Bill came around my side. “This is the police. Come out slowly with your hands up.”
A loud crash came from around the corner. Bill motioned for me to head in that direction. With our guns drawn, we turned the corner and found a black cat sitting on the dining room table. I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Bill asked.
“Does the museum have a house cat?” I asked, shining my flashlight around. My eye caught something in the far corner of the room, up in the exposed beams.
“I seriously doubt it with all the antiques here. Let’s go upstairs and check it out.”
“Salem PD! If you’re in the house, you need to make yourself known.” Bill shouted as I walked closer to the beams and shined my light there again.
“Mike, you find something?”
“No. No, sorry.”
I quickly headed to the steps and searched the entire second floor only to come up with nothing. The black cat followed us the entire time we were in the house.
“Do you ever have kids break in here and start trouble?” I asked as we made our way back down the stairs.
“No, not since they put in the alarm system. Someone must have forgotten to set the alarm and lock up.”
I nodded. “Pretty big mistake with all this expensive furniture and historical artifacts.” I pressed the mic on my radio. “Lou, any information on the person who called in?”
“No. She said she was afraid to give us any more information.”
“What was the number that came up?” I asked.
“It was a cell phone.”
“Shit. Maybe it was a prank.” Bill said.
I pressed the mic and spoke again. “Lou, we’ve got a cat here in the house. We need to find it again and get it out if it doesn’t belong here. Not sure how it got in.”
Lou replied, “Maybe some teenagers brought it in there? I wouldn’t think the museum would have a cat.”
“Maybe it went out. I’ll search outside; you look around in here. It was all over us upstairs,” Bill said, heading back out of the house.
I walked back into the dining room and shined my light around to see if I could find what had fallen and broken. Then I heard something, and I swung my flashlight. The black cat was sitting on top of the old fireplace, looking up at the beams. I remembered something had caught my eye earlier. I walked over to get a better look at it. There was something carved into the wood. I pulled out my phone, held the flashlight up to the wood, and snapped a picture. The cat meowed and took off running.
“Hey! Come here, kitty, kitty!” I said, following it through the dark house.
“It ran out of the house!” Bill called.
“I can’t find what broke,” I stated as I pulled the door shut behind me. “We aren’t going to leave it open, are we?”
As I said the words, a car pulled up in front of the house.
Lou’s voice came over the radio.