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“Charlene thinks Uncle Alec called her old and ugly,” said Odelia, “even though I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that. And now she’s refusing to talk to him.”

“Oh, no!” cried Dooley. “They have to make up.”

“It’s all right, Dooley,” said Max. “I’m sure they’ll find a way to get past this.”

“Dooley hates it when people don’t get along,” Odelia explained when Chase cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at the small cat’s sad mewls.

They all got out of the car and walked up to the brownstone. Chase took a deep breath and said,“Let’s do this, shall we?”

And then he was opening the wrought-iron little gate and climbing the stairs to the front door, one reporter and four cats in tow.

The door opened and an older lady appeared, well-dressed, well-coiffed and soft-spoken.“Yes?” she asked, surprised at the intrusion.

“Detective Chase Kingsley, ma’am,” said Chase, introducing his badge. “And this is Odelia Poole, the police department’s civilian consultant.”

Marcia Gardner glanced down.“And the cats? Are they also civilian consultants?”

A little embarrassed, Chase nodded.“Um… Yeah, they’re Miss Poole’s.”

Mrs. Gardner seemed amused by this.“Unusual,” she determined. “And am I supposed to let you all in now or what?”

“If we could have a moment of your time, then yes, please,” said Chase, ever the gentleman. “It’s in connection to the death of a young woman who was found yesterday. We talked to your brother last night, and we would like to have a word with you, too, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” said the refined lady. “Come in. I have to warn you, though, I have dogs—and they don’t take as kindly to unexpected visitors as I do—especially when they’re cats.”

“Better stay out here,” Odelia murmured under her breath, and four cats shrank back as one cat at the mention of the word ‘dogs’ and made themselves scarce.

“I thought as much,” said Mrs. Gardner with a self-satisfied little smile, and stepped aside to let the cop and his civilian consultant in. She led them into a sitting room off a narrow and dark hallway, and Odelia saw that Mrs. Gardner’s taste mimicked her brother’s: plenty of antiques andold paintings adorned the walls. And not much light was allowed to penetrate the stained-glass windows.

The two dogs she’d mentioned lay on the floor, and didn’t even look up when they walked in. They were of the German Bulldog variety, and Odelia felt relieved she’d told her cats to skedaddle. The dogs might look sedate now, but faced with four cats they would almost certainly have sprung to life and chased them all over the house.

“So what’s this all about?” asked Marcia as she took a seat on a nice settee and bade them to take a seat on a second one.

Chase took out his phone and showed Marcia a picture of the dead girl.“Do you recognize her, Mrs. Gardner?”

The lady pressed her lips together as she studied the picture.“She resembles my sister-in-law. When was this taken?”

“Yesterday morning,” said Chase, taking the lead as usual.

“It can’t be Vicky, of course,” said Marcia. “She’d be pushing fifty if she were still alive.”

“You think your sister-in-law is dead?” asked Odelia.

“I have absolutely no idea, Miss Poole. All I know is that my brother paid a reputable detective agency a frankly exorbitant amount of money to find her and they never did. So either she died or fled the country.”

“What do you think happened to her?” asked Chase.

Marcia shrugged her shoulders and glanced out through the window, which depicted a troupe of angels fighting a dragon, and didn’t let in much light. “If you want my opinion, I think Vicky ran off with someone. She was much younger than my brother, you see. By almost forty years. It stood to reason she only married him for his money, and got out the first chance she got. You know that a large sum of money went missing from my brother’s bank account the day Vicky went missing? Half a million dollars, to be exact. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to know who took it. Though my brother hotly denied the charge, of course. He was crazy about the gold-digging little wench.”

“You think she stole the money and ran off? But where?” asked Odelia.

“Who knows? Mexico, Europe, the Bahamas. Half a million dollars buys you a lot of opportunities to live a great life somewhere far away.”

“So this girl…” said Odelia, gesturing to his phone.

“Is just a nobody who happens to share a passing resemblance to my brother’s wife.” She shifted in her seat. “I can tell that the whole business has my brother rattled, though. It brings it all back: Vicky disappearing, the search for her whereabouts… After Vicky left I’m sad to say my brother was never the same again. The terrible business broke his spirits and he turned into the recluse that he is to this day.” She shook her head. “Vicky Freeman has a lot to answer for. She broke a proud man’s spirit, that foolish girl did.”

“We were at the factory earlier,” said Odelia. “To talk to your son.”