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“Oh, no, mine are just the same,” said Melanie. “If I’d let them they’d follow me to the office and lie next to my desk all day. Unfortunately my boss hates cats. She thinks it’s unprofessional and makes a bad impression on the clients.” She rolled expressive eyes. “As if cats couldever make a bad impression on anyone. I’d say they’re an ice breaker.”

Well, they’d certainly broken the ice now, Odelia thought as she stepped inside the house and closed the door behind her.

Two cats came walking up to her, meowing all the while. They were very small, even smaller than Dooley, and were clearly purebreds. So she left Dooley and Max to deal with them, and maybe extract some more information, and followed Melanie into the living room.

“Please take a seat,” said Melanie, indicating a beige leather couch on which crocheted covers had been placed to protect the leather against the sharp claws of her fur babies.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard,” she said, “but Franklin Harrison was found dead last night.”

Melanie was shocked by this piece of news, Odelia could tell, but she tried to hide it well.“I-I’m afraid the name doesn’t ring a bell,” she said unconvincingly.

Odelia decided to put all of her cards on the table. Joshua might not like it, but that couldn’t be helped. “Joshua told me that you and Franklin were seeing each other,” she said therefore. “So he asked me to find out if this was true. He wanted you to stop, as he was afraid of the impact the affair might have on your marriage, so…”

“Oh, God,” said Melanie, shifting in her place. “Joshua told you that?”

“He did. Yesterday morning. He asked me to follow you around and take pictures.”

“Pictures!”

“Yeah. He wanted to confront you with the affair, and make you stop.”

Melanie shook her head in utter dismay.“I don’t know how he found out. But then Joshua likes to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong,” she said with a touch of vehemence.

“The thing is the police have arrested him. They think that he killed Franklin.”

Melanie sat up straight.“Joshua killed Franklin!”

“He says he didn’t do it. He says he just wanted to talk to him, but when he arrived the house was on fire and Franklin was dead.”

“How-how did he die?” asked Melanie.

“Smoke inhalation. But before that he was drugged. So he didn’t suffer.”

Melanie lowered her gaze to the floor.“I did have an affair with Franklin,” she said in a low voice. “But it didn’t mean much. Not to me, and not to him either. In fact he called me yesterday to break it off. Said the relationship had run its course and he didn’t think we should see each other anymore.” She shrugged. “It was clear from the beginning that this wasn’t going anywhere. It was just a fling for him—and for me, too, I guess.”

“How did you meet?”

“At a club. I don’t usually go clubbing anymore. Not since I married and had kids.”

“Oh, so those two boys outside…”

Melanie smiled.“Yeah, they’re mine. My precious little darlings.” She looked up at Odelia. “Are you married, Miss Poole?”

“Just got married, actually,” said Odelia, displaying her wedding ring.

“When you’ve been married as long as I have, you’ll understand that from time to time a woman needs to have a night out—some little time off from her marriage, especially when there are kids involved. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband, and I adore my two rascals, but we have this thing where I take one night off every month, and so does Jason—that’s my husband. So I have a girls night, and he has a boys night—not on the same night, obviously—and it makes you forget for just one night that you’re not just a mom and a wife but also a woman, you know. I go to the spa with my girlfriends, or we hit the town, or take a weekend off and go someplace to be pampered and have fun. So last month we went clubbing, which I hadn’t done in years, and it was such a blast.”

“And you met Franklin.”

“Yeah, he’s one of those people who never stop clubbing. He hit it pretty hard that night, but I’d probably had a little too much to drink, and I was having such a good time, and so we danced a little, and talked some, and when all was said and done and he offered to share a cab, I said yes, and we ended up kissing in the backseat. And when he invited me over to his place I said yes, which probably I shouldn’t have done.” She sighed, and twisted her wedding ring. “Franklin is one of those people who’s a lot of fun to be around, you know. A real playboy, in the literal sense ofthe word. He’s just fun, fun, fun, and, well…” She shrugged. “I guess I needed a bit of fun just then. Jason and I have been going through a rough patch, and Franklin was my escape. I’m not proud of what I did, and I hope you won’t tell my husband, Miss Poole. He’ll be devastated.”

“I won’t tell him, but Joshua might,” said Odelia, not wanting to give the woman any illusions.

“Yeah, Joshua is a dear friend, but he’s also a meddler.”

“Is it true that you and he used to be…”