“It’s too soon to tell. But the moment we know more, we’ll tell you.”
“Please do. Cause I’m having a really hard time understanding why this happened, you know. It’s all so… random. So senseless.”
There was nothing they could say to that, so neither spoke.
“Odelia should ask Steph about the arrangement,” said Dooley.
Odelia must have heard, for she cleared her throat.“You and Jeff, you didn’t happen to have some kind of arrangement, did you?” she asked. “I mean, some couples do, you know.”
“An open marriage, you mean? No, we most certainly did not have an open marriage. Unless Jeff had decided he wanted one and failed to inform me. But then that wouldn’t exactly constitute an open marriage now would it? That would simply be called cheating.” She looked away for a moment. “CanI see him?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Odelia, alarmed.
“But I want to. I want to see him. I want to say goodbye to my husband.”
“Not right now,” said Chase. “The crime scene people are busy collecting evidence and trying to find out what happened, exactly. But you will be able to see him soon, I promise.”
That seemed to satisfy her, for she nodded. But then before we knew what was happening, suddenly she was off in the direction of the bedroom. And before anyone could stop her, she was standing on the threshold, staring at the ghastly scene. Abe Cornwall looked up with a touch of annoyance. He hated to be disturbed when he was working. But he must have sensed that Steph wasn’t a cop, for he said kindly, “Let’s get you out of here, shall we, sweetheart?”
And quite willingly Steph allowed Odelia to take her by the arm, and lead her from the room. She held on for another minute or so, then broke down in loud sobs and wails.
“I don’t think they had an arrangement,” said Dooley softly.
CHAPTER 17
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For a moment there Harriet had felt out of her depth. Max and Dooley had been scooped up so suddenly and irrevocably by Odelia that it almost felt like an abduction! Clearly their services were needed elsewhere, and now it was up to her and her alone to find Shanille and save the conductor from an uncertain fate.
“Why is it that Odelia always takes Max and Dooley along on her investigations and not us?” Brutus grumbled, not for the first time.
“She takes Max along because she seems to think he’s some kind of prodigy,” said Harriet. “Which means Odelia must be dumber than she looks, cause the real prodigy is you, my sweet. You’re the real brains in this outfit, and if Odelia can’t see that, then it’s her loss.”
Slightly mollified by this vote of confidence from his mate, Brutus said,“And what about Dooley? Why does he get to go on these investigations with Max?”
“Because Max and Dooley are attached at the hip,” Harriet said blankly. “Where one goes, the other goes. It’s always been like that.” She shook her head in bewilderment. “You would think they came from the same litter, but they didn’t.”
“It may have something to do with the fact that Dooley helps Max think. At least that’s what he told me once. And also, Dooley’s mind comes up with the most surprising associations, and sometimes, quite by accident, one of those might trigger a thought process and lead Max to come up with a vital clue.”
“Whatever,” said Harriet, who had long ago decided not to bother too much with the family’s favorite pastime, which seemed to be solving murders. An icky hobby as far as she was concerned, and nothing a lady like herself should get involved with.
“So where do we start?”
“We start by interrogating Shanille’s neighbors,” said Harriet. “Like we agreed.”
Her beloved didn’t seem very keen on the prospect of talking to all of Shanille’s neighbors. And he probably had a point. It’s hard work having to talk to a bunch of pets that more often than not are scattered across a sprawling maze of houses and alleyways. Like looking for a needle in a haystack, if that haystack consisted of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cats and dogs, each with their own hangups and quirks, and not always all that keen on helping out a fellow pet.
“Let’s go,” she said, before she lost her resolve. “We have a job to do.”
“Maybe we should wait for Max and Dooley to return?” Brutus suggested. But when Harriet gave him a censorious look that left no room for doubt as to what she thought of that suggestion, he quickly shut up.
“Whatever Max can do, we can do better,” she said. “You are a proud and capable feline, Brutus. Where is the time that you were going to take Hampton Cove by storm? Challenge Max and beat him at his own game?” It wasn’t that long ago that Brutus had arrived in town, full of piss and vinegar and strutting his stuff like nobody’s business. He was a cat’s cat. A real he-cat in every sense of the word, which was the reason she had fallen for him hard.
“I know,” said Brutus. “Somewhere along the line I seem to have lost my self-confidence. Or maybe I’ve become complacent. I don’t know what it is.”