What Killed The Cat?

[Agent_21]

In 1984 Miss J, aged 17, moved into a flat in Brighton, East Sussex, her first time living away from her parents. Not long after taking up occupation she returned to the flat to find some unpacked boxes of possessions moved from where she had left them. She feared an intruder, but a search revealed no sign of forced entry or theft. This was the first of a series of increasingly strange events which culminated in a highly unpleasant incident.

The unaccountable movement of boxes continued to occur, along with moving furniture, every few weeks. Then the lights began to flash on and off of their own accord. Miss J got an electrician to check the flat's wiring. No faults could be found despite a thorough investigation.

Miss J contemplated moving from the flat but her finances would not permit this. She acquired a dog for company and was given a Persian cat by a friend. The two animals got on well together and comforted their owner despite the continuation of the unnerving phenomena.

About two years later things took a more serious turn. One summer afternoon Miss J was enjoying a drink and a chat with a friend. At one point he wandered out of the kitchen to the patio at the rear. On his return he stumbled and fell against the kitchen's French windows. He was uninjured, but the two large, single panes of glass shattered. The two of them carefully knocked the remaining shards from the frame and took all the broken glass in a box to a rubbish tip.

The windows were boarded up and Miss J put the incident to the back of her mind. Two weeks later couple of friends called for a chat and some coffee, during which time Miss J excused herself to go and feed the cat. She prepared a bowl of cat food and took it out to the patio. The cat followed and made for the bowl. As it began to eat, Miss J started back towards the kitchen. She'd taken only a couple of steps when she felt drawn to look back. What she saw horrified her. Her cat remained crouched over the bowl as though eating, but one eye hung out of its socket, the other bulged horribly and a trickle of blood oozed from its neck, beginning to form a dark pool on the ground.

Her horrified cries brought her friends out. The cat was almost lifeless, but Miss J picked it up, wrapped it in some old clothing and was driven to a local vet. It died while being operated on. The vet thought that another animal must have taken the cat by the throat and shaken it. Its owners evidence discounted this. Her own dog was a gentle creature and had been far from the incident and, besides, she had only turned away for a few seconds. The vet did concede that the cut was rather too straight to have been caused by another animal's teeth.

A distraught Miss J returned to her flat. When she entered her kitchen she was shocked to see below her still boarded up windows five pieces of glass about the size of a human hand. Each had a trace of the slightly frosted pattern the broken windows had had. Yet she knew that two weeks before, all the shattered glass had been removed.

There was one final puzzling incident before Miss J eventually left her Brighton flat.

More to come...

[dancin'hamster]

what happened?

what?

tell us?

please..........?

[Agent_21]

Patience, dear Hamster. I like to keep an audience in suspenders.

[dancin'hamster]

Tease................

[Cufflink]

I can't stand to read any more, Agent.

I hate cruel stories about ***** cats.

[Agent_21]

Tease................

Touche

Well, I don't like cruelty to cats either, but as the rest of the story doesn't contain any, I will continue.

Following the tragedy of the cat, Miss J determined to leave. This took some time, during which the unaccountable movement of her furniture continued.

Shortly before moving, Miss J was visited by another friend. As they sat chatting in the front room the pair were suddenly startled by a loud bang. It sounded like a gun being fired and seemed close enough to be in the same room. They instinctively threw themselves on the floor, but since nothing further untoward occurred, they got up to look for a cause.

What they discovered was a small hole that had appeared towards the top of the window. It was completely round and gave them the impression of a bullet hole. What puzzled them was why the glass had not shattered. On closer inspection they developed the notion that it was due to a bullet leaving the room. These speculations led Miss J to call the police. They quickly arrived, made a thorough search of the house and surroundings but found no trace of a spent bullet or any other kind of missile.

(Source J Rackham)

A:21