The Mysteries of Max: Books 25-27

Chapter 31

“I can’t get a hold of her,” Chase complained as they were driving over to where Marcia Gardner lived.

“Can’t we simply show up on her doorstep?” Odelia suggested.

“Yeah, but what if she refuses to let us in? I don’t have a warrant.”

Odelia shrugged. “We’ll figure something out.”

Chase smiled. “You should have been a cop, babe.”

“Which is what my uncle keeps telling me,” she said as Chase steered his car in the direction of the neighborhood where both Maria Gardner and her brother lived. Called Greenleaf, it was home to many statuesque villas and mansions and was where some of the town’s old guard lived—dotted with some stylish but very expensive real estate.

“How are you guys holding up back there?” asked Odelia, glancing back at her contingent of cats.

All four of them were seated in a row, uncharacteristically quiet for a change.

“We’re fine,” said Max, holding up two paws in lieu of his non-existent thumbs.

“What did he say?” asked Chase, as usual fascinated with her ability to talk to her pets.

“That they’re fine,” she said as Chase took a turn and checked his GPS for a moment.

“I hope that pigeon isn’t out there,” said Max, as he glanced through the window and up at the sky.

“Yeah, what’s the story with that bird?” asked Odelia. “Why is it coming after you?”

“I have absolutely no idea, except that it seems to hate me for some reason.”

“The pigeon?” asked Chase, inadvertently touching his face where the bird’s droppings had landed that morning.

She nodded. “It seems Max has made himself an enemy.”

“Maybe you tried to eat its little pigeons?” Harriet suggested.

“I would never—ever—try to eat a bird’s babies!” said Max, thrusting out his chest indignantly.

The four cats looked pretty funny, still dressed in their funky little jackets. Odelia smiled as she surveyed them. “Maybe you should keep those from now on,” she suggested. “You look really nice.”

“Really lame, you mean,” said Brutus as he helplessly tugged at his own specimen.

“Cats don’t like to be dressed up,” said Chase. “Contrary to dogs, who love that kind of stuff.”

She glanced over to her boyfriend with a measure of pleasant surprise. “You’ve been reading up on cats, haven’t you?”

“Of course I’ve been reading up! I’m dating the world’s biggest cat lady, so I have to keep up.”

“Good for you, babe.”

“Are you still going through with your plan to teach us how to swim, Odelia?” asked Harriet now.

“Sure. It’s important that you can save yourselves when you fall in. Don’t you agree?”

Four cats silently nodded with extreme reluctance and she grinned. If Chase thought they hated those outfits, he didn’t know how much more they hated his inflatable pool.

They’d finally arrived at the address Uncle Alec had given them for Marcia Gardner, and he parked across the street. Marcia lived in a three-story brownstone with a wrought-iron black fence in front, and three granite stairs leading up to the front door.

“My uncle sounded really dejected when I called him just now. Any idea why?” she asked as she unbuckled her seatbelt and turned back to offer the same courtesy to her cats.

“Must have something to do with Charlene,” said Chase. “She’s not talking to him, and he’s taking it pretty hard.”

“Such a shame,” she said. “I thought they were great together.”

“Yeah, me, too. I hope they can resolve their differences.”

“Uncle Alec and Charlene broke up?” Dooley cried. “But why?”

“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 and old 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.”

A hint of a smile played about the woman’s lips, and Odelia remembered Max’s report about Bobby’s conversation with his mother. She’d called Gran a fruitcake and Scarlett an old Jezebel. And she hadn’t been very complimentary about Odelia either.

“Yes?” asked the woman.

“Rumor has it your brother is thinking about bringing in a new management team to replace your son and the current board of directors. What can you tell us about that?”

A steely look appeared in the woman’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid those are private family matters. Even if I wanted to discuss them with you, I’d need to talk to my lawyers first.” And promptly she got up and said, “If there’s nothing further, I think I’ve answered enough of your questions.”

The interview was at an end, and they’d learned precious little. Except that this succession battle was real, and that according to Marcia, Vicky Gardner’s disappearance hadn’t involved foul play after all.

Moments later they were back out on the street, a little dazed after being chucked out so proficiently and without much fuss.

“One thing’s for sure,” said Chase as he glanced up at the brownstone. “Marcia Gardner didn’t like her sister-in-law one bit.”

“Nope. I think she made that very clear.”

She glanced around for her cats, and saw that they were patiently waiting for her, seated in front of Chase’s squad car—four in a row.

She gave them a little wave, and as they emerged from underneath the vehicle, suddenly a loud screech sounded, and a big bird came diving down, and moments later a salvo of white bird poo rained down, and spattered all four cats in equal measure!

The bird screamed something Odelia couldn’t understand, as she didn’t speak its language. But she had the distinct impression it sounded a lot like, ‘Gotcha, suckers!’