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“He’s learned his lesson,” Odelia said with a laugh. “In fact I have a feeling the entire contingent of seducers will run a mile when they see me coming. Word spreads pretty fast around here.”

“Good,” said Chase decidedly.

The topic of seducers and seductresses exhausted, they turned the conversation to the topic of the missing women. And Odelia had just started telling Chase what Jack Davenport had said about Joanna, when suddenly a loud banging sound interrupted us.

The door to the shack flew open and revealed Clint Bunda, looking appropriately aggrieved, and accompanied by no less than two cameramen, both pointing their cameras at Odelia, who was holding the phone.

“Chase?” she said now. “I’m going to have to call you back.” She carefully hit the disconnect button, then sheepishly grinned at the producer. “Hi, Clint. You’re up early.”

Chapter 34

After the producer had confiscated her phone, and escorted her from the shack, he gave her a thorough dressing-down.

“I could have you sent away for this,” he growled, hands on his hips and looking like a disappointed parent. The words ‘I’m not angry but I’m disappointed’ clearly trembled on his lips.

“I’m sorry,” said Odelia, looking as contrite as she could manage. “I miss Chase, and these daily phone calls keep me going.”

“The whole point of the show is to keep you separated from your boyfriend!”

“I know. I’m sorry,” she repeated, hanging her head.

“Look, I’m going to give you a pass,” said Clint. “Just this once. And only because you’re our most popular contestant.”

Odelia looked up at this.“What do you mean?”

“We’ve been posting snippets of the footage we’ve shot so far on social media and our YouTube channel, whetting the public’s appetite for the upcoming season, and your clips are consistently number one. In fact the clips of your cats clobbering Mike and you knocking out Fred have gone viral. People can’t wait to see you in action, Odelia!”

“Um, that’s great, I guess,” she said, not knowing exactly how to feel about this.

“So I want you to continue—but no more secret phone calls to the boyfriend, okay?”

“I promise, Clint. I’ll be good from now on.”

Unless Kimmy had another spare phone she didn’t have a lot of choice, did she?

“Listen,” he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder and started steering her away from the shack. “If you could keep this up, there might be a bonus in it for you.”

“Keep what up?” she asked.

“The public loves what you’re doing, so if you could do more of it, they’ll lap it up.”

“You mean knock out more seducers?”

“No, no, no,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, yeah, maybe. I don’t know. Just do what you do, and I’ll make sure you get the best coverage. I’m talking prime placement on the network’s website, paid ads, the works. If I’m not mistaken—and I rarely am—you’re going to be this season’s star, sweetheart. And we’re going to milk it for all it’s worth.”

She gave the producer a watery smile. She hadn’t exactly come to Thailand to be a star, and she had a feeling all this attention might even be detrimental to her chances of solving this case. Detectives rarely work well when placed under the limelight. Being in the shadows, unnoticed, working away in the background is more their thing.

“That’s great,” she said, without much excitement. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” And with a pat on the back, he was off, leaving her to consider her new role as Passion Island’s rising star.

Max and Dooley had come trotting up, and they looked as surprised as she was.

“So you’re going to be a reality star now?” asked Max. “Like Kim Kardashian?”

“I doubt it,” said Odelia as she started the hike back to the resort at a slower pace than the producer, who’d already disappeared out of sight. “I’ll get my fifteen minutes of fame and that’ll be it. And a good thing, too. I don’t think I’d like that kind of scrutiny.”

“You could start your own show,” Dooley now suggested. “Keeping Up with the Pooles. I’m sure lots of people would be interested.”

“No, thanks,” said Odelia. “People don’t want to see me talking to my cats and sniffing around town for obscure clues and suspects.”

“Gran would like it,” said Max. “In fact I’m pretty sure she’d love it.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it. But I’d hate to live my life under a magnifying glass, a bunch of people with cameras filming every second of it.”

“You do know that reality shows are completely scripted, right?” said Max. “You show the public whatever you want to show. None of it is even remotely real.”

“Still, I think I’ll pass,” she said. Just the thought of her family being on national TV gave her the creeps. Though, as Max had said, Gran would probably love it, and so would Harriet. “Look, we’re here to solve a case,” she reminded her feline friends. “Not to become famous. So let’s focus on figuring out what’s going on, shall we?” She had a jacuzzi meeting with the three other contestants scheduled after breakfast, and she hoped to pump her fellow candidates for information, especially Joanna.