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“I love that song,” he said. “But whoever is singing it clearly hates it.”

He moved over to the window and looked out. Down below, some musclebound moron was belting out the notes like nobody’s business. He didn’t seem to care that traffic had ground to a halt and that people were leaning out of their windows to gawk at him. Hecklers were shouting abuse at the guy and children pelted him with rocks but he just kept on singing, oblivious.

“Probably thinks Carson Daly is staying at the hotel,” chuckled Trey.

‘You suck!’ someone shouted, and Trey thought those were his sentiments exactly. This dude, whoever he was, would never get a four-chair turn. Not even a one-chair turn.

“Let’s go!” his mother bellowed again.

“All right, all right, all right!” he said, tearing himself away from the scene down below. “What about Kevin Bacon and Miss Piggy? We can’t leave without them.”

“You should have thought of that before you locked Miss Amateur Sleuth and her granny in there. Now are we leaving or what?”

He hated to leave his pigs. He loved the little cuties. And as he moved to the door to the other room, suddenly the door to this one exploded and before he knew what hit him a bunch of cops stormed in and the atmosphere erupted into a free-for-all of shouts and screams and pounding boots and angry faces hollering at him to‘GET DOWNNOW!’

So he did. And briefly wondered who was going to take care of his piglets.

Chapter 44

Odelia was still a little dazed as she was escorted out of the hotel and onto the sidewalk. Cop cars blocked traffic and she watched in confusion as the handcuffed Angelique and Trey were escorted into a squad car and driven off at a high rate of speed, sirens blaring.

“How—what—when—” she stuttered.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you?” said Gran. “Before I left the house I instructed Marge to wake up Chase and send in the cavalry. I figured he might do what he could to save his sweetheart.”

Chase came hurrying up to them, and she jumped into his arms, happy to be alive.

“For a moment there I thought I lost you,” Chase intimated.

“For a moment there I thought so, too,” said Odelia.

“Oh, don’t be a bunch of saps,” said Gran, which was rich for a woman who loved her soap operas more than anything else. “We’re all fine and the bad guys will be punished so all is well that ends well. Now what’s going to happen to those little guys?”

She was pointing to a cop who was holding two piglets in his arms. He had a mustache and his name tag indicated that his name was Jackson. Odelia recognized him as the cop who wouldn’t let her into the library the night of Chris Ackerman’s murder. He didn’t look happy to have been awarded the particular task of taking care of Trey’s piglets. Especially since his colleagues were busy snapping selfies with him. He was going to become the latest Hampton Cove PD social media sensation, that much was obvious.

“Don’t worry about the pigs,” said Chase. “We’ll find someone to adopt them.”

Uncle Alec walked up, looking distinctly unhappy.“Odelia Poole,” he said gruffly. “What part of ‘I’ll handle things’ don’t you understand? You could have gotten yourself killed, young lady, and your grandmother in the process.”

“I just figured Angelique was innocent and wanted to warn her.”

“Next time do as you’re told,” he said sternly. “When Marge called me with the news that you were in trouble I almost had a heart attack.” He wagged a stubby finger in her face. “Never again, all right? Have mercy on your uncle’s poor ticker.”

“I won’t do it again,” she promised, seeing now how foolish her actions had been.

“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist, Alec,” said Gran. “I was there. We were fine.”

“They had a gun!”

“I’m pretty sure they weren’t going to use it.”

“You don’t know that, Ma. They could have shot you both.”

“Well, they didn’t, so now are you going to stop crying in your milk and congratulate Odelia instead? She cracked this case.”

Marge and Tex also joined them on the sidewalk, while rubberneckers all around stood taking in the scene.“Honey, I’m so glad you’re all right,” said Marge, enveloping Odelia in a hug. “When your grandmother told me to wake up Chase, I feared the worst.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” said Chase, a little indignant. “In fact I’d been up for hours.”

“He’s right,” said Marge. “He was in the shower when I arrived. Gave me a shock.”

Chase grimaced at the recollection and Odelia suppressed a grin. She would have loved to have seen the look on Chase’s face when Mom walked in on him in the shower.

“The important thing is that the bad guys will get what’s coming to them,” said Gran.

“How did you find out?” asked Chase. “I mean—how did you know where to find that pizza guy’s outfit?”