The Investigators, Inc. The Stone House Mystery. Chapter 5. Death Continues.

Now we head back to England and our teams over there. I had left Hope and Kristy to help guard Vicky, the coroners widow, until we could get her to a safe place for a while. Vicky was a bit stubborn, though, and didn’t want to run away and hide. She said that her husband and her had never gone into hiding even when they were specifically threatened and she did not want to start now.

However, I did not want her getting killed either, so Hope and Kristy said they would be happy to stay with her, while Mac and Harvey would watch the place at night outside. I didn’t like that idea as it tied up 4 of our team, and that was not good. But for now that was the best we could do. Then I decided to send 5 of Team S to stay with her and Vicky was fine with that too. Their first night had been quiet and tomorrow morning I will send the others to replace them.

Right after breakfast Mac and Harvey were going to lie down to sleep for a while when there was a knock at the door. Vicky looked out the living room window, like she always does when someone comes to the door, and said a man she didn’t know was out there. Harvey answered the door while Vicky was still looking and Hope tried to pull her away from the window. Just as Harvey opened the door he saw that the man had a gun pointed at him, but, too late. The man shot and Harvey went down.

Several more shots were fired from a car across the street, going through the big living room window. Hope and Vicky fell to the floor. Mac had already gone out the back door and saw the man, who had shot Harvey, running across the street to the car. Mac shot and the man fell just as he reached the car. Then the car began to speed away with both Mac and Kristy shooting at it. The car swerved and went head on into a huge oak tree.

A man in the back of the car got out and was about to run, but Mac shot and the man fell. The police showed up quickly having been called by several of the neighbors and both Mac and Kristy were promptly arrested. I contacted Rossana to see if she could help us and she had them both released within an hour. She was in London on some official police business, so that made things a bit easier and quicker. Vicky had been shot in the head and died instantly.

Harvey died before the ambulance arrived and his wife, Hope, is in critical condition and may not live. Meanwhile, Kat and her Wildcats were out checking around the property of the stone house to see if they could find anything that might look like a grave had been dug there about a year ago. They split up into groups of 4 each so they could cover the area faster. It was a fairly large lot since it was in the country. One group was Amber, Kera, Kari and Candace.

Suddenly 3 shots were fired from Cliff’s home next door at their group. Kera and Kari both fell to the ground while Amber and Candace fired a couple of shots back. Ann came out screaming at them and waving a big shotgun in the air, threatening to kill all of them! Kat went running over to her and Ann told her to go back or she would shoot. Kat just kept walking so Ann tried to shoot, but nothing happened. Once close enough Ann tried to hit Kat with the shotgun but was unable to do that either.

Kat took the shotgun from her and tossed it away, then she kicked Ann once and hit her a couple of times. “Who else is in there with you?” demanded Kat. “None of your business!” screamed Ann. So, Kat dragged her inside with her and some of the Wildcats came inside too and helped look around the house while Ann continued screaming and threatening to call the police. “Go ahead and call them Ann,” said Kat, “I am sure the police would be very happy to find you.” Ann became very quiet when she heard Kat use her real name.

“Then it must have been you who shot my two girls,” said Kat, “since no one else is here.” Ann sat quietly when Kat said that, but then she burst out laughing. Kat gave her a hard back handed slap, knocking her off the chair. Ann was livid at that point and tried to once again attack Kat, but it did her no good as both her arms became paralyzed. “You should know better by now,” said Kat, “I told you before, I’m a ghost, you can’t hurt or kill a ghost.” Kat’s face then turned to that of a very old woman, then a skeleton, then her head disappeared altogether.

Ann fell backwards off her chair when this happened! One of the girls called Kat to come outside, which she did. “Kari is dead and Kera has a bad wound,” said Amber. Kat called me and I contacted Mandar who sent a helicopter to pick up Kera and bring her back to our clinic. I told Kat to forget about Ann for the moment, but keep watching her.

Meanwhile, back to us. “Melissa, come in here please,” I asked. She came to the library right away. Several of the girls were in there, talking and giggling. Sky and Jennifer were also there, sitting on each side of me. “We left Steve’s lap for you,” said Sky, smiling, “that way you can continue kissing easily.” “Oh, okay,” she said and sat on me. Then her eyes got big and she said, “No, wait, we don’t need to continue kissing,” she said, as she turned pink. “Oh, maybe you want me to leave first,” said Sky.

“That would be better,” said Melissa, then she turned red, “no, wait! You can stay while we kiss!” Unfortunately she said that quite loud and it suddenly got very quiet in the library as everyone stared at us. “No, wait!” exclaimed Melissa, “I meant we are not going to kiss today…I mean…uh…oh, I don’t know what I mean.” I gave her a hug and kissed her cheek. “Sorry, this was Sky’s idea, just as a joke everyone,” I said. They all laughed and went back to talking.

“Now, I do need to talk seriously though,” I said, “two of our members have been killed today and two others badly wounded. I need more information about that gang of yours, anything at all that you can remember. Did they have favorite places to hang out? Any other contacts? Any hit men that they used? Places to hide for a day or two?” “Wait, wait, not so many questions,” she replied, “they did have places where they liked to hang out, in a couple different towns.”

She then gave me the names and locations of those places. She also gave us names of contacts that they used before, plus 2 different hit men that they used regularly. She also looked up photos of them for us, though they were 8 years old. “Annelie, try to get me more recent photos of those men please,” I said. “On it Steve,” she answered. Melissa had worked with them for 3 months and learned a lot about them, which was her main job, hopefully without getting caught and she never was…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.