The Investigators, Inc. The Hidden Castle Mystery. Chapter 13.

We arrived at the Blackbird’s clubhouse nice and early, just as it was starting to get daylight. “Do you think Bruno would be at the clubhouse?” I asked Cricket. “Nope,” she said, “he is never there at night that I know of, but he is there most days, except Monday. But there are always some members of their gang that hang out in there at night, to kind of protect the place, I guess.”

“Well, there is no fence around the building,” I said, “so that makes things easier. And there are 12 motorcycles up by the clubhouse. Get those bikes Aari.” “Sure will Steve,” he said, “we have some of Catalina’s surprise packages with us so there won’t be much left here when we are done. Just a nice bonfire.” “They’re going to make a bonfire?” asked Cricket. “Yes,” I replied, “a nice big one. And we have a good seat to watch the action.”

There wasn’t much traffic on that side street at the moment so Aari and his team came speeding in, jumping the curb and into the yard of the clubhouse. The guys quickly had the motorcycles in a pile, then they began shooting at the clubhouse. They obviously had a good solid steel door on that place and bullet proof windows. But the guys put a small package on the door and a couple more on the back windows. Then they threw a couple more onto the roof.

Those last two exploded into huge balls of flames! The ones on the door and back windows were just normal explosive devices, big enough to blast the door and windows right off. Then another explosion of flames in the middle of the pile of motorcycles! Then off they drove speedily. We waited a bit longer and when we saw the Blackbirds trying to put out the fire on their bikes, then we drove by slowly, the side door opened and two of Vlora’s Angels started shooting, but over their heads, we didn’t want to kill them this time.

Nakedra shot something else and another fiery explosion took place on the bikes. Then the gas tanks on the bikes began to explode. “Well, that finishes some motorcycles for those guys,” I said, “they should be a bit upset by that I’m sure.” “They will be mad as hornets!” yelled Cricket excitedly, “You people know how to hurt them, those bikes are more important to them than people!” Then she sat back and went silent. “What’s wrong Cricket?” asked Aasta.

“Nothing much,” she said quietly, “I, I’m just tired and hungry I think.” “Well, our restaurant is not far away,” I said, though I knew that wasn’t her problem, “do you know where we might find Sebastien at this time of day?” She said yes and gave me the address to his house. I sent Aari and his team over there and they would join us at the restaurant right after they paid a visit to Sebastien. They went there immediately and began shooting at his house, breaking every window front and back.

Rock tossed a surprise package at the front door which exploded upon hitting the door, blowing it to pieces! Then the guys left and dropped off their white van back at the car dealership where they had ‘borrowed’ it, picked up their blue van and joined us at the restaurant. Meanwhile, back with the Blackbirds. They found an envelope on the ground outside their clubhouse, which had now burned to the ground, as had their motorcycles.

Inside was a nice card which said on the outside, “thinking of you” and inside was written, “I hope you have a great day, Sebastien”. Bruno looked at the card. “So, Sebastien wants to be funny does he?” he said, “We will show him that we can be funny too. He is getting a shipment in at noon, dropoff #9, we will pick it up.” “They still have not caught Louis, that is amazing,” said Simeon, “he has proven very helpful.” “Yes,” said Bruno, “he is worth what I pay him.”

Back to us at the restaurant. “These are good pancakes,” I said, “the cats will love them.” Cricket giggled when I said that. “Hard to believe, cats that love pancakes,” she said with a big smile. “But with butter only,” I said. Just then Cricket went pale and put her head down. “What is wrong Cricket?” asked Jennifer. “Those people that just came in,” she said, “that is my two brothers and my parents. I knew they were getting out today, but I didn’t think it would be so early in the day.

I don’t want them to see me, please get me out of here.” She was sitting beside Jennifer, so she put her hand on Cricket’s hand. “You don’t have to worry now,” said Jennifer, “they can’t see you. I will explain afterward, but for now, can you trust me on this one?” Cricket looked at Jennifer and smiled. “Jennifer, you can do some strange things that I don’t understand,” said Cricket, “but yes, I will trust you on this one.”

“By the way, you can finish eating too,” said Jennifer, “they also cannot see that, not as long as I hold your hand.” “Does this mean that no one can see me?” asked Cricket. “No, only your old family can’t see you,” I said, “the rest of us can see you just fine. And I’m sure glad your smile came back, you have such a beautiful smile.” “Steve is right,” said Kat, who had joined us this morning, “you do have a beautiful smile.”

Then she went over to Cricket’s family and just as the father was about to drink some coffee, Kat ‘tripped’ and fell against him, digging her elbow into his back. He groaned loudly and spilled his coffee all over his wife. She screamed since the coffee was hot, and jumped up quickly hitting the table so hard that it actually fell over onto the two sons. Although I think Kat may have helped it a bit to do that. She apologized for tripping and came back to our table.

Cricket was amazed at what had happened. “How did you manage to do all that?” asked Cricket. “Practice,” said Kat, “I have had lots of practice.” We finished our breakfast and left, heading back to our hotel. Kat picked up her Wildcats and off they went to meet with the Montreal Diamonds, although I’m sure that Sebastien doesn’t want that meeting.

Cricket said another smaller gang was coming to meet with Sebastien this morning, then there was an important pickup arriving at noon, though she didn’t know what it was, but most likely it was drugs she figured. They hadn’t had a shipment in for a while, so they were due. The smaller gang was joining up with Sebastien, though they would be in another part of the province. Well, we don’t want Sebastien’s gang growing in size, we want it to get smaller.

So, the Wildcats will try to persuade this smaller gang that joining Sebastien is a bad idea. They were meeting in one of the lesser used parks in the city and just as their meeting began, the Wildcats came roaring in on their motorcycles. Both of the gangs pulled out guns, but the Wildcats had theirs out first and they started shooting before the others had a chance to return shots. Soon the shooting stopped as the guns of the gang members became too hot to hold, for some strange reason.

Kat got off her bike and went up to Sebastien and kicked him twice, knocking him to the ground. One of Sebastien’s men tried to intervene, but Kat just looked at him and said “die”, and he fell to the ground, dead. Sebastien was lying on the ground groaning and looking up at Kat. She spit on him and said, “A present from Bruno.” Then the Wildcats roared away, laughing as they left…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.