The Investigators, Inc. The Hidden Castle Mystery. Chapter 1. Wedding Plans.

Well, here we are relaxing nicely in the library, with coffee and donuts. Preparations for the wedding are complete. It is going to be outside. But there is just not enough room anywhere in this chateau for our big team, so it must be outside. Matt is in charge of security and I rather doubt anyone could possibly get through to us the way he has things arranged. And with Jennifer by my side, we are both safe.

Kat will be with Erika and Mandy, the other two children, Madison and Eina, are still in the clinic and will be for some time yet. Amazing how fast Erika managed to get this arranged, I mean the part about Jennifer and I getting married. If Sky were to come back, I am not sure what we would do. Well, we would do the same thing we did for Kat and Jennifer when they came back, welcome Sky with open arms.

It’s a good thing we have Baldwin and Mandar around, and all their lawyers. After all, the government likes people to be alive when they get married, not dead, as is the case with Jennifer. So, to simplify things, we had Jennifer’s last name changed, by Annelie, so that we could get a marriage license. That worked quite well. In the middle of all this a case came along. It appears that some people had bought some land, a rather large property, mostly forest.

When they were flying over the property by helicopter, they spotted something that was barely noticeable among the trees. It was a castle! Not a very large castle, but it was there and in remarkably good condition as well. Of course, no one has likely been in that castle for hundreds of years, so that does help to keep it in good condition.

The new owners, a couple in their mid fifties, two of their sons and three friends, decided to check out this castle. That is what they did about 2 weeks later. Interestingly there was only one place to land their helicopter and that was right almost in the middle of the walled area of the castle grounds. Not a tree was growing in that location, just long grass.

There was no evidence of any kind of road or trail, not even a walking trail, into that castle. If there had been one, all evidence of it was now gone. That was rather interesting too. They landed their helicopter and split up into 3 groups of 2 so they could explore the castle more quickly. They landed in the morning and were to meet back at the helicopter for lunch, but the two sons never arrived.

The remaining four went looking and found them in one of the small stone buildings along the edge of the wall. They were both dead, but there was no sign of struggle or of wounds on them. They quickly returned to the town near to where they now lived. The autopsy revealed that the two sons died of some strange poison that had to be ingested or injected.

There was no evidence of the sons either eating or drinking anything while out there and there was no evidence of being injected with a needle either. Rather interesting. Matt and some others will fly over the site after the wedding and take some photos of the area. But they will not land, that will come later, if the case is accepted. But that will all happen after our wedding. “No cases before you and mom get married,” said Erika, “this is more important!”

“Don’t look at me Erika, I’m not in charge right now, remember?” I reminded her, “It’s up to the leaders to decide what and when to do something.” “OHHH, if they try to spoil your wedding, I, I, I will throw eggs at them!” she exclaimed, “And I will get the cats to help me!” “I believe they would help you too,” I said, “and I am on your side, but, we have to obey the leaders at all times, that is the rule we have.” “You’re not trying to get out of marrying mom, are you daddy?” she asked with hands on her hips.

“Not a chance, I would never do that!” I said emphatically, “I’m hurt that you would even think such a thing.” She ran over and hugged me. “I’m sorry daddy,” she said, “I’m just scared that something will come up and stop you and mom from getting married.” “Nothing will stop us,” I said, “the wedding is tomorrow, no matter what happens, my little kitten.” She was on my lap now.

“I like when you call me that daddy,” she said, “and I’m so happy that you want to marry mom.” “Well, I love your mom very much,” I said, “and I really do want to marry her, more than anything else right now.” Jennifer came into the library right then and sat beside me. “Good thing you said that Steve,” she said smiling. Erika jumped from me onto Jennifer and gave her a big hug. Then Dawn came and sat on my lap. “Hey, who said you could sit on my daddy’s lap?” asked Erika.

“I said so,” said Dawn, “I can even cuddle with him today if I want.” “Can she do that mom?” asked Erika. “Yes, she can,” said Jennifer, “this is Dawn’s day with her older brother, so she is allowed to do that. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, sorry Dawn,” she said smiling. “That’s okay Erika,” said Dawn, returning the smile. Dawn and I decided on having a picnic by the pool for our lunch, no one else being invited, since we did not want to leave the safety of the chateau grounds before wedding day.

Jennifer suggested something else to occupy our time before lunch. Older brother day lasts from 10am to 6pm, the time we have dinner. Mostly we do a lot of talking on older brother day, especially if the girls are having any problems that they want some advice about, or whatever.

Sometimes it’s just talking about general things, just to spend time together. Today, Dawn needed some encouragement and help with a certain problem and I think that was taken care of completely. It is good to deal with things quickly before they cause serious problems. Well, tomorrow is the big day…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.