The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Steve’s Disappearance. Chapter 13. Gems.

After the police arrested the men who had attacked us, we decided to spend a bit more time at the beach, since this was supposed to be a whole day of relaxing. So, we stayed another 2 hours, then went back home, changed and went out to do some shopping. Sky and Angel wanted to buy some souvenirs, since we have never been to the Philippines before on any of our cases. That wasn’t such a bad idea, so I decided to buy something for Jennifer.

“We better go with him,” said Sky to the other two, “or he will end up buying Jennifer a hat, or a coffee mug.” They all giggled. I wonder what’s wrong with hats and coffee mugs? Everyone on our team uses them. Anyway, we went to a clothing store first. “I doubt they have souvenirs here,” I said. “You buy something nice for Jennifer first,” said Angel, “then you can get her a souvenir.” “Souvenirs aren’t nice?” I asked. They all sighed. This is going to be a long shopping time.

Surprisingly, it was only 3 hours and we were back home. It’s amazing how much we managed to spend during that 3 hours though. Now it was my turn to sigh. Angel had taken Celestine for a while, and Sky went with me so I could buy something nice for Celestine. Well, Sky picked it out and I paid for it. Sky was afraid I would buy Celestine a hat.

I know Jennifer likes hats, a certain type of hat and Sky agreed, so she let me buy one of those for her and Celestine. When we got home, the guys were waiting for us and Alfred was quite excited for some reason. He wanted to see the place where we found the gems, so I took him to the bedroom and opened the spot in the floor. But I told him I checked all around instead that hole in the floor and nothing else was in there. He wanted to look anyway.

“Aha!” he exclaimed, “I thought so!” The girls were here watching by this time also. He had felt around inside that hole in the floor and on two sides when he pushed on end of the side, it opened into another hiding spot. He pulled out two wood boxes and when he had opened them, there were several beautiful gems in divided compartments so they wouldn’t rattle against each other.

“These are rare and very expensive gems Steve,” he said, “when I saw the others I did some research and discovered that these gems had also been stolen around the same time, but from a museum where they were being displayed. “This Benitoite gem would be worth about 5 million dollars and is found in California,” he said smiling, “it is just beautiful!”

He was right, it was an amazing blue gem, something I would love to get for Jennifer, except that price tag is a bit much. Although I’m sure there are smaller samples around that would be cheaper. Then there were two red beryl samples that would be worth about 3 million dollars. He kept going through the gems, then telling us who owned each one of them. There were some big rewards out for the return of many of these gems too.

“Well Celestine,” I said, “you could be getting a fair bit of money for the return of these gems.” “Oh no,” she said, “my King gets half of any reward money, and that is final.” The guys didn’t understand that one, which was a good thing for now. Carine, Kristina and Mac will be busy tonight going to Whitaker’s nightclub and putting these gems inside his safe before his visitor arrives in the morning. It would be fun to see the shocked look on Whitaker’s face when he actually sees those gems in his safe.

I just hope the police are able to catch these thieves and murderers before they get away. The Black Wolves will be watching the area around there too, just in case Whitaker or his guest manage to get past the police. They won’t get past us, that is for sure. We have put trackers in with the gems, very tiny ones so they won’t be noticed right away. They can send a signal quite a distance, however, so we can follow them without getting too close. But hopefully we won’t have to worry about that anyway.

That night I started thinking again and couldn’t sleep. “Steve, why are you still awake?” asked Celestine. “I’m thinking too much about our trap,” I said, “hoping everything works out and they don’t get away with those jewels we just found and…” That was as far as I got and Celestine stopped me. “Stop. You’re doing it again,” she said, “everything has been done, now you relax and wait for it to happen. You did everything you can to make this trap work and now you just have to wait. But, stop worrying about it! This is how you stress yourself. You have a good plan. Worrying about it now doesn’t help anything. So relax.”

I look over at her. “And if you don’t,” she continued, “I will slap you. Hard. Or I will do something even worse! And I will tell all your friends what I did.” “I think you might have to do the worse one,” I said, “otherwise…” That was as far as I got and Celestine stopped me, completely. I was able to sleep after that, quite peacefully. The next morning a plane arrived and Whitaker’s guest arrived, was picked up and went over to Whitaker’s nightclub.

“Well, Mr. Whitaker,” he said, “I hear you have something that belongs to me. I would like it back please.” “I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Whitaker. “I’m talking about my gems that you have in that safe right there,” he said. “I don’t have any gems,” he said, “but I know who does have them, a young woman who is being protected by some stupid private investigator.” “I have heard about him,” he said, “and it seems like he has been making a fool of you and always fighting off your men, even though he’s unarmed.

Now, let’s take a look in that safe, or my boys here will start taking you and your boys apart.” Whitaker was getting a little nervous because he knew he didn’t have those gems and figured he would be killed right then, but, he opened the safe and sure enough, the gems were in there. “You don’t have my gems Whitaker?” he asked, “Looks like you do have them, and now I have them.” Then there were some shots fired and the guest walked out of the nightclub but was suddenly surrounded by police in all directions.

He and his 6 men were arrested and the gems safely put away by the police. We were informed of the outcome and the police said that we would receive more information in the days ahead from Rossana. Celestine put her house up for sale and it sold the next day. The day after we were on our way home with one very excited young woman and several other excited young women who had come with the plane to pick us up.

I have more gems than Whitaker or his guest. Well, another case is over and I’m not sure I’m looking forward to this new enhancement and refresher course we will be taking, but, I’ll just have to sigh my way through it I guess.

The End of this case, but a new one will be coming soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.