If he thought this dull-looking cat had anything to do with events at Casa Capri or at the Prior estate, maybe he needed a few days off, a vacation.
Pulling up before Clyde’s white Cape Cod, he watched Clyde swing out of the car carrying the cat and set it down on the lawn. The cat yawned, glanced up blearily, and wandered away toward the house. Just a dull-looking, ordinary tomcat.
The tomcat, the minute Harper let him and Clyde out of the squad car in front of their cottage, headed for his cat door. Walking slowly, trying to appear stupid, he was nearly choking with amusement.
Pushing in through his cat door, leaving Clyde leaning on the door of the squad car talking, he moved quickly to the kitchen, where he might not be heard, leaped up onto the breakfast table, and rolled over, laughing, pawing the air, bellowing with laughter, working himself into such a fit that Clyde, coming in, had to whack him on the shoulder to make him stop. It took three hard whacks before he collapsed, gasping, and lay limp and spent.
“It’s a wonder he didn’t hear you; you were bellowing like a bull moose. You really have a nerve, to laugh at Harper.”
Joe looked at him slyly.“Harper gets so edgy. Every time we wrap up a case, hand him the evidence, he gets nervous, starts to fidget.”
“Just where would the case be, Joe, without Harper? You think Adelina and Renet would be in jail? You think you and Dulcie would have made a citizen’s arrest? Hauled Adelina and Renet and Teddy into jail yourselves?”
“I wasn’t laughingatHarper. I was laughingbecauseof Harper.”
Clyde looked hard at him.“You’re not making sense.”
“Harper’s a great guy, but he’s letting us get to him.
How can I help but laugh? He’s developing a giant-sized psychosis about cats.”
Silence. Clyde snatched the dish towel from its rod, folded it more evenly, and hung it up again.
“Youcan laugh at Harper,” Joe said. “So why can’t I? There he is, a seasoned cop with twenty years on the force, and he’s letting a couple of kitty cats give him the fidgets.”
Clyde sat down at the table, looking at him.
“In the squad car-he could hardly keep from staring at me. He knows we were up to something, and he can’t figure it out. So we helped nail Adelina, so does he have to get spooked about it? We scare him silly. Can I help if he breaks me up?”
Clyde put his face in his hands and didn’t speak.
But it was not until later, when Joe had trotted up through the village to meet Dulcie in the alley behind Jolly’s Deli, that he realized the full import of what he and Dulcie had done and how their maneuvers would affect Harper. Why wouldn’t Harper be upset? The man was only human.
“Three murderers are behind bars,” Dulcie said. “A rash of burglaries has been stopped. And, best of all, now that those old people are free of Adelina, they’re not afraid anymore. They’re safe now, and looking forward to enjoying life a little, in their remaining years.”
She looked at him deeply, her green eyes glowing.“And we did it. You and me and Dillon and Mae Rose.”
“And Max Harper,” he said charitably.
“Well of course, Max Harper.” And she began to grin.
“What?” he said. “What are you thinking?”
“Renet in her underpants and bra, with that wrinkled old witch face.” She rolled over, mewling with laughter, and soon they were both laughing, crazy as if they’d been on catnip. Only a sound from the deli silenced them, as George Jolly came out his back door bearing a paper plate.
They could smell freshly boiled shrimp, and the aroma drove out all other thoughts. They looked at each other, licked their whiskers, and trotted on over, smiling. As they began to eat, old Mr. Jolly stood looking up and down the alley, wondering how those laughing tourists had disappeared so quickly. Only the two cats knew that there had been no tourists, and even for old George Jolly, they weren’t telling.