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Odelia threw off the duvet and swung her feet to the floor.“Follow me,” she whispered, then tiptoed out of the room, the small clowder of cats following in her wake. Once downstairs, she flicked on the light in the kitchen and plunked herself down on the couch, yawning freely. “Now tell me all about it.”

And Max and the others did.“First off, I promised Clarice a cat bed and her very own bowl,” he said.

“Done,” said Odelia.

“She’s the one who found the thing,” he explained.

“Great work, Clarice.”

“Thanks,” Clarice said grudgingly. She directed a suspicious look at Odelia. “But don’t think for a minute that this means I’m domesticated. I’m a wild cat and that’s the way I’ll stay.”

“Fair enough,” said Odelia, conceding this point. “What else?”

“My spots are practically gone,” said Brutus happily.

“Nobody cares about your spots, Brutus,” Harriet snapped.

“Great news, Brutus,” said Odelia, wondering if this was the reason they’d dragged her out of bed. “Cat bed for Clarice and spots are clearing up. Super duper. That’s it?”

“Tell her about the thing!” Dooley said.

“I am telling her!” said Max. “Though I probably better show you,” he added.

“Show me? Show me what?”

Max hesitated.“Are you up for a little drive?”

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.png]

When finally Odelia found herself looking down the trash can Max had singled out for her attention, she had to admit he’d outdone himself this time.

“Amazing,” she said. “Are you sure about this?”

“Pretty much,” said Max. “It was the fake hamburger, you see.”

She didn’t, but she nodded anyway. Then she took out her phone. “I better wake up my uncle. He’s going to want to check this out.”

“What about Chase?” asked Max.

“There’s no way I can tell Chase that my cats found the key piece of evidence in Chris Ackerman’s murder investigation,” she said.

“So what are you going to tell him?”

She smiled.“I’ll think of something. Uncle Alec! Sorry to wake you. You’re not going to believe this…”

[Êàðòèíêà: i_002.png]

As it was, Uncle Alec did believe it. Long association with Odelia and her cats had taught him that nothing was impossible when it came to their powers of observation and keen deduction. He arrived five minutes later, looking as if he’d just rolled out of bed, which probably he had, his shirt untucked and the few remaining hairs on his head standing up.

“Where is it?” he asked, and when Odelia gestured to the trash can, he took out an evidence baggie and stared down at the piece of evidence Max had unearthed—or Clarice. The story was still a little fuzzy to Odelia.

“I think you’re going to need a bigger bag,” she said.

“I think you’re right,” he said. “Your cats found this?”

“My cats found this.”

“Huh. I guess I won’t be puttingthat in my report.”

“Not if you don’t want to freak out my new live-in boyfriend you won’t.”

Alec grinned.“I knew he’d pull it off.”

“He told you about the Ed Sheeran thing?”

“Are you kidding? He practiced on me first. The kid’s got crazy singing skills.”

Odelia decided not to dissuade her uncle from this conviction.

Chase had a lot of skills, but singing wasn’t one of them.

“So what happens now?” she asked.

“Now we send this off to the lab and see what comes back.”

“You better check all the CCTV cameras in the area.”

“Oh, I’m going to—don’t you worry about that.”

He took out a bigger baggie, a pair of tweezers, and plucked out the item, then deposited it into the baggie with a look of satisfaction on his face.“Nailed it,” he grunted.

“Not yet. We still have to identify—”

“Trust me, I will. You go on home. You’ve done enough.”

“But—”

“Go home, Odelia. Give your boyfriend a wake-up kiss. I’ll handle the rest.”

And he stalked off, an officious swagger to his hips, got into his car and drove off.

“That’s it?” asked Max.

“That’s it,” said Odelia.

“But… who did it?”

“I think I have a pretty good idea. And I’m going to prove it.”

Of course she could have let her uncle take care of things, as he’d indicated, but where was the fun in that? Besides, this was her investigation, and she was going to see it through to the end—whatever her uncle said.

Chapter 41

Chase woke up in an empty bed, his hand touching the spot where Odelia had been when he went to sleep. The spot was cold. He rubbed his eyes and groaned. He vaguely remembered some middle-of-the-night cat emergency, and Odelia slipping out of bed to feed them milk. So had she stayed up and gone straight to work? Or was she downstairs, still officiating the cat’s convention? To be completely honest, he wasn’t all that big on cats. Not that he was a cat hater, per se, but he’d never understood the extreme lengths cat lovers would go to to appease their furballs.

When he felt movement near his feet, he glanced down and saw that those furballs were fast asleep at the foot of the bed: four cats lying in a row. He had to admit, when they were sleeping like this they looked peaceful enough. Cute, even.

“So where’s your master, huh, cats?” he asked.

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