“So you decided to bench me, is that what you’re saying?”

  “I didn’t bench you! You’re still a valuable part of the team.”

  “Yeah, right. I’m so valuable that I’m not even a detective anymore.”

  “That’s not my decision,” said Alec. “We can only have one lead detective, and that’s a simple matter of bureaucracy. And budget. You need to take that up with Charlene.”

  “Fat chance,” growled Chase. “Look, I’ve enjoyed working here in Hampton Cove, Alec,” he said, and Alec’s stomach plummeted. “And I appreciate the chance you gave me after the trouble I had in New York. But if this is how it’s going to be, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve started looking into other opportunities.”

  “What other opportunities?”

  Chase shrugged. “There are other towns, with other police departments. Heck, the entire police department of Hampton Keys is being replaced, after their chief of police was put in jail. Maybe I’ll try my luck over there. I might even make chief of police.”

  “Don’t do it, buddy,” said Alec earnestly. “This town needs you.”

  “They need me so much that they’ve decided to give my job to some newcomer fresh out of police academy, who doesn’t know the first thing about running an investigation. Look, I know when I’m not appreciated, and I prefer to quit before I’m pushed out.”

  “I agree with you that Mick has a lot to learn, and the only person I can think of to be his teacher is you! How else is he going to get better?”

  “Mick doesn’t want to get better. He figures he’s the best already. Better than me, better than you. Better than anybody. Mark my words, Alec—he’ll be coming for your job next. And if it’s up to this town council and our precious mayor, he’ll get it, too!”

  Marge came walking out of the house. “How’s it going, boys? Can I get you a refill?”

  “Things are going great,” said Alec.

  “Amazing,” Chase chimed in. But when Marge had returned inside, Chase said, “I will always be your friend, Alec. But I think it’s time I stopped considering you my boss.”

  “But… what are you saying?” asked Alec.

  Chase gave him a sad look. “Isn’t it obvious? I quit, Alec.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “I didn’t do it. You did, when you gave my job to Mick Harper.” He patted his former boss’s chest. “I’ll send you an official letter of resignation. But consider me gone from now on. And I hope you’ll be very happy with Amazing Mick, your new super-detective.”

  And with those words, he got up and walked away, leaving Alec feeling pretty shaken.

  His sister came walking out again and took a seat next to him. “I heard everything through the kitchen window,” she confessed.

  He should have known. “Of course you did.”

  “Why did you give Chase’s job to Mick? You knew he would take it hard.”

  “Like I told Chase, I had no choice. Charlene pushed me. Mick is the man of the hour. He’s got the looks, he’s got the population clamoring for him to be the town’s new detective. She told me it’s all about perception. About what looks good.”

  “What looks good is you standing behind your team,” said Marge. “And Chase is a vital member of your team. Without him, you’ve got nothing.”

  “I’ve got Mick,” said Alec weakly.

  Marge smiled. “I’m not a cop, but even I know that a rookie, fresh out of police academy, doesn’t have the chops to replace a seasoned and experienced detective like Chase.”

  “I know,” said Alec. “Don’t you think I know?”

  “Wanna know what I think?”

  “I’m pretty sure you’re going to tell me.”

  “You need to stand up to that wife of yours and tell her that either you’re the chief of police or she is. She can’t be mayor and police chief both. And if you’re in charge, you make the decisions—not her.”

  “But what about Mick?”

  “He needs to learn how to be a good detective. And the only way he can learn is by working with the best detective this town has had in years.”

  “You heard—Chase wants to be the next chief of police of Hampton Keys. The man is ambitious.”

  “Of course he doesn’t want to be chief of police. He wants to stay in his old job, working under you—the job he’s always loved. But you hurt him, Alec. You disrespected him, and that’s on you.” She gave him a steady look. “You need to make this right. No one else can.”

  “But—”

  “Just do it,” she snapped.

  He was surprised by her tone, which she only rarely used—and then mostly on her husband Tex, not on her brother. In fact, the last time she had used that tone with him was when he had stolen her Barbie doll, dismembered it, and buried it in the backyard.

  And so he nodded. “All right. I’ll talk to Charlene. Explain to her this is not the way.”

  “And tell her that if she keeps foisting Mick Harper on us, she won’t be welcome at our weekly family barbecues anymore.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Wow, that’s harsh.”

  “That’s giving Charlene a reality check, that’s what it is. And now you’d better get cracking on healing this rift—before I really lose my temper.”

  He was pretty sure he didn’t want to be around when that happened.

  CHAPTER 29

  “Don’t worry, babe,” said Chase as he steered her old pickup truck in the direction of town. “I’ll find a new job soon enough.”

  “I know you will,” she said. “But are you going to like it as much as your old one?”

  He shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But the chief of police gig in Hampton Keys is still up for grabs, and if I don’t apply now, who knows when another position like that will open up again? I have to take my chance.”

  “I’m sure it will all work out,” said Harriet, who was riding in the back seat with the rest of us. “Chase is such a talented police officer—any police force would be happy to hire him.”

  “Imagine having two police chiefs in the family,” said Brutus. “It’ll be chief this and chief that at every family get-together.”

  “I’m not sure if the two police chiefs will be able to be in the same room again after what happened,” I said. Even though we hadn’t been present when Chase and Uncle Alec had their big powwow, Chase had told Odelia all about it, and so had Marge. Apparently, it had come as quite a shock when Chase announced he was quitting.

  “Uncle Alec did not see that coming,” said Brutus, who seemed proud of the decision his human had taken. “Serves him right for handing Chase’s job to a complete noob.”

  Now that Chase wasn’t a cop anymore—at least for the moment—he was free to join Odelia on her quest to find the real killer of the Eiderducks. The first person she wanted to talk to was the actor who had allegedly developed quite a dislike for his former producer. So much so that he had been threatening to take him to court.

  As it happened, Billy Placid was shooting a new movie in town and staying at the Hampton Springs Hotel, located near the beach. And so, after a short drive, Chase parked his wife’s pickup on the lot and we all got out.

  “Too bad Chase can’t use one of the police department’s nice squad cars anymore,” said Dooley. “I liked those squad cars a lot more than Odelia’s old pickup.”

  “Yeah, that’s a pity,” Brutus agreed. “But if he becomes the new chief of police of Hampton Keys, he’ll probably get an even nicer car. A big four-by-four.”

  “I’m not sure I want Chase to become the chief of police of Hampton Keys,” said Harriet. “Won’t that mean we have to move towns? So we can be closer to his new job?”

  “Stands to reason,” I said. “A police chief who doesn’t live in town is probably not done. He has to be where the people he’s trying to protect live. It wouldn’t go over well if he stayed in Hampton Cove.”

  “I hope it doesn’t happen,” said Dooley fervently. “I like where we live. I like the town, I like our friends, I like everything about it. If we move, we’ll have to make new friends and learn how things are done. And also, we won’t live next door to Marge and Tex and Gran anymore.”

  That hadn’t occurred to Brutus yet, for his face sagged. “Yeah, that’s a bummer,” he admitted. But then he brightened. “I’m sure Marge and Tex will move next door to us. And then everything will be just like it is now.”

  “Or they could all stay where they are,” said Dooley. “And then everything will also be like it is now.”

  It was an argument that was hard to refute, and Brutus didn’t even try.

  As we entered the Hampton Springs Hotel and walked up to the reception desk, we were quickly led to a man waiting for us in the bar. It was Billy Placid—the actor who had worked with Bramwell Eiderduck and hadn’t enjoyed the experience.

  “So glad you could meet me now,” said the actor as he got up to shake Odelia and Chase’s hands. “I’m due on set later on, so this is the only time I had available.”

  After Odelia and Chase had made the necessary introductions (ignoring the fact that Odelia had brought along no fewer than four cats), they took a seat around the table and launched into their questions.

  “Okay, so I know how this looks,” said the actor as he leaned back in his chair, one hand casually draped over the back of the next chair. “Spiteful actor sues ex-producer. When spiteful actor doesn’t get his day in court, he murders ex-producer in cold blood.”

  “Is that what happened, Mr. Placid?” asked Chase.

  The actor grinned. “No, that’s not what happened. Well, the part about the disgruntled actor is certainly true enough, and so is the part about me trying to sue Bramwell for back payments amounting to, oh, three hundred grand.”

  Chase whistled through his teeth. “That’s a lot of money.”

  “That’s what I thought. But Bramwell didn’t seem overly concerned. He had promised me many times over the years that he’d pay me what I was owed, but it never happened. So in the end, I threatened to take him to court if he didn’t pay up.”

  “And did he? Pay up?”

  The actor shook his head. He reminded me of Robert Redford. He had a ruggedly handsome quality, and I could totally see him in a western as one of the white-hat cowboys.

  “Nope,” he said. “Plenty of promises but no money. Later I heard that he was broke. That he’d spent all of his money on a pug-breeding operation. Which struck me as particularly ironic, since the movie I made for him—and for which he still owed me money—was called Pug. It was a western, and Pug was my name. I was the sheriff of a town under siege, forced to square off against the bad guys. You know the type of movie—they’re a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, it was a major flop.”

  “And so Bramwell decided that he didn’t need to pay you.”

  “Something like that. All cloaked in plenty of legalese, of course. Something about a clause in my contract.” He waved a hand. “I didn’t care about any of that. When I do a job, I expect to get paid. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Did you ever threaten Bramwell Eiderduck with violence, Mr. Placid?” asked Chase.

  The man grinned. “You’re probably referring to the wine glass incident? Yeah, I did throw a glass of wine all over him at a reception not too long ago. It was all caught on film, and the New York Post made a big thing out of it. But that doesn’t mean I killed him. There’s a big difference between throwing wine on a person and stabbing him to death.”

  “Can you tell us where you were at the time Mr. Eiderduck and his wife were killed, Mr. Placid?” asked Odelia.

  The actor’s grin widened. “I thought this was an interview for the Hampton Cove Gazette, but you’re making it sound like a police interrogation. Since when have the members of the press started doing the work of the police?”

  “Just answer the question, will you?” said Chase.

  “I was on set. You can ask the fifty people who were there. I was engaged in a gun fight with my main rival. Of course, I missed, and he got away so we can fight another day.” He leaned forward. “And now maybe you answer me a question. How come you’re the first ones to talk to me since the Eiderducks were murdered? When I read about what happened, I figured the police would be knocking on my door in minutes. But they never showed up.”

  “I’m sure they had their reasons,” said Chase dryly.

  “Yeah, I read they arrested two members of the household staff. The butler and the cook.”

  “The gardener and the housekeeper,” Odelia corrected him. Clearly this guy hadn’t read her article, where the details of the case had been nicely written up.

  “Whatever. So did they do it? Did they kill their employers? I’m asking because I have a small staff myself. And I sincerely can say that pretty much anyone who has staff is now nervously awaiting the trial to find out what Bramwell and Reyna did to bring this upon themselves.”

  “They hadn’t been paid in three months,” said Chase curtly.

  “Ouch,” said Billy. “Yeah, that’ll do it. I should’ve guessed. The moment I saw their faces in the paper, I thought, yep—shady. Especially the guy. Worst mugshot I’ve ever seen. Or best, depending on your standards.”

  “Can you think of anyone else who may have harbored a grudge against your former producer, Mr. Placid?” asked Chase.

  “Not that I can think of. Though I’ll bet there are plenty of disgruntled actors like me—promised a nice big payday, but in the end, got nothing. Bramwell may have been a star producer, with a string of hit shows under his belt, but he was a lousy businessman.”

  CHAPTER 30

  Oddly enough, Mick Harper had decided to charge Brendon Hetman with the murder of his employer, but not Christi, the housekeeper. She had been released from custody. And so, our next port of call was the apartment where Christi lived.

  When we arrived, she was in the middle of packing.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t have anything to say,” she said after she had invited us into her rather cramped apartment. She continued packing while we talked. “I still can’t believe that Brendon would have been arrested. I know he didn’t do it. He’s not a violent man at all.”

  “Is that what you told Detective Harper?” asked Chase. He said it with a grimace, clearly having a hard time using the words Detective and Harper in the same sentence.

  “Of course. I told him that Brendon is a big softie. And also, if he had murdered the Eiderducks, he would have been covered in blood. But when he came running, there was no blood. He was as shocked as I was to find Mr. Bramwell and Mrs. Reyna lying there.”

  “Why didn’t you call the emergency services when you found them?” asked Odelia.

  The former housekeeper shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess we didn’t want to get involved. By the time we arrived, they were already dead, so there didn’t seem much point in calling an ambulance. We could clearly see they were gone and couldn’t be saved.”

  “What about Anthemia? Weren’t you worried about her?”

  “Not really. Anthemia wasn’t often home, so we figured she wasn’t home then. She was always off gallivanting with her boyfriend.”

  “Her boyfriend?” asked Odelia, exchanging a look with her husband.

  “Yeah, some rich guy. He used to come by the house quite often, though we hadn’t seen him recently. It’s possible they broke up before this happened. You know what young people are like—they change partners like other people change underwear.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know the boyfriend’s name?”

  “Um…” She thought for a moment. “He had a funny name. Maybe… Fritz Pink? Something like that. We used to joke that his name fit with the color of the house.”

  “Odd that Anthemia never mentioned she had a boyfriend,” said Chase.

  The housekeeper smiled. “Like I said, they probably broke up. She’s very popular. Part of the rich set. Very active socially. Always going to parties and hanging out with other kids.”

  “Were you aware that Bramwell was broke?” asked Chase, who never dodged the hard questions.

  The woman’s eyes widened. I saw that she had very expressive eyes—green and vivid—and they stood out in her pale, freckled face. “No, I didn’t know that. Broke as in… he lost all his money?”

  “That’s what his business manager said. That he invested everything in different schemes, the latest of which was a pug-breeding farm.”

  “I know about the pugs,” she said, shaking her head. “It was a disgrace, the way he treated those poor animals. Locked up in cages like that. Everyone who worked for the Eiderducks thought it was terrible. The cook even sent an anonymous message to a local animal rights group, and they started staging protests against the way those dogs were treated. And of course you probably know that we hadn’t been paid in three months?”

  “Yes, we know,” said Chase.

  “What are you going to do now, Christi?” asked Odelia.

  The woman stopped stuffing clothes into her suitcase for a moment and wiped her brow. “I don’t know. Brendon asked me to forget about him. To move on. But how can I? I know he’s innocent. And I don’t understand how the police can accuse him of a crime he didn’t commit. It’s all so…”

  “Frustrating?” asked Odelia gently.

  She nodded furiously, and I could see that her eyes had teared up. “I want to find a good lawyer to defend him, but those cost money, and I don’t have any money. So I guess I’ll have to find a cheap lawyer and hope for the best.”

  “Why did you steal your employer’s credit card, Christi?” asked Chase.

  The woman shrugged. “Brendon figured Mr. Bramwell owed us. We thought he was just being careless, or stingy, but now you tell me he was broke. We had no idea. He owed us three months’ pay, so we figured we might as well take it.” She bowed her head. “I see now we shouldn’t have done it. It made the police think we killed them—which we didn’t. All we wanted was to take what was ours. And also… Brendon proposed to me last week, and we hadn’t even had time to celebrate yet, because the Eiderducks had us working all hours.”