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“I told you that babies can get pretty loud, Max,” said Dooley, who had of course foreseen this scenario. “They can get as loud as jumbo jets.”

“For the hundredth time, Dooley,” I said. “Babies are not jumbo jets.”

“You could have fooled me,” Brutus grumbled with a pained grimace.

“How something so small can make so much noise is a mystery to me,” said Harriet.

Inside the house, Grace was still continuing her imitation of a fire drill, and making her mommy and daddy wonder if A) she didn’t particularly like her parental unit, B) she had somewhere else to be or C) she was practicing to become the next Mariah Carey.

I had the impression they were secretly hoping for the latter, but fearing for the first. I could have put their minds at ease, though. Any baby would have been lucky to land a couple of parents like Odelia and Chase. And pretty soon she’d realize this and relax.

Or so I hoped.

Chapter 28

We were back at the shelter, paying a visit to the office where we found Marsella. Shelley and Gavin were also there, wondering what all the fuss was about, and we were all seated in the small office behind reception. It was Marsella’s office, and the walls were bedecked with posters decrying people to take better care of their pets, and that ‘A dog is for life, not just for Christmas,’ something I think we could all wholeheartedly agree on, even though personally I would have replaced the word ‘dog’ with ‘cat.’

There was a small desk and a table where a couple of people could sit, and where Marsella held her weekly staff meetings, even if her staff consisted of volunteers.

Marsella was seated at the head of the table, with Chase, Odelia, Shelley and Gavin distributed amongst the other seats.

Dooley and I had been relegated to the floor, but that wasn’t a hardship, as we’d discovered a bowl with kibble, and were happily tucking in. I wasn’t sure if it was dog kibble or cat kibble but then beggars can’t be choosers. It tasted great all the same.

“So what’s going on?” asked Marsella, leading the meeting—or so she thought.

“You’re probably aware that we’ve been investigating the murders of two women,” said Chase, opening proceedings. “Dotty Ludkin, also known as Dotty Berg, and Calista Burden, also known as Calista Dunne. Both women were strangled in their respective homes last week.”

“Yes, of course,” said Marsella. “But what does that have to do with me? I already told you that I never met either of these women, and I’m pretty sure Dewey didn’t, either.”

“Dewey told us that he hadn’t met Dotty recently,” Odelia clarified, putting the emphasis on the last word, causing Marsella to frown, “and now we think he was telling us the truth. You see, Dotty and Calista were involved in a scheme whereby they offered their services to take potential husbands for a test run, as they called it. Dotty would try to seduce them and if they failed, their clients would know they weren’t marriage material. If they didn’t fall for Dotty’s charms, they could count themselves lucky.”

“What a perverse setup,” said Shelley. “I never heard of such a thing.”

“Did a lot of women go for this arrangement?” asked Marsella.

“Yes, they did,” said Odelia. “By all accounts Calista was very successful, and made a lot of money in a short amount of time. And so did Dotty. So much so that she told her boyfriend that soon she’d have enough money to buy an apartment or even a house.”

“I can’t imagine trying to trick your fianc? into that kind of thing,” said Shelley.

“Yeah, me neither,” said Marsella, though she appeared thoughtful now.

“Which brings us to you, Shelley,” said Odelia, turning her attention on the young volunteer. “We heard through the grapevine that you and Gavin are secretly engaged?”

Shelley’s cheeks colored, and so did Gavin’s. The young couple shared a look of confusion. “Who told you that?” Gavin demanded.

“Let’s just say a reliable source,” said Odelia, briefly glancing down at me.

“Is it true?” asked Chase. “Are you planning to elope and get married on the sly?”

“Well… yes,” Shelley admitted, even as Gavin shook his head, clearly annoyed.

“You’re getting married?” asked Marsella, who seemed completely surprised.

Shelley nodded.“I’m sorry I haven’t told you, Marsella, but it was important for us that no one knew. Not even our best friends.”

“But why elope?” asked Marsella. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s my dad,” said Shelley. “He has some very fixed ideas about the kind of husband I should marry.”

“And I don’t fit in with those ideas,” said Gavin. “Not rich enough for his taste, I guess.”

“Dad is afraid that I’ll marry someone who’s not in his class, whatever that means,” said Shelley. “And when I introduced him to Gavin the first thing he said was, ‘I hope you don’t plan to marry that guy, honey. He’s a frickin’ shoe salesman for crying out loud.’”

“I’m not justa shoe salesman,” said Gavin. “I stand to inherit my dad’s business.”

“Which is exactly what I told him, but he wasn’t impressed.”