Lena’s grandmother called her again so she went to see what was wrong. “Okay Mr. Cat, what happened last night?”, I asked, “now is a good time to talk while we are alone.” Meow.=I need to use litter box, you put it in bathroom. “Oh, a big mistake on my part, I will change that”, I said. Meow.=Not your fault. When I come back I see human Charlie in hall. He wave to me to come so I did, that big mistake for me, I know I should not have done that but I thought I could trust him. He whisper to me that he have something important to show me, so he pick me up, then I feel little sting in my neck, I not be able to move. Then another man in kitchen give me big needle and I go to sleep, then wake up in trees. I not remember anything else.

“That’s enough Mr. Cat,” I said, “from now on we trust no one, and I mean no one.” The cats look at each other. Meow, meow?=Not even Lena? “Not even Lena Muffin, not right now anyway,” I said, “we just need to be very careful until we find out what is going on. First thing is we need some time, I think I might have a plan, but we have to look for that treasure, so…” I whisper instructions to the cats. “Come here you 2,” I said, “time for a hug.” I picked them up and we all hugged. “I’m sorry Mr. Cat, I nearly got you killed and that hurts me,” I told him quietly. Meow.=It not your fault, I love you. Meow, meow.=Yes, not time for fault, I love you so much. It time for us to work so we can get these bad human people. “Okay,” I said, “right after dinner we start searching the attic for clues, then tomorrow we go out and look for that treasure.”

Meow, meow!=YAY! They both said at the same time. After dinner I got Charlie alone and asked if he could get in touch with those other guys. He said yes, so I told him to say, give us 2 days to find the treasure and we will give it to them if they will let us go. We won’t say anything to anyone about this place, we’ll just forget we were ever here. Charlie said it was worth a try and off he went. Then the cats and I went to the attic to look around. At least there was a nice stairway leading to the attic. It was one large room filled from end to end with all sorts of stuff. There is probably a lot of family heirlooms up here, guess Lena will inherit everything.

Now, where to start looking? Over where they found the letter I guess. We searched around for about 3 hours but found nothing that would help us. Then, in an old dresser, taped under one of the drawers was a very old map. Several buildings were marked on there but nothing matched the buildings on this farm. Was it a different farm? But why have a map of a different farm? Why would the treasure be hidden on someone else’s farm? Then it hit me, the old homestead over where we found Mr. Cat! As I thought about it, trying to remember the buildings over there, everything fit together perfectly. Did no one else think of looking over there? Charlie certainly knew about the place.

“We will check here tomorrow,” I told the cats, “I’m sure this is what we want, but it may not help us to find the treasure. Anyway, we will start there and see what we come up with.” Meow, meow.=That good idea, we start now. “No, not at night, we will wait until morning,” I said. Meow, meow.=Going to be too excited to sleep tonight. “Well, you better get a good sleep, we want you wide awake to help with the search,” I said with a big smile. “Hey, where’s Mr. Cat?” Meow, meow.=He looking over there. Muffin points over behind me. Mr. Cat had his ear to the floor, then he looked up and waved his tail for us to come over. When we got there he showed me a small hole in the floor, it was right over the kitchen. Charlie and another man were sitting at the table.

To Be Continued.

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

Previous chapters and stories can be found on my home page under 20/20 Investigations, Inc.

©2020 Steve McLeod.