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“I fully intend to,” he said, and did indeed do as he’d promised. They made record time and within ten minutes were parking across the street from the place that Joshua Curtis allegedly had tried to burn down to the ground—three people still inside.

The fire department was present, rolling up their hoses, and the street was a regular beehive of activity, firemen walking in and out of the building, as well as police officers.

Inside, they quickly met up with Odelia’s uncle, who looked a little sleepy, as if the phone call had roused him from a deep slumber. Charlene Butterwick was also there. As the mayor of Hampton Cove it was probably her duty to be present at these tragic events. She, too, looked a little sleepy, and an image flashed through Odelia’s mind of Uncle Alec and Charlene having been in the same position as Odelia and Chase just before, with both of them having fallen asleep next to one another on the couch.

“So what happened?” asked Chase.

“Three squatters, all of them dead. Two badly burned—pretty much beyond recognition, one died from smoke inhalation in the next room, but still recognizable.” Uncle Alec raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “You’ll never guess who it is.”

“Just tell us,” said Odelia. She wasn’t in the mood for guessing games, to be honest.

“Franklin Harrison.”

“The son of Herbert Harrison?” said Chase. “The real estate king?”

“One and the same.”

“Wasn’t he in some kind of trouble?” asked Odelia.

“You can say that again. Picked up several times the last couple of months. Some DWI, minor drug charges, contempt of cop…”

“So what was the son of one of the richest men in Hampton Cove doing in a squat?” asked Chase.

“Beats me. Maybe he was trying to score some drugs? This place has a bad reputation in that department.”

“Gran tells me you’ve got a suspect?” said Odelia, deciding not to mention that said suspect was sort of a client of hers.

“Yeah. Probably the first time that neighborhood watch of hers does something right. Guy by the name of Joshua Curtis was seen exiting the premises shortly before midnight. He hurried to his car, talking into his phone, then took off like a bat out of hell.”

“Here to score a fix, you think?” asked Chase.

“Possibly. Though from what I know of him he’s as straight-laced as they come. Clerks at a notary public’s office. One of those guys who would tell on his grandmother if he caught her jaywalking.”

“Clean record?” asked Chase.

“As clean as a whistle. But we’re still going to pick him up for questioning.” He checked his watch. “In fact the officers I sent are on their way to lift him off his bed as we speak.” He shrugged. “At the very least he’s a witness, and if we’re lucky, we got our guy.”

Odelia excused herself. She’d just seen a little red Peugeot drive up, and knew exactly who was behind the wheel. She flagged down the car, and even before it had fully come to a standstill, she was already jerking open the rear passenger door and getting in.

“Step on it,” she said. “We have to beat the cops.”

“Oh, goodie,” said Gran, and stomped down on the accelerator.

Scarlett grinned.“We’re seeing more action in a single night than all of last month!”

“Odelia?” said Dooley, who she discovered was seated next to her, along with Max. “We missed the stork. Max saw him, but by the time we got there, he was gone.”

She patted his head distractedly.“That’s all right, Dooley. I’m sure I’ll live.”

Chapter 9

Odelia was clearly in a big hurry, and it took us some little time before she revealed to us why this was, exactly.

“Joshua Curtis is about to be picked up for questioning,” she revealed, looking tense, “and before that happens I want to talk to him first. Find out what’s going on.”

“It’s not very nice of Joshua to murder those people,” said Dooley. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

“I’m not so sure he did do that, Dooley.”

“You think he’s innocent?” I asked, interested in this novel theory.

“I don’t know. But I intend to find out before he’s locked up in my uncle’s slammer.”

It didn’t take us long to arrive at our destination, and judging from the light that was blazing in the window the man was still up. Which just goes to show: not all killers are the stone-cold kind, and some do get rattled when they’ve just murdered three people in cold blood.

We all got out of the car, and hurried up the drive. Odelia applied her finger to the buzzer, and when the door was yanked open, and Joshua Curtis appeared, he looked as tense as Odelia did.“Miss Poole!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” He then stared at Gran and Scarlett, clearly expecting an explanation, which Odelia declined to supply.

“The cops are on their way to pick you up,” she said, “so you better start talking, Joshua. What were you doing on Parker Street tonight?”

“Oh,” said the man, his face falling.

“Three men are dead, Joshua. And the police think you had something to do with it.”

He gaped at her.“Me!”