“Come here kitty,” said the officer. “That’s Muffin,” said Kat, “and this is M.C.” “Oh, hi Muffin,” he said as he picked her up. Meow, said Muffin. “We think that’s her way of saying ‘hi’,” I said to the officer. “Oh, I’m sure it is, after all she hasn’t met me before,” he said, “can you show me how you use a slingshot?” Muffin just looked at him quizzically and said meow again. “These are nice backpacks you cats carry,” said the officer, “may we look in them?” Muffin meowed again. “Good, good,” growled John, “now you can find out what I mean by those deadly muffins they shoot.”

The officer searched Muffin’s backpack and found some kitty treats, a fuzzy ball and Muffin’s favorite mouse toy. Plus a little blanket and pillow for Muffin’s nap time. “Is this the deadly toy she shoots?”, the officer asked John. “Of course not!”, yelled John, “I’m going to report you for all this, you’re just playing around, arrest this man and his wife!” “But you said this wasn’t his wife,” said the officer. “Right, that’s right, you’re deliberately getting me confused,” growled John again, “now I demand you arrest these people!”

“I’m getting to that,” said the officer, “they are not going anywhere. I just wanted your side of the story first so I know how to charge them. Now we have what we need and the ambulance is here. We have great doctors here that will be able to help you.” “It’s about time,” said John angrily, “now you’ll get a chance to taste prison life Steve, and I have a lot of friends there too.” Then the ambulance attendants came in and carried John back to the ambulance. As they left the officer said to John, “don’t worry Mr. Chandler, we have everything under control here, thank you for your cooperation.”

John mumbled something as they went out the door. “I’m a bit concerned by the way he was acting,” I said to the officer. “Yes,” he answered, “he might be trying to work up an insanity plea. He will still be in prison a long time, unless he could persuade the doctors that he was cured and no longer a risk to the public.” “And John is very good at manipulating things to his advantage,” I said, “which is why he is never in prison for very long.” “Well, this is certainly an elaborate plan you had to get Mr. Chandler to confess,” said the officer. “I guess it was, but I didn’t know how else to do it with no evidence to prove he wasn’t Baldwin,” I said.

“I am sorry that you lost your wife and best friend in all of this,” the officer said. “Sometimes in life even a win can be a loss,” boomed a voice behind us. We all turned and there was Baldwin standing behind us by the stairs again. “Don’t worry everyone,” he said, “I’m not a ghost, I’m the real me!” Muffin and M.C. went over to see him, so he picked them up. Meow,meow!=It real human Baldwin! Meow!=Yep, really, it him! But only Baldwin was standing there. Kat was holding my hand, and she squeezed it. She knew what I was thinking.

Kat and I knew that Baldwin would show up, it’s all part of the plan. He and Kat had been given a certain drug that would make it look like they were dead, even breathing or heartbeat would be difficult to detect. “It was close,” said Baldwin, “they waited so long before digging up the graves that we almost didn’t make it.” He put his head down a bit. “But we still have work to do,” he said, “we need to find out about Annelie, who is she working for anyway?”

“And how did John and his men get in here without having the combination,” I added. “Hmm, I never even thought about that,” said Baldwin, “but that is a good question. Oh, I do have information here that will prove that I’m me. It’s medical information from my time in the navy, plus a few other things, so we’ll get that straightened out quickly, that way no problems will arise.” Baldwin was deliberately not saying anything about Kat, so I knew what that meant.

“I’m sorry it turned out bad with Calanthe,” I said, “I never thought she would turn against you.” “Yes, her and I have always been close,” he said, “that was harder on me than losing Brandi. But I could tell the last couple of months that she was acting different. So I guess it’s good to find out now rather than later. Greed always does strange things to people.” We talked things over with the police and then they left. After a while Rock showed up and it was time to get back to work again, this isn’t over yet. Next…Annelie!

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.