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

“But… that’s just horrible,” said Susi.

“That’s terrible,” said Musti.

“Don’t tell me you guys still use your…” Susi quickly stuck out her tongue, causing her friend to shiver with sheer disgust.

“Yep, that’s how we do it,” I said. “The good old-fashioned tongue.”

“No way!” said Musti. Or maybe it was Susi. They were hard to distinguish.

“That’s so disgusting!”

“No wonder you look so scruffy.”

“So terribly scruffy.”

And at this point they seemed to feel that they’d shared the same space with two scruffy self-groomers long enough, for they quickly tripped up the stairs and out of sight. Though as they went, we could clearly hear their conversation.

“Can you believe that Melanie would allow those two disgusting creatures to enter our house, Susi?”

“Now she’ll have to sanitize the whole place, Musti.”

“Sanitize? You mean sterilize.”

Dooley turned to me. “I don’t think they like us, Max.”

“No, I think you’re right, Dooley. They don’t like us very much.”

“We’re not that dirty, though, are we, Max?”

“We’re not dirty at all, Dooley. In fact I think we’re perfectly nice and clean.”

“Now we don’t get to ask them questions.”

“Somehow I have the impression that wouldn’t have made much difference.” Musti and Susi didn’t strike me as the kind of cats we’d been able to extract a lot of crucial information from.

At least with those two out of the way we were free to take our measure of the house, and when we entered the kitchen we soon came upon a regular cornucopia of cat food. And since Musti and Susi had commented on our lack of hygiene, but hadn’t strictly forbidden us from dipping into their food supply, we decided to strengthen the inner cat and ate to our heart’s content.

When we walked out of the kitchen, we saw that Odelia’s interview was at an end, but just as we walked out, the front door opened and Melanie’s husband walked in. At least I think he was her husband, since she kissed him and called him sweetie.

“This is Miss Poole, sweetie,” said Melanie, making the necessary introductions. “She’s here to ask us about Joshua.”

“Joshua?” said the guy, who was short and sort of chunky. “What happened?”

“He’s been arrested, I’m afraid, Mr. Myers,” said Odelia.

“Arrested!”

“For murder,” Melanie supplied.

Mr. Myers seemed absolutely agog by these revelations, which made me assume that Joshua hadn’t yet been in touch to give him the news about his recent escapades. They might be best friends, but this was the kind of thing Joshua clearly didn’t feel compelled to break to his friend any time soon.

“Can I ask you a couple of questions, Mr. Myers?” asked Odelia.

Melanie didn’t seem excited by the prospect of our human talking to her husband, but complied nevertheless. “I’ll go and check on the boys, shall I?” she said, and removed herself from the scene after a quick worried glance at her husband.

“The thing is, Mr. Myers,” said Odelia, “Joshua came into my office yesterday—I’m a reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette, by the way, but I also consult with the police and do some detective work from time to time.” She hesitated.

“He probably wanted you to follow Melanie around, is that it?” asked Mr. Myers.

“He’s clairvoyant, Max!” said Dooley.

“Yes, he did,” said Odelia, as surprised as we were.

Mr. Myers smoothed his shirt and settled down on the leather sofa. “I haven’t discussed this with my wife, but I know she was having an affair. I don’t know who with, and frankly I don’t care.” He glanced through the window, which looked out onto the street. We could see two kids playing on their bikes, their mother now watching over them with a keen eye and chatting with one of the neighbors by the looks of it. “My wife and I have been married for fifteen years, and don’t get me wrong, we love each other very much. It’s just that, from time to time Melanie feels the need to… bust loose, shall we say? To feel young again, with no responsibilities, no mortgage and no kids to take care of. And you know what? I let her. I know it doesn’t mean anything. I know it’s just a way for her to blow off some steam before she comes home to me and the boys again. And she always does.”

“That’s very…”

“Yeah, I know it’s a little weird, maybe, but that’s just the way it is. From the moment we started dating we decided to give each other space.”

“And do you enjoy the same, um… privileges?”

“I do, as a matter of fact,” said Mr. Myers with a curt laugh, “but I don’t use them. I’ve never cheated on my wife, Miss Poole, and I don’t think I ever will. And in all the years we’ve been together I can count on the fingers of a single hand the number of times Melanie’s been unfaithful to me.” He shrugged. “So I try not to let it bother me too much.”

“So when Joshua tried to keep this a secret from you—”

“He shouldn’t have bothered, because I already knew. Joshua is a good friend, but I think I know my wife better than he does. I trust her, and apparently Joshua doesn’t, if he feels the need to ask you to follow her around.” He seemed a little annoyed by the initiative of his best friend, I thought.

“Do you think Joshua is capable of murder?”

“Joshua? A murderer? Absolutely not. He couldn’t kill a fly.”

“He seems to have feelings for Melanie,” said Odelia.

“Oh, yeah, I know he does. He loves her to bits. They briefly dated in college, you know. It didn’t mean anything.”

“It may not have meant anything to your wife, but apparently it meant a lot for your fiend, Mr. Myers,” Odelia pointed out. “And now the police seem to think it was the reason he killed three people last night.”

“Three people?”

“According to the police his intended target would have been Franklin Harrison.”

“Name seems to ring a bell,” said Mr. Myers, nodding.

“Franklin Harrison was the man your wife was having an