1c8c0f371c0d914159db2df0bf94b5c6

“Jason Blowhard,” Odelia said, writing down the name on the board, and translated my words for the non-cat-speaking part of the group.

“We also discovered that some worms are not very juicy,” said Dooley helpfully. “Some are really chewy and tough to digest. But birds have a gizzard and so that helps.”

Odelia stared at him for a moment, then said,“Thank you, Dooley. Moving on…”

Harriet cleared her throat. I’d noticed she looked pleased as punch, and based on her next words she had every right to be.

“Brutus and I overheard a conversation between a man and a woman. The woman is called Jenny and the man is her father. And I think it’s pretty obvious she’s the girl who was misdiagnosed by Jaqlyn and later on was discovered to be suffering from a brain tumor. And guess what? He killed Jaqlyn! He confessed! Isn’t that right, Brutus?”

“Uh-huh,” said Brutus, not exactly providing a ringing endorsement.

“Wow,” said Gran. “Good work, Harriet and Brutus. Write that down, Odelia.”

But Odelia didn’t need her grandmother’s instructions. She was already writing down ‘Jenny’s father—revenge,’ before translating Harriet’s words for the others.

“Kingman?” asked Odelia. “You wanted to share something?”

“Oh, boy, do I have something to share!” Kingman cried, thumping his chest. “I know who did it and it wasn’t Jenny’s dad. Francine’s brothers Mike and Kenny were at the party, and they decided to have a chat with Jaqlyn about the way he was treating their little sister. Things got out of hand and they beat him to death. I heard it from their own lips!”

The moment Odelia translated Kingman’s bombshell revelation, the room erupted into an excited clamor. Now this was the goods! The only one who wasn’t impressed was Harriet. “I still think Jenny’s dad did it,” she intimated stubbornly. “Isn’t that right, Brutus?”

“Oh, sure,” said Brutus. “Jenny’s dad—no doubt about it.”

“So Mike and Kenny,” said Odelia, writing on her board. “We need to talk to them as soon as possible.”

“Well done, Kingman,” said Gran, patting the cat on the head. “Good job.”

“Thanks,” said Kingman. “Some people would call it beginner’s luck, but I think I’m simply a natural. It’s all in being discerning when gathering clues. Knowing which ones to keep and which ones to toss. For instance Father Reilly kept babbling on about how Master Omar was the one that did it, by possessing Tex and using his body like a puppet and making him do his bidding. But that’s just a lot of horse manure if you ask me.”

Odelia stared at him.“Father Reilly thinks Master Omar did it? But why?”

“Well, Father Reilly claims Jaqlyn was about to leave the fold and spill all of Master Omar’s secrets, and Omar couldn’t have that, so he shut Jaqlyn up. Permanently.”

Odelia nodded, and wrote down Master Omar’s name between brackets, just to be on the safe side. Odelia is nothing if not diligent.

“Okay, so we have plenty of suspects and plenty of alibis to check out,” she said now. “Does anyone want to add anything at this point? Any comments, thoughts, insights?”

Uncle Alec tentatively raised his hand, braving a scathing look from his sister.“Um… the state police have taken over the investigation, so officially Chase and I are both off the case. Which means we can’t interview suspects, or even come near them.”

“Yeah, they don’t trust us,” said Chase. “Being Tex’s relatives and all.”

“Well, that’s fine,” said Gran. “It just means we’ll have to clear Tex’s name ourselves. I suggest we divvy up the suspects and try and track them down. We already talked to Monica and Francine, and Monica has a solid alibi, so we can scratch her off the list.”

“I talked to Barney,” said Uncle Alec. “And my gut tells me he didn’t do it.”

“Your gut also told you to arrest my husband,” said Marge pointedly.

“Oh, Marge, please give it a rest,” said Gran. “So no Barney?”

“Barney’s dog Jack didn’t think he did it either,” I said. “He looked into his master’s heart and saw that it was pure as gold.”

“I tried to look into my heart but I couldn’t see a thing,” Dooley shared.

“Right,” said Odelia, scratching off Barney’s name as well as Monica’s. “About Francine… I don’t think she did it either. We talked to her and she didn’t strike me as a cold-blooded murderess.” She put the woman’s name between brackets. “So that leaves us with Jason Blowhard, Jenny’s dad, and Francine’s brothers Mike and Kenny.” She underlined the names of Jenny’s dad and Francine’s brothers. “These look promising.”

“And let’s not forget about the loan sharks,” said Uncle Alec. “Jaqlyn owed them a lot of money and Charlene thinks they may have followed him here.”

“No witness reports to support that theory, though,” Chase added.

“Still worth checking out,” Gran decided. “Write it down, Odelia.”

“Loan sharks,” Odelia said, adding this peculiar fauna to her impressive list.

“I’ll talk to Jenny’s dad,” said Marge. “I know Nick pretty well. I’m sure he’ll talk to me, especially with Tex being hung out to dry for a murder he didn’t commit.”