“So what about the book?” asked Marge.
“What about the book?”
“What you just told us in there is all in the book, right? So what was the point of hiding the truth from Odelia?”
Loretta shook her head.“Only parts of what actually happened are in the book—mostly the Sheikh and my mother’s romance and wedding. I decided that the book had to have a happy end, so the character in the book lives happily ever after with her sheikh, and so does their baby girl.”
“Aww,” said Gran.
“So why write it?” asked Marge
“After my grandparents told me the real story of who I was, I found myself writing it all down, and before I knew it I’d written the beginning of a book. I guess I wanted to bring my mother’s story into the world. Until that point no one had even an inkling of what had happened to her, and I felt that was so unfair. I wanted people to know that she had existed, and what a lovely, wonderful person she had been. I also wrote it to feel closer to her—to build a connection to this person I’d never known, but who was so brave and who’d saved my life.”
“By smuggling you out of the country.”
“My grandparents actually had to stop me from telling the full story. They didn’t want me to put myself in harm’s way. The Sheikh has agents everywhere, through Khemed’s embassies. He does a lot of business here, and they didn’t want me to draw a target on my back. They lost a daughter—they didn’t want to lose a granddaughter, too. So that’s why the book only tells half the story.”
“I guess now your cover is blown,” said Odelia.
“I know. I should have known that going after the Pink Lady would get me into trouble.”
“How did you persuade Late and Godish to hand the diamond to you?” asked Chase.
Loretta smiled.“Money, Detective. My grandparents are very affluent people, and when they saw how determined I was to get that diamond, they offered me their support.”
“How much?”
“Ten percent of what the Pink Lady would fetch at auction.”
Chase whistled through his teeth.“They cleaned up.”
But then the elevator finally arrived, and we rode down a couple of floors, then Loretta got out. And as the elevator door closed, and she gave us a small wave, suddenly I had a premonition, and not a good one either.
“You guys,” I said. “I think maybe we should do something to protect Loretta.”
“You think she might be in danger?” asked Odelia.
“What is he saying?” asked Chase.
“He’s saying that he thinks Loretta needs protection.”
Chase’s expression hardened. “Yeah, he’s probably right. I don’t trust that Sheikh further than I can throw him. He’s got crook written all over him. Just like his dad.”
“We better go back up,” said Marge as she punched the elevator button feverishly. But elevators have a mind of their own, and this one inexorably led us down, and only when we’d reached the lobby did it relinquish the reins of its functionality. And so moments later we were zooming back up again. Only when we arrived on Loretta’s floor, she was gone, and when we made our way over to her room, and knocked, there was no answer.
Yikes!
33
But then I put my ear to the door in a move born from desperation, and thought I heard a noise.
“She’s in there, all right,” I said.
“She’s in there,” said Odelia.
Chase knocked on the door again, and shouted,“Loretta? Are you all right? Loretta?”
“Loretta, open the door, it’s us,” said Marge, adding her voice to the chorus.
“Oh, don’t just stand there,” said Gran finally, when no answer was forthcoming. “Mr. Kingsley, tear down this door!”
Chase hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment, then a look of resolution came into his eyes, and he put his mighty shoulder against the door and gave it a powerful shove. When we all tumbled into the room, the sight that met our eyes was one to behold: there Loretta was, on the bed, with Sharif Maroun on top of her, his hands tightly wrapped around her throat, clearly not with the best intentions in mind!
A certain amount of screaming followed, but once again it was Chase who proved himself the man of action, by pouncing on the Sheikh’s advisor and bodily dragging him off the unfortunate novelist, and in doing so saving the woman’s life.
“She’s purple, Max,” said Dooley as he studied the novelist’s face. “Why is she purple?”
“Humans turn purple when they’re being strangled,” I explained.
“It’s not a good sign,” Brutus said. “It means they’re almost dead.”
“No, first they turn red, then purple, and finally when they’re dead they turn completely white,” said Harriet.
Cats, of course, always keep the same color, or at least on the surface. What we look like underneath our nice fur is our secret and one we will never tell!
“Loretta!” Marge cried, and in two great strides had reached the woman and was offering her support.
“We better get a doctor in here,” said Odelia with concern.
“No doctor necessary,” said Loretta, already recovering. “But a cop would come in handy right about now. That man tried to kill me!” she said, pointing an accusing finger at Sharif.
“I know, we saw it,” Gran said. “And as luck would have it, Chase here is a cop. Please do the honors, Chase.”
“You can’t arrest me,” said Sharif, who was sweating from the exertion, and panting, too. “I have diplomatic immunity, so you can’t touch me.”
“We’ll see about that,” said Marge.
“No, he’s probably right,” said Chase. “If he’s got diplomatic immunity he’ll walk.”
“So he can just try to murder Loretta and get away with it?” Marge cried. “No way!”
“Let’s get your uncle in here,” Chase suggested to Odelia, “and let him decide.”
“I think it’s pretty clear now,” said Odelia, “that your mother was killed, Loretta, and I think we know who did the killing.”
All eyes turned to Sharif, and when moments later suddenly the Sheikh walked in, carrying a bouquet of flowers, and took in the scene, he said, in a surprised voice,“What’s going on?”
“Your guy just tried to kill me,” said Loretta, still a little hoarse.
“What?!”
“It’s true, we all saw it,” said Marge.
The Sheikh turned to his advisor.“Have you lost your mind?”
“She’s a threat to you, sir,” said Sharif, who must have felt safe in the knowledge that whatever he said, nobody could touch him. “She was going to tell the whole story about what happened to her mother, and about the history of the Pink Lady. We don’t need that kind of attention, especially now that we’re about to sign a number of very lucrative business deals in this country.”
“I don’t believe this,” said the Sheikh. “You’re admitting that you tried to kill… my sister?”
“Merely eliminating an obstacle, sir,” said Sharif as he adjusted his costume and smoothed his hair, which had become ruffled in the scuffle.
“The same way you removed an obstacle when you killed her mother thirty-five years ago?” asked Odelia.
Sharif shrugged.“The lady was a nuisance. Something had to be done. She was going to flee the palace and tell the world what a backward nation we were, and what a terrible person the Sheikh was. So I handled her.”
“Handled her!” the Sheikh roared. “So you admit you murdered my father’s wife?”
“I didn’t personally kill her, sir. I merely supplied the materials, and organized the operation.”
“And what about my father? Did he order this?” asked the Sheikh.
“Oh, no, sir. I didn’t see the need to inform him.”
“But you did whisper in the man’s ear that he should distance himself from his wife, didn’t you?” asked Marge.
“Well, of course. The woman was threatening to destroy a tradition we spent centuries building. She wanted to abolish polygyny, the right of a man to marry multiple wives, and make sweeping changes, not just at the palace, but in society as a whole. She was a dangerous element and had to be isolated, then eliminated, for the greater good and to safeguard our traditions and way of life.”