I had been lying there thinking about that empty room, it just made no sense to me, until a thought came to mind. “Maybe we should do some nighttime treasure hunting,” I said. “Hey, I am willing to try that,” said Kat, already getting out of bed. The cats got ready quickly too and down we went to that room. But before we left I called Rock and Mac. “Rock, you two still awake?” I asked.

“Yeah Steve, what is up?” he asked. “Come down to that empty room,” I said, “we are doing some treasure hunting.” Rock and Mac soon joined us. “There must be a door on this wall,” I said, “we need to find it.” Meow,meow.=Me think it here. “Hmm, there is one smaller rock right there,” I said, “try pushing it Rock.” He did so and the door opened.

The way it was made was perfect, no one could tell a door was there. We followed a tunnel, after putting something by the door to prevent it from closing on us. Just a small gadget that no one would likely see. It was not long and we arrived at a fairly large room that was nicely furnished. “This is odd,” I said, “why so nicely furnished?” “We are right under the fountain,” said Kat.

I set up a scrambler right away when she said that, just in case someone might want to listen in to our conversation. “This is where the treasure is located,” I said, “we just need to find it.” Just then Annelie called. “Hope I did not wake you up,” she said happily. “I think you were hoping to wake us up,” I told her, “but we are awake and out treasure hunting.”

“At night?” she asked, “that seems a bit odd.” “True,” I said, “but we found a secret room where I believe the treasure is located. Now to discover what it is. What news do you have for me?” “Oh, something good,” she said, “and it took a lot of digging to find this information. That butler is the grandfather of Tanya. Apparently his daughter gave her up for adoption right after she was born.

She was adopted by John’s family, Jackie’s husband John, and she does not know about that. So the grandfather got a job as the butler to be close to Tanya, but then she disappeared. I imagine he is staying around to try and find out what happened to her. Tanya’s mother did not want to keep her because the father was such an evil man.”

“Were you able to find out who the father was, or is?” I asked her. “Yes indeed, none other than our friend Toledo,” she answered. “Well, well, this is quite the family affair,” I said, “and it would explain why he did not kill Tanya right away, guess he could not bring himself to do that.” “Yeah, just torture her instead,” said Kat angrily.

“That fits Toledo more,” I said, “after all, that is why he killed you, to torture me.” Rock and Mac looked at each other when I said that. Oops, a bit of a slip there. Kat just looked at me and shook her head. Hmm, I wonder if I can come up with a good explanation for why I said that? Even Annelie went silent for a moment after I said that.

“Okay, all of you put your hands up,” said a voice. We were all so busy that we didn’t notice the butler behind us. “I see you have found the treasure room,” he said, “but you cannot have the treasure, it belongs to my granddaughter.” Just as suddenly as he had appeared, another voice spoke. “Do not move, just give your gun to Rock,” said Catalina after putting a gun to the butler’s head, “otherwise I will have to use this gun.”

He sighed and handed the gun to Rock who already had his hand out. “I heard some noise in the hall,” said Catalina, “when I looked out the door I saw the butler going down the stairs to that room, with a gun. So I decided to follow along.” “So glad you did,” I said, “no need to worry, we are not here to steal the treasure.

And Tanya is safe, we rescued her from a false clinic in New York where she had been locked up against her will, and drugged so she could do nothing. She will be here late tomorrow, or early the next day. However, she will still be under the influence of those drugs so will not know what is going on.” “How did you ever find her?” said the butler, obviously very relieved at the news.

“We have a great team,” I said, “and we always work on the right side, even though people sometimes trick us at the beginning. But we soon figure things out.” “I do not know what the treasure is,” said the butler, “but there is a safe behind the wardrobe.” Rock moved it and sure enough, there was a safe, which would put it directly below the fountain.

“Your turn Mac,” I said. “Come here little Muffin, and help me out,” he said with a grin. She went gladly over to help him. Meanwhile, Sky and her team were stopped at a damaged bridge by a police roadblock. They were told to follow the the detour signs down a side road, it would only take an extra 15 minutes. They could not cross the bridge, so off they went…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.