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

room two little girls were playing, and from the adjoining room I heard choking sounds, so we moved right on through, and found Marvin Harrison, his hands around Francine Ritter’s throat, busily choking the life out of her.

So Dooley and I did what we do best in such circumstances: I launched myself at the man’s neck, while Dooley dug his claws into his left hand, and his teeth into his right.

Marvin screamed like a banshee, and immediately let go of his victim. For the next few moments he whirled around like a drunken sailor, one cat attached to his neck, and the other attached to his hands. When finally we were forced to let go, Chase was there, gun in hand, and quickly made the man lie flat on his belly, hands out, to make the arrest.

Francine, meanwhile, was being comforted by Odelia. The poor woman’s throat was red and swollen, but it looked like she’d be all right.

And Dooley and myself? Thanks for asking! I’m happy to announce that we were just fine. I’d been swung into a corner of the room, making a hard landing, but had escaped with my life, and Dooley had landed on the bed and was now calmly licking his claws, removing all evidence of the foul killer we’d just taken down in a concerted effort.

“He tried to kill me,” said Francine hoarsely. “The bastard tried to kill me!”

“I know,” said Odelia. “Try not to talk, honey.”

“Marvin Harrison,” said Chase as he placed handcuffs on the guy’s hands, “I’m arresting you for the attempted murder of—”

“That’s not Marvin,” I told Odelia. “That’s Franklin. And Chase should probably arrest him for the murder of his brother Marvin, too, and the murder of those other two men.”

Odelia gaped at Marvin/Franklin. “Franklin?” she asked.

The guy turned to her, and flashed a nasty grin. “So you finally figured it out, huh?”

Odelia turned to me, then to Francine. “But…”

“Yeah, that’s Franklin, all right,” said Francine. “I recognized him immediately. He might have fooled all the others, but he didn’t fool his own wife—I know my husband.”

“Oh, shut up—you ruined everything!” Franklin yelled as Chase escorted him out of the room, then past his kids, and out of the apartment.

“I don’t understand,” said Odelia. “I thought that was Marvin.”

“He must have taken his place,” said Francine, gingerly touching her throat. “Don’t ask me why, though knowing Franklin it must have something to do with money.”

“We better get you to a doctor to have that looked at,” said Odelia.

“My girls,” said Francine. “I don’t want them to see me like this.” She threw Odelia a pleading look, and Odelia quickly searched around, found a scarf, and helped Francine tie that around her neck.

Then we all left the bedroom, and Francine announced to her girls, “We’re going on a little trip, girls. Do you want to come?”

They both cheered and said, “Yeah!”

Then they caught sight of us, and turned their attention to the two ‘pussy cats.’

I must admit that being fondled by a three-year-old did not become me. They poked us, and they prodded us, and pulled our ears, all the drive down to the doctor’s office!

When finally we arrived at our destination, and Odelia helped Francine out of the car, followed by her two girls, Dooley turned to me and said in a shaky voice, “Max, maybe when that stork finally arrives, we’ll simply pretend like we didn’t see it?”

I smiled at my friend. “Had enough already, have you?”

He nodded emphatically. “They pulled my ears, they pulled my tail, they poked my belly, they even tried to poke my eyes, wanting to know if they were real! Max, I don’t want babies. Ever!”

“That’s fine, Dooley. Neither does Odelia—at least for the time being.” I glanced down the street, and said, “And now let’s solve this other little matter, shall we?”

“What other little matter?”

“The big rift.”

Chapter 33

Shanille was walking down the street, on her way to the General Store to talk to Kingman and ask him to join her effort to oust Harriet from the group once and for all, when suddenly she was accosted by Max and Dooley.

“Hey, you guys,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.” She grinned, indicating this was one of her little jokes. Unfortunately Max wasn’t smiling, and neither was Dooley, for that matter.

“Shanille, we need to talk,” said Max.

“Just what I was thinking. We need to have a nice long talk about Harriet.”

“Of course,” said Max, gracious as ever. “And we will. But first I would like to talk to you about the new cat choir Dooley and I are starting.”

“The new cat choir?” she asked, much surprised.

Max nodded. “Frankly Dooley and I have had it with these fights between you and Harriet, so we’ve decided to start our own cat choir, and I’m sorry to tell you that you are not invited, Shanille. And neither,” he added when she opened her mouth so speak, “is Harriet, for that matter.”

“This will be a choir without you and without Harriet,” Dooley said, making matters perfectly clear.

“But… you can’t do that!” said Shanille.

“We can and we will,” said Max. “And I’ll have to be honest with you, Shanille, we’ve been talking to a lot of the other cats about this, and they’re all very excited about this new project. In fact every single cat we’ve talked to so far has agreed to come on board.”

“They’re all fed up with all the fighting,” Dooley said.

“Yeah, this will be non-fighting cat choir. A cat choir where all the members join up strictly to have a good time, to sing together, have fun together, and to shoot the breeze. To gossip and to crack jokes and enjoy the kind of warm friendship that we all like.”

“And you’re not invited,” Dooley repeated, “and neither is Harriet. Right, Max?”

“Absolutely. So far we’re looking at, oh, eighty-five to ninety percent of the cats?”

“You’ve already talked to ninety percent of my members?”

“Something like that. And all of them—”

“That’s one hundred percent,” Dooley added.

“All of them