Danny stood at the door watching as Bert drove away. The cats then hurried down to our bedroom and filled us in on the conversation. Meow,meow.=Human Danny lie to us, he know that man. Meow.=Yes, not like when we lied to, not can trust human Danny now. “I agree with you M.C.”, I said, “but for now we’re going to follow along with this little game he’s playing.” “And if we find the doll?”, asked Kat. “Then we hold the doll hostage until we get the truth from Danny,” I said. “What about this Bert character?”, asked Jennifer, “he might be a problem.”

“Yes, that’s true,” I admitted, “so we don’t take any chances with him. If he causes problems we will deal with him and he will regret getting involved with this.” “You know,” began Annelie, “this could be drugs they’re dealing with. This doll could be filled with something, or it might tell them where to pick up their stuff. I dealt with a lot of that working for Katrina.” “Hmm, that’s a good thought,” I said, “and if that’s it we will really need to watch Bert, because he won’t be alone.” “And he’s probably watching this house all the time too,” added Kat.

“Right,” I agreed, “so be alert, especially at night. M.C. will stay with you girls every night we’re here.” “Good,” said Jennifer, “it’s nice to know he stands guard, the cats can hear so much better than people, even when they’re asleep.” Meow.=Yep, we good at that, need to keep half awake in case mice show up, that good practice for PI work too. Meow,meow=Yep, me agree, cats so good for lots of PI work, we nice and quiet and good for leaves dripping. “That’s eaves dropping,” said Kat. Meow,meow=That what I just said. “Okay,” I said, “let’s get back out there and see what Danny has to say.”

“It was just some salesman,” Danny told us. Hmm, doesn’t look like we can trust Danny at all now. We spent the rest of the morning looking for the doll in the basement, but there was no sign of it down there. Then we decided to have some lunch before continuing our search. Meow,meow.=Someone drive up. “Someone’s here,” I said to Danny. He looked rather worried as he went to the door. I stayed ready just in case, and the cats hid behind the sofa in case I needed help. Poor Danny when he opened the door and saw this big man standing there.

“Hi Rock!”, I said, “this is another one of my PI helpers.” “Oh,” said Danny who obviously was relieved when I said that. “You’re just in time for lunch Rock,” I said. “Good,” he said, “I’m sure hungry.” I hope there’s enough food left for him. “When I heard you had been shot,” said Rock, “I decided to come and help out.” “That’s good,” said Kat, “now you can help me convince Steve not to do any work.” “Well Steve,” said Rock, “that’s why I’m here, now you don’t work, I do.” I had to admit, though just to myself, I was getting rather tired out and sore. My back was bothering me more all the time, and now with only using one arm, it just made things harder.

We decided to try the attic after lunch but Annelie wanted to show me something first, so we went back to the bedroom while the others began searching. “This letter is a fake,” she said, “take a look under the microscope.” “Okay,” I said, “I see the fibers in the paper.” “Now look at this genuine piece of paper from 1902, ” she said. “Hmm, the fibers are much larger,” I said, “which basically would make the paper coarser, though I can’t exactly feel the difference, except it’s thicker paper.”

“Right,” she said, “both papers are normal writing paper, and notice the coloring. The original is yellowed a bit due to age, the new one has been artificially yellowed.” “Hmm,” I said, “so Danny faked the letter to make us think there is some hidden gold we are after. Your theory of drugs is looking better all the time Annelie. That doctor’s kit of yours is handy for many things.” We then joined the others in the attic. They were not having any luck, there was so much stuff it was hard to move around. “I’m gettin’ worn out,” said Danny, “maybe I’ll go lie down for a bit.”

“That’s fine,” I said, “would you mind if we brought some of the boxes downstairs to look through them? It would be easier than trying to fight our way through all this stuff up here.” “Go right ahead,” said Danny, and off he went to his bedroom. One of the bedrooms on the third floor was completely empty so we decided to use that room to work in. As Rock brought in the first 3 boxes I said to him, “this is rather odd, it’s the only room in this house that is empty.” “Maybe they ran out of furniture?”, he questioned. I told Rock to send Muffin down. She came right away and… “Steve’s in trouble!”, yelled Kat.

To Be Continued.

Previous chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.