After our ‘guests’ had gone we went back down to that door Rock had smashed open downstairs. The door opened into a rather large room, which was empty, completely empty. We looked all around the edges of the room, the cats busy sniffing for any possible hidden door…but nothing. That was rather disappointing.

Back upstairs we went and Cinnamon, Catalina, John and Frank went back into the library to look over the all those thousands of books. Catalina was atop the tall ladder that went along the shelves on one side of the room and she pulled out a bright red book, but it did not look interesting. Then as she was about to put it back she noticed a small button on the wall, so she pushed it, and the shelves where the ladder was located opened revealing a small safe.

Cinnamon quickly called me to come see what they found and all of us congregated into the library. “This is a job for you Mac,” I said. “Sure wish I had my little buddy for this job,” he said, “those ears of his were perfect for this type of work.” Meowy?=Me try? “Okay,” said Mac, “listen for a tiny click.” It did not take long and they had that safe open.

The only thing in it was a book which I took and handed to Cinnamon right away since her knowledge of old books is better than anyone in our team. The title of the book was ‘This Priceless Book’. When I saw that I did not hold out much hope that it would be worth much. “This book is blank,” said Cinnamon, “I would say it was meant to be a diary or journal, but not really worth anything.”

However, she kept looking at the book, then took out her knife and cut open the back cover. Inside was a list of clues that, if followed, would lead the reader to a treasure, it said. We were to start at the back door, turn 45 degrees and walk 45 steps to have some fun. When we got to the spot on the lawn, Jackie screamed excitedly. “This was the playground,” she said, “there was a tall, very old, wood slide, some swings over there, a playhouse over here. We used to play here for hours.”

There was nothing left of the play area however. Next clue was to climb up, go down, turn slightly to the left and go to the General. Jackie had no idea who the General was, but there was an area of the lawn they were not allowed to play on and that would be where we are now headed. Once in the area we began to look for a grave or something that might give us a clue who this General was.

The third clue helped us a bit since we were to stand at attention in front of a stone bench and look for the feast. Kat found a small stone bench hidden among the long grass beside the lawn. I stood in front of the bench, but could not see anything that would resemble a feast. Now we were stuck. We needed that ‘feast’ to unlock the next clue. Everyone went across the yard to see if they could figure out anything.

Kat, Mac, the cats and I stayed behind. Kat and I sat on the bench to think. There were 50 clues altogether, so this would likely take a long time. Especially since this was likely written in the mid 1800s and things have probably changed a lot since then. My phone rang, it was Annelie. She asked how things were going.

“Not too well,” I said, “I hope you have some good news.” “Well, I will let you determine whether the news is good or not,” she said, “first, look at this picture, recognize the man?” “No, not at all,” I said. “Neither do I,” said Kat. “Now, here is the whole photo,” said Annelie. “That is Jackie, it looks like her and this man are getting married,” I said, “was she married before John?”

“No, she only married John,” she said, “and that man is John.” “He does not look anything like the ghost John that Jackie says is her husband. The bone structure of his face is totally different.” “Well, next, the aunt and uncle that Jackie talks about are her husband’s relatives,” she added, “John got the mansion in the uncle’s will and his younger sister got the family treasure, which is a book.”

“We found the book,” I told her, “it is a series of clues for a treasure hunt. Jackie has not mentioned anything about a younger sister.” “Her name is Tanya,” said Annelie, “and she is presently locked up in some kind of private hospital. Apparently she is ‘delusional and suicidal’ and needs constant psychiatric care.”

“Get Sky on the phone,” I said. “Right here Steve,” said Sky. “I want you, Trisha, Benson, Aari and Aasta to go get Tanya out of the hospital and bring her here. I will send John and Frank to help you.” “And how do we get her out?” asked Sky. “I do not care,” I said, “use your imagination, but get her out of there quickly.” “Okay, we are on our way,” said Sky…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.