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I still hadn’t told Nan about Bravo’s offer to introduce me to my long-lost bio grandma, so I chose my words carefully while speaking to Charles now. “I’ll be back before you have to go to trial.”

“These birds are definitely going to keep me on task until then. I honestly worry about what they’ll do if they think I’m ignoring their case. It almost feels like they’re some kind of avian mafia here. Ugh. If only there was some way to find that missing flock,” he said thoughtfully.

“Actually, there is a way,” Octo-Cat piped in from the back seat.

“Hang on,” I told Charles. “It seems Octo-Cat has an idea.”

“Not an idea,” he corrected with a haughty snort. “The solution.”

He wasted no time in continuing, “I don’t know all the details—or really any of the details—about this seagull stuff. You know, since somebody didn’t deem this new case important enough to tell her partner about.”

I held my tongue to avoid another pointless argument. But when had there been time to tell him? I was out until all hours working on his honey-do list last night, and today I’d been focused on driving while he filled every spare moment with either talk of Grizabella or lackluster advice from Dr. Roman.

“Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it,” Octo-Cat continued. “Our top spy stayed home.”

“Our top spy?” I asked. It was rare Octo-Cat admitted that anyone could do anything better than him, especially a task he enjoyed as much as spying.

“Yeah, the raccoon.”

“Oh,” I mumbled. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“Of course it’s not a bad idea. It came from me.”

“What?” Charles asked. “What did he say?”

“Pringle,” I explained in one single word.

“What about him?” Charles wanted to know.

“Well, he can talk to the birds for you and he loves gossip. I’m sure you don’t even have to ask for his help. You just have to talk about the problem near him and he’ll go explore it on his own.”

“Is that what you want me to do?”

“Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. Especially if it puts these questions to rest for you.”

“Okay,” he agreed, taking a slurp of coffee that made me incredibly antsy in my coffeeless state “I’ll go over to your place after work and see what I can do.”

“Great. If you want, you can FaceTime me once you’re there. I’ll tell Pringle what we need him to do.”

“I love you,” Charles said before taking another noisy sip.

I told him I loved him too and said goodbye. When we hung up, Dr. Roman’s voice immediately came bursting back through the speakers. No, no more. I needed at least some kind of break from him, so I turned the radio off.

“Hey,” Octo-Cat protested.

“Hey yourself,” I said. “I just need a minute so I can focus on finding an exit.”

“Does this mean you’re finally going to set up my litter box? Because I’ve been holding it, and I hate holding it.”

I refused to dignify that question with a response since I’d already made my position on the travel litter box more than clear. And a few miles later I found an exit that boasted a gas station, if not much else.

Hey, gas station coffee was good enough for me, especially since I didn’t know how quickly Nan’s car ran through fuel and didn’t want to take any chances there.

“Can you top us off?” I asked Nan after pulling in beside the pump closest to the door. I was out of the car and rushing inside before she could even answer.

A few minutes later, I returned with a steaming Styrofoam cup full of the good stuff clutched greedily in my hands.

“We should stop for some breakfast,” Nan suggested, finishing up at the pump.

“I’m not sure there’s anything on this exit.”

“Well, something will turn up eventually,” she said with a smile, and so we took a twenty-minute detour until at last we found a small diner that looked like it had been converted from a mobile home.

We ordered scrambled eggs and sausage to go, then sat outside with the animals in the parking lot as we tried to enjoy our meal.

“So what’s going on with those seagulls Charles was talking about?” Nan asked when we’d both eaten through about half of our containers.

“Oh, they need help with a territory dispute.” I tried to wave her off and changed the subject.“How about Dr. Roman, though? Do you really like his guide to romance?” I asked with a giggle.

“It’s as good as any other guide out there, I’m sure,” she said. “But why are you going out of your way to help these birds now? Couldn’t this have waited until you were back from the trip? Is there some kind of deadline?”

“According to their laws, we don’t have much time before a war starts up,” I explained casually. “So I agreed to work on their terms in hopes of preventing that war.”

“But why?” she said, studying me with glistening eyes.

“I…” my words trailed away.

“It’s okay, dear. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I’m a big girl. I can handle it,” Nan said with a half-cocked grin.