It was nice to have a good rest after our last case, which wasn’t even really a case, more a matter of survival. However, all of us are ready to go again and we just got a third letter from a young couple who are looking for help. “Okay,” I said to Kat, “guess it’s time to answer these people and see what is going on.” “Should I call the cats?”, she asked. Poke, poke! Two little heads look around the door of the library. Meow,meow?=What going on? We got new case? Meow.=Hope it fun case, like old castle with ghosts. “I knew we wouldn’t have to call these two,” I said to Kat, “they always hear when we talk about a case.” “But they were busy playing on their play structure,” she said.

“They might be playing,” I said, “but they are still listening to us!” We both laughed. Meow,meow?=Well, what about new case? “It’s a young couple that inherited an old house that at one time was used sort of as a hotel,” I started to say, “that is until one of the guests hung his wife, and then himself. But that happened nearly 100 years ago, but things keep happening so people stopped staying there and it’s been used just as a place to live for the last 80 years. Finally this couple inherited the house last year, and strange things keep happening, like doors opening and closing, lights going on and off, furniture being moved around and a few other things.

But this couple like the house and want to stay there, so they would like us to find out what is going on and put a stop to it.” Meow.=We do case like this before, sort of anyway, so it be easy for us. Meow,meow.=Yep, someone want people out of house, so maybe buried treasure there to find. “Good thinking you two,” said Kat, “it should be fairly easy to find out who is behind this. Obviously someone wants the couple out, so there must be a reason.” “Okay,” I said, “we’ll go have a talk with this couple and get rid of their “ghosts” for them.” Soon we were off flying again, then a long drive down a very lonely road at night.

“See, we should have stayed at that last hotel,” said Kat, “I don’t like this road at all.” “As I recall you didn’t like the looks of that hotel either,” I reminded her. “Well, okay, but I was willing to stay there,” she said. “That’s true,” I admitted, “but there were some suspicious looking men hanging around there and I didn’t like that. And this couple said it wasn’t far down this road. Just past the Norman house, turn right and you’re there, is what they said.” “We haven’t seen any houses for a while now and the last two looked abandoned to me,” said Kat.

“Yes, they did,” I agreed, “ah, look ahead, that must be the Norman house.” It was bright yellow, just like they said, but it also looked empty. Then the road came up and I turned right. It was rather narrow, but a good road. We passed over two small bridges along the way and after half an hour we were at our destination, and the end of the road. “That looks just like a haunted house,” said Kat. It was a large 3 story house, and it certainly did need a bit of care. I honked when I stopped in front of the house, something they said I should do so they would know we had arrived. The man, whose name was Bradley Collins, came out to meet us and help carry our stuff inside.

His wife, Susan, met us inside. Since it was late we just had a snack and talked for a bit about various things concerning the house and some of its history. We decided not to get too much involved tonight, we just wanted to get some sleep. Our bedroom was on the second floor, it was large and very nicely furnished with antiques. And the bed was super comfortable so we were all asleep rather quickly. At about 2am I woke up and both cats were staring over to where our suitcases were. I grabbed my gun from under the pillow and turned the light on. There was a guy going through our suitcases! I yelled at him to stop and back away, but he just kept looking. So I got up and told him again or I would shoot. He looked at me and laughed, then pulled a gun and…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.