Mr. Max Kinsella is not the only expert “tail” in the shamus business.

Everyone assumed that I would meekly follow my Miss Temple out of chez Molina and go home of a night.

Hah!

The night was my basinet and is now my beat and my business.

Some people barhop. I carhop. Not as in serving fast food to anybody but myself. I am a high-level low-ender. With my natural coat of cat-burglar black, I can enter pretty much any vehicle on the planet. Not to brag. So I got there with Miss Temple, but I felt no obligation to leave with her, even if she “brung” me, loathsome expression.

I had a quiet corner chat with the hiss-and-run combo of Caterina and Tabitha and arranged the artful chase that allowed me to literally point out that Dirty Larry has been skulking around crime scenes far too long for anyone’s good.

Some private dicks would dust off their trench coats and say, “My work here is done.”

Not Midnight Louie. Have coat, will travel. Or stay put. I got these feelings that put more than my neck hairs on parade salute. Tonight my hunches raised my hackles all the way down my spine to the end of my second-most-valuable member.

So I hunkered down during the farewells to settle into a quiet evening with Miss Lieutenant C. R. Molina and her two somewhat dim-witted rescue girls.

Not everybody can be the brains of the operation, and I do employ freelance assistants at Midnight Investigations, Inc., when necessary.

So not only did I get the chance to alert my Miss Temple and associates to the suspicious lurking behavior I have long observed in Dirty Larry—not that lurking is suspicious when I do it—but I got to see and hear Mr. Max Kinsella come along after my revelation and give the same warning, if at more tedious length. I am always short and to the point. I was born that way.

Moreover, I did not alert Larry to anyone’s being on guard about him, as Miss Lieutenant certainly chewed out Mr. Max for doing.

Plus, I overheard lots of juicy back-and-forth that would have had my Miss Temple salivating, could I but convey long narratives to her.

Let us just say I have more insights on all sorts of actions and reactions among the human sort. One cannot underestimate the usefulness of on-scene snoopery.

Miss Midnight Louise will be so burned up about what she missed.