Lucky for us, the pipes weren’t those plastic slippery ones. Even with claws it’s hard to get a grip on that kind of surface. I usually simply dig my claws in deep, but we had no way of knowing what was running through these pipes. If it was gas or water we might be royally screwed. Fortunately the pipes were covered with some kind of Styrofoam and were easy to scale.
I went first, clawing my way up, leaving a trail of styrofoam particles raining down. It was a lot easier than I thought, and soon I reached the ceiling and squeezed myself through a hole in the concrete. Now I was on the first floor. I was right: the pipes extended up, to the second floor and beyond.
“This is some real Indiana Jones shit, buddy!” I cried enthusiastically.
“Or one of those suicide missions,” he lamented. “LikeStar Wars Rogue One. The heroes save the universe and as a reward they get to die at the end.”
“Oh, Dooley,” I muttered. I think if Indiana Jones had had a sidekick like Dooley, he might never have gotten his hands on that Ark of the Covenant.
“We’re going to get stuck up here. We’re going to get stuck and we’re going to die. Archeologists are going to find our mummified corpses a thousand years from now, wondering what the hell we were thinking!”
“We were thinking about our obligation toward Odelia. And for your information, we’re not going to get stuck.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Don’t go into the light, Max!”
“Why not?”
“Because it means you’re dead.”
“I’m not dead. I can see light coming from somewhere ahead of me.”
“That’s what they all say, and then they’re dead.”
“Look, we’ve got nine lives, right? So have a little faith, buddy.”
“That whole nine lives thing is just an old wives’ tale, Max. I hate to break it to you but when we die, that’s it. We’re not coming back for round two.”
“Can you just… shut up already? You’re not helping.”
“I’m the voice of reason.”
“More like the voice of doom.”
We were in some kind of crawl space between the floors. It was pretty dusty and stuffy in here, but I didn’t mind. I did see light, and I decided to follow it, whatever Dooley said. It led to a small rectangular opening covered with a plastic screen. I gave the screen a nudge and it dropped down into the space beyond. I squeezed my way through and found myself in another dark space, a vertical strip of light directly in front of me. This was the light I’d seen. Not that I needed it. My eyesight is pretty good, thank you very much.
Dooley squeezed in right behind me, and bumped into my butt.
“Where are we?” he whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” I whispered back.
“Because I don’t want to wake up the monster.”
“What monster?”
“The monster in the closet.”
Dooley was right. We were in a closet. Above us, shirts and blazers were hanging from clothes hangers, and on the floor, where we were, a suitcase was placed. So that narrow strip of light in front of us was… the closet door!
“We made it, Dooley!” I cried.
“Made it where?”
“Someone’s closet, just like you said!”
“I didn’t say anything about a closet.”
Outside the closet door, I could hear voices, and I immediately recognized one of them.“Do you hear that?”
Dooley frowned.“Hey, that sounds like Odelia.”
“That’s because it is Odelia, and we’re in a closet in someone’s room.”
I glanced around, trying to figure out whose closet this was. And that’s when I saw it. Right behind Dooley. Chills ran up my feline spine.
“D-D-Dooley. Don’t turn around, but the killer is right behind you!”
“What?!” Dooley cried, whirling around. He yelped in fear when he caught sight of the black-robed figure lurking behind him, a huge meat cleaver in his hands!
“It’s the killer!” I cried. “We found the killer!”
“I was right!” Dooley whimpered. “We’re going to die!”
We tumbled out of the closet, trying to get away as fast as we could. The killer jumped out right behind us, and the meat cleaver clattered to the floor.
I saw Odelia and screamed,“The killer! The killer is right behind us!”
I jumped into her arms, and so did Dooley, and that’s when I saw it wasn’t the killer who’d been inside that closet with us, but only his robe.
Odelia looked surprised, and so did Chase, who was also there. The one who was even more surprised, though, was Dion Dread. And as he stared at us, and at the black robe and the meat cleaver, he cried,“That’s not mine!”
Yeah, right. That’s what they all say.
Embarrassed, I jumped down from Odelia’s arms. Indiana Jones would never jump into anyone’s arms. Indiana Jones would face the danger head-on. And now that I’d discovered we’d been spooked by a robe, I was ready to do just that.
“Wait, what is Dion doing here?” asked Dooley. “Isn’t he supposed to be down in the spa getting a massage?”
“I guess his massage ended.”
“See, Max?” asked Dooley. “We should have just waited it out.”
“If we hadn’t climbed that pipe we wouldn’t have found the killer!”
“It isn’t a killer. It’s just an old robe and a cleaver.”
“Duh. That’s the murder weapon, Dooley, and the killer’s bloody robe.”