After looking at the little room we went over to the door that led to the third floor. I unlocked the door and opened it and a skeleton was hanging from the ceiling! Poor Kat nearly screamed. The hair on the cats stood straight up! Meow,meow!=It Skinny! “It’s okay everyone,” I said, “it’s not a real skeleton this time.” Meow?=How you know? “Because it’s hanging,” I said, “if it was real it would fall to pieces.” Meow.=Oh, that good to know. Meow,meow=Not need to know, Skinny still Skinny. “I must admit,” said Kat, “that is so cute how she calls skeletons Skinny.” “Obviously it was put there to scare people,” I said, “but the door is kept locked, so how does anyone get up here?”

Meow,meow.=Easy, there is secret passage in here too. “Right Muffin,” I said, “and we need to find it. Of course it’s also possible that someone just picked the lock.” Meow.=That true, easy to pick locks. Up we went until…nearly at the top Muffin stops us and points to one of the steps. Someone had sawed through it, so I pushed on it and it gave way to a spot with lots of nails sticking up. “A leg falling through there would hit those nails so hard they would go right through your foot,” said Kat staring down at the trap. “Yes, someone doesn’t want anyone coming up here,” I said, “we will need to be careful about more traps.” The cats went ahead of us just a bit to check for traps.

We unlock and check the first bedroom but there was nothing unusual about it, or the next room. There was a sitting room up here with a beautiful view of the property. Meow.=Car come. I looked out the window, it was the guests that Bradley and Susan were expecting. At least now we have a way out of here if needed. And Susan should be taken to the doctor, but I’m sure I don’t have to tell Bradley that. We looked around the sitting room for a while. There was something about this room, but I just couldn’t think what it was. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, yet it seems like there should be.

Half an hour later I looked out the window and saw the van still here. That was odd, why wasn’t Bradley taking Susan to the doctor. “You better go check Steve,” said Kat, “Susan does need to get going. The cats and I will stay in the sitting room.” “Okay,” I said and went downstairs. Bradley introduced me to everyone, then I reminded him that Susan needed to see the doctor quickly. “I’m not feeling so bad right now,” she said, “maybe I don’t really need to go see the doctor.” “You need to go,” I said, “if that gets infected, it will be too late.” Bradley agreed so they got the keys from King Davidson and went out, but they were soon back in.

Someone had taken the battery out of the van also. Bradley never thought of keeping an eye on the van, since it was during the day he thought it would be safe. We’re still stuck. King Davidson, an odd name, owns a real estate company and is very much interested in this house. Then there is Dan and Barbara Carberry, apparently quite wealthy, very much interested in ghosts and seem to me that they are a bit wacky. Then we have Ben and Tracy Kendall, also very much interested in ghosts, history and especially the history of old houses.

I think King deliberately brought these two couples here as possible buyers for this house. But it’s not up for sale. However, it does make King a prime suspect here. I will need to keep an eye on him. Upstairs Kat spotted a mouse and both cats ran down the hall chasing it. “Crazy cats,” said Kat out loud, “I will need to talk with them, they need to stay on the case and not go off chasing mice.” She laughed about it anyway. This old house likely has lots of mice, she thought. Just then my watch alarm went off. “Trouble upstairs!”, I yelled and started running up to the third floor with Bradley and King behind me. I yelled out a warning about the step and when we got to the sitting room…there was Kat…hanging from the ceiling…

To Be Continued.

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

Pictures of Mr. Cat are kindly supplied by his human, Nina.

©2021 Steve McLeod.