The Investigators, Inc. The Painting. Chapter 3.

That’s interesting, at least someone knows we are here, and we’re ready for any “welcoming committee”. Kat and Muffin stay by the car, watching the windows, and all around the yard. M.C. and I start looking for the golden wing sign which should be on the side of the house. But the side and front of the house were covered with vines of some kind which made the search a bit harder. Meow!=Up there, I see something. Sure enough, I could see it too now, I just needed to move the vines around to see the wing, which was quite faded. The vines probably protected it from disappearing altogether. The wing was small, and under it read, “The Golden Wing Inn on Castle Knoll”, and a date of 1560.

Maybe they started over here and later moved to the present location which the lady had told us dated to 1860. It’s the right place, so now we go inside. We go around back again where Kat and Muffin were waiting. I told them what we had found, then got the cats ready with their backpacks. “Just use the rubber ones today, I want anyone in there to be alive so we can question them,” I said. “I’m not taking chances anymore,” said Kat, “if people want to play rough, then look out.” I smiled since I knew what Kat could do. I knocked on the door which then opened with no one there. I went in first, the cats then ran inside and took up positions in different parts of a rather large kitchen.

Then Kat came in and just as she did a young man showed up from behind the door pointing a gun at my head. But Kat grabbed the gun, twisting the man’s arm in the process and flipped him over her shoulder and he landed hard, and upside down, against a wall. She handed me his gun. There were two doorways into the kitchen and just as Kat passed the one on the side wall a shotgun showed up pointing at me. Kat grabbed the gun, again twisting the man’s arm and pulling him into the kitchen while her knee landed in his stomach. The man was bent right over so Kat gave him a good hard whack on his neck and he was down and out.

“Hmm, that looks like the man that drove us to the Inn yesterday,” I said as I rolled him over. Then a woman appeared in the other doorway. MEOW!!=GHOST!! said both cats at the same time and they ran behind me. Good thing I don’t believe in ghosts or I would have said the same thing. The woman then ran over, tears running down her cheeks, and threw herself around me. Kat just looked. I looked at her and shrugged. Kat rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry Steve,” the woman said, then she looked at Kat, “and you must be Kat, so nice to meet you.” Then she went over and hugged Kat as well. “Kat, this is Jessica,” I said, “um, someone that was killed a long time ago, and I must admit to being very confused right now.”

The cats poked their heads out from behind my legs. “Don’t you two remember me?”, said Jessica. “They remember you,” I said, “but they are convinced you are a ghost.” “No, my beautiful little friends, I’m not a ghost even though I died so long ago now,” she said trying to reassure them. However, saying that she died didn’t help the cats at all. “I’m sorry about the reception Steve,” said Jessica, “they wanted to make sure you were the right people. I see their plan didn’t work so well.” “I don’t like when people point guns at my husband,” said Kat, “it makes me strike like the cat I am!” Jessica giggled. “The older man is my uncle and that’s his son,” she said. Kat removed the shells from the shotgun and put it on the table and said, “boys shouldn’t play with such dangerous toys. It can get them in trouble.”

Jessica giggled again. “Jessica was around for a couple of our cases a long time ago, also an old girlfriend of mine that was killed in the one case,” I said to Kat. “You’re still wondering how I could be alive, right?”, she asked, “well, I had been given a drug, like some of the others, except they received poison, I was given something to make it look like I had died. Then they substituted someone else’s body for mine, and people never paid attention. By faking my death they knew no one would come looking for me. This was one way they used to get young women to “work” for them. I finally managed to escape, and I have been hiding out with my uncle. But somehow they found me, so I moved over here and have been living here and in the castle for over a month now…”

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.