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“Okay, so how did you do it, Max?” asked Brutus. “How did you find out it was Laia’s parents?”

We were in the backyard, the four of us seated on the porch swing, while the humans were all gathered around the garden table, enjoying a small feast. Food should have been provided by Tex, our go-to grill master. Only Tex had announced he was on strike. Marge and Gran had told him about their secret art class, and Tex had taken the betrayal hard. And so now he was on strike, both as a model, even though his services weren’t really required, and as a dispenser of food.

Though judging from the happy faces all around, no one seemed to mind particularly that the good doctor had downed tools.

Instead, Chase had taken over, and with the assistance of Uncle Alec had done a wonderful job. They’d even earned themselves applause from their family, something I don’t think Tex had ever received.

It only served to make the paterfamilias even more cranky, and for a while it had looked as if he would also refuse to take nourishment, but in the end I guess even he realized that was overdoing things. Though it may have been the delicious smells wafting from the grill that finally decided him.

I watched Grace smear her face with what looked like some kind of vegetable paste and said, with a smile,“It was actually Grace who solved the case.”

“Grace!” Harriet cried, eyeing the toddler with newfound respect. “She’s not even old enough to speak and already she’s solving cases!”

“Well, she didn’t actually solve the case, but she did give me a very important clue,” I clarified, lest there be any misunderstanding. “Flour.”

“Flour?”

“Flour. You see, the day we paid a visit to the Twines, Algis was baking pancakes, and his shirtfront was covered with flour. Only he also had some flour under his nose, which Matilda hastened to wipe off. Now how would a man get flour up the nose?”

“Unless it wasn’t flour but something else entirely,” said Harriet, understanding dawning.

“What was it, Max?” asked Dooley. “Was it sugar?”

“Not sugar, Dooley, but cocaine. Algis Twine is an addict, and Dylon Pipe was his dealer. Only Dylon kept ‘borrowing’ more and more money from the man, implying that if he didn’t pay up, he would reveal his dirty secret, so finally Algis was fed up, and after another one of their late-nightmeetings, where money and drugs changed hands, he decided to follow Dylon, who was on his way to break into Jay’s place and steal that necklace. And that’s how Algis found out what was going on.”

“And bashed in his dealer’s head,” said Harriet, nodding. “And it was the flour that did it, was it?”

“Well, Gran was baking pancakes, and Grace happened to cover me in the stuff, which is how I suddenly remembered our interview with Laia’s parents, which made me wonder if Algis hadn’t told us the whole truth. That, and the fact that he used to be a bruiser for an extremist organization back in the day when he was young and poor. His nickname was The Bludgeoner, and he loved smashing people’s heads in. So I guess that experience served him well when dealing with Dylon and Jay.”

“But why did he kill Jay?” asked Brutus.

“Because he wanted to save his daughter from an unhappy marriage. He figured that if Jay and Dylon were such great friends, Jay was just as bad as Dylon, and would lead his little girl to her ruin. And he couldn’t have that.”

“He could have argued with the guy. Or offered him money to walk away.”

“Which is exactly what he did, but then Jay must have figured he was coming into plenty of money from his insurance scam, and he was still hoping that necklace would turn up, so he could sell it for a nice chunk of change.”

“Algis must have been pretty enraged to kill the guy in such a brutal way,” said Harriet.

“Yeah, well, I guess his Bludgeoner days suddenly made a comeback. And also, he was high on the white powder at the time, courtesy of Dylon Pipe’s provisions.”

“So a dusting of flour and you caught a killer,” said Brutus, giving me a nod of approval. “Well done, Max.”

“There was also the fact that the killer had felt Laia’s pulse. What killer would do such a thing? It was one of those little things that kept nagging me throughout the investigation. And then it hit me: a father would want to make sure his daughter was all right. Which is also where that second phone call came from. Just before the neighbor called the police, Algis had already called 911, making sure Laia would get the proper treatment, and not lie there for hours until someone happened to stumble across her.”

Odelia now walked over, laden with delicious treats. We welcomed her with open paws, so to speak.

“Is Tex ever going to speak to Marge again?” asked Dooley anxiously. “I don’t like it when they are fighting, Odelia.”

“Oh, I’m sure everything will work out,” said Odelia with a wink. “In fact Mom has already promised not to draw naked men anymore. Instead, they’re going to paint cats from now on.”

“Cats!” Harriet cried. “Not… stuffed cats!”