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“Yes, you do,” I said, just as gravely. Extreme situations demand extreme measures, and even though I didn’t believe in executive force, as far as I was concerned we needed to go to any lengths now to find Uncle Alec and restore law and order in our small town.

“So what are you going to do, Norm?” asked Brutus. “Kill your target by buzzing them?”

“Oh, don’t you worry about me, Brutus,” said Norm, swelling up a little from sheer self-importance. “Agent Buzzing Bond always hits his target.”

“Oh, boy,” said Harriet, shaking her head. “Sometimes I feel like I’ve landed in the middle of a vaudeville act. And a pretty lame one, too.”

“I think it’s great that Norm is offering to help us,” said Dooley. “We need all the help we can get on this one.”

“Rightly spoken, Dooley,” I said.

“I feel like we’re up against a formidable enemy,” my friend continued. “An enemy whose name just might begin with Volde and end with Mort, if you see what I mean.”

“Oh, Lord,” Harriet groaned. “Please kill me now.”

“I could, if I wanted to,” said Norm seriously. “But even though I now have a license to kill, I like to use it with extreme caution, so you’re off the hook, Harriet.”

For a moment I thought Harriet would use her license to kill to swat Norm, but she restrained herself with an extreme effort, restricting herself to giving me a very dirty look indeed. It was obvious what this look said: when this is over, that fly’s ass is grass.

Chapter 41

Solange, when she entered her trailer, was surprised to find her husband of fifteen years gazing steadily out the window, staring at nothing in particular.

“Wolf, honey,” she said. “Are you all right?”

Wolf turned.“Mh?” he said. “Oh, sure. Fine, fine.” Then he frowned. “It’s just that…”

“More strange dreams?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. I dreamt last night that I was a cop.” He chuckled at this. “Can you imagine? Me! A cop!”

Solange gave her partner a look of concern.“You know what you should do? Go and have a long talk with Selena. Like you promised you would.”

“I don’t want to talk to your sister,” said Wolf, his smile vanishing. “Every time I talk to her I end up with a splitting headache.”

“That’s because you fight her,” said Solange. “If you’d simply go along with her and do what she says, you would be just fine.”

Wolf’s face had taken on the mulish look she’d seen there so often these last couple of days. “I don’t think I like your sister. She always looks at me funny.”

“Funny, how?”

“Like… she thinks I’m not firing on all cylinders or something.”

“No, she doesn’t. She’s just concerned about you, that’s all. Like we all are.”

“Areyou concerned about me?” asked her husband, now turning away from the window and giving her a quizzical look.

“Of course I am. You’ve been behaving really strangely, honey. You know you have.”

“It’s these dreams,” he muttered, and patted his gelled hair, which soon looked like a bundle of porcupine quills sticking in every direction. “These dreams I’ve been having.”

“Stop touching your hair,” she said, annoyed.

“I like touching my hair. It makes me feel good.”

“I just wish you’d stop. You’ll ruin your perfect coif.”

He nodded obediently and heaved a deep sigh.“I’ll go and see your sister.”

“Thank you,” said Solange, much relieved. “You’ll feel much better once you do.”

“I wonder, though…” said Wolf with a frown.

“Yes?”

He stared at her for a moment.“A woman came to see me yesterday. She said her name was Odelia Poole. She’s a reporter.”

Solange’s expression darkened. “Yes, and?”

“Somehow she looked… familiar. Though for the life of me I can’t seem to place her.”

“Then don’t. She’s just a nosy parker—snooping around and asking a lot of annoying questions.” Not for the first time Solange felt they probably should shake Hampton Cove’s dust off their feet. In their line of work overstaying their welcome usually led to trouble. “If she comes back,just let the boys handle her, all right?”

“All right,” said Wolf vaguely.

She walked up to her husband and planted a gentle kiss on his lips.“Promise me,” she said, fixing him with an intent look.

“She’s just a reporter, sweetie. I can handle reporters.”

“Promise me,” she insisted when he tried to avoid her gaze.

“Okay, okay, I promise. I don’t see what the big deal is anyway.”

“Trust me, it’s important,” she said, placing her hands on his sideburns. “You’re going to need another touch-up soon,” she announced with a smile. “After you’ve talked to Selena,” she quickly added.

“Oh, all right,” said her reluctant husband.

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Odelia met Chase in the fairground parking lot. The cop had brought a couple of colleagues, and they’d already drawn up their plan of campaign: Chase had finally decided that there was no use hiding the truth from his fellow officers any longer, and had gathered them together in the police precinct main office that morning after returning from his visit to Charlene, and told them that Alec Lip,their beloved boss and chief, had been abducted.