Kate had planted a listening device in the office so we could hear what he had to say after we left. Up went the volume. “I do not like having those people around here,” said Joshua, “where is Paul?” “He is downstairs,” said Baker. He is the man that stood and watched us the whole time. “Paul, get up here,” said Joshua, “I have a job for you. And it is important!”

Paul showed up rather quickly. “I want you to watch those PI’s and let me know where they go,” said Joshua, “especially if they go to that house! I do not trust them in that house. Let me know right away and I will send Baker to help you. He has pictures of them for you.” “Think they will find anything at the house?” asked Paul.

“They better not!” yelled Joshua, “they will regret it if they do!” Then we heard the door close. “Hmm, there must be something at that house,” I said, “something rather important.” “It must be something they hid there,” said Aari, “since Aubrey’s parents did not seem to have anything valuable.” “True,” I agreed, “so they are using the house for hiding something.

Hmm, they may have been hiding things from other jobs they did,” I said, “and when the people decided to sell that house, that is why Joshua stepped in.” “But why did he not just buy it himself?” asked Aasta. “Money,” said John, “doing it this way he gets the house cheap and makes himself and easy $2 million, even more if he waits a year or so. It is also possible he has done this before, but without problems.

Aubrey just did not want to accept things as they were, which is good.” “Yes,” I said, “we may be able to put this guy out of business. Now, we need to talk with that mechanic that checked the car after the accident.” “But he said there was nothing wrong with the car,” said Kate. “Exactly,” I responded, “I do not believe that, so we talk to him, although none of us can do that or we will endanger the man’s life.

I will send Rock and Clarence over there, Joshua does not know them yet. And neither do we for now.” We got back to the hotel and I called everyone to our room. I asked Rock and Clarence to check the mechanic first, then this evening we will check the house and see if we can find out what makes Joshua so nervous.” Rock and Clarence went to the small service station with some car problems.

The mechanic we wanted to interview was working. He came out to check the car and found a couple of loose wires which he tightened quickly. Rock pretended to be Aubrey’s cousin and he had come to town to spend some time with her and cheer her up a bit. “Aubrey said you were the mechanic that checked my uncle’s car,” said Rock.

“Yep, smashed up quite bad,” he said, “but I was kind of surprised that crash killed them both, just was not that bad. Someone had tampered with that car too, brakes and did a neat job to make that car go faster when he stepped on the brake.” “Terrible thing,” said Rock, “sure hard on my cousin, glad you gave an honest report on the car though.”

“Yeah, some guy had come along and offered me $5,000 to say there was nothing wrong with the car,” he said, “but I am not that kind of man, I do things honest, it was the way I was raised. So I told the guy to leave.” “Good for you,” said Clarence, “not many people would turn down that much money.” They talked a bit more then off they went, stopping at a restaurant before coming back to the hotel, just in case they were being followed.

Then they came back and told us what they found out. “The police report states the mechanic told them there was nothing wrong with the car,” I said, “someone is lying, the mechanic or the police.” Storm had also gone along with them. Meowr.=Me not think… But he stopped when Muffin interrupted.

Meow,meow!=Scrambling thing not working! I went over to check it while everyone else just started talking about normal things. Muffin was right, it was broken. I brought out another one and turned it on. Worked perfectly. “Were you out of here this morning Crystal?” I asked. “Yes, when the cleaning woman was in,” she answered, “I went over to talk with Cinnamon and Catalina.”

“She must have stepped on the scrambler and broke it,” I said, “but we need to check around, perhaps she left us a present.” The cats went to work right away and Tiia found the listening device, it was not well hidden. I tossed it to Kat who took it to the window and whistled loudly into it.

And…Paul groaned from that one. He then called Joshua. “They found the bug,” he said, “but I heard them say they talked to that mechanic and he told them what he had really found.” “I will send Baker to take care of him,” said Joshua angrily, “no one does that to me!” “Someone heard us talk about the mechanic,” I said, “go check on him.”

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.