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There were plenty of messages back and forth between her and Fabio, and the nature of the messages revealed the two of them had indeed been having an affair. The last message was sent the day before around eleven in the morning, and was a giddy one.

‘Can’t wait to sit for you!’ she wrote, to which Fabio had responded, ‘You mean sit on me!’

After that, nothing. Lots of selfies of her and Fabio, the same kind of pictures as the one hanging above the makeshift bed in the cottage. Some were a little risqu?, or a lot. Not exactly fit for public consumption, or Alicia’s eyes, which is why Chase hadn’t allowed her to scroll through the phone, but had immediately confiscated the thing.

“And?” asked Alec as he took a seat on the edge of Chase’s desk. “Anything?”

“They were having an affair, all right, but no indication of what might have happened to her.” He placed the phone on his desk and folded his hands behind his head. “Do you think your friend Jock could have something to do with his wife’s disappearance?”

“You mean did he finally get fed up with her philandering and killed both her and her lover? I don’t know, Chase, but honestly? I don’t think he’s the type.”

“He didn’t look particularly bothered by the affair,” said Chase. “In fact he almost seemed to condone it.”

“You heard what he said. He and Grace had drifted apart, and only stayed together for Alicia.”

“He probably has a girlfriend, too.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me. A handsome man like him?”

“So where does that leave us?”

“I’m starting to think Jock is right. That they eloped.”

“Possible,” Chase allowed. “But then why leave the phone?”

“She could have had more than one phone. Decided to start a new life with the boyfriend, instead of sneaking behind her husband’s back all the time.”

“But would she leave her daughter in the lurch?”

“Grace Farnsworth always struck me as the kind of woman who only cared about herself and her little pleasures, I’m afraid. So it’s very well possible she didn’t spend a single thought about what effect her sudden disappearance would have on Alicia.”

“Harsh.”

“But in character.”

They weren’t getting anywhere, that much was obvious.

“Maybe we should search the house, and the domain,” said Chase. “Take a couple of dogs.”

Uncle Alec got up.“Let’s wait another day. She could still turn up.”

Chase decided to change the topic.“So have you heard from the Mayor?”

“Nope. And I hope it stays that way,” said the Chief with a grimace.

He walked out of the office and Chase was alone with his thoughts once more. He wondered about Grace, but then found his thoughts turning to Odelia, wondering how she figured this whole thing. Odelia had good instincts, and then there were her cats, who always seemed to rout out little clues and hints here and there. He decided to wait until tonight. Odelia was probably busy, and he didn’t want to bother her at work.

He sighed, brought his computer back to life by pressing the space bar, and started typing up his report of that morning’s events.

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Odelia had dropped Father Reilly and Shanille off at the church, and now made her way home to drop off Harriet and Brutus. She thought about returning to the office to talk to Dan but didn’t see the point. She hadn’t made any progress with the case of Grace and was pretty sure that if Dan had any news to spill he would have called her.

And since she hadn’t heard from Chase or her uncle either, it was obvious the investigation was officially stalled.

Then again, this was often so: for a long time no progress seemed to be made, things simmering and percolating, and then suddenly everything happened all at once.

She was curious to find out how Max and Dooley had fared, and if they had unearthed some new and exciting clues.

When she didn’t immediately find the twosome, she wondered not for the first time if she shouldn’t outfit her cats with GPS collars. Chase had once suggested the idea but it sounded a little too much science fiction for her taste. On the other hand, always knowing where her feline brood was would be an enormous help. They had a tendency to land themselves in trouble, and that way she could easily track their movements.

She walked out into the backyard, knowing they loved to lounge on the bench and let the world go by, but they weren’t there either.

Suddenly a loud cry of anguish sounded from next door, and immediately she made her way over.

Harriet was in the kitchen, screaming her head off, and she crouched down to check if she hadn’t hurt herself. She didn’t see any blood, though, or any cuts or injuries.

“What’s wrong, Harriet?” she asked urgently. “Are you hurt?”

“My litter box!” the gorgeous Persian cried.

Odelia checked the litter box, but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“A dog!” Harriet finally managed between two anguished pants. “A dog has made a dump in my litter box!”

Oops.

Chapter 28