The Investigators, Inc. The Ghost House Case. Chapter 12. Skeletons and Gems.

The hotel we were staying at had a nice restaurant, so we all went down there for breakfast, instead of going to some other restaurant where we were much more likely to meet the second Pierre. I really didn’t want to meet him again right now. Trapper and his four friends showed up shortly after we sat down, so they joined Jennifer, Sky and myself at our table.

“Steve, my friends and I have been doing some serious talking lately,” said Trapper, “ever since Miss Kat took us to see her grave, and the graves of Jennifer and Sky, um, and a few others. We don’t understand a lot of what Miss Kat told us. Was she really killed?” “Yes, she certainly was killed, and buried, where her body remains to this day,” I said, “as far as I know anyway, unless someone came along and stole their bodies. Jennifer and Sky’s bodies are there too, they also were killed.

Jennifer was poisoned by the same man who killed Kat. Sky was shot in the heart by a different man. How are they still alive? That is a good question which I can’t answer. They claim to be ghosts and I am not going to question them on that because they can do some extraordinary things, such as disappearing.” Jennifer and Sky disappeared at that moment, but came back right away.

“That part is a bit scary,” admitted Trapper, “and Sky picking up Pierre and throwing him 10 feet through the air, with one hand. I mean, that was just not normal.” Sky giggled. “Anyway, it got us thinking more about what Miss Kat keeps saying,” he continued, “about us getting on the right side and joining your team. We want to change Steve, and join your team, if we can.” “Sounds real good Trapper,” I said, “but you would have to pass our tests for joining the team. I can’t make it easy just because you’re friends.”

“Hey, no problem there Steve,” he said, “we want to do things the same as everyone else.” We kept talking, had our breakfast and then we all went back to that old stone Ghost House. Matt and his Knight Riders had been there already and did some digging, finding a skeleton at the marked spot. Undoubtedly that was the remains of Alice, Giselle’s mother. Then they had decided to dig at the other locations as well and at the south facing urn they discovered another skeleton.

Both looked about the same age, which made it even more interesting. Did Maralina decide to kill her helper to make sure that he, or she, didn’t tell anyone? That is probably something we will never know, unless we can identify that other skeleton. I think we will leave that up to the police anyway, it would probably be better for them to investigate. “Did you look through the dirt in that big urn?” I asked Matt. “What dirt?” he asked, “There is just cement in there.”

“Hmm, there was originally soil,” I told him, “the sketch in that old book showed flowers growing in there.” “It is poor quality,” said Rock, “someone just used cement instead of concrete, likely because they were in a hurry, or they just didn’t understand the difference between the two.” I asked him to try and break it out of there, so he took a large hammer and smashed it apart quickly. It was only about 3 inches thick and underneath was soil. But why put the cement on the top?

Quite likely for protection of something. John got in there next and began to dig. This urn was 4 feet high and six feet wide, but soon we heard him hit something that sounded like metal. Rock climbed in and lifted a large metal box out of the urn and handed it to Bear who set it on the ground and smashed the lock off. He then opened it and it was full of bricks, just regular bricks. And a smaller box. Inside that box were diamonds, and two large rubies.

“Those rubies are likely worth more than the diamonds,” said Alfred, as he looked at them, “these diamonds didn’t come from one place either, they are likely from several thefts, perhaps over a few years time. The rubies came from the same owner though, and I can tell you who owned them and when they were stolen. I can even tell you who stole these beauties, probably the nicest rubies I have ever seen.” We called the police about what we had found and they came out to the Ghost House right away.

They asked me to take the gems back to our chateau with us until they could contact the proper authorities about this find. Oddly, none of the diamonds had ever been reported missing, except for 3 beautifully cut blue diamonds. They were returned to the owners and they gave us a nice reward for finding them. The rubies were also returned to the owners and we were given quite a sizable reward for finding them.

The skeleton was that of Alice, the other one was a man who lived in a village about half way between Paris and that old Ghost House and went missing at about that time. Perhaps he was a friend of Maralina and she must have convinced him to help her get rid of the body. Then she killed him so he wouldn’t talk. He must have dug both graves, otherwise why would Maralina need his help if she was able to dig his grave? Well, I guess we mostly solved things in this mixed up case, perhaps with one or two loose ends.

There is still the second Pierre. Finding that treasure might make him angry and want to kill Giselle even more now. There are more cousins as well, though none of them seem to be connected to this present case. However, they could still be dangerous for Giselle. She will be getting a new identity to help protect her. Trapper asked us to look after Giselle, and she does want to stay with us, so I said that would be okay.

For now she will not be joining our team, she still has her traumatic past to deal with first, and that is something we can help her with. Trapper and his four friends have started our testing to join our team. So far they are doing quite well, let’s see if it continues. Well, I hope we get some time to relax before the next case arrives, but I doubt that will happen.

The End. A new case will begin soon.

©2025 Steve McLeod.