The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Baldwin’s Murder. Chapter 6. Fresh Towels Sir.

After the others left we began to make our plans to trap the fake Steve when he comes to meet with the lawyer. He thinks he will be made wealthy with this simple trip, instead he will be ending up in prison, if he makes it that far. “Roger, go with them, get some men to help,” said Mandar, “Cora can look after me here.” So that is what Roger did.

He was on the phone immediately and got Team 5 together to meet us at the office right away. It will be a while before the other Steve gets here anyway, so we have plenty of time. Just then Major and Crystal walked into the office again. “I thought you were supposed to go with the others,” I said. “There is enough of them,” said Major, “so Crystal and I decided to stay here and help out.”

“Thanks,” I said smiling, “always good to have more help. Hey, what was that I just saw?” A little gray head pokes out from behind the desk. “Oh, she was hiding in the jet,” said Crystal, “so I brought her along too.” “Come here you,” I said laughing. Muffin came running over and jumped into my arms. Meow,meow!=We get fake Steve together! “Right, we will definitely do that,” I said.

Then Annelie called with some more information. “You will want to hear this Steve,” she said happily, “this is better than trapping the other Steve, almost.” She then told me what she had found out, just on a hunch, she said. “Well, this will change our plans just slightly,” I said, “you do get good hunches at times.” “Oh, before I forget, someone else should be arriving at Mandar’s office any minute,” she added.

“She better not,” I said. “Too late,” said a familiar voice, “she already did.” I turned to see Sky standing by the door. What else could I do, so I laughed. “Nice to have you with us,” I said smiling. Meow,meow.=Oh, they have big kiss. Kat laughed when Muffin said that. “Okay everyone, this is the plan,” I said. We split into 2 groups for this operation and off we went.

We arrived at the hotel he was supposed to be staying at and up to the 8th floor we went. Then to room 808. As we got to the door we saw one of the employees coming down the hall with fresh towels for someone. She went to the wrong door however, but before she knocked I got her attention. “How would you like to make some money?” I asked her, “say 500 pounds?”

She looked at me, then at the others. “What do you have in mind?” she asked as I pulled out the money. “Just knock on the door and tell the gentleman inside that you have fresh towels for him,” I said, “then you can leave.” I then showed her my police ID. “Oh, that is different,” she said, “is there a criminal in there?” “Yes there is,” I said, “and we would prefer not to break down the door, that makes so much noise.”

“Okay,” she said and knocked on the door. “Who is it?” asked the man. “Fresh towels sir,” she said. “About time,” he complained, “just a moment.” I gave the woman her money and told her to leave. The door opened just a bit and Benson slammed his big body against it, knocking the door wide open and sending the man to the floor.

The man quickly pulled a gun, but Sky kicked it out of his hand and Kat kicked him in the head. He lay flat on the floor groaning. The Major closed the door while Benson and Mac picked up the man and dumped him onto a chair. I sat down on the bed and looked at him, pointing my gun directly at him. “Nice to meet you again Toledo,” I said, “now, anything to say before I pull this trigger?”

“Hey, wait a minute Steve,” he said, “that would be plain murder, and you know it. What is this all about?” “You are joking, right Toledo?” asked the Major, “after what you have been doing, if I was in Steve’s place, you would be dead already.” “What are you guys talking about?” he asked again, “at least tell me what I am supposed to have done now. Or is this about past crimes?”

“Past crimes would be enough,” I said, “though getting proof for some of those murders you have committed might be hard unfortunately. Except perhaps for killing Kat, I know you did that one. But this time we know you killed Baldwin and tried to kill me and most of my team.

Plus taking the rest of the team hostage thinking we were all dead. Now, do some talking, my finger is getting twitchy.” Kat put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it a bit. “I still have no idea what you are talking about,” he said, “I had nothing to do with any of that, and that is the truth.” Is it really possible, I thought to myself…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.