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“Nothing. Chase handed over Rose’s phone to the brainiacs at the cybercrime unit. They’ll work their magic and hopefully come up with a name and address.” He grimaced. “At which point we’ll come down on this Dick like a ton of bricks.”

“Yes, nail this sausage man,” said Dooley sagely. “That’s my advice, Odelia.”

“Oh, brother,” Max muttered.

Dooley had taken a sip from Uncle Alec’s coffee, and suddenly sneezed—into the Chief’s cup. “Better don’t drink this, Uncle Alec,” he said, making a face. “This stuff will kill you.” And then he smiled at Max. “Another good deed done!”

Chapter 9

We finally had a case to work on—exactly what I needed right now, what with Dooley’s string of good deeds making me antsy and worried about his safety—not everyone responds with Uncle Alec’s equanimity at having their morning coffee spoiled.

“So where do we go next?” I asked when we’d walked out of the police station.

“Well, seeing as I need to disprove that Rose’s dad was murdered,” said Odelia, “and the only way to disprove a murder is to try to prove it and fail, I thought we might go and see a specialist.”

“An eye specialist?” asked Dooley, interested.

Odelia smiled.“I thought we’d go and see my dad. He was, after all, Dino Wimmer’s doctor, and might be able to tell me more about the man’s state of mind when he died.”

“Oh, right,” said Dooley, who was clearly firing on all cylinders today.

So we set paw for Odelia’s dad Tex, who has his doctor’s office nearby, and soon walked in to find Odelia’s gran seated behind the reception desk, busily enjoying a game of scrabble. It was a nice change of pace from her usual game of Solitaire, I must say.

“What are you doing here?” Gran snapped in her customary pleasant welcoming way.

“I need to talk to Dad,” said Odelia. She directed a curious look at the door to the inner office. “Is he busy?”

“He’s always busy. You’ll have to make an appointment.”

“Oh,” said Odelia, clearly disappointed.

“Why do you need to see him?” asked the old lady. “Are you dying? Do you have a disease you haven’t told me about? Is it cancer?”

“Cancer!” said Dooley. “You’re not dying, are you, Odelia?”

“No, I’m not dying, Dooley,” said Odelia, directing a censorious look at her grandmother, silently scolding her lack of tact. “If you must now, I’m working on a case.”

“A case? And you didn’t tell me? You didn’t tell your loyal sidekick? The Dr. Watson to your Sherlock Holmes? The Captain Hastings to your Hercule Poirot? And why, may I ask, is it that all these famous detectives are men, and their sidekicks, too? It’s not fair!”

She was right, of course, though in our case our main detective was clearly a woman, in the form of Odelia, and her sidekicks—plural—were cats, which was definitely a departure from the norm.

“Well, it’s not really a case,” said Odelia. “Well, it is and it isn’t.”

“Oh, please make up your mind,” Gran grunted irritably. “Is it a case or isn’t it a case?”

“A man committed suicide last night.”

“I heard about that. Dino Wimmer. The banker.”

“And now his daughter Rose thinks it wasn’t suicide but murder and she wants me to investigate and bring the alleged killer to justice. Only I’m not so sure she’s right. And so I’m going to try to prove that he was murdered and thereby prove that he wasn’t, see?”

Gran blinked a couple of times, then frowned.“You’re nuts,” was her opinion, and then hollered, “Tex! Your daughter is here to see you!” And then she sat back down behind her desk, watching with satisfaction how the door to the inner office was yanked open and a distraught-looking Tex appeared. His shock of white hair was tousled, and his face flushed.

“Odelia, honey. What ’s wrong? Are you all right?”

“She’s working on a case and needs your opinion,” Gran explained. “In other words she needs you to dish the dirt on one of your patients. Dino Wimmer—remember him?”

“Sure, Dino.”

“He died last night. Offed himself by popping a bunch of pills.” She gestured with her head to her granddaughter. “In you go. And make it snappy. We don’t have all day, you know.”

Odelia, if she was annoyed by her grandmother’s remarks, didn’t show it. Then again, if you’ve lived as long as she had in the company of the woman, probably nothing she said or did had the power to surprise her. So we all filed into Tex’s office and as Odelia took a seat and Tex rounded his desk and did the same, Dooley and I glancedaround, sniffing here and there and generally getting a good feel for the place. It had been a while since we’d been in there and it needed careful examination.

“So Dino Wimmer,” said Tex, folding his hands as if in prayer and resting them on his desk. “What do you want to know?”

“The thing is Dad, his daughter seems to think he’d never kill himself. She thinks her dad was murdered. Any thoughts?”

The good doctor frowned.“Thoughts…” he murmured. “Thoughts…”

“You know—what was his state of mind? Do you think he was in such a bad way that he wanted to end his life?”