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

“Not here,” he said, and took her by the elbow, leading her behind the villa. “I disabled the feed before I came out here,” he explained.

Odelia had slung a towel around herself, but was eager to get inside and take that shower, so she said, “Better make it quick. I need to get ready for dinner.”

“Listen,” he said, lowering his voice. “It’s about Joanna.”

“Joanna? What about her?”

“You know how I spied on all of the candidates, right? Back in Bangkok? Making sure they were couples or not? So when I was checking up on Joanna and her boyfriend she slipped out of bed in the middle of the night to make a mysterious phone call in the bathroom. It was really annoying, cause I wanted to leave their hotel room and I couldn’t. I was hiding behind the curtains the whole time, and getting a crick in the neck.”

“What mysterious phone call?”

“I don’t know, but it was obvious she didn’t want her boyfriend to overhear her. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but with what you told me about women going missing…” He arched a meaningful eyebrow.

“You think she’s involved somehow?”

“It’s worth looking into, don’t you think?”

Odelia nodded slowly. “Thanks. I’ll try to bring it up with her.” She wondered how, though. She couldn’t very well confess that she’d made a pact with the intrusive tabloid reporter.

“Oh, and one other thing,” said Jack as Odelia started for the front of the villa. “Better watch your back. I looked into the profiles of the five women who disappeared and they all have one thing in common.”

“What?”

“They’re the spitting image of… you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

As Odelia luxuriated under the spray of the rainfall shower head, she mused on Jack’s words. He was right. Of all four candidates she was the only one who resembled the type the five missing women represented. Which meant that whoever this kidnapper was, he might come after her next. And in spite of the heat of the shower, she suddenly shivered, and wished Chase wasn’t on a different island, separated by a large swath of sea.

Now that she came to think of it, all of her allies were far away: Chase and Gran were one island over, Uncle Alec was in Hampton Cove, and her parents were in Europe.

Then, as she toweled then tied the towel on top of her head, she smiled when Max and Dooley came ambling into the bedroom.

At least she had two cats in her corner.

“So what did you guys get up to today?” she asked.

“Oh, this and that,” said Max airily.

“We saw you on the beach with Mike,” said Dooley, not so airily. “Are you and Mike getting married, Odelia? Is he moving into our house soon and is Chase moving out?”

Two pairs of cat eyes stared at her accusingly, and she laughed. “Oh, you guys. Of course not. Mike is just a friend. Well, not even a friend. More of an acquaintance.” She made a conscious effort not to move her lips too much, in case the cameras picked up on it. “Shall I let you in on a little secret?”

Both cats nodded eagerly.

“Mike is engaged to be married. He only took this job to improve his chances to land better jobs back home so he can get married to his high school sweetheart. So there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

They both heaved sighs of relief, especially Dooley, who was something of a worrywart sometimes. “I really thought he was moving in!” Dooley cried, now also smiling. “And I figured that if he doesn’t like cats he’d kick us both out and we’d have to spend the rest of our days at the pound!”

“No pound for you, my sweet,” said Odelia, and finished dressing. She told the cats about her meeting with Jack, and they offered to spy on Joanna to see what she was up to. She decided not to mention she fit the profile of the abducted women to a tee. No need to get them all worked up about it.

“You should have seen the setup these people have,” Max said as he stretched out on the bed. “An entire bank of screens, wall to wall, showing footage from dozens and dozens of cameras planted all over the two resorts.”

“Yeah, they can see everything you do,” Dooley chimed in. “It’s a little creepy.”

“It’s very creepy,” Odelia said.

“Jackie’s camera broke,” Max continued. “And two technicians named Rick and Frank had to go and fix it before tonight. It seemed like a big deal to Clint.”

“I think they’re expecting fireworks tonight,” Odelia said as she checked herself in the mirror. She’d opted for a simple floral dress that made her look less like a femme fatale and more like the girl next door. She figured she was done playing the perfect candidate and was going to be more herself from now on.

“We’re having fireworks tonight?” asked Dooley, surprised. “I don’t like fireworks. It makes me want to pee.”

“I don’t mean actual fireworks,” she said, wondering what to do with her hair. “I mean…” She directed a glance down at Dooley, who was eyeing her intently. “Um…”

“What Odelia means to say is that Jackie and the boy she likes are probably going to spend some time together,” said Max, treading carefully. “Because they like each other so much.”

“But doesn’t Jackie like her own boyfriend anymore?”

“Well, her own boyfriend has been very naughty over on the other island and he’s been, um… kissing another girl. So now Jackie is upset and she’s decided to, um…”

“Kiss another boy,” said Dooley, nodding. “To get even.”

Odelia gave Dooley a look of surprise. “Correct,” she said.

“I watch a lot of soaps with Gran,” Dooley explained. “Women on General Hospital do that kind of thing a lot. But sooner or later they forgive their boyfriends and then they get married. So I’m sure that’s what’ll happen with Jackie and Gary. When the show is over they’ll kiss and make up and live happily ever after.”

Somehow Odelia doubted whether Dooley’s rosy world view would come true for Jackie, but she nodded. “I’ll bet you’re right, Dooley.”

“Of course I’m right. Though there’s also a small chance Jackie will end up getting pregnant and discover that Gary isn’t the father but Gary’s long-lost twin brother is, and she’ll end up drinking a lot of alcohol and crashing her car and needing plastic surgery and falling in love with the trauma surgeon over at the hospital who’ll turn out to be her father.” He shrugged. “Happens all the time.”

Odelia frowned and reminded herself to tell Gran not to watch her soaps in front of Dooley again. It clearly was having an adverse effect on the poor cat.

Chapter 28

That evening, dinner wasn’t the usual laid-back affair. Instead, different nooks had been arranged, where different seducers sat down with the four contestants for their first date night. Which seducer got to date which contestant had been left to the show’s producers to decide, and in Odelia’s case Mike was the lucky boy. Or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it.

Dooley and I had taken up position nearby, making sure nothing untoward was happening. You could call us our human’s keepers. Odelia may have told us she wasn’t interested in dating this male model, but that didn’t stop us both from worrying.

For once I heartily agreed with Dooley that he had reason for concern. I liked Chase, and didn’t enjoy the prospect of Odelia performing a switcheroo and replacing him with this Mike character.

“He doesn’t look like a cat hater,” said Dooley as we closely observed the man.

“Appearances can be deceiving, Dooley,” I reminded him. “He could be on his good behavior now, but the moment he moves in with Odelia he could turn out to be some kind of Cruella De Ville, only in his case out to skin cats not Dalmatian puppies.”