The Mysteries of Max: Books 31-33 by Nic Saint (interesting novels in english txt) 📕

voice, and had added that sexy tone that some men like so much. “Are you ready for tonight?” she asked. She listened for a moment, and I could see her face fall. Evidently the person on the other end wasn’t ready for tonight, for she said sharply, “You have got to be kidding me.” There was more talking on the other end, though obviously I couldn’t hear what was being said, but Melanie’s face had taken on a look of consternation, so clearly things weren’t going according to plan. “Are you breaking up with me?” she asked, a sudden quiver in her voice. “Is that what this is?” And I guess that was exactly what this was, for a few moments later she said, very quietly, “Bye,” and lowered her phone, then just sat there for a moment, still gazing out of that window, but this time with what are usually termed unseeing eyes.

I even thought I detected a tear that had formed in the eye that was visible from where I sat, and Dooley said, “What is happening, Max?”

“I think her boyfriend just dumped her, Dooley,” I said.

“Oh, so that’s a good thing, right?”

“Melanie doesn’t seem to think so.”

But then Fido Siniawski summoned her to take place in one of his chairs, and Melanie pulled herself together with an extreme effort and stalked over, head held high.

Returning to the office, Odelia felt a sense of disappointment. When you’re all geared up to tackle a problem, and the problem simply yields all by itself, the end result can be disconcerting. Not unlike putting your foot down expecting that one final step and discovering you’ve already reached the ground floor. It’s jarring, to say the least.

But since she’d been asked to do a job, she decided not to overthink things. Joshua Curtis had asked her for results, and clearly she’d been able to get the results desired. So she picked up her phone and put in the call.

Joshua picked up on the first ring. “Yes, Miss Poole? What have you discovered?”

“Well, it would appear that your friend was dumped by her boyfriend,” said Odelia.

“Dumped? What do you mean?”

“He called her while she was at the hair salon,” she explained. “And dumped her over the phone. Apparently they were supposed to meet up but instead he said it was over.”

“Huh,” said Joshua, clearly as taken aback by this denouement as Odelia herself was. “He dumped her over the phone? The bastard,” he said with some heat.

“Yeah, she looked devastated,” said Odelia, transferring the information Max and Dooley had gleaned from their surveillance. “I don’t think she was expecting it.”

“Poor Melanie,” said Joshua. “So do you know who the guy is yet?”

“No, I don’t. Do you still want me to keep going? I mean, the affair, if there ever was one, seems to be over. So there really is no point in bringing it up with her, I guess.”

“No, I guess not,” Joshua agreed. “Just… just to satisfy my curiosity, though, Miss Poole, could you maybe find out who the guy is? Just in case she resumes the affair. And take plenty of pictures, if you can. I want some good shots of the evil bastard.”

It sounded like a fair enough request, Odelia thought, so she said, “Sure thing, Joshua. I’ll try to find out. Though now that the affair is over, that might prove a lot harder.”

“See what you can do,” he said, and disconnected.

Odelia swiveled in her chair for a moment, thinking up ways and means of figuring out who this mystery man could possibly be.

Chapter 5

‘This was probably the shortest case in the history of cases,” said Dooley.

“Yeah, it sure was,” I agreed.

“And we solved it, Max!”

“We didn’t solve anything, Dooley,” I said. “The case more or less solved itself.”

“I don’t get it,” said Harriet. “This is an attractive woman, and this guy simply dumps her? And over the phone, no less? If I were her I’d press charges.”

“You can’t press charges against a man you’re having an affair with, Harriet,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, if she presses charges her husband will find out,” Brutus said. “And I don’t think that’s what she wants.”

“But he can’t just treat her like that!” said Harriet, all the female in her annoyed.

“Poor Melanie,” said Dooley. “She looked very sad, didn’t she?”

“She sure did,” I said.

After having been dismissed by Odelia, we operatives found nothing better to do than to wander around a little aimlessly in downtown Hampton Cove. That’s what operatives do, you know: they live for the chase, but when the chase is over, all that adrenaline that’s been coursing through their system needs to settle down, and it makes you feel a little bit on edge. Just like soldiers who’ve been fighting several tours of duty and then arrive home to a sedentary life. Though probably I’m stretching the comparison a little.

We’d arrived at the General Store, where I saw that our friend Kingman was holding court on the sidewalk as usual.

“Hey, you guys!” he shouted by way of greeting. “Wilbur is still pretty upset with you. So if I were you I wouldn’t let him see you.”

“Indeed? Why is he upset with us?” asked Harriet.

“Because he wasn’t invited to the wedding, of course!” said Kingman. “In fact there’s a whole lot of very angry people in Hampton Cove right now!”

“But we can’t help it if Odelia decided to cancel the wedding,” I said. “It was her decision, not ours. So why do we have to suffer?”

“Wilbur wouldn’t chase us away,” said Brutus. “He knows it’s not our fault.”

But we still made sure to glance in Wilbur’s direction, and make sure that if he did come after us, our exit strategy was in place.

“So how did it go?” asked Kingman eagerly.

“We solved the case in less than ten minutes!” said Dooley proudly.

“What case? I was talking about the wedding.”

“Oh, the wedding” said Dooley, as if Kingman was referring to some old news.

“Yeah, the wedding!” said Kingman, sounding a