The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Lily’s Treasure. Chapter 13, Part A.

I was able to hear the whole conversation between Aari and Ryan through Carine. Something that is very handy. Right now nearly all of our ghosts are in Canada, except for Kitty and myself. Of course Sky will come right away when I call her, so that helps immensely in an emergency. Also, nearly all of our girls, and all the guys, are in Canada right now too.

But Richard sent two security teams over to help guard the chateau. Mandar is gone on a secret business trip and can only be contacted in a serious emergency. Hopefully we won’t have that kind of problem. The girls and cats are now out of the clinic and doing well, but they will stay at the chateau. I just finished talking with Kat, but they haven’t found anything at the old cottage yet.

They have a new way to protect themselves too, so no one can sneak up on them like before. I sent Jennifer to be with them anyway, just to make sure. There must be something in that old cottage, or why would Ralph and Luna be so interested in it? I was thinking about our very first case when we were looking for the inheritance of a young woman.

Very much like this case, except there was no criminal organization involved, just one criminal, John, who is now one of my best friends. In that case the treasure was hidden right in the open, but no one found it even after years of looking. Hmm, I called Kat again and told her to check the obvious things in the cottage, dishes, paintings, clocks, whatever.

She began to do that and sat down in the living room to look around the room and just notice things. One thing she noticed was an old cuckoo clock which was kind of out of place in the living room. And it never worked properly. So, she got up and took it off the wall to look inside.

Meanwhile, back to Aari and Ryan. “My sources tell me that Luna has a sister, named Brielle,” stated Aari, “and she is living with Luna right now. Is she part of your organization too? Luna only mentioned you and her, I don’t like surprises.” “You have good sources,” replied Ryan, “yes, Brielle is with us right now, but it’s only supposed to be short term.

She provides more money and she is smarter than Luna. She also stays calm, no matter what happens.” “I want to meet this Brielle,” said Aari, “like I said, I don’t like surprises. Call Luna and see about arranging a meeting, tonight if possible.” Ryan then called Luna to try and arrange a meeting. “How did he find out about Brielle?” she asked.

“It was his sources that told him,” said Ryan, “he has some good connections, he likes to arrange things like that before moving into an area.” “That man is smart,” said Luna, “I will get back to you in a few minutes.” Ryan relayed the information to Aari. I didn’t like the idea of a night meeting, but if it happened I would send Sky and Angel to join him and Carine.

Luna called back and said the meeting would go ahead at site 2. Ryan knew the place well, it was an abandoned building in an older part of the city with lots of warehouses. He admitted not liking that area, it’s very dangerous there, even during the day. Now I really didn’t like the idea and told Aari that he should perhaps cancel.

But he said that would show weakness, and he can’t do that or they would be finished trying to get at Luna and Brielle. This is likely the best chance we will get. They were soon off to this place, with Ryan in the lead. It took about 45 minutes to make the trip, Aari had Carine, Sky and Angel with him, plus Rock, Bear, Cal and John.

They were soon entering the building which was completely dark. Then Ryan stopped and lights came on, very bright lights, aimed at them so they couldn’t tell who was behind the lights. “Welcome Aari,” said Luna, “you wanted to meet my sister Brielle, well, she is here.” “Greetings Aari,” said Brielle, “what would you like to know?”

“I don’t talk to lights and voices,” he said clearly, “let’s sit down and talk plainly with each other. Or, I will take my Black Wolves and walk away from our deal. I don’t like surprises and if we are going to be partners, then we need to do things properly. Only people who are scared, hide.” The lights turned off and regular, but dull, lights came on instead.

They were in a nicely furnished room with Luna and Brielle seated on comfortable armchairs, with 3 more armchairs empty. There were also half a dozen well armed men standing behind Luna and Brielle, plus 2 more off to the side. Ryan stepped forward to sit down and one of the guards off to the side shot him 3 times and he fell to the floor dead…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.