Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Ghost Town Mystery. Chapter 1. Going Down.
Well, we have all rested nicely and are healed from all our wounds. Plus we are all itching to get out and tackle another case, but nothing has come along, nothing at all. That is not good when you are a PI, mystery cases need to come along or we go out of business. But Muffin, MC and Storm are having fun going through brochures for a possible vacation. They are ripping and shredding those brochures all over the library.
It is a lot of fun watching them, except for Angel, it is her turn for cleaning the library and a few other rooms on the main floor. “Hey you guys,” she said, “do you have to rip them into tiny pieces? Maybe you could just toss the old ones into one of the wagons.” Meow,meow=That not fun, need to rip and shred, that funnest part. Meow=Me agree. Meowr=Yep, me agree too, not know it be so much fun. So they continued with their fun and Angel just sighed and went to get some more coffee.
Then Baldwin, Rock and Benjamin showed up, they had gone to town for some shopping and to pick up the mail. “All we get is bills,” said Baldwin with a huge sigh, “hey, here is one for you Steve, maybe you have another case finally.” That got the cats to stop and come running over to see. I open the letter and Muffin takes a peek. Meow,meow.=That no good, hand write letters always mean no money, say no, we go back to fun.
“Wait a minute Muffin,” I said, “this one looks interesting. An older couple bought themselves a town in Australia and they need some help.” Meow,meow.=Oh, that different, we help old people, say yes, we go pack. Off they go into the hall. “Yep, should be interesting,” I added, “it is an old ghost town they bought.” Three heads peek around the door. Meow?=You say ghost town, oh, that sound fun. Meowr.=Yep, sound fun to me too, um, what is ghost town?
Meow,meow.=That place where ghosts live. Say no, we go unpack. “Hey, we even get to stay in the towns hotel,” I said, “it looks great.” Kat comes over to look. “It really does look nice,” she said, “they must have restored the hotel.” “It says they want to restore the whole town as a tourist site,” I said and I handed another photo to Kat. Meow,meow.=Oh, if it nice place then should be no ghosts, say yes, we go pack. Off they went again.
“What is the problem?”, asked Kat. “Seems there is a man trying to buy their town and they said no,” I began, “and for some reason they are afraid of this man but they do not want to say anything in the letter. They just want us to come as quickly as possible.” “Is this a photo of their kids?”, asked Kat. “No, that is the owners,” I said. “But you said they were older people,” she reminded me. “Well, they referred to themselves as an older couple,” I said, “they are both 50 years old.” “These people are 50?”, she asked.
Everyone then wanted to see the picture and all agreed they looked more like mid thirties, not 50. “So they look younger,” I said, “that is not part of the case anyway.” “True,” said Kat, “it is just amazing they both look so young.” She does have a point, but it still has nothing to do with the case. It took a little convincing before Muffin agreed to come along. Rock and Annelie are trying for the third time to finish their honeymoon so they will not be coming.
Chung will stay at the clinic along with Nyura, our full time nurse. Mriya is off finishing her studies and will be our new full time doctor at the clinic. Benjamin and Brigetta were married and are now on their honeymoon as well. Baldwin wanted to come along but needed to stay behind to look after business in his corporation. So that leaves 8 of us, plus the 3 cats. The couple, Sam and Maggie Winder, were quite happy to allow the cats to come too, they both love animals and have 3 dogs and a cat.
Our cats did not like the long time in the jet however and were very happy when we finally landed at the airport. Sam met us with an old bus, it is amazing that bus actually made the trip. The scenery was beautiful as we went through some hilly country to a dead end in the road. Then he turned off on some kind of trail which was certainly rather bumpy but he drove along at a remarkably fast speed.
He said that he did not like that stretch of road. When I asked about that he just said strange things happen along there. The cats ears went straight up when they heard that. Finally we were out in more open country and were suddenly at the old ghost town which looked much worse than the pictures they sent. They got us all settled in the hotel and gave us a chance to rest a bit before dinner. Now, why is it that they are afraid?
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 
Fun! A ghost town should be a great place to explore! I wonder why they need a PI? Couldn’t they just tell the person they don’t want to sell? That’s a long trip from France to Australia 🇦🇺 😁😊
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Yep, should be a good relaxing case with no one around but the owners and us. That is a good question, for some reason these people seem to be very nervous and scared about something. Maybe this buyer has been threatening them. But then they could just go to the police. Kind of odd.🤔👩👩👩👩👩👩👩😾😾😾🕵️
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That’s what I was thinking 🤔 There has to be a reason that the ghost town is in such demand. Perhaps a hidden gold mine?😳😲
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Actually there is an old copper mine on the property, which is why the town was here, but the copper ran out a hundred years ago and everyone left the town, mostly with all its original furniture too. The buildings do need some work, some more than others.🤔🕵️
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Hmmm… so there’s nothing inherently valuable there🤔 Then why the interest in the town?🙄
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That is the question I hope to ask at dinner. We definitely need some information if we are to help them out. Just seems logical that there must be something of value here. Its a bit far away from anything to have any real property value. Apparently the owners got the place quite reasonably priced.🤔🙄🕵️👩😾😾😾
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Sounds like an education of the properties history would be a good place to start🤔.
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Yep, we already checked into that a bit ourselves but we couldn’t find anything except about the mine, when the town was built and when it was vacated. The only interesting thing was the fact the place has had a lot of owners over the years. The previous owners only had it for 1 year, the longest anyone owned it was 10 years.🤔🙄🙄
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Doesn’t seem like there’s any reason for the interest 😕 that in itself makes it interesting 🤔
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Yes, there has to be a reason for this interest and why didn’t this other person buy it when it was up for sale? The new owners have only had it a couple of months.🤔🙄
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Where is this other person from?
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No idea yet, we will hopefully find out at dinner who it is.🤔
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So many questions, I better take notes on this one… you said it was a nice simple easy case!🤨😂😂
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Well, it should be simple, I don’t see how it could be a real problem, there is nothing out here and no neighbors for many miles.🤔🙄
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What happens along that stretch of road that make the owner so nervous? Didn’t hear a lot of detail about that!🤔🤔
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Yeah, we were not given a lot of detail either. We better get some detail or we will be gone real quick. Oddly, that old bus seems to be their only means of transportation and it doesn’t look too reliable.😬🙄
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Where do they get their supplies?🤔
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In the nearest town, a rather small town about 25 miles away. It does have a store and gas station, plus post office and a bank and has a population of about 300 people.🤔
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I still haven’t figured out what makes that town worth trying to get them to sell it.🙄🙄🤔🤔
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I can’t figure it out either unless there is some buried treasure on the place.🤔🙄🙄
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But where’s the legend that would accompany that?? How would anyone know about it?🙄🤔
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Yep, that is a good point. Our search of the place certainly didn’t mention any sort of legend about buried treasure. Unless maybe its a very little known local legend. But then why hasn’t anyone been looking for it and why do people not keep the property for very long? Of course it is a little out of the way, people might have plans that don’t work out, like these people that want to turn it into a tourist town. But it is so far off any main road that just doesn’t seem like a good plan. And that road/trail coming in here would sure need to be fixed.😬🤔
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All I can do now is wait to read what happens 😬😬
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Yep, me too, can’t wait to find out!😬🙀
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I know!!😁😁 We can find out together 😁
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Interesting ! Maybe the young looking couple are children of John…🤔 looking forward to the next chapter ! 🕵️♂️👩👩👩😼😼😼
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No, these people are 50 and John is only 40. Hopefully John is not mixed up in this one. Will have to wait for dinner to find out more about this case, hard to understand why they are so nervous and scared.🤔👩👩👩👩👩👩👩😾😾😾🕵️
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