Ник Сайнт - Purrfectly Hidden. Purrfect Kill. Purrfect Boy Toy

“Oh, right.” The cat paused for a moment, then said. “So who are you, then?”

“Um…”

She stared at me, clearly awaiting my response. “Well, Max,” I said with a laugh, figuring she was having me on. “Like I said, Odelia Poole’s cats?”

She stared at me, and blinked. “We have a very nice pool, thank you very much. Though I never go near it. Pools don’t particularly appeal to me. I can’t swim, you see.” She smiled. “Well, then. This has been so much fun. Gave me a real appetite.”

And to prove she meant what she said, she moved over to a large bowl which Helga had just filled with delicious-looking paté, and dug in voraciously. Within seconds the bowl was empty. Frankly I’d never seen anything like it.

“Yum,” said Prunella. “That was nice.” She then did a double take when she spotted me. “Hey, who are you, and what are you doing in my kitchen?”

“You’re kidding, right?” said Harriet. “Max has already told you his name twice. Are you messing with us or what?”

“Yeah, are you messing with us?” Brutus growled, taking a step closer to the cat.

Prunella blinked again. “I don’t like messes. Good thing we have Helga. She doesn’t mind cleaning up any mess I make.” She then licked her lips. “Say, I’m hungry.” She glanced up at Helga, who gave her a bright smile.

“Hungry again, eh, princess? Come here, I’ve got just the thing for you.” And she placed a large slab of fish on a plate.

“Yum,” said Prunella cheerfully. “Watch me dig in.” And she proceeded to attack the fish as if it was the first food she’d had in weeks.

“Now there’s a good girl,” said Helga with satisfaction.

Prunella, who’d been licking herself, suddenly seemed to notice us for the first time. She started violently. “Hey! Who are you and what are you doing in my kitchen?”

Chapter 8

Dinner came and went, and so, unfortunately, did Chase and Uncle Alec, who needed to get to their hotel so they could check in and have a good night’s sleep before their conference started the next day.

And then it was time for Opal to show her guests their lodgings for the night. Turns out they weren’t staying in the main house—too conspicuous, Opal thought, in case her assailant was a member of her household staff—and to Odelia’s surprise she’d relegated them to the guesthouse instead. But then when she saw the guesthouse, it didn’t look like a guesthouse at all. For one thing, it was bigger than Odelia’s own place and that of her parents combined. And for another, it looked as luxurious as the main house.

The guesthouse had originally been built so Opal’s boyfriend, who was an artist, could spend the night there when he needed to be alone to ponder his art, which, according to the media mogul, used to happen about once a month. There were three bedrooms, and Gran immediately called dibs on the biggest one—the one belonging to the boyfriend.

Odelia was still not entirely sure she was the right person for the job, but Opal seemed to have complete faith in her, and that was good enough for now.

“If there’s anything you need, just give me a holler,” said Opal as she stood in the doorway. “Tomorrow I’m taking you to the studio. Bright and early, remember?”

“Bright and early,” Odelia echoed cheerfully.

“Oh, and bring your cats, if you like. My staff are crazy about cats, just like me, and I’m sure they won’t get bored down there. Prunella loves to tag along and I’m sure she’ll make your fur babies feel absolutely welcome.”

And then it was time to unpack and settle in for the night. The plan was for Tex and Marge to play the tourists for the next couple of days, while Odelia and Gran tried to discover who could possibly be targeting Opal. Marge had to be back at the library in five days, so that’s all the time she and Tex had. Odelia hoped to have finished her investigation by then, and hopefully travel back together as a family, the same way they’d come.

Uncle Alec and Chase’s conference would also last five days, so the timing was perfect—if she could crack the case, which was still a big if!

And as she lay in bed, four cats occupying the rest of the large four-poster, she stared up at the ceiling and tried to come up with a game plan. First things first. She needed to properly sit down with Opal and get as much information from her as possible about what had happened. Then she needed to talk to the members of Opal’s staff, and find out what they could tell her. All in all, it definitely was a pleasant way to conduct an investigation.

“Odelia?” Max said.

“Mh?”

“I think we may have stumbled upon our first clue.”

She sat up a little straighter. She hadn’t paid too much attention to her cats, having been busy unpacking and discussing her first impressions with her mom and dad and Gran. “What is it?” she asked.

“Well, remember how we got sent to the kitchen while you guys were having dinner?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, we met Prunella—again—who’s a very strange cat, by the way—and we also met a woman named Helga, who I think is Opal’s cook, and a man named Hector who likes to drink a lot of port. And they were talking when we walked in and Hector told Helga not to say a word to you about something, and Helga said her lips were sealed.”

Max looked at her expectantly, and she nodded thoughtfully. “Hector and Helga, huh? I’ll have to speak to Opal about those two.”

“So you think they did it?” asked Dooley excitedly. “Do you think they’re the people trying to kill Opal?”

“I’m not sure, Dooley. I’ll have to find out more to be certain. But it’s definitely a very important clue, so thank you for that.”

“I think Prunella is nuts,” said Harriet.

“What makes you say that?”

“For one thing, she can’t stop eating, and for another, she kept forgetting who we were.”

“Yeah, she kept asking us what we were doing in her kitchen,” said Brutus. “Even though Max had introduced us, like, five seconds before. I think there’s something wrong with her wiring or something.”

“Well, Opal told me that Prunella is a clone,” said Odelia. “So maybe that has got something to do with it.”

“A clone?” asked Dooley, perking up. “What’s a clone?”

“Prunella was Opal’s sweetheart—the original Prunella, I mean—and she loved her very much. So when Prunella died fifteen years ago, Opal was so sad she decided to have Prunella cloned at a lab that specializes in that sort of thing. They basically made a new Prunella out of the old one.”

“Oh my God,” Harriet muttered. “That’s too weird.”

“Yeah, it is a little weird,” Odelia agreed. “But Opal says the new Prunella is the spitting image of the old Prunella, with the same mannerisms and the exact same sunny disposition. She was telling us all about it over dinner. The original Prunella used to love having her belly tickled, and so does the new Prunella, and there were lots of other little things only a cat owner would notice, and she says it’s almost like a miracle.”

“Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t,” said Max, “but I think they forgot to clone a part of her brain, cause that cat? Isn’t completely there, if you know what I mean.”

Odelia smiled. “I think I know exactly what you mean, Max, and let’s keep it between us, shall we? Opal doesn’t need to know. She can’t talk to Prunella, so she won’t notice if she acts a little strange from time to time. Besides, maybe the original Prunella was exactly the same way. A little eccentric and a little absentminded.”

There was silence for a moment while Odelia read a message from Chase on her phone and started typing her response. Then Dooley piped up, “Odelia?”