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“Odelia wasn’t arrested,” I said. “She was invited in for questioning, and her explanation satisfied Uncle Alec to such an extent that there will be no further consequences. She is innocent—of course she is.”

“Well, from what I’m hearing your family is in some real trouble, Max. First Brutus and Harriet deciding to turn themselves into dogs—a cat’s natural enemy—then Odelia getting arrested for that attack on Carl Strauss, and your Grandma Muffin trying to bribe Mayor Butterwick with large andfrankly outrageous sums of money. It’s enough to look into your personal status as a member of cat choir.”

I stared at the cat.“You want to expel me, too?”

“I think you dropped the ball, Max.”

“Not funny, Kingman.”

“You know how it is. If you don’t keep your eye on that ball…”

“Still not funny!”

“Look, Shanille is looking into things. You see, cat choir has a reputation to uphold. We can’t have cats that drag us down through an association with humans of ill repute.”

“My humans are beyond reproach, Kingman. Well beyond reproach!”

“Vesta has always been a source of trouble, and if she continues to go down this road, you shouldn’t be surprised that there are going to be consequences is all I’m saying.”

“But Kingman—I’m not my humans’ keeper!”

“You should be,” he said. “Just like I’m my human’s keeper. If Wilbur tries any funny business, I make it my business to make sure he gets back on the straight and narrow. It’s the sacred oath all cats swear when they decide to adopt a human.”

This was simply too much. Wilbur’s behavior often gave rise to a lot of questions, and I’d never even once known Kingman to interfere in the man’s outrageous behavior.

“I don’t think Gran will listen to us, Kingman,” said Dooley. “She doesn’t even listen to her own family.”

“Well, she should. Actions have consequences, and before she does anything rash she should consider those consequences.”

I frowned at the big cat.“All this wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Gran had some kind of altercation with Wilbur last night, would it?”

“Oh, no, absolutely not,” Kingman was quick to assure me.

But just then, Wilbur caught sight of Dooley and myself, and came stomping out of his store, swinging his fists and looking extremely annoyed.“Oh, no, you don’t!” he yelled. “You can’t come in here and spy on me, you two!”

He picked up a tomato, and made to throw it in my direction. But then he seemed to think better of it and put it down again. After all, a tomato is a sellable item and why waste good money? So instead he picked up a pebble, and aimed that at me!

“Hey!” I said. “Are you kidding me right now?”

Luckily Wilbur has terrible aim, and the pebble zipped right over my head.

“Get lost, you two!” Wilbur screamed. “Go away and never come back!”

“Kingman, restrain your human!” I said, remembering Kingman’s words about cats being responsible for their humans. “Tell him to cease and desist!”

“Sorry, Max,” said Kingman. “But the ball is in your court now.”

And since Wilbur was already picking up another pebble, bigger than the last, I decided things were definitely getting a little too hot here, and so we skedaddled.

“I won’t forget this, Kingman!” I yelled.

“I’m sorry, Max!” he yelled back. “If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas!”

And as we put some distance between ourselves and Kingman’s berserk human, Dooley asked, “What did Kingman mean, Max?”

“It’s an expression,” I explained, still greatly perturbed by the blatant betrayal of our friend. “It means that if you get involved with a bad person you suffer the consequences.”

“And who’s the bad person?”

“I suppose he means Gran, and Odelia, too, probably.”

“Odelia? But Odelia isn’t a bad person, Max.”

“I know she isn’t, but you know the kind of gossipmonger Kingman is. He heard something about Odelia getting questioned, and he’s turned it into a story about her being arrested for the attack on Carl.”

“Odelia arrested!”

“She wasn’t, all right?” I said, perhaps a little more curtly than I intended. “Odelia was simply asked to explain why her fingerprints were on the golf club used as a weapon to hit Carl Strauss over the head with. Unfortunately she couldn’t explain, but that doesn’t mean she’s guiltyof attacking the man. Odelia would never do a thing like that.”

“Oh, I know she wouldn’t. Odelia isn’t capable of such an act of violence. She’s the nicest, sweetest person on the planet. In fact I think she must be some kind of saint.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I said, glancing back and noticing how Wilbur was still staring after us. And then I noticed something else: the same person who’d been filming us at the dog park was filming us now: a round-faced individual of considerable proportions was holding up his smartphone and following us at a couple of paces distance, filming our every move. “There he is again,” I told Dooley, as my friend, too, turned around. We both sat staring at the man, as he brazenly stood there filming us!

“And he’s filming us again.”

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked.