Hmm, could that agent have been at the chateau? He would need to know about some of the secret passageways then, that makes him a big suspect. I’m not even sure about some of the people in this small hospital, there’s one nurse that just gives a weird feeling whenever he comes in the room, the cats agree with me too. And I notice the doctor seems to be uncomfortable whenever that nurse is around. It was quiet, Calanthe and I were talking, she felt good and wanted to leave but the doctor wanted to keep her one more night just to make sure she was okay. I agreed with the doctor. The nurse came in who is able to speak English well so I told her I didn’t want that other nurse coming in here anymore. She said the doctor would have to make that decision.

I told her that if he comes in again I would throw him out, I don’t trust him. Then she confided that she didn’t like him either, she always got a cold feeling when he was around. Apparently he only started working there 2 days ago. That seems too convenient. She came back with a paper for me to sign stating I had a complaint with this nurse and didn’t want him to care for Calanthe. I gladly signed it. She left, Calanthe was asleep, Muffin curled up beside her, I sat in the big comfortable chair that was in the room and took a short nap. Mr. Cat was on guard duty, so he sat on the window sill, looking out and in. All continued quiet, until Mr. Cat was waking me up by slapping my face with his tail. Muffin was on the bed growling and hissing and that male nurse was back with a needle in his hand!

I jumped up and grabbed his arm and told him to leave. Oh my, jumping up like that awakened my spinal injury, but I couldn’t show the pain. I told him again to leave and pointed at the door. He was quick and turned me slightly, punching me hard on my lower spine, right where I had been shot. That was too much, my legs crumbled and I fell to the floor. He kicked me in the stomach, but Muffin was already in the air and landed right on his back with all 18 claws raking his back! And Mr. Cat wrapped himself around the man’s leg, biting and clawing. He screamed just as the doctor and two more nurses came in and managed to subdue this nurse. The cats jumped off him and I pulled myself away and also pulled out my gun. My mistake for not having the slingshots on the cats.

Seeing my gun settled the man down and he stayed sitting on the floor until the police arrived and took him away. The police were very happy to be helping a fellow officer. I’m not sure how Rossana managed that, but it sure is helping to be an undercover officer. Mind you, I’m not so undercover now. The doctor looked at my back and asked how it happened. I told him I was shot there in another case about a month ago. He felt I should be relaxing still, not taking on new cases. Off he went to check out that needle. He came back in a little while and said it was filled with poison and Calanthe would have died very quickly. He also ordered me, as my doctor, to sleep in the other bed, not in the chair, it would be better for my back. He also gave me some painkillers for it. He’s a good doctor, and seems much more relaxed now. Everything was quiet the rest of the day and night.

In the morning we left the hospital and went on our way to the chateau. A little ways out of town I turned onto a smaller road. “Where are you going?”, asked Calanthe, “this won’t take us back to the chateau.” “We’re not going back there right now,” I said, “we’re heading back to my chateau instead. We will get there early enough to look around a bit before it gets dark. According to the lawyer that agent doesn’t know about this chateau, so it might be a good place to relax for a day or two and think.” Meow,meow.=Oh, oh, he going to think again, that mean trouble coming. Meow.=Yep, every time he think, we get in trouble. Giggle, giggle. “What are you two giggling about?”,asked Calanthe. Meow,meow=When he think, we always get in trouble. Meow.=Yep, that true. Calanthe starting laughing…for about 5 minutes. It wasn’t that funny. Here we are, home at last.

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.