e9c12ac8d703d9a536f23183edf8b22c

After the man had rung off, Odelia turned to us.“This is so odd, but did you also get the impression that he wasn’t telling us everything?”

“He definitely gave me the impression he was holding something back,” I agreed. “You, Dooley?”

“I think he was secretly in love with Laura and they were having an affair and that’s why he was kicked out of the country,” said Dooley. “Or maybe Laura had an affair with Ken and Craig both, and she didn’t know who to choose, and then her husband found out and had her killed and her body fed to the crocodiles.”

“I think your imagination is running away with you again, Dooley,” I said. “But that there’s something going on here that Ken didn’t want us to know, that’s obvious. I mean, how did Craig get his hands on that diamond without Ken knowing about it? That seems very unlikely.”

“Unlikely, but not impossible,” said Odelia. “Maybe Craig was up to something and didn’t want to tell his colleague about it.”

“Colleague and friend,” I pointed out. “They kept meeting up long after Craig had retired. That sounds like a firm friendship to me.”

Just then, Odelia’s phone rang, and she picked up with a cheery, “Hey, Mom what’s up?” She listened for a moment, then glanced down at us. “We’ll be there in five minutes.” The moment she’d disconnected, she said, “Mom says Loretta Gray has the Pink Lady, and she just walked into the Star hotel.”

“Let’s go,” I said.

“The plot thickens, doesn’t it, Max?” said Dooley

“It sure does, Dooley.”

27

We all met in front of the Star, and I have to admit that Marge had come up with a great plan of campaign.

“So we’ll go in and pretend to be Loretta’s biggest fans,” said Odelia, reiterating the plan.

“I don’t even have to pretend to be one of her biggest fans,” said Marge. “I actually am one of her biggest fans. Except for the part where she took that diamond, of course.”

“And while you get her autograph and keep her talking, I’ll snoop around. I like it, Mom. Simple and effective.”

“I didn’t know Marge had detective ambitions,” I told Harriet.

“Why, you’d be surprised by the talent we’ve got in-house,” our Persian friend said haughtily as she tilted her chin. “In fact it was our idea, wasn’t it, Brutus, to follow this diamond thief, and it was also us that recognized the insurance people in the first place, and saw them hand the diamond to this author-slash-thief.”

“Yeah, so if you want to give credit, it’s ours,” said Brutus. “Mine and Harriet’s.”

“Yes, Max, did you get that? This time all the credit for solving the mystery goes to me and Brutus and me and Brutus alone.”

“Oh, no, absolutely,” I said. “You did a great job, you guys.”

“We discovered something, too,” said Dooley.

“Whatever you discovered can’t be as big and enormous as what we discovered,” said Brutus.

“So what was it?” asked Harriet, carefully studying her nails.

“We talked to Ken Cesseki, who was Craig Bantam’s colleague in 1986, and he told us that he and Craig were arrested for talking to the Sheikh’s wife and kicked out of the country,” I said, summing up the conversation in as few words as possible, since both Marge and Odelia were raring to go in and do their thing.

Harriet frowned.“So how did his colleague get his hands on that diamond?”

I shrugged.“Ken claims he has no idea.”

“A likely story,” Harriet scoffed. “Let me tell you something, Max. If you’re going to interrogate a person, you need to use the proper technique, otherwise they’ll just lie to you and think they’re getting away with it—and it looks to me,” she added as she gave me a supercilious look, “that he actually did get away with it.”

“You should have waited for me and Harriet to be there,” said Brutus. “We would have seen right through the guy!”

“It’s very hard to put pressure on a person when you’re a cat,” I reminded my friends.

“And the conversation was all done through Skype,” said Dooley.

“Yeah, it’s even harder to put pressure on a person through Skype.”

“Ken lives in Thailand,” Dooley explained, “and likes to drink umbrella cocktails under a palm tree on the beach. But he says he’s bored of paradise and he wants to come home and spend time in Hampton Cove, which he called a cozy little town.”

“He didn’t actually say he wants to come home,” I said.

“No, but I’m sure that’s what he meant.”

“Oh, so now you’re putting words in other people’s mouths, are you?” said Harriet. “Way to go, Dooley.”

Dooley smiled widely.“Gee, thanks, Harriet. Coming from you that’s a big compliment.”

“I was being sarcastic,” said Harriet with a touch of acerbity.

“I don’t think Dooley gets sarcasm, do you, Dooley?” asked Brutus.

Dooley gave him a look of uncertainty.“What’s sarcasm, Brutus?”

But then it was time to get the show on the road, and so we followed Marge and Odelia into the hotel.