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“Oh, boy. It’s a good thing my daughter is such a deep sleeper, otherwise I’d be afraid they’d wake her up,” Melissa said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s way past bedtime for this crew, too. Let me tuck them into their crates, and then we should have some peace and quiet.”

Once that was done, we settled in across from each other at the kitchen table. Melissa offered me a cold can of Diet Coke from the fridge, which I gratefully accepted.

“So how are things with you?” she asked as if we were old friends. “I can’t imagine it’s easy living with someone as colorful as your nan.”

I chuckled at this. Even though her prying made me uncomfortable, it didn’t seem nice to respond by saying that I couldn’t imagine living with a small zoo in my house the way she did.

Just then, a loud thump whomped into the window, and I jumped in my seat.“What was that? I thought you put all the dogs to bed?”

Melissa pushed her chair out behind her and stomped over to the kitchen window.“Seriously, dude! At this time?” she practically shouted. Looked like her cat wasn’t the only one around here who’d gone crazy.

She groaned and returned to me with a bemused expression.“That was Murder Robin,” she explained as if that clarified everything. It didn’t.

I stopped myself before taking another sip from my soda, just in case she was about to tell me something so shocking I wouldn’t be able to swallow properly.

Finally, she offered more.“He’s been coming here every spring and summer for the last several years. He spends all day thumping up against our kitchen windows, and all night hurling himself at our bedroom window.”

“What? Why would he do that?”

She shrugged.“Birds are weird. You’d think he’d just find somewhere new to roost, but you know how territorial birds can get.”

I nodded as I considered this. So, this crazy bird would rather sustain an injury by fighting a battle there was no way he could win than to… simply migrate into a new home?

That was weird, but it also made me think.

If birds were this crazy territorial, then why would the flock that previously held the Dewdrop Springs territory back home just up and disappear? Alpha, Bravo, and the others had seemed totally unbothered by the fact that they’d gone, but it wasn’t normal for birds to leave their homes without a very good reason. And judging by Murder Robin’s actions, “very good” was definitely relative.

This suggested that Charles’s suspicion was right. Something fishy was going on with the seagulls. Hopefully Pringle could uncover the truth before time ran out.

Now all we needed to do was find him and convince him to help…

Chapter Fourteen

About an hour and a half later, Nan returned from the mechanic with Melissa’s husband in tow.

“They fixed my girl up as best they could,” she said with a far-off glance that may or may not have hid tears threatening to spill. “One of the tires blew out, but the engine is fine. They swapped it out and said I’ll have to get the upholstery in the back seat fixed once we’re back home again.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked, more than ready to be on our way. Melissa was nice and all, but she was Nan’s friend—not mine. Besides, I was worried about Octo-Cat skulking off by himself in the unfamiliar woods outside.

“It’ll drive fine,” she said with a dejected sigh. I knew how much that little sports coupe meant to her, but it would be completely fixed soon enough. Besides, maybe now she’d agree to stop off at a hotel so we could both rest properly between shifts.

“Then let’s go. I’m wide awake now.” I smiled back at Melissa, hoping she wouldn’t find my eagerness to get back on the road offensive. “Thanks so much for your hospitality and for the company.”

She gave me a quick hug, which surprised me as I was not exactly the hugging strangers type.“I’m so jealous of you,” she whispered into my ear. “What you can do is so cool. I’d love to talk to you about it more sometime.”

And then pulling away, she finished at full volume,“Nan knows where to find me online. Oh, before you go, let me load you up with some treats for you and the pets.”

And about twenty minutes later, we were back on the expressway.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just head home?” I asked as I took a swig from one of the cold brew coffees Melissa had sent with us. “We’ve been through a lot already and we’re still only halfway there.”

“You may think you’ve been through a lot,” Octo-Cat shouted. “But you didn’t have to wait around outside back there. Consider yourself lucky that the other guy wasn’t an outdoors cat, otherwise things would have gotten really ugly.”

“Stop complaining and have a treat stick,” I said with a smirk. “Um, can you toss him one, Nan?”

Unsurprisingly, Octo-Cat enjoyed this strange Slim Jim like treat just as much as Melissa’s cat Merlin had. And it took him a bit longer to eat this thing than one of his smaller treats, which meant it gave us a few minutes of blessed silence every time we tossed him a new one. Honestly, this discovery alone was worth the unplanned detour.