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The moment we arrived upstairs, Dooley made a beeline for the iPad and moments later the lively voices of Harriet and Brutus sounded through the room. When I joined him, Dooley had already explained about the big murder case, the cat burglar and, most importantly, the sultry cat we’d made the acquaintance of last night: the lady Marion.

“Marion,” said Harriet thoughtfully. “I don’t think I like that name. Somehow reminds of a feline I used to know who was a real piece of work.”

“Oh, Marion is a piece of work,” said Dooley, adopting a reverent tone. “A work of art the likes of which the world has never seen. Just like the Mona Lisa.”

Harriet and Brutus shared a look of surprise.“It almost sounds as if you’ve got a thing for this cat,” said Brutus. “You’re not going native on us, are you?”

Dooley looked to me for an explanation, but I declined to wade into a potential controversy so I pretended not to have heard Brutus’s comment.

Of course the latter couldn’t stop himself from elucidating. “The French are notorious for enjoying a full and often complicated love life,” he said. “In fact it sometimes would appear as if love is the only thing they have on their minds—apart fromhaute couture, of course.”

“Well, I don’t have love on the brain,” said Dooley. “I just think Marion is very kind and very sweet, and of course very lovely.” He smiled. “And she has the cutest accent, you guys. Very French.”

“Yeah, sounds like Dooley caught the bug,” said Brutus with a grin. “The Paris bug!”

Dooley looked up in alarm.“What bug? Is it contagious, you think? Oh, no! Maybe I’ll have to quarantine now. And just when Odelia is working her case and Chase is giving an important speech at his conference!”

“I don’t think this particular bug is contagious, Dooley,” I said. “And also, I don’t think it’s a nasty bug.”

“It can make you pretty sick, though,” said Harriet, and it sounded as if she spoke from experience.

“I hope I don’t get too sick,” said Dooley. “I don’t like to be sick. Especially when we’re on vacation.”

“So have you climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower yet?” asked Brutus.

“I already told you, we’re not allowed up there,” I said.

“Nonsense. Odelia can easily sneak you up, safely tucked away in her backpack. Then at least when you get back to Hampton Cove you can tell people you saw Paris. Something more than the interior of a hotel room, that is.”

He was right, of course. Then again, to be honest I wasn’t all that interested in seeing what Paris looked like from the top of the Eiffel Tower. And I liked our hotel room very much, thank you very much. It was just the right size for a cat of my dimensions.

“The food is great,” I said, trying to get the discussion realigned in a more amenable direction. “In fact the food is amazing.”

“I’ll bet,” said Brutus, not convinced.

“So how is everybody over there?” I asked.

“Oh, you know. Fine, I guess,” said Harriet. “Gran has started up her neighborhood watch again, and she and Scarlett are patrolling the streets at night. They even bought night-vision goggles and stun guns and pepper spray so they can fight crime with more vigor.”

“They got arrested last night, though,” said Brutus.

“Arrested!” Dooley cried. “But why!”

“We were there, actually, weren’t we, tootsie roll?” said Brutus. “We got to ride with them.”

“Some neighbor called the police on us,” said Harriet. “Said he’d seen a couple of heavily armed gangsters slowly driving past his house, lights turned off and clearly up to no good. And when he looked a little closer he said they either looked like monsters or aliens, so he suspected an alien invasion.”

“Must have been those night-vision goggles,” said Brutus.

“He also said there were two cats in the car, looking particularly menacing.”

“I wasn’t looking menacing,” Brutus grunted. “I was just looking my usual self.”

“Menacing and extremely dangerous,” Harriet continued her report. “And he wasn’t the only neighbor either. No less than half a dozen people called it in, and so the police turned up in full force, and we were all arrested.”

“You were also arrested?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, until they realized that we were actual cats, not an alien species.”

“To be honest, cats are an alien species, sweetums,” said Brutus. “Of a kind.”

“The third kind,” said Harriet with a smile. “Well, they let us go, of course, but Gran and Scarlett were booked and spent the night at the precinct. Until Uncle Alec arrived and discovered what happened and they were released again.”

“That must have been pretty awkward,” I said.

“Yeah, Gran wasn’t happy about it, that’s for sure,” said Harriet. “I’ve heard she screamed the house down when she was finally let go.”

“So are they going out there again tonight?” I asked.

“I doubt it,” said Harriet. “Gran feels Hampton Cove doesn’t deserve her brand of neighborhood protection. She said she’ll have to think long and hard before she spends her precious time guarding a bunch of ungrateful so-and-sos ever again.”

“Also, she’s pressing charges,” said Brutus.