Ник Сайнт - Purrfect Sidekick. Purrfect Deseit. Purrfect Ruse [calibre 5.14.0]

“That’s what Shanille said. And she told me to look out for that stork. If I miss it, and those babies get delivered to the wrong address, Odelia will kick Chase out and get a divorce! And then she’ll be sad, and she might kick us out, too! Because we like Chase so much,” he added quietly.

“Look, Dooley, this is all just a lot of baloney. Please don’t listen to Shanille. If she tells you a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense, you ask me first before you go start believing her, okay?”

“So… was she lying, Max? Was Shanille lying when she told me that Chase needs to perform or else? And what does she mean by that?”

“Um…”

“I asked her if she meant that Chase had to sing for Odelia. You know, perform a song? Or maybe a dance? And she looked at me and shook her head and walked off. So now I still don’t know what she meant.”

“Well, you called it, Dooley,” I said. “When a couple gets married the husband has to perform a song and a dance. And if they do it right, they’ll make their brides very happy.”

Dooley smiled. “I’m sure that Chase did a great job. I’ve heard him sing and he’s aces.”

Chase is a wonderful human being, a great cop, and an amazing partner to our human, but what he is not is a singer. In fact Chase can’t sing if his life depended on it. And I’ve never seen him dance, but somehow I don’t think he’s aces in that department either. But if Dooley was happy to think that he was, good for him. I wasn’t going to rob him of that particular illusion.

“You keep watching out for that stork, Dooley,” I said therefore. “But if it doesn’t arrive soon, I don’t want you to worry, all right? Stork or no stork, Odelia loves Chase, and I’m sure that he loves her, too. So there is no danger of divorce in their near future.”

“That’s good to know, Max,” my friend said earnestly, “cause Shanille really had me worried there for a minute.”

And since Odelia was such a wonderful human, we decided to give her a helping paw by spying on Uncle Alec, who, for some reason I couldn’t quite fathom, didn’t seem as eager as usual to share information with his favorite niece.

So we rounded the building, hopped up onto the Chief’s windowsill, and lay in wait, making sure we weren’t seen, and pressing our ears to the window to pick up those telling clues Odelia likes us to supply her with.

“So it was definitely murder?” we heard Uncle Alec ask Chase.

“Yeah, no doubt about it,” said Chase. “And we know who did it, too, which is a first.”

“Joshua Curtis. Notary clerk. No priors, not even a speeding ticket. In every respect a model citizen. And now this.”

“The toxicology report is clear: all three of these guys died from smoke inhalation, and all three had Rohypnol in their blood, which proves they were knocked out prior to their deaths.”

“So they were knocked out first, then someone set fire to the building?”

“Exactly. So now we know what happened, and we got the killer. Only thing we don’t know is why. Why did Mr. Model Citizen suddenly bust loose and decide to slay three?”

Chapter 13

Odelia, in spite of the fact that she wasn’t the man’s attorney, and she wasn’t a police officer either, still was granted access to Joshua Curtis. She’d told the desk sergeant that the man was her client, and no further questions were asked. Such was the advantage of being the Chief’s niece that five minutes later she was sitting in one of the interview rooms talking to the suspect.

Joshua looked a little worse for wear, compared to the last time she’d seen him: his shirt was untucked and his chin was dark with a shadow of stubble. He also looked a little sleepy, and clearly hadn’t enjoyed his short sojourn in the pen.

“So are you finally going to tell me the truth, Joshua?” she said.

“What do you mean?” he asked, warily dragging a hand through his tousled hair.

“You weren’t walking your dog last night, were you? You don’t even have a dog. So what were you doing at the house on Parker Street?”

He hung his head in resignation. “Look, all I wanted to do was have it out with the guy once and for all, all right?”

“What guy?” asked Odelia with a frown. “What are you talking about?”

“The guy! The guy Melanie was seeing.”

“But… I thought you said you didn’t know who he was?”

“I… well, I may not have told you the complete truth,” he admitted. “His name is Franklin Harrison, and apparently he was living in that squat house for some time. Even though he hadn’t told Melanie. He’d told her he was living in Jackson Heights.”

“The luxury condos?”

He nodded. “He lived at Jackson Heights for a while, but he was kicked out by the home owner’s association. Complaints about the use of intoxicants and all-night parties and scantily clad girls in the corridors. Oh, and he didn’t pay the rent. That probably had something to do with it as well. Anyway, when I found out Melanie was seeing this Harrison guy, I asked around, and discovered he’d moved to the squat house, probably having a good time shacking up with his fellow drug addicts.” He shook his head in disgust. “Not the kind of guy Melanie should be involved with. And I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know all there was to know about him. Like the drugging and the squatting.”

“I don’t get it,” said Odelia. “He’s Herbert Harrison’s son, right? So he must be loaded. So why didn’t he pay the rent on his condo? What was he doing living in a squat house?”

“Beats me,” said Joshua. “All I know is that when you told me yesterday that he’d dumped Melanie I was relieved, but not so relieved as not to want to make sure he never got near Melanie ever again. So I decided to pay him a visit and tell him exactly that. Only when I got there I saw that the place was on fire, and Harrison’s lifeless body lying on some ratty mattress, looking very much dead.” He raised tired eyes to meet Odelia’s. “Look, I didn’t kill him, all right? I didn’t set that building on fire, whatever the police are saying. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all. My rotten luck for wanting to help Jason save his marriage.”

“But if you’re innocent, why did you run off like that? Why didn’t you stick around?”

“Because I didn’t want to get involved. I don’t want Melanie to know I was sticking my nose into her personal business, and Jason even less so. If Melanie knew I’d been talking to her boyfriend, or asking you to look into this whole messed-up business, she would probably never talk to me again, and neither would Jason.” He sighed and hung his head. “I really messed up big time, didn’t I?”

“You should have told me, Joshua. you should have told me you knew who Melanie was seeing.”

“I know, I know.” He looked up. “Can you help me? You’re the Chief’s niece. And the lead detective is your husband. You must have some pull with these people. Can’t you explain to them that I’m innocent?”

She placed a hand on his arm. “Are you sure you told me everything this time?”

“Yes, of course.”

“No more lies?”

“No more lies.”

“I’ll talk to my uncle. Find out what he knows. The fact that they’re holding you here means they must have something on you. Though it could be just like you said: being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She fixed him with a stern look. “But you’ll have to come clean, Joshua. You’re going to have to tell them everything—every last detail.”

“Also about Melanie?”

“Also about Melanie.”

“Oh, God,” he said, and rubbed his haggard features. “She’ll be so angry with me.”

“Well, that can’t be helped,” she said. “If you don’t want to be charged with triple homicide you’re going to have to come clean, and that means telling my uncle and my husband exactly what you just told me.”