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

She then moved into the garage, flicked on the light and looked around. Near the door, she saw four yellow metal jerrycans standing neatly in a row.

“Huh,” she said, and picked them up. “Empty,” she murmured, then shrugged, and carried them to the door to take out to the car. When you’re accused of arson it probably doesn’t look good to have four empty jerrycans in your garage, she figured.

“Vesta!” Scarlett suddenly yelled. “You gotta see this!”

Vesta stomped up the stairs, afraid there would be more dead bodies. Even she couldn’t explain away more dead bodies—or drag them to her car. But when she arrived upstairs, and followed Scarlett’s voice into what looked like the master bedroom, she saw to her elation that there was no dead body on the bed—or anywhere else, for that matter.

“What?” she said, panting from the exertion of running up those stairs.

“Will you look at that?”

“Who’s the babe?” asked Vesta as she took in the scene. A life-size painting of a nude hung over the bed, depicting some blond babe, her naked body draped across a sofa.

“Some movie star, you think?” asked Scarlett.

“Dunno,” said Vesta, but got her phone out again and started taking pictures.

“Weird,” Scarlett said as she shook her head.

“What’s weird about it? Some guys like to stare at pictures of Babe Ruth, this guy likes to look at naked women.”

“Woman—singular. I’ll bet it’s someone he knows.”

“And I’ll bet it’s just something he picked up in a dime store. Anything else?”

“I haven’t finished yet.”

“God, you’re slow.”

“Oh? And what have you found, Miss Amateur Burglar?”

Suddenly a police siren could be heard, and both women shut up. Their eyes met.

“Let’s skedaddle,” said Vesta.

“Good idea,” Scarlett agreed.

And so they skedaddled. And not a minute too soon, for even as Scarlett pulled the back door shut, they could hear the sound of a key being inserted in the front door.

“Damn fool,” Vesta said as she and Scarlett hurried round, both carrying two jerrycans. They took a peek to see if the coast was clear. “Why did he have to give them the key?”

“Probably because he was arrested and forced to empty out his pockets?”

“You’re such a smart-ass, did you know that?” said Vesta as they hurried to the car.

“I know. That’s why you love me, right?”

“I do, sweetie,” said Vesta. “No one else would be crazy enough to do this.”

“Oh, so now you admit this was a crazy idea, huh?”

“Less talk, more skedaddling,” Vesta grunted, and shoved down the accelerator. A cop glanced back as they drove past, and held up her hand for them to pull over. But too late.

Chapter 20

We were back at Odelia’s office, with Dooley and myself lounging in one corner, Harriet and Brutus in another, and Odelia herself busy typing on her computer. She was probably working out where to go from here. She’s resourceful that way.

“So you still haven’t told me if you’re Humpty or Dumpty, Max,” Dooley said.

Brutus guffawed. “Humpty Dumpty? What are you talking about, Dooley?”

“Dolores over at the precinct called us Humpty and Dumpty, but she didn’t say who’s Dumpty and who’s Humpty and it’s driving me crazy,” Dooley confessed.

“I think you probably misunderstood,” said Brutus. “I think she was referring to you as Numpty and to Max as Dumpty, for obvious reasons.”

Harriet gave him a shove. “Brutus, don’t be mean,” she said.

“I’m not being mean. I’m just pointing out the facts.”

“You’re being a bully, and I don’t like it,” said Harriet. “So stop it already.”

“Yes, Harriet,” Brutus muttered as he placed his chin on his paws.

“So I’m Numpty and you’re Dumpty?” asked Dooley.

I just shook my head.

Suddenly Gran and Scarlett came bursting into the office, carrying what looked like four jerrycans. “Look what we found!” said Vesta with a note of triumph in her voice.

“Jerrycans?” asked Odelia, showing us she’s very perceptive.

“Bingo!” said Gran. “And guess where we found them!”

“Um… at the gas station?” said Harriet, putting her two cents in.

“At Joshua Curtis’s place,” said Scarlett.

Odelia shot up from behind her desk so fast I thought she must have had a rocket explode under her buttocks to lend her that much speed. “WHAT?!” she said.

“We went over there just now,” said Scarlett, “to remove any incriminating evidence.” She shrugged. “Don’t look at me. It wasn’t my idea.”

“You did WHAT?!” Odelia said as she took three big steps and joined her grandmother and her friend.

“He’s your client, Odelia!” said Gran. “We have to protect him against my son’s unhealthy obsession with the guy. If he’s your client, he’s innocent, you can see how that’s just basic logic, right?”

“But Gran!” said Odelia, as she took in the four jerrycans now dumped at her feet. “You found these at Joshua’s house?”

“In his garage,” said Gran. “They’re empty,” she added helpfully.

“I suggest you bring them to the police station at once,” said Odelia.

“Are you crazy? We can’t do that! It’s exactly this kind of evidence that’s going to make them convict the guy faster than you can say ‘He didn’t do it!’”

“We’re not in the business of concealing evidence, Gran. We’re in the business of finding out the truth.”

“Even if it means a jury of his peers will have a hard time not convicting him of murder?”

“Even if it means that, yes.”

“Told you,” Scarlett said. “Show her what we found in the guy’s bedroom.”

Gran took out her phone and showed something to Odelia I couldn’t see.

“Can you show us, too?” I asked therefore, and Gran happily complied. I think she would have shown these pictures to anyone, except her son maybe.

The pictures showed a very large painting of a very naked… Melanie Myers!

“Is that Mrs. Myers?” asked Dooley.

“Yeah, looks like,” I said.

“But… why isn’t she wearing any clothes?”

“Um, she was probably taking a bath,” I said.

He craned his neck to take another look. “So where’s the bath? All I see is a couch.”

“Um…”

“So who is she?” asked Scarlett. “Some movie star? Singer?”

“The wife of his best friend,” said Odelia, looking much sobered.

“The wife of his best friend?! ” said Gran, and shared a meaningful look with Scarlett.

“See? Told you he was weird,” said Scarlett.

“Okay, so clearly the guy is head over heels in love with the woman,” said Gran. “But that still doesn’t mean he killed anyone!” she hastened to add.

Odelia furrowed her brow as she thought this through. “So he had four empty jerrycans of…” She took a sniff from one of the jerrycans. “… gasoline in his garage. And a nude painting of Melanie Myers hanging in his bedroom.” She heaved a deep sigh. “It’s getting harder and harder for me to convince myself he didn’t do it, you guys.”

“Yeah, looks that way to me, too,” I said.

“At any rate, you have to give these to the police. You can’t keep them.”

“I have no intention of keeping them,” said Gran. “These are for you!”

“Well, I don’t want them.”

“We can’t give them to the cops now. They’ll want to know why we took them.”

“How did you get in, by the way?”

“With my master key set.”

“Lock picking set,” Scarlett said.

“Master key set!”

“What a mess,” Odelia said, dragging her fingers through her blond mane.