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“I was a rebellious kid,” said Gavin. “After my mom died I got involved with a pretty bad crowd. It drove my dad up the wall. But after I was caught and convicted I turned my life around. I never offended again.”

“Until now with Dotty and Calista.”

He nodded silently, ashamed to look his fianc?e in the eye.

“So you broke into Calista’s place, strangled her—”

Shelley released a moan that was a mixture of disbelief and hurt.

“—and sent that reassuring message to Shelley’s dad, telling him the test had failed, and that as far as she was concerned you’d make a great addition to the family.”

“Once I started down this road, I had no other choice but to finish it,” said Gavin quietly. “Calista knew Dotty was with me. She’d have told the police and I’d be done for.”

“How could you be sure that no one else knew about this?” asked Chase.

He shrugged.“I couldn’t. But it stood to reason that if they used encrypted apps, the only people who knew would be Dotty and her boss. And besides, what other choice did I have at this point? I just had to hope and pray that no one else would find out.”

“Unfortunately we did find out,” said Odelia.

“But how?” asked the kid now, looking up at her. “I was so careful.”

“I know you were, but clearly you weren’t careful enough.”

Shelley, who’d gone through different stages of shock, was now at the stage where she was slowly coming to terms with the fact that her fianc? hadn’t merely cheated on her, but was also a double murderer.

“This doesn’t have to change anything for us, Shel,” the young man pleaded. “Okay, so I messed up, and I’m sorry, but I promise that Dotty didn’t mean anything to me. It’s you I love. You see, I was tricked. It was your dad who tricked me. I didn’t stand a chance.”

“Yes, you did,” said Shelley. “You had a choice, Gavin. You always had a choice. And instead of choosing me, you chose Dotty.”

“But I’m telling you, it was just a fling.”

“You killed two women, Gavin!” She’d risen to her feet and stood, hands balled into fists. “You’re a murderer! A killer!” And then she fled the room on a loud, desperate sob.

For a moment, no one spoke, then Chase said,“Gavin Blemish, I’m arresting you for the murders of Dotty Ludkin and Calista Burden.”

“Oh, God, what have I done!” Gavin cried.

“Nothing good,” Dooley murmured next to me.

Chapter 29

We were in Tex and Marge’s backyard, enjoying a fine spread of delicious foods, as offered by the proud new grandparents. You could have called it a baby shower, but in actual fact it was our regular Saturday night barbecue, only with the addition of a new family member: Grace Kingsley.

“I wonder if Grace will be able to talk to us, too,” said Dooley. The little one was tucked in bed, with a baby monitor in place in case she woke up. And if that wasn’t enough, Odelia or Chase got up pretty much every five minutes to go and check on her.

“I hadn’t actually thought of that,” I admitted. “But I guess she will. She’s a female descendent, so Odelia’s gift will probably pass down to her.”

“Oh, yay,” said Harriet. “Finally a little princess who’ll appreciate a fellow princess.”

“How soon do you think she’ll start talking?” asked Brutus.

“When do babies start talking?” I said. “I have no idea, actually.”

“Odelia will know. She’s been reading all those books,” said Dooley.

“And watching all those documentaries,” I added. And unfortunately we had to watch them along with her. Though since we’d slept through most of them, not much of the information had stuck with us.

“So you solved another case, didn’t you, Maxie baby?” said Brutus, a touch of envy in his voice. “How do you do it? Case after case after case? I get tired just thinking about it.”

“It’s a knack,” said Harriet. “Like some cats can jump very high, Max solves mysteries.”

“It’s because he has such a big brain,” said Dooley proudly. “Someone should measure it, but I’ll bet that Max’s brain is probably as big as any human’s. Or maybe even bigger.”

“You should donate your brain to science, Max,” said Brutus. “In fact you could donate it now. I’m sure those scientists will be very pleased.”

Dooley frowned.“But how can Max donate his brain when he still needs it?” But then he got a bright idea. “Maybe he can loan it to science. Like, for a week or something? And then they can give it back.”

“I’m afraid that once you donate your brain to science you don’t get it back again, Dooley,” I said, not too bothered by Brutus’s barbs.

“What do you mean!” Dooley cried. “Those scientists have to give it back. Otherwise it’s stealing!”

“You only donate your brain when you’re dead, Dooley,” said Harriet with an eye roll.

“Dead! But they can’t make Max dead!”

“Nobody is going to make me dead,” I assured him, and darted a look at Brutus to say, ‘Now look what you’ve done.’

Brutus shrugged and displayed a small grin.“So tell us about your case, Max. I can see you’redying to.”

“I’m not dying to tell you about my case, Brutus,” I said.