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

“Unless he didn’t do it.”

“Yeah, right. So the only thing that struck me as odd is that the Dibbles didn’t call in.”

“The Dibbles? Who are they?”

“Bart and Vanda Dibble. They’re neighbors. They live right across the street. They’re usually the first to call when something happens at Parker Street 51. In fact they’ve called in so many times I’ve considered blocking their number.”

“You wouldn’t do that, right?”

“Nah, I’m not allowed. Unfortunately.”

“What do they usually call about, these Dibbles?”

“Oh, the usual, you know. Noise complaints. Parties happening late at night, drug dealing, and of course the fact that the building was the home of a bunch of squatters, which they said was bringing down property prices and the value of their own home.”

“They’re probably right.”

“Oh, sure. But they don’t have to call and tell me about it every single day, do they? Besides, it’s not as if I can help it that the owner of the building has decided to let it get run down like that. We informed the town council, and they promised to look into it.”

“Looks like the Dibbles finally got what they wanted,” said Odelia. “That building will probably have to be demolished now.” She gave the other woman a quick hug. “Thanks so much, Dolores. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go on, get out of here.” She then glanced down at Dooley and myself. “And you too, Humpty and Dumpty. Get lost. I don’t need a couple of cat spies on my ass all day.”

And as we walked off, I said, “She spotted us, Dooley. I didn’t think she’d spot us.”

“Why did she call us Humpty and Dumpty, Max?” asked Dooley as we left the precinct in Odelia’s wake.

“We really need to work on our stealth mode. I can’t believe she saw us.”

“So who are you, Max? Humpty or Dumpty?”

“I dunno,” I muttered, still wondering how Dolores had spotted us. I prided myself in the way I could surreptitiously spy on people, only now I’d been found out two times in a row: first by Uncle Alec, though that was entirely Dooley’s fault, of course, and once by Dolores, and in this last case I had nobody to blame but myself.

“I think I’m Humpty, Max,” said Dooley. “And you’re Dumpty.”

“Sure, Dooley,” I said. “Whatever you say, buddy.”

Chapter 17

Odelia and her two feline detectives had arrived at the place where Melanie Myers lived with her husband. She’d first tried to find her at work, at wefindyourdreamhomeforyou.com, but one of her colleagues said that Melanie had called in sick. Odelia hoped she wasn’t too sick to talk to her, though.

The house was a nice modest family home with a single garage in a neighborhood of similar family homes. It was one of those neighborhoods where not too many cars drive through, and where kids can take their bikes out and play on the street. Two little boys were doing that in front of the Myers house, and Odelia wondered if they were Melanie’s. Joshua hadn’t mentioned any kids, but then Joshua hadn’t exactly been forthcoming.

She walked up to the house and pressed her finger on the buzzer. A pleasant jangling sound echoed inside, and before long she heard footsteps and the door was opened.

“Yes?” said Melanie Myers, looking a lot plainer than she’d looked the day before. Gone was the makeup, and gone was the nice suit she’d worn—probably office attire. She was plainly dressed in jeans and a T-shirt now, and her hair was done up into a messy bun.

“Melanie Myers?” asked Odelia.

“Yes, who’s asking?”

“My name is Odelia Poole, and a friend of yours asked me to help him out with something. Joshua Curtis? I believe you know him?”

“Yes, I know Joshua,” said Melanie.

“Can I come in for a moment? It’s a delicate matter.”

Melanie considered this, then glanced down and caught sight of Max and Dooley, or Humpty and Dumpty as they now called themselves. “Oh, how cute!” Melanie exclaimed, immediately crouching down and tickling both cats under their chins. The purring sounds made it obvious they weren’t averse to her ministrations. “Are they yours?”

“Yeah. Yeah, they are. They like to follow me around, as strange as that may sound.”

“Oh, no, mine are just the same,” said Melanie. “If I’d let them they’d follow me to the office and lie next to my desk all day. Unfortunately my boss hates cats. She thinks it’s unprofessional and makes a bad impression on the clients.” She rolled expressive eyes. “As if cats could ever make a bad impression on anyone. I’d say they’re an ice breaker.”

Well, they’d certainly broken the ice now, Odelia thought as she stepped inside the house and closed the door behind her.

Two cats came walking up to her, meowing all the while. They were very small, even smaller than Dooley, and were clearly purebreds. So she left Dooley and Max to deal with them, and maybe extract some more information, and followed Melanie into the living room.

“Please take a seat,” said Melanie, indicating a beige leather couch on which crocheted covers had been placed to protect the leather against the sharp claws of her fur babies.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard,” she said, “but Franklin Harrison was found dead last night.”

Melanie was shocked by this piece of news, Odelia could tell, but she tried to hide it well. “I-I’m afraid the name doesn’t ring a bell,” she said unconvincingly.

Odelia decided to put all of her cards on the table. Joshua might not like it, but that couldn’t be helped. “Joshua told me that you and Franklin were seeing each other,” she said therefore. “So he asked me to find out if this was true. He wanted you to stop, as he was afraid of the impact the affair might have on your marriage, so…”

“Oh, God,” said Melanie, shifting in her place. “Joshua told you that?”

“He did. Yesterday morning. He asked me to follow you around and take pictures.”

“Pictures!”

“Yeah. He wanted to confront you with the affair, and make you stop.”

Melanie shook her head in utter dismay. “I don’t know how he found out. But then Joshua likes to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong,” she said with a touch of vehemence.

“The thing is the police have arrested him. They think that he killed Franklin.”

Melanie sat up straight. “Joshua killed Franklin!”

“He says he didn’t do it. He says he just wanted to talk to him, but when he arrived the house was on fire and Franklin was dead.”

“How-how did he die?” asked Melanie.

“Smoke inhalation. But before that he was drugged. So he didn’t suffer.”

Melanie lowered her gaze to the floor. “I did have an affair with Franklin,” she said in a low voice. “But it didn’t mean much. Not to me, and not to him either. In fact he called me yesterday to break it off. Said the relationship had run its course and he didn’t think we should see each other anymore.” She shrugged. “It was clear from the beginning that this wasn’t going anywhere. It was just a fling for him—and for me, too, I guess.”

“How did you meet?”

“At a club. I don’t usually go clubbing anymore. Not since I married and had kids.”

“Oh, so those two boys outside…”

Melanie smiled. “Yeah, they’re mine. My precious little darlings.” She looked up at Odelia. “Are you married, Miss Poole?”

“Just got married, actually,” said Odelia, displaying her wedding ring.

“When you’ve been married as long as I have, you’ll understand that from time to time a woman needs to have a night out—some little time off from her marriage, especially when there are kids involved. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband, and I adore my two rascals, but we have this thing where I take one night off every month, and so does Jason—that’s my husband. So I have a girls night, and he has a boys night—not on the same night, obviously—and it makes you forget for just one night that you’re not just a mom and a wife but also a woman, you know. I go to the spa with my girlfriends, or we hit the town, or take a weekend off and go someplace to be pampered and have fun. So last month we went clubbing, which I hadn’t done in years, and it was such a blast.”