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

It was but the work of a moment to free them of their restraints, and then they both started talking simultaneously. Only after being advised that it was always better for one person to be the spokesperson of the team, did a thickset man with bristly white hair start relating the story of his ordeal. More specifically how they’d ended up in the closet.

“Two guys came bursting in here and locked us up!” the white-haired man complained.

His friend, who was thin and who had a full black beard, confirmed his fellow closet inhabitant’s words and said, “They knocked us out, too,” and pointed to a spot on his head where presumably he’d sustained a knock on his noggin. I could see that he had a bump, which looked very painful.

“What did they look like, these men?” asked Chase, though I had an idea that I already knew what was coming.

“One was big and strong, the other short and skinny,” said the spokesperson.

“Did the short skinny one have a face like a ferret?” asked Odelia.

The spokesperson leveled a look of surprise at our human, and I could tell that for a brief moment he wondered if she was psychic. “How did you know?”

“Johnny Carew and Jerry Vale,” said Odelia, grim-faced.

“I should have known,” said Chase.

From yet another connecting door, this one leading to one room over, Dooley said, “Better come and have a look at this, Max!”

So I moved over there, followed by Odelia and Chase, and when we passed through we found ourselves in a room probably as messy as any I’d ever seen. There were food wrappers all over, and clothes strewn about, and wet towels on every available surface.

“It smells a lot like Johnny and Jerry,” said Dooley.

“So…” said Odelia, processing this information. “Johnny and Jerry were probably holed up in here for the last couple of days, judging from the detritus, until they decided to knock out their two neighbors, so they could get into Lord Hilbourne’s suite through the connecting door. There was a fight, they grabbed Hilbourne, and took off with him.”

“Question is: where did they take him?” said Chase, then glanced down at us. “Can’t your cats sniff out their escape route?”

“Max? Dooley?” said Odelia. And for a moment I thought she was going to say, “Fetch!” But luckily she remembered just in time that we were cats, not dogs. Without further ado or instructions we moved back into the next room, where Johnny and Jerry’s first burst of violence had expended itself, then into Lord Hilbourne’s suite, where we found Harriet and Brutus. And as we transferred the mission we’d just accepted, we all started sniffing around, until we met up near the window, which led to a balcony, which led to… a fire escape. Odelia, and Chase, who’d followed our progress with keen interest, now stood gazing down the fire escape.

“Thanks, you guys,” said Odelia. “I think we’ll take it from here.”

Chapter 30

“What are they going to take from here and where are they taking it, Max?” asked Dooley.

“It’s just an expression, Dooley,” I said, though I was equally curious where our humans were going to take the investigation. Then again, obviously it was no longer our concern. They would, I assumed, now organize what is commonly termed a dragnet, at which point the crooks would be caught, and hopefully Lord Hilbourne would still be in one piece.

“They could be anywhere,” said Brutus. “Probably halfway down to Florida by now, or maybe New York. They could be in the Adirondacks, holed up in a cabin in the woods or high up in the mountains. They could be there for months, undetected, until Lord Hilbourne’s family decide to pay them the millions they want for his safe return.”

“This is all very stressful,” said Harriet. “People keep getting kidnapped and ending up dead…”

We all shared a worried glance. “You don’t think Johnny and Jerry are the same ones who kidnapped and killed Bob Rector, do you?” I said.

“Could be,” Harriet allowed.

“I bet it was them,” said Brutus. “What are the odds of two kidnappings taking place within a couple of days? I’ll bet those two felt that seventy-five thousand wasn’t enough to retire on and they found themselves an even bigger target in Lord Hilbourne. A target they couldn’t pass up without taking a crack at him.”

We glanced down at the blood on the carpet. “You can take that literally,” I said. But then I shook my head. “This doesn’t sound like the Johnny and Jerry I know. They’re crooks, sure, but they’re not killers. I can see them kidnapping a person, but killing him in cold blood? I don’t think so.”

“It’s the theory of escalation in crime,” said Brutus, who seemed to have read up on the subject while I wasn’t looking. “Most crooks start off with petty theft and other small stuff, then gradually get in deeper and deeper and finally get into the heavy stuff, like extortion and even murder. I guess Johnny and Jerry have succumbed to their worst instincts and have become a menace to society. Hampton Cove’s most wanted.”

“Poor Johnny and Jerry,” said Dooley, earning him a look of rebuke from both Harriet and Brutus.

“Why do you say that?” asked Harriet. “They’re gangsters and they probably killed Bob Rector, and Lord Hilbourne, too. They killed him and now they’ll try to make us believe he’s still alive so they can collect the ransom. Same way they did with Bob.”

“I like Johnny and Jerry,” Dooley confessed. “I know I shouldn’t, but they’re goofy.”

“Goofy!” said Harriet. “Didn’t you hear what Brutus just said? They’re Hampton Cove’s most wanted criminals.”

Obviously Odelia and Chase wanted them bad, for they’d disappeared down that fire escape, presumably in hot pursuit. And since Uncle Alec had disappeared as well, that dragnet I just mentioned was probably being put in place as we speak.

“Mark my words. They’re in the Adirondacks,” said Brutus. “Hiding in one of those mountain cabins.”

“And burying Lord Hilbourne in a shallow grave,” Harriet added with a touch of morbidity.

Since there wasn’t all that much we could do there, we kinda drifted off. The two men staying in the room next door were being questioned. One was called Wim Bojanowsky and the other Suppo Bonikowski, and it turned out that they were cousins, vacationing in Hampton Cove. At least that’s what I learned from listening in on their conversation with Officer Sarah Flunk, who’d been left to do the honors.

“They stole my laptop,” said Suppo, the thin one with the face fuzz.

“And my watch,” said his cousin somberly. “It was a family heirloom. If you could please do what you can to get it back for us?” he added.

“Of course, sir,” said Officer Flunk. “What else did they take?”

“Just the watch and the laptop,” said the one named Wim.

“And our dignity,” Suppo added, as he carefully fingered the bump on his head.

“What are you doing in town if I may ask?”

“Oh, just visiting,” said Wim. “We like the Hamptons. It’s always a nice experience.”

“The hotel receptionist said there were three of you staying in this room?”

“That’s right. We arrived here with our cousin.”

“Bob Rector,” said Suppo.

Officer Flunk stopped writing in her notebook and looked up in surprise. “Bob Rector?”

“Yeah, the three of us decided to come down here together,” Wim explained.

“But…”

“Oh, the name,” said Wim. “Okay, so Bob’s mom’s sister is my mother.”

“And my dad is Wim’s mother’s brother,” said Suppo.

Officer Flunk was blinking, and so was I. “So… the three of you…”

“Decided to spend some time in your lovely little town, yeah,” said Wim.