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“It’s no use,” she said. “She won’t give us anything. And besides, there’s a big difference between smearing dog poop on someone’s windshield and murdering two women in cold blood.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” said Chase, much sobered. “Possibly plummeting property prices probably aren’t a good enough motive for a double homicide. And besides, she doesn’t look like she’s got the strength to strangle two women.”

“Oh, I think she’s a lot stronger than she looks. But she’s also a lot smarter than that. So can we go now? Frankly I’ve seen as much of this place as I can stomach for one day.”

Chapter 18

“Okay, so what have you got for me, people?” said Uncle Alec. “And it better be good.”

We were in the big man’s office, with Chase and Odelia being asked to give the chief of police an overview of the state of the investigation as it stood at that point. Which, to be absolutely honest, was absolutely nowhere. But since no cop worth their salt likes to convey such a gloomy message to their commanding officer, Chase and Odelia launched into an extensive list of potential suspects and their possible motives.

“I think we both like Dewey Toneu for this, don’t we, babe?” said Chase, taking a firmer grip on his notebook.

“Toneu as in Toneu Motors? The guy who sells those fancy Italian cars that no one can afford?”

“Yeah, he was one of Dotty Ludkin’s clients, and has admitted as much. Though he claims he hadn’t seen Dotty since he got engaged to Marsella Horowicz.”

“Toneu and Marsella are engaged? That is the first I’m hearing of this.” He didn’t seem particularly pleased to hear that the woman running the animal shelter was engaged to be married to a possible murderer. “Does Marsella know about his predilection for hired amorous encounters?”

“I don’t think so. Toneu was very insistent we don’t tell her.”

“I’ll bet he is,” the Chief grunted as he malevolently stabbed his blotter with his pencil.

“Toneu claims he was home alone that night—he and Marsella haven’t moved in together yet. She doesn’t believe in premarital relations and they’ll start cohabiting once the wedding vows have been exchanged and the marriage has been duly registered.”

“I see,” said the Chief. “Possible motive being that he didn’t want his fianc?e to find out about his liaison?”

Chase and Odelia both nodded.“Calista Burden—or Dunne as she called herself—had started a sideline,” Chase explained, “whereby women hired her to seduce their partners and find out if they were as faithful as they claimed to be. It was Dotty’s job to do the seducing. And seeing as she already knew Toneu from before, it’s not hard to see how she could have offered her services to Marsella, if the latter wanted to put her fianc? to the test.”

“This Calista sounds like an enterprising person,” said the Chief admiringly. “She really found an interesting little niche for herself, didn’t she? So you think Toneu failed the test and decided to get rid of the evidence by murdering the two women who knew about it?”

“Especially,” said Odelia, “since Toneu’s business is in trouble and Marsella has made a substantial financial investment in her fianc?’s dealership to keep it afloat. If she were to discover that her future hubby has been unfaithful she might call off the wedding and demand he pay back the money, which would mean he’d have to declare bankruptcy.”

“Also,” said Chase, “we talked to Shelley Eccleston, who volunteers at the shelter, and she says Marsella has had her doubts about the wedding for some time, with several of Toneu’s old girlfriends suddenly crawling out of the woodwork to warn her about the guy and claiming he’s quite theladies’ man. So I totally see her hiring Calista to take Toneu for a spin—though of course she denies everything and so does he.”

“You’re right. I like this guy more and more for this,” said Odelia’s uncle, cheering up. “In fact I like him so much I might be induced to apply for a warrant for his arrest.”

“There are other suspects, Chief,” said Chase. “There’s another client of Dotty’s named Garwen Blemish, who runs a shoe store and doesn’t want his liaison with the girl to come to light. Figures it will reflect badly on him and might damage his reputation.”

“Doesn’t sound like a very strong motive,” said Uncle Alec. “Alibi?”

“Home alone, just like Toneu. He’s a widower,” Chase explained.

“And then there’s Calista’s husband Dave,” said Odelia, “who claims he knew about Star Calypso and was okay with it, but who knows? Two witnesses heard him and Calista fight the other day. He says it was a minor spat between husband and wife and doesn’t remember what it was about, but according to our witnesses it sounded pretty serious.”

“Like you said, maybe he wasn’t as okay with his wife’s line of work as he says he is,” said Uncle Alec, nodding. “So where was he? Also home alone?”