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“Have you discovered anything new?” I asked as we fell into step beside our human.

“Nothing much. Except that Blake Carrington is in the hospital after suffering a heart attack. He’ll live,” she assured us before we could express our concern. “Oh, and also that the skeleton that was found behind the house didn’t belong to his son Steven after all.”

“Then who did it belong to?” I asked.

“Well, that’s what I’m hoping to find out. Uncle Alec was acting a little secretive when I called him just now.”

“It’s because he’s a cop,” I said. “Being secretive is in the job description.”

Odelia had to smile at this, and she was still smiling when we entered the police station, which is only a short walk away from the Gazette offices, and moments later we were in Uncle Alec’s office, the Chief behind his desk, and Odelia and Chase in front of it. Dooley and myself had been relegated to the floor, since Uncle Alec doesn’t believe in offering his feline visitors a seat. I guess we should feel grateful he allows us to be present at all.

“So what’s the big news?” asked Odelia.

“Okay, so Abe managed to identify the skeleton that you found.”

“That Fifi and the cats found,” Odelia corrected her uncle.

“Fine—the skeleton that the pets found.” He cocked an eyebrow for added suspense.

“Okay, so who is it?” asked Chase.

“Serena Kahl. A college student who disappeared five years ago.”

“The name doesn’t seem to ring a bell,” said Odelia with a frown.

“The Kahls are originally from Great Neck, on the North Shore, but moved here around ten years ago. Serena went to college in New York.”

“Huh,” said Odelia, as she processed this information.

“So she was abducted, ran away from home—what?” asked Chase.

“Your guess is as good as mine, buddy,” said Uncle Alec as he patted his man boobs with both hands—clearly a sign he was baffled. “She simply disappeared one day, after having gone to a party with some friends.”

“Sounds familiar,” said Chase.

“And this was five years ago?” asked Odelia.

“Yeah, she disappeared on a Friday. The party she went to was in New York, but she commuted every weekend, and as far as I can tell from the police report she was supposed to take the Jitney on Saturday morning but never made it.”

“Did they talk to the people at the party?”

“They did. The last person to see her was her roommate, who saw her get into a cab and drive off. The roommate stayed with her boyfriend, so she had no idea if Serena made it home that night or not. The first sign of trouble was when Serena’s mom called the roommate to ask if Serena had missed the bus. That’s when she went to the cops.”

“And the cab driver…”

“Says he dropped her off in Morningside Heights, where she lived. No one saw her after that—until now.”

“What a strange story,” said Chase.

“Okay, so was there any sign of violence that Abe could find?” asked Odelia.

“It’s very hard to know what happened to a person when all you have to work with are bones,” said Uncle Alec. “So frankly he has no idea.”

“So it’s possible that she made it to Hampton Cove somehow,” said Chase, “was murdered and buried in that field. But how did her remains suddenly surface?” He turned to Odelia. “You’re sure the dogs had nothing to do with that?”

“Fifi claims she found the remains the way we saw them.”

“And they hadn’t been there before?”

Odelia shook her head.“No, this morning was when she saw them for the first time.”

“Could be other dogs,” Uncle Alec suggested. “That neighborhood is infested with dogs.”

“So it could be that she was buried elsewhere, and either the killer or someone else dug her back up and placed her remains in Blake Carrington’s field.”

“To play a prank on Carrington?” asked Chase.

“Could be—though if it’s a prank it’s in very bad taste.”

“Mocking a man who lost his son is not a prank,” Uncle Alec grumbled. “That’s criminal—especially if the person who pulled that prank was Serena Kahl’s killer.” He lifted his hands and dropped them on his desk again. “And then there’s Angel Church. Officers have checked the woods where Angel disappeared and have found exactly nothing—zilch.”

“That’s not encouraging,” said Chase.

“It’s discouraging,” the Chief said, looking annoyed that his investigations—both of them—were going exactly nowhere at the moment.

“Okay, so I talked to Gran,” said Odelia, “and she told me something I think we should take into consideration.”

“What is it?” asked Uncle Alec, looking up with interest.

“Well, Father Reilly came to see her this morning, and he was in a real state. He told her that he and Angel had a big argument yesterday. He didn’t want to say what it was about, but he thought that maybe she’d run away from home, and felt pretty bad about the whole thing.”

Uncle Alec nodded.“You want to talk to Francis, and find out what they argued about.”

“Do you think we should treat him as a suspect?” asked Chase.

“I don’t think so,” said Odelia. “But since we don’t have anything else to go on at this moment, I think we need to pursue any lead we have.”