It was doubtful Odelia would ever forgive her.

CHAPTER 33

Rogelio was pacing the living room of the house where he was holed up. It was a nice place, as houses go, but it wasn’t home, and so he felt constrained. He had a ton of work and clients he needed to get back to, and he didn’t like that he couldn’t go to the office to deal with the stack of files on his desk. He had already told his PA that he would be out of the office for a couple of days and that he would work from home, but that cop had told him that he should be careful with that. Whoever was gunning for him might be able to trace his whereabouts by tracking his phone or his laptop, and so he probably should keep them turned off for now.

If only he had never gotten involved with the prince. The man was dead, and still he was haunting him from across the grave, causing untold trouble. If only he knew what it was all about. But since he didn’t have the faintest idea, he felt this could take forever, with the wheels of justice moving at a snail’s pace as they always did. Progress in the case, if there was any, took its time to trickle through to him—the victim in all of this. It just wasn’t fair, he felt.

He allowed himself to drop down onto the couch and gazed idly out of the window and into the backyard, which was nice to look at, but also exceedingly boring. He was a very busy and sociable creature and he missed his regular haunts: the restaurants where he liked to take his clients, the art exhibitions where he took in some culture, the parties he liked to frequent… Life was buzzing at the moment and he was missing all of it. Already he had missed his best friend’s daughter’s bat mitzvah, and plenty of other unmissable social occasions. And when he told that detective, the guy simply placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, looked him deeply into his eyes, and asked him if he wanted to live. If yes, he should just do as he was told.

Easy for him to say!

The three dogs belonging to his hostess tripped up to him and regarded him curiously. They were miniature poodles, and as he understood, actually belonged to her ex-sister-in-law, who was in prison for some offense she had committed. Not that he was even remotely interested, so he hadn’t really listened when the mayor told him about the woman’s misadventures.

He should feel honored that the mayor of Hampton Cove herself and her police chief husband were providing him with safe harbor, but the inconvenience still irked him terribly, like an itch he couldn’t scratch.

The doggies barked happily and seemed eager for him to play with them, so he ignored Chief Lip’s instructions and opened the sliding glass door to let them out into the backyard and followed them there. It wouldn’t hurt to throw the ball around a little, would it? Whoever was after him wouldn’t ever find him here, would they? And so for the next twenty minutes, he enjoyed himself by throwing the ball and watching those three doggies chase after it like crazy. Oh, they loved it. They loved it so much! Even he had to admit he enjoyed it tremendously.

He’d never thought about getting a dog, figuring dogs were a nuisance and a constraint on his social life, but he was starting to see the appeal. They really were the perfect companions!

And as he watched them chase the ball into the shrubberies, suddenly he saw that two cats had appeared. They were a big black bruiser of a fellow and a gorgeous white Persian.

“Now where did you guys come from all of a sudden?” he asked.

They seemed to be conversing with the dogs, though of course that was entirely impossible. Still, the dogs seemed curiously fascinated by the two cats, and for a moment they sniffed at one another, as animals do, and the ball lost its big attraction. He sank down on a deck chair and closed his eyes. It was at that moment that a shadow fell over him, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw that a man was standing not ten feet away, pointing a gun right at him!

Immediately, he jerked up and out of that deck chair.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!” he cried.

“You’re not an easy man to find, buddy,” said the guy. “So this is the rock you’ve selected to crawl underneath, huh?” He glanced around. “Not too shabby, as rocks go, I have to say.”

And then all of a sudden a lot of things seemed to be happening all at once. The three dogs attached themselves to the man’s calves, digging their teeth into them. The two cats hurled themselves at the guy, digging their claws into his arm and dragging down his gun hand. Two more cats, a small fluffy one and a big red one, also joined the fray and jumped on top of the man’s head! And then out of nowhere, that big cop came charging onto the scene, and knocked into the killer, flattening him on the lawn. To top it off, two old ladies popped up out of the blue and sat on the guy’s head, screaming something about a citizen’s arrest for the neighborhood watch! And then another guy, that he had never seen before, picked up the gun that had gone skittering across the deck, before being told to drop it by Odelia Kingsley.

The guy immediately complied and held up his hands to prove his innocence.

Rogelio’s jaw had dropped from the moment he had laid eyes on his attacker, and he hadn’t stopped gaping as the whole amazing sequence of events played out. The upshot was that the wannabe assassin was being placed under arrest and outfitted with a pair of shiny handcuffs as supplied by Detective Kingsley.

“Wha-wha-what just happened?” he stammered.

“The man who was hired to kill you has been arrested,” Odelia explained.

“But… I don’t understand. Who is he? Why did he want to kill me? And how did he know where I was?” So many questions, but Odelia seemed reluctant to give him any answers.

Instead, she said, “Better stay here for the time being. We’ve asked for a patrol car to arrive shortly. Two officers will keep an eye on you.” And then she was off, to interview the killer.

The four cats and three dogs, meanwhile, sat gazing up at him expectantly, and he understood that they’d probably saved his life. So he patted them on the head, one after the other, then entered the house to look for some nice grub in the fridge that he could give them. They had certainly earned it. And as he dug around in the fridge, suddenly he started shaking all over, and his knees buckled and he started sobbing like a little baby.

Looked like the scariness of the moment was finally catching up with him.

He sat with his back against the fridge, and the three dogs and four cats actually gathered around, and gave him licks on his hands and nudges with their heads.

This is when he understood that pets are the greatest creatures alive, and he vowed to become a pet parent himself as soon as this terrible ordeal was over.

The two old ladies walked in, and also the strange man, and helped him to his feet. He now recognized one of the old ladies as Vesta Muffin, and the other woman as her friend Scarlett Canyon, and the man said he was their driver and he was thinking about joining the neighborhood watch.

It was all a little much for Rogelio, and as they escorted him to the couch and told him to take a seat, Mrs. Canyon started bombarding him with questions about her will and testament, Mrs. Muffin asked him what he knew about bug spray, and the man told him that he normally didn’t believe in picking up hitchhikers but that Vesta hadn’t taken no for an answer, and that he didn’t regret a single moment since he felt he was playing a part in an action movie.

He told the guy he felt much the same way, told Mrs. Muffin that he didn’t know the first thing about bug spray, and told Mrs. Canyon that she should make an appointment with his personal assistant and he’d see what he could do. And then he rolled into a ball and hoped that when he woke up again the world would be a better place, without people trying to shoot him!

CHAPTER 34

Huey, Louie, and Dewey were proud that they had been the first to take down their guest’s attacker. And it was true: they had been the first to spring to Rogelio’s assistance when he was staring into the barrel of a loaded gun. Harriet and Brutus were second, since apparently they had been in search of pets that needed the assistance of ‘Santa’s Helpers’ as they now called themselves. I was glad to see that Harriet was feeling better and that she hadn’t lost her spunk.

After I had told Odelia what I thought was going on, Chase made a couple of phone calls and confirmed that my theory was as good as any other, and so they had decided to test it out in the real world by providing a trail of breadcrumbs for the hotel manager staking us out from across the street. He had immediately taken the bait and followed us to the home of Uncle Alec and Charlene, where he had proceeded to threaten the poor lawyer with violence before being taken down by a combined task force consisting of one detective, one civilian consultant, four cats, three dogs, and two members of the neighborhood watch and their driver. In other words: an overwhelming enemy force that the hotel manager couldn’t possibly compete with.

The man had been led away and would have to pay for his crimes. Meanwhile, the lawyer had suffered a sort of breakdown, which was understandable. And since we didn’t want to leave him all by himself, we decided to keep him company for now. Gran and Scarlett felt the same way, and took it upon themselves to act as the man’s guardian angels until backup arrived. The threat might have been lifted, but that didn’t mean he was out of trouble just yet. Their driver had left, but not before repeating how happy he was to have made all of our acquaintance. He seemed grateful for the adventure of a lifetime, as he called it.

“I should never have spritzed you with that bug spray,” Gran told Harriet as she stroked her affectionately. “Will you ever be able to forgive me, honey?”

“Of course, Gran,” said Harriet. “Though maybe next time when you want a guinea pig, you should find a different one. I didn’t enjoy the experience.”

“Though we wouldn’t have minded having kids, would we, sparky star?” asked Brutus, happy now that he wouldn’t have kids after all.

“I’m not sure I want kids, snuggle bug,” said Harriet. “It’s a lot of work, isn’t it, taking care of kids? And such a responsibility. I mean, just look at Chase and Odelia and how much work they have with just the one kid. Imagine the same thing but multiplied by five or six or seven.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Brutus, well pleased. He gave me a wink.

“He looks exhausted,” said Scarlett as she cast a worried glance at the estate lawyer.

“Attempts have been made on the man’s life no less than three times in a row,” said Gran. “How would you feel if people were trying to kill you all the time?”

“I guess it’s not a pleasant experience,” said Scarlett. “Though he’s safe now, isn’t he?”

“I’m not sure,” said Gran, giving me a questioning look.

“He’s safe for now,” I said. “But the people who paid that hotel manager and also Johnny and Jerry to get rid of him are still out there, and they might try again.”

“You know, this bug spray might not have worked on Harriet,” said Dooley, “but it worked on the bugs in our backyard, didn’t it? So maybe it only works on bugs? It is called a bug spray, after all, not a pet spray.”

“I like your thinking, Dooley,” said Gran. “But I’m not going to give it any more tries. I’m glad that Harriet is fine, and I’m not going to take any chances from now on.”

Just then, a familiar-looking fly came buzzing into the house, took one look around, and settled on the wall next to me. “I’ve been talking to Norma,” he said. “And you’ll be happy to know that everything is fine between us. Marriage saved and soon I’m going to be a dad!”

“Oh, Norm, you finally took the plunge!” said Harriet.