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“She wasn’t anywhere near the Summer Show, or the homeless shelter,” said Nesbit. “She also wasn’t at the house when the tea thing happened. She’d gone home.”

“What about the housekeeper?” Odelia remembered she’d kicked out her cats the night before, which of course didn’t mean she was a killer, but still.

“She was here when the tea incident happened, but she didn’t attend the Summer Show, and she wasn’t at the homeless shelter this morning.”

“So where does that leave us?” asked Angela.

“Nowhere,” said Gran.

Tessa threw up her hands.“This is crazy. Someone is trying to kill me and we’re just going around in circles. This person might very well be on the verge of striking again and we’re simply getting nowhere.”

“Have you examined the bullet that grazed Tessa’s cheek?” asked Chase.

“We have—in all discretion. It was fired from a Glock 17, probably procured on the black market, as ownership of handguns is tightly regulated.”

“I think we should let the police handle things from now on,” said Dante, voicing an opinion he’d expressed before. “All this cloak and dagger stuff is all very exciting, but they have the resources and the experience to handle the investigation the way it should have been handled from the start.”

“You seem to forget that all members of our protection team are police officers,” said Tessa. “They’re more than qualified to deal with this.”

“After three botched attempts on your life and one dognapping excuse me if I have my doubts about their professionalism, Tessa. I think they should all go and be replaced by an entirely new team. No offense, Nesbit.”

“None taken,” said Odelia’s cousin. “They’re good guys, all of them, dedicated to your family, but whoever is behind this is a slippery bastard.”

“Give us one more chance,” said Odelia. “I know we can find this guy.”

Dante wavered, but Tessa was giving him a pleading look and finally he relented.“All right, fine. One more day. But if by tomorrow evening you don’t have a solid lead, I’m bringing Scotland Yard into the picture. This has got to stop, Tessa. I won’t let you put yourself in harm’s way like this.”

“Odelia will find out what ’s going on,” said Tessa, with a conviction Odelia herself wasn’t feeling.

One more day. She needed to get her act together and get to the bottom of this thing or else they were all on the next plane back to Hampton Cove, or worse, the next attempt on Tessa’s life would be successful. And she would never forgive herself if that happened.

A child started crying in the next room, and Tessa got up. She placed a hand on Odelia’s shoulder. “I trust you, Odelia. You can do this.”

If only she felt as confident in her abilities as Tessa did…

Chapter 29

While the humans were all ensconced in a room discussing the recent dramatic events, I was wandering the house and wondering how to contribute to the unraveling of the mystery. Frankly I didn’t have a lot to contribute. As far as I could tell anyone could have kidnapped us. And it wasn’t anyone we’d met so far.

So I decided to give the investigation a rest for now, and await further instructions from sleuthin-charge Odelia.

And as I was pottering to and fro, trying to find that perfect spot to take a well-deserved nap, I was softly humming a little tune to myself. It’s my habit to sing, not when I’m in the shower, for as you may or may not know, cats don’t enjoy taking showers, but to aid the thinking process. Also, I’m something of a songbird. What can I say—I just enjoy the joy of singing!

Dooley, who was sampling a spot on the couch in front of the big television set, winced as I passed and sang my few bars.

Harriet, who was inspecting a nice throw pillow on the second couch, likewise screwed up her face and gave me a long, lingering look that didn’t harbor a lot of warmth and appreciation for livening up her day with song.

Brutus, who was eyeing a shelf laden with knickknacks, thinking up ways and means of making the jump and lounging there for a while, shook his head.“Can you please stop that racket? I can’t hear myself think.”

“It is a little annoying,” agreed Fluffy, who, as queen of the castle, had reserved the prime spot all to herself: a basket on the floor near the window, where she had a great overview both of the goings-on inside and outside.

“I was just humming a gay little tune,” I said defensively.

“We need to continue our lessons, Max,” Harriet said now. “And we might as well do it now, as there seems to be a lull in the investigation.”

A lull was right. It would appear that none of the humans had a clue how to proceed in catching this dastardly demon who was gunning for lovely Tessa.

“Oh, great,” I said, not expecting this. “I would love to put in some more practice.”