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“No, you try to figure out who was where when whatever happened to whoever for whatever reason,” said Dooley helpfully.

Kingman looked mystified.“Wow. This sleuthing stuff is a lot harder than it looks on TV. You know what? I’ll just ask folks what they think happened. I’m pretty sure they’ll tell me something useful.”

“Or you can do that,” I agreed.

Dooley and I walked back to the street, and saw that Uncle Alec was instructing his officers to festoon the scene with that nice yellow police tape that adds that cheerful touch to crime scenes, while an ambulance stood nearby, and also Abe Cornwall’s car.

Abe is our county coroner, and whenever a dead body is found he can’t seem to stay away. He was all over Tex’s car now, along with a couple of people dressed in white from top to toe for some reason, who were dusting the car and taking plenty of pictures.

A man had come walking up, and now addressed Uncle Alec. He was a large man with a protruding belly and a surprisingly zippy demeanor, given the circumstances.

“So it’s true, huh? Jaqlyn Jones finally met his maker.”

“Barney,” said Uncle Alec. “I was just on my way over to see you. Did you by any chance see what happened?”

“There was a big to-do,” said Barney, fondling a yellow handlebar mustache of which he seemed particularly proud. “But of course I wasn’t invited, which was to be expected.”

“No, I mean did you happen to see Tex and Jaqlyn going at it?”

“Tex? You mean your brother-in-law? He did this?”

“Yeah, he did. Slugged the man and stuffed his body in the trunk of his car.”

Barney took off his New York Rangers ball cap and scratched his scalp.“Way to go, Doctor Poole. I’ve always liked Tex. I have to tell you I didn’t think he had it in him.”

“But you didn’t see the fight?”

“No, sir, I sure didn’t. If I had I would have intervened. Lord knows I hated Jaqlyn’s guts, but beating him to death seems a little harsh. I would have simply taken him to court if I were in Doc Poole’s shoes.”

“So you heard about the animosity that existed between the two doctors?”

“Who hadn’t? It was a well-known fact Jaqlyn was doing a real number on the Doc. Tarnishing his reputation and stealing his patients. But like I said, that’s no reason to go and beat him over the head with… What did he use, exactly, if I may ask?” There was a touch of wistfulness in his voice, as if secretly regretting he hadn’t thought of the same thing.

“We haven’t found the murder weapon yet,” said Uncle Alec. “But we’ll find it,” he was quick to assure the other man.

“I’d go for aluminum,” said Barney, offering an expert’s opinion. “Aluminum baseball bat. One nice whack and it’s game over. I wouldn’t use wood. Wood cracks. You don’t want that.”

“Okay,” said Alec, eyeing the man a little strangely.

“Or a billy club. A metal one. Limit the point of impact.”

This time Alec didn’t respond, but merely stared at the other man.

“Of course there’s a lot to be said for your plain old hammer,” Barney allowed magnanimously. “You can call me old-fashioned but a good hammer is like a best friend. Always there when you need it. Never fails to get the job done, if you see what I mean.”

“I think Barney is sad that Tex killed Jaqlyn first,” Dooley commented, and I thought he was probably right.

We searched around for any pet witnesses, and found a small dog of the Schnauzer variety following the buzz of activity on his street with marked interest.

So we sidled up to the hirsute canine, careful not to startle him or her, and introduced ourselves.

“Hi, my name is Max,” I said, “and this is my friend Dooley. We’re Odelia Poole’s cats. Odelia is investigating the murder of Jaqlyn Jones and has asked us to participate in the investigation.”

“Oh, hi,” said the Schnauzer. “I’m Jack, and that’s my human over there.” He gestured with his snout to Barney, who now stood pontificating about different types of hammers and their respective advantages and disadvantages in dispensing with annoying neighbors.

“So did you know Jaqlyn?” I asked, opening my inquiries with a softball question.

“I knew of him,” said Jack. “Barney didn’t like him very much, and frankly neither did I. You see, Barney possesses a nice little plot of land located right behind Jaqlyn’s house, only Jaqlyn forbade him access, and they’ve been fighting about it for a while now. Only a couple of days ago Jaqlyn put a spiky thing on the track and destroyed Barney’s tires. Barney wasn’t happy. In fact he told me he was going to kill Jaqlyn first chance he got.”

This startled me to some degree.“He actually said that?”

“Oh, yes,” said Jack. “He said a lot more, too, but most of that were swear words, and I don’t like to repeat them to two nice and polite cats such as yourselves.”

“That’s very kind of you, Jack,” said Dooley appreciatively.

“Don’t mention it. One does what one can to spread a little sweetness and light in the world, and repeating bad words isn’t part of that endeavor.”