“Yes, but now you would get your very own space in your very own home.”
It was a grand offer, but I wasn’t at all sure she would go for it. Then again, Clarice was an unpredictable cat, so there was no way to know how she would react.
Finally, that inscrutable expression seemed to thaw.“Home,” she muttered.
“Uh-huh.”
“My own bowl.”
“Yup. And your own bed.”
The silence stretched on for a moment while she pondered this. She gave me a skeptical look.“You’re not pulling my paw, are you, cat? Because you know what I can do with even one paw tied behind my back. Or three.”
“Oh, no! I would never pull your paw.”
“Fine,” she growled. “I’ll take it.”
“Great!” I cried, much relieved.
“Not that it matters much,” Dooley decided to put in his two cents. “Since the world is ending in a couple of days you won’t have much time to enjoy your new home anyway.”
Clarice decided to ignore this outburst.“Follow me,” she snarled.
We followed her. She took us around the corner to a row of large round trash cans with lids. She walked up to the third can in the row and reached up to give the lid a shove. It clattered to the ground. Then she stood to the side and casually started to lick her paw.
“Look inside,” she said.
I looked inside. And there it was. The holy grail. The clue I’d been looking for.
Chapter 40
Odelia woke up and wondered why it was still dark out. She blinked confusedly and looked around with a heavy heart. Realizing it wasn’t her heart that was heavy but that something was pushing down on her chest, she realized it was Max sitting on top of her.
“Odelia!” he was saying, trying to keep his voice down. “Wake up! We found it!”
“Found what?” she muttered, still sleep drunk.
“The proof we need to take down Chris Ackerman’s killer!”
At these words, she was suddenly wide awake.“What?”
“We found it!” he repeated. “In a trash can!”
“In a trash can,” Dooley echoed from the floor next to the bed.
Odelia sniffed. There was something rancid about the air in her room.
“Do you smell that?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s us,” said Harriet, seated next to Dooley.
“We’ve been dumpster diving,” explained Brutus, also part of the small troupe.
“It was Max’s idea,” said Dooley.
“But I showed them where to find the thing,” said a fifth cat.
Odelia stared at this newcomer. She was small, she was scruffy-looking, and she looked vaguely familiar in the moonlight streaming in through the window.
“You remember Clarice,” said Max. “I said she could stay here if she wanted to.”
“Only as a last resort,” said Clarice. “And only in case I run out of fresh rats.”
Odelia wrinkled her nose.“Um… Guys? Could you tell me what’s going on exactly?”
Next to her, Chase stirred, then murmured,“What’s going on with your cats, babe?”
There was a momentary silence, then Max asked,“What is Chase doing in your bed?”
“Yes, what is Jesus doing in your bed?” asked Dooley.
“We decided to move in together,” she said.
“Are you talking to your cats?” asked Chase. “Cause it sounds to me like you are.”
“Go back to sleep, honey,” she said soothingly. “I’ll go and give them some… milk.”
“You do that. And tell them to shut up and let us sleep,” Chase mumbled.
Odelia threw off the duvet and swung her feet to the floor.“Follow me,” she whispered, then tiptoed out of the room, the small clowder of cats following in her wake. Once downstairs, she flicked on the light in the kitchen and plunked herself down on the couch, yawning freely. “Now tell me all about it.”
And Max and the others did.“First off, I promised Clarice a cat bed and her very own bowl,” he said.
“Done,” said Odelia.
“She’s the one who found the thing,” he explained.
“Great work, Clarice.”
“Thanks,” Clarice said grudgingly. She directed a suspicious look at Odelia. “But don’t think for a minute that this means I’m domesticated. I’m a wild cat and that’s the way I’ll stay.”
“Fair enough,” said Odelia, conceding this point. “What else?”
“My spots are practically gone,” said Brutus happily.
“Nobody cares about your spots, Brutus,” Harriet snapped.
“Great news, Brutus,” said Odelia, wondering if this was the reason they’d dragged her out of bed. “Cat bed for Clarice and spots are clearing up. Super duper. That’s it?”
“Tell her about the thing!” Dooley said.
“I am telling her!” said Max. “Though I probably better show you,” he added.
“Show me? Show me what?”
Max hesitated.“Are you up for a little drive?”
[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.png]
When finally Odelia found herself looking down the trash can Max had singled out for her attention, she had to admit he’d outdone himself this time.
“Amazing,” she said. “Are you sure about this?”
“Pretty much,” said Max. “It was the fake hamburger, you see.”
She didn’t, but she nodded anyway. Then she took out her phone. “I better wake up my uncle. He’s going to want to check this out.”
“What about Chase?” asked Max.
“There’s no way I can tell Chase that my cats found the key piece of evidence in Chris Ackerman’s murder investigation,” she said.
“So what are you going to tell him?”
She smiled.“I’ll think of something. Uncle Alec! Sorry to wake you. You’re not going to believe this…”
[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.png]
As it was, Uncle Alec did believe it. Long association with Odelia and her cats had taught him that nothing was impossible when it came to their powers of observation and keen deduction. He arrived five minutes later, looking as if he’d just rolled out of bed, which probably he had, his shirt untucked and the few remaining hairs on his head standing up.
“Where is it?” he asked, and when Odelia gestured to the trash can, he took out an evidence baggie and stared down at the piece of evidence Max had unearthed—or Clarice. The story was still a little fuzzy to Odelia.
“I think you’re going to need a bigger bag,” she said.
“I think you’re right,” he said. “Your cats found this?”
“My cats found this.”
“Huh. I guess I won’t be puttingthat in my report.”
“Not if you don’t want to freak out my new live-in boyfriend you won’t.”
Alec grinned.“I knew he’d pull it off.”
“He told you about the Ed Sheeran thing?”
“Are you kidding? He practiced on me first. The kid’s got crazy singing skills.”
Odelia decided not to dissuade her uncle from this conviction.
Chase had a lot of skills, but singing wasn’t one of them.
“So what happens now?” she asked.
“Now we send this off to the lab and see what comes back.”
“You better check all the CCTV cameras in the area.”
“Oh, I’m going to—don’t you worry about that.”
He took out a bigger baggie, a pair of tweezers, and plucked out the item, then deposited it into the baggie with a look of satisfaction on his face.“Nailed it,” he grunted.
“Not yet. We still have to identify—”
“Trust me, I will. You go on home. You’ve done enough.”
“But—”
“Go home, Odelia. Give your boyfriend a wake-up kiss. I’ll handle the rest.”
And he stalked off, an officious swagger to his hips, got into his car and drove off.
“That’s it?” asked Max.
“That’s it,” said Odelia.
“But… who did it?”
“I think I have a pretty good idea. And I’m going to prove it.”
Of course she could have let her uncle take care of things, as he’d indicated, but where was the fun in that? Besides, this was her investigation, and she was going to see it through to the end—whatever her uncle said.