The night went by quickly. I was going to get dressed so we could get out of here but someone had taken my clothes. Lena went to see about it but no one knew what had happened. My clothes should have been here in the room. My ID was still here, I had given that to Lena to look after, that was a good move. So now we have to wait for stores to open and Lena will go buy me some new clothes. Meanwhile the hospital staff would be looking for my clothes. I doubted they would be found however. Someone stole them, but why? Maybe they thought my ID would be in my pockets? It just seems strange. Hmm, now that Lena has gone with 2 of the guards to shop, I decide to talk with the cats.

“Okay you two,” I started off, “what do you think of all this? First, what do you think of Lena?” Meow,meow.=We think human Lena okay, she really is helping. And I think she like you too. Meow.=Yep, definitely like you, and she genuine, no problem. “Okay then,” I continued, “what about Baldwin?” Meow.=Me think that human Baldwin okay too, he really want to help. And human Calanthe okay too. Meow,meow=Yep, me agree, no problems with them. Human Baldwin become good friend. “Hmm, okay, what about the doctor here?”, I ask. Meow,meow.=He good doctor, not bad guy. Meow.=Yep, me agree.

“What about Baldwin’s men?”, I ask. Meow.=Not seem to be a problem with them either. Meow,meow=Yep, me agree, they okay. “Hmm, no suspects then,” I said, “so what about people from past cases, if someone wants me dead or in prison, then it must be someone we know, so think about our last cases, is there anyone that stands out, that might hate us enough to kill us? I just thought of something, someone might be listening to us right now.” Meow,meow.=Not worry, I plug in scramble device so no one can listen to us. “We have something like that?”, I ask. Meow.=We have lot of things to use and this one work real good. Meow,meow=We try to think of someone, but can’t think of anyone. Most dead or in prison, except human Gisela.

Meow.=And I not here for early cases, so not much help there. But maybe is human Gisela, she real bad and she hate you. “Hmm, and I can’t remember a thing about her,” I said, “except from what you told me before, this does sound like something she would do. But how do we find her? I think Baldwin has already been looking for her…and…” I just sat there in bed staring again. The cats watched me, not sure what they should do, so they waited to see what would happen. Mr. Cat was set to go into action to stop me if needed. My mind was swirling, pictures, people, talking, names, hotel, burning. “My head is going to explode!”, I yelled and grabbed Muffin.

“Thwock!”, and I was out again. Lena and the guards came in at that moment. “What’s going on?”, asked Lena. Meow.=Human Steve going to hurt Muffin, had to give him time to sleep with rubber ball again. Muffin wasn’t hurt, physically, but she felt so bad that her human would try to hurt her. She lay down and cried. Mr. Cat came over and started licking her face. Meow.=Muffin need to remember that human Steve not himself right now. He not do this, it someone else that made him forget, that who did this. Muffin looked over at me, then came and gave me a hug. Meow,meow.=You right Mr. Cat, that not my human did that. And we going to find out who did it!

I woke up after a while, got dressed and we were out of there and on our way to the airport. Soon we were on Baldwin’s private jet heading back to our chateau. “Do you cats remember a burning hotel?”, I ask. Meow,meow=Yep, in real early case with Jessica and… “Hey, that’s one of the names I remember,” I said excitedly, “and Trish.” Meow,meow=Oh, human Trish is bad twin of Jessica, we send her to prison. “Any other names Steve?”, asked Lena who was also excited now. “I’m trying to think,” I said, “but things are blurry, hard to see.” Time went fast and we were pulling up to the chateau. Calanthe and Baldwin were outside and came over right away. It seemed safe once more, but does it matter? I’m still nowhere.

To Be Continued.

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

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

©2021 Steve McLeod.