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“Oh, God! Did he tell you that? No, we were never a thing. We went out on one date in college. One single date, and we shared one kiss. That’s it. The next day I met Jason and it’s just been him ever since.” She smiled a weak smile. “Still is, actually, no matter what you may think.”

“I think you should probably tell your husband about your affair,” said Odelia, “before he hears it from someone else. Or before your kids hear about it. You know how quickly gossip spreads in this town.”

“I know,” said Melanie. “Thanks for letting me know.” She glanced in the direction of Max and Dooley and her own two cats. “And thanks for bringing your babes along on a play date. They seem to have hit it off together.”

Chapter 18

While Odelia was busy talking to Melanie Myers, Dooley and I got busy interviewing her cats. Well, I say interviewing, but what happened was more of a monologue… by those cats.

“Oh, my God you guys are so scruffy,” said one cat, whose name, if I had heard her right, was Musti.

“So, so scruffy,” her friend echoed. She went by the name Susi.

“Who does your grooming?” asked Musti.

“Yeah, you guys have gotthe worst groomer.”

“We don’t have a groomer,” I said.

They stared at us, then at each other, then back at us.“No groomer?” asked Susi.

“Well, that explains things,” said Musti.

“We groom ourselves,” said Dooley proudly.

More shared looks of astonishment.“Self-grooming? No way.”

“Yes, way,” I confirmed. “We groom ourselves. In fact most cats I know groom themselves.”

“But… that’s just horrible,” said Susi.

“That’s terrible,” said Musti.

“Don’t tell me you guys still use your…” Susi quickly stuck out her tongue, causing her friend to shiver with sheer disgust.

“Yep, that’s how we do it,” I said. “The good old-fashioned tongue.”

“No way!” said Musti. Or maybe it was Susi. They were hard to distinguish.

“That’s so disgusting!”

“No wonder you look so scruffy.”

“So terribly scruffy.”

And at this point they seemed to feel that they’d shared the same space with two scruffy self-groomers long enough, for they quickly tripped up the stairs and out of sight. Though as they went, we could clearly hear their conversation.

“Can you believe that Melanie would allow those two disgusting creatures to enter our house, Susi?”

“Now she’ll have to sanitize the whole place, Musti.”

“Sanitize? You mean sterilize.”

Dooley turned to me.“I don’t think they like us, Max.”

“No, I think you’re right, Dooley. They don’t like us very much.”

“We’re not that dirty, though, are we, Max?”

“We’re not dirty at all, Dooley. In fact I think we’re perfectly nice and clean.”

“Now we don’t get to ask them questions.”

“Somehow I have the impression that wouldn’t have made much difference.” Musti and Susi didn’t strike me as the kind of cats we’d been able to extract a lot of crucial information from.

At least with those two out of the way we were free to take our measure of the house, and when we entered the kitchen we soon came upon a regular cornucopia of cat food. And since Musti and Susi had commented on our lack of hygiene, but hadn’t strictly forbidden us from dipping into their food supply, we decided to strengthen the inner cat and ate to our heart’s content.

When we walked out of the kitchen, we saw that Odelia’s interview was at an end, but just as we walked out, the front door opened and Melanie’s husband walked in. At least I think he was her husband, since she kissed him and called him sweetie.

“This is Miss Poole, sweetie,” said Melanie, making the necessary introductions. “She’s here to ask us about Joshua.”

“Joshua?” said the guy, who was short and sort of chunky. “What happened?”

“He’s been arrested, I’m afraid, Mr. Myers,” said Odelia.

“Arrested!”

“For murder,” Melanie supplied.

Mr. Myers seemed absolutely agog by these revelations, which made me assume that Joshua hadn’t yet been in touch to give him the news about his recent escapades. They might be best friends, but this was the kind of thing Joshua clearly didn’t feel compelled to break to his friend any time soon.

“Can I ask you a couple of questions, Mr. Myers?” asked Odelia.

Melanie didn’t seem excited by the prospect of our human talking to her husband, but complied nevertheless. “I’ll go and check on the boys, shall I?” she said, and removed herself from the scene after a quick worried glance at her husband.

“The thing is, Mr. Myers,” said Odelia, “Joshua came into my office yesterday—I’m a reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette, by the way, but I also consult with the police and do some detective work from time to time.” She hesitated.

“He probably wanted you to follow Melanie around, is that it?” asked Mr. Myers.

“He’s clairvoyant, Max!” said Dooley.

“Yes, he did,” said Odelia, as surprised as we were.