Ник Сайнт - Purrfect Sidekick. Purrfect Deseit. Purrfect Ruse [calibre 5.14.0]

“Unless she’s an accomplished actress.”

“I don’t think she’s an actress, Max. Mr. Ed said she runs a company in party supplies. People who run companies selling party supplies usually aren’t actors. Or vice versa.”

I smiled. Dooley often applies his unique brand of logic and brings it to bear on the situation, and it’s both refreshing and often extremely apt, as it was now.

We’d entered Miss Pytel’s living room, and I saw that it was both modern and cozy. Plenty of straight surfaces and lots of beige and muted pinks and yellows. I liked it immediately. It was all very homely and very pleasant to the eye.

Evelina had collapsed on one of the chairs, and Odelia had disappeared into the kitchen to fill a tall glass of water from the tap. She soon returned and offered it to the stricken woman, who was staring before her, a horrified look on her face.

“Are you all right?” asked Odelia. A silly question, I thought, as Miss Pytel clearly wasn’t all right. Then again, it’s one of those things people say, just to say something. Better than having to proceed in strained silence. “I’m really sorry to spring this on you like this,” Odelia said, as she took a seat next to the woman and gently rubbed her back.

“Bob was… Bob and I were dating, you know,” said Evelina, her voice thick with emotion. “We’d just gone on our fourth date when suddenly he was…” She glanced up at Odelia.

“When he was kidnapped,” said Odelia.

The woman’s eyes widened. “How did you know? I didn’t tell anyone. The kidnappers, they…”

“They didn’t want you to go to the police,” Odelia completed the sentence. “You better tell me everything. It’s all right. The kidnappers can’t harm your boyfriend anymore.”

“Do you think they’re the ones… that killed him?”

“I don’t know,” said Odelia. “Have they been in touch since you made the drop?”

“You know about that, too? But how?”

“Let’s just say I have my sources,” said Odelia.

Evelina took a deep and tremulous breath and gratefully accepted a paper tissue from Odelia. “I should have known something was wrong,” she said. “When I didn’t hear from the kidnappers. I’d just dropped off the money, exactly like they told me to, and I waited for them to call me with instructions on how to get Bob back—and I just waited and waited… And finally it was my sister who told me that Bob had probably stood me up. That he’d probably been the one behind the whole thing. A crook. A gangster. A cheat and a swindler. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but as the days went by, I finally had to agree that she was probably right, and that I’d been taken for a fool.”

“So your sister was the only one who knew about this?”

“I tell my sister everything,” said Evelina simply. “She’s the one who helped me negotiate the release of the money from the bank. They were very reluctant to part with so much cash, you know. Seventy-five thousand dollars is a lot of money.” She glanced up at Odelia. “Did you—did you find the money? Did Bob still have it on him?”

“No, Bob didn’t have any money on him,” said Odelia. “So your sister thinks Bob’s the one who organized his own kidnapping? So he could get his hands on your money?”

“That’s her theory.”

“Because after you made the drop you didn’t hear from the kidnappers or Bob?”

Evelina nodded. “Also, the whole thing felt off. Bob and I had only been dating for a very short while. If these people wanted money, why didn’t they kidnap me instead? Or my sister? Why Bob, a man who, by all accounts, probably meant nothing to me at that point? At least that’s the argument my sister made. Frankly she was wrong. Even in that short time Bob had come to mean a great deal to me, and so when they made that ransom demand…”

“How was the demand made? By phone or letter or…”

“I received a video message on my phone.”

“A video of…”

“Of Bob,” said Evelina, nodding. “He looked very frightened in the video, and had a gun pressed to his head by a person who was out of frame. He said they’d kill him if I didn’t do as they said. It all looked very convincing, and by the time I told my sister, I’d already started the procedure of getting the money together. Emma tried to talk me out of it, but I didn’t want to take any chances with Bob’s life.”

“Even though Emma half-convinced you it was Bob himself who was behind the thing?”

“That was later, after I made the drop and didn’t hear from the kidnappers—or Bob. She figured he’d been in on it from the start. Frankly I didn’t know what to think. Seventy-five thousand is a big sum, but my company turned over thirty million last year, so it’s not as if the money will be missed. It just seemed like a small price to pay for Bob’s safety.”

“Thirty million dollars,” said Dooley. “Is that a lot of money, Max?”

“Yes, Dooley. Thirty million dollars is a lot of money.”

“Poor woman,” my friend said. “Being so rich and so unlucky in love. And then when she finally finds the man of her dreams he’s kidnapped and killed.”

“We still don’t know what really happened, Dooley,” I pointed out. “Evelina’s sister may very well be right, and Bob may be the one behind this whole thing.”

“But then why did he end up dead?”

“He must have had a partner,” I said. “And maybe this partner got greedy and decided he wanted the money for himself and so he shot and killed Bob.”

“Or maybe Bob was innocent and he was shot because the kidnappers got what they wanted and didn’t need him anymore.”

“What happened to Bob?” asked Evelina now. “How did he end up on that potato truck?”

“We’re not sure yet,” said Odelia. “The investigation is still ongoing. When was the last time you talked to the kidnappers?”

“I never actually talked to them. They sent me messages on my phone, and I messaged them back.”

“Can I see your phone for a moment?”

“Sure,” said Evelina, and handed Odelia the gadget. “They used WhatsApp. Under Bob’s name. Another reason for Emma to suspect him.” She clicked open the app to show our human.

“I think it would be best if you gave this phone to the police,” Odelia finally said, after checking some of the messages. “Maybe they can try and find out who sent them.”

“I know what you’re thinking, Miss Poole,” said Evelina. “You’re thinking I should have gone to the police. But they specifically told me not to, and I didn’t want to jeopardize Bob’s safe return. It was much easier for me to just do as they said, and pay off the ransom demand, than to risk Bob’s life. So I went along with the whole thing.” She burst into tears once more. “And now they killed him anyway.”

Dooley, who’d been studying the woman closely, finally said, “No. Definitely not an actress, Max. I think she’s for real.”

I patted my friend on the back. “Any other thoughts you’d like to share?”

“I wonder where Evelina keeps Mr. Ed. Odelia should talk to him, too. Get his interview on tape.”

“I think that might prove a little hard,” I said. “But I agree with you that we should probably have another chat with Mr. Ed.”

And since as far as I know snails usually live outside in the garden, where they like to nibble on assorted plants and vegetables, we made our way to the kitchen, where some high-pitched meowing and earnest scratching earned us free passage into the backyard.

Chapter 17

“Finally!” suddenly a voice spoke in our vicinity.

When we glanced over we saw that it was none other than our slimy friend the snail.

“Mr. Ed!” said Dooley, who’d clearly taken a liking to the small pet.