The Investigators, Inc. Case of the Kidnapped Family. Chapter 12. The Hit.

I had told Amerie and Chloe to walk with Felicity to her car and remind her to be careful and not tell anyone that she had talked to us. But, I guess we were not careful enough. While walking to Felicity’s car, another car pulled up alongside them, the back window was open and a man shot. Felicity fell to the ground right away and both of our girls shot at the car as it sped away.

It circled around through the parking lot and turned to go out the exit when suddenly the car exploded! Catalina had followed the girls down when she saw them leave and she tossed one of her special packages at the fleeing car. She has an amazing throwing arm, truly amazing. Amerie had just called me when the explosion occurred, telling me about Felicity.

She was still alive and an ambulance soon arrived to pick her up. But would she be kept safe in whatever hospital they decide to take her? Not too likely. This was a deliberate hit. Someone hired these men to kill her and when that person finds out they were not successful, that person will try again. It isn’t hard to figure out who did the hiring, and they must have been following Felicity around that day, perhaps other days too.

We should have been doing that too, but we are kind of running low on personnel. We need to do some thinking about this. Meanwhile, we picked up some interesting news from our bugs in Cairns’ office. “Why is it every time I come here you are casually sitting there watching TV and drinking coffee?” bellowed Haugen, “Now, turn that thing off and listen to me!”

Cairns quickly turned off the TV and asked what was going on. “Do you ever pay attention to the news?” asked Haugen, “Does the name Felicity ring a bell perhaps?” “Uh, yeah, that’s Martin’s girlfriend,” he replied, “she just had a birthday recently, turned 17.” Haugen just stared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me she was just a kid?” asked Haugen, “That means she was 15 when he started dating her.”

“I didn’t think it was important,” said Cairns, “but why the interest in Felicity right now, she is hardly important to us?” “She just visited Martin today,” began Haugen, “then immediately went over to those PI’s to talk with them. Martin must have told her something rather important. Then they sent two guards to walk her out to her car, which tells me they were happy with the information she gave them.

Then a well known hit man, named Feller, gunned her down, but was killed by those PI’s before he got away. And it was my crazy cousin, the Governor, who hired this hit man. He called to let me know and I told him that was the most stupid thing he could have done!” “Oh great!” exclaimed Cairns, “now what will we do?” “I told the Governor to go away for a few days,” said Haugen, “he has a place in Florida, so he will go there.

Next, you get Amanda back here, and I mean now! Plus those kids, if that insane Ms. Cameron hasn’t killed them. If she has, then kill her too!” They didn’t say much more that was important, except possibly killing Felicity while she’s in the hospital. We will try to prevent that, somehow. I told Kat it was time for her and her Wildcats to visit the Governor, before he left on his little vacation.

I then sent a copy of this conversation between Haugen and Cairns to Aari and told him to go visit Ms. Cameron. We would make sure he has the permission needed to see her. Maybe she will be persuaded to talk more when she hears that her life expectancy is rather short. Then I had another thought and told Kat not to leave just yet, maybe we should go and visit Wally Haugen first, and put a bit of a scare into him.

Kat didn’t like the idea of me going along, especially since she is the only ghost here right now. Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Hannah, her team, Jazzy, her people, plus Sky and Angel, were just pulling in front of the huge ranch house. They got out of the vans and began walking up to the front door when they were met by 4 rather large, muscular men who bluntly told them to leave now or they would never leave.

“Teach them a lesson Courage!” said Sky. Angel leaped into the air, changing into that huge lion and landing right in front of those 4 men, then attacking! “Oh, that’s nasty,” said Jazzy. It was soon over and they were all walking into the house. Hannah had her two Caracals with her as well so they could help sniff out Amanda if she was there still.

Sky had brought some clothing from Amanda so that they would have her scent. It didn’t take them long to pick up her scent in the house and they tracked her down to one of the bedrooms. My team of girls, with Angel, followed the Caracals. The door was locked and very heavy wood, so Angel once again became Courage to easily break down the door.

Amanda and another woman in the room were terrified when they saw that huge lion, but our girls quickly had them calmed down after explaining who they were and why they had come. Jazzy’s men had stayed with her to make sure no one managed to escape. While they were waiting, a tall man with black hair came downstairs to see what all the noise was about.

“Well, well, if it isn’t my old friend Raven,” said Jazzy. He just stood there with his mouth open a bit. “I hear you now own this fine establishment,” she continued, “well, I’m sorry to say this, but we are here to put you out of business.” “I will say this, you must have a lot of courage coming into my territory with so few men,” answered Raven. Just then Courage, the lion, came and stood behind Raven.

“That is all the Courage I need Raven,” said Jazzy, as she pointed behind Raven. He turned around and when he saw that lion, he pleaded with Jazzy not to kill him. “I want Amanda and anyone else who wants to come with us,” Jazzy demanded, “and I want to know who you are working with. Give me that and you can go.” He took her and Sky into his office and handed them some papers from his safe.

Sky spotted a lot of money in that safe and said those women who are leaving him need money to start over. He handed her all the money in the safe. “This is what we need Sky,” said Jazzy, “I always keep my word Raven, so you are free to go.” And he certainly left in a hurry after making sure that Jazzy and our team had what they wanted and were safely leaving.

Sky and Angel were sitting beside each other when Sky said, “Gotta go!”, and she, with Angel, disappeared. “I would love to know how she does that,” said Jazzy. “We all would!” laughed Aasta. Back to us. “You don’t seem to be in trouble Steve,” said Sky as they returned. “Not yet, perhaps,” I said, then explained what we were going to do. Meanwhile, back with Aari and his team in Dallas…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.