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I don’t know if you know this, but hotels have something called room service, which means you can order anything you like from a menu and they bring it up to your room. It’s absolutely wonderful, and apart from the box spring may just be the best invention made by man. So of course I’d ordered a nice meaty treat, and so had Dooley, and practically without delay it had been delivered to the room!

As I tucked into all this deliciousness, the TV stood blaring away in a corner of the room, without anyone actually paying any attention to it. The newscaster was saying something about a diamond smuggle ring being active in the city, and also the price of gas and petrol going up—due to something called inflation—so I quickly tuned him out and padded over to the balcony, nudged open the door, and walked out, offering myself a view of a Paris that was ready to meet dusk.

It was still as glorious a view as before, only now with lights starting to flicker on all across town.

“Nice,” I murmured, then rolled up on the floor and promptly dozed off again.

Brutus would have said I was risking my life, being exposed like this to this cat burglar, but I was prepared to take my chances. As long as Odelia didn’t get it into her nut to bling me up with diamonds and pearls, I had a feeling I was pretty safe.

CHAPTER 6

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Odelia and Chase must have gone downstairs to have dinner in the hotel dining room and returned, for I’d been fast asleep on that nice bed and woken up, had a bite to eat, a quick tinkle, then fallen asleep again, alongside my friend.

In what felt like the middle of the night, we were all awakened by a persistent banging on the door.

“If it’s room service, tell them to go away,” I murmured. “And come back at a reasonable hour.”

Chase had jumped from the bed and was cautiously making his way over to the door.

“Maybe it’s the cat burglar!” said Dooley. “Maybe he’s come to take me!”

“Cat burglars don’t knock on doors, Dooley,” I said. “And for the millionth time, cat burglars don’t target cats, not even pretty ones like you.”

“Be careful, honey,” said Odelia, also on her feet.

Chase nodded and then opened the door to peer at this late-night arrival.

We heard a woman’s voice ask, “Oh, is-is Adeola in, please? It’s urgent.”

“Come on in,” said Chase, and allowed the visitor to step into the room.

She was a tall woman with long blond hair and a pained expression on her face. I would have pegged her a few years north of forty, and judging from the classy dress she was wearing she was one of the hotel’s more wealthy guests.

“Adeola?” she asked, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. But when Odelia said, ‘Yes,’ she seemed confused. “I’m looking for Adeola,” she repeated. “Someone told me this was her room?”

“Yes, I’m Odelia,” said Odelia.

“Oh,” said the woman, clutching at her neck. “In that case I’m afraid there has been a mistake. The person I’m looking for is Adeola O’Mahony. She’s my husband’s production assistant.”

“And your husband is…” Chase inquired.

She turned to him, and seemed reluctant to answer the question, but then finally said,“Oscar Kinetic. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you, but…”

She seemed lost somehow, as if some heavy burden was weighing her down.

“Here, take a seat,” said Odelia, as she came to the woman’s aid. “Are you all right?”

The woman shook her head.“I-I don’t…” And then all of a sudden she burst into a flood of tears!

Odelia immediately gestured for Chase to close the door and get a glass of water, while she sat next to the woman on the sofa and placed an arm around her shoulders.

“There, there,” she said gently. “It can’t be as bad as all that, now can it?”

“You’re Americans,” said the woman.

“Odelia and Chase Kingsley,” said Odelia. “We’re here on holiday.”

The woman nodded as she gratefully accepted a glass of water from Chase.“Agatha Kinetic, and frankly I don’t know what to do right now.”

“What’s the problem?” asked Chase, but Odelia waved him away. Chase was a great cop, but his bedside manner left something to be desired.

Mrs. Kinetic locked eyes with me, for some reason, and seemed to draw comfort from the sight of two fluffy cats lying on the bed, for a faint smile appeared on her face.

“I’ve left my husband,” she announced, quite out of the blue, I thought. She sat up a little straighter, as if these words had galvanized her. “I discovered that he’s been cheating on me, you see. I always suspected it, but now tonight I received proof. Pictures of him and… this other woman. And so I need to get away from him. Only, I’m thousands of miles from home, and someone else arranged my travel plans, so my passport…”

“Adeola O’Mahony has it,” said Odelia, understanding dawning.

Agatha nodded as she wiped at her eyes.“That’s the problem when you rely too much on your husband for these kinds of practical things. When you want to leave him, you end up depending on him to make it happen.”