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“How should I know? Probably speaking in ancient duck.”

“That duck story sounded a lot like theWonder Woman story,” said Harriet.

“I didn’t like that movie. It had no cats in it.”

They snuck closer and listened in.

“Thank you so much, dear ones,” Milo was saying. “I owe you a debt of gratitude. Now remember what I told you about Farmer Potbelly.”

“Yeah, he can’t keep us locked up in here,” said one of the ducks.

“He’s a dictator and a tyrant and we’re not going to take this anymore!” said another duck, who seemed like a very excitable one.

“Rise up!” said a squat duck. “Rise up, brethren and sistren! The revolution is here!”

“Spread the word!” an elderly duck croaked. “Spread the word far and wide.”

And spread the word, they did. Before long, the stable was abuzz with revolutionary chatter.

“Looks like Potbelly is in big trouble,” said Brutus.

“You see?” said Harriet. “This is what he does. He’s a hate speaker.”

Brutus stared at her.“I don’t know what that is.”

“He incites hatred! Stirs up all kinds of trouble just for the heck of it.”

Brutus scratched himself behind the ear. He looked sheepish.“I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Don’t listen to him, Brutus. From now on we stick to Max’s plan.”

“Max’s plan,” scoffed Brutus, who seemed to have been infected by Milo’s talk.

“Our plan,” said Harriet, placing a kindly paw on Brutus’s shoulder.

He nodded reluctantly.“Fine. We stick to the plan.”

It was obvious Harriet would have to keep an eye on her mate. He seemed very susceptible to Milo’s brand of nonsense. More so than any other cat in their coterie.

Chapter 27

“So? What have you found out?” asked Odelia the moment the cats were back. When she saw them coming she’d opened the door and they immediately hopped in.

“That the farm was robbed by two guys, one short with a strawberry nose and a purple spot on his lip, the other tall with a little mustache,” said Max, who was the first to speak.

A pervasive smell of duck permeated the car and Odelia wrinkled her nose.“That’s great! Did the ducks tell you that?”

“No, the wife of a cat-hating racist rabbit,” said Dooley.

“And we discovered that Wonder Woman is a duck,” said Harriet.

“And that Max is a great leader,” said Brutus, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Odelia decided not to go down that particular rabbit hole.“Uh-huh. Interesting.”

Milo was uncharacteristically quiet, and in the silence Odelia thought she could hear furious quacking. And when she squinted in the darkness, she thought she could see lights flash on all around the Potbelly farm.“What’s going on down there?” she asked.

“I think we better get out of here,” said Harriet, shuffling uneasily.

“Why? What happened? Did they find out you were in there?”

“They might have,” said Harriet.

There was a lot of commotion on the farm, Odelia now saw. People moving about and plenty of ducks, too. They seemed to be flocking together, moving as one flock of ducks away from their stable and in the direction of the houses the Potbellies had erected.

“Looks like the ducks are moving towards their owners’ houses,” said Odelia, surprised.

“Rise up,” Milo muttered softly. “Oh, rise up, ye mighty race.”

Odelia directed an odd look at Milo, then figured she’d better heed Harriet’s advice and return home. Whatever was going on at that farm, it was probably better if she wasn’t discovered lurking around.

During the ride home, the silence that had descended upon the car stretched on. She didn’t mind. She had some thinking to do about the murder case, and she figured her cats were probably tired from all that traipsing around on the Potbelly farm.

Soon enough they were home and she let them out of the car again. They walked in a straight line, still cloaked in silence, then into the house and to their respective perches. All of them except for Max and Dooley, who were off to choir practice as usual.

And as she was about to close the door, the tall figure of a man walked up to her. When he stepped into the light cast by the streetlamp in front of her door, she saw it was Chase. He watched as Milo walked into the house, tail up, followed by Brutus and Harriet.

“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” said Chase as he casually leaned against the doorframe. “I always thought cats didn’t need to be taken for a walk, only dogs.”

“My cats are special,” she blurted out.

“That, they are,” he said with a slight grin.

“How long have you been out here?” she asked, noticing his parked pickup.

“Not that long. Half an hour, maybe. I tried calling but got your voicemail.”

Shoot. She’d turned off her phone when she set out for the farm. “I must have forgotten to switch it on again.”

He leaned in and took a sniff at her hair.“Smells familiar. In fact there’s only one place I can think of that ships out this particular scent in bulk.” He fixed her with a curious look. “Any particular reason you decided to go snooping around a duck farm at night?”

“I… just wanted to have another look at the farm—spend some time thinking.”

“So you didn’t go inside?”