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Vesta and Scarlett had a plan: Scarlett would distract Wilbur, while Vesta talked to the guy’s cat, and ask Kingman if he’d seen Brutus around. The last thing she expected, though, was for Wilbur to get up from behind his checkout counter, walk over to where she was standing on the sidewalk, and turn a teary face to her and say, “Vesta, I’m so so sorry about last night. I behaved appallingly. Like a real jackass!”

“Yeah, you did,” she said crustily, glancing down at Kingman and trying to signal to the fat cat not to move an inch from where he was lying for she wanted a word with him.

Kingman nodded lazily, indicating he wouldn’t be dislodged from his position come hell or high water.

“I don’t know what came over me,” said the shopkeeper. “I guess I was nervous about our date, and so I started acting out. It’s the only way I can explain what happened.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Wilbur,” said Vesta. “You were simply being yourself.”

“No, I wasn’t! I can be nice, and well-behaved. And I can show you a good time.”

“You tried to fondle me, and kiss me.”

“I was nervous, all right! You’re an impressive woman, Vesta, and I guess I felt intimidated!”

“Yeah, right,” she grunted. “So intimidated you couldn’t stop checking out every single woman who walked past?”

“I didn’t check them out—I was simply too nervous to look at you!”

“Look, I don’t want to talk about it. But Scarlett has something she needs to ask.”

“Can I at least hug you? Just hug it out? To show me there’s no hard feelings.”

And before she could refuse, he’d already grabbed her in an iron grip and was squeezing her like he liked to squeeze one of his tomatoes before putting them on sale.

“All right, fine!” she said once she managed to get out of his grip. “You’re forgiven. Now will you listen to what Scarlett has to tell you?”

“I’m still in the watch, though, right?”

“I’ll think about it,” she said grudgingly.

“I love the watch, Vesta. I think it’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Keeping people safe. Making sure the criminal element is rooted out permanently.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said.

Finally the shop owner returned behind his counter, and Scarlett formulated her question, which concerned the design of a website for the watch, since Wilbur had set up a website for his store a couple of years ago. It was a bogus question, as Vesta had no intention of setting up a website for the watch at all. But it gave her an opportunity to talk to Kingman. So while she pretended to look at the magazine stand, she whispered,“Kingman!”

“Yah!” Kingman whispered back with a conspiratorial grin on his face.

“Have you seen Brutus? He’s gone missing!”

“You’re joking.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

Kingman studied her for a moment, then shook his head.“I can never tell with you humans.”

“I’m not joking, okay! He’s disappeared.”

“Can’t help you, I’m afraid,” said Kingman. “I haven’t seen him, and he hasn’t told me he was going someplace either. Though he did mention something about freeing turtles last night during cat choir. He was standing next to me—us both being in the baritone section and all—and he seemed really into this whole turtle theme.”

“Turtles?”

“Yah. I’m afraid I didn’t pay a lot of attention. Not being into turtles myself.”

“Who is?” said Vesta, thinking hard. She’d taken Brutus to the beach yesterday—him and his turtle, which was weird enough. “So where did he say these turtles were?”

“At the pond,” said Kingman. “Don’t ask me what pond, though.”

“There’s only one pond in town.”

“At the park,” Kingman said with a nod. “But as far as I know there’s no turtles in that pond, only ducks.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Vesta. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser.

“Vesta! Wilbur wants to know about the color scheme for the website!” Scarlett yelled.

“Gotta go,” Vesta whispered. “If you hear anything…”

“I’ll tell your cats,” Kingman assured her with a wink. “Though if you ask me, this turtle business is just a ruse. I’ll bet Brutus has gone off on a toot. Celebrate the wedding.”

“What wedding?”

“You and Wilbur, of course! Congrats, by the way. And welcome to your new home.”

“Ugh,” said Vesta, and got up. Cats. They were worse at spreading gossip than a bunch of old ladies at the hairdresser.

Chapter 31

Odelia stood staring out the kitchen window in her parents’ house. She had a lot on her mind. First there was the fact that Randy Hancock only had two and a half more days to live, and that the people responsible hadn’t been in touch since sending in their demand for ten million dollars, which according to her investigations the man simply didn’t have. And then there was the fact that her own mother was having an affair with Randy, even though the man’s sexual inclination apparently didn’t lean to the fairer sex.

On top of that Brutus had gone missing, and Gran was dating what was without a doubt the most ineligible bachelor in all of Hampton Cove. What was she even thinking!

Behind her, Mom entered the kitchen.“Hey, honey. You look pensive. Everything all right?”