“Is he dead?”, asked King. “No, he’s just sleeping,” I said, “he was shot with these.” I held out the two sleeping darts. “What are they?”, he asked. I took my dart gun out of my backpack and showed him. “They are sleeping darts, shot from a gun like this,” I explained. “Looks just like a real gun,” he said. “Yes, but it can only shoot these darts,” I said, “and they don’t shoot very far. But I don’t understand why anyone would shoot him with sleeping darts unless he spotted someone that shouldn’t be here.” “And we know there must be someone else out here,” he said, “but where are they hiding?”

“An old house like this could have secret rooms and passages in it,” I explained, “I’m sure your clients would love it if we could find some.” “That they would,” he admitted, “now to just convince Bradley and Susan to sell the place.” “How did you find out about their house?”, I asked. “We have been friends for a long time,” he said, “so when they told me about it I realized there was a good profit to be made for them.” “And for you too,” I added, smiling. He laughed, “you have me there, yes, I would get a good commission out of it too.” King is still a good suspect, he was the last one to see Bradley and he didn’t seem too surprised about my dart gun.

But if he is involved, he’s not alone, someone else is working with him. These ‘ghostly’ happenings might even be his idea to increase the price of the house. We go out to the living room and tell Susan that Bradley is sleeping on their bed, so she heads right down there, while I head back upstairs. Kat is sitting up and feeling quite a bit better. Meow,meow!=I know about carpet and room, it exactly the same! I decide to meow with her, just in case someone is listening to us. Kat just sits quietly and listens to our conversation. Meow,Meow?=Okay Muffin, what case is the room from? Meow,meow.=It our very first case, sitting room on top floor, everything same, books, lamps, carpet, furniture, ornaments, even size of room.

Meow,Meow!= Good girl, that’s exactly right, and that tells us that John is involved in this. Contact Baldwin to check and see if John is still in jail. So she did so right away. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the house… “Well, what are they saying?”, said a woman. “Nothing,” said a man, “the one cat is meowing and that PI is meowing too.” “All they’re doing is meowing?” she asked incredulously. “Yep, that’s all they’re doing,” he said again, “I think that PI is a nut.” “I doubt that,” she said, “he recognized the room and asked the cat to look at it too.”

“Are you saying they can talk to each other?”, he asked. “Of course not!”, she exclaimed, “I’m not crazy like he is!” And now back to us again. “Think you’re well enough to walk downstairs to our bedroom Kat?”, I asked her. “Yes,” she said, “I can do it now.” So we went slowly down the stairs to our bedroom and Kat sat in one of the big chairs, a table in between them. Then I added another scrambler to the room, plus another device plugged into my charger and turned it up. “What does that one do?”, asked Kat. “Well, anyone listening with an old fashioned device will get their eardrums blasted to pieces with this,” I told her.

Back to our listening friends…suddenly the man threw off his headphones, put his hands on his ears and fell off his chair. “What’s with you?”, asked the woman, and she picked up the headphones but tossed them aside real fast. “Guess they know we are listening now,” she said angrily. Baldwin answered our inquiry about John, but he is still in prison. So much for that idea, though he could have someone working for, or with, him. Suddenly there was a high pitched scream coming from downstairs! I told the cats to stay with Kat, made sure she had her gun, then I went running downstairs.

“It came from the Collins’ bedroom, we think,” said the one couple. Just then King and the other couple came up from the basement. I asked King to come with me and we ran down to Bradley and Susan’s bedroom. She met us at the door and ran right into King’s arms. I ran over to Bradley, he had been stabbed with that big knife of his. “Is he…?,” asked King, who genuinely looked scared. “Yes, he’s dead this time,” I said, “take Susan out to the living room.” He did so right away. That’s why someone used the sleeping darts on Bradley, it would be the only way to kill him easily, without shooting him. And shooting wouldn’t fit the ghost theory very well.

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.