Dear Shyrah!

Our evening of wine drinking was cut woefully short last night by the nosy neighbor I have mentioned a couple of times. That would be the one who has been wandering around in front of the house. Last night she didn't stay outside the house! For reason we could not fathom at the time she decided to come into the house. We all had to grab as much of our stuff as we could get quickly and scramble to hide in the first places we could find. Then she made a whole bunch of noise down in the basement and then proceeded to walk around the house taking pictures. I could feel the waves of excitement rolling off of her from my hiding place, but then she just left. 

To say that we were quite annoyed by the entire incident is a serious understatement. We went to the basement and looked down the after she left but didn't see anything amiss besides a broken step. Then we made sure everything was locked up tight and went back to our drinking. We figured that she had just wanted to see the inside of Denise's house.

That is until our Insatiable Sneak found this in the paper this morning!

Our darling, I. Sneak, by the way always goes to the "Dear...Whoever," section of any newspaper because she claims the real info is always hidden there. She has been saying "I told you, so!" to us all day long and we can't even argue with her because she was right. 

Dear Shyrah,

I feel it my civic duty to bring to your attention something unusual I discovered, by accident of course, at the house of a successful local author. She is a master of secrets, her novels, full of suspense, thrilling mystery and sexy romance. Do I need to name names?… I don’t think so!

I cannot stress enough my level of surprise over my discovery and at such great personal cost to myself! I have sustained injury to both body and mind in bringing you this information.

Recently, I had need to visit our author's home but after discovering her not there I turned to leave. I was still on the stairs when I heard something fall and smash. Thinking it a neighboring thing to do, I decided I should check that all was well inside. The porch window was open wide so I popped in. Honestly people, why lock your doors if you’re going to leave the windows open! Anyway, back to the story. I made my way around the house but couldn’t see anything amiss until a big fluffy cat shot out of the basement door. Gave me such a fright! 

One of her cats causing mischief or mayhem down in the basement I suppose. I had not taken two steps down into the basement when I heard a strange clicking sound and felt something wrap around my ankles. Next thing I know I’m flying through the air and landing with a crack on the third step from the bottom. After extricating myself from the stair, I inspect where I landed. The stair is completely broken, snapped in half. Amazing what damage well rounded, child bearing hips can do!

I pulled one of the pieces away and was surprised to find a whole collection of things stored in there. The first to catch my eye was a bottle of Zorvino wine, it had been opened. I pulled the cork and could smell it had gone bad. The next was a photo. It was very damaged but it looked like it was of a group of people at a dinner. They were all holding up a book each for the camera. I’m sure our author was the woman in the middle but it was obviously taken many years ago and she looked quite different. The last was an old newspaper folded open to an article on an old murder.

Why would anyone hide an opened bottle of wine? With all the bad luck that our beloved Zorvino Winery has suffered recently, it makes you wonder doesn’t it. Also, what tripped me up? I couldn’t find any sign of what might have wrapped around my feet. Who sets a trap on their basement stairs?

So there, I’ve done my duty. What does it all mean?… Don’t have a clue but I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. I can sleep well now, knowing I’ve shared my discovery.

Concerned Citizen

This "Concerned Citizen" must have ran home typed it up and emailed it straight to the paper. She even included some of the pictures she took while she was here! If you look closely at the images she took (seen below), you might even be able to see us hiding. (In fact I am pretty sure you can see King Mho Fho peering out from under the curtain in one of them.) After perusing her lov'ahly  images page down for what we did after reading her, uh...letter... to the paper. (I mean seriously what does she think she is an iReporter? Heh.)

Needless to say we all took off for the basement. Where we almost fell down the stairs after - I. Sneak stopped short, just before the first step and we all ran into her! (My sides still hurt from laughing over that one!) In the excitement everyone except for I. Sneak forgot wait seemed to be very valuable information about the trap on the stairs. After regrouping we decided to throw a cat toy down there to trip the trap and we all held our breath....and....nothing! There's no trap. The woman is obviously a serious klutz and completely out of her mind. That said, when we got to the bottom and inspected the steps - everything she said was there - amazingly enough really was! (Makes me wonder what she took with her?) What's almost as interesting as all the things found under the broken step is that all of the lower stairs are actually drawers, as seen in the next picture. 

So we have a long night of wine, foraging and research ahead of us. If only we had know about the plethora of hidden stuff in the basement I think we might be a little farther along in our investigation. I am still not thrilled with 'Miss Concerned Citizen', but I supposed we should be thankful for her inability to mind her own business. 

Tonight I leave you with another picture I just snapped of Mayhem seen here about to climb onto my keyboard and behind the laptop you can just make out Mischief - Denise's cats. One of  whom is probably the real one we have to thank for all the new pieces to this puzzle!