I would have asked them, if I had the chance, but all the snails I’d encountered had been of the strong silent type, and had simply ignored me. And of Rupert there was no sign.
“Looks like Odelia and Chase have patched things up,” Harriet remarked casually.
“Patched what up?” I asked.
“Did they have a fight?!” Dooley asked.
“Worse,” said Harriet. “Much worse.”
“Odelia is having an affair!” said Brutus.
“An affair!” Dooley cried, then considered Brutus’s words. “What affair?”
“An affair with a billionaire,” said Brutus. “But why are you asking us all these questions? You know what happened. According to Gran you were right there when they were schmoozing in that restaurant.”
“Yeah, we saw the pictures,” said Harriet.
“What restaurant? What billionaire?” I asked.
“Oh, Max, don’t be like that,” said Harriet with an eyeroll. “You don’t have to protect Odelia, all right? It’s us! You can tell us what happened.”
“Did they go upstairs after kissing and fondling in that restaurant?” asked Brutus. “Did they go up to his suite?”
“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said. “All I know is that Odelia had a meeting with Edward Dexter in the bar of the Star Hotel. Edward’s daughter Addie has gone missing, and he asked Odelia to find her. There was no kissing, no fondling, no schmoozing, and she certainly didn’t go up to his suite.”
A stunned silence ensued, then Harriet asked,“But what about the pictures?”
“What pictures?” I said, not bothering to hide a touch of exasperation.
“Gran took a bunch of pictures of Odelia and her billionaire hugging and kissing.”
“She even shot a video!” said Brutus, as if this was the deciding argument.
“Odelia may have hugged Mr. Dexter at some point, since she felt for the man, as he’s worried that something very bad happened to his daughter, and it’s possible that Gran caught this moment, but it was an entirely amicable hug, and nothing untoward happened,” I said.
More silence followed, and finally Brutus shrugged.“You know what they say. No smoke without fire. So something must have happened.”
“Nothing happened!” I said. “And I would know, because—as you’ve already indicated—I was right there!”
“You wouldn’t be lying to us, now would you, Max?” said Harriet, giving me a suspicious look.
“No, Harriet, I would not,” I said.
“Poor Mr. Dexter,” said Dooley. “He had such high hopes for his daughter, and instead she decided to become a juggler in a circus.”
“Oh, Dooley,” I said with a sigh.
CHAPTER 20
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The hour was late, and so the time had come to visit cat choir. I would have stayed home, and tried to find out more about this blue moon business, but since there were no snails left, and the ones I’d asked what Rupert could possibly mean, had given me the cold shoulder treatment, I decided to put the matter to bed, so to speak, and focus my attention elsewhere.
We still had a missing girl to find, and her equally missing boyfriend, and I was hoping that my friends at cat choir might be able to point me in the right direction as far as the search effort was concerned.
“Did you know that Odelia was having an affair, Max?” asked Dooley.
“No, I did not, Dooley,” I said. “For the simple reason that Odelia is not having an affair.”
“She’s not?”
“No, of course not. Why in heaven’s name would she want to have an affair with a billionaire?”
Okay, scratch that. Having an affair with a billionaire is probably very high on the wish list of many persons of the female persuasion. But since Odelia is a happily married woman, and a new mother, I didn’t think she was even remotely interested in this Dexter fellow. Though he may have touched a chord when he almost burst into tears. But that didn’t mean she was going to throw herself into his arms and stroke his hair and give him sweet kisses to make the pain go away.
“I think she wanted to have an affair, but she saw that Gran was watching her,” said Harriet, “and so she stopped herself before things went too far.”
I had to stop myself from making a comment, and so I did. No sense in getting into an argument.
“And I think she didn’t want to have an affair in front of Max and Dooley,” said Brutus.
“But why?” asked Dooley.
“Because it wouldn’t be proper,” said Harriet primly. “And also, she would probably feel self-conscious.”
“What do you mean?” asked Dooley.
“Well, you know how it is. You don’t like to do your business in front of another cat, do you?” asked Harriet.
Dooley didn’t seem to get the picture. “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t really care, I guess. All I care about is that everything comes out the way it should.”
“Okay, so you’re the exception to the rule,” said Harriet with a touch of annoyance. “But take it from me, humans don’t wash their dirty laundry in public.”
“But… why would Odelia want to wash her laundry in front of Mr. Dexter? Or do her business?”
“You’re deliberately misinterpreting my words, aren’t you, Dooley?” said Harriet, getting worked up. “What I said was—”
“I think we know what you said,” I said.
“And I don’t think you do!”
“Let’s just put the matter to bed,” I suggested.
“All right, fine. But for his own edification, I think it’s important that Dooley understands what’s been going on right under his own nose!”
Dooley went cross-eyed for a moment, trying to look at his own nose.“My nose is fine,” he announced finally. “At least I think it is. Can you look at my nose and tell me if you see anything unusual, Max?”
“Your nose is fine, Dooley,” I said. “Look, I think we can all agree that Odelia would never hook up with this billionaire,” I added. “She loves Chase, he loves her, and they just had a baby together. They’re happy, and there’s absolutely no reason for her to get involved with anyone else.”
“I can give you a billion reasons,” said Brutus with a grin.
“Odelia isn’t like that,” I said. “She doesn’t care how much money a person has in the bank.”
“No, I guess not,” said Harriet, and for the first time that night I noticed how unhappy she looked. And then I understood.
“You wanted the story of this affair to be true, didn’t you?” I said. “You wanted to go and live with this billionaire guy.”
“And what if I did? Life as a billionaire’s cat must be fantastic.”
“I think we have a pretty great life already,” I said, giving her a slightly reproachful look. “And what happened to being grateful for what you have?”
“I am grateful, don’t get me wrong,” said Harriet. “But I would be even more grateful if we had, you know, more.”
“More of what?” asked Dooley, interested.
“More of everything! More food, more space, more toys. I’m a princess, you guys. And a princess needs her creature comforts.”
And so she does, and I actually felt for Harriet. Always wanting more. Must be tough.
We’d arrived at the park, where cat choir gets together of an evening, and I saw that the playground was packed already, which meant we were late.
Shanille didn’t seem to mind, though. She’s cat choir’s conductor, and the one who keeps us cats in check, to some extent.
“So is it true?” she asked the moment she spotted us.
“Is what true?” I asked, puzzled.
“Well, that you’re all going to go and live with Edward Dexter, of course!”
“No, it’s not true,” I said.
“It might be true,” said Harriet. “Odelia only has to say the word, and we could all be living like royalty.”
“She’s not going to say the word,” I reiterated my earlier point.