Chapter 49
By the time Dooley and I finally arrived in town, the General Store was a beehive of activity, as it often is. Customers were coming and going, and so were cats—and even dogs.
“It’s been like this all morning,” said Kingman, who didn’t look all that happy. “I mean, I’m a sociable fella, but even for me, this is a little too much of a good thing.”
“Where are they all going?” I asked as we watched another two cats stride into the store.
“No idea,” Kingman confessed. “Maybe they want to check out the cat food personally? I mean, mostly humans pick the food, and the pets have to make do with what they choose. In this day and age of pet emancipation, they want to pick and choose for themselves.”
As a smallish cat walked out, I asked, “Did you come here to buy something, buddy?”
He looked pleased to see me. “Ooh, Max!” he said. “So nice to meet you in person!”
“Is there a specific reason you chose to shop at the General Store today?” asked Kingman. “To check out our fine selection of pet food, perhaps?”
“Oh, no,” the cat assured him. “Nothing like that. Just to take a closer look at the place where it all happens, you know.”
“Where what all happens?” I asked.
“Why, Turbo Heartthrob’s big show, of course. That’s here, isn’t it? In this store?”
I had never seen the cat before, which made me suspect he wasn’t from around these parts, and this comment confirmed this.
“Turbo Heartthrob is giving a show in town?” asked Kingman.
“Absolutely. It’s on their website and on their socials. And it featured a picture of Daniel Bozek, the magician behind the band. It was taken here at the store, and so I knew I just had to check it out.”
He went on his way, and when I saw more cats move in, and also people, even Wilbur himself was starting to get a little annoyed.
He came out of the store and said, “They all want to take a picture at the exact spot Daniel Bozek took a selfie! Can you believe it? And none of them are buying!”
“That’s the price of fame, buddy,” said Kingman.
“My shop has just become a landmark!” he cried. “I’ll be getting lots and lots of fans visiting this place like one of those whatchamacallits—pilgrimage sites!”
He returned indoors to make sure these pilgrims didn’t upset his store or pinch his wares, and the three of us made sure we didn’t get in the way of the steady stream of tourists.
Harriet and Brutus, who had been paying a visit to the hair salon to say hi to our good friend Buster, joined us.
“What’s going on here?” they asked.
“Tourists,” said Kingman.
“Fans of Turbo Heartthrob,” I specified. “Daniel Bozek was here, and now they all want to see where he was and take a picture of the shelf with the pickle jars.”
“I think it’s the shelf with the candy,” said Kingman. “Looks like our Turbo Heartthrob genius is a big candy fan.”
“We were in here this morning,” said Harriet, “but it wasn’t this bad then.”
“I think we saw this Daniel Bozek, didn’t we, sweetling?” said Brutus. “He didn’t look like a genius musician.”
“Brutus is right,” said Kingman. “He looked just like any ordinary guy. Though I did like his hair. And his sunglasses. Very stylish.”
Pippy also came tripping up, looking excited. “You guys! I’ve just heard that Philomena has been spotted! She is in town!”
“And here I thought that you didn’t want to go to Philomena?” I said.
“Yeah, you told us that she doesn’t even like you,” said Brutus. “Or treat you well.”
“Oh, she’s all right,” said Pippy. “It’ll be good to go home. To eat from my own bowl and to drink from my own purified water.”
“If Philomena is here, Chase will know where she is staying,” I told the little doggie. “I’ll ask Odelia to make sure that you are brought to her as soon as possible.”
“That sounds swell, Max,” she said, well pleased. “I can’t wait to go and see her. I’m sure she will clasp me in her arms and press a thousand kisses to my upturned face.”
At that moment, Gran and her posse arrived. She looked a little annoyed.
“I thought you were going to spend some time in your backyard?” I asked.
“Scarlett dropped by and reminded me that we need a fresh pair of wheels,” she said as she took a peek inside the store. “So we’ve been out looking. Unfortunately nobody wants to provide us with one free of charge. I even asked my son, and you know what he said?”
“That he didn’t have one for you?” I ventured.
“Bingo! Says it’s none of his business, and he’s already given us plenty of cars, and he’s fresh out of them.” She shook her head. “Looks like now we will have to go right back to Marge’s old jalopy after all.”
“Gran saved the life of an ant queen,” Dooley told the others. “And she got an OBE, and so did we.”
“Nice,” said Kingman, though he didn’t look all that excited by Dooley’s announcement. Then again, not everyone gets excited by ants.
Mercedes had been eyeing Pippy with a strange gleam in her eyes, and now suddenly lunged forward and scooped the little Coton de Tuléar into her arms. “I’m not giving her up,” she announced.
“Huh?” said Gran, quite eloquently.
“I said, I’m not giving her up.”
“I heard you the first time. But what does that even mean?”
“It means that I’m going to adopt Pippy, and I’m not letting my evil daughter-in-law lay her filthy paws on her. Over my dead body!”
At that moment, a statuesque blonde arrived. She was dressed in designer clothes and looked like a movie star or a fashion model of some kind.
The moment she laid eyes on Mercedes, she lowered her sunglasses and looked over them with a pair of icy-blue eyes. “Mercedes,” she said in a voice dripping with disgust. “I thought I’d find you here. Slumming, are we?”
“I heard you were in town,” said Mercedes, just as unfriendly as the blonde. “And you’re not taking her.”
She held Pippy away from the woman, who I assumed was Harley Glad’s widow.
“Oh, I have no intention of taking her,” said Philomena. “If you want her, you can have her. I never liked dogs anyway. What I would like to know is whether you killed my husband, by any chance.”
“How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”
“I know exactly what you’re capable of. You proved that when you made all those false accusations against me and tried to turn Harley against me.
That backfired, and I’m guessing your little plan to win him back while he was three thousand miles away from me did, too.
So you killed him. If you couldn’t have him, no one could. Isn’t that right?”
Mercedes’s hand struck out and hit the woman on the cheek before anyone could stop her. She seemed furious, but Philomena didn’t even retaliate. Instead, she merely smiled.
“See what I mean? When provoked, you get violent.” She pointed a finger at her mother-in-law. “I’ve told the detective in charge about you, Mercedes. I told him you are my number-one suspect, and if he knows what he’s doing, he’ll be coming for you soon.”
“I have talked to Detective Kingsley, and I have assured him that I would never do such a thing. Harley was my son—and you took him away from me! Poisoning his mind against his own mother!”
“Just like you tried to poison his mind against me.” She regarded Mercedes with a look of disgust, then huffily turned on her heel and strode off.
Looked like the show was over. The two women had had their say, and lines had been drawn in the sand.
“I don’t think I like Philomena,” said Dooley. “She is not a very nice person, is she, Max?”
“No, she doesn’t look like a loving person,” I agreed.
But was she a killer? Now that was the big question.
Pippy, from her vantage point in Mercedes’s arms, looked a little less exuberant and happy than before. “Looks like I’m not going home after all,” she announced. “And maybe it’s a good thing, too.”