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Chris had been relegated to jail, with Tank now spending his days in the care of Chris’s mom, who was a strict disciplinarian, and wasn’t taking any nonsense from the nasty little brute. Leonora was also in jail awaiting trial. Her confession had been headline news, and even though she kept screaming fake news, and claiming the whole thing had been created with Photoshop, there wasn’t a person who believed her. Especially since Helga had decided to come clean and confess what she’d done. It ended a particularly sordid history in the annals of Hampton Cove, one we were all glad to leave behind us.

Odelia straightened and joined the humans at their table.

“I still think we should set up a detective agency,” Gran was saying.

“You mean you and me?” said Odelia.

“Of course you and me, and Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus. Whatever that guy Chris Cross was doing we can do, too. Only much, much better.”

“It’s an idea,” said Chase carefully.

“I like it,” said Tex. “The Pet Detective Agency. PDA.”

They all laughed at that, except Tex, who didn’t get the joke.

“It’s going to attract a lot of attention,” said Marge. “And potentially a lot of negative publicity.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it’s a good idea, Gran,” said Odelia. “We’ll get a ton of crackpots who are drawn in by the publicity. I think we should continue the way we have, out of the limelight, and keeping things as discreet as we can.”

“I guess so,” said Gran grudgingly.

“You don’t want to subject your cats to that kind of scrutiny,” Uncle Alec said. “It will bring in kidnappers and all kinds of weirdos and nutcases who might try to grab the cats and hang them on their walls as trophies.”

I shivered at the word picture Uncle Alec had painted. Not a pretty one.

“What are trophies, Max?” asked Dooley.

“The heads of animals that hunters like to collect so they can show off to their friends how good they are at murdering animals.”

Now Dooley shivered, too.“How terrible!”

How terrible, indeed.

“You know, I can’t thank you guys enough,” said Gabe. “If not for you, I’d still be in prison and the company would have probably been run into the ground by Leonora.”

“Yeah, she was misguided when she thought she would do a better job than you and Leo,” said Odelia.

“Sadly she was misinformed,” said Gabe. “Apparently some of the shareholders had been feeding her the wrong kind of information for years, and she truly believed that Leo and I were destroying the company, and the only way to save it was to get rid of Leo and myself.”

“Sad story,” said Marge as she ladled a large helping of potato salad onto the former hair stylist’s plate.

“Yeah, if only I’d known what she was up to,” said Gabe. “I might have been able to stop her.”

“You can’t think that way, Gabe,” said Marge.

“Marge is right,” said Tex. “Thinking like that will drive you nuts.”

Alec clapped the other man on the back, almost making him choke on a piece of potato salad.“I knew you didn’t do it, buddy. Call it a cop’s hunch.”

“You seemed pretty convinced, Alec,” said Chase.

“Oh, in my heart of hearts I knew all along Gabe wasn’t our guy.”

“Good to know!” said Gabe laconically, eliciting a grin from Chase and a frown from Alec.

“So this is the second time our lack of swimming skills has hampered us,” I said.

“Wasn’t Odelia going to teach us how to swim?” asked Brutus.

“She was, but I’m not exactly looking forward to it,” said Harriet. “Imagine this fur, wet. It’s going to be a tragedy.”

“It’s not a joke,” said Pussy when Dooley laughed. “If I get wet my fur soaks up water like a sponge and I turn into a balloon. Drags me right down.”

“Only short-haired cats should swim,” said Brutus. “Like you and me, Dooley.”

“I’m not sure,” said Dooley, not all that keen on becoming a swimmer.

“By the way,” I said, “when are we going to be able to congratulate you two?”

Harriet frowned.“What are you talking about?”

“The kittens,” said Dooley, catching my drift. “You were going to adopt.”

Harriet and Brutus shared a quick look, then Harriet shook her head.“We’ve thought about it and we’ve decided to wait.”

“Wait?” asked Dooley. “Wait for what?”

“For later, all right? And now can you please shut up about kittens already?!”

Dooley shut up. I could have told him that Harriet was the kind of cat who, once she got an idea into her head, could drive everyone crazy harping on about it, but just as soon forgot all about it when a new idea entered her head. I had the impression she’d forgotten about those kittens the moment she’d mentioned them, and didn’t enjoy being reminded of her impetuousness.

“I like kittens,” said Pussy dreamily.

“Hey, I like kittens!” said Dooley.

“What a coincidence!” Pussy cried.

“I like kibble,” said Dooley.

“Me, too!”

The two stared at each other for a moment, then Pussy giggled, and so did Dooley, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he actually blushed beneath his fur.

Oh, dear. This could only mean one thing. Dooley was in love.

“Let’s give these two lovebirds some space, Max,” said Brutus with all the delicacy and diplomacy of an elephant stomping on someone’s toes.