“Well done, you guys!” said Clarice, clapping her paws. “You can come down now.”
Gradually the pyramid was disassembled, and finally I could breathe again.
“Great job, Max,” said Brutus, giving me a painful slap on the exact spot where his left paw had made a big impression. I winced.
“So who is the lucky one who made it through?” I asked.
Brutus gave me a confused frown.“Why, don’t you know? Dooley, of course. He’s the lightest. They elected him unanimously and he heroically accepted to be the messenger.”
I gaped at the cat.“Our Dooley?”
“How many other Dooleys do you know, Max? Of course our Dooley.”
“But… nobody asked me!”
“It’s fine, Max. Dooley will save us all,” said Harriet.
“Oh, my,” I said, as I plunked down on the dirty, wet floor. “And what if they catch him? Or what if he gets stuck and can’t get out? Or what if—”
But then Harriet placed her paw on mine.“He’ll be fine, Max,” she said. “Trust me.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t so sure.
“He’ll be fine because he wants us to be fine. He wants you to be fine. His best friend.”
I gulped a little.“That’s what worries me. That he’ll take too many risks, and make the wrong turns, and that I won’t be there to help him.”
I stared up at the tiny hole, through which my best friend had disappeared. Oh, dear.
Chapter 21
Odelia had finally arrived home, after interviewing Colin Duffer, and the moment she walked in she knew something was wrong. Chase was seated on the couch and got up. He had a worried look on his face, and even before he spoke the words she already knew what he was going to say.
“They didn’t come home, did they?” she asked, more a statement than a question.
He shook his head.“I’m sorry, honey. I asked your mom and they’re not next door either.”
“I knew it,” she said, sinking down on the couch. “I knew something had happened to them.”
“You don’t know that. Your cats are smart. They won’t allow themselves to be caught by… whoever is doing this.”
“Whoever is doing this is out to catch all of Hampton Cove’s cats. And if we don’t stop them…” She didn’t even want to contemplate what this pied piper was planning to do with her cats. “Did you call the pound?”
“One of my officers did. Nothing. And they didn’t send out a team today either.”
“So it’s not the pound. Then who is it?”
“Maybe a person who hates cats? And before you say that people like that don’t exist, let me assure you that they do. There’s a lot of sick people out there who wouldn’t mind hurting poor, innocent animals, just to get a kick out of it. Only last year there was that case of a young guy in Belgium, of all places, who put a kitten in his oven.”
“Oh, God. I’m going to be sick.”
“Luckily they managed to save the kitten and put the sick bastard behind bars.”
“Don’t tell me these stories, Chase. You know I can’t listen to that stuff.”
“We’ll find them, and we’ll find your uncle, and all the people that have gone missing.”
“Do you think the two cases are connected? That someone is kidnapping people and cats?”
“I don’t know, babe. It seems very unlikely, though.”
Just then, Marge walked in through the sliding glass door.“Have you heard?” she asked.
“About the missing cats? Yeah, we’re on it,” said Chase.
“Cats? I was talking about your grandmother. She and Scarlett got into a big fight down at the office. Rolling-on-the-floor kind of fight. Scarlett bit your father’s ankle.”
Odelia stared at her mother as if she’d sprouted a second head. “Scarlett did what?”
“She bit Tex’s ankle. He needed disinfecting.”
“Is he all right?”
“Oh, he’s fine, but she screwed up her dentures.”
“Scarlett has dentures?”
“I didn’t know either,” said Mom. “Oh, here is your grandmother now.”
Tex and Gran walked in, Tex limping, and Gran looking like she won the lottery.
“Have you heard?” she asked, clapping her hands with glee.
“Yeah, you got into a fight,” said Odelia.
“Scarlett has dentures! Who knew!”
“By now the whole town, probably,” said Mom.
“Are you all right, Dad?” asked Odelia.
“I’ll live,” said Tex, then showed his battle scars. “She bit really hard. Almost hit bone.”
“Yeah, right,” said Gran skeptically. “They’re dentures, Tex, not vampire’s teeth. She didn’t even break the skin.”
“She did break the skin. Look at those marks!”
“You’re such a pussy.”
“But why did she bite you?” asked Chase, looking puzzled.
“She tried to grab his sausage,” said Gran.
Mom frowned and folded her arms across her chest.“She did what?!”
“It wasn’t even my sausage!” said Tex defensively. “It was your mother’s, I swear!”
“It was a Duffer,” said Gran. “And for some reason Scarlett went nuts when she saw it. Said something about it being the last Duffer in Hampton Cove and if she didn’t get a bite she was gonna freak, and then she freaked and bit Tex when he took her Duffer away.”
“She probably thought your leg was a Duffer, Tex,” said Chase.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want,” said Tex, who seemed upset at his bite marks not being appreciated the way he felt they should be. He limped back out of the house.
“He administered himself a tetanus shot, just to be on the safe side,” said Gran with a grin, “but when I told him to add a rabies shot he shot down the suggestion, the wimp.”
“So what happened to Scarlett?” asked Mom, always the humanist. “Is she all right?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Gran. “She got her dentures back, that’s for sure. And then she waltzed out, but not before taking a big bite out of my Duffer.” She showed the Duffer in question, indicating the bite marks where Scarlett had dug her teeth in. “See? Dentures,” said Gran triumphantly. “I’ll bet nothing about that woman is real.”
“So what was that you said about missing cats?” asked Marge.
“Our cats have gone missing,” said Odelia. “They’re nowhere to be found.”
“Yeah, and there’s a catnappper going around catnapping cats,” Chase added.
“Catnapper my ass,” said Gran. “I’ll tell you what’s going on. I offered those ingrates our special concoction this morning and do you think they said thank you? They refused to eat it! Said they were going on a hunger strike unless I served them up some gourmet soft food instead. So I chucked everything down the garbage disposal and walked off. And now of course they’re out there somewhere sulking and complaining to anyone who’ll listen that their humans are inhuman and yadda yadda. Always the same story.”
Odelia quickly crossed into the kitchen and checked the four bowls. Three of them had been eaten from: Max, Brutus and Dooley’s, but not much. “You’re probably right, Gran,” she said, elation spreading through her like balm. “They must be throwing another one of their temper tantrums and stalked off on a huff as usual.”
“Of course! I know those cats. So don’t you worry about a thing, honey. They’ll be back here tomorrow morning, with their tail between their legs, begging for food. Just you wait and see. Now write this down and write it down exactly as I’m telling you. ‘Distinguished medical assistant Vesta Muffin was attacked by well-known looney tunes Scarlett Canyon. Mrs. Canyon, who is seventy-five but claims to be on the pill and sexually active, tried to steal Mrs. Muffin’s sausage and when she didn’t get what she wanted went nuts and bit Doctor Poole in the ankles. In the process she lost her dentures.’ Why aren’t you writing? This should all be in your article. Verbatim.”