping, the doctor told us so himself. What can they possibly be doing to my baby?”
“I’m sure they know what they’re doing,” said Tex, taking her hand and patting it consolingly.
“You’re a doctor, Tex. Can’t you ask them what’s going on?”
“You heard what’s going on. They’re running some tests and they’ll let us know when we can get in there.”
“But what tests?!”
She knew she was acting like a hysteric but frankly she didn’t care. Her only daughter had almost died today and she wasn’t going to be calm and rational for quite some time while she tried to deal with this emergency. She didn’t even care anymore that she’d only escaped death by inches herself, and so had Tex and even Vesta.
“What’s going on, Tex? Do you really think there’s a gang out there trying to kill us?”
“Alec doesn’t seem to think so,” Tex said carefully.
“But my mother does, and look how often she’s been proved right.”
“And how often she’s been proved wrong,” said Tex, still patting her hand.
She jerked it from his grasp.“I don’t understand. Something is happening and it scares me.”
“Everything will be just fine,” said Tex, though he didn’t sound convinced himself. He looked up at the nurse, but she merely passed by, without a message to share this time. “And I’m sure they know perfectly well what they’re doing,” he added.
Marge bit her lower lip. If she kept this up she wouldn’t have a lip left by the time Odelia was allowed to go home. “Remember how beautiful she was?”
Tex immediately knew what she was talking about, for he smiled.“She still is.”
“She is, isn’t she? Our beautiful darling baby girl. Oh, Tex. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to her.”
“Nothing is going to happen to her. She has her guardian angels looking out for her.”
“Do you think that if Max and Dooley hadn’t been there, she would have taken an even nastier fall?”
“I’m sure of it. Somehow—and I don’t know how any of this works—this gift you and Odelia share—and Vesta,” he added grudgingly, “not only gives you the power to communicate with cats, it also seems to have transferred to you certain qualities cats have. Amongst them the whole nine lives thing.”
“You don’t think that’s just a myth?”
“No, actually I don’t. Cats are notoriously hard to kill, and so are you and Odelia.”
“And Mom.”
“And your mom,” he said reluctantly.
Marge smiled.“You don’t really believe we have nine lives, do you?”
“Why not? You can talk to those sweethearts, why not share other traits as well?”
It definitely was a comforting thought.
“Do you think Chase knows?” she asked.
“Knows what? That you can talk to cats? I don’t think so.”
“I forgot he was there for a moment. In Odelia’s room? He was giving me some very strange looks.”
“We can simply ascribe that to your general state of mind. You were very distraught, honey. We all were.”
“True, but maybe it’s time we told him? I told you at a certain point, remember?”
Tex smiled at the memory.“I didn’t believe you at first. I thought you were pulling my leg.”
“Chase will, too. But we still owe it to him to know the truth about this family. Especially if…”
“He and Odelia end up together.”
“Which I’m starting to think they will.”
“I think so, too. He seems really smitten with her.”
“And she with him.”