The detective and Paul moved toward the snarling toms, and Meows, seeing the wink, backed up, hissing. Bart, looking Paul in the eye, fluffed up in rage and started to growl. Meows leaped to the floor and under the couch. Quick as a flash, Paul grabbed Bart, who howled and snarled and screamed in fury, slashing at the air with huge claws bared, deliberately missing Paul.
"Grab a handful of fur and hurry!!" yelled Paul.
The detective yanked a few good-sized tufts of fur out of Bart's back and Paul let him go. Bart flew down the hall, yowling and growling.
"God, that is one mean cat. You okay there?" said the detective, putting the bloody yellow and white tufts into a bag and labeling it.
"Whew! Yeah, I'm okay. Did you get enough there?" asked Paul.
"Sure did. I appreciate it, Mr. Draper. This might help quite a bit. You're sure nothing up here is disturbed?"
"Just two cats, I think," smiled Paul.
"They're disturbed, all right. I've never seen cats that mean," said the detective.
Paul walked him back downstairs, and Bart came out from the hall laughing.
Meows, Belle, and Zeus came out from under the couch, and all four cats rolled on the floor howling with glee.
"Woooo, that was great, Meows!" howled Bart.
"You looked like you had rabies," laughed Meows.
"I didn't know Paul was such a cool liar!" whooped Zeus.
"That cop was scared to death," giggled Belle.
"If he only knew," roared Bart, sending them all off in gales of laughter again.
Finally they calmed down a little, still snickering and giggling, and settled in the computer room for a wash-up.
The door opened, and Paul came in, chuckling to himself.
"Cats?" he called softly.
"In here," hissed Bart.
Paul walked in, and they all laughed again, together.
"What a performance, fellas!" said Paul.
"Thank you. You did quite well yourself," Meows said.
"Bart, are you hurt? He did yank some fur out of you," asked Paul, looking at Bart's back.
"I'm fine. I expected he would do that," Bart assured Paul.
Zeus nuzzled Paul's hand. "You're a great liar. Very smooth, I must say."
"I think you guys did great," purred Belle.
"Hopefully this will help ID the would-be burglar," said Bart.