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“So we might see them patrolling our streets soon?” asked Tex as he flipped a piece of pale pink fish onto the Chief’s plate. At least I think he was aiming for the Chief’s plate. Instead it landed on the Chief’s head with a squishy sound and then just lay there, looking inedible and kinda sad before the Chief plucked it from his brow and… ate it.

Charlene patted her boyfriend on the back.“The hotel has a twenty-four-hour restaurant,” she whispered.

“Yeah, well, I doubt whether they’ll be patrolling our streets any time soon,” the Chief grunted, giving his girlfriend a grateful look.

“They could always become parking enforcement officers,” Marge suggested. “You don’t need to have a clean record to do that, or do you?”

“Please, Marge, don’t encourage them,” the Chief pleaded with his sister. “It’s bad enough that they’ve been regular visitors at the station holding cell. I don’t want them to start infesting the rest of my precinct as well.”

“Well, I firmly believe in the power of rehabilitation,” said Marge stubbornly.

“Good for you, Marge,” said Scarlett, who was intently studying a piece of fish, probably wondering what it was. She then glanced surreptitiously in my direction. I got the message. She wasn’t my first customer of the evening. So I quickly padded over and accepted the piece of fish from her hand, which she proceeded to use to give me a grateful pat on the head. I gave her hand an equally grateful lick.

“I wanna make a toast,” said Gran now as she got to her feet a little unsteadily. She’d discovered sak? at the beginning of the evening and had taken a distinct liking to the brew. “To the gride and broom,” she said, raising her glass high and spilling some of the clear liquid. “May they live happily ever after and, and, and… and all of that good stuff!”

“Hear, hear!” said Marge.

“And to our cats,” Gran added as she turned to us. “May they keep being the best helpers that ever solved a crime in our fair town. To Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus!”

Loud cheers rang out, and more fish was aimed at our humans’ plates by an enthusiastic father of the bride—soon to be redistributed to us, conveniently located nearby!

“Why am I always the last one to be mentioned?” Brutus lamented.

I gave him a gentle nudge and said,“Have you never heard the expression ‘The last will be first?’”

“No, I haven’t. You just made that up, didn’t you?”

“No, it’s a thing,” I assured him. “And I’m sure that next time you’ll be the one to crack the case. You’ve got the brains, you’ve got the skills, and you certainly got the brawn.”

“Very kind of you to say so, Max. You’re absolutely right. I’ve got both the brains and the brawn. So I’m ready to start cracking some tough cases. And who knows? Maybe I’ll even let you be my loyal but slightly goofy sidekick from now on. How about that?”

“Very generous of you, Brutus.”

“Think nothing of it, Max.”

And so the long night wore on. One by one people started disappearing: first Uncle Alec and Charlene, who said they wanted to get an early night, then Gran and Scarlett, who said they wanted to take a stroll along the Strip, and of course Odelia and Chase were also eager to return to their room, as they had something to celebrate in the privacy of their bedroom: their wedding night. Though it’s entirely possible that after the week they’d had, they’d both fall asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow.

So finally it was just Tex and Marge and us cats. When Tex looked up and saw that his entire roster of customers had vanished into thin air, he looked a little sheepish at first, but Marge was quick to console him.“You did a wonderful job, honey,” she said. “And do you realize that our daughter just got married? And to a wonderful husband to boot?”

That quickly put a smile on the good doctor’s face again, even as he was dissecting a piece of fish filet, probably trying to ascertain what kind of diseases it might be suffering. “We did a good job raising Odelia, didn’t we?” he said as he took a seat at the table.

“We sure did,” said Marge, then gave her husband’s arm a squeeze. “What do you say we go up to our room, too?”

Now he was positively beaming.“Best idea ever,” he said, and then they, too, left the building.

For a moment, silence reigned, and then Harriet said,“I can’t believe they forgot about us!”

“Well, at least they didn’t leave us without something to eat,” Brutus pointed out.

Silver linings, people. Life is all about recognizing the silver linings. And sometimes, just sometimes, those silver linings consist of raw fish—lots and lots of raw fish!

31.5. PURRFECT WEDDING

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