“Well you two, tomorrow we will be heading back home, and hopefully we will get a new case soon too,” I said trying to sound hopeful. Meow,meow?=We take Lena home with us? “No Muffin, Lena is staying here, this is where she lives,” I said to her. Meow,meow?=Maybe we move here? Nice place to live. Meow.=Hey, not bad idea, much warmer here, you live in such cold place, not understand why human people live in such cold place. “Yes, well, I have to agree with you on that one Mr. Cat,” I said, “but that is where we live.” Meow,meow.=He hard to convince sometimes. Meow.=Yep, sure is, maybe he need more chomp, chomp. Right then Lena came knocking on our bedroom door.

“Can I come in Steve?,” she said anxiously. Meow,meow=You can come in Lena, is okay. “Um, I think she was talking to me,” I said to Muffin. Meow,meow.=You always too slow, we need to give push sometimes. Anyway, Lena came into the room and said, “Steve, a friend of mine needs your help, it’s very important!” Meow,meow!=Yay, a case, now we have to stay! Meow,=Yes, this sound very good. “Hey you two, let Lena talk so we can find out what’s going on,” I told them with a sigh. Meow.=There he go, he get to sigh, not us. Lena and I stand there looking at them. Meow,meow.=Oops, sorry, we not talk now. Meow?=Yep, we listening to every word, what you say again? “My friend’s cat is missing, you must find her!”, said Lena.

Meow,meow=Oh, missing cat, that perfect, we find her real fast. Meow.=Yep, this look like nice easy case for change. “Maybe the cat ran away, or maybe she was catnapped,” I suggested. Meow,meow.=No, no, catnap is short nap, when someone take cat it called kittennapped. “But what if it’s an adult cat?”, I asked, “how can it be kittennapped then?” Meow.=When adult human people get taken you call it KIDnapped. “Hmm, guess you got me on that one,” I said. “No, no,” said Lena, “you have the wrong idea, this cat is worth millions, but it’s a statue, not a real cat.” “Wow, why is it worth so much?”, I asked her. “It’s a jade cat, very, very old, it came from China originally, it has brilliant, very expensive ruby eyes and an exquisite diamond necklace, plus other gems hidden inside,” she explained. “I can see why someone would steal the cat, but China is a rather large country and there is a good chance it might be heading back there,” I said.

“That is possible, so we have to work fast to find it,” said Lena. “Um, what’s the ‘we’ all about?”, I asked. “Well, you might need help, and my friend can speak the language if necessary,” said Lena. “I take it your friend would be coming too,” I said. “Naturally,” said Lena. “Well, we better get over to your friend’s place and get started on this case,” I said. “Right,” said Lena, “oh, she also mentioned there was a strange note left behind, but she couldn’t understand what it meant.” We drove for nearly 2 hours and finally arrived at her friend’s place. It was a large old country house, very nice, but certainly not what I was expecting. Lena’s description made me think of some kind of country mansion rather than what looked like a country farmhouse, except without the farm.

There was a nice pond to one side of the house with a couple of ducks swimming around, and on the other side of the house was a large garage with perhaps living quarters above it. I couldn’t see behind the house at all. It’s important to keep track of details in a case, though we probably won’t be staying here very long. We went to the front door and I suppose it was the maid who let us in. Lena’s friend came out very quickly and Lena introduced us. Her friend’s name was Lara and apparently her mother was Chinese and her father was Swiss. The jade cat had been in her family for centuries and she was horrified that she would be the one to lose it. I asked to see the note that had been left behind. I told her that would normally mean they want some money for returning the cat, so they probably don’t know the true value of what they have in their hands. So they are likely not professionals, which helps us quite a bit. Lara handed me the note. Oh my…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.