Ник Сайнт - Purrfect Cut

“Maybe he really can talk to pets, and now he’ll talk to Pussy and together they’ll run the show.”

Odelia glanced around. They still had no clue where Max and Dooley could be, and she was seriously starting to get worried now.

Chase, who could sense her agitation, said, “They’re probably home by now. Strike or no strike, they don’t like to be out and about for too long.”

“No, they don’t,” she agreed. “Maybe it’s time for us to head back.”

And so they strolled back to the front of the house.

Above their heads, and unbeknownst to them, three cats were yelling their little hearts out, pounding the window of Pussy’s room. Unfortunately a cat’s paws are outfitted with soft pink pads, and soft pink pads are not what you want when you try to attract attention by pounding on windows. The upshot was that their efforts produced no effect. And so it was with a desperate eye that Max and Dooley and Pussy saw the two humans who could have saved them from their imprisonment walk away and pass into the night.

Chapter 19

“How can they not have seen us?” asked Dooley with asperity.

“I guess they didn’t,” I said, feeling extremely disappointed in my human. I’d always assumed that Odelia and I shared a sacred bond. The kind of bond whereby she would instinctively know I was in grave danger and she’d come running to offer aid and support no matter the obstacles in her path. But whatever bond we’d once shared was clearly in very bad shape indeed, for even though I’d willed her to look up, she hadn’t done so once. Not a glimpse.

“Maybe they’re simply pretending not to notice us to throw Leonora and Chris Cross and Tank off the scent,” said Dooley, cheering up. “And any moment now they’ll come barging in here with the entire Hampton Cove police force and save us!”

“I don’t think, so, Dooley. They simply didn’t see us.”

“But how is that possible? It’s Odelia. She has to see us. She’s our human.”

“I’m starting to think she no longer is,” I said.

And we would have discussed the topic in depth if the door hadn’t swung open at that exact moment and the same motley crew that had locked us up was upon us once more: Leonora Flake, pushed by her strangely stoic nurse, Chris Cross and his feline sidekick Tank.

“Keep an eye on them, Tank,” said Chris. “Those two are cunning.”

“They don’t look cunning,” said Tank. “In fact they look pretty dumb. Dumb and dumber.” He laughed at his own joke, and so did Chris Cross.

“Will you stop with the inside jokes already?” said Leonora irritably. “So have we decided? Out with the intruders and in with Little Miss Sweet?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s the only way to go,” said Chris. “Max and Dooley clearly know too much now, and the moment we set them loose they’ll run and tell mama. And we can’t do without Pussy, in case we need to show her to the investors or the board at some point.”

“Fine. Do it quietly, though, will you? And make sure no one sees you.”

“Wait, you expect me to do it? Why don’t you do it?”

“Have you seen the wheelchair?”

“I wasn’t talking about you. I was talking about Nurse Ratched over there.”

Nurse Ratched didn’t seem all that happy with her new moniker. “My name is Helga Cooper,” she said in clipped tones. “And nowhere does it say in my job description that I should go around murdering cats. So I refuse.”

“You do it,” Leonora told Chris. “You’re good with cats.”

“I’m good with live cats, not dead ones!”

“Oh, for crying out loud!”

Dooley, who’d been gulping freely next to me, appeared on the verge of a panic attack. “They’re going to kill us, Max!” he cried. “Did you hear that? They’re going to kill us and throw away the bodies!”

“Bury the bodies, most likely,” said Tank with an evil glint in his eyes. “Deep, so that no one will ever find you. And if by some miracle they do, the worms will have eaten through your rotting corpses and all that will be left will be your bones. Sad, sad bones.”

“Oh, no!” said Dooley, hyperventilating now.

“Deep breaths, Dooley,” I said. “Deep, steady breaths.”

“Look, you don’t have to do this,” said Pussy. “You can keep us all in here and no one has to die.”

“Yeah, I know we don’t have to do it,” said Tank. “But that’s just the thing: we want to do it.” He turned to Chris. “Let me do it, boss.”

“You? You can’t kill those two.”

“Oh, but I can,” said Tank, licking his lips and extending a gleaming claw. “In fact I know just how. One nice jab to the jugular and they’ll bleed out like gutted pigs. And then all you have to do is dig the hole and dump the bodies.”

“I don’t want to die, Max!” Dooley cried. “I’m too young to die!”

“I don’t want to die either, Dooley,” I said, and already I was eyeing the door with a keen eye. “If we move fast,” I whispered in his ear, “we can make it. On three. One two three—go!”

And I raced for the door. Only I felt a keen sense of emptiness behind me and when I looked back I saw that Dooley was glued to the spot, looking at me with wide panicky eyes. So I halted and retraced my steps.

“Ha ha ha!” Tank laughed. “Look at them. Dumb and dumber—the sequel!”

“Close the door, you idiots,” Leonora snapped. “If they get out they’ll spill the beans and then all this will have been for naught.”

“Max,” said Dooley when I’d returned to his side. “Why didn’t you make a run for it?”

“I couldn’t very well leave my best friend behind, could I?”

“But you could have escaped and warned Odelia!”

Oh, shoot. Why hadn’t I thought of that!

“So this is your final word?” asked Leonora.

“This is my final word,” Chris confirmed. “I’m not a cat killer. If you want them dead, you’ll have to find someone else to do it.”

“Imbeciles and incompetents!” shouted Leonora as she directed her wheelchair to the door. “I’m surrounded by imbeciles and incompetents!” She passed through the door, followed by Helga and Chris. The last one to leave us in our new prison was, of course, Tank.

“Too bad they didn’t task me with the kill,” he said. And he slashed the air with his gleaming claw. Then the door closed and we were once again alone.

“Someone will come for us,” said Pussy. “Your humans will realize what’s going on and they’ll come looking for you.”

Under normal circumstances I would have heartily agreed with her. Only this time I had the distinct impression that no one would come for us. Or even if they did, it would be too late, and we’d already be dead and buried.

Chapter 20

Gran wasn’t feeling like herself. Ever since her granddaughter had branched out into the world of private detecting, she’d been her loyal and able sidekick on many an investigation. Today, though, things hadn’t gone according to plan, to say the least. The worst kind of investigation was the one that was over before it even got started. And yet…

While at the reception desk in her son-in-law’s office, she’d been surfing the web on the newly minted smartphone Tex had gifted her, and she discovered a couple of things about the case that greatly worried her. For one thing, by all accounts Leonidas Flake and Gabriel Crier had been a devoted couple. They’d been together for thirty years, and all that time they’d appeared in public displaying an affection that was unmistakable. It was hard to imagine that suddenly one partner in the tryst would snap and murder the other partner in the tryst and then not even remember what he’d done.

Furthermore, there had been rumors that the empire Leo had built was rocking on its foundations, not least because his mother was shaking the tree, insisting her son was squandering his legacy by bad business decisions. The woman had actually had the gall to try and oust her son from his own company by launching a hostile takeover bid. The fact that it had failed didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. It had spooked investors, and the stock had been trading at an all-time low.