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I stared up at the tiny hole, through which my best friend had disappeared. Oh, dear.

Chapter 21

Odelia had finally arrived home, after interviewing Colin Duffer, and the moment she walked in she knew something was wrong. Chase was seated on the couch and got up. He had a worried look on his face, and even before he spoke the words she already knew what he was going to say.

“They didn’t come home, did they?” she asked, more a statement than a question.

He shook his head.“I’m sorry, honey. I asked your mom and they’re not next door either.”

“I knew it,” she said, sinking down on the couch. “I knew something had happened to them.”

“You don’t know that. Your cats are smart. They won’t allow themselves to be caught by… whoever is doing this.”

“Whoever is doing this is out to catch all of Hampton Cove’s cats. And if we don’t stop them…” She didn’t even want to contemplate what this pied piper was planning to do with her cats. “Did you call the pound?”

“One of my officers did. Nothing. And they didn’t send out a team today either.”

“So it’s not the pound. Then who is it?”

“Maybe a person who hates cats? And before you say that people like that don’t exist, let me assure you that they do. There’s a lot of sick people out there who wouldn’t mind hurting poor, innocent animals, just to get a kick out of it. Only last year there was that case of a young guy in Belgium, of all places, who put a kitten in his oven.”

“Oh, God. I’m going to be sick.”

“Luckily they managed to save the kitten and put the sick bastard behind bars.”

“Don’t tell me these stories, Chase. You know I can’t listen to that stuff.”

“We’ll find them, and we’ll find your uncle, and all the people that have gone missing.”

“Do you think the two cases are connected? That someone is kidnapping people and cats?”

“I don’t know, babe. It seems very unlikely, though.”

Just then, Marge walked in through the sliding glass door.“Have you heard?” she asked.

“About the missing cats? Yeah, we’re on it,” said Chase.

“Cats? I was talking about your grandmother. She and Scarlett got into a big fight down at the office. Rolling-on-the-floor kind of fight. Scarlett bit your father’s ankle.”

Odelia stared at her mother as if she’d sprouted a second head. “Scarlett did what?”

“She bit Tex’s ankle. He needed disinfecting.”

“Is he all right?”

“Oh, he’s fine, but she screwed up her dentures.”

“Scarlett has dentures?”

“I didn’t know either,” said Mom. “Oh, here is your grandmother now.”

Tex and Gran walked in, Tex limping, and Gran looking like she won the lottery.

“Have you heard?” she asked, clapping her hands with glee.

“Yeah, you got into a fight,” said Odelia.

“Scarlett has dentures! Who knew!”

“By now the whole town, probably,” said Mom.

“Are you all right, Dad?” asked Odelia.

“I’ll live,” said Tex, then showed his battle scars. “She bit really hard. Almost hit bone.”

“Yeah, right,” said Gran skeptically. “They’re dentures, Tex, not vampire’s teeth. She didn’t even break the skin.”

“She did break the skin. Look at those marks!”

“You’re such a pussy.”

“But why did she bite you?” asked Chase, looking puzzled.

“She tried to grab his sausage,” said Gran.

Mom frowned and folded her arms across her chest.“She did what?!”

“It wasn’t even my sausage!” said Tex defensively. “It was your mother’s, I swear!”

“It was a Duffer,” said Gran. “And for some reason Scarlett went nuts when she saw it. Said something about it being the last Duffer in Hampton Cove and if she didn’t get a bite she was gonna freak, and then she freaked and bit Tex when he took her Duffer away.”

“She probably thought your leg was a Duffer, Tex,” said Chase.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want,” said Tex, who seemed upset at his bite marks not being appreciated the way he felt they should be. He limped back out of the house.

“He administered himself a tetanus shot, just to be on the safe side,” said Gran with a grin, “but when I told him to add a rabies shot he shot down the suggestion, the wimp.”

“So what happened to Scarlett?” asked Mom, always the humanist. “Is she all right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” said Gran. “She got her dentures back, that’s for sure. And then she waltzed out, but not before taking a big bite out of my Duffer.” She showed the Duffer in question, indicating the bite marks where Scarlett had dug her teeth in. “See? Dentures,” said Gran triumphantly. “I’ll bet nothing about that woman is real.”

“So what was that you said about missing cats?” asked Marge.

“Our cats have gone missing,” said Odelia. “They’re nowhere to be found.”

“Yeah, and there’s a catnappper going around catnapping cats,” Chase added.