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

“What is she doing?” asked Dooley as we hunkered down behind a chair near the window.

“Spying on her boss,” I said.

She probably shouldn’t have done that, for at that moment footsteps sounded in the corridor, and suddenly the door swung open and Clint walked in.

Kimmy, an athletic lass, leaped behind the bed, then rolled underneath before Clint caught sight of her. And as she did so, she saw us looking at her, and pressed her index finger to her lips. I nodded once, which appeared to surprise her greatly.

“Now where did I leave the darn thing,” Clint muttered as he rooted around his desk. “Ah, there it is,” he murmured as he grabbed his laptop. His phone chimed as he opened the door.

“Who is this?” he boomed after a moment’s pause. “Her uncle! A cop! Are you kidding me!”

He closed the door again and started pacing the room.

“No, I didn’t know Odelia Poole’s uncle was a cop. Someone could have told me!” he said, still speaking in that booming voice of his.

The person on the other end must have said something to upset him, for suddenly he sank down on the bed, making it creak. “She did what?!” he bellowed.

“Uh-oh,” I said. “Looks like Odelia’s cover is blown.”

“We have to do something, Max!” said Dooley. “Clint is going to try and grab her!”

Dooley was right, so we snuck from behind the chair posthaste, then out onto the balcony.

We had to warn Odelia before it was too late!

Chapter 38

Odelia had just stepped out of the jacuzzi when there was a sort of commotion nearby. When she glanced over, she saw that Max and Dooley were running full tilt in her direction, but so were Clint and Kimmy. All of them were screaming something she couldn’t quite catch.

“What’s going on?” asked Tina. “Why are your cats being chased by Clint?”

“Probably stole a fish,” Jackie sneered. “Isn’t that what cats do? Steal things?”

Obviously Jackie didn’t know Max and Dooley very well, Odelia thought. And then she caught what her cats were yelling.

“He knows!” Max cried. “Clint knows about you!”

“Oh, darn,” she muttered, and blinked. Clint wouldn’t dare grab her with all these witnesses around, would he? There was a reason those women had only been kidnapped after their return from Passion Island. So she decided to bear the brunt of the man’s displeasure bravely.

“Help me out here, girls,” she said. “I think Clint is about to blow his top.”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” said Tina. “We’ve got your back.”

“Yeah, us girls have to stick together,” said Joanna.

Only Jackie wasn’t in a solidarity frame of mind. “What did you do?” she asked.

But then Clint was upon them, and he was looking like a steam engine about to explode.

“You’re a cop!” he screamed accusingly. “You’re a damn cop!”

“No, I’m not a cop,” said Odelia calmly as she came face to face with the women snatcher. “But my uncle is, and he’ll be very interested to know what kind of operation you’re running here, Mr. Bunda.”

“Oh, so now suddenly it’s Mr. Bunda, huh?” He grabbed Odelia’s arm. “Come. All of you. You, too, Kimmy.”

“Yes, sir,” said Kimmy quietly.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” said Odelia defensively as she yanked her arm free from the man’s grasp.

“I’ve got them all lined up and we’re going to get to the bottom of this thing once and for all,” said Clint.

“Lined up who?” asked Tina.

“All of my people, who do you think? One of them must be involved in this thing, and I wanna know who. I wanna know who’d betray me like this!” he screamed, raising his fists to the sky and shaking them violently.

The man was losing it, Odelia thought, and she was starting to get a little scared.

But Clint was already heading back to the main villa, and Kimmy was shrugging her shoulders. She clearly didn’t see a way out either.

“Where’s the boat?” asked Odelia. “There’s got to be a boat we can take to get off the island.”

“It’s not what you think it is, Odelia,” said Kimmy, quite surprisingly. “Your uncle called Clint just now, telling him the whole story.”

“What?!” Odelia cried.

“Yeah, I was hiding under the bed, and I heard the whole thing. Alec even told him about my involvement. He says he’s found the women.”

“My uncle has found them?”

“Apparently the FBI got wind of the affair and got in touch with Alec, and together they managed to convince the families that something very bad was going on. They finally managed to track down all five women. They’re safe now.”

“But… Clint?”

“Clint’s got nothing to do with it. But someone on the team does. And he’s going to try and figure out who it is.”

Odelia glanced down at her cats, who both shrugged. “Okay,” she finally said, and joined Kimmy and the other three women in pursuit of Clint, whom they could hear screaming all the way to the jacuzzi as he made his way back to the main house.

“What’s all this about kidnapped women?” asked Joanna.

“I’ll explain later,” said Odelia.

“You’re a cop?” asked Jackie, sounding distinctly unhappy.

“No, I’m a reporter.”

“I asked Odelia to come and look into a possible kidnapping ring centered around Passion Island,” Kimmy explained, drawing gasps of shock from the other three women.

But by then they’d arrived at the villa, where Clint was pacing in front of his collected staff, all gathered in front of the main house.

“Someone here has been working against me!” he announced. “One of you has decided to use my show—MY SHOW—for nefarious purposes! And I want you to step forward right now and reveal yourself!”

Odelia had crossed her arms in front of her and stood watching the scene with some trepidation. She didn’t know what to think. She’d figured Clint was the man behind the kidnapping ring, but apparently her uncle didn’t think he was, and Uncle Alec was a smart cookie, so he probably had his reasons.

“No one?” asked Clint. “All right. So be it.” He picked his phone from his pocket and quickly dialed a number.

“What’s happening?” asked Tina, as bewildered as the rest of the small crowd that had gathered in the rising sun.

“No idea,” said Odelia truthfully.

“Alec? Yeah, nobody’s talking. So you do as we arranged. Yeah, you place that call now.” He disconnected, then let his gaze rake across the faces of his people, none too friendly. If looks could kill, they’d all have fallen to the ground, dead.

Suddenly, a ringtone pierced the silence—it was the sound of birdsong.

“You’re busted!” Clint bellowed. “Busted!”

Everyone looked around with consternation written all over their features, as Clint dove into the crowd, which parted like the Red Sea before Moses. And there, on the ground, was a phone, buzzing away, still blasting out a steady whoop-whoop-whoop.

Clint picked it up. “Who does this phone belong to! Who, dammit!”

Eyes swiveled, and heads turned left and right, but whoever the phone belonged to didn’t make themselves known, causing Clint to stomp the ground like a petulant child. “Reveal yourself!” he demanded heatedly.

“It belongs to Rick,” said Max. “I’d recognize that ringtone anywhere.”

“It belongs to Rick,” Odelia echoed.

“Oh, crap,” the pale techie muttered, and suddenly broke into an awkward run!

“Stop!” Clint screamed. “Stop that man!”

But since everyone was gathered around him, there was no one left to stop Rick, as the skinny techie disappeared around the bend.

“After him!” Clint ordered. “Whoever catches that bastard gets a fat bonus!”