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And just as I was catching my breath again, who’d pass us by but a long, thin man with a nasty scar slicing his brow and a slight limp!

Chapter 23

“Let’s go, Max!” Dooley cried, and was up and running before the fact that Scarface had once again entered the picture had thoroughly registered in my mind.

It’s easy to say ‘Let’s go’ when you’re as lissome as Dooley, but a lot harder to accomplish when you’re blessed with big bones like me. By the time I’d managed to break the hold gravity held over me and was going well, a certain amount of time had elapsed.

So for the reader of these chronicles it might be a good idea to reiterate the state of affairs: there was Odelia, running like a young foal, eager to have speech with her fianc?, then Scarface, no doubt filled with nefarious thoughts of snatching young maidens in the bloom of their lives and doing God knows what with them, then Dooley, running full out, conscious of a strong desire to protect said maiden, and finally, at a distance, your correspondent, huffing and puffing in the morning heat, and perspiring like a long-distance runner about to pass mile twenty and moving into the home stretch.

My paws were killing me, and so was my belly which, for some inexplicable reason, kept flopping around as I pottered on. And it was as I was starting to see red spots moving into my field of vision that I caught up with Dooley, who’d caught up with Scarface, who’d caught up with Odelia, who was now glancing around furtively and entered a sad-looking little shack built next to a tall fence lining the resort’s domain.

Scarface had ducked behind a bush of uncertain antecedents, and Dooley had ducked behind another bush, so as to spy on the spy. I joined my friend in his bush.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I plunked down heavily. I had the feeling I was melting, as sweat dripped from my paws, the only area, I might add, cats can sweat through, and I was glad for the reprieve. Even though I dislike Vena Aleman, our designated vet, I had a feeling she would have looked at me askance right now, for exerting myself to this extent.

“Scarface is talking into his phone,” said Dooley. “And Odelia just went into that shack over there.”

“We should be in that shack,” I said, gulping like a fish on dry land, “finding out what’s going on with Chase and the others.”

“But if we go into the shack we can’t keep an eye on Scarface,” Dooley pointed out, and I had to admit he was right.

“I think it’s the heat,” I said, waving a paw in front of my face. “It’s starting to affect my mental faculties.”

Scarface was indeed talking into his phone, then held it up in the manner perfected by all amateur smartphone users in the direction of the shack. He was clearly filming Odelia again, which seemed to be some kind of obsession with this horrible man.

“He must be the guy who keeps abducting women,” I said after I’d filled my lungs with some much-needed oxygen.

“Do you think he wants to kidnap Odelia?” asked Dooley, sounding shocked.

“I think so. He broke into her room and filmed her sleeping, then tried to access her laptop and tablet computer, and now he’s filming her again. The guy is obsessed with her, that much is obvious.”

“We have to warn her, Max. The moment she comes out of that shack he’ll grab her.”

“I don’t think so. He could have grabbed her before, and he didn’t. He’s waiting for something. Watching and waiting.”

Dooley shivered.“It’s very creepy.”

“It is,” I agreed. “Come on. Let’s circle around and enter that shack from the back.”

I’d recovered enough to perform this feat, and soon we found ourselves at the other side of the shack, and to our elation managed to sneak inside through a crack in the dilapidated structure’s side.

“It’s one theory,” Odelia was saying, “though it sounds very unlikely to me, if I’m honest.”

“Yeah, it sounds pretty unlikely to me, too,” we heard Chase respond when Odelia put the phone in speaker mode.

“Gran thinks the seductresses are behind the kidnappings,” Odelia explained for our sake. “So they can marry their husbands,” she added when we stared at her, a lack of comprehension apparently written all over our features. “So how are you holding up?” Odelia asked now.

“I’m fine,” said Chase. “But can I ask you a question? Who’s the guy you were chatting with last night?”

Odelia smiled.“Oh, that’s just Mike. He’s harmless.”

“Mike, huh,” said Chase, and his voice betrayed his displeasure.

Odelia giggled.“You’re not jealous, are you?”

“Of course I’m jealous! I have to sit here while Magic Mike tries his best moves on my girl.”

“I can handle Mike, don’t worry. And I have no intention of causing the gong to go off,” said Odelia, sounding amused. “How about you? You were having a great time with some of those seductresses.”

“If you mean your grandmother, who I spent half the night talking to at the bar, I think it’s safe to say you have nothing to worry about.”

“No, I don’t mean my grandmother. I mean that blond bimbo who couldn’t stop staring at your butt.”