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

don’t say that. Don’t disabuse me of my sweet illusions that the man I married could, any time he wanted to, start a career as a baker.”

“Do you want to be married to a baker?”

“Nah, I love the fact that you’re a cop.”

And that’s when the phone rang—both their phones. Chase’s correspondent was Odelia’s Uncle Alec, and her own was her grandmother, who sounded a little breathless.

“Odelia!” she practically yelled into the phone, causing the latter’s offended ear to give a little lurch. “I’m so sorry, honey. If I’d known he was your client, I’d have kept my mouth shut, I swear!”

“What are you talking about?”

“The guy—your client—Joshua Curtis. How was I supposed to know!”

She sat up a little straighter. “What happened?”

“He came running out of that crack house that was on fire, acting all suspicious, so naturally I took a picture of the guy, and his car, and I sent it to Dolores. And now they’re on the lookout for him. Turns out he killed three people!”

“What?!” she cried, jerking up with a start.

It wasn’t long before she and Chase were out of their cozy jammies and into their regular street clothes and hurrying out the door.

“Triple homicide?” asked Chase as he slammed the car door shut and so did Odelia.

She nodded. “Turns out the guy they want for the murders is my so-called client.”

“The one who wanted to stop his best friend’s wife from having an affair?”

“Yup,” she said. “Better step on it.”

“I fully intend to,” he said, and did indeed do as he’d promised. They made record time and within ten minutes were parking across the street from the place that Joshua Curtis allegedly had tried to burn down to the ground—three people still inside.

The fire department was present, rolling up their hoses, and the street was a regular beehive of activity, firemen walking in and out of the building, as well as police officers.

Inside, they quickly met up with Odelia’s uncle, who looked a little sleepy, as if the phone call had roused him from a deep slumber. Charlene Butterwick was also there. As the mayor of Hampton Cove it was probably her duty to be present at these tragic events. She, too, looked a little sleepy, and an image flashed through Odelia’s mind of Uncle Alec and Charlene having been in the same position as Odelia and Chase just before, with both of them having fallen asleep next to one another on the couch.

“So what happened?” asked Chase.

“Three squatters, all of them dead. Two badly burned—pretty much beyond recognition, one died from smoke inhalation in the next room, but still recognizable.” Uncle Alec raised his eyebrows meaningfully. “You’ll never guess who it is.”

“Just tell us,” said Odelia. She wasn’t in the mood for guessing games, to be honest.

“Franklin Harrison.”

“The son of Herbert Harrison?” said Chase. “The real estate king?”

“One and the same.”

“Wasn’t he in some kind of trouble?” asked Odelia.

“You can say that again. Picked up several times the last couple of months. Some DWI, minor drug charges, contempt of cop…”

“So what was the son of one of the richest men in Hampton Cove doing in a squat?” asked Chase.

“Beats me. Maybe he was trying to score some drugs? This place has a bad reputation in that department.”

“Gran tells me you’ve got a suspect?” said Odelia, deciding not to mention that said suspect was sort of a client of hers.

“Yeah. Probably the first time that neighborhood watch of hers does something right. Guy by the name of Joshua Curtis was seen exiting the premises shortly before midnight. He hurried to his car, talking into his phone, then took off like a bat out of hell.”

“Here to score a fix, you think?” asked Chase.

“Possibly. Though from what I know of him he’s as straight-laced as they come. Clerks at a notary public’s office. One of those guys who would tell on his grandmother if he caught her jaywalking.”

“Clean record?” asked Chase.

“As clean as a whistle. But we’re still going to pick him up for questioning.” He checked his watch. “In fact the officers I sent are on their way to lift him off his bed as we speak.” He shrugged. “At the very least he’s a witness, and if we’re lucky, we got our guy.”

Odelia excused herself. She’d just seen a little red Peugeot drive up, and knew exactly who was behind the wheel. She flagged down the car, and even before it had fully come to a standstill, she was already jerking open the rear passenger door and getting in.

“Step on it,” she said. “We have to beat the cops.”

“Oh, goodie,” said Gran, and stomped down on the accelerator.

Scarlett grinned. “We’re seeing more action in a single night than all of last month!”

“Odelia?” said Dooley, who she discovered was seated next to her, along with Max. “We missed the stork. Max saw him, but by the time we got there, he was gone.”

She patted his head distractedly. “That’s all right, Dooley. I’m sure I’ll live.”

Chapter 9

Odelia was clearly in a big hurry, and it took us some little time before she revealed to us why this was, exactly.

“Joshua Curtis is about to be picked up for questioning,” she revealed, looking tense, “and before that happens I want to talk to him first. Find out what’s going on.”

“It’s not very nice of Joshua to murder those people,” said Dooley. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

“I’m not so sure he did do that, Dooley.”

“You think he’s innocent?” I asked, interested in this novel theory.

“I don’t know. But I intend to find out before he’s locked up in my uncle’s slammer.”

It didn’t take us long to arrive at our destination, and judging from the light that was blazing in the window the man was still up. Which just goes to show: not all killers are the stone-cold kind, and some do get rattled when they’ve just murdered three people in cold blood.

We all got out of the car, and hurried up the drive. Odelia applied her finger