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“There’s not much to tell. She came to the door when I knocked, but didn’t invite me in. When I told her who I was so she could confirm my appointment, she asked me to wait and went back inside. She emerged a couple minutes later with a big logbook in hand and marked off my name. She said to stop on by if I needed anything during my stay, and that was it.”

“Did you notice anything unusual during your interaction with her?” Officer Le-nard pressed, her voice smooth and practiced. She’d likely questioned witnesses hundreds of times before. I imagined her as an older lady. Maybe a few years off from retirement, if she played her cards right.

“Just that she seemed distracted,” Charles said. “But since I’d never met her be-fore, I couldn’t speak to whether or not that was normal behavior on her part.”

“Understood, understood.” They sat in silence for a few beats before Lenard spoke again. “So just to confirm, it was about two o’clock when you went to check in?”

“Yes.”

“And your girlfriend discovered the body. What time was that?”

“Well, we left a few minutes after I checked in and walked about fifteen minutes to the picnic area. All the tables there were filled so we walked another five. We sat and relaxed for close to half an hour and then walked back. As soon as we arrived back at the campground, my girlfriend went to speak with the manager. I’d say that puts us at about three thirty this afternoon.”

“Which gives us an hour and a half window for the death,” Officer Lenard supplied. “What made your girlfriend so eager to check in, if you’d already done so?”

Oh, no. That question would have totally made me freeze up. If Charles explained what we’d really been doing—making business deals with bears—he’d instantly move up the suspect list.

“We thought we heard fireworks while we were out there,” he explained, then stopped and sighed. “As an animal lover, she was quite distressed to think that something like that could be happening in a protected nature park.”

Charles’s reply came out so smooth and convincing that even I believed it. Well, the best lies were based on truth, and this was as close as we could come to sharing the conversation I’d had with Gloria at Pringle’s behest.

“Are you certain you…?” I didn’t hear the rest of the officer’s response because something else caught my focus.

Pringle.

Straight ahead on the roof of the camper parked in front of us. But before I could say or do anything, he dropped through the vent and disappeared from view.

Oh, he’d be in big trouble once I caught up to him!

Chapter Fourteen

I opened the passenger side door just as quietly as I could and slipped outside while Charles and Officer Lenard continued to converse inside.

I crept over to the RV where I’d seen Pringle sneaking about on the roof, all the while trying to figure out what I would say to explain myself to whoever was inside.

But when I knocked, nobody answered—an unfortunate theme of the day.

“Pringle!” I whisper-yelled. “Pringle! I know you’re in there!”

“I think I have some Pringles back at mine if you’ve got a craving,” Sharon yelled from somewhere behind me.

I jumped and did an about-face.“Oh, Sharon. Hi, again!” I cried, wiggling my fingers in her direction. “I was just searching for my cat.”

She squinted at me in confusion.“I thought his name was Octo-Cat?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, it is. Pringle is his middle name. Well, one of them, anyway. His full name is Octavius Pringle Maxwell Ricardo Edmund Frederick Fulton Russo, Esq, P.I. See, that’s why I had to shorten it. He comes to all the names, though, and since I haven’t seen him for a while, I’m running through the list.” I let out a nervous laugh. She was going to see right through me on this one.

But I got lucky.

“Tubby Tabby is missing?” Sharon shrieked, fanning herself with one hand. “Well, why didn’t you come and get me straight away? Of course, I’ll help you look for him. Tell you what, you just come with me.”

When I hesitated, she motioned me forward, saying“C’mon now. C’mon.”

I shot one last look at the camper containing Pringle, then dawdled after her like a lost baby duckling.

“Now, normally I wouldn’t offer up anything on my Chessy’s behalf, but I like you and I have a feeling he will, too.” She stopped outside her RV and waited for me to catch up. “Yes, that’s right. C’mon inside.”

Somewhat reluctantly, I followed Sharon into her camper, which stood parked somewhere between the camp manager’s and the one that Charles and I had rented for the weekend.

And if Junetta’s RV had been straight out of a 1980’s fever dream, Sharon’s was a futuristic space-scape. Everything inside was pristine and white and adorned with polished chrome accents. None of it had sharp edges. Instead, everything flowed seamlessly from one piece into the next. On the sleek leather sofa sat an all-white cat with extra-long hair and stunning blue eyes.

Sharon waddled right over to him and tugged him into her arms.“Oh my sweet, sweet Chessy baby,” she cooed.