He sighed, and saw that there was no other recourse but to tell her everything. He sank down on the next settee. “Remember how Harry had this rebellious phase when he hit his teens? Partying all the time, and going from girlfriend to girlfriend? Well, it made me concerned about what he was up to, so I asked one of my IT engineers for a solution.”

  “A solution for what? You’re talking in riddles, Steven,” said Amanda.

  “A solution to keep tabs on our son. To know where he was going, who he was hanging out with. So I had his phone cloned.”

  “Cloned? What do you mean?”

  “Exactly that. I ‘borrowed’ Harry’s phone, and that same engineer I mentioned loaded some software that makes it possible to know at all times where Harry’s phone is, and to keep an eye on his activity.”

  “You mean you’ve been spying on our son?” She sounded shocked.

  “Look, I’m not proud of it, but at the time he seemed out of control. So I got worried, and decided to keep tabs on him. But as it turned out, he wasn’t up to anything bad. Just a bunch of juvenile stuff, as was probably to be expected. But the clone software has remained active, and so when this picture of Emily arrived, I was naturally curious to know what those two were up to. But it’s just an innocent snap.”

  “An innocent snap!” Amanda cried. “Do you call that innocent?”

  “I do, yeah. Trust me, it could have been much worse. I was going to delete the picture, but I forgot.”

  “So what about the clause?” asked Amanda, who had gotten up and was pacing the floor of their spacious cabin. “Have you considered the consequences?”

  “What consequences?” said Steven with a smile. “I don’t think my grandfather had this kind of thing in mind when he added that clause to his will.”

  “And I happen to think he had this exact thing in mind.” She waved his phone in a frantic fashion. “We could use this to stop the wedding, Steven. Tell Harry to break up with Emily or else he’s out on his own.”

  “You don’t want to do that,” he said calmly. “It’s going to turn our boy against us, and he’s still going to marry Emily. Only this way, it will be without us, and we might never see him again. Or do you really want our grandchildren to grow up without knowing their grandparents?”

  She clearly hadn’t considered that. “But she’s so… so common!”

  “We’re all common, honey,” he said. “Or do you think that because we’re rich that we’re somehow better than Emily?” He waved an impatient hand. “Harry loves her, which isn’t something we can do anything about. In fact I just had a run-in with them myself. Somehow a bunch of very important documents found their way into Emily’s room, underneath her pillow, of all places. She swears she didn’t take them, and that someone put them there. And now it’s up to me to decide what to do.”

  “Go to the police,” said Amanda immediately. “Get rid of her and then sue her for damages!”

  “You don’t seem to have heard me the first time,” he said as he turned to face her. “I’d risk alienating our one and only son. And even though these documents are important, they’re not as important as my relationship with Harry.”

  “So you’re just going to let her get away with it?” said Amanda, who was giving him furious glances.

  “It’s complicated,” he admitted as he drew a hand across his brow. “There’s every possibility that someone planted those documents in Emily’s room. And until I know for sure what happened, I don’t want to do anything rash. I probably already said some things to Harry and Emily I shouldn’t have said.”

  Amanda thought for a moment. “How did you know those documents would be where you found them?”

  “One of the cleaners told me. Said she was cleaning Emily’s room this afternoon, when we were in Saint-Tropez, saw the logo on the documents and figured they belonged to me.”

  “It all sounds very fishy to me,” said Amanda. “First this picture and now these documents. It just confirms to me that Emily is bad news for our family. And that we have to get rid of her somehow.”

  “You’re not wrong,” said Steven. “But how? That’s the tricky part.”

  Amanda smiled. “Oh, I’ll find a way,” she said. “Trust me.”

  CHAPTER 24

  We were back in Odelia’s cabin, and this time Emily was doing all the talking. When she was finished explaining about the documents that had mysteriously found their way underneath her pillow, Odelia said immediately, “That sounds like the work of the same person who’s trying to discredit you in the eyes of Harry’s parents.”

  “I’m not so sure,” said Emily. And she told Odelia about Matthew Brown, and the mysterious phone call she’d overheard. “He clearly wasn’t happy that I was standing there,” she said. “So now I’m thinking he could be the one who put Steven’s documents in my cabin. I mean, who else could it have been? If it’s true that Steven kept them locked in his safe, who else except his private secretary could have access to that safe? I don’t know the combination, and I’ll bet nobody else on board does either. So either Steven planted those documents to make me look bad in front of Harry, or his secretary did.”

  “It is possible,” said Odelia thoughtfully. “If Steven’s secretary is up to something, and you caught him doing something Steven isn’t supposed to know about, he might have put those documents in your cabin to discredit you. So that when you mention his phone conversation, Steven simply won’t believe you.”

  “It’s the only thing I could think of,” said Emily.

  “Leave it with me,” said Odelia. “I’ll look into it.”

  “The worst part is that Steven told Harry that he’s having second thoughts about allowing us to get married. And even though Harry says he’ll marry me whether his parents agree or not, I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea.”

  “No, I don’t think so either,” aid Odelia. “But I’m sure it won’t come to that. If Mathew Brown planted these documents in your cabin, we need to expose him. And when we do, Steven will be so grateful he’ll only be too happy to give you his blessing.”

  “Or maybe he’ll be so upset he lost his secretary he’ll blame the whole thing on me,” said Emily sadly.

  “You can’t think like that, honey,” said Odelia.

  “Frankly at this point I don’t know what else to think.”

  “Our witness is sad, Max,” said Dooley. “We have to cheer her up.”

  “Not really,” I said. “Our job is to protect the witness, not cheer her up.”

  “I still wonder what she witnessed,” said Dooley musingly.

  The last thing I expected when returning to Emily’s cabin was to come upon a naked man in her bed. Unfortunately for Emily it wasn’t her fiancé but a different man altogether.

  “Brian!” she cried the moment she had clapped eyes on the man.

  He was grinning at us from beneath the covers, and when he turned down the sheet, presumably in a bid to invite Emily to join him, we could see that he wasn’t wearing much of anything.

  “We never got to finish that conversation,” said the man, who was very hairy, I have to say, and also very rotund. The combination didn’t exactly offer a feast for the eyes. Quite the contrary.

  Emily didn’t seem to enjoy the view either, for she said, “Get out!”

  “Get in,” Brian countered. “The water is warm, baby.”

  “I don’t believe this!” said Emily, who was seriously starting to lose her patience.

  “You better believe it. The moment we met, I knew there was something going on between us,” said Brian. “Chemistry, if you know what I mean. Rapport, as the French call it.”

  “Will you please leave my room—right now!”

  “Oh, don’t be like that,” said Brian. “You know how much fun we could have, you and I? We were made for each other, baby girl.”

  A knock sounded at the door, and we all looked up in alarm.

  “Brian, are you in there!” a voice came from the other side of the panel. It was Heather, and she didn’t sound happy.

  The effect on Brian was galvanizing. I don’t think I have ever seen a man move faster than he did. In a flash he was out of the bed and into the bathroom, and as the door to Emily’s cabin opened, the door to her bathroom closed with a soft click.

  Heather stormed in, looking furious. Oddly enough the same cleaner who had accompanied Steven earlier was now accompanying Heather. This cleaner definitely got around, I thought. Above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. Or maybe she was collecting brownie points—or a handsome tip.

  “Where is he!” Heather demanded heatedly. “Where did he go?!” Emily pointed to the bathroom, eliciting a look of surprise from Heather. But then she was stomping to the bathroom and yanking open the door. When she came face to face with her husband, who had had the decency to wrap a towel around his person, she cried, “I knew it! I knew you two were having an affair!”

  “What affair!” said Emily. “I found him in my bed just now! And when I tried to kick him out, he refused!”

  “A likely story,” Heather sniffed. “Admit it, young lady. You’re having an affair with my husband.” She turned to the cleaner, who for some reason was pointing her phone at us, filming the whole scene. “Have you got enough?” she asked.

  “A confession would be nice,” said the cleaner.

  “Such an odd cleaner, isn’t she, Max?” said Dooley.

  “I’m starting to think she may not be a cleaner at all,” I said.

  “So what do you think she is?”

  But Heather had started screaming again, so we both listened, and kept a close eye on her, in case she attacked our charge.

  “Admit that you’re sleeping with my husband!” Heather demanded.

  “I’ll admit no such thing!” said Emily, who was also starting to get worked up. “And how dare you come into my room and accuse me? You should be ashamed of yourself. You and your horrible husband!”

  “Ladies, ladies,” said Brian, who had been sidling to the door when no one was looking. “Can’t we settle this over a nice dinner? We’re all friends here.”

  “Don’t move,” Heather said. “I’m not through with you yet.”

  “Well, I’m through with you,” said Emily. “In fact I’m through with all of you. Get out. Get out now!”

  Heather stared at Emily for a moment. Clearly this wasn’t going as she had expected. She glanced at the cleaner, who was still filming, then said for the purpose of the camera, “This isn’t over.”

  “Oh, yes it is. Out!” And to show her uninvited guests she wasn’t kidding, she physically expelled both Johnsons from her room by giving them a nice big push. The two of them practically tumbled into the corridor, and when the cleaner didn’t stop filming, Emily grabbed the phone, pushed the cleaner out of her cabin, and threw the phone after her before slamming the door closed and locking it.

  Then she leaned against the door and stood there for a moment, panting.

  “Wow!” I said, and if I were a human I would have clapped.

  “Excellent job,” Dooley chimed in. “Well done, Emily!”

  Emily gave us a weak smile. “Phew!” she said, and blew a strand of hair from her brow. Then she sagged against the door to the floor. We immediately rushed over to her, afraid she had overexerted herself and passed out. But instead she laughed. “This is by far the craziest week of my entire life, you guys!” She smiled at us. “And now I’m talking to a pair of cats. I must be losing my mind.”

  “And I think you’re coming into your own,” I said.

  “You did great, Emily,” Dooley added.

  But then her smile faded. “How am I ever going to face these people? Steven thinks I stole his documents. Amanda hates me. Chloe and Kim treat me as a laughingstock. And Heather thinks I’m sleeping with her husband.” She shook her head. “Maybe I should go home. I’m way over my head here.”

  Dooley and I shared a look. “Time for some TLC,” I told my friend.

  “Just what I was thinking,” he said.

  And so we did what cats do best: we purred up a storm, and proceeded to lovingly bunt this stricken human with our heads. The upshot was that she started stroking us with gentle caresses, and before long we had managed to put a smile back on her face. We might be witness protectors and not a cheering squad, but sometimes you have to bend the rules a little.

  CHAPTER 25

  Tex was feeling in excellent fettle. The plane trip had proceeded without a hitch, the car ride from the airport was a cinch, and the Airbnb they had selected proved even better in reality than in the pictures, which was never a given. And so after they had unpacked, they decided to go to the beach for a swim, to get rid of the sticky feeling travel always seems to induce.

  So he had grabbed his swim trunks and a towel, and the three of them had set out to the beach, leaving Harriet and Brutus behind so they could rest and recover. Unlike them, the cats hadn’t enjoyed the plane trip at all. And they liked their new surroundings even less. But then that was to be expected. Even though both cats seemed excited to join them on this trip, they weren’t natural travelers. Not like Tex, who loved nothing more than to explore new places and find exciting stuff to do.

  The beach was literally a hundred yards from their Airbnb, and as they looked out across the sea, he didn’t think he’d ever seen water as blue as this.

  “Will you look at that!” he exclaimed to his wife.

  “Now isn’t that something?” said Marge, also marveling at this natural wonder. “Now I understand why the French call it the Côte d’Azur. It really is the color of azure, isn’t it, honey?”

  “It sure is,” said Tex with a grin.

  Grace, who was clasping Marge’s hand, gurgled something in a language only she could understand. She had behaved extremely well on the trip, all things considered, and seemed as excited as they were to finally be at their destination. Marge had placed a hat on the little tyke’s head, and they were going to buy one of those tents that were all the rage, so they could keep her in the shade at all times while on the beach.

  “I’m going in first!” said Tex, as he kicked off his slippers and started for the water. What he hadn’t expected was that the beach wasn’t a nice sandy beach, like they had in Hampton Cove, but a pebble beach. And those pebbles hurt something terrible to the soles of his feet!

  “Watch out, Tex!” said Marge. “Some of these stones are big!”

  “Ouch, ooph, yikes, ow! Yeah, I can feel that, honey!” he said. Finally he reached the sea, and immediately dove into the water. The pain in his feet was instantly forgotten. “Oh, bliss!” he yelled.

  “How is the water?” asked Marge as she started rubbing sunscreen on the little one.

  “Heaven, honey!” he cried. “Just pure heaven!”

  And it was. What did surprise him was that there were so few people in the water. Most of them stayed on the beach, with quite a few lounging underneath a pair of big straw umbrellas the town council must have placed there. He wanted to take a picture so he could send it to Charlene. His brother-in-law’s girlfriend was also mayor of Hampton Cove, and this might be a great idea for their own beaches.

  And he was just about to show off his breaststroke to his wife when all of a sudden a terrific pain shot through his arm. It was as if he had hit a burning stove.

  “Ouch!” he screamed and practically jumped up out of the surf.

  Marge had risen to her feet. “Tex! What’s wrong!”

  “Something bit me!” he screamed. With a few frantic paces he splashed out of the sea and back to shore. And when he glanced down at the stricken spot on his arm, he saw that the skin was red and starting to swell! And that’s when he knew. Jellyfish!

  “Oh, dear,” said Marge when he showed her the spot. “Does it hurt?”

  “Of course it hurts! It stings!”

  Marge glanced around. “There’s a first-aid cabin over there. You better have that looked at.”

  “Honey, I’m a doctor. I can see it’s a jellyfish sting.”

  “Oh, poor baby,” said his wife. “Do you want me to pee on it?”

  He gave her an indulgent smile. “That’s an urban myth. Peeing on a jellyfish sting doesn’t make much of a difference.” A man had approached them, and started addressing them in rapid French.

  “I’m sorry, but we don’t speak French,” Marge explained.

  “Medusa!” the man said, pointing to Tex’s arm, which was now covered in angry red welts, and hurting really bad. “Lots of medusa!”

  “Yeah, I get it,” said Tex. Too bad he hadn’t known before he went into the water that it was swarming with jellyfish!

  “So that’s why no one is going in the water,” said Marge.

  The man then escorted Tex to the first-aid stand, which was called Poste de Secours - Sapeurs Pompiers in the local lingo. And before long the man had explained to the person manning the small booth what had happened. Lucky for Tex the person spoke perfect English, and had soon ascertained that no medusa stingers remained in the wound. The affected section of skin was soon bathed in warm water to ease the pain, and as he sat there, waiting for the sensation to abate so the medic could put some balm on the wound, he thought this was a fine way to start their vacation.

  Then he caught the eye of his wife, and he saw she was smiling, even though she tried to hide it.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “It’s just like you to get stung by a jellyfish the moment you arrive,” she said, and couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the sight of his face. Even Grace was laughing, and so was the first-aid person.

  “Well, I’m sure glad I’ve provided you all with some great entertainment today,” he grumbled.

  CHAPTER 26

  Brutus and Harriet, who had been left to their own devices in the Airbnb Marge and Tex had rented, weren’t feeling the vacation mood as keenly as their humans. In fact it’s not too much to say they weren’t feeling it at all.