While Muffin was busy Mr. Cat started going through all of our stuff, looking for anymore tracking devices. There must be one more somewhere. Sometimes things don’t add up the way they should, and right now is just such a time. It’s obvious that Sabine, or someone in her gang, possibly Gaston, put that tracking device in Muffin. However, that’s the tracking device the police were following, and that doesn’t make sense. Sabine isn’t going to let us get away easily, so she must have a way to track us also, so there must be another tracking device on us somewhere. We’re in a bad position right now, which I haven’t explained to Lena, but perhaps she has figured it out. On one hand we are working with the police to capture these jewel thieves that are responsible to stealing a lot of major jewels around the world. They have even infiltrated Sabine’s gang, with someone.

However, the local police don’t know anything about this, as far as they know we are just jewel thieves. They could arrest us and we would end up in prison for life because we stole a national treasure. Not good. They could also shoot us as we try to evade being captured, something we would definitely try to do. After all, spending life in prison is not a thrilling thought. But we knew this when we accepted the case. Except Lena. There are things I am not allowed to tell her. Now, on the other hand we have Sabine and her gang. Once they have the Jade Cat she promised to let us go. But will she keep her word? I doubt it. After all, I have seen her and Gaston. There’s no doubt in my mind she will have us killed once she has that Cat. Not good. Either way things don’t look good. Unless we successfully capture Sabine and her gang, without losing the Jade Cat. And that possibility is not looking so good at the moment.

Right now I think renting that truck was a deliberate idea, either the police arranged it, or Sabine arranged it. But did Lena know about it? Could she be another undercover police officer, unknown to the other group of undercover police? Or is she a member of Sabine’s gang? Or is she just innocently caught up in this because she genuinely wants to help me? Sabine and Gaston. I know those voices. And I know where I heard them. Muffin comes over and whispers to me. She looks up at me. Meow,meow?=Big problem, right? “Yes Muffin, it’s a big problem,” I said quietly, “but we knew this wasn’t going to be easy. So we keep going as planned for now. Help Mr. Cat look for more tracking devices.” Meow,meow.=Okay, I know we can do it, we smarter than bad people. Then off she went to help Mr. Cat.

Lena finally woke up and came out of the truck. “I slept so well,” she said cheerfully. Nice that one of us did. “Muffin needs to check you for tracking devices,” I said to her. “What? But why?”, she exclaimed. Muffin looked at her sternly. “Okay, I guess there is a reason,” she said, not so cheerful now. They come out and Muffin says there is no tracking device on her. “Sorry,” I said to Lena, “but I had to get checked too, and all of our stuff. We need to make sure there are no more tracking devices before we make our next move. Oh, I had to take your phone as well.” “Wrong,” she said, “it’s right here in my…it’s gone!” Muffin comes over to me carrying Lena’s phone. “How did she do that?”, asked Lena.

“She is our pickpocket, and she knows her job well,” I said with a smile. Then I took a large old hammer I found, and with a shriek coming from Lena, I quickly destroyed her phone. “What about your phone?”, she asked. “Right now I need mine to get in touch with Sabine,” I said, “and, yes, she could be tracking us with that.” Then Mr. Cat came out from under the truck carrying another tracking device. “Well, it looks like someone doesn’t want to lose us,” I said, “probably Sabine, and she likely arranged things so you had to rent this truck.” “But how did she know we would rent something from that place?”,asked Lena. “It was the closest one, and she may have arranged things with other rental places as well,” I said, “hard to outrun someone with this, and it’s hard to hide as well. And now we need to plan our next move.”

To Be Continued.

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

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

©2021 Steve McLeod.