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

“Mother,” said Marvin warningly.

“No, Marvin, someone has to tell that woman what’s what, and clearly she’s chosen Miss Poole as her emissary.” She turned back to Odelia. “Is she taking us to court?”

“I’m not sure,” said Odelia. “I think she would prefer to deal with this amicably.”

“Amicably! There can be no amicability between us and Francine, Miss Poole.”

“But what about your granddaughters?” said Odelia, taking out her phone. She held it out, showing a picture of the two girls. They looked like two blond-haired little angels.

Mrs. Harrison momentarily seemed to relent, but then her expression hardened and she said, emphatically, “Those girls are not my blood.” And with these words, she majestically rose, and walked out.

Marvin took the seat his mother had vacated and gave Odelia an apologetic look. “I’m sorry,” he said, “but Mother feels very strongly about this. I talked to her before, and she feels that when Francine left Franklin she also forfeited any right she might have had to his money—our money. And now that he’s dead, well…”

“But surely she is entitled to the child support your brother owed her?”

“Franklin didn’t pay because Franklin couldn’t pay,” said Marvin quietly. “My brother had gone down a very dark path, Miss Poole, but I’m sure you’re aware of that. He lost his standing in the community and his position as part of this family. My father….” He glanced up at the ceiling, then continued, “My father decided to cut him off six months ago, because he felt that Franklin had become an embarrassment, and didn’t want anything more to do with him.”

“How is your father?” she asked solicitously. “Even though he was unhappy with your brother he still must have been devastated when he heard about what happened.”

“We haven’t told him. We’re afraid that if he finds out it will kill him.” He took a deep breath, and stared out the window. Odelia could see that the death of his brother had affected him powerfully. To lose a sibling is an awful thing, but to lose a twin, she knew, was like losing part of oneself. “Father isn’t well, you see. In fact he’s pretty much at death’s door. He’s a good deal older than Mother. Mother is sixty-six, but Father is eighty-seven, and he’s been ill for quite some time. He’s strong, and he’s holding on for as long as he can, but we’re afraid that a shock like that would be the end. So we prefer to keep him in the dark. Let him think Franklin is still out there, up to his usual mischief.”

“Was he always like that, your brother?”

A smile lit up the man’s face. “Oh, yes. Franklin and I may be twins, but we couldn’t be more different. He’s always been a troublemaker. Even as a young boy he used to run around setting off firecrackers in the kitchen or shooting at windows with a BB gun. He’d drive our parents crazy. I was always the bookish kid, never happier than with my nose stuck in a book in some corner of this big rambling place we are lucky enough to call home.” He turned back to Odelia. “Don’t get me wrong, Miss Poole. I loved my brother. I absolutely did. But he was a handful, and maybe he’s better off now, wherever he is. He was definitely a tortured soul, and the last couple of years even more so than before.”

“Do you agree with your mother that Francine is to blame for his behavior?”

“No, absolutely not,” he said emphatically. “In fact I think Francine had a positive influence on him. While they were together he was doing much better. Unfortunately he couldn’t accept the responsibility of fatherhood, and of raising a family, and so he escaped, and soon was up to his old tricks again. Sleeping around, doing drugs…”

“Did you know he was living in a squat house?”

“No, I didn’t know that,” said Marvin softly. “He’d clearly gone downhill since the last time I saw him. Even though Father had cut him off, we still met up from time to time, and so did mother—behind Father’s back, of course.” He smiled a small smile and picked up the portrait of his brother. “All I can think is that he’s in a better place now.”

Chapter 28

After we got out of the car we looked around for any pets we could talk to. Odelia likes to get the inside track of any place she visits, and the best way to accomplish that is through us. People might keep a lot of secrets from other people, but they can’t keep secrets from their pets, and since those pets usually like to gab as much as humans do, we usually get an earful.

“Is that a horse, Max?” asked Dooley suddenly, indicating a small pen where a pony stood grazing languidly.

“I think that’s a pony,” I said.

We walked over to the pony, and it looked up from its perusal of its supply of grass. “Hey, there,” it said as soon as we hove into view. “Are you guys the new pets? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Are you Marvin’s? Or his mom’s? Gee, I just wish they’d get another pony. It’s not much fun being all by my lonesome out here, you know. I could really use a friend to talk to. Shoot the shit. Chew the cud. Though personally I don’t chew cud—I’m not a cow, you see. I’m a pony, if you hadn’t noticed. So who are you guys?”

“He’s a big talker, Max,” Dooley whispered.

“Yeah, he is,” I whispered back. Which is a good thing, of course. Nothing worse than a pet who won’t talk to us.

“We’re not the new pets,” I said, “either of Marvin or his mother.”

“We’re Odelia Poole’s cats,” said Dooley. “And she’s just visiting your humans—those are your humans in there, I suppose?”

“Yeah, they got me for Franklin’s kids, but then Franklin got divorced and the girls haven’t been here since. Ruth doesn’t like the girls’ mother, see. She thinks she did something to make Franklin leave her, and go down a path of self-destruction, and so she refuses to talk to her anymore, or the girls. Which is a pity, as I don’t have anyone to play with now. The girls were fun. Jaime and Marje. They’re twins, just like Franklin and Marvin. Maybe the twin gene runs in the family? I don’t know. You tell me.”

Unfortunately I had no expert opinion on the twin gene topic, so I decided to skip this one. Instead I explained, “Odelia is here to plead Francine’s case. She wants to make sure the girls are taken care of, since Franklin wasn’t the best at that kind of thing.”

“He refused to pay child support,” Dooley clarified.

“Yeah, Franklin was what you might call an irresponsible father,” the pony agreed. “In fact I don’t think he even liked to be a dad. Which is weird, cause these girls are really nice, and how can anyone not like them, you know? But hey, I guess that’s just the way it goes, you know. My name is Jane, by the way—what’s yours?”

“I’m Max,” I said, “and this is my friend Dooley.”

“Nice to meet you, Max and Dooley. So did you know Franklin?”

“No, we didn’t,” I admitted.

“He was a little weird. Selfish. Wasn’t interested in anyone but himself. And that included me! He didn’t like ponies. Had no use for them, he once told me.” Jane shook her head. “So not a nice person.” She then ripped off a big chunk of grass with her tongue and started chewing. “Too bad he died, though. He wasn’t nice, but that doesn’t mean he had to die.”

“How do you know he died?”

“Duh. I may be the only pony here, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have friends, you guys.” Just then, a bird landed on her back and started twittering like crazy. “This is Jake,” said the pony affectionately. “He brings me all the latest news from town.”

The bird took off again, and I asked, “So did your friend Jake tell you what happened to Franklin?”