We continued our search of the house, but were not finding anything unusual. Aasta, Felina, Catalina and Tiia were in the basement. It was fixed up into a nice suite that Aubrey would have been living in, while her parents lived in the main house upstairs. Aubrey went downstairs to check on the girls and see what they were finding, if anything.

“It looks too short to me,” said Catalina, “the house should be 40 feet long, but this does not look like 40 feet to me.” Aasta got out her tape measure and they began to measure the suite. Just as they started, Tiia began growling at the far wall. The girls ran over right away, but Tiia had not found a door or anything, she just said it was an odd smell, but she did not know what it was.

Aubrey called upstairs to inform us and Kate grabbed Muffin and ran downstairs right away. “You check it out Muffin,” said Kate. She went over to the wall and began to sniff while I came down to join the others. I told the rest to stay upstairs, we do not want to be surprised by anyone with all of us in the basement. Muffin’s ears went straight up when she sniffed that far wall.

Meow,meow!=It smell like Skinnies in there! Skinny is the word that Muffin uses to describe skeletons. I told Storm to go upstairs and look for a hidden door on that far wall. He ran upstairs quickly and over to that wall. I went back up and told everyone what was found. We finished measuring and discovered that the house was 8 feet shorter than it should be downstairs and 5 feet shorter upstairs.

But there was no obvious door leading into that area, and that part was strange. “Maybe not so strange Steve,” said Mac, “that house next door is not far away.” “Hmm, a good point Mac,” I said, I then called Sky, “good morning, how are you this fine day my dear Sky.” I tried to sound sort of cheerful considering it was quite early back home. “Skip the cheery part,” said Sky, “what is going on?”

“I need your help looking up some details for us,” I said. “Good thing I am awake and just relaxing with my first cup of coffee,” she said, “or I might hang up.” “You are up rather early,” I said, “any problems?” “I just could not sleep,” she said, “nothing wrong though.” I did not believe that, but for now I will leave it. “Find out who owns the house next door to this one,” I said, “that would be house number 154.”

“Okay,” she said, “that should be easy enough.” And she had the information quickly. “You will like this,” she said, more cheerfully now, “it is owned by none other than Joshua Whitaker. He has owned it for about 5 years now, and it is presently rented to a young couple from Winnipeg.” “Hmm, it did not look occupied to me,” I said, “but we will check that out.”

I then filled her in on what we had found so far. While I was doing that, I sent Mac, Kate, Catalina, Cynthia, Muffin and Tiia over to the house. It did look vacant, so they went inside and checked the whole house. No one has been living there for some time. Meowr.=Someone across street again. I told Mac to be careful, we were being watched again.

Meanwhile… “Well, did you find him Louis?” asked Joshua. “Yeah, dead as could be,” he said, “no blood, so he was not shot, or stabbed, and not choked either, just a bruise on his forehead.” “I knew it!” said Joshua, “it is that ghost woman, she killed him by looking at him, ghosts can do that sort of thing!” “I do not believe in ghosts,” he answered, “but something strange killed Baker.”

“Get rid of the body Louis,” said Joshua, “get rid of it fast, double pay for you. We cannot let the cops find him or they will trace him to me. That would not be good, so hurry.” “I will get it done,” he said, “what about those investigators at the house?” “Leave Stan to watch the place,” said Joshua, “but tell him to watch, not interfere at all.”

“Okay, got it,” he said and he got busy right away. I had sent Storm over to check on things but told him not to do anything by himself. He came back a short time later and said a new man was there watching us. Kat called and asked me to come and see what they found. I took Storm, then sent Storm and Muffin over to “visit” the man watching us.

Off they went and returned quickly so they would not miss out on the discovery, even though I told them we would wait till they got back. Meow,meow.=New man not watching us anymore. Meowr.=It Muffin turn this time, just one shot. “Good work guys,” I said. Kat picked them up and hugged them both again. “Tiia found the door,” said Mac, “it is great having these cats along.”

All three cats stood up nice and proud. The door was behind an old cabinet, not very inventive, that is for sure. We followed a very well made tunnel for 8 feet to the other house where there was a steel door that required Mac’s skill to open. Now to see what is inside…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.