“Wilbur?”
“I need your advice,” said the store owner as he licked his lips. Judging from the pink-colored crumbs, he’d been eating a glazed donut. “I met this woman, see?”
“You met a woman?”
“Uh-huh. Her name is Loretta Gray and she’s a famous writer or something. So we went out twice, but since our last date she won’t return my calls or my messages and she’s blocked me on Facebook. What do you think that means?”
Vesta rolled her eyes.“What do you think it means, Wilbur?”
“That there won’t be a third date?”
“Bingo! See? You didn’t need my advice after all.”
“But there was definitely chemistry between us. I could tell.”
“Don’t tell me. Flies in the pit of your stomach?”
“Well, no,” he said, looking confused. Wilbur’s face was not one of your handsome faces. He had skin like the surface of the moon, and his teeth had seen better days—a couple of decades ago. But what he lacked in outward appearance, he made up for in sheer tenacity when pursuing the object of his affection.
“How many messages did you send this lady?”
“Oh, hundreds, probably?”
“That’s your mistake right there, Wilbur. No woman likes to be harassed.”
“But I thought women liked to be pursued?”
“There’s a fine line between being pursued and being harassed, and from what you just told me you’re on the wrong side of it. So back off already, will you, before she calls the cops on you for stalking.”
“You think?”
“Of course.” He was staring at her like a lost puppy now, and she took pity on the guy. “Look, if you want I’ll talk to the woman. Is she local?”
“She’s staying at the Star hotel. Room two-fourteen. I’ve thought about serenading her but her window is at the back. And I’ve left messages at the desk but no dice.”
“Okay, I’ll go over there right now and see what’s going on. But don’t get your hopes up, buddy.”
“Oh, thank you, Vesta. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Casanova. She’ll probably tell me to take a hike, and if she does, I can’t say I blame her.”
31
The meeting had been arranged and took place in the suite of the Star hotel. Present were four cats, Marge, Odelia and Chase, and two people I’d never met before: the Sheikh was there, of course, and a guy named Sharif Maroun, whose job description wasn’t exactly clear to me but who I assumed was some kind of advisor. There were also plenty of security people hovering around, but upon a word from the Sheikh they’d left the suite and now it was just us and the ruler of Khemed. I had expected at least a couple of the man’s wives to be present, but apparently they had better things to do. The only woman present, apart from Marge and Odelia, was in fact Loretta Gray, though it was obvious from her expression that she wasn’t exactly happy to be there.
“So you have managed to retrieve the Pink Lady?” said Sheikh Bab El Ghat. “That is very good news indeed, Mrs. Poole.”
He glanced between Odelia and Marge, since they had both nodded in acknowledgment.
“I’m Mrs. Poole since my husband is Mr. Poole,” Marge explained. “And my daughter is Mrs. Poole since her dad is my husband.”
“Oh, this is ridiculous,” said Odelia. “Just call me Mrs. Kingsley, because my husband is Mr. Kingsley.”
Chase, who was standing next to her, looked up in surprise, and a happy smile flitted across his face, then disappeared again, replaced by his standard cop-on-duty expression.
The Sheikh, who was younger than I thought, smiled and extended his hands.“Well, when can I feast my eyes on this precious stone? Or do you want to keep me in suspense?”
“Here she is,” said Marge, and handed the stone to the Sheikh. She’d placed it back in its box, and when the Sheikh opened the box, he blinked at the stone’s sheer splendor.
“Oh, my,” he said. “This certainly is a gorgeous specimen, isn’t it, Sharif?”
He held it up so his advisor could take a peek, but the man didn’t look particularly impressed.
“Very nice,” were his only words, spoken without much excitement.
“I thought this stone was lost forever, and now all of a sudden here it is,” said the Sheikh as he stared at the diamond, mesmerized.
“It was a lucky coincidence that it was found on our shores, your highness,” Odelia agreed.
“Please, just call me Bab,” said the young Sheikh with a wave of the hand. He was a handsome ruler, with slicked-back dark hair and eyes the color of amber. He was dressed in designer jeans, a pink polo shirt and sneakers, unlike his advisor Sharif, who was dressed in a gray suit and sporting sunglasses, even though we were indoors. They both looked pretty hip and cool, I thought.
“So what are you going to do with the stone… Bab?” asked Chase.
“I think I’ll put it on display in our national museum,” said the Sheikh with a little nod of satisfaction as he clicked the jewel box closed and pocketed it.
“Sir?” said Sharif.
“Yes, I don’t want to lock it up in a vault. I want the people of Khemed to be able to admire its beauty. So the museum is the best place.”
“You’re not going to give it to one of your wives?” asked Marge.
“One of my wives?” said the Sheikh with a curt laugh. “As far as I’m aware I only have one wife.”
“Oh, I just assumed…”
“One of our traditions I decided to dispense with,” the Sheikh explained. “And now please tell me all about the Pink Lady, and how it ended up in Hampton Cove of all places.”
“I think the person best placed to tell you that story,” said Odelia, “is this lady over here. Loretta? Will you do the honors?”
“Loretta wrote a very interesting book about the Pink Lady and its history,” Marge explained. “Which is why we asked her to be present when we handed you the diamond.”
Loretta looked a little uncomfortable as she took a short curtsy, then said,“Your highness… Bab.”
“So you wrote a book about the Pink Lady? I haven’t read it yet, but now I can’t wait.”
“I think you’ll find it very interesting,” said Marge. “It’s based on a real story.”
Loretta gave Marge an icy glance.“Marge is flattering me. I’m afraid the book is a figment of my imagination. Inspired by the true story of the Pink Lady, but only in a very limited way.”
“Oh,” said the Sheikh, slightly disappointed, then turned to Marge, clearly expecting an explanation.
“Loretta looks very uncomfortable, Max,” said Dooley.
“Yes, she does,” I agreed.
When we’d arrived at the hotel, and had knocked on Loretta’s door for the second time that day, she’d been most surprised to see us. She also looked very flustered, presumably because she’d been looking everywhere for that diamond that had gone missing. Which is probably also why she gave us a look of extreme suspicion. So when Odelia had invited her to be present at the official handing over of the famous diamond to its rightful owner, her eyes had gone wide, but since she couldn’t very well come out and say that she had taken the stone, and especially with Chase right there, she reluctantly decided to play along, no doubt all the while wondering how we’d managed to take the stone, and why she hadn’t been arrested yet.
“You’re being too modest, Loretta,” said Marge now. “The story of the Pink Lady did a lot more than inspire you, didn’t it? In fact I think it’s safe to say that you lived part of that story yourself.”
Loretta’s eyes were blazing, as she looked from Odelia to Marge, clearly wondering what they were playing at.
“I don’t understand,” said the young Sheikh. “Youlived part of the story?”
“Mrs. Poole is speaking figuratively,” said Loretta. “Writers live in their imagination, and my imagination is what inspired me, loosely based on an article I read about the Pink Lady.”