The Investigators, Inc. Spider House Mystery. Chapter 5. Strange Things.

Jennifer had just whispered to me that danger was near, but then she whispered again and said it was gone now. I sent the girls out in the hallway to check anyway, plus they checked their rooms, but didn’t find anyone or any problems in their rooms, so they came back. Jennifer said that her and Kat would stay with the girls tonight and I could stay with Angel, Dawn and Sigrid.

Jennifer gave some instructions to Angel and then we went to their room for the remainder of the night, which is going to be very short. The night passed quickly and quietly and we were all soon eating breakfast, some in the restaurant and some of us in our room with Harley and Summer. Jennifer, Sky, Dawn, Sigrid, Cynthia and I were in the room eating our breakfast with the girls.

They had pancakes, bacon with extra bacon and 3 eggs. Amazing how much those two girls can eat considering they are so thin. Then we discovered they hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning. They only eat what Miss Hanson gives them and sometimes food that is leftover from guests at the restaurant. I asked them to please trust us and tell us the truth about themselves so we can help them.

“How did you get here?” I asked them, “And how old are you?” “When I inherited grandma’s house the lawyer informed me about it,” began Harley, “he gave me all the papers I needed to claim it, plus a letter from him to show any authorities over here. I needed that since I have no family now. I had two younger brothers, but after our parents died they were adopted by other families.

No one wanted me though, guess I was kind of a rebel. I had just turned 16 when grandma died and Greg was my boyfriend, kind of anyway and he promised to help me. He helped me and Summer get our passports and everything we needed to get over here, he even paid for everything. I figured he would likely want favors in return, guys always do, but I wanted my house.

Greg looked after all our paperwork, ID, passports, birth certificates, everything, so we wouldn’t lose anything. He seemed so nice. But once here, things changed and he kept everything so we couldn’t leave. We didn’t even dare ask anyone for help because he said bad things would happen to us if we did. He gave us to Miss Hanson and she regularly beat us just for fun she said.”

She started to cry at this point so Summer took over. “Miss Hanson stopped beating us when she realized she could make some money with us,” she began, “using us in porn videos and photos. If we refused anything, then Bulldog or his brother Butch would beat us. There is another man too, very well dressed always, comes by large yacht to pick up the videos and photos.

He said he really liked me and maybe one day he would take me with him. He liked to touch a lot which I hated, but I didn’t show it. He is the only man that Miss Hanson is scared of, plus she’s scared of Irene, everyone is. I was 16 when we came here, I’m 6 months older than Harley.

Um, that’s not her real name, it’s the name Miss Hanson gave her, she didn’t like her real name. I am 17 now, just had my birthday 2 weeks ago and…” Now she began to cry. “Steve,” said Sky, “take me to Miss Hanson and leave me with her for a few minutes, that’s all I need.”

“Not right now,” I said, “I want her alive for a while yet. I want to find out who this guy is she is afraid of so we can stop him too.” “I guess you think we are just a couple crying kids, right?” asked Harley nervously. “No, I sure do not,” I told her, “and none of our girls think that either.

You two have been through a lot and I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for you. But please, trust us, okay? I certainly won’t hurt you, just ask any of our girls that work for me.” “What about that one, Cristy, she said you were really mean to her?” asked Summer. Oh, that one really hit hard. Sky felt bad now for slapping me in front of the girls, even if they couldn’t hear us talking.

I asked Sky to bring Cristy here, so she disappeared. “Uh, how did she do that?” asked Summer. Both girls had wide eyes right now. Sky then reappeared with Cristy, wearing a robe. “Had to get her out of bed,” smiled Sky. I went over to Cristy and apologized for being mean to her.

“Steve, you were not being mean,” she said, “I was just tired. I’m the one that should be apologizing to you for saying that. You are never mean to any of us.” “Just the same,” I said, “Sky mentioned you were not able to slap me, so she did it for you, but I am giving you the opportunity now to slap me as hard as you like.”

“What?” she exclaimed, “Me slap you? No way! Not me! Not now, not never! I couldn’t do it Steve. Nope, not me.” Then she smiled and hugged me. “That’s what I like doing to my older brother,” she said, still smiling. I then introduced her to the girls and Cristy explained that I was like an older brother to all the girls.

Then Sky took her back home. “Um, they disappeared again,” said Summer, “that’s kind of, um, scary, just a bit.” “I promise we will explain everything in time,” said Jennifer, “but for now it’s safer if you don’t know too much. Deal?” “Deal,” they both said. Harley then told us her real name is Tina Cotton Whitley, which I then relayed to Cristy.

I also asked her to get copies of the girls’ ID and new passports, birth certificates, everything. Then Tina told us something, the lawyer said her grandma died just two weeks before he contacted her, it took him awhile to find her, but when she went to see her grave in the cemetery on the mainland when they first arrived here, it said she had died 2 years previous, not 2 weeks.

That is interesting, that’s a big time difference. Someone didn’t want Harley, I mean Tina, to know her grandmother had died. Perhaps so they could search the house? Is there a treasure in that house? Did one of these gangs hide some loot in that house?

Something else the girls told us, both of the girls were 8 when their parents died and they died just one week apart. Tina ended up in foster homes, but Summer lived with her aunt and uncle until they went missing about a month before the girls came here.

Something strange about all of this. Time to revisit that old house. The girls call it the Spider House because of all the spiders in it, though we only saw maybe half a dozen the first time we were there. Hmm, a yacht is now arriving carrying Sky’s Bad Girls…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.