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And then we joined the others: Shanille, our director, Kingman, Milo, the cat that belongs to the neighbor across the street, Big Mac, a cat who likes… Big Macs, and of course Tom and Tigger and Misty and Shadow and Buster and Darlene and all the others. We’re a tight-knit community, us Hampton Cove cats, and soon choir practice began and we all sang our little hearts out, Shanille on top of the jungle gym, and the rest of us spread out across the playground the Hampton Cove council was so kind to install in the park.

I think it was probably aimed at entertaining kids and providing them with a measure of exercise. But we make good use of it, too. Nearby the ducks were quacking softly, Rita the owl was hooting, and for a brief moment I forgot all about Bim, Bam and Bom, and Jeb Pott and Harriet blowing her top. I mean, who needs a shrink when you can sing at the top of your lungs along with a bunch of other nocturnal animals, right?

But then a well-aimed size-14 shoe hit me straight on the noggin and I dropped from my high perch and fell to the rubber mulch below.

Could this be what Clarice had meant about Gran going up and then going down?

Had Gran joined a choir that was as unpopular with her neighbors as ours?

Chapter 16

“I don’t know about this, babe,” Chase was saying.

Odelia and her burly cop were seated on the salon couch, watchingThe Voice. The coaches were bickering, the candidates were singing out of tune, and generally the whole thing failed to grip. Odelia knew it had more to do with the case she’d accepted than the quality of the show, but she still turned down the sound. “About Jeb Pott, you mean?”

He nodded, absentmindedly caressing the three kittens that had fallen asleep on his lap.

Odelia smiled.“For a dog person you’re awfully good with cats.”

“I’m a pet person. Dogs, cats, goldfish. I adapt. Where are Max and Dooley, by the way?” he asked, looking around.

“Cat choir,” she said before she could stop herself. “I mean, the park. I think. They like to roam around there at night, meeting other cats, doing what cats do. At least, I think they do. It’s not as if they confide in me, you know,” she added with a nervous little laugh.

He gave her a curious look.“Look, this is an open-and-shut case, Odelia. Jeb did it. He killed his ex-wife and that’s it. But you offering your services to his daughter, that just seems… wrong.”

“I didn’t offer my services. In fact I didn’t know I had any services to offer. She came to me, remember?”

“Still. She’s offering you money to prove her dad is innocent, while you know as well as I do that he’s guilty. You’re giving her false hope, babe. And at some point you’re going to have to disappoint her, and you’re going to feel bad about accepting her money.”

“I’m not going to accept any money. I’m just doing this to satisfy my personal curiosity. There are certain things that are not jibing with the official version of events.”

“The burner phones,” he said, nodding. “But is it so hard to believe that a movie star like Jeb would possess a disposable phone? Heck, I’ll bet he’s got dozens he uses for various purposes. These are the same people who change phone numbers the way they change underwear, just in case some media person gets a hold of it and starts pestering them. Or some stalker fan. They’re notoriously paranoid and often for good reason.”

She had to admit he had a point. But how could she explain she had a gut feeling that there was something not completely right about this case? That it was perhaps too open-and-shut? She couldn’t, so she decided not to even try. “I guess I’ll just prove you right in the end,” she said instead. “In which case, no harm done. And in the event that there is something more to the case than meets the eye, I’d like to think I’ll find it.”

“Good luck,” he said wryly. “And is it true that your grandmother is assisting you?”

“That is true, and she’s doing a pretty good job so far.” Chase didn’t seem convinced. She gave him a playful poke in the ribs. “There’s something else bothering you, isn’t there? I know you well enough by now to know that when you get all broody like this you’ve got something on your mind. And I’m pretty sure it’s not me poking around your case.”

“It’s not,” he conceded. He shifted a little, careful not to wake up the kittens.

It was such an adorable sight: the burly cop with the tiny kittens buried in his big arms. Her heart melted from the sheer tenderness the homey scene displayed.

“The thing is…” He swallowed.

Uh-oh. He really did have something on his mind.“Just cut to the chase… Chase,” she quipped.

“All right. The thing is that… I talked to your cats the other day. And I got the impression they talked right back to me.”

Double uh-oh. She gulped a little.“What do you mean?”