Cat In An Alien X-Ray

Meanwhile, I am frowning. Mr. Matt is hunching his way to the side parking lot, but this woman wears a black trench coat and hat. Hot for Vegas, but hot fashion items nowadays. She is clicking away in the opposite direction, face obscured.

“We will have to split up,” I decree. “Louise, you follow Mr. Matt. If you hurry, you can slip into the backseat of the Jaguar when he opens the door. I will take on the strange woman in black who seemed to follow him out.”

Miss Midnight Louise pulses her shivs in and out on the pavement while she considers.

“Midnight Investigations, Inc., has only one motto, Louise. Divide and conquer. Go!”

I give her an encouraging pat on the back, and she shoots out into the open, spitting her farewell as I flex my shivs. It is tit for tat. She must dash away without dawdling to escape the blinding entry area lights and catch up to Mr. Matt.

I turn to follow the well-heeled mystery woman. Then the soft scrape of a shoe on stone makes me pause.

Now I see whom Louise has followed here. Mr. Max Kinsella. His height and recovered stride gives him away despite the fedora he wears like an old-time PI.

Since he is heading in the direction of the woman in question, I pad into the line behind him … just in time to spot a heavyset man in a fedora step out from an idle hotel van and follow the woman on the long walk to the parking areas behind the hotel.

The adventuresome individual can find unlikely paths through and around and beyond the tourist-frequented areas of the massive hotel-casino buildings.

I am wishing I had the stride length of the long-left-behind Goliath statue by the time the woman cuts through some thick parking lot foliage and the man following her veers off the trail.

So does Mr. Max.

Now I shadow two men, until the first heads into the looming shadow of a parking ramp behind the usual mega-looming shadow of a major strip hotel. I must say Mr. Max’s walking ability is back to normal and making tracks.

Mr. Max follows him inside, but by the time I work my way into the parked cars, I hear footsteps heading my way. I dash under the nearest SUV. He is heading away from the hotel and I am in no mood to follow.

My pads have been worn to nubs and all I want is to settle down where I am and enjoy a peaceful snooze. I wiggle my posterior farther under the vehicle … and feel I have backed into a cactus.

“Yeowww!”