Page 91 of For the Birds

“Hi, Squawker. Are you missing your . . .” What did he call Mr. Whipple? “. . . Daddy?”

“Daddy go bye-bye.”

Since parrots merely “parroted” back what they heard, that meant Mr. Whipple likely said that to him whenever he left the house. “Your daddy is missingyou.”

“Go bye-bye, Scooter.”

I blinked hard, sure I must have heard him wrong.

Neely Kate emerged from the back door with a carrot in herhand.

“Neely Kate,” I said in a tight voice. “Listen tothis.”

“Squawker. Who went bye-bye?” I asked.

The bird shifted his weight on the back of the chair and remained quiet.

“Do you miss your daddy?” I repeated.

“Go bye-bye, Scooter.”

Neely Kate’s mouth fell open. “What?”

“Scooter’s not a very common name,” I said, getting excited.

Neely Kate’s eyes rounded, but then she shook her head. “I’m not sure that helps. He’s been loose for days. He could have heard it anywhere.”

“True, but what if that’s why someone broke in? To keep Squawker from spreading his secrets?” I hurried to Miss Mildred’s back door and knocked.

She opened the door, shooting me an angry look. “What are you still doin’ here?”

“Have you heard Squawker talk much since he showedup?”

She looked surprised, then glared at me. “Maybe.”

“Did he say anything out of the ordinary?”

“No. Other than he talked a lot about a scooter.”

Neely Kate rushed up behind me. “What did hesay?”

“I don’t know . . . something about wanting to go bye-bye with a scooter. I don’t have one, but I told him I could maybe get him one once I get my Social Security check on the first.”

Miss Mildred was clearly attached tohim.

“Anything else?” Neely Kate asked.

“Something profane and about blood.”

I gasped and turned to Neely Kate. Mr. Whipple had mentioned that earlier, but he’d written it off as something the parrot had heard on a TV show . . . Except what if it wasn’t?

“This is important,” Neely Kate said slowly. “We need to know exactly what hesaid.”

“He said something like . . .” Her eyes narrowed. “Shut up, you assholes, and clean up the blood.”

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