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Where We Left Off:
The Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency had concerns that a malevolent spirit had returned, but the evidence led us in another direction.
Dead of Night:
After finishing reading some comics, I longed to have a decent night’s sleep. Was that asking too much? Apparently so. A mystery presented itself at 4:21 AM. I got up to use the bathroom and climbed back into bed hoping that I could get a couple hours of solid restful sleep before having to face the day. Gus was not on the bed with me. Then…
I got up and started turning on lights as I moved from room to room. Gus quickly appeared to help investigate this disturbance. The Cook and Oliver showed up only a minute later.
“Are you all right?” The Cook asked.
“I have no idea what that was,” I said. “I’ve been looking all over.”
I walked through rooms to the balcony door off some of the office space. I opened it which revealed the screen door’s pet door with flannel strips blowing fiercely in the wind. Gus was out there in an instant.
“I’ll check for intruders from the roof!” he yelled. There was no stopping Gus if he wanted to channel Batman. It’s one of his favorite things to do. Soon Oliver followed him out the pet door, but stayed on the balcony. Gus zoomed in and out several times.
We searched all over a few times. Nothing seemed out of place, but something had to be.
“It sounded like it was upstairs,” The Cook said.
“I can’t figure it out. Maybe a raccoon knocked something over on a porch,” I said.
Gus sped in and out again. “No raccoons out there now!” He was talking as fast as he was running.
Ollie wanted some motivation. “Do I get treats for this interruption?”
There weren’t any intruders. One of my greatest fears is a home invasion. I gave the cats treats before I crawled back into bed. I turned on an episode of Myths & Legends hoping a fairy tale, even one told with well-timed humor, would put me to sleep. I may have gotten another hour or two.
When it was the appropriate time for me to get out of bed, Gus and Oliver showed up. Maybe they had stayed there watching me and waiting for more snacks. I told them not until after breakfast. I went to brush my teeth not expecting anything out of the ordinary. Yet, that’s when I noticed what was out of place!
An unopened bottle of cleaner had been on the toilet tank and it was on the floor! A full bottle is dense and, if dropped, would make a loud THUD sound. But what knocked it over?
Case Findings:
We believe it was one of the ghosts who knocked the bottle of cleaner to the floor. Of course, we’d like to believe it was one of the ghost cats doing what cats love to do: knock things off surfaces. But, after talking, The Cook and I discussed how the spirits of the old people who used to own the mountain and the house at the top must have been hating the changes made by the new couple. Our old neighbors never had children of their own. Their closest kin was a nephew and his wife, who did not care about them or the property at all, to sell off their estate. The mountain was supposed to be quiet, lush with trees (as a designated tree farm), and passable through a series of trails. All that changed. Gus and Oliver were fans of the old place. Gus especially misses hiking up there, climbing on huge rocks, and resting on the wrap-around porch. We think those old neighbors are pretty angry.
Case Status: Closed