Later on that day, Sylvester, Penelope and Sylvester Jr. were sitting at the dining table having some dinner. Penelope had been stricken by the news that there were cameras in her apartment. She had remained in the guest room, remaining silent for pretty much for the rest of the day. She really did not know what to do. She was also trying to figure out who would want to be stalking her. She had a few suspects in her mind but couldn't decide on who was the most eligible suspect out of the lot. She had never felt this scared for several years. She had been able to pluck up the courage to go down to actually have dinner. She had deliberately left mobile phone in her room so she would not be able to answer it if the stalker did ring. At the table, she was constantly looking around the room, almost as if she was looking for cameras in the room. Sylvester Jr. was getting incredibly curious as to her behaviour. He had known Penelope for quite a while but had never seen her act like this before.
"Penelope, are you sure you're ok?" Sylvester Jr. asked.
"Son, Penelope is fine." Sylvester replied.
"Clearly she's not father. Even I can tell that something is wrong."
"I'm going through some trauma. That's all I'll say." Penelope said.
"You'd best not know what's going on." Sylvester added.
"Ok father." Sylvester Jr. replied.
"Penelope, what did you want to do after dinner?" Sylvester asked.
"Why do you ask that all of a sudden?" Penelope asked.
"Because I was taking my son to see a friend after dinner."
"I see."
"I was wondering whether you wanted to come with us or stay here."
"Were you going with him and stay for a while or were you just going to drop him off and then come back?"
"I was just going to drop him off and come back." Penelope had a little think. She felt secure when she was around Sylvester but felt insecure when she was alone. On the other hand, she felt secure when she was inside but insecure when outside. She did need to speak to her brother though, to see if he had found anything out recently. With this in mind, she made her decision.
"I'll stay here."
"Will you be ok?"
"I need to contact my brother anyway."
"Ok then. You can give me a call if something goes wrong."
"You are making me curious as to what's going on." Sylvester Jr. said.
"Like I said before, it would be better if you didn't know about it." Sylvester replied.
"If you say so father."
At the same time, Paul was having dinner himself. He had successfully removed all of the cameras that he had found. They had all been placed on the table next to his meal. The cameras were very small and they had obviously been purchased from ACME. Paul could tell this because of the ACME logo on the side of the cameras. They didn't have a tape inside and had a wireless link to somewhere. So far, he had not been able to figure out who could have placed them in Penelope's apartment. The only thought he had was whether Penelope had had builders recently, but Penelope never answered that question when he had asked her before. He intended to ask the same question next time he spoke to her. He had the TV on while he was eating. There was not much on the TV so he had the news on. It had been fairly quiet other than Penelope's stalker, which wasn't on the news. Paul was slightly anxious about what was going to happen now. The stalker was bound to realise that his cameras had been found since Paul had removed them. He was wondering whether he had placed himself in danger. While he was pondering this, there was a knock on the door. He paused eating, went over to the door, grabbed the spare keys and opened the door. It was Bruce at the door. He was a little surprised that Penelope wasn't at the door.
"Hi Paul, is Penelope around?" Bruce asked.
"No. She's with her boyfriend for a few days. I'm taking over from her." Paul replied.
"Is this because of her stalker?"
"How do you know of that?"
"The post lady told me."
"I knew I shouldn't have told her."
"Can I help you out in any way?"
"Well, do you remember Penelope getting any builders in recently?" Bruce had a think for a moment. He then remembered something.
"She did get a builder in about a week ago to sort out some electric fault in the room directly above hers."
"Do you know the name of the building company that did it?"
"No, but I do know the builder who did the work."
"Who is he?"
"His name is Bill. He's a good friend of mine. We go out playing snooker on a regular basis."
"Hmm, any idea where he's been recently?"
"He went on a trip about five of days ago. He didn't say where he was going. Since then, I've lost contact with him"
"Ok. Thanks for your help." There was something about Bruce's tone of voice and look in his eyes that to Paul that his story might be a lie, but without any evidence, he couldn't do anything about it, unless he could find some evidence to prove it if he found the opportunity.
"Maybe you could help me out?" Bruce asked. Paul guessed what he needed and picked out the master set of keys from the nearby cupboard.
"You really need to be less forgetful." Bruce and Paul just laughed, though Bruce's was nervous laughter. Paul went to Bruce's room and unlocked it for him.
"Thanks Paul. Hope your sister's stalker is caught." Bruce said as he walked back inside. As Paul began walking back to Penelope's apartment, he had a glance back to Bruce's apartment room. He had made up his mind. He wanted to confirm that Bruce had no part in this. Some evidence suggested that he might have something to do with it.
"As soon as he goes out, I'm going to search his room." Paul thought to himself.
While Sylvester was taking Sylvester Jr. to see his friend, Penelope was sitting in the lounge with the TV on. She had still left her phone in her room just in case the stalker tried to call her. It was getting dark now and she had closed the curtains. This made her feel a little bit more secure. She had a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. She was going to drink this and then give Paul a ring to see if there had been any more developments at his end. She was just watching a collection of Looney Tunes cartoons for the moment. She was also thinking about what had been happening over the past couple of days. She was praying that her stalker would be caught relatively soon, but she still had no idea of who would want to stalk her. Her primary thought was Bruce but she had no evidence against him. She couldn't think of anybody else though. She drank some more of her hot chocolate and, for some reason that she couldn't understand; she began brainstorming possible suspects to herself. Claude came to mind during this brainstorm, mainly because of the fact that Paul had told her that he had sent her a romantic message. She was curious as to what that message said, but she forgot to ask Paul. She decided to ask him when she would speak to him. She finished her hot chocolate during this brainstorm and stood up to go over to the phone when all of a sudden, all power suddenly failed. Lights went down, the TV turned off. Everything had suddenly died simultaneously.
"Great, what a time for a power cut." Penelope moaned to herself. She pulled out a lighter in her pocket and lit it so there was a little light. This brought up the realisation that the phone would be down as well. If she were to contact Paul, she would have to use her mobile phone. That was in her room so she would have to go up the stairs to get to it. Since her lighter gave off very little light, this wouldn't be easy, even for her. She had to walk very slowly around the house. When she got the stairs, there was a sudden thump. It sounded like it was resonating from the outside of the house. The thump made Penelope jump horribly. She nearly dropped her lighter but was able to catch it. She had to relight it though. She looked all around her as best as she could with the light. She could not see anything at all. She began to shake heavily. She had become incredibly nervous with the whole situation. Things were suddenly going completely wrong. She hoped that Sylvester would come back very soon so she would feel safe. For the meantime, she had to reach her phone. She began climbing the stairs but one of them creaked as she stood on it. This made her jump horribly and she had to grab hold of the banister to prevent her from falling down the stairs.
"This is not a good week for me." Penelope was now sweating with fear. The dark was reminding her of the mansion incidents. She was also getting the constant feeling that her stalker was very close by. She did not want this to be the case but feared that it was. She continued to cautiously climb the stairs. When she reached the top, there was another thump. Penelope leapt five foot in the air and collapsed on the floor in a ball, covering her eyes. She felt so terrified that she didn't want to move. She did eventually find the courage to climb to her feet. She had finally gotten used to the low light situation. She suddenly heard the front door open. She looked down and saw a figure enter the door. She couldn't recognise the figure at all. Penelope gulped and retreated backwards. She had no idea of who the figure was. Her adrenalin was pumping heavily at the same time. She was preparing to run as fast as she could when the figure spoke.
"Penelope, are you ok?" The voice asked. Penelope was able to recognise the voice immediately.
"Sylvester?" Penelope asked.
"Where are you?"
"Upstairs."
"I'll come to you!" Sylvester cautiously walked up the stairs and was eventually able to find Penelope at the top of the stairs because of her lighter. e to fire up the back-up generator, giving the house some temporary power. All of the lights in the house came back on and everything powered up again. Penelope turned off his lighter and gave Sylvester a big hug.
"I was so scared when the power went out. I kept hearing noises from outside. I thought that my stalker was present." Penelope said. Sylvester stroked her back to calm her down.
"It's ok Penelope. I'm here now. But what happened to the power?" Sylvester asked. Both cats went outside and were able to use the garden light to look straight up. They were able to see the lines that supplied the house from the main power station entering the house, but there was a hitch. One of the wires was dangling down, nearly touching the grass in the garden.
"Did the wire snap?" Penelope asked. Sylvester went over to the wire and had a close look at it, being careful not to touch it. After looking at the wire for a few seconds, he came up with a shocking conclusion.
"This wire didn't snap. It was cut."