Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Stray Cat Mystery. Chapter 2. Callison.
Jennifer had just arrived and told us about a grave in the basement, however, she was invisible when she came in so only we could hear her, the man and his wife could not. That’s when I called Director Michaud from the city police department and told him what we found and asked that he come in person for this one since it was a larger case than it looks. He arrived with his forensic team, an ambulance and the fire department. Not sure why the latter, but I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. There was new cement over the grave area which had to be broken up before the digging could begin.
“These people are suspects for the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Featherstonehaugh,” I told the Director, “plus the kidnapping of their 23 year old daughter, the theft of their property and vehicle, plus all of their personal effects.” “You will have to cease investigating this case now,” he replied, “it’s a police investigation as of this moment.” “You may have it,” I said, “but we are actually investigating the disappearance and kidnapping of the daughter and were hired to do so.
Although the two cases may be connected, we were first on the case of the kidnapping and she is a friend of someone on our team, so we would like to stay on that case. We will, of course, keep you informed of our progress and I am thinking this investigation will possibly take us to another country anyway.” “Oh, okay, that will be fine,” he said, “how do you know the daughter was kidnapped and is not the murderer?” “We received an anonymous call from a young male,” I said, “he told us the daughter was observed being taken out to a car, obviously against her will considering how she was fighting the men.”
“Did he see how many men?” he asked. “Yes, there were three of them,” I replied, “and it happened 10 days ago. They stopped at a restaurant in our village for breakfast. One of the regular men at the restaurant left and looked into their car and saw a young woman asleep in the back seat. The windows were very dark so he couldn’t see much, except she had long, dark hair, which would fit the woman we are looking for. The waitress also overheard the one man phone a Mr. Wemyss saying “it’s done and we will be back by 17:00″.”
“What make of car was it and license number?” he asked. “The car was an Audi Q8, either brown or dark red,” I told him. Another officer was writing down the details and Sky looked at his notes. “You spelled Featherstonehaugh wrong,” she said. “How else would you spell Fanshaw?” he asked. So she spelled it to him and he stared at her, then looked at me. “She’s right, it’s a Scottish name,” I said. And then she told him how to spell Wemyss. He stared at her again and shook his head. “Must be the cold climate in Scotland,” he said and Sky giggled.
“Unfortunately he never thought to look at the license number,” I told the Director, “but perhaps this couple can help you out.” Misty had relayed all her information to me through Kristina who is with her this time instead of Kitty. Unfortunately the couple we had met earlier were not talking at all to the police, so I imagine they might be spending some time in jail until they find their voices again. I hope so anyway, we don’t want to lose them. “Do you know the name of the daughter?” the Director asked me. “Um, I’m terrible at remembering names,” I said.
“It’s Callison, Steve,” said Jennifer as she returned from the basement, “Steve is terrible at remembering names, even of his own team sometimes.” The Director laughed a bit at that one. He had given us permission to go through some boxes containing personal effects of the family, hoping to find a photo of Callison, plus get some clothes from her. We especially want some recently worn clothes to make it easier for our cats to pick up her scent, when we get closer to where she might be.
While going through the boxes Jennifer found a photo of the Featherstonehaugh family and Kitty found one under the mattress of the daughter’s bedroom with a message written on it. Kitty is excellent at forging handwriting, as are a couple of our other girls, and she wrote the names of the family members on the back of the photo that Jennifer found in Callison’s handwriting. I didn’t know about the photo Kitty found, so I took a picture of the other one so we would have a photo of Callison. Oh well, now we have two.
They did find the parents buried in that shallow grave in the basement. That led to murder charges for the couple living in the house, plus numerous other charges. As the police took them outside to their car we heard two shots and the couple fell dead. There was a sniper on the roof across the street, someone must have alerted Wemyss to the danger to his friends here and he ordered them killed. Perhaps someone else living nearby is working for Wemyss too. I mentioned this to the Director and he said they would be looking into that possibility right away.
Meanwhile, Sky and her Bad Girls ran around behind the house to try and catch the sniper, but when they arrived they found him lying on the ground, dead. He had also been shot, but when the girls looked around the area they could find no one. This case is certainly starting off with a lot of action. I hope it doesn’t keep up that way.
One thing is for certain, Mr. Wemyss knows we are looking for Callison now and that could make things dangerous for her, unless he needs her alive for some reason. Hopefully that is the case. Either way, he is not going to like it when we catch up with him…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Stray Cat Mystery. Chapter 1. Cat and Murder.
We have had a nice break for a few days but now everyone is wanting another case to come along, including me. I get to go on the next case, so I’m excited. It’s our new way of doing things, I stay home for 3 cases, then I go on one. It’s early morning but Jennifer and I are already up and were just about to head downstairs for breakfast when Jennifer heard one of the cats yowl like it was being hurt, right out front. None of the cats should be out alone so I hit the silent Code Red button. It still makes a beeping sound, just loud enough to awaken everyone.
“Dawn, check out front immediately please,” I said, “there could be trouble out there.” The Code Red also shows up on the watches of our outside guards. Two of them should be out front at all times. Also, who let one of our cats outside by itself? Jennifer and I were downstairs very quickly, but Kristina and Sky had already gone out to check on things. “It’s a cat,” said Dawn as we arrived at the door. Sky came in carrying the poor little cat which looked half dead. “Take him quickly to Bridgette,” I told Sky and she immediately disappeared.
Jennifer and I followed, running down the hall to the clinic. “He hasn’t eaten for a long time,” said Bridgette, “and by the looks of his feet he has been walking for a long time too. But he’ll be okay.” Meowe. =”Must help my human, bad men take her, shoot her parents. I try to find, but not able to walk fast enough.” He then told us a bit more before he fell asleep. Jennifer called Jewel and Ginger to come and stay with Cat and keep him warm and purr for him too. They were more than happy to help out with this.
“Cristy, look up 954 Rue Fontaine, please,” I said, “also Harold and Victoria Fanshaw. Trixie, look up a Mr. Weems, likely involved in sex trafficking. Misty, head into the village and find out if anyone noticed an Audi, possibly the Q8, in a brown color or perhaps a dark red, sometime within the last couple of weeks.” Misty and her Sneakers were on their way to the village within minutes. Someone must have seen that car go through the village, it is not one we see around this area. It was quite amazing how much Cat could tell us considering his physical condition, I sure hope he pulls through okay, Bridgette seemed to think he would. However, the look on her face told me she wasn’t as sure as the words she spoke.
Aari called and asked what was going on so I filled him in. “Be careful Steve,” he said, “there are a lot of people that know we like cats. This could be a trap to catch you.” “Yes, I thought about that too,” I told him, “but this cat seemed genuine and he can talk to us, finding such a cat is not easy, then training him too, that would take considerable time and effort. Plus, none of our enemies know that our cats can talk to us the way they do. However, we will be careful until we can verify some things that Cat told us. I wish he had told us his name too, but I guess the other information was more important to him.”
“But why would he try to enlist your help without knowing who you are?” asked Aari. “Yes, that is one part that puzzles me,” I said, “but I will get our cats to check him out when he wakes up again.” I then called Cristy and asked how she was doing with the Fanshaw’s house and family. “No such people exist from that address Steve,” she said, “or any other address for that matter. The people who own and live at that address have the name of Featherstonehaugh.” Catalina came in at that moment and asked what she was trying to say, so Cristy repeated herself.
Catalina just looked at her and shook her head. Then she asked to see the name and Cristy showed her. “Oh, you mean Fanshaw,” said Catalina smiling, “that’s an old Scottish name.” Cristy looked at the name again. “How do you get Fanshaw from all those letters that have nothing whatever to do with the name Fanshaw?” asked Cristy frowning. “You seem to forget that I’m Scottish,” said Catalina. “Would Weems be Scottish too,” I asked her. “Yep, that’s another old Scottish name,” she said, “and you are probably spelling that one wrong too.”
“So, how would you spell it?” asked Cristy. “I..T,” said Catalina and then she started laughing uncontrollably, falling onto one of the chairs. “Good thing I’m a ghost,” said Kitty, “or that might have hurt!” Kitty had been sitting on the very chair Catalina fell onto. That got Catalina laughing even more and that got everyone in the library laughing. Everyone, that is, except for our computer girls. For some reason they didn’t see the humor in Catalina’s answer. Finally she managed to settle down and tell Cristy that Weems is spelled Wemyss. “Scottishers don’t know how to spell,” said Wisty.
However, this now gave us the information we needed. The Featherstonehaugh’s owned that house and lived there for the past 25 years. So, Jennifer and I went to visit these people and see if Cat was telling us the truth. Kitty, Sky and the Bad Girls came along too. Once at the house it seemed quite obvious that someone was living there, but Jennifer, Amerie and I went up to the house anyway. Sky came along too, pretending to be my wife, while Jennifer came along invisibly so she could enter the house and look around quickly while we talked with the Featherstonehaoughs.
After knocking a woman answered the door and I introduced us and asked if we could come in and talk with her and her husband, and her daughter if she was home too. “We have no daughter,” she said, “and I don’t know you, so you can’t come in!” She tried to close the door, but Sky put her hand against it so she couldn’t. “Who’s there?” asked a rather rough sounding voice. “Some people that have the wrong address,” she called back to him. He then came to the door.
“Are you Harold Featherstonehaugh?” I asked. “No, I am not!” he said, “Now stop bothering us!” He then tried to close the door but couldn’t and I motioned to Sky to touch the door handle. She smiled and did so. “AAAA!!” yelled the man, “How did I get a shock from that?” That’s when we started to come in, but he grabbed me and pushed me against the door frame. Sky touched me then touched the man, sending him flying back against the wall groaning.
“Thank you for inviting us in,” I said, “now, we are going to talk. We are private investigators and we are looking for the owners of this house, and that is not you. The Featherstonehaughs own the house and have lived here for the past 25 years.” “Liar!” yelled the woman, “We bought this house 5 years ago and have lived here since that time! Now, get out or I will call the police!” “Go ahead and call the police,” I said, “we will gladly wait for them to arrive.”
Just then Jennifer came into the room, still invisible. “There is a grave in the basement Steve,” she said, “Storm and Boots confirmed it…”
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
