As Vesta Muffin and her friend returned to their room, Liz had to confess that she was secretly a little jealous of the two. To be able to work so closely with the police like that, and to have such a familial link with the Kingsleys must be such a joy.
“It must be so much fun ,” she said with a wistful sigh. “To be a fly on the wall in that house. A cop, a reporter, and Vesta’s son the Chief of Police for all of Hampton Cove. And did she say her son’s girlfriend is the Mayor?”
“Yeah, Mayor Charlene Butterwick,” Bill confirmed.
“What a family,” said Liz. “And her daughter is a librarian who’s married to a doctor.”
“Doc Poole,” said Bill. “He’s a great doctor.”
“You know him?” asked Liz.
“When my doctor was on holiday he referred his patients to Doctor Poole.”
“And how was he?”
“Oh, he’s a fine doctor. A little absentminded from time to time, but he knows his stuff. I was suffering from a corn at the time, remember? And he fixed me right up.”
“What a family,” Liz repeated, and gave another little sigh.
“Oh, we’re not so bad ourselves,” said Olivia. “We did solve Henry’s murder, after all.”
“We didn’t actually solve it,” said Bill.
“We pointed the police in the right direction,” said Olivia.
“Yeah, we did say it was murder, even when the police thought he died from natural causes,” said Liz. “And we did name Desmond as our number-one suspect.”
“I thought your number-one suspect was Charlie Moore?” said Bill with a wicked little grin.
“Okay, so I was wrong, but that’s why there’s three of us, so we don’t make the mistake of picking the wrong suspect.”
But Olivia was right, she thought. They had done a great job with Henry’s murder, and Murder Club had really punched above its weight there.
So maybe she shouldn’t be jealous of Vesta and Scarlett. And besides, jealousy was an ugly emotion, and poisonous. So she decided to drop it. Her life was fine the way it was. She had a great husband, a wonderful sister, and they were staying at the best retirement home in the county. What did she have to complain about? Exactly nothing!
She watched as Isaac and Kirsten came walking down the corridor. She could be mistaken but they looked like a couple in love, exchanging smiles and holding hands from time to time. And when they thought no one was looking, they even shared a kiss!
“Looks like Isaac and Kirsten are a couple,” she said.
“Are they now?” said Bill, who had picked up his paper and was reading it cover to cover.
“Good for them,” said Olivia, who was rereading one of her Agatha Christie novels for the umpteenth time, even though she already knew who the murderer was.
Isaac knocked on the door of Vesta and Scarlett’s room, and Scarlett came out. Isaac must have given her some good news, for Scarlett was smiling and hugged both Isaac and Kirsten.
“I think Scarlett played matchmaker for those two,” she said, even though at this point nobody was listening to her. “And a fine job she did, too.”
Scarlett now told her friend about Isaac and Kirsten, and Vesta looked thrilled, too. Then the weirdest thing happened: Vesta bent down and seemed to talk to that fat red cat of hers. Max something. And it almost looked as if the fat cat was responding! Its lips were moving, and he must have said something funny, for Vesta laughed.
“Vesta is talking to her cat,” she remarked.
“Crazy cat lady,” Bill murmured.
“And the cat is talking back to her.”
“Now that’s impossible and you know it,” said Olivia. “Cats don’t talk.”
“Oh, yes, they do,” said Bill, lowering his paper. “Cats talk all the time. It’s just that we can’t understand them, that’s all. Same thing with dogs. They can talk to each other, and they’re also trying to talk to us, but unfortunately we can’t understand what they’re saying.”
“Bill, you’re talking nonsense,” Olivia said.
“Yeah, Bill, read your paper,” said Liz. “Cats can’t talk, and neither can dogs.” Or could they?
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“She did it,” said Harriet, and looked over the moon. “She actually managed to bring that young couple together!”
“Are they going to get married now?” asked Dooley.
“I doubt it,” I said. “Young couples these days don’t get married straight away. First they date for a while, to get to know each other, then they move in together, to see if they’re compatible, and then maybe, after a couple of years, they decide to tie the knot.”
“Maybe it’s better this way,” said Brutus. “If you get married straight out of the gate, and things go wrong, it makes things a lot more complicated.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Dooley, though he seemed disappointed. “I think they should get married, though. They’re such a cute couple. Just look at them.”
We all looked at them, and they did look like a very happy couple, and also very pretty.