Rhodes finally turned around, looking at them over the tops of his glasses because he knew that irritated them.
“The camera adds ten pounds,” he said.
“Yeah,” Hack agreed. “I noticed that double chin.”
Rhodes didn’t want to talk about his double chin, which he thought was merely a figment of the camera’s imagination in the first place. He turned back to his desk.
“Bad thing is, you didn’t get Rapper and Nellie,” Lawton said.
“ ‘Dey’ll be beck,’ ” Hack said, sounding like Arnold Schwarzenegger might have sounded if he’d lived in Texas all his life. “One of these days, Rapper’ll want to find the rest of his ear.”
“What worries me is those poor little kitty-cats,” Lawton said, pushing himself away from the doorframe. “Likely they’ll starve to death before long.”
“Starve for affection, too,” Hack added.
Rhodes turned around again, looked over the top of his glasses.
“The cats will be just fine,” he said. “I’ve made arrangements for them.”
“What arrangements?” Hack asked. “You didn’t say anything to us about any arrangements.”
“I’m going by this afternoon to pick them up,” Rhodes said. “Someone’s adopting them.”
Hack and Lawton looked at each other, then looked at Rhodes.
“Nobody told us,” Hack said.
“You didn’t ask.”
“I’m askin’ now. Who’s gonna adopt those cats? You?”
“No,” Rhodes said, enjoying himself. “But I could if I wanted to.”
“I thought you were allergic,” Lawton said.
“I might be, but Ivy thinks I might have been more allergic to Faye Knape’s perfume than to her cats. She could be right. But now I don’t have to find out.”
“Well, if you aren’t adoptin’ ’em, who is?” Hack asked.
“Melva Keeler,” Rhodes said. “She needs some company in that old house of hers. Those cats will be perfect. They won’t have to move far, and Faye’s son approves.”
The telephone rang, and Hack answered. He listened, then said, “Someone’ll be right there.”
He hung up and turned to Rhodes.
“Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy are on the loose again, or at least two of ‘em are. Somebody’s gonna have to round ’em up.”
“Call Ruth,” Rhodes said. “She’s got her lasso.”
“This is her day off,” Hack said. He opened his desk drawer. “But she left this here, just in case.”
He pulled a coiled rope out of the drawer.
Rhodes sighed.
“Don’t take it so hard,” Hack said. “Maybe Vernell can write a book about you.”
“Or use your picture on the cover,” Lawton said. “You could be just like Terry Don Coslin.”
Rhodes got up and took the rope from Hack, thinking about the way the TV camera had given him a double chin.
“That’ll be the day,” he said.