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“You’d better, cause it’s the truth.” She looked up when she noticed a young blond woman standing at the entrance. How long she’d been standing there was hard to know for sure, but it certainly seemed to annoy Marsella to a certain extent. “Yes, what do you want, Shelley?” she asked with a hint of iron in her voice.

“I’ve finished cleaning out the cages,” said Shelley, giving her boss a look of uncertainty.

“Thanks. You can go now.”

“See you tomorrow,” said Shelley.

“Yes, see you tomorrow.”

The girl dawdled for a moment, then turned on her heel and left.

And so did we, since it was clear from Marsella’s demeanor that she had nothing more to tell us.

We caught up with Shelley as the girl mounted her bicycle.

“How much of that did you overhear?” asked Odelia kindly.

The girl’s cheeks flamed. “I… a lot, actually.”

“How well do you know Marsella?”

“Pretty well. We’ve always had a great relationship. Which is why I was surprised that she was so snappish with me just now.”

“Do you think she might hire an escort service to try and seduce Dewey?” asked Chase.

The girl hesitated, clearly uncomfortable to divulge her boss’s secrets.

“It’s important,” Odelia stressed. “Two women were murdered, and we’re trying to catch the person responsible. So anything you can tell us that might help…”

“Of course,” said Shelley, nodding. “The thing is that several of Dewey’s old girlfriends have contacted Marsella recently, trying to warn her about him. Apparently he has quite a reputation as a ladies’ man, and even dated five women at the same time for a while, until they all found outabout each other. It’s all Marsella can talk about lately, what with the wedding coming up and all. I told her to hire a private detective and have him followed around, just to see if he’s still involved with other women, but she said just this morning that she decided against it. She’s simply going to trust Dewey. He says this was all years ago and he’s a different man now, but I don’t know.” She gave a light shrug.

“So you think Marsella might have hired Dotty Ludkin to test Dewey?” asked Chase.

“Honestly? I can totally see her do a thing like that. Though if she had, she probably would have told me. We’ve become very good friends ever since I started volunteering here, and she’s been pretty open with me about her doubts and frustrations.”

“Okay, thank you, Shelley,” said Odelia. “We appreciate your honesty.”

“Please don’t tell Marsella,” said Shelley. “It’s a delicate subject.”

“We already got that impression,” Chase grunted.

Chapter 15

Back in the car, Odelia and Chase discussed their most recent interviews. Dooley and I sat quietly in the back, not feeling one little bit at ease, I must say.

The trip to the shelter had brought back the notion that Windex was in our own home right now, sleeping on our couch, eating our food, and generally making herself comfortable in our favorite spots—possibly even relieving herself in our litter boxes!

It wasn’t a pleasant prospect, and one that made me positively afraid for the future.

Snippets of conversation drifted in our direction.

“Not a single fingerprint found at either crime scene, can you believe it?” Chase was saying. “Which means the killer wiped everything. Every surface which he possibly could have touched. No phones, no laptops, no trace of any electronic device, so he took them all.”

“There must have been something on those phones that could point to him,” said Odelia.

“Absolutely. We already talked to the provider and I’ve got officers poring over both victims’ list of calls but so far nothing that stands out. And listen to this: no calls to connect Calista and Dotty or even any of the other girls.”

“They must have kept in touch some other way.”

“Probably some secure app that the provider doesn’t have access to.”

“It doesn’t look so bad, does it, Max?” said Dooley, interrupting my musing.

“What doesn’t?” I asked.

“Well, the shelter, of course. If Odelia is really going to replace us all with Windex, there are probably worse places to be than at the shelter. Marsella seems like a nice person who really loves her pets, and so does Shelley.” He gave me a hopeful look. “Maybe they could adopt us? I wouldn’t mind living with Shelley. I think she’s a sweet person.”

“Odelia isn’t going to replace us with Windex, Dooley,” I said, though I couldn’t conceal the note of disquiet in my voice as I spoke these words. “And we’re not going to live at the shelter.”

“Shelley is still young,” said Dooley. “It’s probably going to be years before she gets married and has a baby. So that’s great news for us. Or even Marsella. If she gets married she’s probably too old to have babies, so that’s even better news. Though I don’t know about Dewey. He doesn’t strike me as a cat person for some reason. So if I had a choice it would be Shelley all the way.”

I smiled at my friend.“Shelley it is, then.”

“Fingers crossed she’s a cat person, Max.”