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“In spite of everything she seems to be able to feel regret,” Dooley rightly observed. “Which means she’s not a psychopath, Max. Because psychopaths can’t feel remorse, or empathy for their victims. I saw that on the Discovery Channel once.”

“Good to know,” I said, as I gave the young woman a very hard look. Not that this had the slightest effect on her, as her gaze was fixed on Odelia, and she now swallowed with some difficulty. I saw that on her wrist she had on one of Odelia’s bracelets, and if I wasn’t mistaken I could evensee she’d put one of Odelia’s hairpins in her hair.

“Ruby,” said Odelia finally. “I think you and I need to have a talk.”

“But… I just came in here to tidy up your cabin,” said the girl. “I, um, I figured you were so busy with the investigation you could use a helping hand. And I just happened to see your cleaner leave, and one glance told me she hadn’t done a good job, and since you were both so nice to me before, I just figured—”

But Odelia held up her hand and said, with a rather hard edge to her voice,“Save it.”

“But—”

“Enough, all right? Enough with the lies and the excuses. Come on. Let’s go.”

“Let’s go? Where?” asked the girl, a hunted look having come into her eyes.

“Out,” said Odelia, and grabbed the girl’s wrist and yanked her along in the direction of the balcony.

“You’re not going to throw me overboard, are you?!” said Ruby. “I can’t swim!”

“I saw you in the pool yesterday and you were doing just fine.”

“I’m—I’m allergic to saltwater!”

“I’m not going to throw you overboard, you silly girl.” She opened the balcony door and stepped out, taking Ruby along.

Almost automatically, Dooley and I followed. I guess by now we’re more or less trained to always go where things are happening, to observe and report. It’s like second nature. Then again, maybe spying on humans is second nature to all cats.

“Take a seat,” Odelia snapped as she indicated a chair. Ruby did as she was told, then removed the bracelet and the hairpin and placed them on the table. “I just wanted to see how they would look on me. You have such a great style.”

“Thanks,” said Odelia curtly. “Now tell me, Ruby. Why do you keep putting yourself in this position? In other words, why do you keep stealing stuff? And don’t give me some lame-ass excuse. I want you to tell me the truth, all right?”

“All right,” said the girl, much sobered. “Um, well, I guess it all started when my mom and dad decided to get a divorce.”

“A divorce? What are you talking about?”

“Mom and Dad are divorced,” said Ruby in a small voice as she massaged her wrist. “They got divorced when I was thirteen, but they went through one of those amicable divorces, and they’ve kept going on vacations with me, and they never fight in front of me, which makes it all just a little bit worse, I guess.”

“So your mom and dad are divorced but they still sleep in the same bed?”

“Mom sleeps in the bed and Dad sleeps on the couch. They’ve tried to make things as painless for me as possible, which somehow has made it more painful. The harder they try, the worse I feel. They try so hard to be civil to each other that it’s created this totally weird atmosphere around thehouse.”

“They still live together?” asked Odelia.

“No, Dad moved out and lives in an apartment down the road. But he drops by all the time, and I spend every other weekend with him, and sometimes we all spend the weekend together.” She sagged a little. “I just want to shake them, you know, and tell them to just scream and shout at each other. It’s obvious that they want to, but they keep this strained politeness going, probably because they talked to some psychologist who told them they needed to do things this way for my sake.”

“And when did you start stealing stuff?”

“Three months after the divorce was final. I don’t know. I guess I wasn’t feeling well, and I saw this cool top that I just had to have, and I knew Mom didn’t have the money to buy it, and I didn’t want to ask my dad, since he had enough on his plate already, so I just took it. And of course I was busted by the store detective. And then the strangest thing happened: Mom and Dad both showed up, and for once they were almost like a real couple again, you know. They were shouting. Not at each other, but at me, but still, it felt more real than this crazy kind of half-life we’ve been living. It felt good, and so I guess I did it again. In fact every time things aren’t going so well, and I have a feeling I’m living with two zombies instead of two human beings, I steal stuff and for a moment things are all right again. It just makes me feel… I don’t know. Alive, I guess.”

“I understand,” said Odelia, and I could see that she felt sorry for the girl, in spite of the fact that she’d just tried to steal some of her favorite stuff. “So don’t you think there’s some other way you can make your parents act more like humans and not like zombies?”

“I don’t know. If there is, I haven’t found it yet.”

“Maybe you could try talking to them?”