The Telltale Turtle (The Pet Psychic Mysteries) (18 page)

"Thank you, dear." Mary Catherine followed Angellus to the sun porch in the back of the house. "I'm used to skepticism. It takes some people a while to believe."

While Sallie was gone, Angellus turned to Charlie. "You investigated my wife, didn't you, Dowd? I don't appreciate scams in my own house."

Charlie smiled. "I didn't do anything. This is all Mary Catherine. You might not want to believe it. I didn't. But I think she really talks to animals."

Angellus glared at Mary Catherine. "I was beginning to trust you. As long as you're hanging around with this jerk, no one will take you seriously."

Charlie pushed up against him. "Now I take offense to that, Detective."

Mary Catherine slid her ample form between the two men, who looked like pit bulls getting ready to spar. Only pit bulls would've been easier to reason with. "Excuse me. I'm sure neither one of you really want to do this. Let's talk to the crab and drink some tea. I know you can both act like gentlemen for a few minutes."

The two men glared a few minutes longer, but finally separated. Charlie sat down on a red-flowered wicker sofa and Angellus showed Mary Catherine where the hermit crab lived. "She calls him Bo-Bo. It's after some clown she remembers from when she was a kid. Don't bother trying to impress me"

Angellus took a moment to give Charlie a hard stare, as though he could make him disappear by looking at him.

"Believe me; I have no reason to bother impressing you. You may not believe, but there are millions who do," Mary Catherine said.

She turned her back on him and focused on the little crab, whom she could barely make out in the shell. His habitat was a large aquarium filled with sand, rocks, a water puddle, and a few extra shells. It seemed nice and spacious for him.

Because he was still a wild creature, his thoughts were unclear. Being a crustacean, he was even more difficult than a mammal would have been. There was no ego like the poodle, but Bo-Bo had a hard time forming thoughts she could comprehend. Unlike the Yorkie who was sitting patiently by her feet, there were no thoughts of the people who lived with him being kind or good. It was more like disjointed memories of his life, first at the pet store, then at the Angellus home.

Sallie brought in tea and cookies. Mary Catherine thanked her and took a few sips before focusing on the crab again. Angellus paced the room impatiently, refusing tea or cookies. Sallie stood and watched Mary Catherine. Charlie helped himself to cookies and tea, not bothering to hide his amusement with the situation.

"How much longer?" Angellus demanded.

"Shh! It takes as long as it takes." Mary Catherine bit into a shortbread cookie. "These are excellent, Sallie! You have to give me the recipe."

"I'll be glad to. It's been handed down for four generations in my family."

"Oh, for God's sake-" Angellus picked up a glass of sweet tea and sat down in one of the red-flowered wicker chairs to wait.

Two hours later, they were all still waiting. Sallie had scooted a chair close to the aquarium so Mary Catherine could sit down. Angellus had gone into another room to make a phone call. Charlie was asleep, his head thrown back, mouth open slightly, faint snoring noises coming from his throat.

Mary Catherine was beginning to understand the way the crab thought. It was random, almost making no sense at all, but there were certain images that kept repeating. Like deciphering some ancient text, she began putting those repeat images together to form a sort of pattern she felt sure would provide the answers she was looking for.

This wasn't the first time she'd tried to communicate with a creature even less easy to understand than the pelican trapped in the mesh. At least in that case, she could see what was wrong and what needed to be done to help the poor animal.

When she'd lived in Los Angeles with her second late husband, George Wilson, she'd run into the same thing with a snake. A friend of theirs had bought the ten-foot boa constrictor as a joke, parading the creature for his friends and allowing them to throw things into the snake's habitat. In that case, the snake just wanted to be left alone to finish a meal in peace, since it took him several days to digest what was given him. Mary Catherine persuaded their friend to donate the snake to the zoo. After that, he was fine.

"I think I understand some of the problem," she finally told Sallie.

Angellus had come back in the room a moment before. "Thank goodness! Please tell us why the crab won't come out of his shell."

Sallie frowned at him, giving him the look all wives know how to give. When she turned back to Mary Catherine, she smiled. "Thank you so much for taking the time to do this."

"You're very welcome. I hope it makes a difference."

Angellus deliberately slammed the door into the sun room and opened it up again. Charlie shot straight up on the sofa, blinking his eyes and wondering what was going on. "I didn't want you to miss the big moment, Dowd. Then you can get out of here."

"You're such a sweetheart, Angellus." Charlie straightened his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair.

Mary Catherine ignored them. "I think Bo-Bo's problem, which by the way, Detective Angellus, the crab is unaware that you've named him, so thank you for telling me his name. It didn't matter to him, but it was nice to have. Anyway, I think his problem is that his shell is too big for him."

"And how did you glean that tidbit of information?" Angellus hovered over the aquarium.

"It seems hermit crabs have a habit of grabbing the biggest shell they can find on the beach in case they can't find another shell for a while. Bo-Bo grabbed this shell, but it's far too heavy for his little body. Now normally he would've used the water coming in from the tide to get himself out. In this case, the only water is over there and he can't reach it. That's really all he needs. Then he can pick up a smaller shell. I'd advise not putting in shells that are too big for him."

"That's amazing!" Sallie said. "Thank you, Mary Catherine."

Angellus was still skeptical. "Let's just see about that, shall we?" He picked up the shell that held the crab and dropped it into the little pool of water. "Come out, Bo-Bo."

"John! You are the rudest man I've ever met!" Sallie reached for the little crab, but Mary Catherine stopped her.

"Wait! You see? Here he comes now."

The crab was slowly emerging from the shell, using the water to free himself. He finally pushed completely out, then scuttled out of the water to pick out another shell.

"Well, I'll be damned!" Angellus stared at the crab.

Charlie laughed. "No doubt."

"Look!" Sallie pointed. "He's better now."

Mary Catherine nodded. "He should be fine. You might want to consider a little more water in his environment. And the smaller shells, of course."

"Thank you so much," Sallie gushed, glancing significantly at her husband, who cleared his throat and thanked her as well.

"I was glad to do it. It's my gift, really the only one I was given. Helping animals is my life." Mary Catherine stood up and asked for the powder room. Sallie showed her the way, leaving Angellus and Charlie alone in the sun room.

"You believe she talks to animals?" Angellus stared at Charlie.

Charlie shrugged. "I've seen some wild things since I met her. She's doing something. I don't know how she does it, but it seems to work."

"What about you, man? What happened to you?"

"I don't know. I got tired of it." Charlie stood up. "You will too someday. I just wasn't worried enough about the pension and the gold watch to stay there. If that makes me crazy, I guess I'm crazy."

"They say you could find things you shouldn't have been able to find. Some people think you planted them."

"I can't explain that either and I don't care what they think." Charlie turned toward the door that led out of the sun room. "Nice talking to you, Angellus."

"Stay out of my case, Dowd, and keep her out of it too. I'd hate to see you lose your PI license."

Charlie didn't turn back or answer him. Mary Catherine and Sallie came out of the back of the house and met him in the hall. "Are you ready to go now?"

"Please come back anytime," Sallie urged. "It was wonderful meeting you. I love your talk show."

"Thank you, dear." Mary Catherine hugged her. "Don't worry. Angellus is a good man. He'll catch on in time. It's so difficult when one doesn't believe as a child."

Sallie laughed. "Don't worry. I'm not giving up on him just yet."

Mary Catherine walked out the front door into the damp heat that seemed stifling after the cool of the air conditioning. Charlie opened the truck door for her as her cell phone rang.

It was Jenny. "I hope you're on your way back. I think I've found out why all the dogs liked Meaty Boy best."

DANNY WAS ALREADY AT the clinic with Bubba when Charlie and Mary Catherine arrived. "I don't know what happened," he said. "Bubba and I were out for a walk when he started heaving. He wouldn't stop so I brought him back here."

"Jenny said all the dogs were sick." Mary Catherine tried to see what was going on in the back of the clinic. "It's weird not hearing Bruno barking."

"So you think that guy from Meaty Boy did something to the dogs?" Charlie asked.

Danny stared at him like he hadn't noticed him before. He asked Mary Catherine, "What's he doing here?"

"He took me to talk to the hermit crab. He wants to help with the investigation."

"I want a million bucks, but you can't always get what you want, you know what I'm talking about? He's a traidor. I don't think he should be here."

"Look, I'm sorry about that thing with Colin," Charlie started. "I did what I was paid to do"

Danny pushed him against the wall. "Like you were paid to make our dogs sick?"

"Don't be silly," Mary Catherine said. "He wasn't even there. Stop acting like an idiot, Danny. That was basically Colin's mistake. I'm not saying I liked Charlie letting Elmore know where Colin was, but I think he means well. Baylor likes him anyway."

"He's been sneaking around here," Danny argued. "Maybe he sneaked in here and put something in the dogs' food when we weren't looking."

"Why would I do that?" Charlie demanded. "I could just punch you in the face and get a lot more satisfaction."

Mary Catherine was trying to separate the two men (this was getting to be an annoying habit) when jenny came out and asked them what was going on. "I can hear you out here over the sounds of six sick dogs. I don't think that says anything about my hearing."

"How are they?" Mary Catherine asked.

"I think they'll be okay. I gave them something for indigestion. That's all that's wrong with them. I think it was the food they ate at Meaty Boy today. It was heavily coated with lard and some meat byproducts."

Danny and Charlie glared at each other one last time before they moved away. "You think that guy at Meaty Boy knew it would make Bubba sick?" Danny punched one fist into the palm of the other hand. "I don't like the way he hangs around MC as it is. But making my perro sick is enough to take him out."

"That's just it," Jenny told him. "They were trying to make the food irresistible, not make the dogs sick. He cheated. Maybelle was a fool to do it. He had to know it would come right back on him."

"Let's go find out how stupid he is!" Danny started toward the door.

"Is that your plan?" Charlie stopped him. "We try to get into Maybelle's place, which is armed like a fortress and has more security than the White House, and punch him?"

"That's what I've got." Danny snorted. "You got something better?"

"Maybe. We won't get close enough to Maybelle to do anything to him if we drive up accusing him of making the dogs sick." Charlie turned to Mary Catherine. "Call him. Tell him what happened. Get him to come here, if you can."

Danny nodded. "Si! That makes sense!"

Mary Catherine agreed. "I don't think Buck would knowingly make the dogs sick. His image means too much to him. This event was on TV. The bad publicity could really hurt him. He was just desperate to have the dogs like his food."