“Nothing they’ve stolen has been offered for sale, so it stands to reason they intend to keep that stuff.”
They passed a dark sedan, and when Scarlett glanced over, she recognized the two cops riding in the sedan.“Looks like we’re not the only ones patrolling tonight.”
“The police are under a great deal of pressure to stop this gang. Alec told me that the governor himself called today and expressed his concern.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch.”
“So is it true?” asked Scarlett.
“Is what true?” asked Vesta as she scanned the street ahead for possible nefarious activities in progress.
“That you offered Charlene Butterwick money in exchange for a building permit?”
“And how do you know about that?”
“Someone saw you two arguing at the golf club today, and caught a few snippets of your conversation.”
“Probably the caddy,” Vesta grunted. “Yeah, so what if I did? It’s just a regular business transaction. If you want something, you pay for it. No big deal.”
“It’s also called bribery, and I’m pretty sure it’s illegal,” Scarlett pointed out.
“You shouldn’t listen to gossip,” Vesta grumbled. “Besides, she turned me down, and then my son had the gall to lecture me about it, so as far as I’m concerned, that chapter is closed.”
“You’re not going to try to build those extra floors?”
“I didn’t say that. I just said that this particular chapter is closed. Now will you look at that. Bold as brass!”
She was referring to four masked and hooded figures trying to crawl over a fence up ahead.
“That’s them!” Scarlett cried.
“Let’s get ‘em!”
Vesta quickly parked and they both got out, armed to the teeth with stun guns, cans of mace and Vesta’s old shotgun, and hurried in the direction of the hoodlums. And they would have reached them if another car hadn’t suddenly blocked them off by jumping the curb and two familiar figures crawled out: they were Wilbur and Francis Reilly!
“Drop your weapons!” Wilbur shouted, as he aimed what looked like a banana in a sock at them.
“They’re getting away, you old fool!” Vesta cried, gesturing to the Hampton Heisters, who’d noticed the altercation and were now getting back down, and onto four scooters.
“Drop your weapons right now!” Wilbur repeated, and pointed his banana—or it could have been a gun, of course—in their direction.
Meanwhile, the crooks had started up their scooters, and were taking off!
“You idiot!” Vesta screamed. “Just look behind you!”
“You’re not fooling me,” said Wilbur, still brandishing his weapon. “There’s nothing behind me.”
“The Hampton Heisters are behind you!” said Scarlett. “Francis, just look!”
And Francis did look, just in time to see the Hampton Heisters turn a corner.
“Hey, wasn’t that…” the aged priest muttered.
“That was the gang!” said Vesta. “You let them get away!”
“But…”
“Why did you stop us?”
“Because this is our territory,” said Wilbur. “This is where Francis and I patrol.”
“What territory?”
“We’ve decided that you can have the North side of town, and we’ll take the South,” said Francis. “That way we can both coexist peacefully, and not get in each other’s way.”
“Well, you just got in our way—big time!”
“Yeah, you could have told us about this territory thing,” said Scarlett.
“We just thought about it,” said Francis sheepishly.
“Oh, God—you two are hopeless!” said Vesta, stomping the ground and throwing her can of mace at Wilbur. “Hopeless!”
“What is that weapon you’ve got here?” asked Scarlett.
“Um…” said Wilbur, and removed a banana from the sock.
“I knew it was a banana,” said Vesta.
“People, maybe we should work together from now on,” Francis suggested. “That way maybe we can actually catch the bad guys, instead of sabotaging each other.”
“And now you think of that!” said Vesta.
Suddenly a police siren sounded, and the police car they’d spotted earlier came zooming past, flashing light and all, then disappeared around that same corner.
“Look what you did,” said Vesta. “Now the cops are going to get all the credit.”
“Who lives here?” asked Wilbur, pointing to the fence.
“Lil Leaky Fruit Loop,” said Francis. “He’s a rapper,” he added when they all stared at him in wonder.
“Well, at least we saved Mr. Fruit Loop the inconvenience of being burgled,” said Scarlett.
“Small consolation,” Vesta murmured.
26
Dooley and I had decided to skip cat choir for a change. It didn’t look like we were welcome there anymore, and since dog choir hadn’t really done it for me, a nice evening at home seemed like the ticket. And we were both sleeping peacefully at the foot of the bed—of course interspersed with the occasional trip downstairs to have a nibble and a pop into the litter box—when suddenly Odelia’s phone rang.
“Who can that be?” asked a sleepy Odelia as she grabbed for the device. She got it after the third attempt and muttered, “It’s Dan.”
“Dan?” said an equally sleepy Chase. “What does he want?”
“Dan? Hi,” said Odelia. “What’s up?”
She listened for a moment, then said,“We’re coming over.” She turned to Chase. “Dan says there was a breakin at the office. He’s already called it in but wants me to check if they took anything.”
“I’ll drive you,” said Chase, as he swung his feet from underneath the covers.
“We’ll come, too!” I said.
And so it was that we entered Odelia’s office in the middle of the night, when most humans are sound asleep in their beds.
Dan was waiting for us in his office, looking grim. He was dressed in his pajamas, his white beard looking as if a strong gale had had its way with it, his white hair tousled.“I think they were in your office but I’m not sure,” he said. A couple of Chase’s colleagues were already looking around to figure out how the thieves had gotten in, and Chase joined them.
Odelia quickly headed over to her own office, followed by yours truly and Dooley, and we found her computer on the floor, a chair turned over, plenty of drawers open and the floor littered with documents.“Check to see if they took something,” Dan advised. “I already checked my office, and as far as I can tell nothing was taken.”
“How did Dan know they broke in?” I asked.
“Dan had an alarm system installed last year,” Odelia explained after Dan had returned to assist the officers. “Whenever the alarm is tripped an app on his phone sends him an alert.”
She heaved her computer back onto her desk and booted it up.“It works,” she announced happily. Odelia also has a laptop, but she still uses her old bulky computer. It looks like a dinosaur, but unlike the dinosaurs refuses to go extinct. It’s synced with her laptop, which she mainly uses at home. She quickly started looking through her files.
“Did they access the computer?” I asked.
“Looks like they did.”
I glanced around at the mess on the floor. Fortunately the thieves had left Dooley and my little nook in the corner untouched. Then again, only the two of us have use for that cozy basket, those ultra-soft blankets and those plush toys.
“I don’t understand why anyone would break into a newspaper,” Dooley said. “There’s no money here, or anything of particular value.”
“Could be vandals, I suppose,” I said. “They’ll break in just for the fun of it.”
“I got it,” said Odelia. “They accessed the article I was working on about the Hampton Heisters. They put it in the trash but didn’t delete it, so I can easily retrieve it again.” She messed around on her computer some more, then announced, “They also deleted a chunk of emails. Looks like all the emails from last year.”
“Do you think it was the Hampton Heisters?” asked Dooley.
“I think so,” she said. “They must have been after my articles on them. Maybe wanting to find out where the investigation stands. Everybody knows Chase is my husband, so they must have figured I was an easier target than to break into the precinct.”