“We should never have come here, Daddy,” said the young woman. “We should have simply said no.”
“It’s all right, Jenny,” said her father. “Nobody knows, and that’s how it’s gonna stay. You didn’t tell the police, did you?”
“Not a word,” Jenny assured him.
Harriet, even though distracted by the fish, which was, indeed, excellent, still had the presence of mind to turn her ears like antennae and drink in every word of the conversation.
“You should never have approached him, Daddy. And now look what happened.”
“So I lost my temper—can you blame me? He practically killed you, honey. If we hadn’t taken you to the hospital you would have died, and all because of the man’s incompetence.”
“You still didn’t have to attack him,” said Jenny. “If the police find out you’ll be in big trouble, Daddy.”
“The police aren’t going to find out. I made sure there were no witnesses, and Jaqlyn sure as heck isn’t going to tell anyone now. He’s dead.”
“Oh, Daddy,” said the girl. “I hope you’re right. I can’t lose you now.”
“And you won’t. I promise.”
They walked off, and Harriet gave her boyfriend an excited prod. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” asked Brutus, munching on a piece of fish, his eyes closed with relish.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear Jenny and her dad!”
“Jenny who?”
“Oh, Brutus—I just solved Jaqlyn’s murder and you didn’t even pay attention!”
“I’m paying attention now, my sweet love sponge,” he said, opening his eyes and glancing around. “So who is this Jenny person?”
Under normal circumstances Harriet would have been displeased that her boyfriend paid so little attention to her, or in this case to whatever she paid attention to, but these weren’t normal circumstances so she decided to let it go.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? I solved Jaqlyn’s murder! Me!”
“Congratulations, buttercup!” said Brutus, then dug in for more fish.
Chapter 34
A big meeting had been called, and all the usual suspects were present and accounted for: Odelia, who’d called the meeting. Gran, who acted as co-chair. Marge, and of course myself, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus. We even had a guest star in the form of Kingman, who, judging from the way he kept directing a self-satisfied smirk at me, had exciting news to impart.
Absent were Tex, who had been taken away in the paddy wagon, Chase, who had been driving the paddy wagon, and Uncle Alec, who owned the paddy wagon and who was, as we speak, presumably tying Tex to the police station torture rack preparatory to applying gentle pressure until the man cracked under the strain and confessed all.
The location of the meeting was Odelia’s place, and all five cats were comfortably ensconced on the couch while Marge and Gran were seated on chairs, with Odelia standing in front of her whiteboard, waving a black marker and writing down the names of potential suspects and their possible motives.
In other words, a classic set-up. Hercule Poirot would have nodded approvingly, and so would Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason and Nero Wolf, had any of them been present.
“Francine Jones,” Odelia said, jotting down the name of Jaqlyn’s widow. “She had recently discovered that her husband was having an affair with Monica Chanting.”
“Monica Chanting herself,” said Gran. “Who wanted the affair to blossom into a marriage but found that Jaqlyn was reluctant to tell his wife and file for divorce.”
“How about Monica’s husband Garvin Chanting?” Marge suggested. “He could have found out about his wife’s affair and decided to take matters into his hands.”
Odelia dutifully wrote down the name of Monica’s husband and his motive.
“Okay, so next we have Barney Sowman, the neighbor whose tires had been slashed by Jaqlyn, and who was involved in a dispute with the man over an access road.”
“Barney definitely had his own ideas about the murder,” I said, and reported Barney’s suggestions for a potential murder weapon. It made quite an impact on my audience, and Odelia added a red asterisk next to Barney’s name, to indicate he was a promising suspect.
“Other suggestions?” she asked now, glancing around.
Just then, the door opened and two men walked in. Reading from left to right they were none other than Chase and Uncle Alec.
Instantly, Marge was on her feet. “Oh, no!” she cried, shaking her head vehemently. “You two aren’t welcome here anymore. Out! Both of you—out! Traitors!”
“But, Marge!” said Uncle Alec, clearly taken aback.
“You arrested my husband,” said Marge, pointing an accusing finger at Chase, who looked stricken and a little scared of the woman, “and you handed him over to the state police without batting an eye,” she added, turning that same finger on her brother, who’d gone a little white around the nostrils all of a sudden. “You’re both dead to me. Dead!”
“Mom,” said Odelia, “they were just doing their jobs. You can hardly blame them.”
“I do blame them. I blame them for robbing a good man of his freedom over some unfounded suspicions.”
“He had a body stashed in the trunk of his car!” Alec cried.
“So? That’s still no reason to arrest him.”
“Marge, settle down,” said Gran, adopting a harsh tone. “You’re acting like an idiot.”
“Oh, I’m acting like an idiot, am I? They’re the ones who are the idiots, and they’ll feel pretty stupid when they discover that Tex is innocent. And now get out of my house!”
“It’s not your house,” Gran pointed out.
“I don’t care! Out of my sight!”
“Marge Lip!” Gran bellowed suddenly, causing Marge to jump. “Shut up and sit down!”
“But—”
“Now!”
“Yes, Ma,” Marge muttered, and did as she was told.
“We’re in the middle of a family crisis and this is not the time to lose your head. We all need to work together to get Tex off the hook, and you’re not helping.”
“Yes, Ma,” said Marge dutifully.
“Chase and Alec were only doing their duty. When you’re a cop and you find a dead body in the trunk of a car, you arrest the guy who owns the car, it’s that simple. If Chase hadn’t arrested Tex, someone else would have, and Chase would have had a lot to answer for, maybe even lost his job. And the same goes for Alec. Now please let’s dispense with the drama and focus on finding the real killer. Chase—take a seat. You, too, Alec. Odelia, get on with it. We haven’t got all day.”
Everyone settled down, and Odelia took up position in front of her whiteboard again. In deference to the latecomers, she quickly reiterated the list of suspects she’d compiled so far: Francine Jones, Monica Chanting, Garvin Chanting and Barney Sowman.
“Max, you have the floor,” she said now. “What did you find out so far?”
“Well, apart from Barney’s eagerness to select a suitable murder weapon to dispense with annoying neighbors, the birds in a nearby tree said they saw Jason Blowhard and Jaqlyn Jones have a big fight on the next street shortly before Jaqlyn’s murder.”
“Jason Blowhard,” Odelia said, writing down the name on the board, and translated my words for the non-cat-speaking part of the group.
“We also discovered that some worms are not very juicy,” said Dooley helpfully. “Some are really chewy and tough to digest. But birds have a gizzard and so that helps.”
Odelia stared at him for a moment, then said, “Thank you, Dooley. Moving on…”
Harriet cleared her throat. I’d noticed she looked pleased as punch, and based on her next words she had every right to be.
“Brutus and I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman. The woman is called Jenny and the man is her father. And I think it’s pretty obvious she’s the girl who was misdiagnosed by Jaqlyn and later on was discovered to be suffering from a brain tumor. And guess what? He killed Jaqlyn! He confessed! Isn’t that right, Brutus?”