“Sure. So not such a dear friend after all, huh?”
“Mh,” I said as I thought this through. “So Janette hates Neda’s guts, ever since Neda took her spot as the choir director, and so she decides to attack her in this way.”
“Not just this way,” Kingman added. “She was in here this morning, bright and early, and told Wilbur that Neda and Father Reilly…” He darted a quick look at Dooley, then nodded in my direction. “You know.”
“Know what?” asked Dooley.
“Father Reilly and Neda were… special friends.”
“Oh, that’s sweet.”
“Yeah, very sweet,” said Kingman, with a wink in my direction.
“So that’s what she meant by the Jezebel thing,” I said. “Do you really think Neda was having an affair with Father Reilly?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Neda was a widow, and she spent an awful lot of time with Francis, her being the new choir director and all. Wilbur certainly believed it. You should have seen him this morning. He couldn’t shut up about it after Janette left.”
“But I thought Wilbur and Father Reilly were friends?” said Dooley. “Why would Wilbur gossip about his friend?”
Kingman shrugged.“Why doesn’t he give me the food I like? And why does he insist on wearing that ridiculous beard? He’s a weirdo, Dooley, and I’m saying that with the utmost love and respect. Now have you given any consideration to Harriet’s new idea?”
“What new idea?” I asked, still thinking hard about Janette’s feud with Neda, and wondering if she would go so far as to actually murder the woman.
“Oh, here she comes now,” said Kingman. “She can tell you herself.”
And indeed Harriet and Brutus had wandered up, and now parked themselves next to us.“Tell you what?” asked Harriet.
“Well, about the choir thing you mentioned earlier,” said Kingman.
“Oh, right,” said Harriet, and gave me a slightly nervous look. “Max, before you say anything, I want you to hear me out, okay?”
“Okay,” I said.
“Max wore a tutu just now,” said Dooley happily, “and Odelia took pictures.”
“Dooley!” I cried.
“But you looked so nice, Max! You should wear it more often. It really brings out your eyes. Oh, and also, Max was almost killed by a vicious dog, but he managed to escape.”
“Killed by a dog!” Harriet cried.
“Had a narrow escape there, buddy?” asked Brutus with a grin.
“Yeah, well, it was only a small dog, but hewas vicious,” I said, not wanting to shine a light on what hadn’t exactly been my finest hour.
“It was a Shit Sue,” said Dooley.
“Shih Tzu,” I corrected him.
“That’s what I said. A Shit Sue.”
“Oh, one of them big and dangerous dogs, huh, Max?” said Brutus, his grin widening.
“Size doesn’t matter, Brutus,” I pointed out. “It’s the personality that matters, and this particular dog’s personality stinks. He tried to bite me, and would have succeeded if I hadn’t been able to escape up the curtains.”
“Not the waterspout?” Brutus asked quasi-innocently.
“No, Brutus. The curtains.” Which unfortunately, and unlike myself, hadn’t made it out alive.
“Classic,” said Brutus with a low chuckle.
“He ripped them to shreds!” said Dooley gleefully, as he relived the terrifying event.
“Way to go, Max!” said Brutus, and clapped me on the back. “Welcome to the club.”
“You have destroyed curtains?” I asked, much surprised.
“Have I destroyed curtains? Yards of them! Back when I was still living in New York, you know, that rough-and-tumble existence before I joined your laid-back life out here in the leafy suburbs, I was having to fight my way out of a tight spot all the time, and many a curtain has experienced my wrath!” He laughed loudly, thinking back to those halcyon days of yore, when New York’s no doubt many curtains weren’t safe from his claws.
“So the choir,” said Harriet, giving her mate a censorious glance, which quickly shut him up. “I was thinking, why is it always the human choirs that get all the attention?” She gestured to a flyer stuck up on the General Store’s bulletin board, which announced an upcoming concert of St. Theresa Choir. “Why can’t cat choir receive that kind of attention for a change? We’re easily as good as these human choirs.”
I was going to beg to differ, but then I caught Brutus’s warning look, and so I shut up. Cat choir is one of Harriet’s pet projects, since she’s its main soprano, and gets to sing all the solos.
“So that’s why I thought, why don’t we schedule a joint performance? Cat choir and St. Theresa Choir—double bill. That will draw in the crowds, don’t you think?”
I was quiet for a moment, waiting for the punchline. If this was a joke, it wasn’t a very good one, but I was still prepared to laugh heartily. So when it finally dawned on me that this wasn’t a joke, and that Harriet was dead serious, I gulped a little. “You want… cat choir… to sing together… with Father Reilly’s church choir?”
“Absolutely! And why I didn’t think of it sooner, I don’t know. It’s the best idea I’ve ever had.”
“Um…” Once more Brutus gave me an intent look, then slowly shook his head, as if to warn me not to laugh, and most definitely not to deny Harriet this triumph.
“Oh, for sure,” I said finally. “I think it’s a wonderful idea.” And completely bananas.
8
“I didn’t know Janette Bittiner was a flower girl, Max,” said Dooley.
“She’s not a flower girl, Dooley. She runs a flower shop, that’s not the same as being a flower girl.”
We were in Bittiner Petals, Janette’s flower shop, where Odelia and Chase were asking the woman a couple more questions, after I’d told Odelia what Kingman had told me. I’d dutifully reported the large cat’s words to Odelia at her office, and immediately she’d set out on this interview.
“Who saw me, exactly?” Janette demanded. She was standing behind the counter of her shop, snipping the stems from flowers before sticking them in nice vases.
“That doesn’t matter,” said Chase. “What matters is that you were seen putting up this flyer,” he said, and slammed one of the flyers in question down on the counter.
Janette jumped a little at the sudden change in the cop’s demeanor and glanced at the object in question. “Okay, yes, so I did put those up. But I had every reason to.”
“A reason to suggest that Neda and Father Reilly were having an affair?”
“Yes.”
“So you’re saying theywere having an affair?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Francis and Neda? Of course not.”
“But then why would you suggest it? And make Wilbur Vickery spread this rumor?”
“Oh, so that’s who saw me, huh? He could have said something when I talked to him.”
“Answer the question, Janette,” said Chase. “Why did you spread this rumor about your so-called best friend? And what’s all this nonsense about a church choir feud?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Janette snapped as she put the vase aside and placed both hands on the counter. “Look, that role of choir director was mine. Samuel Smalls trained me—everyone knew I’d been preparing to take over from him for years, and Samuel had even promised me as much. ‘When Iretire,’ he told me more than once, ‘I’m going to present you as my successor. You have the skills, Janette, and you should be the one to lead St. Theresa Choir when I’m gone.’ Only Sam died before he could name me his successor, and then of course Neda had to add her name to the list of candidates.”
“You weren’t the only one up for the role,” said Odelia.
“Apparently not. Even though Neda knew perfectly well that I’d had my heart set on that position. And then of course Father Reilly twisted the knife by picking her over me!”
“You were hurt.”
“Of course I was hurt! Wouldn’t you be? She was supposed to be my friend, and then she stabbed me in the back when she had the chance. And so did Francis, by the way—he’s also to blame for this fiasco. He told me he wanted to be fair. That he couldn’t very well appoint me out of the blue.Out of the blue! I’d been waiting for this for years!”