We all went back upstairs, with Rock dragging Herman along. Bouncing on those old stairs woke Herman up and he complained a bit, but Kat told him to be quiet and he stopped talking immediately. Ghosts really can do amazing things sometimes. I mean, Rock had told him to be quiet and it did not work, but Kat speaks and he stops.

Jackie and the other girls were awake now too, so they joined us and Jackie made coffee for everyone. That is one nice thing about this place, they drink coffee here, unlike most places we go where it seems that tea is the main thing. I tried to call Sky, but no answer. I then called John, then Aari, but still no answer. This is definitely not good.

Something obviously happened since their episode with the masked men that Sky had told me about. She was supposed to call in every hour along their trip once she said they had to make a detour. I should have told her to call every half hour. Not that it would help really.

I called for some more security personnel from Baldwin Corporation to go looking for them which included two helicopters and two more vans that were already on the way to join them. Kat could see that I was very worried about this. “Steve, they will be okay,” she said, and put her arm around me. Muffin and Snow came and cuddled with me too. Meow,meow!=If something happen, we get those men! No one escape the wrath of Kat! And cats!

I smiled at that. “So true Muffin,” I said, “anyone crazy enough to attack us will certainly regret it!” I then called Annelie since she was able to track those cars, but the trackers had stopped working just before 1am, the time that Sky would have called me. That made me worry even more. I then turned to Herman who was sitting very nervously on a chair by himself.

“I will give you a couple of choices,” I said, “you talk, the truth only, and you live, perhaps even get to go free. Perhaps, just depends on your part and what you can tell us. Or, if you refuse to talk, or you lie, then Kat will haunt you the rest of your life, which likely will not be terribly long.” “Hey, I will talk, I will talk,” he said quickly, “just please, no haunting!”

“Then tell the truth Herman,” said Kat. “Yeah, I will, honest,” he said, “somehow Jackie’s husband found out the treasure was here, hidden at the mansion somewhere, so he laid claim to the mansion while Tanya could have the treasure as long as it was not part of the mansion or property. If it was just buried somewhere, or hidden, it was hers, but if it was part of it, then it would be his.

She agreed and signed legal papers. Then my friend John, who was the boyfriend of Jackie, decided to get in on the act.” “Not true!” yelled Jackie, “he was not my boyfriend, I loved my husband!” “Yeah, right,” said Herman, “then why did you ask him to get you poison so you could knock off your husband?” “I did not, you cannot prove that!” she said angrily, “there were rats around, I wanted to kill them!”

“Wrong kind of poison for rats,” said Herman, “this stuff works too slow, even on rats. She was feeding it to her husband for more than a year I think, not quite sure of the time though. John did not know where to get that kind of poison, so he asked Lily if she knew anything. Lily was kind of his girlfriend, even though they are cousins. Jackie is another cousin.”

“Not true, we are not related at all!” she yelled again. “Yes you are Jackie,” I said, “you, John, Lily are all cousins, and Kenaston is your uncle. Oh, and Toledo is also another cousin.” She just sat there glaring at me. “Really?” asked Herman, “I did not know Toledo was a cousin, just thought she was a friend of Lily. She got the poison from him.

John wanted Jackie to give him bigger doses so they could get their hands on the gold sooner. There is a lot of gold, it was hidden somewhere just before the Civil War broke out. No idea how her husband found out about that without having all those clues to follow. But he did not know exactly where it was, he just knew it was part of the mansion, so he would get to keep it and Tanya would get nothing.

Tanya found out, so Toledo hid her away somewhere to get her out of the way. John wanted to kill her, but Toledo was against it for some reason.” “Likely because Tanya was adopted by John’s family when she was born,” I said, “and Toledo is her real father.” “No kiddin’?” said Herman, “that I did not know either, wow, everyone is related around here, except me and that butler guy.”

“Actually, he was related too,” I said, “he was her grandfather, but he had no interest in Tanya, he only wanted that treasure too.” “Wow, how did you find out so much?” asked Herman, “we are PI’s, it is our job.” “Yeah, guess that is right,” said Herman…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.