“Right from the beginning we said it would be this way,” said Kat, “and I’m the one that said it. I’m expendable, you’re the important one here. Besides, you always have Jenny.” I just looked at her. “One of these days you’ll get yourself in serious trouble,” I said, “but I’m still not leaving you here. We both leave, or we both die, that’s the way it’s going to be. I have an idea.” “Okay,” said the fake Baldwin, “you’re time is up and something tells me your answer is wrong. It looked more like you were saying good bye to each other.” “Well, it’s like this,” I said, “we both leave here or we both die here.

Now here’s the deal. It’s going to be hard to explain the death of the cats, but we might be able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for them. But coming back without Kat would be very hard to explain. People would be suspicious, that perhaps I killed everyone. That would make it harder for me to point out Baldwin as a fraud, it would look like I was put up to it. But if we both go back, it will be a lot easier and people will listen to us more readily.” Now I just hope he falls for that and lets us go. “You might have a point,” he said, “but I will have men watching you the whole time, make one mistake and your wife dies! You got that?”

“Yeah, I understand,” I said, “and we should get back while he’s still in the hospital and get this done before he gets out, it will make things easier.” “I agree,” said the fake Baldwin. “Can I ask a question?”, I asked him. “Go ahead,” he said. “Why are you doing this to Baldwin?”, I asked him. “Because I already looked quite a bit like him, so it made things easier,” he explained, “I never knew Baldwin before, just that he was the best choice.” Well, that certainly didn’t help, I was hoping to find out something about this guy, which would be a big help, but it didn’t work.

Soon we were driving out of here to a small town where we spent the night in a hotel. Under different circumstances it would have been a very nice place to spend a couple of days. There was even an old castle close by… That did it for me, I started thinking about the cats. How can we continue with our PI business without the cats? We can’t, I’ll have to get a different job of some kind. I still have to figure out what to do about Baldwin and his evil twin that he doesn’t even know about yet. “Are you going to look out that window all night, or do I have to tie you up and put you in bed?,” asked Kat. “Yeah, guess I do need some sleep,” I said, “maybe I’ll think better in the morning.”

Meanwhile, out on a ledge high in the mountains… “It’s going to be a cold night out here,” said Rock, “let’s get over among those smaller trees.” Meow,meow.=We have little pop up kittentent for us, in my backpack. Rock looked, sure enough, there it was folded up tight. Meow.=Just push button. He did and the tent popped up to a size perfect for the cats. Meow,meow=That help keep us warm, and we have blanket for you too, we each have one, you might need both. He looked again. “Hey, I’ve seen these things before, I wonder if they really work,” he said, “guess I’ll find out.”

He used his jacket for a pillow and also to wrap around his head. Soon Muffin was waking Rock, the sun was shining brightly on them on the ledge. Meow,meow=Get up, time to put blanket away, sun make it shine too much, bad guys might see it. “Oh, never thought about that,” he said, and he quickly folded them the best he could. Meow.=Not worry about blankets, won’t fit in backpacks again now. He left the kittentent up just in case they would need it again. Meow.=You want some of our cat food for breakfast, it good, lots of vitamins.

“Um, no, I’ll pass,” said Rock, “but thanks for offering anyway.” Meow,meow!=Oh, I hear chop chop coming! “What’s chop chop?”, asked Rock. Meow,meow=It like plane, but no wings, have big whirly thing on top. “A helicopter!,” yelled Rock, pointing toward the east. They came in as close as possible and let down a ladder which they started swinging towards them. “Jump on me!”, yelled Rock and the cats did so. “We have one chance,” he said, “if I miss, that’s it.” Meow.=Then don’t miss. The ladder came in fairly close and Rock jumped…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.