It had to be You

pulled the door wider and invited them in. Three scruffy cats and one skinny kitten ran past them outside. There seemed to be dozens of other cats inside. Two were sleeping in a filthy sink, and there was a whole row of them above the small fireplace.
    It was a log house and must have been at least eighty years old. The original chinking had long since disappeared, and the cracks were now stuffed with bits of old newspapers. The woman herself was small and wrapped in what looked like an assortment of rags strung together. He suspected she wasn’t nearly as old as she looked and had just lived a very hard life.
    “I’ve never had police officers here,“ she said, indicating that they should sit down on two of the three chairs at a table in the middle of the room. Cats occupied them right now but she started scattering them.
    “No, thank you, ma’am. We’ll stand,“ Deputy Parker said firmly.
    “I’ve heard that you have had police officers here before,“ Walker said.
    She tilted her head, almost flirtatiously. “Now, who would say that about me?“
    “I don’t remember,“ Walker said. “What we need to know is your description of the man who saw the body go into the lake last December.”
    She made a noise that must have been meant as a laugh but sounded more like a chicken being strangled. “What man? What body? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Howard made a quick half-bow and headed for the door. Parker followed close behind him, saying, “Thank you for your help. Good day to you, ma’am.”
    As they got far enough back up the hill to speak without gagging at the smell of the lake, Howard said, “I don’t think this was her lucid day. If, in fact, she ever has one. I’ve wasted your time and mine.“
    “Still, sir, it was interesting. How could anyone live in a place like that? What does she feed all those cats?”
    When Howard arrived back in Voorburg and showered to get the smell of the lake out, he rang up Chief Simpson’s home and said to him, “Keep Deputy Parker. He’s going to turn out well if you give him a chance.“
    “You really think so?“ There was serious doubt in his voice.
    “I know so. If you ever find a replacement for him, send Parker to me.”
    Chapter 15
    On Sunday morning, while Howard was roaming around with Deputy Parker, the Harbinger boys returned to Miss Twibell’s nursing home. They brought the necessary tools up to the second floor, cut a new spot at the far left end of the storeroom wall and installed the old door, cutting through the floor to the small bathroom below. Then they headed out with their tools to cut through the first floor to the basement.
    “Hold on,“ Miss Twibell said. “What are you doing? Why are you taking the tools away?“
    “To work on the next step. The bathroom floor to the basement,“ Harry replied.
    “And leave everything—all the equipment we need every day to take care of our patients—all over that extra room?“ she asked.
    “But it’s more practical to get the way cleared all the way down to the basement,“ Harry explained.
    “Practical for you, perhaps. Not practical for me. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to insist that you clean up the storeroom, put the upper and lower cabinets in their new places, and install the counter. Robert can probably remember how to put the glass doors back on, since he helped to take them off.”
    The argument went on for quite a while. Concerns over efficiency, timing, cleaning up, and testing the system were discussed at some length, and with considerable heat.
    In the end, Miss Twibell prevailed, which she knew how to do better than the young men did. By the end of the day, the work was done the way she wanted it. They gave the room and the door a fresh coat of paint, shoved the debris down the hole, and even put up sturdy hooks in pairs so that mops, brushes, and dustpans could be hung upside down on the walls instead of leaning against them higgledy-piggledy, and tripping up people working in the room.
    There were also places to hang the buckets for washing and rinsing the floors, and a small cabinet in which to store gloves and clean rags was installed in the corner. Then they put the old cabinets and counter and cabinet doors into the new arrangement. They even mopped the floor of the workroom and temporarily nailed down two planks so that nobody could possibly fall through the hole.
    For this extra work, against their theoretical better judgment, Harry and