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“What do you mean?” asked Brutus, who’d also noticed that his bowl was empty, and didn’t like it any more than Harriet did. They could, of course, dig into Max or Dooley’s bowls, which were still pretty full. But the sacred code between the four cats that made up the Poole household strictly forbade that kind of behavior.

“Our humans,” said Harriet. “They work so hard, and for what?”

“Um… so they can buy food for us and for themselves?” Brutus suggested.

“Exactly! There should be more to life than working your fingers to the bone just so you can put food on the table for your family, right?”

Since both his and Harriet’s bowls were pretty much empty, Brutus would have suggested their humans didn’t work hard enough, since they had obviously failed in their most important task. “I wouldn’t say they work their fingers to the bone, exactly,” he said, still eyeing Max’s bowl with a keen eye. “You know… I was thinking that maybe, just this once, we could dip into one of the other bowls.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Max and Dooley’s bowls,” Brutus clarified.

Harriet turned to him.“Oh, no. No, no, no.”

“Just this once.”

“We can’t break the code, Brutus. You know we can’t.”

“But…”

“No. Absolutely not. No way.” Though Brutus could see she was slowly warming to the idea. She was taking in those bowls and soon her tongue stole out and she was licking her lips.

“We could tell them one of the neighbors snuck in and stole all of our food,” Brutus suggested. “It wouldn’t be the first time either.”

“But that would be lying,” said Harriet, giving him a startled look.

“So? You know as well as I do that it’s not fair that Max has a food bowl here while he spends all his time next door and almost never sets paw in here.”

“It would be a pity for that lovely food to get stale,” Harriet agreed.

“Stale food is the worst.”

“Marge was complaining to me just the other day how she’d had to throw out some of Max’s food, as he hadn’t touched it in days and she was sure it had gone bad.”

“See? We’d be doing Marge a favor.”

For a moment, they both studied Max and Dooley’s bowls, then, as one cat, they descended upon the neglected delicacies and attacked those poor neglected nuggets.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]

Vesta was in a bad mood. She’d gone out to get some free potatoes and instead had found a dead man. Not exactly the kind of thing a person looking for a bargain hopes to find. Her conscience told her this is what you get when you try to get something for nothing, and of course in a sense her conscience was absolutely right.Then again, who wouldn’t like to fill up their pantry without cost when given the opportunity?

She took her place behind the desk at her son-in-law’s doctor’s office and picked up the phone, which had been ringing off the hook.

“Doctor Poole’s office,” she said. “How can I help you?”

“Well, aren’t you the consummate professional?” a familiar voice said on the other end of the call.

She smiled.“Scarlett. Don’t tell me you need to see Tex.”

“I heard you found a dead body this morning?”

“I didn’t find it. A truck driver did. I just happened to be in the neighborhood.”

“Of course you were. So what do you reckon? Neighborhood watch business?”

“I don’t think so,” said Vesta as she powered up her computer. “He was found just beyond the town limit, way past the town sign. Now I know we of the watch like to take the broad view when determining our purview, but even for us that would be stretching things. Besides, as far as I can tell there was no foul play involved. Just some poor schmuck who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“So he wasn’t dead when he got onto that truck?”

Vesta paused. She hadn’t thought that far. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“How did you know I was out there this morning?”

“I saw you. On the news. They were interviewing your son and I caught a glimpse of you and your cats rummaging around those potatoes.”

“For your information, I wasn’t rummaging. I was trying to find out if there were more dead people hiding in that cargo. One of the onlookers had the bright idea there was a load of illegal aliens hiding in the truck.”

“To do what? Cross the border? Mexico is two thousand miles away.”

She grinned.“I think you better get off the phone now, honey. I’m sure there are people who need to call in—actual patients?”

“See you at the usual place?”

“At the usual time,” she confirmed, and hung up. After she’d replaced the phone on the charger, she sat there thinking. What was the guy doing in that truck anyway? Hitching a ride? The more she thought about it, the more she smelled a rat. A smelly one.

Chapter 7

“Evelina must be very proud to have a pet like Mr. Ed,” Dooley said as we traversed the sidewalk on our way into town. “Not many pets would have their human’s back like Mr. Ed does. Don’t you think so, Max?”

“No, you’re absolutely right, Dooley. Mr. Ed is a credit to his owner. In fact he’s probably a better pet than most pets I know.”