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“And they have a little doggie, too,” Max said. “The Bichon Fris? that used to belong to Jeb and Camilla? Her name is Sasha and she says Jeb would never hurt anyone. No way. So you see, Fae is right. Someone is trying to frame her daddy for murder, and you have to find out who the real killer is so Jeb can come home and be with his family again.”

“Technically Helena is not his family anymore,” said Odelia. “They’re divorced.”

“But Fae is still his daughter, and Sasha is still his dog—at least partly.”

“Yes, they are,” she admitted. She clapped her hands. “Well, isn’t this your lucky day? It just so happens that Uncle Alec found some irregularities that indicate this story isn’t as clear-cut as we’ve been led to believe. So he’s asked me to look into the matter.”

“So you think Jeb is innocent?” Dooley asked, his little face lighting up.

“No, I don’t, but there are some things that need to be clarified.”

Max gave her phone a little shove in her direction.“Call Fae. Tell her you’ll take the case. Pretty please?”

“You should have seen how hard she was crying,” said Dooley.

“Yeah,” Max added, “she used so many paper tissues trees are crying, too.”

Odelia laughed.“All right. I’ll take the case.”

She’d always trusted her cats’ instincts. And if they thought that something funny was going on, and so did Uncle Alec, something funny definitely was going on.

Chapter 11

We were finally back at the house. I love prancing around and helping Odelia ferret out clues but you know what I love even more? To be home and lie on my favorite spot on my favorite couch. And having access to my food bowl and my litter box. So it was with a sinking heart that I discovered that not only had the kittens emptied out my food bowl again, but they’d also been playing in my litter box, spreading litter all over the kitchen floor.

Ugh.

“You guys!” I cried. “Why did you make such a mess?”

The three kittens sat next to one another and stared at me, then giggled and attacked me! One jumped on top of my head, another assaulted my tail, and the third one hopped onto my back and dug his tiny claws in!

“Ouch! Hey! What the…”

I tried to shake them off, but they were pretty tenacious.

“I’m the prime resident of this house and you’re going to treat me with resp—ow!”

The one attached to my tail had sunk its teeth into this tender body part again.

“Oh, are you going to behave or not?!” I cried, and pushed the tail-biter away.

In response, the one using my head like a jungle gym gave my nose a playful tap.

“Oh, you guys,” I said grumpily, and rolled over on my back to remove these pesky kittens. They were more nimble and flexible than I was, though, and immediately changed tack by jumping on top of my soft white belly and using it as a trampoline!

“Yay yay yay!” they shouted as they hopped up and down.

Yuck. Now I suddenly wished I hadn’t eaten Sasha’s kibble back at the mansion.

So I rolled over on my belly again and hunkered down, protecting myself from the onslaught. Of course now they jumped on my back, with one even dangling from my left ear.

Dooley, who’d popped over to his house next door and now came back in through the kitchen pet flap, eyed the circus with a laugh. “You guys look like you’re having fun.”

“I’m not having fun,” I growled. “They are.”

“Yay yay yay!” cried the kittens, as they jumped up and down on my back.

“How am I ever going to survive this?” I asked miserably as I tried to ignore the little tykes trampling all over me.

“Oh, they’ll grow up eventually,” said Dooley, who seemed to have softened to the kittens. “We did, remember?”

Frankly I couldn’t remember ever having been this young and silly, but logically thinking there must have been a time when I was a kitten myself. Hard to believe, right?

“Woo-hoo!” said the one dangling from my ear, then fell down on his tush, only to immediately crawl up again and climb on top of my head for another round, this time going for my other ear.

The pet flap flapped again, and Brutus and Harriet came strolling in. Harriet is a bright white Persian and her boyfriend Brutus a perfectly black butch cat. They’ve been an item for a long time and nothing can come between them—unless they come between themselves themselves, of course, if you know what I mean. But isn’t that often the case?

When they saw the circus in full swing—literally—they both burst out laughing.

“Yeah, laugh all you want,” I said grumpily. “It’s not so funny if it happens to you.”

The one dangling from my ear fell down again and this time landed on his head. Immediately I checked him for injuries, but the little dude only seemed dazed for a brief moment, and then was chasing his own tail, at last leaving mine alone for a change.

“They’re very lively,” said Harriet with a smile. “Who are they?”

“They were left on Odelia’s doorstep this morning,” said Dooley. “She’s going to keep them.”

Harriet’s smile vanished. “Keep them? What do you mean, keep them?”

“Just what I said. She’s going to keep the kittens.”