The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Steve’s Disappearance. Chapter 8. Birthday and Battle.

I finally had to give in and call Sky and Angel to come out here and help me. Well, okay, it was Jennifer’s decision actually, which is why I gave in. They will be staying at the Beach View Hotel and I will call on them if needed. It was either that or Jennifer would tell the team where I was and all of them would come. However, I didn’t want that to happen just yet.

But, Sky did tell me that 4 others are also here, under a Code S, which means they are not allowed to contact the rest of the team, only Jennifer, Sky and Angel. Those four are Rock, John, Mac and Alfred, and they are staying at that same hotel. I thought we might need Alfred’s amazing knowledge of gems at some point.

Meanwhile, back at the chateau, Misty had returned to the cat’s playroom so they can continue to look through the thousands of brochures that Muffin and Storm have collected. “Okay cats,” said Misty, “playtime over, I have given each of you a new pile of brochures, so, get ready.” All the cats went to their individual piles and sat down. But then Dawn came into the playroom, “Hey, what’s going on in here?” she asked.

Meow,meow!= No human people allowed, only cats and human Misty!” “Hey, no fair,” she said, “Misty is here helping you with…well, something, and I want to help.” Misty put a huge stack of brochures in Dawn’s hands and explained what they were doing and then said, “Go!” There was a frenzy of activity for the next 2 hours, but they were finally finished. The cats and Dawn were anxiously waiting to see what brochure was missing. But there was a loud scream from Misty which could be heard throughout the chateau.

“Steve, you sneaky male ghost!” she said, “I will get you for this!” Seems there was 5 missing brochures. Now, back to us. We were eating a bit late tonight, but Celestine made a special meal for us, a candle light dinner no less! We were using the best dishes from her grandmother and the meal was superb. For some reason she would not let me help, she said everything needed to be perfect. I’m not sure what she meant by that. “Okay, what’s the special occasion?” I asked.

“Does there have to be a special occasion to do something special?” she asked in return. I tried blinking like she does. “No, that’s not quite it,” she said, giggling, “you’re blinking a bit too fast, you need a blank blink.” “A blank blink?” I asked, and began laughing. So did she. We had a great time that evening. “Okay,” she said, “remember I told you I was 21? Well, I wasn’t quite 21 yet, until today, now I’m officially 21!”

“Stand up you!” I said and when she did I swung her round and round the room. “What kind of dance is this?” she asked. “I’m not sure, let’s call it the Steve Waltz,” I said smiling. “Then hold on a minute,” she said and she picked out an old record and played it on an old record player. “What is that?” I asked. “That, is a waltz,” she said. “But I don’t know how to waltz my beautiful Queen,” I said. “Neither do I, my handsome King,” she said, “so, we’ll fake it.”

Soon we were worn out, or she was at least, and I set her down on the couch. Then I went over to the old desk that was in the living room and took out a small box that I asked Jennifer to send with Sky. “I was going to give this to you as a parting gift if you decided not to come back with me,” I told her, “but this is a better time to give it to you.” She opened it slowly. “Oh, it’s beautiful Steve!” she exclaimed, “I just love blue glass.” I smiled. It was a pendant which I put on her. She felt the blue stone, then she looked at me.

“This is glass, right?” she asked. “That is a genuine sapphire my dear Queen,” I said, “no glass for you on your birthday.” “But, but…that must be very expensive,” she said slowly. “Minor detail,” I said, “a 21st birthday only comes once in a lifetime. And it goes so nicely with your eyes.” “What will your wife say?” she asked. “She will say I made a very good choice,” I said, still smiling. “Sometimes I’m not sure about you,” she said. Then she gave me a nice hug.

“You are a wonderful big brother,” she said with tears, “and these are happy tears this time.” We decided to wait until tomorrow afternoon to look at that new clue, otherwise we may not sleep tonight. She did let me help with the cleanup after dinner, then we went to bed. Thankfully it was a quiet night, with no ghostly visitors. After breakfast we went back to the beach for our morning of relaxation, talking and counseling.

None of our counseling sessions actually felt like a typical counseling session, however, it was more like normal talking. Maybe that’s why it was sinking in better. But then at one point something happened, I began to stare. “Steve, are you listening to me?” asked Celestine, “Or are you looking at those very beautiful twins in bikinis?” I didn’t answer, and I was looking at Sky and Angel, who were also at the beach, talking to a couple of young men.

“Steve, what would your wife say?” she asked again, “Okay, that did it, you’re married and you are not going to stare at beautiful women in bikinis with me around. I’m doing this for your wife!” She then pushed me down onto the blanket and proceeded to kiss me. “Ooooo, look at Steve and Celestine,” said Angel. “What? Did Steve forget he is married?” asked Sky, “Let’s go break that up.” Just as Celestine got off me, a volleyball landed close to Sky, so she picked it up and threw it at me, hitting me in the face and knocking me flat down again.

“Oh, I’m so sorry sir,” she said as she came walking over. But before they arrived, some young men arrived, picked up the volleyball and tossed it back to Sky and she tossed it back to the people who had it first. “You two gals can leave now,” said one man, “we need to have a talk with this guy.” He then kicked sand in my face. “Hey you guys,” said Sky, “you want to fight, then be fair about it.” “Shut up babe, or you’ll get something worse,” he said.

There were 6 of these men this time, so the girls each took 3 of them and the fight was on! It didn’t last long though and the men were all on the sand, groaning. But behind us was a stone wall with grass higher up and another young man making a phone call. “Mr. Whitaker, this is Jonny…”, which is as far as he got and suddenly a sharp knife was at his throat and another hand on his phone. The man let go of his phone and a deep voice said, “conversation over Whitaker,” he said.

Then he told the young man to smash his phone with a rock that was handy and he did. Then the man said to run, and he did! The other 6 men got up slowly and ran off too. Celestine and I thanked Sky and Angel, then they left again. “So much for our relaxing morning,” said Celestine. “Why? Let’s not allow them to ruin our nice day,” I said smiling, “we still have 2 hours.” “You’re crazy,” she said, “but you’re also right!” At noon we got our hot dogs and fries for lunch and sat under the shade of a large tree in a grassy picnic area.

Afterwards we drove to a different scenic lookout spot and it truly was beautiful. We talked for another 2 hours, then went back home. But before we got back I had asked Sky and Angel to check it out for us and they found four men sitting in the living room boasting about what they had just done with more cameras and listening devices. The girls appeared in front of the men, without heads…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.