9ddba8405c712dc705f6095a3ea49417

Chase grinned. He was effectively caught in the middle of this inter-family competition. He didn’t seem overly troubled, though.

Alec waved a finger in his deputy’s face. “If you so much as breathe a single word about this investigation to my niece, you’re off this case, Kingsley. Is that clear?”

“Crystal, sir,” said Chase.

“Are you people coming up?” suddenly a voice shouted down from the second floor. Rita was leaning out the window and giving them a wave.

“We better go in,” Alec muttered and stomped through the door and into the hallway.

Chase gave Odelia a quick peck on the lips. “See you later, babe. Don’t wait up for me. When he’s in this mood it could take a while.”

“So did the skeleton belong to Boyd Baker?”

“Uh-huh,” said Chase. “Dental records confirmed it.”

“And the brooch?”

“Still haven’t been able to figure out who it belonged to.”

“Are you coming or what?!” Uncle Alec shouted from inside, holding the door.

“I better don’t keep the big guy waiting,” said Chase. “He might pop a vessel.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

I’d been lounging out on that deck for what felt like an eternity when Dooley finally returned from his expedition.

“And?” I said, though I could see from the look on his face that his mission had been for naught.

“No, Odelia isn’t home,” he said, confirming my suspicions. “And neither is Chase. In fact there isn’t any human activity in the house.”

“No human activity? You mean there is…”

“Yes, there is feline activity, though I’m not sure what it’s all about. I thought I heard voices so I went in search of their source and discovered they came from the basement. But when I put my ear against the door I heard Harriet shouting, ‘Push harder. Harder!’ ‘I’m pushing as hard as I can!’ Brutus replied. ‘Now pull! Pull as hard as you can! Harder!’ ‘I’m pulling as hard as I can,’ Brutus responded. And then Harriet said ‘Push! Push as hard as you can. Yes, yes, that’s it! That’s it! Oh, that’s the spot, Brutus!’”

I cleared my throat. It was obvious to me what was going on here. Brutus and Harriet had decided to take advantage of this lull in the proceedings—a house devoid of humans and pets—to take their relationship to the next level. Though why they’d chosen an inhabitable place like the basement was momentarily beyond me. But then I saw what must have happened. They’d gone down there to chase away those mice, and having done that must havedecided to stick around, Harriet falling for Brutus’s fatal attraction, and Brutus falling for hers, and the rest, as they say, was history.

“What do you think they’re doing, Max?” asked Dooley, looking worried.

I cleared my throat again. It was imperative to protect Dooley’s innocence in these times, when unbridled sensuality seems to be all the rage. “Oh, nothing special,” I said.

“Is that what they call hanky panky?” asked Dooley, and I stared at him.

“How do you know about hanky panky?”

“Someone from cat choir told me last week. Brutus and Harriet were in the bushes during a break and when I asked Missy what they were doing, she said they were doing hanky panky. But when I asked what hanky panky was, she refused to explain it to me, and said I had to ask someone else.”

“So did you?” I asked nervously. “Ask somebody else?”

“Well, I asked Shanille, and she said it is a form of entertainment grownups like to engage in. She was a little fuzzy on the details, though. So then I asked Milo, because Milo always knows his stuff, and he said hanky panky is when two people, or two cats like in this case, are in love and pulleach other’s tails. So Brutus pulls Harriet’s tail and then Harriet pulls Brutus’s tail. He said it’s a game they like to play and they derive a lot of pleasure from it. But when I asked Misty to pull my tail she slapped me. So then I told her all I wanted to do was some hanky panky with her and she slapped me again.”

“You can’t just walk up to a cat and ask to do hanky panky with them, Dooley.”

“No, I guess I learned that the hard way.”

“It’s like Milo said, you have to be in love.”

“So is that what Brutus and Harriet are doing down there?”

“Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what they’re doing,” I said. “Brutus and Harriet love hanky panky, and I think we better leave them to it and make sure we don’t disturb them when they’re in the middle of… pulling each other’s tails.”

“That’s what I thought. And that’s why I didn’t even bother knocking or asking if they were all right down there.”

“You did the right thing, Dooley. Never disturb two cats when they’re in the middle of hanky panky. Simply stay away and leave them to it.”

“Do you think they managed to chase those mice away, though?”

“Well, if they’re having fun they must have gotten the job done. Responsible adults always finish the job first, and then engage in some light entertainment.”

Dooley smiled.“Good. I wouldn’t have slept tonight knowing there were all these mice traipsing all over the house. Not that I have something against mice, but this is our house, Max, and mice have no business here.”