Michele grimaced.“She had a knack. People told her their deepest, darkest secrets and they didn’t even know why. She was just that kind of person. Warm and kind, you know. She could look at you and you just knew you could trust her.”
“Until she decided to write that stupid book,” Ona said with vehemence.
“It’s fine,” said Michele, rubbing the woman’s back. “I’m sure your story didn’t even make Isobel’s book. I’m sure she’ll focus on her own life and her own secrets mostly. All this business about revealing other people’s secrets was just her way of saying that we shouldn’t live with this stuff. It just serves to drag us down.”
“You think?”
“Absolutely.”
“It’s just that… I don’t want anyone to know, especially my sister. But also Max. So if Chris gets his hands on that manuscript, could you… could he…” Her voice had taken on a beseeching quality.
“You want him to remove any passages referring to you and your sister?”
Ona nodded fervently.“Please. It’s my story. I should be the one telling it—not some stranger I only met once, and in a moment of weakness confided in.”
“I’ll bet alcohol was involved?”
Ona smiled weakly.“Yes.”
“I’ve often wondered why it’s so much easier to confide in a stranger than it is in our nearest and dearest,” Michele mused.
“Maybe it’s exactly because they’re strangers? No strings? You see them now, and you know you’ll never see them again? If you tell your family, whatever you tell them will be like this thing that stands between you and ruins family dinners.”
“I guess,” said Michele. “I once told a stranger I met on a train things about myself I’ve never even told my husband or my parents. Like you said, I just figured I’d never see him again—and I never did.”
“Well, aren’t I the stupid one. I knew I’d see Isobel again and still I told her.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Ona. Like I said, Isobel had that effect on people. It was her secret weapon. It’s what we all liked about her.” Then, more quietly, she added, “And perhaps it was also what got her killed.”
CHAPTER 17
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Okay, so now we knew all about Ona’s secret, but we were still nowhere close to satisfying our appetite for something different than secrets and lies: real food!
Lucky for us, at that moment Joey and Zoey entered the kitchen, in search of their human. Joey took one look at us and said,“Are you guys hungry?”
We both nodded determinedly and the little doggie smiled.
“Come with us,” she said. “We’ve got more food than we can handle.”
That sounded like music to our ears, and so we quickly followed the Brussels Griffon pair out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and into the room Ona had claimed for her own. Joey led us straight to the window, where a veritable smorgasbord of food stood on display!
“Oh, my God!” said Dooley. “You guys!”
“Dig in,” said Joey with a grin. “And don’t worry about overdoing things. There’s plenty more where this came from.”
“It’s dog food, though,” said Zoey, issuing a health warning. “It might not contain the necessary proteins, vitamins and minerals you guys need.”
“I don’t care,” I said with my mouth full of delicious nuggets. “It’s food!”
“Max likes to get the first kibble out of the bag,” Dooley said apropos of nothing. “It’s his big secret. He waits until he hears the sound of a new bag being ripped open, and he makes sure he’s the first one on the scene, eating his fill.”
“Dooley, that information was private,” I said between two bites.
“Now that we’re sharing secrets, I also have one,” said Joey. She turned to Zoey. “I once took one of your bones and hid it. I don’t know why I did it. It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. You’d just arrived to live with us and Ona had bought a nice big bone for me and a nice big bone for you, and I took both.”
“I thought you said a bird got in and took it?” said Zoey, surprised.
Joey looked a little shamefaced.“No bird got in. I did it. It was me.”
“That’s all right,” said Zoey. “I guess you thought I might take your place.”
“You think?”
Zoey shrugged.“It’s common knowledge that when pet parents adopt a new pet the older pets get nervous about being replaced or sidelined.” She gave her friend a pat on the shoulder and added emphatically, “I forgive you, Joey.”
“I wouldn’t do that kind of thing now, of course. We’re friends now.”
“I know. And I’ve got my own secret.”
“What secret?”
“I once put a piece of poop in your bowl. And you ate it.”
Joey blinked a couple of times.“Uh-huh,” she said finally.
“You weren’t all that nice to me in the beginning, and so one day I got a little upset about something you said so I pooped in your bowl. I figured you’d notice and get the message. But instead you ate it.”
Joey made a slight retching sound.“I did, did I?”
“Yes, you did. You even said the food tasted better than usual.”
“So maybe you should always eat poop from now on,” Dooley suggested.