For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, we are on our way to Scotland and our castle adventure. The owners were quite happy to allow the cats to come along, they love animals of all kinds. There are 10 of us going along on this case, plus the 4 cats. Sky decided to stay home with Trisha and the others. Trisha is still having nightmares of the recent kidnapping since it reminded her so much of her home life. I agreed with her decision to stay behind.
Since this is an old castle, I thought it would be good to bring Rock along, his strength just might come in handy for this one. The man who is laying claim to the castle is Andrew MacPherson, and he is from Canada and apparently has never been in Scotland. But he recently found this deed in some boxes he was sorting through in his attic.
Sounds reasonable, except that we found out that this man was recently released from prison where he had spent time for forgery. That does not mean this mans document is false, but it does raise a red flag for me. The castle owners have not seen this document and MacPherson has said they cannot see it until they go to court, if it comes to that. The castle owners cannot afford to hire a lawyer, but Mandar knows an excellent lawyer who works in a city close to the castle.
He will be helping us in this case and is going to insist on seeing the mans document. Cinnamon, aside from her excellent ability to memorize, also knows antique documents, papers and what they should look and feel like. She will help the lawyer decide if it is genuine or not. It will still likely end up in court, unless this man sees that his plan is not going to work out the way he thought.
Poor Muffin, the whole trip she was pacing back and forth, worried about finding ghosts in this castle. Snow and Tiia joined her too, they are also afraid of ghosts. I know they got that from Muffin. Storm is not afraid though, he says. But I am wondering about that. Sigh. Meow,meow?=What if we find ghost? Maybe then we go home?
“No Muffin,” I said, “there are no ghosts, I have been telling you that for years.” Meow,meow!=But we find ghost right in first case, me remember, she glow in dark! “She was not a ghost,” I said, “remember we proved she was just a human.” Meow,meow.=Oh, that right. But what about…no, that human too. But there was…nope, still was human. But we might find Skinny, maybe lots Skinnies!
Tiia and Snow stopped pacing, their ears went straight up and they ran to hide in the bedroom. “See, now you scared the kittens,” I said. Meow,meow.=Good, me scared already, like having company. “Where is Storm?” I asked. “He went to hide with the kittens when Muffin mentioned Skinny,” said Angel laughing. Jim and Anne, the castle owners, met us at the airport with two vans.
Mandar had one of his vans there waiting for us to use as well. This was one of Baldwin’s vans, built like a tank, and we may need that protection too, though I hope not. However, I do not want to take any chances in this case. I asked Jim a lot of questions about the castle, especially about secret passages or chambers. “There are none,” he said, “at least we sure have not found any.”
“Hmm, that is odd,” I said, “I think all castles have secret passages in them, for escaping if nothing else, or for bringing in supplies if the castle is under siege. We will check around for some, after all, someone had to come in and steal your title deed for this castle. Unless you have servants that might have done it.”
“We do have 4 servants and a groundskeeper,” he said, “but only 2 servants are full time, the other two come in when we need them. The groundskeeper is also full time and his son will be joining him tomorrow. He will be taking over from his dad who is retiring next year. He wants time to train his son.”
No wonder these people have very little money, that is a lot of people to pay each month. When we started out Jim had told me the castle was just on the edge of the city. I wonder what city he was talking about? It took us an hour to get here once we left the city. We got settled into our rooms and then were called for dinner. But we did not know…
To Be Continued.
Β©2023 Steve McLeod.
Now the kittens πΈ will see what’s it like to see skeletons π β οΈ π π€π€
This sounds like it will be a fun case!π
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I think it will be fun. Hopefully anyway. Well, no guarantee we will see any Skinnies, but it’s always possible.πππππ We have lots of suspects to start with this time, all of the servants! Any of them could be working for this Andrew character.π€π©πΌπΌπΌπΌπ»π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
That Is a good observation. π€ And perhaps you are right in considering that the actual deed was stolen and that Andrew has it.π€π€¨
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I think he likely had inside help with this, unless he has a secret way to get into the castle, which is also possible. But I think he does have the owners real deed now and that could be a problem, especially if he decides to destroy it!π€π©πΌπΌπΌπΌπ»π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Other than taking the castle, I wonder what’s making him choose this property? π€ What could he know, and how did he learn it?π€π€
LikeLiked by 1 person
Maybe he found something in the prison library about this castle and perhaps a treasure hidden in it. Or maybe the castle is just worth a lot of money.π€π»π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would be good to know what his motivation is..π€ Then you’d know how go about using it against him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm, not sure how we could use it against him, not yet anyway. We need to find the owners deed first if we can, otherwise this could be impossible to solve for them.π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if they have a county seat or local government office there? You could check to see if anyone’s made any inquiries into the property. Since it’s been in the same family for 150 years, any inquiries would stand out and seem out of place.π€π€
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm, we would likely have to go back to the city for that one, that’s the closest community to this castle. Annelie is looking for any legends about the castle but has not found any which is kind of odd too. Usually castles have some kind of legend with them.π€π»π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s true. Going back now would be counterproductive.π€ But you’re right. A castle without a legend is very odd!π
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, and without a local community it would be hard to find out if there is one. However, there are farmers in the area, maybe we will visit one or two and see if we can find out something.π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a good idea! They would be aware of any odd behavior or inquiries.
LikeLiked by 1 person
yep, quite possible this other guy has been asking around so we might find out something.π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep! Locals are always a good source of info. Providing they’re not in on the scam.π€¨
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, that is always a problem too, but usually it isn’t too hard to pick out people that are lying, especially locals. Just have to watch those facial expressions!π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep! That and body language will give them away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not looking at bodies, Sky would kill me!π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Only if she was young and attractive!πππππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not taking any chances, she has ways of finding out, even though she is at home!π²ππ΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
They do have their ways of finding things out! Uncanny, really!π€ππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep and Sky does slap rather hard. Of course, when there are 4 cats around, it does make it easier to find out things. And then there is Kat, I mean Crystal!π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes… yes there is! What to do about that??π€π€π€«π«£
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bribery, the good ol standby!ππ΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
That could end up hurting more than the slap!π«£π³
LikeLiked by 1 person
But I’m the one doing the bribing. Keeps me safe that way.π€π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Better stock up on cat treats then!!ππππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure Crystal likes them.π€π©π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Better buy a diamond bracelet then!!ππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh sure, something that Sky can see!π€¨
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll leave it to you work out the details!!πππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my! Look at that time!π³Where did it go so fast??
I better head of to bed before I bump head!!
Good Night π΄ π₯± π π
Restful Sleeping π΄ π€
More chatting tomorrow!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beat you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That you did like a great big drum!!πππ
LikeLike
Glad that you are using your cats more in this story ! πΊπΊπΊπΊ hmmmπ€ …Is the castle the McLeod castle in this adventure ? Sounds like this will be most interesting ! Keep alert ! π΅οΈββοΈπ©π©βπ¦°π©βπ¦³π©βπ¦±βοΈ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, the cats will be around a lot in this story. Nope, no McLeod castle in this story. Yes, we will definitely stay alert in this one. I am sure we are already being watched and likely one of the servants is working with this Andrew guy. We can’t trust any of them right now.π€π©πΌπΌπΌπΌπ»π΅οΈββοΈ
LikeLike