“Good,” said Kat, “anything you can think of will be a help, sometimes even things that seem unimportant can be very important.” “Right,” I said, “now, these people that just came are friends of ours, they are just pretending not to know us, because we are likely being watched as well as listening to our conversations. But we are safe in here and in the girls rooms. We have disabled their listening devices and cameras. We would like to do the same in your bedroom if that is okay.”

“Oh, yes indeed!”, she said, “that is scary to think there might be a camera in my room.” That reminded me, we have to let Baldwin and the others know not to talk or do anything until the cameras and listening devices in their rooms are disabled. “Muffin, MC, you have a job to do and quickly,” I told them and gave them directions. Then I let them out of the room. They went quickly to Baldwin’s room and scratched at the door meowing like ordinary cats.

“Well, well, look at this,” said Baldwin pretending to be surprised by the cats, “would you like to come in and say hello?” They went in quickly. Meow,meow.=Be careful, listen bugs in room and cameras in all roof lights too. Meow.=Yep, need to dis, um, dis bubble them. “Well, you certainly are cute little cats,” said Baldwin, “you should go to the room next to us and visit the girls, they just love cats.” He opened the door and off they went doing the same thing over again.

“Oh, you two are such adorable kitties,” said Salka, “and so nice that your names are on your collars too.” “Yes, but you should really go back to your owners now,” said Kristina, “they might be worried.” Then they opened the door and let them go. They came back to us and I let them in. Meow.=All done, messages deliveryabled. Meow,meow.=And human Baldwin gave note under collar. I took it out, it was the information from Annelie.

“Well, this is quite interesting,” I said and handed the note to Kat. “Now, back to you Sigurbjorn, can you think of anything that might help us?”, I asked. She put her head down. “It is rather embarrassing,” she said, “my father worked for a company and was doing very well. When I turned 21 he wanted me to work for the same company, he said the job would pay very well, plus he would make more money too if I worked for them.

That was a bit puzzling to me, but I thought it might be good to work for them too, after all, they had been treating my father very well. So I went with him the next day to find out what the job was all about. I was shocked! I told them ‘no way’ and went to leave, but a man stood in front of the door. Well, I knew how to fight and was quickly out of that place. My father came home yelling at me and then my mother got involved yelling at me too for fighting my way out.

I packed up and left to stay in a hotel. That night the house burned and my whole family died.” That is when she broke down crying. “Then this job opened up so I took it,” she added, “I can speak 12 different languages so they thought I would be perfect for the job. Everything went well until this year.” She started crying again so Kat went over to comfort her and Muffin curled up on her lap purring again.

“Did you know Mikkael and Fjola before working here?”, I asked. “No, not at all,” she answered. “Mikkael worked for the same company as your father,” I explained, “he was caught stealing from them and decided to run and hide out here in Iceland, thinking they would be safe. But something still does not make sense. Doing these little things around here is just not the way they work, so I think someone else is involved for some reason.

Is there anything out here that is valuable?” “I do not think so,” she said. “Perhaps it is the money he stole from that company,” said Kat, “someone may have heard about it and is here looking for it now.” “Perhaps,” I said, “but that kind of information does not usually get tossed around lightly.” “That is true,” answered Kat. Just then Fjola called for Sigurbjorn so she went downstairs to see what she wanted.

I told Muffin and MC to follow but stay out of sight. Off they went going only part way down the stairs so they could see the room well. When Sigurbjorn got there Mikkael was there too and another man with a gun. Then a third man came and held Sigurbjorn while the man with the gun started punching her in the stomach. Muffin ran back upstairs, I was standing by our door.

Muffin jumped up and down meowing, “Need help quick!” I ran downstairs jumping on the man punching Sigurbjorn, then she was able to break free from the man holding her and joined the fight. Mikkael grabbed me and slammed me down onto the floor on my back…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.