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“Not sure how strong those spousal alibis are, though,” said Alec. “Wives and husbands tend to say anything to protect their partners, so I wouldn’t take them off your list for now.”

Odelia tapped the name at the top of the list.“That leaves us with Jeb Pott.”

“Admit it, babe,” said Chase. “He’s still our number one suspect. He had means, motive, and opportunity, and from where I’m sitting he’s guilty as hell.”

“Tough for his ex-wife and kid,” said Tex, rubbing his eyes.

Everyone looked tired, and it was time to go home.

“I think maybe I should tell Helena and Fae I have to disappoint them but that I haven’t found conclusive evidence of anyone other than Jeb being behind the murder of his ex-wife,” said Odelia. “And as soon as Jack’s camera turns up, I’m afraid that’s it for Jeb.”

“So what about this Jack Palmer?” asked Gran. “Could he have done it?”

“I don’t see why he’d kill a woman he’s never even met,” said Odelia.

“His death is definitely an accident, right?” asked Marge.

Odelia looked at her uncle, who nodded.“No sign of foul play. The guy stepped on a rotten step and broke his neck. Case closed.”

And so was the meeting apparently, for everyone got up and started moving to their respective dwellings.

As far as I was concerned, it was obvious I didn’t have anything useful to contribute to this particular case, so Dooley and I followed Odelia and Chase up to bed, and Harriet and Brutus followed Gran and the others to the house next door.

And as I settled in for the night, or at least until Odelia was fast asleep, I said,“This is just about the weirdest case we’ve ever been involved in, don’t you agree, Dooley?”

“Yeah, we caught the killer even before the investigation got started.”

“Not every case has to be the same, though,” I said, and placed my head on my paws.

And then I dozed off. It had been a long day, and since the case was apparently closed now, the culprit in jail, I decided not to spend another moment of my precious time on this investigation. What? I could have finished an entire bag of Cat Snax in that time.

Chapter 35

The next day, Marge decided to take her cat menagerie to work. Just as a special treat for us. Chase didn’t mind taking the kittens to the police station again, but Marge felt that everyone deserved to have a chance to play with them, and there were so many kids who’d asked about the kittens when Marge had announced her daughter had recently adopted three of them, that she felt she really needed to show them off now.

So in the car we all went and onward to the library—no less than seven cats in the backseat, four of them adults and three babies.

Bim, Bam and Bom, of course, were playing around in the car footwell to their heart’s content, the rest of us stodgy old cats perched neatly on our seats, not moving an inch.

“You know, Max?” said Brutus as he surveyed the tiny bundles of joy cavorting about, “when I see those kittens I suddenly feel old.”

“Same thing here,” I admitted. “For one thing, if I drop down from a great height I don’t recuperate as well as those little tykes do.”

“I don’t see what the big appeal is,” said Harriet, who still hadn’t warmed to the youngsters.

“They’re just so much fun to be around,” said Dooley. “In fact they don’t make me feel old—they make me feel young!”

“Oh, that’s just crap,” said Harriet. “You’re only as old as you feel, and I, for one, refuse to believe in that age-old ageist nonsense. I feel young, therefore I am young.”

“Yes, but they really are young,” Brutus said, “whereas we are old—um, old-er,” he quickly amended when she shot him a terse look.

Bom had discovered Harriet’s fluffy tail again and now sat chewing on it. When she found out, she swiped at the young whippersnapper, but he didn’t seem to mind. He probably thought it was a game, so he slapped her right back. After a while the other two kittens wanted in on the action, and they all started playing withHarriet, who kept trying to fend them off. The harder she tried, the more they crawled all over her.

“Oh, for Pete’s sakes,” she grumbled, and finally managed to swing one kitten in my lap, the second one in Dooley’s and the third in Brutus’s.

I grinned at the little one, and when she dug her tiny teeth into my tail, I didn’t even mind. I’d grown to like the little angels—or devils, depending on how you felt about them.

We arrived at the library and Marge bundled up the kittens then let us walk into the side entrance under our own steam. We’d been there plenty of times before. The kids had so much fun playing with us that I always loved our time at the library. Even the old folks enjoyed our company. They always said being around us cats brought them so much joy that they returned home happy as clams. And so did we, actually.