As I entered the kitchen, there was a woman hanging by her hands from a large hook in the ceiling! I get her down quickly but it’s too late. She was obviously dead when someone hung her on that hook. I could tell it was Anna, Jessica has a picture of Anna and Dave in the living room. I decide to take her body to the bedroom at the end of the hall. I really don’t know what else to do right now. It’s amazing, we have only been here a little over 24 hours and a lot has happened already. But what is going on here? I thought Anna and Dave had found something of value and wanted to scare Jessica away. But Anna is now dead, so that destroys that theory. Except, what about Dave? Perhaps he wants to keep everything for himself. But what is this “everything”? And if he wanted Jessica to leave, why did he make it impossible to leave?

Unless…maybe the whole purpose is to kill Jessica, and he wants to do it slowly, scaring her along the way. But why? What does he have against Jessica? Apparently they were all good friends and they had met after Anna and Dave got married. So they really haven’t known each other that long. Maybe I better stick with my first idea. I call the cats and take them with me to show them what happened to Anna. Poor Mr. Cat, he didn’t like to see that. He said his human and Anna had been good friends since they were kids and his human didn’t really like Dave, though Mr. Cat didn’t know why.

I take them outside into the yard after checking Jessica again, still no change there. Perhaps I didn’t give her enough of that other drug? But I’m too afraid to give her more. Once outside I motion to them to stay quiet and I take Mr. Cat’s collar off. Sure enough, it’s bugged. I cover it and let them know it has a bug. Meow?=What kind of bug, it’s good to eat? Meow, meow.=Not that kind of bug, says Muffin, kind people can use to listen to us. Meow!=Wow, never knew about that kind of bug! Meow, meow.=That PI stuff, you learn soon, says Muffin. Well, you won’t be wearing this anymore Mr. Cat, where did you get it? Meow.=Anna and Dave give to me when I come here. They supposed to look after me.

Hmm, so Anna and Dave have been planning this for a while, or at least Dave has been. But that would have been after they found out something about this place. I know Jessica says there is no cellar under the house, but…Meow?=What is cellar? Meow, meow.=Cellar is little room under houses. Meow.=There is one of those here, I find way in one time while out exploring. Meow, meow?=Where it is? Show us quick! Meow.=Okay. And he took us around to the back to what looked like a gopher hole in the ground. Meow.=It is lid, said Mr. Cat. I put my hand in the hole and lift up the door. Interesting, and I closed it again. I need my backpack and flashlight. Meow, meow.=We get ready too and help explore. No, not this time Muffin, I need you both to watch Jessica for me. Now here, I brought your backpacks out, let me get them on you.

There, did you teach Mr. Cat how to use the slingshot yesterday? Meow, meow.=Yep, he pretty good, not good like me, but still good. Okay, that’s fine, now quickly go back in to Jessica. Mr. Cat was gone in a flash but I stopped Muffin. Watch Mr. Cat, Muffin, we don’t know much about him. Meow, meow.=I know, I not forget we PI’s, but I sure we can trust him. One more thing, here’s a note, I’ll tuck it in here. I put extra water and food in your backpack so you can get at it easy. Just in case something happens to me, you will need to go get the police from that town we drove through. It’s a long walk, but you have your new walking shoes. I was thinking, there must be a way from the house into the cellar, so I’m going to take a look around. Now, let’s go check on Jessica. Meow, meow!=Right! Mr. Cat is probably wondering what happened to us. We get into the bedroom…she’s gone! Meow, meow!=Mr. Cat!

To be continued.

Steve and Muffin.

©2020 Steve McLeod.