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.