The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Cassie’s Friend. Chapter 13. Escaped.

Kat and some other girls went to Sunrise’s bedroom, and she certainly was gone. But gone where? Kat phoned Aoife next door and told her to check the room in the basement. She and some of the girls went down there right away and opened the door. Danny’s four men were dead and Danny was gone! “You won’t believe this Steve,” said Kat, “but Sunrise got away and it looks like she went over and got her boyfriend out of that room, and they killed his 4 friends too.” “How did she get away?” I asked.

“We just found a very narrow passage leading out of her closet and going downstairs,” said Kat, “so we will follow it and maybe we can find them.” “Be careful Kat,” I said, “they might be waiting down there somewhere.” “I will go first,” she said, “that will keep the others safe. I just hope we haven’t lost them. The last time we checked on them was an hour ago, so they do have a good head start.” I wonder if Anne, Sunrise and Danny are working together.

But what is in the house that everyone wants so badly? Did Sunrise take that with her or is it still in the house somewhere? “Kat,” I said, “make sure to check that house across the lane, they may have come out over there.” “I will send some girls over there right away Steve,” she said. Cassie led the way with some of Mandar’s girls and they checked the house thoroughly. They found an open door in the basement with a narrow tunnel that led in the general direction of that old house.

Cassie called Kat and told her what they found. “We have lost them,” said Kat, “they have a good head start now.” “Well, keep checking in that tunnel,” I said, “maybe there is a clue to let us know where they might be going. Or we just wait and try to trap them when they come to check out drop 10. I will need to talk with Weller again to find out where and what is drop 10.” Back we came to town and over to Tucker’s place. The door was wide open, so we went inside. Tucker was lying on the floor dead. We went down to his office, the safe was open and the Sheriff was down there, again lying on the floor dead.

We could not find Weller anywhere. It was not hard to figure that he was with Anne, Danny and Sunrise. Most likely he is Anne’s boyfriend. However, this will make it easier to find them, if they all stay together. I am thinking they will split up now and then meet somewhere later to divide the treasure, whatever it is. Unless they don’t trust each other, then they will stay together. I am hoping that is the case. If they don’t trust each other, they will soon be at each other’s throats. We did send up 2 helicopters to see if we could find their car, we know it was a yellow sports car. It was found after a couple of hours searching, hidden among trees by an old abandoned house.

That house had a number 10 on it. Nothing was found around there, but there obviously had been another car at that house as there were other tire tracks. But what kind of car was it? Meanwhile, in that narrow tunnel, the cats had been sniffing around looking for clues. They could move a lot faster and see a lot better. Storm eventually came out carrying something in his mouth. It was a beautiful brooch which looked quite old but it was exquisite.

There was a large emerald in the center with diamonds and rubies around it. Since we don’t need to keep our connections a secret anymore, I had Alfred take a look at what Storm found. “This is beautiful, Steve,” he said, “and genuine. All of these stones are absolutely perfect, this would be worth a good sum of money. I can also tell you when it was stolen, exactly 10 years ago, from a Mrs. Marchand, who lives in France. She actually lost a number of jewels at the time, worth an estimated 2 million euros. There were 18 thefts over 3 years, totaling some 50 million dollars. None of the gems or jewelry were ever recovered.”

“I doubt that Anne and friends could have managed to do that alone,” I said, “but perhaps the General could have done it.” “Very likely the General,” said Alfred, “that is why she came here. Someone must have gotten hold of them and brought them here to hide them. Perhaps Mitch and Anne did that, with help from Weller, Tucker, Sunrise, Danny and the sheriff.” “Yes, and when things started getting too hot for them,” I said, “then Sunrise contacted Cassie for help, hoping we would take care of the General, or the General would focus on us for a while so they could escape with those jewels. They are smarter than I thought.”

Meanwhile, in the next state. Some of Mr. B’s men stopped in at a restaurant, the very same one that Anne, Sunrise, Danny and Weller stopped at. Anne and Sunrise had gone to the washroom, so only Danny and Weller were sitting at a table. One of Mr. B’s men knew Weller and also knew that he and the others were on the run right now. He called Mr. B who told them to take Weller and Danny outside for a “talk”. They went over to the table and ‘insisted’ that the two men come outside for some fresh air. Realizing their predicament, they decided to go with the men.

Anne and Sunrise were just coming back to the table when the others were going out the door. Anne quickly tossed some money on the counter for their meal and the two of them left out a side door. “Shouldn’t we help them?” asked Sunrise. “Those kind of guys play rough Sunrise,” said Anne, “we can always get new boyfriends.” Sunrise looked over to where the guys had been taken, then she shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, guess you’re right,” she said. The two of them got in the car and quickly left. Weller and Danny told the men that the girls had the loot, not them, so they went to check on their story.

One of the men looked in the ladies washroom, but no one was in there, so they went back outside. “No one in there,” said one man. “The waitress said there was only the two guys,” said the other man. The police found the bodies of Weller and Danny the next day in a nearby park. It seems to be rather dangerous to join up with these two ladies. Meanwhile, back to us. Poor Cassie, she feels so bad about leading us into a trap. She had been friends with Sunrise for so long that she never thought this would ever happen. Sunrise led a double life and was amazingly good at what she did, fooling everyone around her.

That did not make Cassie feel any better though. Unfortunately, without Weller and Danny along, it will make it harder to follow those two ladies. I called Rossana about this and she felt we should leave it up to the police now to find Anne and Sunrise. That might be an idea, or we will end up chasing them all over the US, something I don’t really want to do. That can take a lot of time, and really, our part in this matter is over anyway.

I hate the thought of letting those two get away, but it would not be the first time that enemies have gotten away from us, only to reappear at another time. We have our own people to think about too. Matt will be in the hospital for quite some time, Kari has developed complications from being hung and needs hospital care and Hope ended up with broken ribs from being beaten. All three are already on a jet heading back to our own clinic, along with some of Mandar’s girls who are heading home. Then I got a phone call…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.