I glanced in through the window and saw that the lawyer was seated at the dining room table, discussing ways and means of structuring their estate with Odelia and Chase, while Uncle Alec, Charlene, Marge, Tex, Gran, and Scarlett awaited their turn on the couch. Looked like it was going to be a long evening for the lawyer, who was having to work harder than ever.

“Okay, maybe I’ll join you,” I said.

Harriet was right. I wasn’t going to get any nap time. Unless I headed over to Tex and Marge and found a place to sleep there. But as it happens, I like to take my naps in my favorite spots, and those are all located in Odelia’s little home, which is also my own home. Dooley likes to move between the two homes, and Harriet and Brutus consider the Poole home theirs.

We headed out and took the little path that separates both houses to arrive on the sidewalk. And we had just emerged out front when I saw that a white van was parked at the curb that I had never seen there before.

“Odd,” I said. “I wonder whose van that is.”

My friends all studied the vehicle. “Maybe Marcie and Ted got a new set of wheels?” Brutus suggested.

“Or Kurt and Gilda?” said Harriet, referring to our other neighbors.

Unfortunately for us, it was one of those vans with tinted windows, so we couldn’t see who was inside. I thought this was all very suspicious, especially coming on the heels of the assassination attempt on our friendly lawyer guest, and so I figured that maybe it was a good idea to talk to Chase and have him check this van out.

We all returned to where we had come from to alert the cop. We ventured into the house through the pet flap, forming a conga line of four, and trudged up to Odelia. “There’s a van parked out in front that looks suspicious,” I told her.

“Better go and take a look,” Brutus suggested.

“It could be the killers,” Harriet added.

Odelia gave her husband a quick glance, but he was so busy listening to the lawyer that she couldn’t very well tell him that her cats had just seen a suspicious van parked across the street from the house. The lawyer might think his hosts were two nutcases.

“I’ll go and take a look if you like,” said Grace.

“Nooo!” we all yelled as one cat.

“You better stay here, honey,” said Harriet. “It’s too dangerous out there for you right now.”

“Suit yourself,” said the little girl. “But I think I have a right to be involved if a bunch of strange men are watching the house. I mean, it’s my house too, you know. My mommy and daddy have even told that lawyer the same thing.”

I smiled and gave her a slight stroke of my tail. “I know you have every right to know if someone is watching the house,” I said. “But these men could be after our guest. And if that’s the case, they might have guns and might shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Okay, fine,” she said, but didn’t look happy to be excluded. “But I’ll have you know that I’m a big girl now. And that I can take real good care of myself. Even Chantal said so today. She said, ‘Grace Kingsley, you are a real busybody!’ And that’s a big compliment.”

I could have told her that busybody isn’t really much of a compliment, but since I didn’t want to burst her bubble, I didn’t. Instead, I toddled over to Marge and told her the same thing I had told Odelia. She proceeded to whisper the message into her brother’s ear.

Uncle Alec had been watching a news bulletin about Abou-Yamen. About a famine that had ravaged the country a couple of months ago, and how the United Nations had to step in. He reluctantly dragged his attention away from the television screen, and took out his phone. Moments later, he had asked for a patrol car to check the suspicious van parked out in front.

“So easy when you’re the chief of police, isn’t it?” said Brutus. “All you have to do is pick up your phone and bark an order, and people jump to attention and do what you tell them.”

And since cats are essentially extremely curious creatures, we all hurried out of the house again to see what would go down once the police arrived. We weren’t disappointed: the moment a police car appeared at the top of the street, the van’s driver immediately started up the engine and was off at a rapid clip, peeling away from the curb like hell for leather, tires screaming. Clearly, these people had nefarious designs in mind. It told us that somehow our guest’s new location must have already been revealed, and he wasn’t safe anymore.

The police officers must have come to the same conclusion, for they parked in front of the house, got out, and walked up to the front door. Moments later, they stood conferring with Uncle Alec, who didn’t look happy about this state of affairs. As we watched, the lawyer was escorted from the premises, bundled into the police car, and they took off with him.

Looked like our guest was no longer our guest.

“Where are they taking him?” asked Dooley.

“To a safe place,” said Brutus as we watched the taillights of the police vehicle fade away in the distance.

“But… isn’t our home safe?”

“Not anymore,” said Brutus. He looked grim. “Someone must have blabbed.”

Uncle Alec thought the same thing, for he stood at the door opening with Chase, and the two cops looked extremely unhappy.

“There’s a mole at the police station,” said Brutus.

Dooley seemed surprised by this. “I didn’t know moles lived in police stations. Don’t they prefer to live underground?”

“It’s not that kind of mole, Dooley,” I said. “It’s the human kind. The kind that spills secrets to criminals in exchange for money.”

“In other words,” said Brutus, “the weaselly kind of mole.”

This had Dooley stumped completely. “But… an animal can’t be a mole and a weasel both, Brutus. They’re different creatures altogether.”

“Not in this case they’re not,” said the police cat. “But Chase is going to nail this nasty piece of work. Just look at his face.”

We all looked at the cop, and it was clear that he was going to root out this mole if it was the last thing he did. For putting our guest in danger, but more importantly, for putting Chase’s family in jeopardy as well. Things just got real!

CHAPTER 19

We were just about to take off in the direction of town to join cat choir when Gran and Scarlett came out of the house and expressed the same intention. “Ride with us,” said Gran. “And we’ll drop you off at the park.”

And since I’ve never been the most sporty cat, this sounded like a great idea. And so the four of us took up positions on the backseat of Gran’s little red Peugeot, and soon we were off.

“There’s one thing I want to do first, though,” said Gran as she clutched the steering wheel tightly. “I want to pay a visit to the couple that is locked up in my son’s jail.”

“Are you sure you want to do this, Vesta?” asked Scarlett. “I mean, we could wait until they’re released. I’m sure they’re innocent, and Alec will understand this was all just a concatenation of circumstances.”

Dooley laughed at this. “A concatenation of circumstances! Those aren’t even real words!”

But Gran didn’t seem to think it was all that funny, for she frowned. “Knowing my son, he’ll never let go of that couple. He’ll hold on to them until he’s forced to let them go. He’s stubborn like that. Like a dog with a bone. And also, they’re the only suspects he’s got.”

“Why do you need to talk to these suspects?” I asked.

“We need to get our hands on more of that bug spray if we want our new business venture to succeed,” Gran explained. “We need gallons and gallons of the stuff, so we can start selling it to women looking to have kids.”

“But… don’t you think this is all a little unethical?” I said. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling all that sanguine about Gran’s plan. To give hope to women who couldn’t have kids seemed cruel somehow, and downright illegal. Especially since this stuff hadn’t been tested on humans.

“It’s perfectly ethical,” Gran assured me. “In fact, we’re giving these women exactly what they want: a baby! What could be more ethical than that?”

“But it’s bug spray, Gran,” said Harriet. “Surely you can’t use bug spray on humans?”

“And who says I can’t? It’s just like that slimming drug, what’s its name?”