It really didn’t take too long getting to Katharina’s house, I see that Karl’s idea of small is certainly different than mine. It was a large house located just outside of the city in a nice rural setting and sitting on a very large well maintained lot. The driver carried our luggage to the door, I paid him and he left, rather quickly. Meow, meow.=Strange man, seem like he scared. Yes, he did, but he told me that he had never come out this way before. We go inside and the place was immaculate, very nicely decorated with some beautiful antiques. We were to stay in the “blue room” so off we went looking for it. There is a lot of rooms in this house, ours in upstairs, a very large room, all in shades of blue with white accents. Meow.=This one big room, bigger than your apartment. Meow, meow.=Yep, we could have huge play structure in room this big! Meow.=Now that would be fun.

Okay you two, time for “one”. They knew what I meant and off they go all around the room looking and sniffing everywhere while I check the higher spots. Amazing, no bugs in here. Meow, meow.=All clear, no bugs. Meow.=Yep. We will need to check some of the other rooms too. From up here we can see quite a distance since we are on the top of a hill. Guess we lost the guy from the airport, at least for now. Maybe he wasn’t following us after all. Poor guy, I’m sure his nose will be back to normal in no time, he hit it quite hard on the floor when he “tripped” and fell. We head to the kitchen to make something to eat, hopefully there is some food in this place. Yep, lots of food, he must be expecting us to stay a while. There’s even food for the cats, so they get to eat a little sooner than me.

The yard out back is like having your own private park with a nice walking path through the trees. There’s lots of bird life here too. And there is a nice pool off to the side and close to the house. I can see why Katharina likes it here, a quiet place to relax when she gets some time from her busy work schedule. After eating we walk all through the house, but we don’t find anything unusual here. It must have been cleaned thoroughly after Karl’s business associates had been here. It really doesn’t look like anyone has been here for a long time. That part is kind of odd. Hmm, I should find out who comes out here to clean the house. I give Karl a call and he gives me the name of the cleaning company and the names and phone numbers for Katharina’s 2 friends. I also got the name of the company that looks after the pool. All of these people are suspects since all were here just before Katharina disappeared, all except her 2 friends.

Karl wasn’t sure when they had last seen Katharina. I really don’t suspect the friends anyway, this is something bigger than a normal kidnapping, it must be tied in with Karl’s business somehow. But the friends might give me some good information about Katharina. I just hope they will be willing to talk. The remainder of the day goes by without any problems. The cats and I search Katharina’s room quite thoroughly but there’s nothing that would give us a clue at all. This is not going to be an easy case. Meow!=Car outside! I look and sure enough a car has stopped on the road, but the windows are so dark I can’t tell who is in the car.

Then it drove off down the road. A short time later it came back but didn’t slow down at all as it passed us. Meow, meow.=Someone watching us, not good. Meow?=Why someone want to watch us? Possibly the kidnappers found out Karl hired us, or they have been watching things all along. Either way is not good for us. But the night passed quietly and we all slept well. While eating breakfast there is a knock at the front door. I heard a car drive off before I got to the door. I go outside but see nothing. Meow, meow!=Look on door! Hmm, a note. Meow.=I see car, same one as last night. That’s interesting. The note just says “You are not wanted here, go home, this is not for amateurs.”

To be continued.

©2020 Steve McLeod. (Several of you have asked about Mr. Cat. Yes, he is a real cat and the pictures I use, like the one above, are him. His human is my good friend Nina Zain, who has been so kind in allowing me to use Mr. Cat in my stories. And the photos are copyrighted by Nina. You can visit her site by clicking on her name.)