The Investigators, Inc. The Case of No Prison. Chapter 3. Searching.

I put Kat in charge of searching for a way into this prison that doesn’t exist. She said that Sienna, Misty and myself would stay in the room, with one ghost as our main guard, and tonight that would be Angel. Kat and Jennifer would search together, with 2 cats, which would be Rusty and Jewel for the first two hours. Sky and Carine would search together with Azura and Storm.

That would be Storm’s team of cats. Muffin’s team will be Moonbeam, Tracker and Celia, and they will stay with us for the first two hours, then they will switch with Storm’s team to go out searching. Muffin and Storm are the two best cats we have for finding secret doors. Kat has done something to the cats, like she did for me, so they too can go invisible, however, it’s still not like our ghosts when they go invisible.

After they were gone for about half an hour, Misty came over and sat on my lap and put her arm around me. “What’s wrong Honey,” she said, “I can tell something is bothering you.” She did that so naturally, I was quite surprised. “How do you know something is bothering me?” I asked, and gave her a kiss. She surprised me again by reacting quite normally.

“A wife always knows when something is bothering her man,” she said, smiling. “That does seem to be true,” I said, “although I don’t sense any trouble, I am still worried about this case.” “You’re afraid that we won’t find anything, right?” she asked. “Yep, that’s exactly right,” I replied, “it certainly won’t look good for me if we don’t find anything. It will mean I can’t be trusted anymore.”

That’s when I started shaking, a lot. Sienna was closest to us, so she helped Misty get me back into bed and covered with blankets. Misty slid under the blankets to help warm me up. Sienna looked at Angel and shook her head. Angel frowned. She had started to send a message to Kat, but stopped, so Kat asked what was going on. Angel just told her it was a false alarm, that everything was fine.

Then Courage walked up onto the bed and lay down on the other side of me. Good thing it’s a large bed, she really does produce a lot of heat too. The cats lay down on top of her, purring. After 2 hours the two search teams returned to our room. “We couldn’t find a thing Steve,” said Jennifer, “unless the door is in one of the offices which are along the back wall of this place. But opening those doors would likely set off an alarm.”

“I’m always amazed that you girls can’t just go through walls,” I said, “well, Sky, you do that whenever I call you.” “It only works if you call me,” she said, “I was made specifically to be your guard and able to come when you call.” “Maybe when Angel goes out this next time, she will hear something,” said Carine, “she has the best hearing of us all.”

Carine was certainly right about that, even though she has incredible hearing too. “Couldn’t you see through the wall like that time in the museum?” I asked Carine. “I need Sky for that,” she said, “and although Sky was with me, her light would show up on the video cameras and that would alert the guards.” “Yes, I guess you’re right,” I said, “and we don’t want to attract attention just yet.

But that hidden door must be in those offices.” “Why are you in bed?” asked Jennifer. “Oh, uh, I was cold,” I answered, “so the girls put me in bed to get me warm again. I started shaking and felt cold anyway.” “I hope you’re not getting sick,” said Jennifer. She stayed behind this time and Angel went with Sky, while Carine joined Kat. Muffin and her team replaced Storm and his team.

I like the idea of putting the cats into teams like that. After another 2 hours our teams came back and again they had no good news for us. After breakfast we sat around in our room talking, and planning our day. Meow.= Maybe secret door not on inside, maybe it on outside. (said Rusty). We all looked at him. He just looked at the ceiling. “What a smart kitty cat,” said Misty with a big smile. Rusty’s ears went straight up and he also sat up nice and proud.

So, we decided to look around on the outside today to see what we could find. At lunch, which we were eating outside, Muffin told us she and her team found a door with trees and flowers painted all over it. The door was on the brick fence around one of the pools. Angel and Carine looked at it too and it went nowhere that they could see since it was right up against the rock of the mountainside.

Hmm, that was actually good news, except how do we check that one? Too many people around during the day and the doors of the hotel are locked at night so we can’t get out without setting off the alarm. The door into the mountainside likely has an alarm too. Sky could disable the whole alarm system, but that would be noticed and bring out all of their guards which number 50 in total.

That isn’t a problem, but we are trying to do this without attracting a lot of attention. That evening I spent some time looking for something in one of our cars, but was unable to find it, so I came back inside. Jennifer and Kat were with me for protection, just in case. Misty was along too, helping me look.

As we walked past some of the employees, Misty remarked how I am always losing, or misplacing, things lately and shaking her head as she said it. I could see people grinning as they overheard Misty. Sigh. Back in our room we settled down for the night. “Did I do okay Honey?” asked Misty. “Yes, my love, you were perfect,” I replied.

Then she looked at Jennifer. “Um, this is okay, right?” she asked. “I don’t see anything wrong, you’re his wife,” she said smiling. We have to pretend at all times, even when we’re alone, that way there is less chance of making a mistake when we’re in public. Kat and Carine left with Rusty and Celia for their first look around of the night, ready to begin Plan A…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.