eb93c43e214c621f9157c05b4b6a6878

And suddenly, as I stared down at the little piece of paper, which I’d absentmindedly straightened with my paw, an idea hit me. It was an outrageous idea, of course, but an idea nonetheless. And as I subsequently gave myself up to thought, somehow all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place, one after the other.

As I came out of my reverie, I saw that Dooley was staring at me intently.

“You had an idea, didn’t you, Max?” he said.

I nodded.

“You know who did it, don’t you?”

“I nodded again.

“So who was it?”

I told him, and he gasped.“No way.”

I sighed.“And now to prove it. That’s always the hard part.”

“It’s your big brain again, isn’t it, Max? You always figure it out eventually.”

“I’m not one hundred percent sure yet,” I warned him. “I mean, I could totally be wrong. It is a crazy assumption.” But somehow I didn’t think so. It just fit.

And so I tripped up to Odelia, and told her what I’d just discovered. She was as surprised as Dooley, but agreed that I might have hit upon something potentially interesting. And when she told Chase, he said he’d get on it straight away.

A lot of things still needed to be done before we could tell Inspector Giblet what we thought happened that fateful night in Astra’s room.

And this time, hopefully, he would believe us.

[Êàðòèíêà: img_4]

Oscar Kinetic was sleeping peacefully in his bed. It had been another hectic day on set. As usual, everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong, but in the end they’d managed to get some good stuff in the can, and that’s all that mattered.

He’d made the necessary preparations for tomorrow, and had finally turned in at around two o’clock, satisfied that there wasn’t anything else he could do.

And so he slept well, safe in the knowledge that perhaps the most important shoot of his life was well in hand, and proceeding more or less according to plan.

As usual, he slept with a sleeping mask and earplugs, and therefore didn’t notice when an hour into his peaceful slumber the window of his room was pushed open, and a dark-clad figure stepped in and took a moment to get their bearings. When finally they moved again, it was with purposeful step, in the direction of the bedroom where Oscar lay sleeping.

The person lowered their backpack, and took out a sizable knife. It glimmered in the moonlight spilling in through the window, and as the figure approached the bed, they held the knife high, ready to plunge it into the restful figure on the bed.

Standing there, poised over Oscar’s inert form, for a moment the intruder seemed to waver, as if gauging the pros and cons of their actions. But finally taking a decision, a powerful hand was drawn back, and then came down with great force, driving the knife deeply into the sleeping figure.

Up again, the knife came, and was driven again and again into the lifeless form.

Then, as if surmising something was amiss, the killer suddenly yanked back the covers, and gasped in abject shock when discovering that what they thought was Oscar Kinetic’s sleeping form, was in fact a tightly packed bundle of mere rags, designed and placed there to resemble the director.

And before the would-be murderer could flee, all the lights came on at once, bathing the bedroom in bright light, and a cry of terror escaped their lips.

From behind the curtains, Chase and Odelia Kingsley stepped, and also Barnabas Sheffield. The door to the bathroom swung open, and out walked more people: officers of the law this time, chief amongst them Inspector Daniel Giblet.

The latter stepped forward, taking charge of the situation, and grunted,“Let’s see what we’ve got here, shall we?”

With a swift movement of his hand, he removed the killer’s black mask.

Before them stood Amalia Pulpweed, who now collapsed on the bed.

The actress cried bitter tears, for she knew her life was over.

CHAPTER 34

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

Our Paris adventure had come to an end, and we were safely back in Hampton Cove. Not only that, but we were in Tex and Marge’s backyard, enjoying Odelia’s dad’s cooking. He was manning the grill, generously throwing patties and sausages onto the red-hot device, and generally behaving much like the Swedish chef from theMuppet Show. Some of the patties ended up where they were supposed to be, others found their way onto the smooth lawn below, where the neighbor’s dog Rufus disposed of them almost as quickly as they were discarded.

Dooley, Harriet, Brutus and myself were reposing on the porch swing, while the humans had taken place around the garden table, intently listening to Odelia and Chase as they told the tale of their big Paris case.

“I thought you were going over there to relax and enjoy the scenery!” said Marge. “If I’d known you were going to play detective again, I would never have sprung for that extra plane ticket.”

“And I would never have sprung for your hotel,” Uncle Alec grumbled.

“Oh, it’s fine, you guys,” said Odelia. “We still managed to see plenty of Paris, in between catching a killer.”