Well, we enjoyed our pancake breakfast. Muffin checked the food carefully, she has been trained to sniff out poison and drugs, even small amounts. However, she has missed a couple of times, but she has been practicing more too, just to make sure. Then we got ready for the funeral, which really wasn’t going to be much, just a small gathering at the cemetery, whoever wants to come. I want to see who comes out, that will give us a look at our enemies. But, first of all I need to stop at the funeral home and make sure Linnea is still in the casket and check her pockets for a note. I don’t really like that part, but, it has to be done, hopefully the note will be in the first pocket I check. I take Muffin with me and leave Mr. Cat with Calanthe, they will drive to the cemetery behind us. Muffin and I are going in the hearse to make sure nothing happens to Linnea’s body along the way.

Sure enough, she is still there, not sure why I would expect anything else. I was to say ‘treasure hunt’ to the man in charge there so I could be alone with Linnea’s body. He and the other man left us alone. Linnea was wearing a small jacket that she liked so I checked all the pockets but found nothing. Next pocket, there it is! Muffin jumps up on my shoulder so she can read it too. “All finished?”, I ask her. Meow,meow=Yep, all done. I call the man back in and told him to close and lock the casket in my presence which he did, then off we went. At the cemetery we had an interesting view of several people. Baldwin was there with 4 associates, which are his bodyguards. Next to him Calanthe told me was the bank manager and two men with her. They also looked like bodyguards. Why would a bank manager in a small town require bodyguards?

Next to her was the mayor with 2 police officers, which I will assume are also bodyguards. Now a late comer, Calanthe said she was a very successful investor from Germany who came here 2 months ago to open up a branch of her investment business. She had been after Linnea to invest her money through her agency. Hmm, why would a person with a successful business in Germany come to a small town like this? Baldwin’s business is also investment. I checked on him and he’s completely clean, a very legitimate businessman. That’s good to know, but, it’s still odd that he would come here at this time. Then a person can also invest through the bank, so that makes 3, that’s a lot of competition in a small town. That doesn’t sound right to me. Where does the mayor stand in all of this?

Once the dirt was being put in the grave everyone began to leave. Baldwin came past us and put his hand on my shoulder and kept going. We waited until everyone else had gone. Back at the chateau it was time to head back underground, but which was the best way. Linnea had given us a hint, “to go down first go up and then go down”. Okay, back up the tower to that passageway that isn’t on the map. And down we went again looking through the maze of passages and rooms. Every room had furniture in it, but mostly things that were broken and never completely furnished. A dead end was before us. But was it? “This has been blocked off more recently than the tunnels,” I said to Calanthe.

“How can you tell?”, she inquired. “The stones are different, same kind of rock, but easy to tell they are not as old,” I explained, “we need to open this, but it’s too late today so we will attack it tomorrow.” Calanthe seemed rather quiet about this for some reason. Back upstairs in the tower Calanthe took a big breath. “I don’t like being in those passages,” she said, “these ones are too narrow for me, the others are not as bad because they are wider.” “You have a point,” I said, “so tomorrow we won’t stay down as long at a time.” “That sounds good,” said Calanthe with a smile. “Now to think…” I started to say. Meow,meow=Oh no, he thinking again, more trouble coming up. Meow.=Maybe time for chomp, chomp again. “No, that’s okay,” I said, “but, now it’s time to think about those people we saw today and…what’s this?”

To Be Continued.

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

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

©2021 Steve McLeod.