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A blue plastic tarp had been placed in front of the wall, and she pulled it aside. She now remembered she hadn’t seen that wall since the day the reformed crooks had started work.

She wasn’t surprised, therefore, to find behind it a tunnel gaping back at her.

“Oh, Johnny,” she murmured, and took a flashlight that had conveniently been left behind by the twosome, and switched it on. Heading deeper into the tunnel, she had to admire the fine craftsmanship that had gone into its creation: it was easily a hundred feet long, and was supported with jaggedpieces of metal that looked as if they’d been swiped from a local scrapyard. Finally, she arrived at a steel wall, where several holes had been cut with a blowtorch, which was still lying in evidence at her feet.

And even as she stared into one of the holes, a little door on the other side was opened and she found herself staring into the stupefied face of her neighbor: bank manager Brady Dexter.

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“I have another mission for you!” said Odelia the moment she stepped through the door.

We’d been lounging on the couch, taking repose and getting our strength back after the hair-raising events of the night before. I felt we deserved this little break. But now it was apparently over already.

“What mission?” asked Brutus, perking up.

Brutus has never been one for lounging about for interminable lengths of time. He’s an action cat, and inactivity saps his strength.

“I would like you to pay another visit to the Farnsworth place, and this time I want you to use your noses.”

“Our noses?” I asked, mystified.

“I have reason to believe Grace’s body has been buried somewhere inside that house, or the grounds surrounding it, and I want you to prove that you can sniff out a dead body as well as a dog can.”

“Oh, don’t you doubt it,” said Harriet, who was still sore about the litter box incident, and now harbored a particular grudge against all dogs, great or small.

“So prove it,” said Odelia with a smile as she offered up this challenge.

“Prove what?” asked Dooley, who’d just entered the kitchen through the pet flap.

“We’re going to find a dead body,” I said, getting him up to speed on the latest events.

“A dead body?” he asked. “Did the werewolf kill someone?”

“Not the werewolf. Jock Farnsworth,” said Odelia.

“Oh, him,” said Dooley, losing his interest. The werewolf encounter had set him thinking, and he seemed to consider the monster a friend rather than a foe. In fact he’d told us he wouldn’t mind another face-to-face meeting, and this time he’d engage it in conversation. Try to find out what made it tick.

I’d told him what made it tick was an intense desire for blood and guts, but he said it probably was just a creature like the rest of us, yearning for some love and affection.

Brutus had told him he was nuts, and that had been the end of that conversation.

“Let’s go,” said Odelia, who didn’t believe in wasting time.

So we went out the door, into her pickup, and then we were on our way, making good time as she headed out of town, even as people all seemed eager to get into town, as proven by the long line of traffic going the other direction.

“All going to the police station no doubt,” said Odelia. “You should have seen them. Practically mobbing my uncle.”

“People are scared,” I said. “And they have every reason to be.”

“Yeah, I was scared, too,” said Harriet. “Though I’m more scared of Fifi taking another dump in my litter box while we’re gone.”

“I told her not to,” I said. “But I don’t think she was paying attention.”

“She invited all the dogs of the neighborhood to use our litter boxes,” said Harriet sadly. “She’s decided to be the best ambassador she can be of the litter revolution, and when I told her the litter revolution is a bust, she said she understood. It often happens that the original foundersof a movement step back, only for the second generation to take over. And now it’s happening to the litter movement, and she’s happy to take over.”

“I’ll talk to Kurt,” said Odelia. “Make him buy Fifi a litter box. I’ll even pay him.”

“Or fix that hole in the fence,” said Brutus. “That seems to be the way they all get in.”

“Or I could temporarily block the pet door,” said Odelia, but that only drew horrified cries from the four of us. “Okay,” she said with a laugh. “I guess not. But I will make sure to always close the kitchen door from now on.”

We’d arrived at the entrance to the Farnsworth domain and she parked the car.

“Okay, this is it, you guys. I’ll ring the bell, and you slip in through the back, all right? Are you ready to do this?”

“We’re ready,” I said determinedly.

“Are we going to meet the werewolf after this?” asked Dooley. “I think I know what I’m going to say to him. I’ve prepared a speech.”

“No, Dooley,” said Odelia. “We’re not going to meet the werewolf. Besides, werewolves only come out at night, when the moon is full.”

“So where is he now?” asked Dooley, visibly disappointed.

“He’s in his human form,” said Harriet.