31906844db5c02010017a90f3f2ca805

“Because you discovered that Wolf Langdon and Dany Cooper were having an affair and you’re hoping to find out more by breaking into Langdon’s room and digging through his phone.”

She laughed again, with less conviction.“How—how did you know? About the affair, I mean?”

“I’m a detective, Odelia. It’s my job to know stuff like that. And I had a long talk with Langdon’s wife this afternoon, who told me all about the affair. She also mentioned she assumes Langdon and Dany had been sexting a lot, but every time she tried to get her hands on her husband’s phone he made sure he had it on him. He even sleeps with that phone, keeping it tucked away underneath his pillow, his hand on top of it, just in case.”

“That’s very unhealthy. All that radiation.”

“That’s more urban legend than scientific fact, though, isn’t it?”

“Still,” she said, and swallowed. Gazing into Chase’s eyes it wasn’t hard to see why criminals would succumb under the pressure of his quiet determination and confess all.

“All right!” she finally cried, throwing up her hands. “I’m going to stake out Whitmore Manor and break in under the cover of darkness to check out the guy’s phone. So are you going to tell me I can’t go?”

“Of course not. I’m going to tell you I’m coming with you. And I hope you won’t tell your uncle, because this operation will be one hundred percent unsanctioned and if we get caught you’ll have a great front-page story but I’ll probably get fired.”

“I won’t tell my uncle if you won’t,” she said with a low voice and a smile on her face.

He tilted up her chin, then pressed a warm kiss to her lips.“Hey, there, partner in crime,” he murmured. “I missed you tonight.”

“You did? It wasn’t clear from the way you were chatting up that blonde.”

“I wasn’t chatting up that blonde. I was trying to extract information from her.”

“Hard to know the difference.”

“That’s what makes police work so fascinating: nothing is what it seems.”

She smiled.“Do you still prefer brunettes over blondes?”

“I prefer this brunette,” he said, then deepened the kiss.

A soft cough sounded behind them. When they turned, she saw it was Max. He was staring at them with a horrified expression on his furry face.“We’re ready when you are.”

Chapter 20

“I’m only doing this for Odelia,” Harriet said for the tenth time since we’d gotten into Chase’s truck.

The four of us were in the backseat, with Chase at the wheel and Odelia riding shotgun.

“We know you’re only doing this for Odelia,” I said. “And I, for one, think it’s very noble of you to put aside your differences and join us.”

“I haven’t put aside any differences,” said Harriet through gritted teeth. The words came out in a low growl and Chase frowned and checked his rearview mirror.

“One of your cats doesn’t sound happy, babe,” he said.

“Oh, she’s probably nervous, that’s all,” said Odelia.

“Nervous? How can she be nervous? She doesn’t have a clue where we’re going.”

“Cats have an instinct for these things,” she explained.

“Um, I guess,” he said doubtfully. Chase was not a big believer in the abilities of cats to solve murders. Then again, he also had no idea Odelia could understand every word we said and vice versa. Probably best to keep it that way, too, or else he might start interfering in this holy alliance between man and beast, as Tex had once called it.

“The only reason I’m going along on this trip is because Odelia asked me to,” Harriet repeated, in case we hadn’t heard her the first dozen times. “You’re not off the hook, Brutus.”

“I understand that and I regret it deeply,” said Brutus. “What more can I do than to apologize once again for any misunderstanding my behavior may have caused and to—”

“Misunderstanding? That was no misunderstanding. Your nose was practically glued to Darlene’s butt.”

“It was a case of wrong perspective!” he cried.

“Yeah, just keep telling yourself that,” she said, and looked out the window, determined not to give Brutus another glance.

“So what is our mission, Max?” asked Dooley.

“Mission. Nice,” said Brutus with a chuckle. When Harriet shot him a frosty glance, breaking her own rule not to look at him, the chuckle turned into a choked chortle, then quickly died away.

“Our mission—should we choose to accept it—is to talk to that Chihuahua and extract information from the mutt with any means at our disposal.”

“Chihuahua?” said Harriet, looking up in surprise. “Nobody said anything about a dog.”

“A Chihuahua, as Odelia has gone to great pains to explain, is not just any dog. A Chihuahua is a noble breed and amongst the sweetest and most innocuous of its kind. I’m sure we’ll get along great with the little mutt.”

“I’m not going near that dog. No way. Dogs stink.”

In the front seat, Odelia suppressed a snicker, causing Chase to give her a look of concern.