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“Floralba is on the list of possible suspects,” the dog agreed. “Though why she would do it is beyond me. She’s been with Randy for thirty years, and has always treated him well, so…” He placed his head on his paws. “I guess with humans you just never know.”

Dooley and I retreated, deciding to give Little Randy some space.“He seems very sad,” Dooley whispered once we were out of earshot of the big dog. “Poor Little Randy.”

“I think he feels he let his human down,” I said. “By not protecting him against these people.”

“But he couldn’t protect Randy. The evil housekeeper drugged him!”

“We don’t know that, Dooley, so let’s not jump to conclusions.”

“I think she did it, Max. Who else could it be?”

“Let’s just wait and see,” I said. I was pretty sure Odelia would ask us to come along to Randy’s house the following day, to start her investigation, and I liked to keep an open mind.

I glanced over to the sizable dog, and felt for him. And then I got an idea.“Why don’t we introduce Little Randy to Fifi and Rufus?” I suggested. “That way he won’t feel so alone.”

“Great idea, Max,” said Dooley enthusiastically.

It’s hard for a dog to make friends with a pair of cats, and if things gelled between our canine guest and our neighboring dogs, they could get him out of this funk.

Just then, Harriet waltzed in and said,“Still no sign of Brutus? Nothing?”

Dooley turned to me, looking aghast.“It’s the poisoners, Max! They took Brutus and poisoned him, too!”

Chapter 9

Dooley wasn’t entirely happy with this situation. He didn’t mind when Odelia solved her mysteries and asked her cats to tag along, but now she was actually courting danger. A man who was going to die in five days, and his dog who’d been poisoned… Who was to say the people behind this terrible, terrible crime wouldn’t find them and seek them out, too? And then they’d poison the entire household and they’d all die a gruesome death!

He knew how these poisoners operated. They didn’t mind if innocent bystanders like the Pooles or their cats got hit, too. And to die by poison just seemed like such an unpleasant way to go.

He shivered when he thought about it, and so when Harriet kept rambling on about Brutus who’d suddenly disappeared, he could clearly envision their friend lying in a ditch somewhere, alone and dying!

“I think we should tell Odelia we don’t want Randy here,” he now said. “It’s very nice of her to want to help her big fitness idol, but I don’t think it’s safe.”

“What do you mean?” asked Harriet. “What fitness idol?”

“Randy Hancock, of course,” said Dooley, “and he brought his dog, too, and once those poisoners get wind that he’s holed up here, they’ll come looking, and then they’ll poison all of us and then we’ll be dead and where will that leave us? Not in a good place!”

“Randy’s poisoners won’t be able to find us, Dooley,” said Max. “He made sure he wasn’t followed, and he didn’t tell anyone where he was going, so we’re perfectly safe.”

“I still don’t get it,” said Harriet, frowning in frustration. “Who is Randy and what…” She did a double take when she caught sight of Little Randy taking up an awful lot of space on the carpet by the window. “What… is…that!”

“That is Little Randy,” said Dooley. “He’s Randy’s dog, though he’s not very little, so I don’t know why he’s called that. He’s going to stay here for a while, even though he’s very sad because he couldn’t protect his human against the poison because the housekeeper spiked hiswater but then replaced it with fresh water before Randy could take it to the police.”

Harriet was staring from Dooley to Little Randy and back.“Dooley, you keep talking and I keep wondering when you will finally start making sense! What poison?!”

“The same poison that Brutus was fed,” said Dooley sadly, “and now he’s probably dying in some ditch somewhere, and by the time we find him he’ll be dead.”

This time Harriet was too horrified to allow for speech, which maybe was a good thing, as the prissy white Persian had a habit of talking a lot. Like, a whole lot.

“Randy Hancock is a fitness instructor,” said Max.

“He’s Odelia’s fitness instructor,” said Dooley. “Only not really—just on TV.”

“And someone injected him with poison and sent him a bunch of messages telling him he only has five days to live.”

“Four now,” said Dooley helpfully.

“They also sent him a video just now showing him how they did it.”

“A very scary video, with very scary music, and scary words written on it.”

“And now he wants Odelia to help him find out who’s behind this, and in the meantime he’ll be staying here and so will his dog.”

“Oh, God,” said Harriet. “Why does this keep happening to us!”

“Because our human is an amateur sleuth,” Dooley said. “And she likes to take on these hopeless cases.”

“Hopeless?” asked Harriet. “What makes you say that?”

“Because it’s clear that whoever gave Randy the poison wants him to die, and wants Little Randy to die, and wants us to die, too!”