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He was addressing Gran, of course, who took the comment in stride and said,“Scarlett happened to notice that Johnny Carew is staying here. Isn’t that right, Scarlett?”

“Yeah, I saw him glancing out of one of the windows on the third floor earlier today.”

Uncle Alec’s frown deepened. “Johnny Carew? Here?”

“Yup,” said Scarlett, inordinately pleased that she was able to supply such an important clue.

Things were getting a little crowded, for close on the heels of Uncle Alec, Odelia and Chase came walking in.

“Only the people who are supposed to be here, can stay,” said the Chief, who was getting seriously annoyed. “That means Chase and Odelia. You, you and you—out!”

The first you referred to Gran, and she didn’t look happy about being excluded like this. The second you, Scarlett, looked equally unhappy, and the third you, which was a collective you indicating the entire contingency of cats, showed their unhappiness with this state of affairs by breaking into loud and plaintive mewling.

“Is this a crime scene or auditions for The Voice!” Uncle Alec bellowed as he pressed his hands to his ears. “Okay, the cats can stay, but only if they don’t contaminate the scene. Odelia—I’m holding you personally responsible!”

And so it was decided: we all got to stay and sniff around for clues, while Odelia and Chase handled the investigation. Gran’s neighborhood watch, meanwhile, was relegated to the sidelines—i.e. the corridor, where they could lament to their heart’s content.

And as Brutus and Harriet took up the inspection of the suite, Dooley and I moved through the connecting door into the next room, where we found, much to our surprise, that two people had decided that the best way to spend an evening was to go and hide in the bedroom closet. Our well-developed sense of smell had immediately taken us there, and as we sat and meowed, Odelia and Chase quickly came over and opened the closet, revealing two men, trussed up and with rags shoved into their mouths. They were giving us piteous looks.

I recognized them. They’d been part of the waitstaff at Charlene’s big ‘keys to the city’ shindig, where they’d provided the guests with canap?s and other amuse-gueules.

It was but the work of a moment to free them of their restraints, and then they both started talking simultaneously. Only after being advised that it was always better for one person to be the spokesperson of the team, did a thickset man with bristly white hair start relating the story of his ordeal. More specifically how they’d ended up in the closet.

“Two guys came bursting in here and locked us up!” the white-haired man complained.

His friend, who was thin and who had a full black beard, confirmed his fellow closet inhabitant’s words and said, “They knocked us out, too,” and pointed to a spot on his head where presumably he’d sustained a knock on his noggin. I could see that he had a bump, which looked very painful.

“What did they look like, these men?” asked Chase, though I had an idea that I already knew what was coming.

“One was big and strong, the other short and skinny,” said the spokesperson.

“Did the short skinny one have a face like a ferret?” asked Odelia.

The spokesperson leveled a look of surprise at our human, and I could tell that for a brief moment he wondered if she was psychic.“How did you know?”

“Johnny Carew and Jerry Vale,” said Odelia, grim-faced.

“I should have known,” said Chase.

From yet another connecting door, this one leading to one room over, Dooley said,“Better come and have a look at this, Max!”

So I moved over there, followed by Odelia and Chase, and when we passed through we found ourselves in a room probably as messy as any I’d ever seen. There were food wrappers all over, and clothes strewn about, and wet towels on every available surface.

“It smells a lot like Johnny and Jerry,” said Dooley.

“So…” said Odelia, processing this information. “Johnny and Jerry were probably holed up in here for the last couple of days, judging from the detritus, until they decided to knock out their two neighbors, so they could get into Lord Hilbourne’s suite through the connecting door. There was a fight, they grabbed Hilbourne, and took off with him.”

“Question is: where did they take him?” said Chase, then glanced down at us. “Can’t your cats sniff out their escape route?”

“Max? Dooley?” said Odelia. And for a moment I thought she was going to say, “Fetch!” But luckily she remembered just in time that we were cats, not dogs. Without further ado or instructions we moved back into the next room, where Johnny and Jerry’s first burst of violence had expended itself, then into Lord Hilbourne’s suite, where we found Harriet and Brutus. And as we transferred the mission we’d just accepted, we all started sniffing around, until we met up near the window, which led to a balcony, which led to… a fire escape. Odelia, and Chase, who’d followed our progress with keen interest, now stood gazing down the fire escape.

“Thanks, you guys,” said Odelia. “I think we’ll take it from here.”