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

“The D word?” asked Dooley. “You don’t mean… Drugs!”

“I was actually thinking about Divorce, but drugs might be a factor,” Harriet said, nodding. “So you see? Better don’t start a family, Odelia. Besides, babies are overrated, and with overpopulation and stuff I think it’s wise to simply drop the whole idea.”

“Oh, Harriet,” said Odelia with a laugh. “You’re like a walking, talking contraception ad.”

Harriet, who clearly felt this was praise of the highest order, beamed. “Thank you!”

“I think you should start with babies very soon,” said Dooley, countering Harriet’s gloomy view. “In fact I’m keeping an eye out for that stork for you, Odelia, and the moment I see him I’m flagging him down, don’t you worry.”

“I’m not worried, Dooley,” said Odelia with a half-smile as she gave my friend a pat on the head. “But between you and me,” she added, leaning in and dropping her voice to a whisper, “babies are the furthest thing from my mind right now.”

“Good!” Harriet cried. “Excellent! I suggest you keep it that way!”

“But Odelia!” said Dooley. “What if the stork comes? What do I tell him?”

“You tell him—” Odelia started to say, but whatever Dooley was supposed to tell the stork would have to wait, as just at that moment Melanie Myers came walking out of the agency, swinging a mean purse, sashaying in the direction of Main Street.

“Max, Dooley, Harriet, Brutus!” Odelia snapped. “Follow that woman!”

Chapter 4

Odelia had opened the door and so we jumped out of the car and hurried to follow that woman, and not let her out of our sight even for one second!

“I don’t understand, Max,” said Dooley as he panted a little from the exertion. “Why doesn’t Odelia follow her? Doesn’t she want to take pictures when she meets the boyfriend?”

“Oh, Odelia is following her,” I assured my friend. And when we both glanced back we saw that indeed our human was following at some distance, making sure she wasn’t getting too close. On the other side of the street, meanwhile, Harriet and Brutus had also taken up the pursuit. So now no less than five operatives were on the case! Good thing four of those operatives were paid in kibble, or else this operation would get costly!

“It would probably be a good thing if in the future Odelia outfitted us with some kind of tracking device,” I said, “or a hot mic through which we could all communicate. I think that’s how the professionals do things when they’re in surveillance mode.”

“I don’t think I’d like it if Odelia gave me a hot mic,” said Dooley. “I think it would get very hot against my skin, and I don’t like hot things pressing against my skin.”

“A hot mic isn’t actually hot, Dooley,” I explained. “They just call it a hot mic because it’s recording all the time.”

“Oh. Then I guess it’s fine. She can give me a hot mic, so I can tell her when I see the stork.” He raised his eyes to the heavens to show me what he meant. Though apparently no storks were in evidence just then, for he kept his tongue, hot mic or not.

As luck would have it, Melanie Myers walked into the hair salon, and since the hairdresser’s cat Buster is a close friend, our operative force had just expanded to six!

Dooley and I immediately set paw inside, and slunk into a corner where we took up our vigil, remaining as inconspicuous as a blorange cat of sizable proportions and his gray ragamuffin friend can be. We shouldn’t have worried, though, for Melanie wasn’t the least bit interested in us—or the rest of her surroundings. In fact the moment she took a seat in the waiting area, and picked up a copy of Cosmo, her phone jangled and she expertly fished it out of her purse with long fingernails and clicked it to life.

“She’s very pretty,” said Dooley as he stared at our target admiringly. And indeed Mrs. Myers was very pretty. She had that statuesque thing down pat, and her sense of dress was very elegant and chic. If a woman like Melanie showed me a house, I’m pretty sure I’d immediately say yes and snap it up at any price she wanted for it. Though of course as a cat it’s hard to buy a house since we rarely carry any money on our person or even have a bank account, for that matter. Plus, banks are hesitant to give us a mortgage.

“Hello, darling,” Melanie purred into her phone as she turned her face to the window and stared out. She’d lowered her voice, and had added that sexy tone that some men like so much. “Are you ready for tonight?” she asked. She listened for a moment, and I could see her face fall. Evidently the person on the other end wasn’t ready for tonight, for she said sharply, “You have got to be kidding me.” There was more talking on the other end, though obviously I couldn’t hear what was being said, but Melanie’s face had taken on a look of consternation, so clearly things weren’t going according to plan. “Are you breaking up with me?” she asked, a sudden quiver in her voice. “Is that what this is?” And I guess that was exactly what this was, for a few moments later she said, very quietly, “Bye,” and lowered her phone, then just sat there for a moment, still gazing out of that window, but this time with what are usually termed unseeing eyes.

I even thought I detected a tear that had formed in the eye that was visible from where I sat, and Dooley said, “What is happening, Max?”

“I think her boyfriend just dumped her, Dooley,” I said.

“Oh, so that’s a good thing, right?”

“Melanie doesn’t seem to think so.”

But then Fido Siniawski summoned her to take place in one of his chairs, and Melanie pulled herself together with an extreme effort and stalked over, head held high.

Returning to the office, Odelia felt a sense of disappointment. When you’re all geared up to tackle a problem, and the problem simply yields all by itself, the end result can be disconcerting. Not unlike putting your foot down expecting that one final step and discovering you’ve already reached the ground floor. It’s jarring, to say the least.

But since she’d been asked to do a job, she decided not to overthink things. Joshua Curtis had asked her for results, and clearly she’d been able to get the results desired. So she picked up her phone and put in the call.

Joshua picked up on the first ring. “Yes, Miss Poole? What have you discovered?”

“Well, it would appear that your friend was dumped by her boyfriend,” said Odelia.

“Dumped? What do you mean?”

“He called her while she was at the hair salon,” she explained. “And dumped her over the phone. Apparently they were supposed to meet up but instead he said it was over.”

“Huh,” said Joshua, clearly as taken aback by this denouement as Odelia herself was. “He dumped her over the phone? The bastard,” he said with some heat.

“Yeah, she looked devastated,” said Odelia, transferring the information Max and Dooley had gleaned from their surveillance. “I don’t think she was expecting it.”

“Poor Melanie,” said Joshua. “So do you know who the guy is yet?”

“No, I don’t. Do you still want me to keep going? I mean, the affair, if there ever was one, seems to be over. So there really is no point in bringing it up with her, I guess.”

“No, I guess not,” Joshua agreed. “Just… just to satisfy my curiosity, though, Miss Poole, could you maybe find out who the guy is? Just in case she resumes the affair. And take plenty of pictures, if you can. I want some good shots of the evil bastard.”

It sounded like a fair enough request, Odelia thought, so she said, “Sure thing, Joshua. I’ll try to find out. Though now that the affair is over, that might prove a lot harder.”