31906844db5c02010017a90f3f2ca805

We both thanked the grief-stricken doggie and moved into the other room, where Zoltan was seated in front of the television, nursing a drink, and staring at the news reports about Kimberlee’s death. He sat sagged in his seat, and looked as unhappy as Stevie.

“Yoo-hoo, mister,” said Dooley, but he didn’t pay attention.

“Can you let us out now, please?” I asked.

No reaction. The man was completely spaced out.

“Maybe try the yowling thing again?” Dooley suggested.

“Or we could go that way,” I suggested, indicating the balcony.

If Zoltan’s balcony was like most balconies, it would lead to the next one, and then the next, and finally would lead us back to Odelia’s room.

So we moved to the French windows, and out onto the balcony, then hopped up onto the stone balustrade and glanced around for the next balcony.

As I’d suspected, it was well within reach, and a quick jump later we were in the next room. Loud voices drifted from inside, and I pricked up my ears to determine their source. They appeared to be a couple fighting, so we settled down on the balcony, and decided to have a listen. Feline spies at work.

Chapter 26

“I’m done apologizing, Thaw!” the woman said. “You hear me? Done!”

“I’m not asking you to apologize, Verna,” said this Thaw person. “All I want is to understand. How could you throw away this—for that!”

“I loved her,” said Verna. “I really loved her and I thought she loved me.”

“Well, you were obviously wrong about that, weren’t you? I mean, I’m not going to say I told you so, but I did warn you. She’s the kind of person who uses people. Uses them and then throws them away when she’s done.”

“I know—and I hated her for it.”

“I thought you said you loved her?”

“I loved her and then I hated her. I still hate her—for what she did to me—to us.”

“You should have thought about that sooner, Verna. It’s too late now.”

“But I did what you asked me to!”

“I never asked you to… Oh, God. What a mess.”

There was a knock at the door and then the man stepped out onto the balcony. He stared down at us, frowned, then said,“Huh. Cats,” and proceeded to ignore us. As if we were part of the furniture.

“Hi, Miss Rectrix,” said a deferential voice inside the room. “Just a reminder that dinner will be served at seven in the main dining room.”

“Thanks,” said Verna, sounding morose now.

“You know what this means, Dooley?” I said excitedly.

“No, what?” asked Dooley.

“We found the killer!”

“We did?”

“Sure!”

“So who is it?”

“Verna! She just said it: ‘I did what you asked me to!’ She killed Kimberlee because she thought her husband asked her to!”

“Or he could have told her to buy a Snickers bar and she got him a Milky Way instead.”

“Oh, Dooley,” I said with a laugh. Not such a great detective after all!

“What? It’s true. Some people like Snickers, others like Milky Way.”

“Let’s jump to the next balcony and tell Odelia the good news. I’ll bet she’ll be so happy she’ll jump to the roof.”

“Why would Odelia jump on the roof?”

“It’s just a figure of speech. Come on.”

Verna’s husband watched us hop up onto the balustrade, then to the next balcony. “Cats,” he muttered again, then shook his head and soon was lost in what looked like very gloomy thoughts indeed. Like the fact that he’d ordered his wife to murder her girlfriend and she’d actually gone and done it!

The next balcony did not belong to Odelia either. It was another guest bedroom, and was occupied by a woman I immediately recognized as Alina Isman, the famous and extraordinary actress. She was quarreling with her husband. Today really seemed to be Fight-With-A-Spouse-Day. And since we were there anyway, we decided to stick around for a moment, and hear what they had to say to each other. We might learn something.

“I wonder where Harriet and Brutus are,” said Dooley as we settled in for another close listen. “Aren’t they supposed to be investigating, too?”

“I’ll bet they’re in the kitchen,” I said, “looking for something to eat.”

We shared a look and it soon became clear what our next port of call would be—after we’d delivered the good news to Odelia we’d identified the killer.

“I’m so, so sorry,” said Alina’s husband. “Can you ever forgive me?”

“I don’t know if I can,” she said coldly.

She was standing at the window looking out, her back straight, a pensive look in her eyes as she gazed out into the distance.

“I swear to God, I never laid a finger on that woman—not a finger!”

“Oh, spare me the crap, Reinhart,” she said, turning on her heel and laying into him. “You laid more than a finger on her. In fact you laid all of your fingers on her, didn’t you, all eleven of them!”

Dooley, next to me, was frowning.“Eleven fingers? I thought humans only had ten fingers?”

I didn’t have the heart to explain about this elusive eleventh finger. I still had the whole birds and bees thing coming up, and didn’t want to add this finger business to the list, so instead I said, “She probably sucks at math.”