“Yeah, it’s not something I want people to know,” said Ona. She was very quiet and looked uncomfortable about this whole blackmail business. “Though I told Max last night, and I’m going to tell my sister, which would take the wind of this blackmailer’s sails.”
“My advice would be to go through with the handing over of the money,” Chase advised. “Once you’ve received instructions on where the rendezvous will be and when. Of course,” he quickly added when Max Stinger started making protesting noises, “we’ll be there every step of the way, so we can apprehend the culprit.”
“You want to arrest the blackmailer?” asked Ona.
“Yes, of course.”
“I think whoever is doing this killed Isobel,” said Max.
“Oh, Max, don’t say that,” said Ona. “Now I’m thinking he might come after me next.”
“No, but it stands to reason, doesn’t it? First he steals the laptop, and when Isobel catches him he kills her, and now he’s using the information he got from that laptop to blackmail people.”
Chase looked up sharply.“You think there’s more than one victim, sir?”
The doctor shrugged.“I don’t know. But if he’s blackmailing Ona, there’s bound to be others, wouldn’t you say?”
“Max?” said Ona.
“Yes,” I said, even as the other Max turned to his girlfriend.
Dooley laughed.“That’s funny. You’ve got a soulmate, Max.”
“A namesake, more like,” I said.
“What do you think?” asked Ona.
“I think this is a good idea,” I said.
“I’m not sure about this,” said the other Max.
“It’s up to you, of course, Miss Konpacka,” said Chase. “But if we want to catch this person, this is the best way to go about it.”
“You won’t be in any danger,” Odelia assured the model. “We’ll be close by, keeping an eye out for this person, and we’ll nab him the moment he shows his face.”
Max finally nodded his agreement, even though he still seemed reluctant.
Ona took a deep breath.“All right,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
“Great,” said Chase.
A knock sounded at the door, and we all jumped. But when Odelia went to open it, it wasn’t the blackmailer but Vena Aleman.
“I heard you had arrived,” she explained. “Could I have a word with you?”
“Of course,” said Odelia.
And as we left the room, Chase stayed on to explain to Ona how they were going to organize this sting operation. He also asked if he could take a look at her shoes. Judging from the look on Max Stinger’s face, he seemed to think Chase was some kind of shoe fetishist, but Chase quickly dissuaded him from this notion.
[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]
The room where Vena and Glenn Aleman were staying looked just about the same as Ona’s room, with the minor difference that they didn’t have the nice view of the tennis courts the model and her surgeon boyfriend had. Instead they looked out across the neighbor’s backyard, who owned a pool which was filled with screaming and splashing children.
Glenn wasn’t present for the interview, and I wondered what Vena was going to tell us. Dooley had his own ideas, of course.
“I think she did it, Max. I think she murdered Isobel!”
“Why on earth would Vena murder Isobel?”
“Because that’s the kind of person she is! Always prodding us with needles, poking us with sharp instruments, cutting us open to look inside our bellies. She’s a murderous maniac, Max, we all know that. And now she’s finally taken it too far. She’s gone and murdered a human. And we all know humans don’t mind when pets are being murdered, but they scream bloody murder when another human is killed.”
There was some logic to what he was saying, of course. Humans seem mainly concerned about their fellow humans being killed, not so much when members of other species suffer the same fate. Though I couldn’t believe Vena would take the innate murderous instinct that all veterinarians seem to share to this level.
“I know that Isobel was writing that horrible book of hers,” said Vena, who had taken a seat on a chair near the window, with Odelia pulling up a second chair. The vet’s demeanor was a far cry from her customary bluff and hearty way. Instead she looked pale and drawn, and she sat slumped in her seat, head bowed. “And now that she’s dead, and her laptop has been stolen, all the secrets are bound to come out sooner or later. So I’d rather you heard it from me than someone else.” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I once killed a patient.”
“See!” Dooley cried triumphantly. “I told you!”
“Shush, Dooley,” I said. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”
“It was a long time ago,” said Vena. “I was just starting out, fresh from vet school, and I must have made a mistake in the dosage of the sedative I was administering. The animal—Freddie, it was called—died, and I was forced to own up to my mistake to the owners. Lucky for me they were very understanding, and didn’t file a complaint. Also, Freddie was old and on its last legs at that point, and wouldn’t have lived much longer anyway. So maybe what I did was an act of mercy, even though it was an accident.”
“What type of animal was it?” asked Odelia.