We rushed around trying to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind, then off we went. One of the elevators was on the way up, hopefully we can get on the other elevator before that first one gets here. Fortunately the other elevator was just 3 floors up and it got here first so down we went to the main floor. However, we stopped at the second floor and walked down the stairs at the back of the hotel. When we got to the back door we could see police in the parking area. How did they know? As we went out the door the cats went off on their own. The police came over to us right away and…”Thwock”, “Thwock”, both officers fell to the ground. They’ll only be out for a short time however, and probably have a headache for the rest of the day.

We get in our car and we try something that we did in another case, I let Lena off at a car rental place and told her to rent a van, which she did. However, she got something a bit larger than I was thinking, but it might work good, providing we don’t have to get involved in a high speed chase. “How did the police find out about us?,” asked Lena. “I really don’t know, someone had to tip them off, that’s the only way,” I said, “but so few people knew where we would be.” Lena looked at me. “I didn’t do it, I hope you know that,” she said quietly. “Don’t worry, I don’t believe it was you,” I said, “it had to be someone on the police force and…” I started thinking of Sabine. I have seen her before, I think, but it’s her voice that really sounds familiar. But where have I heard her voice before? And even Gaston’s voice, I’ve heard him before, but where, and when? And why am I thinking of them right now?

They don’t even know where we are, I don’t like doing things on their terms. I want everything done on my terms. Then I know what is going on and can make plans better. But I do need to contact them and find out how, when, and where we are going to make this exchange of the Jade Cat. And how the police can finally catch them…wait, that’s it! “Muffin, come here for a minute,” I said to her. She came over and I whispered to her. Her ears went straight up and she looked at me with big eyes. Then the cats went in the back of this huge van, which is more like a big moving truck. Oh well. “Where are we going?”, asked Lena, “this is getting close to where I live.”

“That’s where we are going,” I said, “but just a little farther than your place, remember that old abandoned house you pointed out to me? That’s our destination.” “But the police are likely watching my place, and have probably checked that abandoned place already,” she said. “That’s right, they would have already checked the abandoned place, which means they are not likely going to check it again soon,” I said, “and they won’t expect us to use a place so close to yours.” “Hmm, you might be right about that,” she admitted. We kept driving right past her place but never saw any activity around there, but as we got closer to the abandoned place I could see someone walking around and there was now a realtor sign out front.

So I just kept on driving until we came to a little used road. I turned down there and drove for a bit until coming to a very abandoned house, not much left of it really. I had to back up a bit, then turned into what was once the driveway and drove around to the back of the place. Because of all the long grass it was easy to see no one else had been here for a very long time. Unfortunately it was easy to see where I had driven through the grass with the truck. But by using the broom that was in the truck I was able to get the grass standing a little better once more. We might be safe here for awhile, I hope. We went inside, it was completely empty and not too safe looking. “Are you sure we should stay here?”, asked Lena, “this house looks like it’s ready to fall down.” “We’ll stay here for awhile, until we figure out what to do,” I said. The cats come running over, meow,meow.=police outside looking around.

To Be Continued.

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

Previous chapters can be found on my home page under “The Investigators, Inc.” And other stories can be found under “20/20 Investigations, Inc.”

©2021 Steve McLeod.