Well, we are all getting nicely rested, although Crystal has a ways to go, she had some serious injuries and is now so very sad that she will not be able to have children. So now we have 4 of our girls in the same position, Crystal, Annelie, Angel and Sky. Crystal is taking it especially hard though. Rock and Annelie had been planning to leave us and go back to Australia to live, they both enjoyed their short time there before. However, it seems it was more Rock that had this idea, not Annelie.

Rock came to me one evening and said they would like to stay on with us. I was very happy to hear that. I noticed that Rock had a very red cheek too. “What happened to your cheek?” I asked. “Um, well, uh, Annelie slaps real hard,” he said rather sheepishly. I laughed. “So does Sky,” I admitted. Then Rock laughed too. “What are you two laughing about?” asked Sky as she came into the library. “Well, I gotta go,” said Rock.

“Oh no you do not!” said Sky firmly, “now I know that it must be about me. Maybe I should call Annelie to join us.” “No, no, that is not necessary,” said Rock, “we were just, um, well, Steve was just about to tell you.” “Thanks Rock,” I said, “I was beginning to enjoy this.” “Well?” asked Sky. “We were just, um, kind of comparing how you and Annelie can slap rather hard,” I said, somewhat quietly. “Oh, then we do need Annelie,” said Sky, “so we can compare properly.” Sigh.

No way to get out of this one. Rock and I ended up with matching red cheeks. With Annelie and Sky laughing, and the cats giggling. Right then Crystal came walking into the library too. “Hey, you are supposed to be in bed right now,” I told her. “I cannot stay in bed all the time,” she answered, “I am feeling fine.” “You will stay in bed if I send you back to the hospital,” I said, trying to sound firm. “That would not be nice,” she said, “it is lonely staying in bed.”

“Well Steve,” said Sky, “put her back to bed, you are the leader.” Sigh. Off I went with Crystal and made sure she was back in bed. I also brought Muffin to stay with her for the night. “I have some important information too,” said Crystal, “I remembered what Marven had said.” “Hey, you are withholding info,” I said, “out with it.” “He mentioned that M had a secret estate,” she said, “and that is likely where M hid his other jewels.

But only M knew where that estate was located, not even Marven knew that. So this will not really help us much.” “Yes, I remember that now,” I said, “but M must have some information about the location of that estate, ownership papers of some kind, something to prove he owned the place. But where would he keep that information?” “Most likely where he kept us,” said Crystal, “Marven said that was his main estate.”

I was soon on the phone with Mandar telling him this information. He said that someone had broken into that estate and his men tried to catch him, but he got away. He had opened a safe in the house, but had done nothing else. That was likely Marven I told him. He then hired us to try and find this secret estate, so our first stop will be that main estate we had been held at. I took Rock, Sky, Angel, Tracy, Astrid and Kristina, plus the 3 cats.

It was not far and we were soon in the place looking for whatever we could find that would lead us to that secret estate. The cats were busy sniffing around each room, looking for any hidden passageways, or just a hiding spot where M might keep important papers or jewels. Our first day turned up nothing, except a safe we did not know about, but it was empty. I hope Marven did not have time to clean it out.

It was kind of odd to be completely empty, especially since it was a fairly large safe. We spent the night at a hotel and were back again right after breakfast. Wherever these papers are, it would have to be easy to get at since M was too big to be crawling around and reaching under things. While Sky and the cats were checking out a bedroom, she looked in the large mirror on the wall.

“I have seen mirrors like this before,” she said. Then the did some measuring and discovered that between the two bedrooms was a space of about 6 feet. There was bold swirling patterns on the walls of the hallway, but she spotted the outline of a door. Now, how to open it…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.