Cat In A White Tie And Tails

I swagger over as best I can while dodging shuffling tourist steps. In a moment we share our own island retreat in the chaos.

“Those purse pooches are taking over the neighborhood,” the lithe and lovely Topaz says.

She is the short-hair sort, black-panther sleek, and her larger-than-life image lounges on all the hotel-casino signage. The Oasis is a trendy multicultural mélange of Indo-Asian with a touch of Mediterranean. Topaz is the best thing on the premises.

I dare to greet her with a Nose E. pass (sans slobber) at her Cleopatra-collared neck, dangling its precious topaz jewel. This is a custom necklace, no lowly collar from a pet store. Topaz roams free in the hotel-casino, different charms on her neck netting the customers a nice prize. Tonight she wears the grand prize. No wonder the poor girl is hiding out.

“Why are you here, Louie?”

“Need you ask?”

Her purr would soothe the deaf.

So I warn her. “I am worried about something bad going down at the Oasis. There was a murder once on one of the cove ships and an attack there just last weekend.”

“I am not surprised,” she tells me in an urgent hush, “since my job is literally to ‘get around’ and allow the maximum number of tourists to spot me and thus win the daily prizes. Our security chief is meeting with suspicious strangers in the hotel-casino’s hidden service areas.…”

“As the murderer did when we solved my last case here during the reality TV dancing show…”

“Yes,” she hisses, “but this is no cakewalk. Security preparations for the big Friday-night prize drawing outside are complex, but I fear they are not enough.”

“So you suspect our inside man, Mr. Rafi Nadir?”

“No. However, I clearly see he suspects everybody else.”

“Not good. What can one man do against a mob?”

“You have uttered the word I dare not say. I am getting the distinct whiff of ‘mobster.’”

“Someone needs to stop this.”

“I am so glad to see you here, Louie.” She does the velveteen brush all along my side. “This is my home. I am the logo mascot. A mere canine bit of comb-leavings cannot do the job. I need major muscle.”

I am easy. “Do not worry, Topaz. I can provide that.”

You and what army? I can hear Miss Midnight Louise jeering.

And then I feel Topaz’s bristly pink tongue doing a swirl inside my ear and hear nothing else but purrs.

Chapter 38

Game for Adventure

Pretending to stumble through the familiar dark mazes inside the Neon Nightmare pyramid, Max at last followed Hal Herald through the concealed pressure-sensitive door into a firelit and incandescent-bulb glow.