Read Online Cat Laughing Last by Shirley Rousseau Murphy - Free Book Online

friends.”
    â€œI like Kate all right. But I like Charlie, too. I thought you and Charlie might get married.”
    Clyde stopped dishing up shrimp salad into his best porcelain bowl. “Why do you always go on about my getting married? What earthly business is that of yours? Why do you always have to—”
    â€œKeep in mind,” Joe said, “that Kate can’t repair the roof or fix the plumbing. Charlie can do those things. I don’t even know if Kate can cook.”
    Clyde wiped the rim of the bowl, licked half the spoon, then held it out for Joe. “Who I marry is mybusiness. If I get married. And in case you’re interested, one doesn’t marry a woman because she can fix the plumbing.”
    â€œYou have to admit, it’s a nice perk. With the cost of plumbers and carpenters, Charlie’s skills shouldn’t be sneezed at.”
    â€œIf I get married, I will pick the woman—without quizzing her on her skills as a handyman and without any help from a cat.”
    Joe licked shrimp salad from his whiskers. “Your face is getting red. Have you had your blood pressure checked lately?”
    â€œMarriage is serious business.”
    Joe gave him a hard, yellow-eyed stare. “Has it occurred to you that Charlie Getz knows all about me and Dulcie?”
    â€œSo does Kate.”
    â€œBut Max Harper doesn’t.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œIf Charlie and Harper are as serious as they seem to be, and if they get married, what then?”
    â€œWhat what, then?”
    â€œIt’s hard to keep a secret when you’re married. Every time Harper gets an anonymous phone call from me or Dulcie, he gets edgy. If the tip is something no human could easily know—like when we found that killer’s watch way back in that drainage pipe where no human could have seen it, he gets really nervous. If he finds cat hair at the scene of the crime, you can see him wondering. That stuff really upsets him.”
    â€œSo? What are you getting at?”
    â€œSo, how is Charlie going to handle that? Seeing him upset like that, when she knows the truth? Don’tyou think she’d want to let him in on the facts, so he could stop worrying?”
    Clyde turned hot water on the spoon, dropped it in the dishwasher, and turned to look at Joe. “You think that would stop Max Harper from worrying? Charlie tells him that a cat is the phantom snitch? That Clyde Damen’s gray tomcat is messing with police business and placing anonymous phone calls? That is going to ease Harper’s mind?”
    â€œIf she explained it to him, if he knew the truth…”
    Clyde’s look at Joe was incredulous. “That information, if Charlie could prove it to Harper, could make him believe it, could put Harper right over the edge. Drop him right into the funny farm.”
    â€œCome on…” Joe said, trying to keep his whiskers from twitching. Clyde did rise to the bait.
    â€œCops are fact-oriented, Joe. Harper couldn’t deal with that stuff!” He looked hard at Joe. “Anyway, Charlie has better sense, she knows what that would do to Max.”
    â€œPretty hard to keep her mouth shut when she’s crazy in love and sees him suffering, and when she wants to share everything with him.”
    â€œWho said she’s crazy in love?”
    â€œShe would be, if she married him. Don’t you think—”
    â€œI think you should mind your own business. I think that would be a nice perk in my life. And for your information, Max Harper is not constantly puzzled, as you seem to believe, about a few anonymous phone calls.”
    â€œMore than a dozen arrests and convictions,” Joesaid, “thanks in part to our help. Harper’s record of solved crimes has made a big impression on the city council.”
    â€œTalk about an overblown ego. You take yourself way too seriously.”
    â€œSuch a big impression on the city council that the