“I’m sorry,” I told Jimmy, “but this is our honeymoon, and I made a promise to my wife that we would not get involved in any cases until afterward.” Lena smiled and put her head on my shoulder. “Yes,” said Jimmy, “that does make sense. Maybe we can talk again before you leave?” “That would be okay,” I said. Then he went back inside. “Wow,” said Lena, “that was great, I was wondering if you could actually do it or not.” “Hey, I did make a promise, and I don’t break promises,” I told her. “Yes, I know that,” she answered, “but I also know how much you enjoy cases.” “True,” I said, “but it would be dangerous this time. The customs people let me keep my guns, but they took the bullets, and there’s certainly no place to buy bullets on this island.”

“In that case I’m really happy you said no,” she said with a worried look. It’s starting to get dark so I called the cats over and we went to our room. They were bouncing around with excitement for some reason. “Why are you two so excited?”, I asked them. Mr. Cat grabbed a scrambler and plugged it in. Meow,meow.=We excited because of new case. Meow.=Yep, this be exciting honeymoon with case. “Wait a minute you two,” I said, “there is no case, I said no to it.” They stopped bouncing and stared at me with their eyes blinking.

“How do you two blink your eyes at the same time like that?”, I asked, “no, wait, I don’t want to know.” “Isn’t it great that your human was able to say no like that?”, said Lena. The cats stared at her now and kept blinking. Meow,meow=But, but, we have to help old couple, this hotel all they have. Meow.=Yep, and someone try to steal it from them and blank male them. “Um, that’s blackmail, Mr. Cat,” I said, “how did you find out all this?” Meow,meow.=When we run around we hear old couple talking when sitting on bench. “So you stopped and sat behind the bench and listened to their conversation?”, asked Lena.

Meow.=No, we not sit, we lie down, we were tired from running. Meow,meow=Things happen to people when they come here, so they leave and don’t come back and they tell more people not to come here. Meow.=Yep, like special bees that only stay on sand places like beach, that why no one out there. “How do they know about these special bees?”, I asked. Meow,meow=There special insect man on other side of island, he identify bees. Meow.=And other bugs that come into hotel and scare people, or make them sick. Meow,meow.=Yep, he always know what bugs they are.

“Hmm, that sounds rather odd,” I said, “and a little too convenient as well.” Meow,meow=And strange things happen in rooms too that scare people away, I not like that part, ghosts appear, scary ones. “Sounds like a well thought out plan to take over the hotel nice and cheap,” said Lena, “so I side with the cats, we need to help them.” “Okay,” I said, “I’ll go back down and talk with Jimmy right now and get the complete story from him.” Off I went to find Jimmy. His daughter said he went outside. About an hour later I open the door to the room and fall to the floor. “Steve!”, yelled Lena. She dragged me over to the bed while the cats made sure the door was closed and locked.

I had put a chair by the door so Mr. Cat could stand on it and lock or unlock the door. He put one of our lock jammers on it so no one could unlock the door. Then they came over and jumped on the bed. Meow,meow?=My human okay? “Yes Muffin,” said Lena in tears, “he’ll be okay, he was beaten by someone.” Meow.=They trying to scare us away too. Meow,meow!=We not scare easy, we catch people who do this! Meow.=Yep, they be sorry they try to scare us. I open my eyes and say, “not a very good start to our honeymoon.” “Don’t worry about that,” said Lena, “who did it?” “I don’t know,” I said, “I went outside looking for Jimmy and was jumped by 3 guys. They just said ‘this is no place for a PI, so leave’. Word gets around quick in this place.”

To Be Continued.

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

Previous chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” and “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.