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Unfortunately I had no expert opinion on the twin gene topic, so I decided to skip this one. Instead I explained,“Odelia is here to plead Francine’s case. She wants to make sure the girls are taken care of, since Franklin wasn’t the best at that kind of thing.”

“He refused to pay child support,” Dooley clarified.

“Yeah, Franklin was what you might call an irresponsible father,” the pony agreed. “In fact I don’t think he even liked to be a dad. Which is weird, cause these girls are really nice, and how can anyone not like them, you know? But hey, I guess that’s just the way it goes, you know. My name is Jane, by the way—what’s yours?”

“I’m Max,” I said, “and this is my friend Dooley.”

“Nice to meet you, Max and Dooley. So did you know Franklin?”

“No, we didn’t,” I admitted.

“He was a little weird. Selfish. Wasn’t interested in anyone but himself. And that included me! He didn’t like ponies. Had no use for them, he once told me.” Jane shook her head. “So not a nice person.” She then ripped off a big chunk of grass with her tongue and started chewing. “Toobad he died, though. He wasn’t nice, but that doesn’t mean he had to die.”

“How do you know he died?”

“Duh. I may be the only pony here, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have friends, you guys.” Just then, a bird landed on her back and started twittering like crazy. “This is Jake,” said the pony affectionately. “He brings me all the latest news from town.”

The bird took off again, and I asked,“So did your friend Jake tell you what happened to Franklin?”

“Yeah, he did. Died in a fire, right? In some crumbling old building? Sad way to go.” She shivered. “To die by fire. Terrible business. I hate fires, you know. Always afraid one will start and it will kill me.”

“I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about, Jane,” I said.

“That’s what you think, Max. There was a fire here a while back. I could see the smoke. I thought that was it. I was going to be for it. But luckily it went out again. Probably Chester burning some old leaves. At least that’s what Jake told me later.”

“Chester? Who’s Chester?” I asked.

“Chester Sosnoski. The gardener. He’s great. Keeps the place looking shipshape. He’s probably the best gardener for miles around. Or at least that’s what Ruth says.”

I glanced around, and had to admit that Chester did a great job: the grass was cut to perfection, the flowerbeds were all immaculate, with not a weed in sight, and all in all the gardens looked more like a golf club than our own backyard. Then again, the Harrisons probably had a lot more spending power and could get the best gardener that money can buy. We have to make do with Gran occasionally remembering she’s supposed to have a green thumb, and Tex finding the time to mow the lawn.

We said our goodbyes to Jane the talking pony, and decided to go for a little stroll, especially after learning that there were no other pets around, so it was frankly pointless for us to enter the house, since there would be no kibble to be had, unfortunately.

And we’d walked perhaps half a mile or so when we came upon a small structure that at one time had been an animal shed, but that now showed signs of fire damage.

“This might be what Jane said she saw,” Dooley intimated.

“Yeah, might be,” I said, “though it does look as if this fire happened a long time ago.”

“They probably want to tear it down but haven’t gotten round to it.”

Just then, a man dressed in rubber boots and a green anorak that had seen better days came stomping up, accompanied by a man who was also in rubber boots but otherwise immaculately dressed.

“So this is where they want the pagoda,” the man in the anorak said.

“Excellent location, Chester,” said the well-dressed man. “I’ll get busy on the plans.”

“She wants it ready as soon as possible.”

“Not a problem. I’ll make it a priority.”

“I think that man is an architect,” I explained to Dooley, “and that man is Chester the gardener.”

Looked like I was right: the dilapidated structure had been earmarked for destruction, a nice pagoda about to take its place.

“Let’s get back to the house,” I suggested. “Odelia will probably be finished by now.”

And so we set a course back to the house. Suddenly the man named Chester uttered a loud cry, and yelled,“Cats! Where did they come from?! Catch those darn cats!”

Looks like we’d overstayed our welcome!

Chapter 29

“So what did you guys discover?” asked Odelia.

They were driving back to town, and she was still mulling over everything that was said.

“Nothing much,” said Max.

“The Harrisons bought a pony for Francine’s daughters,” said Dooley, “but now they don’t come around anymore and the pony doesn’t have anything to do and she’s bored. But lucky for her she has a bird friend called Jake who tells her everything that goes on.”

“Poor pony,” said Max. “Has to stand there all day and nobody is riding her.”

“Yeah, the mom refuses to have anything to do with her former daughter-in-law,” said Odelia. “Or Francine’s girls. Which is such a pity.”