And I got a call right then from Linnea. She said that her and Calanthe had been poisoned and are going by ambulance to the hospital which is in another town. She asked me to come there as well, so off we went as quickly as we could. It’s possible the cats and I have been poisoned too but it’s reacting slower on us for some reason. Kind of odd though that Calanthe was being affected so much and Linnea obviously wasn’t. Did Linnea poison Calanthe and then take a little herself to make it look like someone else did it? Hmm, that would put the blame towards me which is not so good. Just like my knife was used to kill Giselle in our last case. Could I be wrong? Is Gisela actually still around here trying to get me? That is something that is making more sense all the time. Finally we are at the hospital and I am directed to the room where Linnea and Calanthe have been taken.

By the time I got there Linnea was in worse condition than Calanthe the doctor told me. He did not speak English, but the one nurse there did. Not long after I got there the police showed up and wanted to talk with me. I kind of thought they would, especially since I’m feeling fine. They couldn’t speak English either so the nurse came along to help out. We went into an office while they questioned me. This was not going well, I could see myself heading to jail shortly, so I decided I better call Rossana and let her know what’s going on, maybe she can help. She actually chuckled a bit, hard to believe, but she would try to help me out. In a short while a call came for one of the officers and it was obvious the man on the other end was not too pleased. He was yelling loud enough for us all to hear.

The officers then apologized several times, they didn’t realize I was a special international undercover officer, then they left quickly. When I said that Calanthe was my girlfriend, and they heard I was a police officer, they allowed me to stay in the room overnight, and with the cats too. We took turns watching, I didn’t really trust anyone right now. About 3 am an alarm sounded and nurses and a doctor came running. They tried the best they could, but were unable to revive her, Linnea had died. This is hard to believe, Calanthe was sick first, by quite a bit, seems to me that Linnea was poisoned after Calanthe, but how? In the morning a nurse told me that a lawyer was here to see me about Linnea. Apparently Linnea had been able to tell the doctor to contact him if there was any complications.

I left the cats to guard Calanthe and went to an office to meet with the lawyer. He told me that the other chateau had been left to me and the main chateau was to be sold, at my discretion, and the money split between Calanthe and myself. That would be substantial, I’m sure. The money in the bank would go to pay funeral expenses, lawyer fees and any other expenses, the remainder going to some charities she liked. He said there is a real estate agent in town that would like to sell the chateau and already has a buyer for it. Now that part I didn’t like, that was just too convenient. I said no to that for now, that I wanted to wait. The lawyer seemed fine with that and everything else. He left and I went back to the room.

Calanthe was awake and talking, the nurse had already told her about Linnea. I talked with her for a bit. “Did Linnea ever talk about selling the chateau?”, I asked. “No, she never wanted to sell,” she answered, “but there is a realtor in town that has been after her to sell for the last couple of months. He said he even had a buyer for the chateau.” Hmm, things are falling into place now. A short time later that realtor came to the room looking for me, so I took him aside and told him I wasn’t going to sell right now. He was very nervous and quite upset when I said I wouldn’t sell. Finally he left. I don’t like this at all. I went back in the room. Meow,meow!=He very bad human, not like him at all, he at chateau when we eat lunch. Meow.=Yep, that same bad feeling yesterday, he definitely there, very bad human.

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.