“Oh, Max,” said Harriet when her laughter had expended itself. “You’re too funny. We already told you that this isn’t murder but an accident, so nobody is going to show up and nobody is going to dispose of any bodies.”
“Still,” I insisted. “I’d feel much better if one of us stayed behind and guarded the body.”
“Oh, have it your way,” said Harriet with an eyeroll. “You stay behind then, and we’ll go home and get some sleep.”
“And tell Odelia, right?” I asked, just to make sure.
“Of course we’ll tell Odelia,” said Harriet with another eyeroll. “What do you take us for? Noobs?”
Brutus patted my back, almost causing me to buckle under the onslaught. “You just stick around, Maxie baby,” he said with a grin. “And we’ll take care of everything.”
And with these words, they took off, still laughing at my expense. “Dooley, are you coming?” Harriet yelled over her shoulder.
“No, I think I’ll stay here with Max,” Dooley yelled back.
“Suit yourself!” said Brutus, and off they were.
For a moment, silence reigned, since I wasn’t talking but thinking about what had happened, and Dooley wasn’t talking but thinking about whatever he was thinking about, and obviously the dead man wasn’t talking since he was dead. Then Dooley said, “I hope they won’t forget to tell Odelia, otherwise we’ll be here all night.”
“I’m sure they won’t forget,” I said.
“Do you really think the man was murdered, Max?”
“I don’t know, Dooley. That’s for the police to decide. But if he was murdered, it’s important that we guard the scene, so nothing gets disturbed.”
“It’s strange though, isn’t it, Max?”
“What is, Dooley?”
“Two dead bodies. What if we keep finding dead bodies from now on, one per night?”
“I’d say the chances of that happening are very slim indeed.”
“I hope so. If we find a dead body every night, that’s three hundred and sixty-five bodies a year.”
“Uh-huh.”
“How many people are there in Hampton Cove, Max?”
“Um, I’d say about fifteen thousand.”
“That means that in just a few years the entire population of Hampton Cove will be extinct, and only us cats will be left if this keeps up.”
I laughed. “Your math is flawed, Dooley, and the chances of that happening are nil.”
“But what happens if the whole town dies out, Max? Who’s going to take care of us?”
“I’m sure that won’t happen, Dooley, and even if it does, there are still people left in the world who’ll be able to take care of us.”
“But what if all the people in all the towns in all the world suddenly end up at the bottom of a deep hole, Max, or at the bottom of an elevator shaft, who’s going to take care of us then?”
“Well, I guess then we’ll just have to join Clarice in the woods, and we’ll have to learn to fend for ourselves.”
“Oh,” he said, ruminating on that unappealing prospect. “Well, let’s hope you’re right, and it doesn’t happen. Cause I don’t think I’d enjoy living with Clarice in the woods and eating from dumpsters.”
“If all the people in all the towns in all the world are dead, Dooley,” I said, “there won’t be any more dumpsters, and Clarice will have to find her food some other way, and so will we.”
“Oh, no, Max!” he said, suddenly realizing the awful repercussions of his gloomy post-apocalyptic view, which seemed to come straight from a Stephenie Meyer novel. “That’s terrible!”
But lucky for me, just then Odelia and Chase arrived and came hurrying over to where we were guarding the dead man, and I didn’t have to speculate anymore on these Walking Dead scenarios of doom!
Chapter 19
Odelia looked around the small but cozy little studio. It hadn’t taken them long to find out that the man found at the bottom of the elevator shaft was named Darryl Farmer and that he lived with his girlfriend in a modest apartment in Leighton Heights. She and Chase had gone over there to talk to the girlfriend, and break the bad news to her.
“I knew this would happen one day,” said the girlfriend, whose name was Lucy Vale. She had long hair done up in dreadlocks, and was very pretty and petite, dressed in a flowing maroon robe. “I told him that if he kept this up, he’d end up dead.”
“And why is that?” asked Chase, who, like Odelia, was seated on a bean bag and trying to find a comfortable way to sit, which unfortunately was quite impossible. The entire studio was decorated in hobo chic style, with portraits of dead poets adorning the walls, and plenty of symbols for weed. The studio smelled of weed, too—a pervasive smell.
“Darryl was a raver and a DJ. It was what he lived for. And smoking weed and popping pills was part of the deal, unfortunately. He must have been baked out of his mind when he stumbled down that shaft.” She gave Chase a curious look. “You’re sure he was alone?”
“What do you mean?”
“He wasn’t with some girl?”
“You mean…”
“Darryl was something of a playboy, never happy to stick with one girl.”
“You’re saying he was unfaithful to you?” asked Odelia.
Lucy nodded, her fingers twitching as if holding a cigarette. “It was the reason I kicked him out last month.”
“Oh, so you weren’t a couple anymore?”
“No, I caught him cheating on me with some pink-haired teenager. It wouldn’t surprise me if she wasn’t even of age.”
Odelia cut a quick glance to her husband. “Do you happen to remember her name?”
“Um… Suzy something?”
“Suzy Bunyon?”
“Could be. I didn’t pay attention. She wasn’t the only one, by the way. Darryl would find himself a new girl every week. He’d hit on anything with a skirt at the raves he liked to attend. In fact that’s where we met. Only he’d convinced me I was the one, and for a while I believed him. But that didn’t last long.” She glanced up at the ceiling. “About six months or so? And then I discovered he’d been cheating on me all this time, his latest conquest this Suzy person, but there had been others, I’m sure.”
“Is there any reason you can think of why he’d be at a deserted construction site in the middle of the night?” asked Chase.
“Not really. It wasn’t the kind of place where he’d organize one of his raves, if that’s what you mean.”
“Where did he organize his raves?”
“Lately the place to be was the woods just outside Hampton Cove. You probably know where. You head in the direction of Happy Bays and then you turn left just beyond the town sign. We’ve been partying there the last couple of months now. Though mainly Darryl, not me. I have a job, you see. I can’t stay up all night and then expect to be able to work all day. But he was out there every night as far as I know.”
“The woods, huh,” said Chase, jotting down a note.
“Yeah, Darryl was an ace DJ. He knew just how to whip a party into a frenzy. That’s what made him so popular with the girls, I guess. I know it’s what made him popular with me,” she added ruefully. “I figured he was some kind of God when we first met.”
“And why was that?” asked Odelia. “What made him so popular?”
She shrugged. “At a rave the DJ is God. That’s just how it is.”
“So that was his job? Being a DJ at these raves?”
“If you can call it a job. Nobody paid him. In fact Darryl was as poor as a church mouse. Poorer, probably. It was another reason I kicked him out. It took me a while, but then I realized I was dating a loser. It became obvious to me he’d never amount to anything. He had no goals, no ambitions, except to party all night, every night.”
Odelia glanced around, and she caught sight of a nice new mountain bike. “Is that yours?” she asked.
“Nah, that’s Darryl’s. I told him to clear out and take his junk with him, but he hadn’t gotten round to it yet.” She sighed. “That’ll teach me to date a DJ.”