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“Uncle Alec!” said Odelia, happy to see her uncle. “I hoped it would be you.”

“Of course it’s me. Who else are they going to call on a Saturday morning?” He was still huffing and puffing, catching his breath. “Your mom told me you were off for the weekend—she never told me you’d traded dreary old Hampton Cove for the weekend palaces of the rich and famous?”

“Just a happy coincidence,” she said.

“Or an unhappy one,” said Chase, indicating the door to Kimberlee’s room.

Uncle Alec’s face turned grave. “Suicide, huh? Who is she?”

“Kimberlee Cruz.”

“Never heard of her,” said the Chief. He gestured for Pete to open the door, which Emerald’s husband promptly did. Uncle Alec stepped inside, followed by, once again, Chase and Odelia, earning them both a slightly aggravated look from Pete.

“My, my,” said Alec as he surveyed the scene, then gave Odelia and Chase a quizzical look. “How long have you two been here?”

“Since last night,” said Odelia.

“And already you’ve got a dead body on your hands.”

“We didn’t do this, Chief,” said Chase.

“I know, I know. But trouble does seem to follow you around.” He then crouched down with some effort. “Now let’s see what we have here.”

Chapter 15

Dawn had come and we were still sitting in our tree—pretty much in the same spot where we’d settled down the night before.

“Do you think they’re looking for us already?” asked Dooley for the umpteenth time.

“I think it’s too soon,” I answered, also for the umpteenth time.

“Gran does get up early,” said Harriet. “She will wonder where we are.”

“Maybe we should have waited for a more opportune moment?” I said.

“Like when?”

“Like… when they’re all together having dinner? Or watching TV?”

“They’ll miss us now for sure,” said Harriet. “Gran likes to wake up with Dooley poking his nose in her side, and Marge is the same way with me.”

“Nobody wakes up expecting me to snuggle up to them,” said Brutus, and he sounded a little annoyed by the fact.

“I’m sure Chase would love you to snuggle up to him,” I said.

Brutus scoffed,“Chase would probably kick me out of bed if I tried to pull a stunt like that.”

It was true that Chase wasn’t exactly cut from the same cloth as Odelia or her mom or gran, but that didn’t mean he would exactly kick Brutus out of bed for showing some affection, which is what I told Brutus.

“He has changed,” Brutus agreed. “He used to think cats were furry furniture ornaments for old ladies and now he’s starting to appreciate us more.”

“I wonder if he’ll ever be let in on Odelia’s little secret, though,” I said.

“Not a chance. Outsiders like Chase will never understand the special bond between us cats and the Poole ladies,” said Harriet.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” I said. “Chase has saved our lives several times now—he’s part of the family. Isn’t that right, Dooley?”

“Chase is Jesus,” said Dooley reverently. “Only without the sheep.”

“It’s true,” I said. “Chase is a latter-day Jesus, only without the sheep.”

Which was only to be expected. Nobody walks around with a flock of sheep nowadays. It’s not very practical.

We were silent for a moment, the only sound interrupting the silence the gentle clicking of our chattering teeth. It gets a little chilly in the park at night, especially after five o’clock in the morning, and we’d all gotten a little shivery.

“And thinking we could be home right now, snuggling up to our humans,” said Dooley.

“Be strong, Dooley,” said Harriet. “We’re teaching them a lesson.”

“The very least they could do is pay for the operations,” said Brutus. “That way I can be a real male again and you can be a real female.”

“For your information, I am a real female, even if I’m not a fully functioning one,” said Harriet a little snappishly. “But it would be nice if we could have a couple of babies to celebrate our love, sparky star,” she added after a pregnant pause.

“My thoughts exactly, sugar biscuit,” said Brutus.

“Oh, I’m so sorry I was mean to you, hubby wubby.”

“And I’m sorry I went a little cuckoo, bugsie wugsie.”

Kissing ensued, and a lot more silly names were bandied about.

“Let’s get out of here,” I told Dooley after I’d heard all that I could stand.

“Yeah, let’s go someplace warm,” agreed Dooley, who wasn’t a big fan of cuddling couples either.

“I think that’s why they do it, you know,” I said as we set paw for the nearest bench, so we could sit in the sun and defrost our frozen tushies.

“Do what?”

“Fight? They love to make up so much they will find any excuse to have a fight,” I said, gesturing with my head to the couple still holed up in the tree.

“Do you really think so?” said Dooley. “That would explain a lot.”

“They do seem to fight for the silliest of reasons nowadays,” I said. “Which tells me it’s not the fighting they love so much as the making up afterward.”

“You could be right,” said Dooley. “It seemed weird Brutus would want to turn into a female all of a sudden. He’s a very butch cat. Very manly, too.”

“He is,” I said. “Probably the butchest male I’ve ever met.”