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“Yeah, she hates cats,” I said, taking in what Chase had just said. Clearly Madame Solange was at the heart of some kind of fraud, but what I couldn’t figure out was how the whole thing worked, exactly.

Marge patted Chase’s knee affectionately. “Are you married, Officer Kingsley?”

“Um, no, ma’am, I’m not,” said Chase.

“Why don’t I introduce you to Solange? She’s a very nice young woman, and I’m sure you and her will get along famously. Do you want me to set it up?”

“Mom!” said Odelia.

“What? I’m just trying to be nice to your friend, honey,” said Marge with a shrug. “Spread a little sweetness and light, just like Madame Solange does.”

Looked like Solange was spreading more than just sweetness and light, though. She was also spreading a few tactics of wish fulfillment. And I sincerely hoped Chase would get to the bottom of the whole affair.

At least if Marge didn’t marry him off to Solange first.

Chapter 36

“I say we go in there and demand that she give us Uncle Alec back,” said Brutus, who’s the kind of cat who prefers the heavy-handed approach.

“We can’t just go in there and make her do anything,” I said. “We’re just cats, Brutus. And Solange is a lot bigger and a lot stronger than we are.” And if she wasn’t, her burly associate definitely was. “Besides, nothing in this whole story tells me that Solange is involved in Uncle Alec’s kidnapping.”

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, Max. Of course she’s involved!”

“And how do you figure that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why would a fortune teller abduct a local police chief? Give me one good reason.”

“Um…”

“See?”

“I think Chase is wrong,” said Harriet. “I think Solange is perfectly innocent of all these crimes he’s accusing her of. All I see is a woman who likes to spread a little happiness wherever she goes.”

“So how do you explain that a couple of heavies leaned on Barry Billong to make him propose to Officer Flunk?” asked Brutus.

“Probably Sarah’s cousins getting sick and tired of her waiting around for this no-good Barry to finally leave his other girlfriend,” said Harriet with a shrug.

“And Dan’s stolen toy train? And Ted Trapper’s fake lottery ticket?”

“I’ll bet that Dan Goory arranged the theft of that locomotive himself,” said Harriet. “He’s been wanting to lay his hands on that thing for so long. You know what collectors are like. Sometimes they go a little berserk.”

“And Ted’s Powerball ticket?”

“Oh, honey plum. Don’t you know by now that people will go to any lengths to get their hands on a little bit of money?”

“Even nice Ted Trapper?”

“Of course! Human nature is what is. They simply can’t help themselves, the poor dears.”

“Do you think Fido also arranged his so-called inheritance himself?” I asked.

“Of course! Can you imagine having to cut people’s hair all your life! I think Fido is probably ready to tear his own hair out by now, and so he made up this entire inheritance story to give himself an excuse to start a new life without people asking him a lot of annoying questions.”

“And Wilbur and his princess?”

“Oh, Maxie,” she said with a smile. “You know Wilbur. Of course he made the whole thing up. It’s just the kind of thing he would do. The man can’t get a woman to give him the time of day so now he invents an actual princess to save face in front of his friends and customers.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it’s all a simple case of human nature. And if you’re a keen study of humans, like I am, this is all very easily explained.”

“I don’t know,” I said, not entirely convinced.

“I think you’ll find that these people all want something so badly that they’ll go to any lengths to get it—even lying and cheating and stealing.”

“People are weird,” said Dooley, nodding.

“I just wish we could be there when Chase interviews Madame Solange,” I said.

“Oh, if you want I’ll do the honors,” said Norm. “I can be your fly on the wall,” he added with a sly little grin.

“Would you, Norm?” I asked. “I’m really curious what she’s going to say.”

“She’ll say the exact same thing I just told you,” said Harriet. “Just you wait and see.”

Harriet’s theory sounded very plausible, but it still didn’t explain why Marge had suddenly lost all recollection of who Chase was, or why Uncle Alec was still missing. But of course my friend could be right, and Madame Solange could be absolutely uninvolved in all of these strange occurrences.

I guess we’d soon find out—or at least our resident spy fly Norm would.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]

Norm the fly was on a mission again, and this time the mission was even more hairy than his previous ones. He’d been given the order straight from the head of the secret service himself: Max, or, as Norm liked to call him: M.

M had tasked him with a mission to eavesdrop on Chase as he interviewed Solange, and come hell or high water, Norm was going to see this dangerous mission through.

Dangerous because any mission involving humans was fraught with a certain measure of peril, as humans don’t like flies, and enjoy swatting them at any occasion.