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The next morning we were all present and accounted for in Uncle Alec’s office. And when I say all, I mean myself, Dooley, Chase and Odelia, and of course the big man himself.

The latter had a few things to discuss with our intrepid detectives, namely the unfortunate demise of one Dylon Pipe, burglar by profession, but apparently not a very good one, or else he wouldn’t have toppled to his death outside the apartment building he was burgling.

“No coroner’s report yet,” the Chief said as he glared at me, as if I’d personally prevented the coroner from doing his job. “Abe told me he’s got a backlog of bodies to process, so it might be a couple of days before he gets round to our friendly neighborhood burglar. But so far it looks like an accidental death.”

“Any news on that necklace?” asked Odelia. “Only Laia called me this morning, all atwitter about her necklace. Apparently it’s worth a great deal of money.”

“How much is a great deal?” asked Uncle Alec.

“Let’s just say it could buy you a house… or ten,” said Odelia.

The Chief’s eyebrows shot up. “Ten houses? And they kept that thing at the loft?”

“She only just got it as a present from her mom and dad,” Odelia explained, “so they hadn’t decided where to keep it yet.”

“In a safe at the bank would be my best bet,” said Chase.

“Well, I’m sure they will put it there now, once they get it back.” She shot her uncle a meaningful look, but the latter merely shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but Abe says Mr. Pipe didn’t have the necklace on him. In fact nothing of value was found on the body, I’m afraid.”

“But how is that possible?” asked Odelia.

“Maybe it fell out of his pocket and someone picked it up?” Chase suggested.

“It’s possible,” Uncle Alec conceded. “At any rate, I’ve got a couple of uniforms doing a house-to-house to see if anyone saw anything suspicious last night.”

“Could be that one of the neighbors saw the guy take a tumble and picked up the necklace,” said Chase. “Or a passerby, figuring it was their lucky night.”

“We’ll know more when I get the report from the neighborhood canvass,” said Odelia’s uncle. “Though from what I hear that neighborhood isn’t extremely cooperative. Seems they’re up in arms against these street works. Something about the cobblestones. They even formed an anti-cobblestone committee.”

“What do they have against cobblestone?” asked Chase, genuinely curious.

“Something to do with it being bad for their cars,” said the Chief. “And making too much noise when someone drives through the street.”

“It’s true that a cobblestone street makes a lot more noise than an asphalted one,” said Odelia. “I once wrote an article about it for the paper, with an expert measuring the decibels produced by the two types. There’s a marked difference.”

“I thought the whole point of a cobblestone street was to reduce traffic, and lower the speed,” said Chase, “since driving across those stones makes drivers automatically slow down.”

“Yeah, well, they’re dead set against it,” said the Chief. “In other news,” he said, changing the topic from one he clearly wasn’t all that interested in, “did you know that Dylon Pipe and his victim knew each other?” He directed this question at his niece, whom he considered an expert on all things Jay Green through her recent association with the guy.

“Jay and Dylon knew each other?” asked Odelia, sounding surprised.

“Yeah, they were in school together. They’re the same age, in fact, and still move in the same circles. The art world,” he added for Chase’s sake.

“Dylon was also an artist?” asked Odelia.

“He was. And a popular model at the art school. Evening classes.” He leaned back with a grin on his broad face. “And guess who’s one of the students in his class?”

“Mom and Gran,” said Odelia.

Uncle Alec frowned.“Sounds like you know more about it than me.”

“Oh, and Scarlett has been going, too,” said Odelia. “And Charlene, of course.”

Her uncle’s frown deepened. “Charlene and Dylon Pipe? She didn’t tell me.”

“It’s just drawing, Uncle Alec. Nothing more.”

“Mh,” he said, clearly not convinced that nothing untoward was going on. “Anyway, he’s dead now,” he added, miraculously cheering up a great deal. “And when he failed to show up for his class last night, the teacher came up with a last-minute replacement. A man we all know and love.” And with a sort of flourish, he turned his computer screen, where the picture of a naked man was featured.

Though when I looked closer, I saw that the man was actually wearing a pair of pink boxers to cover his modesty. It was Odelia’s dad, of course.

“I heard the story, but I hadn’t seen the pictures,” said Chase. He suppressed a grin, darting curious glances at his wife, whose face had turned beet-red.

“I did not have to see that,” said our human. “I so did not have to see that.”