The Mysteries of Max: Books 31-33 by Nic Saint (chrome ebook reader txt) 📗

little queasy and unsteady on his paws, and then we hurried after our human, not wanting to miss this most important interview, of which I must confess I had high expectations.

“Yes?” said Miss Pytel, looking a little confused. “Who are you?”

“My name is Odelia Poole,” said Odelia. “I’m a reporter for the Hampton Cove Gazette, and I’m also a civilian consultant with our local police department.”

“Okay.” Miss Pytel clearly was eager to get going, but politeness compelled her to put her plans on hold for just a moment while she heard Odelia out.

“I’m investigating the death of Mr. Bob Rector,” she said, and I watched as Miss Pytel blinked in confusion.

“Death? What do you mean? Are you telling me that Bob… died?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? I’m so sorry, Miss Pytel. I thought…”

There was a momentary lull in the conversation, as Odelia tried to figure out how to overcome this faux-pas on her part, and Miss Evelina Pytel tried to come to terms with this unexpected and frankly shocking development. She was still blinking rapidly, and I could see that tears had formed in her eyes. She was a handsome woman, with striking blue eyes and long flaxen hair. She was dressed in a pink pantsuit and looked every inch the successful businesswoman she reportedly was.

“I’m sorry you had to find out like this,” said Odelia at length. “I thought you knew.”

“No. No, I didn’t. How—how did he die?”

“He was found on a potato truck this morning. He was shot to death.”

“Shot!”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Do you… do you want to go inside for a moment?”

“Yes. Yes, I think I do,” said Evelina, and suddenly staggered. Odelia, quick as a flash, was there to lend her a helping hand, and together both women entered the house, Dooley and I right on their heels.

“She looks genuinely surprised, Max,” said Dooley.

“Yes, she does,” I agreed.

“So she probably didn’t kill her boyfriend,” was my friend’s immediate conclusion. “If she had, she wouldn’t have looked so surprised.”

“Unless she’s an accomplished actress.”

“I don’t think she’s an actress, Max. Mr. Ed said she runs a company in party supplies. People who run companies selling party supplies usually aren’t actors. Or vice versa.”

I smiled. Dooley often applies his unique brand of logic and brings it to bear on the situation, and it’s both refreshing and often extremely apt, as it was now.

We’d entered Miss Pytel’s living room, and I saw that it was both modern and cozy. Plenty of straight surfaces and lots of beige and muted pinks and yellows. I liked it immediately. It was all very homely and very pleasant to the eye.

Evelina had collapsed on one of the chairs, and Odelia had disappeared into the kitchen to fill a tall glass of water from the tap. She soon returned and offered it to the stricken woman, who was staring before her, a horrified look on her face.

“Are you all right?” asked Odelia. A silly question, I thought, as Miss Pytel clearly wasn’t all right. Then again, it’s one of those things people say, just to say something. Better than having to proceed in strained silence. “I’m really sorry to spring this on you like this,” Odelia said, as she took a seat next to the woman and gently rubbed her back.

“Bob was… Bob and I were dating, you know,” said Evelina, her voice thick with emotion. “We’d just gone on our fourth date when suddenly he was…” She glanced up at Odelia.

“When he was kidnapped,” said Odelia.

The woman’s eyes widened. “How did you know? I didn’t tell anyone. The kidnappers, they…”

“They didn’t want you to go to the police,” Odelia completed the sentence. “You better tell me everything. It’s all right. The kidnappers can’t harm your boyfriend anymore.”

“Do you think they’re the ones… that killed him?”

“I don’t know,” said Odelia. “Have they been in touch since you made the drop?”

“You know about that, too? But how?”

“Let’s just say I have my sources,” said Odelia.

Evelina took a deep and tremulous breath and gratefully accepted a paper tissue from Odelia. “I should have known something was wrong,” she said. “When I didn’t hear from the kidnappers. I’d just dropped off the money, exactly like they told me to, and I waited for them to call me with instructions on how to get Bob back—and I just waited and waited… And finally it was my sister who told me that Bob had probably stood me up. That he’d probably been the one behind the whole thing. A crook. A gangster. A cheat and a swindler. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but as the days went by, I finally had to agree that she was probably right, and that I’d been taken for a fool.”

“So your sister was the only one who knew about this?”

“I tell my sister everything,” said Evelina simply. “She’s the one who helped me negotiate the release of the money from the bank. They were very reluctant to part with so much cash, you know. Seventy-five thousand dollars is a lot of money.” She glanced up at Odelia. “Did you—did you find the money? Did Bob still have it on him?”

“No, Bob didn’t have any money on him,” said Odelia. “So your sister thinks Bob’s the one who organized his own kidnapping? So he could get his hands on your money?”

“That’s her theory.”

“Because after you made the drop you didn’t hear from the kidnappers or Bob?”

Evelina nodded. “Also, the whole thing felt off. Bob and I had only been dating for a very short while. If these people wanted money, why didn’t they kidnap me instead? Or my sister? Why Bob, a man who, by all accounts, probably meant nothing to me at that point? At least that’s the argument my sister made. Frankly she was wrong. Even in that short time Bob had come to mean a great deal to me, and so when they made that ransom demand…”

“How was the demand made? By phone or letter or…”

“I received a video