“I, um…” said Tex.

  “It isn’t Tex who should apologize,” said Marge. “First you walk out on him and leave him to deal with his patients all by himself, then you fail to live up to your promise to support his new band. And to add insult to injury you made fools of us all by gyrating across the stage dressed in your underwear and looking like an idiot. So I think you owe us all an apology. Not just Tex. Your whole family. We’re all affected by your nonsense.”

  Harsh words, but maybe Gran deserved them. She clearly hadn’t expected it, though, for her face displayed a distinctly mutinous look. “Are you nuts? I’m the only one in this family who’s trying to build a career. To make something of themselves. I’m doing you proud. So you should be thanking me, instead of criticizing me.”

  “Your performance was terrible, Ma,” said Uncle Alec. “Crawling over that stage in that outfit, with those old fools drooling all over you. I think I speak for all of us when I tell you that you crossed a line tonight. A line that should never have been crossed.”

  “I crossed a line? Well, if that’s how you feel,” said Gran, pressing her lips together. “I’ll have you know that I talked to Laron after the show, and he offered me a contract.”

  They all stared at the old lady. “Wait, what?” asked Marge, looking shocked.

  “And I said yes! Charlie wants me—oh, that kid wants me bad. Asked me to record a duet as soon as possible and wants me to feature in his next video. Laron said it’ll probably be the biggest thing that hit the music business since sliced bread.”

  “I don’t think sliced bread was ever part of the music industry,” said Marge.

  “Who cares? I’m going to be as big as Charlie, maybe even bigger! So how about them apples, huh?”

  The others all exchanged worried glances, but Gran had already gotten up.

  “You know what? I’m glad we had this little talk. I’m actually happy you finally came out and told me what you really think of me. You don’t want me to be part of this family anymore? Good! I’m a disgrace to the Poole family name? Great! I’ve decided to change my name to Granny B, and I’m leaving this gang of rainers-on-parades for good. So consider this my resignation from this family. Goodbye and good riddance.” And with these words, she stalked over to the door. Before she walked out, she turned and said, “And don’t come crying to me when you’re broke and miserable and I’m a multi-millionaire superstar with my own mansion in Calabasas, Cal. I won’t pick up the phone!”

  And then she was gone, slamming the door in the process.

  25

  Marge was staring out the kitchen window when Odelia walked up behind her. She put her hands on her mom’s shoulders. “She’ll be back,” she said. “You know how she is. She gets these crazy ideas but before long she gets bored and then she’ll come running.”

  “I don’t know, Odelia,” said Marge. “This time I have a feeling she might be gone for good. She’s always had a thing for the glitz and glamour of celebrity life, and if this thing with Charlie Dieber works out she might move to the West Coast and never come back.” She shook her head. “I was too hard on her. We were all too hard on her.”

  “But her performance was terrible. I thought a dose of reality would do her good.”

  Marge turned. “Your grandmother has never dealt with reality very well. And if this is her chance to escape reality once and for all, she’ll grab it with both hands. Remember when she claimed to have been married to the most fascinating man in the world?”

  “Yeah, but that fell through. And this will also fall through, and then she’ll be back.”

  Marge returned to gazing out the window. “I’ve known your grandmother a lot longer than you have, and if there’s one trait that’s more dominant than all others, it’s her stubbornness. That woman can be so mulish she’ll drive you crazy.”

  “That means she’ll drive Charlie Dieber crazy, and that Laron Weskit guy.” Odelia gently massaged her mom’s shoulders. “Besides, I’m sure she’ll soon realize all the fame and glory in the world can never really replace a loving family. Plus, she’ll miss her cats.”

  “Let’s hope so. I’d hate to be the one to have driven your grandmother away.”

  Odelia returned to the living room, where her dad was watching Jeopardy. “Missing Gran already?” she asked as she took a seat beside him.

  “Well, don’t laugh but actually I do. That woman drives me nuts sometimes, but she also brings a lot of life into this household.”

  “She does, doesn’t she?”

  “I’m recording Jeopardy, by the way. And her favorite soaps. So when she comes back she can catch up. Otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “So you also think she’ll be back soon?”

  “Of course. This is her home, her family. I don’t believe for a second she’d be willing to throw it all away to make a career as a pop star.”

  “Let’s hope you’re right,” said Odelia, who was feeling a lot less sure already.

  “So is it true the same goons that burgled your house tried to burgle the Hampton Cove Star?”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to think Johnny and Jerry are not exactly the best burglars in the world. They keep getting caught, which is probably not how a good burglary should go.”

  “Well, as long as they’re in jail, they won’t be able to burgle anyone else.”

  “So how are you coping at the office? Don’t you want to replace Gran? At least until she’s back?” She knew how unreliable Gran could be when performing her duties as Dad’s receptionist, and had often advised him to hire a regular receptionist. One he could count on. But Dad always said he liked Vesta sitting in that outer office, and scaring the hypochondriacs away. At least with her grumpy face there to greet them, only the patients who really needed a doctor managed to stick it out and stick around.

  “Oh, don’t you worry, honey, I’ll manage,” he said, affectionately patting his daughter’s knee. “I tried to hire someone else, remember? That didn’t work out too well, either.”

  “That’s because you managed to hire the one person in Hampton Cove whom Gran hates even more than anyone else.”

  Dad had hired Scarlett Canyon for a while, Gran’s mortal enemy, and that hadn’t sat well with Gran at all. It also hadn’t lasted. Before long, Gran had been back at the helm.

  “Maybe I should call Vesta?” Tex suggested. “Ask her to reconsider?”

  “I think it’s best to leave her to stew in her own juices for a while. It’s too soon to start begging her to come back. Besides, if you do that she’ll be even more intolerable than usual. Best to wait a while, and let her realize she made a big mistake for herself.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” said her father. “You seem to know Vesta better than anyone.”

  Returning to her own home, she saw that her cats were all seated on the deck, holding some kind of meeting.

  “Hey, you guys,” she said, taking a seat next to them. “Everything all right?”

  “I don’t know, Odelia,” said Max, usually the cats’ spokesperson. “We just feel we could have done so much more, if only those silly crooks hadn’t interfered.”

  “Yeah, we’re thinking about giving it another shot,” said Harriet. “Return to the hotel and give those rooms another once-over.”

  “We never got the chance to search them properly,” Brutus agreed.

  “And maybe this time the rooms won’t be burgled,” said Dooley. “Unless that’s a regular thing at the Hampton Cove Star.”

  Odelia laughed. “I don’t think it’s a regular thing, Dooley. But I also don’t think it’s a good idea to go back there now. The Weskits and Charlie will be in their rooms, and they’ll notice the addition of four cats to their household. Besides, you had that chat with Cleo, didn’t you? And she told you how she feels about Laron Weskit’s involvement.”

  “Still, we’ve only scratched the surface,” said Max.

  “Yeah, we let you down, Odelia,” said Harriet. “First with that silly show we gave, and then with that half-assed search. We haven’t given you our best yet in this investigation, and we really want to make it up to you somehow.”

  She thought about that. “I’m not sure what else you can do. You’ve talked to Chickie’s pets, you’ve talked to Laron Weskit’s cat, I don’t think there’s a lot more you can do at this point.” Nor, she felt, could she. She felt oddly stymied in this investigation. As if she was going around in circles and getting nowhere fast. And now this latest drama with Gran on top of everything else. She was losing her touch, and the fact that her cats had struck out only added to her general feeling of malaise.

  “Let’s not think about it anymore tonight,” she said. “Let’s all have a good night’s sleep and I’m sure in the morning fresh ideas will come to us.”

  She got up, and headed into the house. Chase was cooking, which she found adorable. His specialty was spaghetti bolognese, though he was really outdoing himself now by going for a nice creamy lasagna. “Is it true that cats love lasagna?” he asked as he admired his own creation, then placed it in the oven.

  “No, I think that’s just a myth created by Jim Davis.”

  “Jim Davis?”

  “The creator of Garfield.”

  “Okay. Well, I made extra, so if Max or the others fancy lasagna, there’s plenty.”

  She took a seat on one of the high kitchen stools. “Do you think I’m losing my touch?”

  “Losing your touch?” He walked around the kitchen counter and held out his hands. “Come here.” They hugged and kissed, and she found him looking at her as if she were the dish of lasagna. “Um, no. In my expert opinion you haven’t lost your touch, babe.”

  When she slapped him lightly on the chest, he laughed heartily.

  “You know what I mean. I just feel I’m not getting anywhere with this investigation. As if I’m flailing around with no idea what the heck I’m doing.”

  “It’s still early days. It could take weeks to figure out what exactly happened this morning. I’m going back there tomorrow first thing and have another chat with Tyson. I asked him to collect all the CCTV footage shot since last night, through the morning, and I’m going to watch it to see if there’s any red flags. Maybe you can join me?”

  “Watch security footage all day? No, thank you. I’d prefer to finally go and talk to Laron Weskit and the others.”

  “Oh, hasn’t your uncle told you? The Mayor has extended his embargo. There will be no interviews of the Weskits or Dieber and Jamie for at least another day.”

  “What? But he can’t do that!” She’d slipped off her stool and threw up her hands in dismay. “They’re important witnesses in a murder inquiry. Doesn’t that take precedence over the Mayor’s political games?”

  “He argued they’ve been through enough, what with the burglary and all, and doesn’t want them ‘badgered’ by the police—his words, not mine. He says that he talked to Laron about the whole Chickie thing and Laron assured him he’s got nothing to do with that, and that he and his wife are as shocked and devastated as everyone else.”

  “Applesauce! They have to talk to the police.”

  “And sooner or later they will,” Chase assured her. “They’re not off the hook, Odelia.”

  “Yeah, but who knows what evidence they’ve been able to make disappear. Plus, they’ve had ample time to coordinate their stories, so whatever they’ll tell you and Uncle Alec will just be the rehearsed story they want you to believe. The story they probably concocted with their legal team, to stay out of trouble as much as possible.”

  “Alec told me to back off. He doesn’t want to go against the Mayor’s wishes.”

  “God, this is making me sick.”

  “Listen,” said Chase, placing plates and cutlery on placemats. “Vesta is working with Laron and his team now, right? Can’t you ask her to snoop around? Ask some questions?”

  Odelia stared at her boyfriend. “That’s brilliant!”

  “Hey, I have my moments,” said Chase with a grin.

  But then Odelia’s face fell. “I’ll bet Gran won’t talk to me, though. She’s very upset.”

  “And I’ll bet she will. You know what she’s like. When it comes down to it, it’s family first, always. And if she won’t talk to you, for whatever silly reason, I’ll have a crack at her. She’s always liked me.”

  Odelia smiled. “I dare you to call Gran and to recruit her as a police spy inside Laron Weskit’s operation.”

  “You’re on,” said Chase, and took out his phone. Moments later Gran picked up.

  “Oh, hey, Vesta,” said Chase, giving Odelia a wink. “I wanna ask you a big favor.”

  26

  We still strongly felt as if we’d let Odelia down. So the four of us agreed to return to the hotel as soon as the house was quiet, and see if we couldn’t have another look at those hotel rooms.

  “Odelia is counting on us,” said Dooley.

  “Yes, she is,” Brutus agreed. “But she’s simply too nice to tell us how she really feels. How we all let her down terribly.”

  “I think we owe it to her to give it another shot,” said Harriet.

  We were all in agreement. And so it was decided. The moment Odelia and Chase were sound asleep we all snuck out of the house and set paw for downtown Hampton Cove, where the Hampton Cove Star awaited. Unfortunately Odelia had retrieved the keycards she’d given us, so we wouldn’t be able to use them to get in. But we’re cats. Somehow or other we always manage to get where we need to be.

  So we trudged along the sidewalk, the hour long past midnight, and soon found ourselves in the heart of town. Across the street from the Star is Kingman’s General Store, though I should probably say Kingman’s human’s General Store. Of course at this time of night the store was closed, and of Kingman there was no sign.

  “Probably in the park for cat choir,” said Dooley, following my gaze.

  “They’ll all be in the park for cat choir,” said Harriet. “Except for me, and to be absolutely honest, I’ll probably never go to cat choir again.”

  “But why, sugar biscuit?” asked Brutus. “I thought you did pretty well tonight.”

  “Didn’t you see the horrified looks on people’s faces? And didn’t you hear the laughter when my performance was over? They hated me—probably thought it was the most ridiculous thing they’d ever seen or heard.”

  “I don’t think so, snow bunny. I think they were surprised, that’s all. They’ve never seen that kind of performance before. And you know what people are like. They hate whatever’s new—at least at first. But give them some time and they’ll appreciate your performance for what it was: refreshing and adorable.”

  “Oh, Brutus, my snickerdoodle, you always know exactly what to say to cheer me up.” Then her shoulders sagged. “But I still think it was terrible, and by now word will have spread through Hampton Cove’s cat community and soon they’ll all be laughing like hyenas. No, I’m never going to cat choir again and that’s my final word.”

  We’d been staring up at the hotel while Harriet shared her self-critique with us, and suddenly I was struck by an idea. “Why don’t we try the fire escape?” Once, not all that long ago, Dooley and I had managed to get into the hotel that way.

  And so we quickly crossed the road, ducked into a side alley and arrived at the back of the hotel. And there, gleaming and majestic, was a metal fire escape. We scaled the wire mesh staircase and soon arrived on the fourth-floor platform. Unfortunately it was one of those doors that only open from the inside, with a push bar. And since there was no one to push on this particular bar, we were stuck. But then Harriet decided to use her secret weapon: a repeat performance of tonight’s song, and this time we were four, not two, with Dooley, myself and Brutus provided backing vocals.

  It must have made quite an impression, for very quickly a window to one of the rooms opened and a shoe whizzed through the night and hit me smack in the head.

  “Ouch!” I said.

  But seeing as this appeared to be the price to pay for achieving greatness, I didn’t let up and kept on howling away. More windows opened, and more shoes zoomed through the air. Few of them hit their targets, except a big boot that hit Brutus in the back.

  “Hey, watch it, you brute!” he yelled.

  And then, finally, the moment we’d all been waiting for arrived: a sleepy-looking little girl opened the door. Rubbing her eyes, she said, “Mommy? It’s the cat from the show.”

  “Come back to bed, honey,” a woman’s voice sounded from halfway down the hallway.

  “But it’s the pretty white cat from the show, mommy. And she’s singing again.” She bent over and petted Harriet, who purred up a storm in response.

  “Annabella! Back to bed!” the same voice came back, and Annabella, after a moment’s hesitation—the sight of Harriet, a star performer, was clearly very enticing—she ran along to her mother. Soon all was quiet once more. Except this time the door was open, and so we quickly entered.

  “Great work, angel bunny,” said Brutus. “You nailed it.”

  “I think I’m improving, though, don’t you think?” said Harriet.

  “With leaps and bounds,” said her ever-loyal boyfriend.

  “I think our backing vocals made a big impression, too,” said Dooley.

  “For which I thank you guys,” said Harriet.

  We’d arrived at the Weskits’ room and I had a flash of déjà-vu. Once again we needed to get inside.

  “Room service!” said Brutus suddenly.

  We all looked up at this.

  “Come again?” I said.

  He pointed to the same cart Dooley and I had employed before, and repeated, “Room service. These rich and famous people never sleep. Instead they spend half the night ordering room service. So if we can sneak onto one of these room service carts while they’re being ridden into the room, we’re golden.”

  “Are you quite sure about this?” asked Harriet after we’d been waiting in that hallway for fifteen minutes with not a room service person in sight.