After the phone call with Baldwin we finished our dinner and I told Caren I would be staying at the hotel tonight. “Then I’m staying here too,” she said quite loudly, “I’m not staying out there alone!” “I think you should go back home,” I said, “you can take Muffin with you. With all that has been going on I doubt your stalker will show up, he’s going to lay low for a while, until all the excitement settles down.” Caren looks at me with a rather angry look. Back in the car while going to the hotel I explained things to her. “I’m sort of setting another trap,” I said, “and hopefully we’ll catch ourselves a rat in it. But don’t worry, I’m going to be there, and Mr. Cat too, I just don’t want people to know that.”

“You’re hoping the stalker will find out and come there tonight?”, she asked. “Yes, that’s it exactly,” I said, “that’s why I talked a bit louder at the restaurant, and your reaction was just perfect.” “Would you like another reaction too?”, she asked. “Um, no, I think I’ll pass on that one,” I said, “sorry I couldn’t warn you ahead of time, but it was a thought that just came to me in the restaurant.” “But there weren’t many people there,” she said, “just 2 married couples and those two police officers. You don’t suspect any of them, do you?” “I’m a PI remember?”, I reminded her, “I have to suspect everyone, until I find the guilty person.” “Do you still suspect me?”, she asked. “To be honest, I never did suspect you,” I said, “then tomorrow morning when Baldwin’s men come out, we’ll start to dig up those two old graves.”

“That reminds me, what happened to the men that came who were not Baldwin’s men at all?”, she asked. “It seems they disappeared along with Gisela,” I said, “so they must have worked for her and she stopped here to pick them up knowing she wouldn’t be able to drive another hour to the airport where the plane was waiting. Fortunately the other men from Baldwin got here just in time to, um, almost stop Gisela.” She parks around back and the cats and I get out and go into the hotel. “I’ll send Muffin back out right away,” I called back to her. She then drove up closer to the door where no one could see what was going on and we all got back in the car and off we went.

Once at the house I checked around but no one was there. I made sure the new locks were working properly but deliberately left the trap door open to the cellar. We decided to spend a couple hours looking around the attic again. Meow,meow=Come see what I find over there. We all followed and looked out the window. “Um, I don’t see anything Muffin,” I said. Meow=Me too not see anything. “I have to agree with the others Muffin,” said Caren, “what are we supposed to see? Meow,meow=Look on map. I clear off a table by the window and spread out the map.

Meow,meow?=See here? And she points on the map. Hmm, something so obvious that we missed it. Everything out here is square, so we start thinking and seeing square. The garden we are looking at is square, with the house on one side, a guest cottage on the opposite side and a small storage building on each of the other 2 sides. The guest cottage is small, only one room and a bathroom, but, it isn’t square, yet it was obviously made that way. But why? I must check this out. So we all head over to the cottage and start to look around. I plug in a scrambler so we can talk, but even after looking for an hour, nothing important shows up.

“This is definitely odd,” I said, “there must be a reason why this cottage is not square.” “Maybe it’s just because it’s a guest cottage,” said Caren. Meow.=Maybe look in genie logic book. We all look at Mr. Cat. Meow?=Why everyone look at me like that? “Where is the book?”, I asked him. Meow.=In attic, just notice while looking out window. Meow,meow?=Why you not say something before? Meow=Because your human want to come down here right away. We go back to the house, it’s dark now, but I did retrieve the book. Muffin went with Caren and Mr. Cat stayed with me. I wanted to read that book but it was necessary to leave the lights off except what Caren would use. I’m sure we will get a visitor tonight…

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.