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“Guys, guys,” said Milo. “Enough with the violence. There are ladies present.”

Odelia realized Chase was waiting for her to respond.“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t reveal my source. But you’re right. They work at the Potbelly farm. They just happened to see the burglars. They never sold them any information, though. And they don’t have any connection to them or Dickerson or the murder. They just—”

“Don’t want to get involved,” he said. “I get it.”

“They don’t want to risk their position on the farm”, Odelia confirmed.

“They could always create another burrow,” said Milo. “Rabbits are pack animals. They could simply up and leave and find some other place to live and hunt.”

“Rabbits aren’t pack animals,” said Max heatedly. “And ducks aren’t smarter than humans. You’re so full of—”

“Max!” said Brutus, gesturing to Harriet. “Lady present!”

“—dung! I was going to say he’s full of dung!”

“What’s going on with your cats?” asked Chase, darting a quick look over his shoulder. “They’re so feisty today. Meowing up a storm. Is it the weather, you think?”

“Yup. Weather is about to change,” she confirmed.

Dua Lipa broke into song and she picked out her phone.“Yes, Mr. Paunch.”

“Otto, please. Mr. Paunch is my dad. So have I got the scoop for you, Odelia.”

“Yes?”

“Van Wilcox just got a call from the mayor of New York. They want to erect a statue in his honor. In the middle of Times Square if you please! And lemme tell you that it’s going to be the biggest, grandest statue ever erected for any President anywhere in the world.”

“The biggest? You mean bigger than the six hundred feet Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue in India?”

“Sure! Much bigger. This will be the greatest thing ever built. It’s gonna be huge! And tall. Really tall. Incredibly tall. Like I said, the biggest statue in the world. In history!”

“That’s quite an achievement, Mr. Paunch—Otto. The President must be excited.” She glanced over to Chase, who was listening intently.

“Oh, he is. He’s over the moon. He can’t wait to pose for the thing.”

“He’s going to pose?”

“Sure! Only the best pose ever, in front of the best artist ever.”

“Who’s the artist?”

“I’d have to get back to you on that, but it’s the best artist in the world. The greatest.”

And promptly Paunch disconnected again and left Odelia pensively staring at her phone.“Have you ever had that feeling where you’re sure you’ve heard a voice before but you just can’t place it? I’m getting that all the time with this Paunch guy.”

“What did he want?”

“Oh, New York is building a statue for President Wilcox in Times Square. He wanted me to have the scoop.”

“Great,” said Chase, shaking his head. “Another eyesore. Just what the city needs.”

“Oh, you don’t know that. If it’s really the tallest statue ever built, it will attract a lot of tourists, and tourists bring in the big bucks, right?”

“Right,” said Chase dubiously. “Well, here we are.” He directed his car up to a tall gate, a guard approaching them from a guard booth. He showed the man his badge, got a nod, and the gate swung open.

Moments later they were driving up to the house, which looked almost as majestic as President Wilcox’s Lago-a-Oceano, only smaller in size and painted a pale orange, resembling the setting sun, with the roof tiled in pink tiles and the gutters a bright blue.

“I like the color scheme,” said Chase as he parked the car next to a stone fountain. They got out and Odelia opened the door so the cats could jump out, too.

“You weren’t kidding,” said Chase. “You’re going to let them sniff around, huh?”

“They love to discover new… stuff,” she said, and watched as the five cats pranced off. As usual, they’d formed pairs: Max and Dooley, Harriet and… Wait. Harriet was going off alone, and Brutus and Milo had paired up. Weird. Maybe they were making new friends?

Chapter 31

“Did you see that?” asked Dooley.

“What?” I asked.

“Brutus and Milo. They went off together!”

He was right. And Harriet was staring after her mate, an annoyed look on her face.

“The loser,” she said as she joined us. “I told him not to listen to that guy but he insists Milo makes a lot of sense.”

“I guess Brutus is more susceptible to Milo’s manipulations than most,” I said.

“Don’t worry, Harriet,” said Dooley. “He’ll come around. I saw through Milo’s lies, too, you know. Like the stuff he told me about the worms? Max convinced me those were all lies.”

Even though Dooley had had a relapse, I’d finally managed to convince him he had no worms. Otherwise Vena would have found them during our last checkup.

“We have to get that cat out of our lives,” said Harriet now. “When are we going to put your plan into action, Max?”

“As soon as we lay the groundwork,” I said.

“You better do it soon, all right? I’m starting to lose it.”

“Lose what?” asked Dooley.

“It!” I could tell from Dooley’s expression that he wanted to ask what ‘it’ was but Harriet’s outburst gave him pause. “So what’s the plan, Max?” asked Harriet.

“We chat with anyone who’ll talk to us,” I said. “Find out what they know.”