Just then, Odelia walked in through the front door, Grace in her arms.
Gran seemed to relax at the sight of the little girl, but when I told Odelia later about what happened, she shared our concern.
“Maybe it’s because she’s all alone in the house,” I suggested. “With Marge and Tex gone.”
“Maybe,” Odelia agreed. “We could invite her to stay with us, of course,” she added with a tentative look at her husband, but Chase immediately shook his head. He might be fond of his grandmother-in-law, but not fond enough to have her under the same roof.
“She’s got Harriet and Brutus,” he said. “She’s fine. And besides, she already spends all of her time here, and she’s got a perfectly good bedroom next door. No need for us to fix up a room for her here.”
He had a point, of course. Ever since Marge and Tex had left to hang out with their tennis buddies, Gran had spent her evenings with us, eating dinner with us, watching television with us, and staying up late until it was time to go to bed, which she did in her own room next door, where she had the company of Harriet and Brutus.
“I think she’s simply disoriented,” said Chase. “Without Marge and Tex, her life is a little out of whack right now. Once they’re back, everything will be just fine.”
“Let’s hope so,” said Odelia with a sigh. She had enough to worry about already, with her mom and dad involved in this murder inquiry, without having to worry about her grandmother going a little non compos, too.
And we’d just settled in on the couch, preparatory to taking a long pre-dinner nap, when Brutus came bursting in through the pet flap. “Max! Dooley! Where were you!” he cried. “Things have gotten so much worse while you were away!”
“We were at this tennis retreat with Marge and Tex,” I said.
“A murder has been committed, and Marge and Tex are suspects,” Dooley explained. “Though I don’t think they did it. A retired crook did it, though he says he didn’t do it, and his girlfriend swears he didn’t do it, so now we don’t know.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” said Brutus impatiently. “Who cares? It’s Harriet you should be worrying about. She’s having an affair with Kingman. I’m absolutely sure of it now. I’ve got proof!”
“You’ve got evidence of an affair?” I asked, intrigued. I like evidence. Evidence never lies, and it’s a darn sight better than idle speculation, which seems to be rife in my line of work.
“Yes, I have!” said Brutus. I’d never seen him this excitable, and I didn’t wonder.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Show us.”
He led us out through the pet flap, into the backyard, and straight to the rose bushes at the bottom of the garden.“Smell,” he said, once our small group had arrived.
“What?” I asked, not sure I’d heard him right.
“Smell!”
And so smell we did. We smelled here, we smelled there, we smelled everywhere.“Roses,” I finally determined. “A little faint, but that’s to be expected after a long day. I expect they’ll smell much better in the morning.”
“Not the roses, dummy!” Brutus cried. “It’s Kingman! He was here!”
I frowned. Now cats are well-known and generally praised for their capacity to detect the presence of other cats by simply sniffing around a little and picking up their scent, but as far as I could tell those rose bushes didn’t smell like Kingman at all. “Um… Are you sure?” I finally asked.
“Of course I’m sure. Can’t you see? Harriet has been here with Kingman! In our own private little nook! She entertained that horrible poser in our nooky nook.”
I refrained from asking what he meant by this phrase, but instead focused on the more vital matter of whether Kingman had indeed been there. I didn’t think he had, but I wasn’t going to contradict Brutus when he was in this frame of mind.
“I don’t smell anything,” Dooley finally revealed, after applying his nose in all directions. “Not Kingman, not Harriet, only roses and dirt.”
“I think you’ll find it’s earth you smell, Dooley,” I said. “Not dirt.”
Dooley stuck his nose in the air and said,“I smell sausages, too.”
The scent of sausages did indeed fill the air. Chase and Odelia were preparing dinner, which may have had something to do with that. And as I picked up the same smell, my stomach reminded me with a persistent rumble that I was hungry.
“Look, can we settle this Kingman business later?” I asked. “We haven’t practically eaten anything all day, so…”
“We did eat those delicious nuggets offered by Joey and Zoey, didn’t we, Max?”
“Yeah, but that was dog food, so that doesn’t count.” Well, it doesn’t. Every expert will tell you that dog food lacks the necessary nutrients a healthy kitty needs. But then that’s dogs for you. They put on a good show, but when it comes right down to it, they always let you down. “So let’s have dinner first, shall we?”
Brutus, who was looking pretty down in the dumps, hung his head.“Oh, all right,” he said moodily. “But I’m telling you that Kingman was here. In our own little spot. Our own little nooky nook.”
“What’s a nooky nook, Brutus?” asked Dooley as we headed back to the house.