Joey made some more sounds as if she had a fishbone in her throat that wouldn’t come out, but finally saw the humor in the situation. “It’s fine,” she said. “I know I wasn’t very nice to you in the beginning, so I got what I deserved.”
“You did hide my bone,” Zoey reminded her.
“I did hide your bone. And you pooped in my bowl. Which means we’re even.”
They shared a glance, and burst out laughing.“What a pair we are!” said Zoey.
“You can say that again!” returned Joey.
While this heart-to-heart was going on, Dooley and I had polished off the bowls that had been on display, and I was feeling in excellent mood.“Why don’t you tell us about your secret, Dooley?” I suggested.
But Dooley gave us a sheepish look.“I would, if I had a secret to share.”
“Oh, come on, Dooley,” said Joey. “Everyone has a secret.”
“Except that I used to poop in the rose bushes, I don’t really have any big secrets. I’ve never done anything really wicked or anything bad to anyone.”
“It’s true,” I confirmed. “Dooley is just about the nicest cat in the world.”
“I wish I had a secret,” said Dooley fervently. “But I don’t have one. One of our housemates has a secret, though. Harriet? But she doesn’t want to tell us. We think she’s having an affair with Kingman, who lives in town. Which is a big secret, since it might mean that either Harriet will move out, or Kingman will move in and Brutus will move out. Unless they want to have am?nage ? trois.”
I stared at my friend.“I didn’t know you knew what am?nage ? troiswas?”
“Kingman explained it to me last night. He said it’s Wilbur’s most fervent wish one day to have am?nage ? trois with two supermodels. And when I asked him what am?nage ? trois is, he said it’s like when people share an apartment? Like inFriends? Chandler and Joey living together, or Monica and Rachel?”
“Roommates,” Joey confirmed. “Just like me and Zoey.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice, Max?” said Dooley. “That Kingman would come and live with us in am?nage ? trois? Then we would be five instead of four.”
“Trois is three in French,” said Zoey. “So if there’s five of you, it would be more like am?nage ? cinq. Cinq is five in French,” she explained.
“I just hope Harriet and Brutus can fix their problems,” I said with a sigh.
I like Kingman, really I do, but he does have a habit of throwing his weight about to some extent. I simply couldn’t imagine him and Brutus living under the same roof in peace and harmony. Pretty soon the same kind of behavior Joey and Zoey had described would be taking place in our home: with Kingman pooping in Brutus’s bowl, and Brutus paying him in kind by returning the defecatory favor.
It wouldn’t be pretty!
CHAPTER 18
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We met up with Odelia and Chase in the corridor, where the latter stood conferring with the former. Apparently Chase had managed to get in touch with the detective tasked with following Jason Rocamora around, and had received a full report for his troubles.
“He was here all right,” Chase was saying. “Parked right in front of the house. And guess who else was in the car?”
“Alison Droba?”
“Bingo. Dropped him off outside and then waited for him in the car. Rocamora then snuck up to the house, only to return ten minutes later, in a terrible hurry.”
“What time was this?”
Chase wiggled his eyebrows triumphantly.“A little after two o’clock! Looks like we’ve got our man, babe!”
“Was he carrying something in his hands when he came out?” asked Odelia.
“Like what? Oh, you mean the laptop. I’ll have to ask the guy. He snapped plenty of pictures, so if he was carrying Isobel’s valuables, he’ll have photographic evidence.” They headed for the stairs. “Oh, and guess what?”
“There’s more?”
“You bet. So Isobel hired this agency to keep an eye on Rocamora, right? But Alison also hired the same agency to track down her father.”
“Isn’t that a conflict of interest or something?”
“I don’t think it works like that for private investigators. And anyway, Isobel hired them to spy on Alison’s boyfriend, not Alison herself.”
“So did they find him? Alison’s dad?”
“Not yet. They think he must be holed up in Mexico someplace. But it’s a different detective handling that case from the one tailing Rocamora, obviously.”
“Obviously.”
We headed down the stairs, and I could tell that Chase was jubilant. Solving a murder case in just a couple of hours. It just might be a personal record for him.
“I already talked to your uncle. He’s having Rocamora picked up as we speak.”
“Good. I’m curious what he has to say for himself.”
We left the house and walked back to Chase’s car. Once we were on our way to town, I told Odelia about the various secrets we’d discovered. The one about Joey and Zoey didn’t interest her as much as Ona’s did, though. Which was understandable. Humans are mainly interested in other humans. Whereas pets are more interested in other pets. It’s a common bias in all species.