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A momentary silence descended over the small company. Chase was the only one who didn’t know about the cats. “Just one of those hunches, I guess,” said Odelia. “I suddenly wondered about the pizza guy. See, the weird thing about the pizza boxes that we found at the library was that they were clean. Pizza boxes usually have leftover pizza or ketchup smears or chunks of cheese stuck to them. These boxes were brand new. Never used. So that got me thinking. What if the pizza guy wasn’t a pizza guy? What if he was the killer and he’d only dressed up as a pizza guy to throw us off the scent?”

“And then we took things from there,” said Uncle Alec. “In all fairness, though, Odelia found the outfit.”

“And a good thing I did. Today is collection day in that part of town. A couple of hours later and the outfit would have been gone forever.”

“And along with it the blood stains and DNA that will show beyond a reasonable doubt that Trey Ackerman killed his father,” Uncle Alec finished the story.

“Hard to believe that a son would kill his father,” said Chase, shaking his head.

“I don’t think he devised the plan,” said Odelia. “Angelique did. Trey just went along with it and did the actual deed—wanting to spare his mother the more gruesome aspects of the scheme she’d hatched. In fact she probably decided to kill her husband months ago, when she discovered he was planning to leave her for Stacey Kulcheski.”

“There’s only one part about this whole sordid business I regret,” said Gran.

“What’s that?” asked Marge.

Gran threw up her arms.“That I didn’t get to film the grand finale! Those bastards took away my phone!”

“I’m sure plenty of people caught the whole thing on video,” said Uncle Alec. He clapped Chase on the shoulder. “For one thing, they sure as heck caught our rising musical star Chase on tape. Ed Sheeran, watch out!”

“Thanks,” said Chase. “I kinda enjoyed being the decoy.”

“It sure delayed the Ackermans until our team was in place to break down the door.”

“Too bad I didn’t catch the big performance,” said Odelia.

“You saw the private performance,” said Chase, smiling. “Which was the better one of the two.”

Only now did Odelia realize she was missing something. She looked around.“Where are my cats?”

“Right there,” said Chase, stepping aside.

And there they were indeed: Max, Dooley, Brutus, Harriet and… Big Mac. Sitting on the sidewalk and smiling up at her. They were a sight for sore eyes.

“Oh, my babies,” she said, crouching down. They all jumped into her arms. “You caught the bad guys—you saved my life—what would I do without you?”

Chase laughed.“It’s the weirdest thing. Almost as if they can understand what she says.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gran snapped. “Cats don’t talk. Everybody knows that.”

“No, of course not,” he said, his smile vanishing. “You’re right.”

“Dumbass,” Gran grunted.

“Ma,” said Uncle Alec warningly.

“Just welcoming the kid into the family,” said Gran, and pinched Chase’s cheeks.

Epilogue

“So what did you tell Chase when you went to warn him?” asked Odelia.

“Simple. I told him I had a feeling you were in trouble,” said Marge.

“But how did you explain I was at the hotel?”

Marge took a deep breath, darted a quick look at Chase, who was assisting Tex with the barbecue as usual, then explained quietly,“I told him I’d once seen a documentary about whales being able to feel their babies were in trouble even though they were miles away. I said the same thing applied to mothers and their kids. I said I could sense you were in trouble and I had a hunch you’d had a hunch about the writer’s sonand ex-wife.”

“Seems far-fetched,” said Odelia, taking a bite from her hot dog. “He believed you?”

“Oh, he did. Immediately. You’ve got a good man there, Odelia. He’s a keeper.”

They moved off and Dooley glanced up at the sky. It had been a week since the stunning events at the Hampton Cove Star and the world hadn’t ended, which clearly puzzled Dooley.

“Trust me, Dooley,” I said now. “The world isn’t going to end. I mean, at some point it probably will, but not this week. Not even this year or even this decade.”

“You think so, Max?”

“I know so. So you can stop worrying.”

“And stop nagging us,” Harriet muttered.

“So how about those spots of yours?” I asked Brutus.

“You’re not going to believe this but they’re gone!” said the black cat. And to prove he wasn’t lying, he pressed his chest into my face.

“Nice,” I muttered.

The four of us were seated on the swing on Marge and Tex’s back porch. Tex was officiating the barbecue, aided and abetted by Chase, Uncle Alec was recounting the story of how Angelique and Trey Ackerman had been charged with murder, and Gran was messing around with her phone, checking the footage she’d shot in the course of the investigation.

“You know? You really outdid yourself this time, Max,” said Brutus.

“How is that?”

“I still don’t get how you had that sudden brainwave that led you to figure out what happened.”