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“Looking for Odelia and Edward Dexter,” Gran said. “She and that Dexter guy are having an affair, and if it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make it stop.”

“But she’s not having an affair,” I said. “I already told Harriet last night. She’s just helping him find his daughter.”

“A likely story,” Gran scoffed. “No, she’s having an affair, all right. I saw them with my own two eyes. And so did you, isn’t that right, Scarlett?”

“My feet hurt!” Scarlett cried. “Why didn’t you tell me we were going hiking?”

“I did tell you, you silly woman.”

“No, you didn’t. You said we were going to catch Odelia and Dexter in the act. Nothing about hiking in some stupid woods.”

“Relax. We’re almost at that road.”

“Nice fellow, this Cyril Wellbeloved,” said Tex conversationally. “Though what he’s doing out here is beyond me. Not very pleasant, especially in winter.”

“Do you know this guy, Gran?” I asked.

“Nope. Never seen him before in my life. You, Tex? This guy familiar to you?”

“I can’t say that he is,” said Tex. “Though his name does sound familiar somehow.” He shook his head. “It’ll come to me. It always does. And usually in the middle of the night when I have to get up and go to the bathroom.”

I wasn’t particularly interested in Tex’s bathroom habits, and neither, it seemed, were Gran or Scarlett. The latter was only interested in that road.

“High heels aren’t fit for hiking, are they, Max?” asked Dooley, as he studied Scarlett’s painful gait.

“No, they certainly are not.”

We’d had a lucky escape, but all I could think was that I’d seen that man before somewhere, and if the name Cyril Wellbeloved sounded familiar to Tex, the answer of the riddle was hopefully forthcoming. Now all we had to do was wait until he had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.

CHAPTER 31

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Cyril Wellbeloved—or not-Cyril Wellbeloved, as he insisted—stared after the departing trio with the two cats, and spat on the ground. It was a shame he’d have to forego a nice meal, but at least he was rid of these intruders. In all the years he’d been living in the woods, never had anyone interrupted his peace and quiet like this. Oh, he’d had visitors, of course, but not like these three, who thought they could just come in and boss him around. Especially that old woman was the worst. Who did she think she was, telling him what to do in his own home?

He spat on the ground again for good measure, and walked to the edge of the clearing, glanced left and right, just to make sure those nosy parkers were well out of earshot, and knocked three times on the protruding piece of metal at his feet. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d never find it, which was the whole idea.

From inside the enclosure, a hollow voice said,“Are they gone?”

“Yeah, they’re gone,” he said. “You can come out now.”

“Good,” said the voice. “I thought they’d never leave.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]

Our first day of searching was at an end, and we didn’t have much to show for our effort. We all met back where we’d set out, and reported to Odelia, who’d also returned from her search, along with Chase.

Neither had found anything of note, and when one by one the teams of cats dropped by, they all had the same message: no sign of the missing couple. And apart from Cyril, no sign of life in general, or at least human life.

“We saw a ghost,” Dooley announced. “He almost ate us, but Gran saved us.”

Gran regarded Odelia with a critical eye.“We need to have a word, young lady,” she said.

“Later, Gran. I have to finish welcoming our teams back.”

“Tonight. And don’t think you can get out of this by postponing,” she warned. “I know what you did,” she added, wagging her finger. “And I won’t stand for it!”

Odelia frowned at her grandmother, but the old lady had already turned on her heel and was walking away.

“What was that all about?” asked Odelia, puzzled.

Her dad, who stood rocking back and forth on his heels, gave a weak smile.“Oh, you know your grandmother,” he said. Never a man keen on confrontation, he didn’t seem about to get involved in one now. And since Chase was present, he wasn’t going to bring up the tryst business.

“I’m actually hoping the dogs might have sniffed out some kind of clue,” Odelia confessed, as she tapped an impatient pencil on her notepad.

“I’ll have you know that cats are better at tracking people than dogs,” said Harriet, who’d overheard this last snippet of conversation. “In fact cats’ sense of smell is practically on par with dogs, if not better.”

“It’s more complicated than you think, Harriet,” said Dooley. “I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel last week, and some dog breeds have more scent receptors than cats. About a hundred million more, in fact.”

“Oh, who cares,” said Harriet. “That’s probably fake news anyway.”

“On the other hand, cats have more V1R receptors, which are instrumental in differentiating between different scents, so they have a more sensitive nose.”

“Go away, Dooley.”