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“They should have been home by now,” grumbled Brutus, taking up position on the stool to Gran’s other side.

“They’re probably in town or in the park,” said Gran distractedly while she read through Gabe Crier’s Wikipedia page again.

“I guess they are,” said Harriet dubiously.

It was actually the first time that Harriet had expressed concern about Max, and the realization made Gran sit up.“So what makes you think they’re in trouble?”

“I’m not sure,” said Harriet. “Just a bad feeling I have.”

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling, too,” said Brutus.

Huh. Two cats with bad feelings. That was a first.“What do you think happened?” she asked. Others might scoff at feline intuition, just as they might scoff at female intuition, but Gran, after a long life lived in the company of cats, knew never to discard those sensations. Often they were warranted.

“I’m not sure,” said Harriet. “But they should be home by now.”

“Yeah, Max isn’t one to miss his dinner,” said Brutus.

“Nor is Dooley,” Harriet added.

“We told Odelia and Chase, and they left to look for them,” said Brutus.

“Oh, so Odelia is on the case? Then you’ve got nothing to worry about. If anyone can find them it’s Odelia. She and Max share a special bond.”

“Not lately,” said Harriet.

“What do you mean?”

“Odelia has been neglecting us. Which is why we went on strike.”

“You went on strike?” asked Gran with a laugh.

“Yeah, all of us,” said Brutus. “If Odelia stops sending the love, we stop helping her catch the bad guys or write her articles. So we went on strike.”

“Huh,” said Gran. It made perfect sense to her. If Odelia decided to ignore her precious cats, of course they would rebel. “You did the right thing,” she said. “Though you might have talked to Odelia before you decided to go on strike. I mean, how do you know she knows you’re on strike,if you know what I mean? And if she doesn’t know, how can she be expected to change?”

This made both Harriet and Brutus think for a moment.

“Yeah, I guess we should have said something,” Harriet finally admitted.

“We were upset,” said Brutus. “So we didn’t think.”

“Don’t worry. It’s been known to happen to me,” said Gran. “Now why don’t we simply wait for Odelia to return? I’m sure she’ll find Max and Dooley. Okay?”

Both cats nodded, clearly much relieved. It touched Gran’s heart to know how much her cats cared for each other. Usually cats are characterized as solitary creatures who don’t play nice with other members of their species, but that obviously wasn’t the case with Max, Dooley, Harriet and Brutus. They were a foursome that watched out for one another.

“What are you doing, Gran?” asked Harriet now, her most pressing concern addressed and alleviated.

“The Leonidas Flake business. I’m not so sure they got the right guy.”

“You don’t think the lover did it?” asked Brutus.

“Just a hunch,” she said. “Like you with Max missing? Same for me with this case. Just a hunch not all is as it seems.”

“We should probably talk to Pussy,” said Harriet.

“Pussy? I thought you had talked to her.”

“No, we didn’t,” said Harriet. “We were on strike, remember?”

Harriet was right. If there was one cat who knew what was going on, it would be Pussy. And so Gran made one of those impulsive decisions that were typical of her and could drive the people around her up the wall sometimes.“Let’s go,” she told Harriet and Brutus, and jumped down from the stool.

“Go where?” asked Harriet, perking up.

“We’re driving over to the Flake place to talk to Pussy. I don’t know why, but I have a strong suspicion she’s the key to this whole darn mystery.”

Chapter 21

“I want you to know, Max,” said Dooley, “that you’ve always been the cat in the world I’ve admired the most.”

“Thanks, I guess,” I said. I was pacing the room, trying to come up with a way out of our predicament. It was a little hard to see how, though, as the room had been designed to keep its inhabitants in, or at least that was my impression.

“And I want you to know that you can have all my earthly possessions after I’m gone,” Dooley continued.

“You seem to forget that if you die, I’m dying along with you, Dooley.”

This seemed to give him pause.“Oh, right,” he said. “I forgot about that. So to whom can I dictate my last will and testament?” He turned to Pussy. “Pussy, I’ve always admired you from afar, and I want you to know—”

“You didn’t even know me before today,” said Pussy. “And besides, once you two are dead I might as well be dead, too. They’re never going to let me out of this room. This is going to be my prison until the day I die, which might be sooner than I want. Cats in captivity rarely live to a ripe old age.”

“How old are you now?” asked Dooley, interested.

“Four.”

“Oh? You look a lot older.”

“Um, thanks, I guess.”

I’d already checked the windows, but they were all locked solid, the door was one of those rusty steel doors that Leo seemed to have favored, so no dice either, and there were no nooks and crannies that could assist us in our escape. Unless…