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Suddenly a police siren sounded, and the police car they’d spotted earlier came zooming past, flashing light and all, then disappeared around that same corner.

“Look what you did,” said Vesta. “Now the cops are going to get all the credit.”

“Who lives here?” asked Wilbur, pointing to the fence.

“Lil Leaky Fruit Loop,” said Francis. “He’s a rapper,” he added when they all stared at him in wonder.

“Well, at least we saved Mr. Fruit Loop the inconvenience of being burgled,” said Scarlett.

“Small consolation,” Vesta murmured.

26

Dooley and I had decided to skip cat choir for a change. It didn’t look like we were welcome there anymore, and since dog choir hadn’t really done it for me, a nice evening at home seemed like the ticket. And we were both sleeping peacefully at the foot of the bed—of course interspersed with the occasional trip downstairs to have a nibble and a pop into the litter box—when suddenly Odelia’s phone rang.

“Who can that be?” asked a sleepy Odelia as she grabbed for the device. She got it after the third attempt and muttered, “It’s Dan.”

“Dan?” said an equally sleepy Chase. “What does he want?”

“Dan? Hi,” said Odelia. “What’s up?”

She listened for a moment, then said,“We’re coming over.” She turned to Chase. “Dan says there was a breakin at the office. He’s already called it in but wants me to check if they took anything.”

“I’ll drive you,” said Chase, as he swung his feet from underneath the covers.

“We’ll come, too!” I said.

And so it was that we entered Odelia’s office in the middle of the night, when most humans are sound asleep in their beds.

Dan was waiting for us in his office, looking grim. He was dressed in his pajamas, his white beard looking as if a strong gale had had its way with it, his white hair tousled.“I think they were in your office but I’m not sure,” he said. A couple of Chase’s colleagues were already looking around to figure out how the thieves had gotten in, and Chase joined them.

Odelia quickly headed over to her own office, followed by yours truly and Dooley, and we found her computer on the floor, a chair turned over, plenty of drawers open and the floor littered with documents.“Check to see if they took something,” Dan advised. “I already checked my office, and as far as I can tell nothing was taken.”

“How did Dan know they broke in?” I asked.

“Dan had an alarm system installed last year,” Odelia explained after Dan had returned to assist the officers. “Whenever the alarm is tripped an app on his phone sends him an alert.”

She heaved her computer back onto her desk and booted it up.“It works,” she announced happily. Odelia also has a laptop, but she still uses her old bulky computer. It looks like a dinosaur, but unlike the dinosaurs refuses to go extinct. It’s synced with her laptop, which she mainly uses at home. She quickly started looking through her files.

“Did they access the computer?” I asked.

“Looks like they did.”

I glanced around at the mess on the floor. Fortunately the thieves had left Dooley and my little nook in the corner untouched. Then again, only the two of us have use for that cozy basket, those ultra-soft blankets and those plush toys.

“I don’t understand why anyone would break into a newspaper,” Dooley said. “There’s no money here, or anything of particular value.”

“Could be vandals, I suppose,” I said. “They’ll break in just for the fun of it.”

“I got it,” said Odelia. “They accessed the article I was working on about the Hampton Heisters. They put it in the trash but didn’t delete it, so I can easily retrieve it again.” She messed around on her computer some more, then announced, “They also deleted a chunk of emails. Looks like all the emails from last year.”

“Do you think it was the Hampton Heisters?” asked Dooley.

“I think so,” she said. “They must have been after my articles on them. Maybe wanting to find out where the investigation stands. Everybody knows Chase is my husband, so they must have figured I was an easier target than to break into the precinct.”

“Those Hampton Heisters are a real pain in the patootie,” I said.

Chase entered the office, followed by Uncle Alec, who’d also just gotten out of bed, judging from the electric hair he was sporting. “And? Anything?”

“They tried to delete my article on the Hampton Heisters,” said Odelia, “and also they deleted a bunch of my emails.”

“Those Hampton Heisters again,” said Uncle Alec grimly. “Ma almost caught them this evening, but that idiot Wilbur Vickery got in the way. And when a patrol car finally got wise, they chased after them but of course by then they’d already disappeared.”

“They tried to break in somewhere?” asked Odelia.

“Yeah, some rapper’s house.”

“You would think that with one of their gang behind bars they’d lay low for a while,” said Chase.

“Looks like they’re determined to keep going until they’re all caught,” said the Chief. “Look, you better go back to bed. I’ll deal with this. No sense in all of us sticking around.”

“You don’t think they’ll be back?” asked Odelia.