She parked right behind her uncle’s squad car and got out, allowing the four cats to jump from their respective seats.
“Let’s go, guys,” she said. “You know the drill. Talk to witnesses. Try to find out what happened here.”
She watched the cats traipse up to the house and smiled. Her own personal feline detective squad. She wouldn’t know what to do without them.
She watched her uncle take off his sunglasses and take in their surroundings. Donna Bruce had done well for herself, that much was obvious. The house was built in hacienda style, with a low red-tile roof and stuccoed orange outer walls.
“Nice place,” said Uncle Alec admiringly. “Though more like something one would expect in the Hollywood Hills than out here in Hampton Cove.”
“Isn’t Donna originally from Los Angeles?”
“She is. She only moved out here to put some distance between herself and her ex-husband. And because her company is headquartered in New York.”
“This is such a coincidence,” Odelia said as she watched the police activity around the house. Half a dozen squad cars were haphazardly parked on the circular driveway, and an ambulance stood, lights flashing, indicating the coroner was already there.
“What is?” asked her uncle, hoisting his pants over his bulk and patting down his few strands of hair.
“Just this morning a package arrived from donna.vip for your mother.”
Chief Alec closed his eyes. “God, not again. I thought Marge put a stop to that nonsense.”
“What nonsense?”
“Didn’t she tell you? Your grandmother has been ordering those packages for weeks now. She’s addicted to that Donna crap. And the worst part? Your mom has been footing the bill as Vesta doesn’t have a credit card. Marge told me she’s up to five grand now.”
Odelia’s jaw dropped. “Five grand!”
“Yeah, for a bunch of useless stuff. According to Marge she even bought one of those steamers for her, um, well, you know what.”
Odelia frowned. “A vegetable steamer?”
Uncle Alec suddenly looked uncomfortable. “Not exactly. She uses it on her… business.”
“Her business?”
He heaved an exasperated groan. “Her lady parts, all right?”
Odelia smiled. “She bought a vaginal steamer?” Uncle Alec grumbled something under his breath as he stalked off. She hurried to keep up with him. “No wonder Mom is mad. That stuff must cost a fortune.”
“And it’s not as if she needs it,” said her uncle. “I mean, she’s seventy-five, for crying out loud. What does she need a vaginal steamer for?”
“Well, she does have a very active sex life.”
Uncle Alec winced. He directed a pleading look at his niece. “Please, Odelia. I don’t need to hear all that.”
Which was probably why Mom had allowed this buying frenzy to go on as long as it had. Nobody wanted to sit down with Gran and have a serious conversation about her sex life. It wasn’t a topic one simply launched into.
“I’ll talk to Gran,” she promised. “Tell her to ease up on the spending.”
“You do that,” her uncle grumbled.
They walked into the house and Odelia admired her surroundings. Donna Bruce had taste, that much was obvious. The foyer had a homey feel, with its hardwood floors, soft pink wallpaper and white lacquered furniture. And as they progressed into the living room and then the kitchen, she had to admit she wouldn’t mind living in a place like this. Selling jade eggs and vaginal steamers had obviously been very lucrative for the founder of donna.vip.
They reached the spa area, where a small indoor pool awaited them, along with the sauna cabin where Donna’s housekeeper had found the body of her employer that morning.
“You better prepare yourself for a shock,” said Uncle Alec. “It’s not a pretty sight.”
She braced herself and stepped into the sauna. Donna Bruce was lying on the floor, partly covered by a towel, her face swollen beyond recognition. Every part of her body that was visible had suffered the same fate. The woman had literally been stung to death.
She swallowed. “How—how did they get the bees in here?”
Uncle Alec gestured at the fan that was placed in the ceiling. “They reversed the airflow and placed an entire batch of bees on top of it. The little beasties must have been pretty pissed off when they were propelled past the fan’s blades and into this extremely hot environment. They simply attacked the first thing they came into contact with. Which was Donna Bruce.”
“I’m guessing she died from anaphylactic shock,” said the coroner, who was standing in a corner, picking up the body of a dead bee and dumping it into a plastic baggie. Abe Cornwall was a shabbily-dressed man with frizzy gray hair but he was an ace medical examiner. “Though judging from the state of the body, she might have died from the venom itself. She must have sustained thousands of stings in a matter of minutes.”
“This entire cabin was full of bees when the housekeeper arrived,” Uncle Alec explained. “Thousands and thousands of them.”
“And there’s no question whether this was an accident or not?” asked Odelia.
“No way,” another male voice spoke.
She turned around with a smile, and got a small shock of pleasure when she found herself gazing into the gold-flecked chocolate eyes of Chase Kingsley. He filled the entire doorframe with his muscular physique, and the cabin with his powerful presence. “So it was definitely murder, huh?”
“Definitely,” said Chase with a smile of greeting.
“I’ll let you two kids come up with a theory as to who’s responsible,” said Uncle Alec. “I have to talk to the ex-husband about what to do with the kids.”
“The kids?” asked Odelia.
“Yeah.” Uncle Alec frowned at his notebook. “Sweetums and Honeychild. Good thing they weren’t here when it happened.”
“Oh, those poor babies,” said Odelia.
“Big babies,” said Uncle Alec. “Sweetums and Honeychild are six.” He shook his head. “Who gives their kid a name like that?”
“Donna Bruce,” said Chase, staring down at the victim. He glanced up at the chief. “So am I in charge of this thing, Chief?”
“Yes, you are,” said Chief Alec. “Along with Odelia—in an entirely unofficial capacity, of course.”
Chase gave her a grin. “Looks like the gang is back together, babe.”
She returned his smile. “Yay.”
Chapter 4
“Do you really think Odelia is getting married?” asked Dooley.
I shook my head. “No way. Odelia doesn’t lie. If she was getting married she would have told us. In fact I’m pretty sure we’d be the first to know.”
“But why is everybody saying she’s having this shotgun wedding?”
“People talk, Dooley. You know that and I know that. That’s what they do.”
He thought about this for a moment. “You know, you might be right, Max.”
“Of course I’m right. I’m always right. You should know that by now.”
We were walking around the back of the house. I don’t know what we were hoping to find, but at least something that would shed some light on what had happened here. And if we were really lucky, maybe even an eyewitness account of the murder with a nice description of the murderer. Humans might think they’re pretty smart by avoiding the attention of other humans when they’re out murdering each other, but they never give a second thought to the pets they encounter along the way.
Behind us, Harriet and Brutus were still engaged in their lover’s quarrel.
“I don’t see why you have to go and fall for this Bradley Cooper guy,” Brutus was saying. “Not only does he have the face of a Neanderthal but he’s human! Cats don’t fall for humans. That’s not natural, Harriet. And it’s humiliating for me as your boyfriend.”
“I just like his face,” said Harriet. “Is that so bad? He has a fascinating face.”
“A human face,” Brutus pointed out. “You can’t like a human face, sweet pea.”