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“I’m just saying, we gotta get out of this place,” said Thaw. “No offense to you, Pete, or your lovely wife and your fabled hospitality, which is amazing, to be honest.”

“Amazing,” echoed Zoltan.

“And the food. Oh, my God.” He kissed his fingers for some reason. “To die for, man. But there’s cops crawling all over. And now with this maid that tumbled down the stairs…”

“Bad luck,” Pete said. “First Kimberlee, now this. Why does this keep happening to us?”

“It’s like that story from the bible,” said Seger. “You get seven good years followed by seven lean years. Your luck will turn, buddy.” He clapped a dejected-looking Pete on the shoulder. “Soon you’ll prosper again.”

“Maybe we should just sell the house,” said Pete now. “After what happened it just doesn’t feel the same.”

“Don’t do that!” said Reinhart. “If you sell now you’ll get shafted.”

“And if we stay we’re screwed. We’ll be social outcasts. And I’m not blaming you, Thaw. I wouldn’t want to stay in a place where a woman just killed herself and another died in a freak accident.”

“Yeah, that was pretty weird,” said Seger. “What are the odds?”

They all sat in silence for a moment, then Odo Hardy held up his glass.“A toast. To Kimberlee. An amazing woman. And a once-in-a-lifetime talent.”

“A toast,” Pete said, holding up his glass.

The others all joined in.“To Kimberlee,” said Zoltan sadly.

“To Kimberlee,” the others echoed, and clinked their glasses.

“Looks like they all loved Kimberlee,” said Dooley.

“Appearances can be deceiving,” I told him. “One of these men may have killed two women in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Pity we can’t look inside their heads. Like a mind reader?”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that be something?”

“Do you hear that?” suddenly asked Pete.

“What?” said Reinhart.

“Sounds like a cat. It’s coming from over there.”

“Uh-oh,” I said. “Looks like we’re busted, Dooley.”

“Run, Max, run!” Dooley cried, and set the example by breaking into a run himself.

I quickly followed suit. I did not want to be caught by these people. Spies are notoriously shy, and hate to be interrupted when they’re spying on people, and cats are no different.

“There’s nothing there, you guys!” we could hear Seger say. “Probably just the wind in the pipes!”

We hurried back to the room, flying like the wind—without the pipes—and popped out to safety, panting heavily, then laughing at our crazy adventure.

“That was fun,” I said.

“Where did you guys go off to?” asked Harriet, who was perched on the bed, reading on Odelia’s tablet computer.

“Exploring these secret passageways,” said Dooley. “They run all over this floor.”

“It’s how the killer got into Kimberlee’s room,” I added. “Unseen and unheard.”

“Except by the maid,” said Dooley.

“So what are you up to?” I asked, hopping onto the bed. Or at least I tried to hop. The beds were pretty high, but I finally managed at my third attempt.

“Oh, just going through the pictures Odelia took of the crime scene,” said Harriet, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

“And? Have you found anything?”

Brutus, lying next to Harriet, was licking his fur.“Nothing so far,” he said.

“Odelia asked us to take a look, just in case she missed something,” said Harriet. She deftly flicked though the pictures with her paw pads.

Thank God for Steve Jobs. He’s the one who made it possible for cats to use tablet computers and smartphones. Our pink pads are simply perfect for the purpose of scrolling through pictures or operating a touchscreen.

“That’s the stack of Coke Emeralds,” I said when a picture popped up depicting a pyramid of Coke cans.

“That’s not the crime scene, though, right?” asked Dooley.

“No, just random pictures Odelia took when she and Chase first arrived here yesterday.” Harriet suddenly narrowed her eyes, then expanded the picture for a closer look. “Now isn’t that the weirdest thing?” she muttered.

“What is?” I asked.

Instead of responding, she quickly flicked through the pictures until she got to one of the can of Coke Kimberlee had drunk from. It was on the floor, next to the poor unfortunate woman’s body.

Once again, Harriet zoomed in on the can.“You guys,” she said finally, “I-I think I found something. I-I think I found—I’ve found a clue—an actual clue!”

Chapter 36

When Odelia finally returned to her room, she hadn’t learned much. She’d talked to some more people on staff, but no one had any idea about what Shauna could possibly have seen. Most of them simply held that the girl was delusional, and thought she was just trying to make herself look important by professing to hold some important piece of information.

So Odelia decided to take a break and check up on her cats and Gran, and when she entered her room wasn’t disappointed. Four cats looked extremely excited, and so did her grandmother.

“They found something!” Gran said. “They found an important clue—or at least I think it is.”

Odelia joined them on the bed, where all attention seemed to be centered on her tablet.

“So what did you find?” she asked with an indulgent smile.