Ник Сайнт - Purrfect Advice. Purrfect Passion. A Purrfect Gnomeful

And as luck would have it, Harriet walked in at that moment, accompanied by Brutus, and when she found us gathered around the droppings, frowned and asked, “What are you guys doing over there?”

“We have another question for Chloe,” I announced.

“And this time it’s a matter of life or death,” Dooley added the somber note.

He was right, of course. Life or death of the mouse colony, for Odelia had given us strict instructions to get rid of the mice or else. I could only imagine to what measures she might resort if we didn’t manage to persuade the mice to vacate the premises voluntarily. Images of mouse traps and poison came to mind, all not very humane, in my view.

Harriet, her curiosity piqued, came tripping up to take a closer look at the object that had snagged our attention and necessitated a Chloe intervention.

She took one sniff and wrinkled up her nose in disgust. “Eww!” she said, perfectly expressing my own sentiments exactly.

“What is it, baby cakes?” asked Brutus.

“Max had a little accident,” she said. “Couldn’t you hold it in until you reached your litter box, Max? Or was it you, Dooley?”

“Me!” I cried. “I didn’t do this!”

Harriet turned a reproachful eye on Dooley. The latter wilted under the onslaught, but still managed to squeak out, “It wasn’t me, I swear!”

“If you didn’t do it, then who did?”

“The mouse!” Dooley cried. He doesn’t like it when Harriet is upset with him, and neither, I have to admit, do I, though I’ve gotten used to her volcanic temper over the years.

“Mouse? What mouse?”

“Don’t you remember, bright eyes?” said Brutus. “The mice are back.”

Harriet paled beneath her fur. Hard to spot, I know, but I still spotted it.

“They’re back?” she asked.

“Yes, looks like,” I said. “Though I don’t know if they’re the same mice from before or a fresh batch.”

“I’ll bet it’s the same ones,” said Dooley. “The one we just saw was very rude, and just left these droppings here for us to find. As if challenging us, you know.”

“Oh, it’s the same ones all right,” said Harriet. “Only Molly and Rupert would behave in such a disgraceful way. Those two have absolutely no shame.”

“Molly and Rupert?” I asked. “I didn’t know you were on a first-name basis with them.”

“If you spend enough time down there,” she said, gesturing to the basement door, “you will get to know them soon enough.”

“So you see why it’s so important you ask this question to Chloe,” said Dooley, reiterating the point he’d made earlier. “Chloe is the only one who can help us now. She needs to figure out a way to get rid of these creatures.”

“I’m not sure if Chloe…” Harriet began, then seemed to pull herself together, and continued, “Of course I’ll ask her. I just don’t know if Chloe will answer. She’s been getting a lot of questions lately, especially since last night’s cat choir, and Kingman’s call.”

“But she must answer this question,” said Dooley. “She simply must. We can’t keep on living with these droppings-dropping mice under our noses. Oh, can’t you simply ask Chloe to answer our question first, Harriet?”

“Yeah, seeing as you and Chloe are thick as thieves,” I added with a curious glance in my housemate’s direction. I won’t conceal the fact that I was still reeling from the fact that Chloe had called me obnoxious and Dooley dumb. And it struck me as odd that Chloe would have selected Harriet as her go-between. “Who is this Chloe?” I asked therefore, not for the first time. “It must be someone we know, right? Someone who knows us. Intimately. If she was able to give us such a detailed answer, with a few choice epithets thrown in for good measure, she must know us very well indeed.”

“It’s clearly not someone who likes us,” said Dooley. “She called me a dumb brick and she called Max obnoxious and ignorant and annoying. But I don’t hold that against her,” he quickly added when Harriet frowned. “I know I’m not the smartest cat in the world.”

“You’re very smart, Dooley,” I said. “And don’t let anyone tell you different, not even Chloe, Hampton Cove’s all-knowing feline oracle.”

Harriet was looking slightly uncomfortable again, and so was Brutus. All this talk of Chloe clearly upset them, for some reason. I could only imagine Chloe was a very close friend of the couple, and they didn’t like it when we talked smack about her.

“Look, shouldn’t we be out there trying to catch a killer?” asked Harriet now with a stilted smile plastered all across her features.

“Odelia didn’t ask us to tag along this time,” I said, a little dejectedly.

“That’s because she has two extra sleuths already,” Dooley pointed out. “She has Gran and Scarlett assisting her, and also Chase and Alec, so she doesn’t need us this time.”

“Pity,” said Brutus. “I like a good murder investigation.”

“Maybe we can help her without telling her?” Harriet suggested.

“Or I have an even better idea!” suddenly Dooley cried. We all looked at him, and so he elucidated, “We simply ask Chloe. She’ll know who Kirk Weaver’s killer is!”

“Now there’s an idea,” I said, nodding. “We could always do that.”

“Nonsense,” Harriet snapped. “Chloe doesn’t deal with murder inquiries. She’s strictly there to answer your personal questions, preferably those concerning your love lives. Which is also why I’m not sure she’ll know how to deal with this mice infestation.”

“Oh,” said Dooley, looking disappointed.

“Look, I’ll ask her, all right? But don’t get your hopes up.”

We all stared at the nugget of mouse poo, and suddenly I thought I heard laughter coming from the basement.

“Catch us if you can!” suddenly a voice rose up from the same direction, and the sound of scurrying feet could be heard. Hundreds of scurrying feet. I could see that Harriet’s skin was crawling, and a horrified expression had appeared in her eyes.

“I have an idea,” she suddenly said, and before we could stop her, she’d streaked off, zoomed through the pet flap, and was gone.

Dooley smiled. “She’s gone to get Chloe. Just you wait and see. She’ll be back in five minutes with Chloe, who’ll deal with these horrible mice the way they should be dealt with.”

Somehow I had a feeling he was setting himself up for a big disappointment.

Chapter 21

When Odelia and Chase returned to the lobby of the hotel, they were surprised to find Gran and Scarlett waiting there for them.

“Hey, you guys,” said Odelia, still a little astonished to see her grandmother and Scarlett together without rolling on the floor fighting. It was a nice change.

“So what did you find out?” asked Gran.

“We talked to the business partner,” Odelia explained as she took a seat on one of the upholstered settee benches that had been placed in the lobby for the guests’ enjoyment.

“And? What did he say?” Scarlett asked.

“Nothing much. Kirk was broke, and their company on the verge of bankruptcy.”

“He has a strong alibi, though,” said Chase. “Or at least he will have once I’ve checked it out.”

“We talked to the widow,” said Gran. “She has a solid alibi, too. Though we haven’t checked it out yet, have we, Scarlett?”

“No, but we can do that right now,” Scarlett suggested.

“She did give us some more information about the kind of man her husband was,” Gran continued. “Apparently there wasn’t a woman he met without attempting to go to bed with her. Over the years she found her husband having sex with everyone from the maid to the cook to the gardener and anything in between. The man was a horndog.”