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“Yeah, I was involved in a hit and run last month—trust me, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I backed out of a parking spot at the mall, and accidentally hit the car parked next to me. I hadn’t even noticed, so I didn’t stick around. But the person whose car it was did, of course, and asked security to check CCTV. And that’s how they found me. And sent me the bill for the paint job.”

“And then of course Flint being Flint,” said Julio, “he forgot to pay the bill, and so now he has to go to court, the silly ass.”

“It’s been a pretty hectic couple of weeks at the studio, sweetie,” said Flint.

“I know, sweetie, I know.”

“So they served you with this summons last night at…” Chase studied the document.

“Six-thirty,” said Flint. “Which is also what it says right there on the document, and if you talk to the process server, he’ll confirm that he served me with the summons.”

“All right,” said Chase, as he held up his phone. “Do you mind if I take a picture of this?”

“Oh, by all means, detective.”

Chase took a picture of the summons, then slid it back across the table.“That seems to establish a clear alibi for you, Mr. Kutysiak.”

“Flint, please,” said Flint warmly.

“There’s one other thing we need to discuss with you,” said Odelia.

“Yes, of course. Anything to help you find Dave’s killer.”

“And Tollie’s kidnapper,” Julio added. “What a dreadful, dreadful business. You think this could be thieves? You know there’s a huge market for exotic animals. They’re probably worth a lot of money. So maybe they came for Tollie and bumped into Dave?”

“We’re certainly looking into that, sir,” said Chase.

“So it would appear that Dave recently settled on a successor to take over for him,” Odelia began.

“He did?” said Flint. “That’s news to me.”

“He didn’t mention that,” said Julio.

“No, he never mentioned anything about that.”

“Well, he made all the legal arrangements. Drew up a new will.”

“Who’s the successor?” asked Flint, looking as surprised as Heiko Palace—or indeed as Veronica must have when she found out.

“Jayme Ziccardi. She’s a student at the Gardner Institute of Arts, the art school Dave founded.”

“And sponsored. Yeah, I know all about the school. It was part of his legacy, and one he was particularly proud of.”

“He never mentioned any Jayme to us, did he, sweetie?” said Julio.

“No, he certainly didn’t. Are you sure about this?” asked Flint.

“Yes,” said Chase. “Of course Dave didn’t think he would die so soon after drawing up a new will. I’m sure he hoped to live for quite a while longer, and he was planning to start training Jayme so she could take over from him when the time was right. He had settled a lump sum on Jayme that she’d receive when she turned eighteen, and according to the lawyer who worked with him in drawing up this will, he was going to introduce her to the studio at some point when he felt she was ready, and then gradually allow her to get acquainted with his work and have her work her way up.”

“The idea was,” said Odelia, “for Jayme to master all the different aspects of the work. So that she’d become an all-rounder, and could take over Tollie when Dave retired.”

Julio and Flint shared a look of bewilderment.

“But how come he never discussed this with us?” asked Flint.

“I was hoping you could tell us,” said Chase.

Flint shook his head.“I won’t lie to you, detective. I always thought I was going to be Dave’s successor. I’m the lead artist at the studio. I’ve been working there my whole life, fresh out of art school fifteen years ago.”

“Flintis Tollie the Turtle, detective,” said Julio. “He does it all. He’s been writing the scripts, creating the drawings, he even does part of the inking from time to time, and he’s spent plenty of time coloring, too. He’s mastered the entire process from start to finish, and we always thought—well,you always thought Dave was grooming you to take over.”

“I think we probably should also mention that Jayme Ziccardi has been arrested,” said Chase, “on suspicion of Dave’s murder.”

“She killed Dave?” asked Flint.

“Well, she’s our main suspect right now.”

“But you don’t think she did it?”

“We’re trying to cover all the bases.”

“This is news to us, isn’t it, sweetheart?” said Julio, grasping his husband’s hand and pressing it tightly.

“So in light of what we just told you, we wanted to ask you if you could think of anyone who would want to cause Dave harm,” said Odelia.

Flint frowned as he chewed on this question.“There’s Veronica’s son, of course,” he said. “Dave and Danny never got along.”

“Oh, Danny is an absolute terror,” said Julio.

“He is a handful. Though I don’t know if he’s capable of murder.”

“I’ll say he is. Danny is the kind of kid who likes to squash ants, detective. And torture cats.” He glanced in our direction when he said this, and both Dooley and I gulped.

“He tortures cats?” asked Odelia, the frown on her face showing she didn’t approve of this particular pastime.

“Well, nothing has ever been proven,” said Flint.