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Odelia then crouched down next to Clarice.“I’m so sorry, honey,” she said. “I guess I allowed myself to be bamboozled by Dudley, too. Can you ever forgive me?”

Clarice gave her a cold look.“Forgive you? Maybe. But I’ll never forget.” But then she grinned, and said, “Of course I’ll forgive you, Odelia. And now let’s get the bastard!”

So while Mom and Dad surveyed the devastation that Dudley’s actions had caused to the house, three teams started what is commonly termed a dragnet: the police department, led by Uncle Alec and Chase, the local neighborhood watch, led by Gran, and a troupe of cats, led by… no one in particular.

“He can’t have gotten far,” said Odelia as she glanced up and down the street.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Max. “He arrived in a cab, and I’m pretty sure he kept the cab waiting, so he’s probably on his way to New York by now, or wherever he’s going.”

Odelia nodded, and got busy calling the different cab companies that covered Hampton Cove. She got lucky with the third one, but unlucky in that she didn’t have her pickup, but lucky again when her grandmother came driving up, Scarlett riding shotgun. Gran rolled down the window and yelled, “Wanna ride with the watch, honey?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” said Odelia, and soon she was filing into the car, followed by five cats and one dog, causing Scarlett to screw up her face and yell, “So smelly!”

But then Gran put her foot down on the accelerator and they were all thrown back against the seats.

“Where are we going?” asked Gran after a moment.

“He’s heading to New York,” Odelia said. “In a cab. And I’ve got the cab’s number.”

“Better tell your uncle,” said Gran. “So he can call the cab company and tell the cab driver that he’s got a fugitive in the back of his cab.”

So Odelia did as she was told, and as they took the on-ramp to I-495, the Long Island Expressway, suddenly two squad cars joined them: one was Chase’s, the other one Uncle Alec’s, and so now the three teams were organizing a joint pursuit.

“I like this,” said Brutus. “Almost like being in an action movie.”

“My money is on your grandmother,” said Clarice. “She clearly got the skills.”

Odelia didn’t think her gran had the skills, but what she certainly had was a lack of respect for the rules and regulations covering road safety, which gave her the edge.

And as they were zooming along the road, Odelia did some quick thinking.“So if Dudley tried to kill Mom, and Dad, and you, Gran—and me, with that car crash… he must have had a reason, right? And seeing as he left the hospital and packed his bags the moment Charlene announced that the mall project was scrapped, I’m assuming it must have had something do with those millions he thought Mom and Dad were coming into.”

“So he sweet-talked his way into our family,” said Gran. “And tried to get rid of us one by one, hoping to lay his hands on that money?”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“The bastard,” said Scarlett. “Wait till I get my hands on that rotten kid.”

“No, wait till I get my hands on that no-good kid,” growled Gran.

“Let’s just try to catch him first, shall we?” Odelia suggested. “And not get ourselves killed in the process—Gran, watch it!” she added when Gran practically rear-ended a truck she apparently felt should get out of her flight path.

Odelia had Clarice on her lap, and was tickling the cat behind the ears, causing her to purr happily.

“You know?” said Clarice. “When you kicked me out I just figured it was par for the course—just another nasty human. But you’re not like most humans, Odelia. You and your family? You’re all right. And I just hate that kid for what he put you through.”

“I’m the one to blame,” said Odelia. “I should have done my due diligence. Who lets a person into their home, into their life, believing the stories they tell, without seeing if they really are who they say they are? I really dropped the ball on this one. Big time.”

“I didn’t like him from the start,” said Gran, shaking her head as she sat hunched over the wheel, her foot all the way down to the metal, the engine a high whine.

“That’s because you don’t like anyone,” said Scarlett as she checked her lipstick in the little visor mirror.

“Not true. I like you!”

“That’s what you say.”

“No, I really do!”

“Well, I don’t like you.” When Gran’s jaw fell, Scarlett laughed. “I’m kidding! You’re my buddy, buddy. And now will you please keep your eyes at the road, for Christ’s sakes?”

“I wonder how Dudley knew about Mom and Dad’s piece of land, though, and the mall development,” said Odelia.

“We’re about to find out,” said Gran, and gestured with her head to a cab that had shown up in front of them—its taillights glowing in the darkness, the Taxi sign on the roof drawing them in like a homing beacon.

And before Odelia could tell her grandmother to play this cool, Gran was already leaning on the horn.

“Just rear-end him,” said Scarlett.

“No, don’t rear-end him!” said Odelia.

“Just hit him, Vesta—hit him!”

“Don’t hit him!”