“This is a dangerous criminal we’re talking about, Alec. He killed once and he’ll kill again unless you remove him from society and give him the punishment he deserves.”
“Great,” Alec moaned. “My mother has turned into Dirty Harry.”
“At least Dirty Harry had the balls to do what was right.”
“Dirty Harry was a loose cannon, Ma. And he didn’t exist,” he added when Chase crooked an eyebrow at him.
“I liked his approach,” Gran insisted. “Him and Charles Bronson. They knew what they were doing. Nowadays cops are too soft. Letting gangsters like this Drood fella walk.”
“I’m not letting him walk!”
“You’re gonna.”
Odelia, who’d been following the conversation with half an ear, suddenly thought she was seeing things. On the windowsill an orange cat had just jumped up who looked a lot like Max. Then, as she watched, a second cat joined him, also orange and Max’s spitting image. But it was only when a third cat joinedthe fray that she realized she wasn’t dreaming, but that Max and Dooley were actually right there, and so was Max’s twin.
Max was gesturing with his paw, opening his mouth and saying stuff she couldn’t hear. It was obvious he wanted her to open the window and let them in. Problem was, Chase was sitting right next to the window, and he’d probably think it weird that she suddenly allowed three cats into Uncle Alec’s office.
Alec had noticed the cats, too, for he frowned at them, then seemed to come to the same conclusion Odelia had reached. He had no qualms about Chase thinking whatever he was going to think, though, for he said,“Chase. Open that window, will ya?”
Only now did Chase notice the three cats. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. Being around Odelia he probably had gotten used to seeing cats wherever he went.
“Odelia,” said Max the moment the window opened, “this guy here saw the killer!”
Odelia couldn’t very well start talking feline in front of Chase, so she merely smiled when Max hopped down from the window and stalked over to her, rubbing himself against her leg. “His name is Big Mac. Don’t ask. It’s a long story. Literally. Anyway, I told him to come down here to look at some mugshots for you guys. And I promised he could get all the pizza he wanted if he did. That all right with you? He likes barbecue chicken pizza.”
Odelia thought for a moment. How was she going to handle this?
Gran, who was sitting right next to her, suddenly piped up,“Alec. Could you be a doll and order me some barbecue chicken pizza? I’m having one of them midnight cravings.”
Alec suppressed a smile. He knew the drill.“Chase, buddy? Do you mind?”
“On it,” said Chase, being a real trooper. He took out his phone.
“Could you go and get it yourself, though?” said Alec, exchanging a quick glance with Odelia.
Chase laughed.“You’re kidding, right? Domino’s delivers, dude.”
“I don’t like Domino’s,” said Gran, and Chase’s smile vanished.
“Yeah, she doesn’t like Domino’s,” Uncle Alec echoed. “She likes…”
“Giovannini’s,” said Gran promptly. “And Giovannini’s doesn’t do home delivery.”
Chase looked like he was going to say something, but one look at Gran’s implacable face taught him otherwise. He got up. “Just the pizza, Mrs. Muffin?” he asked.
“And a Diet Coke,” Gran nodded.
“If you’re going all out I wouldn’t mind some buffalo wings,” said Big Mac.
“And buffalo wings,” Gran added.
“And some creamy ranch chicken wings,” said Big Mac.
“And some creamy ranch chicken wings,” said Gran.
There was a momentary silence while Chase processed this.“That’s it?” he asked.
Gran looked at Max.
Max looked at Big Mac.
Big Mac shook his head.
Max shook his head.
Gran said,“That’s it, buckaroo. Off you go. Chop, chop.”
Chapter 15
When I was sure I had everyone’s attention, I launched into my explanation on how we met Big Mac and what contribution this new best friend of ours could make to the investigation. Odelia listened with rapt attention and so did Gran. Even Uncle Alec seemed to hang on my every word—even though he probably didn’t understanda thing I said.
When finally I was done, Odelia looked properly impressed.
“Great work, Max. So you really saw someone enter the library, Big Mac?”
Big Mac nodded.“Yes, I did, Miss Poole. In fact I saw several people enter that library.”
Odelia relayed this information to her uncle, who was even more impressed than Odelia and her grandmother. Not for the first time the cats had saved the day. I hoped.
“So how are we going to do this?” the Chief asked, rubbing those sideburns again. “I mean, your cat buddy claims he saw several people enter the premises. Can he describe them?”
“I was hoping he could look at some mugshots,” I said. “Isn’t that how it’s done?”
“Before we can have Big Mac look at mugshots we need to have some idea about who he saw,” said Odelia. “Otherwise we’ll be here all night.”
“We’ll be here all week,” said Uncle Alec. “And if my officers discover I’ve been showing mugshots to a darn cat they’ll call the loony bin and those jokers will have me in a straitjacket in no time.”
“Oh, don’t be such a pussy, Alec,” said Gran. “Who cares what those losers think about you? If I paid attention to what people say behind my back I’d go nuts.”
Uncle Alec’s face, always on the ruddy side, had taken on a darker hue. He resembled one of those cartoon steam engines about to pop. “I’m the chief of police of this here town, Ma, so excuse me if I care about my reputation. It’s my job that’s on the line, not yours.”
Since Grandma didn’t really have a job, apart from helping out her son-in-law by playing receptionist at the doctor’s office, I was curious to hear what she’d have to say about that. Dooley and Big Mac and I turned our heads back to Gran, almost like at a tennis match.
“Man up!” said Gran. “This cat risked life and limb to give you this most interesting witness testimony and all you can think about is your reputation? Give me a break.”
Uncle Alec’s face was now puce. It didn’t become him.
“Let’s all settle down,” said Odelia, always the peacekeeper. “We’re on the same page here. Now what we need to figure out is how to go about this thing.”
“Preferably before Chase returns,” the Chief muttered. “With a barbecue chicken pizza and side of straitjacket.”
Odelia turned to Big Mac, who’d been following the altercation intently. “Tell us about these people you saw. Can you describe them?”
Big Mac scrunched up his face. It was obvious he was thinking hard.“Um, well, there was the pizza guy, like I told Max.”
“Pizza guy,” Odelia translated for Uncle Alec’s sake.
“Which explains the pizza box we saw,” Alec said, nodding.
“Only there was something weird about him,” Big Mac said.
“In what way?” asked Odelia.
Big Mac shrugged.“He didn’t smell like no pizza guy to me.”
Cats have a very powerful sense of smell. In fact their sense of smell is about fourteen times stronger than a human’s. Which means we can smell pizza a mile away.
Odelia decided to ignore the pizza comment. Big Mac obviously was very choosy when it came to his pizza.“So who else did you see?” she asked.
“Did you see this guy?” asked Uncle Alec, who seemed anxious to speed things up. He produced an actual mugshot and showed it to Big Mac, who eagerly nodded.
“Yup. I definitely saw him. He smelled like stale beer and dirty socks. Very icky.”
“Sasha Drood,” said Odelia, locking eyes with her uncle, who nodded.
“Oh, and then there was a guy who smelled like some type of expensive cologne,” said Big Mac. “He was dressed in a fancy suit, too, and had a head like a potato.”
“That sure narrows it down,” said Gran.