The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Lily’s Treasure. Chapter 8. Pulling Out.

Jennifer told Lily and her father to lie down on the floor, just in case there was trouble, like shooting. Some of the Wildcats had stayed outside to stand guard, so Kat and Jennifer went out to join them. They left Carine inside to guard Lily, Kristina was already outside with the guards. Everything seemed quiet, but Jennifer said she still sensed danger.

It was a heavily wooded area making it difficult to see anything. But, while the girls outside were watching the front, where the road into the cottage was located, no one was watching the back. “There’s a road that comes to the back of the cottage as well,” said Edwin, “they may come in that way.” Just then a creaking was heard on the inside stairs.

“Hello father,” said Ralph, “and Lily too, plus all these scary Wildcats. Now, drop your guns everyone.” Ralph was not alone, he had quite a few friends with him coming down the stairs, and coming in the kitchen door. “Well, if it isn’t little Ralphie again,” said Kat, as she and Jennifer came in the front door. “Oh, you scare me so much kitty Kat,” he said and laughed.

“You should be scared Ralphie,” she said, “you attacked my Wildcats after I warned you not to do so, now you will feel the wrath of the Kat! First of all, you will die!” She pointed at one of Ralph’s men when she said that and he fell to the floor dead. Another of Ralph’s men confirmed it. “Cool trick, you must tell me how you did that,” said Ralph.

“I don’t do tricks Ralphie,” she said, “I am quite serious.” Carine was touching Lily and Edwin to keep them safe. “Now father, we must part ways,” said Ralph, “then I will be in charge of everything.” “You’re a fool Ralph,” he said, “Luna is the one in charge and she will stomp on you if you don’t obey her.”

“You’re the fool father,” he replied, “Luna and I get along very well and she wants to leave me in charge of eastern Canada and I will make millions. I plan on sending mother away to live elsewhere so she doesn’t interfere. We have already talked about that. My siblings will all be killed, of course, except Lawrence, he is good with finances so I will keep him around for now to look after that end of things for me. He’s really the only one I trust in our family, I can’t even trust my sisters.

Like Lily here, bringing in all these people to try and stop me. Well, it won’t work as you will soon see.” Suddenly Sky appeared with Kitty. She then grabbed Kat and they disappeared. “What’s going on here?” demanded Ralph, “Who are you and where did Kat go?” “My name is Kitty,” she said, “Kat had a previous appointment so I’m taking her place Ralphie, but you will still feel the wrath of the Kat!”

Meanwhile, back home things had suddenly gotten worse for us. Misty was suddenly dying so I called Samantha but she couldn’t find out what was wrong so she said to call Kat back. When I sent Sky for her Samantha began to choke and fell to the floor not able to breathe. I called Dr. Jorgenson but he could do nothing for her.

Then one of the girls came in the room and said all the cats were dying and Bridgette didn’t know what was happening. How is all of this happening at the same time. Even Kat frowned when she returned and discovered she could do nothing to help. Then a message came through and Carolyn played it for us.

“Hi Steve, this is Luna, please call off your team of Investigators, take them right back home, and I mean right away. Otherwise you will lose more of your precious cats, including Muffin, plus some of your people in your clinic. Call off your people and their health will return.

That includes those annoying Wildcats!” “I don’t control the Wildcats” I told her, “but I will call off my Investigators.” “Call off the Wildcats too Steve,” she said, “I know you have some influence over them, so do it.” Kat nodded to me. “Okay, I will call them all off if I can,” I said reluctantly. I communicated with Jennifer and Kat communicated with Kitty.

“Oh, leave Lily behind please,” said Luna. “No, you wanted all of my Investigators out and she is one of them,” I said, “she is one of our nurses, so she comes home too.” There was silence for a bit, then she agreed to that. Our team and the Wildcats didn’t understand why they were being called back, especially when they were winning, but they obeyed the order.

Ralph laughed loudly as our team members pulled out, leaving Edwin, Lily’s father behind. Lily would likely be upset that we left her father behind, she knew that Ralph would kill him. But, it was either save a murderous criminal, or save 5 of our team members and 5 cats. The choice was easy, even though we may lose Lily. I hope she will understand though.

The Wildcats drove to Montreal where their jet was waiting at the airport. Our team went to the Toronto airport and left on our jet. Luna was true to her word and our girls and cats recovered. “Valeska did something to everyone that was attacked here,” I said to Kat and Sky, “she must have put something in them, perhaps a thin piece of metal that Luna could control somehow.”

It is handy being a ghost, we can talk with each other without being heard which is even safer than using our scramblers. Luna may have figured out how to work around our scramblers so I will get Melanie and Alizea working on some improvements to them once everyone returns home. Right now Sky, Angel and I are lying on my bed, well, half sitting really.

“I need some coffee and…” I began to say. “Donuts!” exclaimed Angel. Her and Sky disappeared and returned quickly with both. “Hey, what happened to my plate of donuts I just made?” asked Cassie. “You should only need one guess for that one,” chuckled Cristy. Cassis sighed. She soon had another big plate of donuts ready which Cristy grabbed and quickly ran back to be with Misty.

Both of them laughed loudly, then they munched on their donuts. “Who took my donuts this time!?” yelled Cassie, then she sighed, realizing it must have been Cristy. “I hope Lily won’t be too mad at me,” I said. “I’m sure she will understand Steve,” said Angel, “you really had no choice.” “Hey, I just thought of something,” I said.

“NO!” said Sky and Angel together. “You are going to listen this time,” I told them, “this last message came from Luna. But Valeska said she was working for Brielle. That means that Luna must be Brielle and possibly Medina as well. We know that Medina uses several different names and we have never seen Brielle, so she could be the same person.”

“Hmm, you might have something for a change,” said Sky, “that would make things easier for us to find her as well. Maybe I shouldn’t have killed Valeska so soon.” “I doubt she would have helped us Sky,” I said, “however, she may have given Brielle, or Medina, some information about us, like our ghosts, and that would be bad for us.

Although I’m not sure what she could do about it anyway.” “Well, it can help her stay more hidden,” said Sky, “so it will be hard for us to find her.” But we do have something in our favor right now, she doesn’t know about the Black Wolves, so we left them in Canada…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.