‘Good morning Samantha.’ Ghost broadcast his feelings of contentment.
‘Good morning Ghost. Have you been waiting long?’
‘No Samantha. My time is my own. I can sleep anywhere for as long as I need. I followed you from the Star. However, as soon as I knew your intentions with Teddy, I left you to your timeout and attended to other business. I have been here for about 10 minutes.’
‘How did you get here? I didn’t see any cats in town.’
‘That because you don’t look up very often. Cats use the roofs across town; it is much safer than the roads. In this town, with lots of covered pedestrian areas and pedestrian bridges, it is relatively easy. The difficult bits are the climb up and the drop down. There are always windows open or air conditioning ducts not used. This lane has a very convenient cable duct where you will find our claw marks on the cables.’ Ghost seemed slightly frustrated that I didn’t know all this. ‘Your powers of observation are sadly underused.’
‘I am still pleased to see you, despite your brusque military manners. Come up to the apartment.’
‘Some have said worse; it was my training. There are many cats living in town. They get left behind when businesses go bust. I came to make you aware of their services. They are all free. Their reward is the little treats they get from time to time.’
Ghost ran up the stairs as I opened the outside door. He was ‘on point’ as befits his habit. He dived through the gap as I opened the door to my apartment. I opened all the doors to the rooms of the apartment so that he could complete his inspection. He looked in every corner including the En-suite. He jumped into an empty box in the kitchen that Jo had left behind. ‘Sorry ma’am. Old habits die hard.’ He eventually came to rest on the end of the sofa in the lounge. He was ready to talk.