The Investigators, Inc. The Painting. Chapter 9.

Just then Muffin let out a horrible shriek! That got Ben’s attention and he shot at her twice. Kat was on her hands and knees in the living room and M.C. jumped on her back and took a big leap toward the kitchen doorway! I already had my gun out and shot Ben twice. He also shot at me but missed, barely. Then “thwock!” and Ben was down. M.C. got him. Kat came running in but I told her to get back and on the floor. Then Benjamin came into the kitchen and saw Ben and I lying on the floor, along with Muffin. “So the big killer got himself killed too,” laughed Ben, “okay girl, come out here now!” No answer.

He went slowly to the living room and saw Kat lying on the floor too. “Hmm, not bad,” said Benjamin, “Ben got both of you and one cat, now where’s that other miserable creature.” He heard growling and when he turned, “thwock!”, and he dropped to his knees and also dropped the shotgun he had been carrying. But he wasn’t dazed too badly and went to pick up the shotgun, but Kat’s foot was on it and her gun at his head. That’s when Muffin and I got up and joined them in the living room. “Well Benjamin,” I said, “looks like we have some talking to do.” “Forget it!”, he growled, “you get nothing from me!”

“Do you think your boss will let you live?”, I asked him, “if we let you go right now, you’re dead, because your boss will automatically think you talked.” “Ha, he’ll know I didn’t,” said Benjamin. The cats and I then checked him for listening devices and found 2 of them. Then we took him outside and away from the house. “There,” I said, “now your boss doesn’t know anything, so you can talk now and we’ll protect you.” “No way,” he said, “there’s no way you can protect me from him, he’ll find out and he’ll have me killed.” He was starting to look scared now since his boss would no longer know what was going on.

“Tell me who Jessica really is,” I said. “I don’t know, and that’s the truth,” he said, “but she is an actor, hired for the job.” “And why do they want us?”, I asked. “You? He don’t want you!”, said Benjamin, “you’re bait to…” Benjamin then fell to the ground after I heard that same far off shot. I looked around, there was only one place that shot could have come from, a hill across the road. But I don’t see anything at all up there. However, there is someone, a pro, and he knew once again exactly when to kill Benjamin, just like he knew when to kill the guy at the cemetery.

I watch the hill for a bit but no movement of any kind, and he won’t move, until we leave. I start walking back to the house and Kat comes running over and hugs me. “I almost lost you there Steve,” she said, “I would never have forgiven myself for that.” “Well, you can’t be looking after me every minute you know,” I said with a smile. “Well, I’m going to from now on,” she continued, “that’s my job.” Meow.=Oh, they do kissing thing again. Meow,meow=That what human people do. Meow.=Humans sometimes so strange. Meow,meow.=Yep, very strange. And they touch noses. I decide that this time we will just leave and let someone else find these bodies. Either way we won’t be able to come back here again.

So we go on to the castle and see if we can find Jessica. We park the car and walk up to the castle. Someone else is here today as well. When we get inside we meet a young couple, the woman was crying. “What’s wrong?”, asked Kat. “We found a woman inside and she was dead,” said the man, “it looked like she had been shot with a shotgun.” That would be Benjamin’s work, I thought to myself. “Did you call the police?”, I asked. “Yes,” he said, “but I didn’t want my wife to stay inside there.” “We’ll stay with you until the police arrive,” I said. He thanked me, then he and I started talking about different things while Kat tried to comfort the man’s wife.

It didn’t take long for the police to arrive and it was the same two officers that came to the cemetery. “Oh, you again,” said one of them. “Not me today,” I said, “we just got here, this man found the body.” So then their attention turned to him and his wife, but they did let me go in to see the woman’s body. It was the woman pretending to be Jessica. The police asked both of us if we knew her, but I could now say I didn’t. Unfortunately she was our last hope of finding out what was going on around here. So Kat, the cats and I drove back to the Inn talking about what to do next. It’s time we have a talk with Mable at the Inn.

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.