Ник Сайнт - Purrfectly Deadly

“I think you better wait outside, Odelia, honey,” said the Chief now.

“Yes, please get out of my house, Miss Poole,” Veronica said, hands on her hips now, eyes blazing.

And as Odelia left the room, she heard Bryony say, “It is highly unorthodox to have a reporter present at a police interview, isn’t it, Chief?”

Yes, it was highly unorthodox, and if it was true that Veronica was still secretly seeing Rubb, she just might talk to the Commissioner again, who might talk to Mayor Turner, who might talk to Dan and force him to fire her, just like they’d leaned on her uncle to fire Chase.

Darn it. She’d just landed herself in a big ol’ heap of trouble, hadn’t she?

Chapter 20

Seated in her uncle’s squad car, she was waiting nervously until he came out. After what seemed like forever, he finally appeared on the doorstep and, after shaking hands with Bryony, ambled over and heaved his bulk into the driver’s seat.

“Well?” she asked

“Well, that was some show, honey.”

She groaned. “I know. I got carried away. But when I think of all the lies Veronica told I couldn’t just sit there and say nothing. God knows she’s put Chase through hell, and I’m sure she’s not telling the truth about Rubb. I’m pretty sure she’s still seeing that guy.”

He turned to her with a serious expression on his face. “Odelia, honey, she’s going to talk to the mayor, who apparently is a friend of the family.”

She felt her blood run cold. “So? I’m not a cop. He can’t do anything.”

“Knowing Mayor Turner, and how much he likes his celebrities, he’ll want to have a word with Dan. And me,” he said, turning his gaze to the windshield. “About allowing you to tag along on official police business.”

“You mean you might get into trouble because of me? I’m so sorry, uncle.”

“That’s all right. Mayor Turner isn’t my first mayor. I’ve had worse. But he might raise Cain with that editor of yours. Though knowing Dan he’ll probably flip the mayor the bird and tell him to take a hike.”

She smiled. “He probably will.” Still, she felt bad about having caused both her uncle and Dan so much trouble.

“Anyhoo,” said her uncle, firing up the engine, “looks like I can put this case to rest now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’ve got my suspect, and I’ve interviewed pretty much everyone connected to this case. So now it’s up to the prosecutor to get a conviction.”

Alarmed, she turned to him. “You’re not going to charge Jasper?”

“Of course I’m charging Jasper. He’s got motive, means and opportunity. The perfect trifecta. Of all the suspects, we’re most likely to convict him.”

“But he didn’t do it. Even Bryony said he would never harm Johnny.”

“He was a boy toy past his prime, honey. He saw other, younger guys moving in and he knew it was only a matter of time before he was out.”

“But Johnny was going to marry him!”

“He didn’t know that. If he had, things might have gone differently.”

She shook her head. “I’m sure he didn’t do it.”

“You keep forgetting his fingerprints were on that vial, Odelia. This is an open-and-shut case from where I’m sitting, and I’m sure the District Attorney’s Office will agree with me on that. Easiest conviction ever.”

“This isn’t over yet,” she grumbled, putting her feet up on the dash.

He grimaced. “Are you sure you aren’t part bloodhound, honey?”

She very well might be. Her uncle dropped her off at the newspaper, and she went in to find Dan and tell him to expect a call from the mayor.

“Let him call,” said Dan. “I’ll tell him to go to hell.”

“He’ll probably ask you to fire me, Dan.”

“So? I’m not going to fire my best reporter.”

She grinned, greatly relieved. “I’m also your only reporter.”

“Well, all the more reason not to fire you.”

“But what if the mayor threatens to go after your advertisers?”

“Look, the Hampton Cove Gazette has been around for over forty years, and will still be here when Mayor Turner is long gone. Politicians have tried to mess with me and my paper before, and failed. My advertisers don’t care about politics. They care about having a paper that’s widely circulated and popular with its readers, and they know that in order to do that you need ace reporters such as yourself. You just keep doing what you do best, and I’ll tell Mayor Turner that he can stick his threats where the sun don’t shine.”

She smiled at the elderly man. “You’re the best, Dan, did you know that?”

“I do, but I don’t mind hearing it again from time to time.”

“Well, you are.”

He spread his arms. “Don’t we make a great team? The best editor and the best reporter, annoying the heck out of the celebrities and politicians in this town. Now you go out there and do your thing. You have my blessing.”

Chapter 21

I’d decided to take an extended nap, and so had Dooley. After spending all of the previous day out and about, and half the night as well, I was feeling the strain. So today we decided to take a break. If Brutus wanted to traipse around town all day, that was his business, but we were going to sleep.

Odelia had left early that morning, promising she was fine without us for a day. She was going to interview some more people, and if she needed help she’d let us know. So when suddenly a grating voice sounded right next to me, I figured it was Odelia. “All right, all right,” I muttered. “One minute.”

As usual I took up one half of the couch in Odelia’s living room and Dooley the other half. I’d been dreaming of little tweety birds sitting in a tree, and Princess and I had just chased them to the top branch. We were both perched on that branch like Kate and Leo in Titanic, and I was yelling “I’m the king of the world!” when someone said, “I need your help, Maxie, baby.”

Only one cat called me Maxie baby, and suddenly my dream turned into a nightmare. A thump on my shoulder told me this wasn’t a dream at all, but brutal reality. And when I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the face of Brutus, I groaned. “Oh, go away,” and closed my eyes again.

“I need your help. Chase is leaving town and so am I if I don’t stop him.”

A jolt of elation shot through me. Had I heard this right? Was Brutus leaving town. “You’re leaving?” I asked, sitting bolt upright now.

“Yeah,” he said, looking none too pleased.

I saw that Harriet was seated next to him, and it was obvious she’d been crying. Dooley, now coming out of his slumber, muttered, “Who’s leaving?”

“Brutus,” I told him.

“Hey, that’s great,” he said blithely. “So when is he going?”

“This isn’t funny, Dooley,” said Harriet between two sniffs. “Chase resigned. The chief didn’t want to fire him but he resigned himself.”

“Yeah, we were there when it happened. Right outside the window.”

“What happened?” I asked, genuinely interested now.

“It was that horrible drug dealer Chase caught yesterday,” Brutus said.

“Odelia caught that drug dealer, not Chase,” I corrected him.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. The creep filed charges for police harassment, and his lawyer must have talked to the Commissioner, Chase’s former boss, and he talked to the mayor of this crappy little town and forced the Chief’s hand.”

“Only Chief Alec refused to fire Chase so Chase decided to quit,” Harriet said. “Such an honorable man. And now he’s being pressured to leave.”

I scratched my head. “That’s… surprising.” I wondered what Odelia would have to say about this. She and Chase hadn’t exactly hit it off, though I had the impression she was warming to the guy. And now he was leaving. So was this a good thing or a bad thing? Hard to know for sure. My first instinct was to applaud this outcome, since it meant we’d never see Brutus again.