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I sighed, then spoke while trying to keep the frustration from my voice.“Can you guys just… We’re working together, not against each other. We all have the same goal here, so let’s act like it.”

That shut them up fast. Thank goodness for small miracles.

“Keep an eye out for any strange behavior, and keep trying to think of new ideas in case this doesn’t work,” I said when I was sure neither would hurl another argument at me.

“It won’t work,” Grizabella complained, and I had to bite my tongue to avoid flying into a full-scale lecture about what I’d only just said. Could she really not see how hard I was trying to help here?

Help for me came from an unlikely source.“She’s trying her best,” Octo-Cat explained softly. “Even if it’s not very good.”

Grizabella harrumphed but continued to follow me as I marched off toward the next car.

Oh, boy. I really hoped we’d find something on our tour of the train, because I’d love to make these cats eat crow.

Chapter Thirteen

Well, it looked like I’d be the one eating crow in the end.

Our sweep of the train turned up nothing, just as the cats had warned. Most of the passengers appeared to be sleeping. The few who had woken up seemed relaxed and unbothered, probably because they didn’t know about the dead body that lay several cars back.

I corralled my feline companions into the tiny vestibule between cars to chat about what we should do next.“Before you say I told you so, listen up. We can’t exactly shine lights in everyone’s faces and ask them if they killed Rhonda.”

“Why not?” Grizabella asked with a long, flat face as she sat back heavily on her haunches.

“Darling, please. Let the professionals talk.” Octo-Cat raised a paw to the Himalayan’s mouth to silence her. Wow, he had a lot to learn about women.

And, okay, perhaps I laughed a bit too hard when she bit him right on his poor injured toe bean. Served him right for condescending to her, especially after he saw what happened when I attempted to shorten her overly fancy name.

A whir sounded overhead, announcing the repaired electrical system. As the overhead lights popped backed on, muffled cheers rose from the cars on either side of us. People wanted to celebrate, but not wake their seatmates, which could definitely work to our advantage.

“Well, look at that.” Octo-Cat deadpanned as I rubbed my eyes and wished for my sunglasses. “The lights are back on. Now, shall we return to plan A?”

“There wasn’t a plan A,” I reminded him as bright spots danced at the edges of my vision.

“Then why was there a plan B?”

“Just listen!” I yelled. Enough was enough already.

Apparently, Octo-Cat was just as fed up with me as I with him.“Well, jeez. You don’t have to yell,” he rasped with his signature snark.

“Octavius, please,” Grizabella interjected, scooting closer to him so that their furry bodies touched at the sides.

Thankfully—and probably just as Grizabella had suspected—this rendered the chatty tabby completely silent. Finally.

She nodded for me to continue with what I had to say.

“Most of the passengers are still asleep,” I explained, keeping a close eye on Octo-Cat to make sure he wouldn’t derail us yet again. “If the murderer is still on board, then he or she is definitely not just sleeping it off. That narrows our pool considerably. We couldn’t find any suspicious behavior when we simply walked through the cars, so I think our next step should be to add a little pressure.”

“Good plan. What did you have in mind?” Grizabella asked while Octo-Cat purred beside her.

“Nobody knows Rhonda’s dead except the people we’ve spoken with… and, well, I guess the killer knows, too. I say we pretend to have an urgent message for her and use that as an excuse to talk to the passengers who are awake.”

“But Mistress is dead. How can we have a message for her?”

“I know that, and we know that. But most of the people aboard don’t know that, so asking them won’t freak them out, right?”

Grizabella’s eyes shone bright as understanding swept over her. “Oh, yes!”

“So we’re just going to go up to each person we notice who’s awake and ask if they know where we can find Rhonda?” Octo-Cat asked, rejoining the conversation with a sappy grin stretched between his whiskers. Ahh, the power of love.

“Pretty much,” I said. “I’ll do the talking, obviously. And you guys keep all your senses peeled.”

Grizabella tilted her head to the side.“What does that—?”

“Human expression,” my cat translated with a giant roll of his amber eyes.

“Sorry,” I said with a chuckle. “You guys can smell changes in people’s hormones, right? So if someone were to get really stressed by my questions, you could tell… Yes?”

“Yeah, humans are super easy to read,” Octo-Cat responded haughtily. “Such simple creatures.”

I scowled at him, then turned back to the Himalayan with a smile. Finally, she was on my side, and it felt great.“Are we ready to do this?”