The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Jacie’s Murder. Chapter 7. Kidnapped.

Well, we were at the office where Jacie worked and her boss introduced us to Harold, the man that had been stalking Jacie. He also showed us to an empty office we could use to interview Harold, which was good. Doing such an interview in a more public setting is never a good idea, it can lead to some tension with other employees. “Okay Harold,” I began, “you know why we are here and thank you for cooperating with us for this interview. Now, it seems that you were stalking Jacie for 2 months before she was killed.”

“No,” he said, “I never stalked her, I wouldn’t do that, not ever, I loved Jacie.” “But she kept avoiding you and telling you to stay away from her,” I reminded him. “I just figured she was playing hard to get,” he said, “she never sounded serious or anything.” “Well, apparently some of your co-workers don’t agree with you about that,” I said, “and her fiance certainly didn’t agree with you either.

He says that you were constantly following her, trying to talk to her at home and her dad told you on numerous occasions to stay away from Jacie. You know, stalking is a serious crime and we have enough evidence to put you in jail for a long time. And if she killed herself, it could be because of your stalking that she did so. That makes things a lot more serious. Now, do you know anyone that might want to kill Jacie?

Do you know where her body was found?” “I, I don’t know anyone that would kill her,” he said, getting very nervous, “everyone liked Jacie, I loved her, I would never kill her, I wanted to marry her. I really did love her! That Dan Giraud was no good for her, he was bad business, he forced her to do things she didn’t want to do.” “Like what for instance?” I asked him. “Well, like spending a whole week with Andrew Li,” he said, “that scared her a lot, she told that to everyone here.”

“That’s interesting,” I said, “now, do you know where her body was found?” “Yes, d, down by the river,” he said, and he told us the spot which was where we were yesterday. Apparently he found the body while walking his dog. I asked if anyone was with him at the time. He said no one was around at all that evening. Usually he would meet other dog walkers along the river, but not that evening. We talked a while longer, then left. I did tell him to stay around in case we want to talk with him again. He gave me his phone number and address.

Once back in the car I called Trixie. “Sorry Steve, Cristy is on computer,” she said. Sigh. So I called Cristy. “I need you to check on a man for me please,” I said, “his name is Andrew Li, a wealthy businessman from Victoria.” “On it Steve,” she said cheerily. “Also, maybe get one of the other girls checking on the 3 officers in charge of investigating Jacie’s death. Unless you have time to do it.” “Yes, I can do it Steve,” she said.

We then began driving back to Jacie’s parents to talk a bit more with Peter while his wife was still in the hospital. She will be going home this afternoon and I don’t want to upset her again right away. However, on the way I sensed trouble. “Get us back to the hotel fast Fluffy!” I yelled. “Me Fluffy, we go fast to hotel.” And we did. “Yeehaah!” yelled Sheree again, “Another stampede race!” We nearly missed the turn into the hotel parking lot, but we made it, without destroying anything, and I’m sure the manage was happy about that.

We got out and ran into the hotel. Well, the girls ran, I went my way and appeared back in our room. Samantha was there checking Astrid and Sapphire. “Where are Misty and Celestine?” I asked. “No idea Steve,” she said, “the other girls are checking around, but likely they are long gone.” Whoever kidnapped Misty and Celestine is going to regret doing so, that is a guarantee. I communicated with Sky and Kat, telling them what happened and told them we would be under a code red from now on.

But for now I don’t want others knowing we are together just yet. I took Crystal, Monika, Sigrid, Aurora, and Kitty with me, plus Sheree and Brandy as our car crew and photographer, and we went to visit Peter. I didn’t want to cancel that meeting. I had called Sky to come and watch over things at the hotel for me while we were away. I also brought Jewel, Storm and Sir Night so they could look around a bit while I talked with Peter. He didn’t mind the cats running around and playing.

All the doors were open to the bedrooms, so the cats sneaked in and looked around quickly while we were talking. “Okay cats,” I said casually, “time to go.” “Think they will hear that?” Peter asked grinning. But they came running in and jumping into the girl’s arms. “Amazing,” said Peter. He seemed quite worried about his wife right now, which is understandable. This has been hard on both of them, but especially on Laurie. Once back in the car Brandy said that Kenwood drove by slowly again.

How does he know every time we go to visit someone? Perhaps he has people watching everyone, but why would he do that? Perhaps because he is guilty of something? Perhaps the others are working with him and let him know when we will show up? I then received a phone call from Dan and he said that a man stopped by and gave him a large sealed envelope with my name on it, so we immediately went over to pick it up. Dan invited us in for coffee and we accepted.

He gave us the envelope while Barry went to get the coffee for us. I opened it and it contained two photos, one of Misty, and one of Celestine. They both had a bruise on their left cheek, obviously where they had been punched. I laid the photos on the coffee table. “These two women were kidnapped from our hotel room this morning,” I told Dan and Barry. They both looked genuinely shocked, even scared, when they looked at the photos.

Then Barry mentioned they had received a phone call on their business phone, it sounded like a machine talking he said, and it told them to stop investigating Jacie’s death or it could have dangerous consequences. I asked if they recorded the call. Barry said yes, they always record calls on their business line and he figured we might be interested, so he had made a copy of it for us which he gave me.

“This is a warning to you as well,” said Dan, “isn’t it?” “Yes, it is,” I said, “but whoever did that has gone too far. I think you two should hire some security right away.” “We did,” said Dan, “they should be here within about 30 minutes.” We then left and headed back to the hotel and arrived at about 1pm, in time for lunch. We were all there eating when Kenwood came in with his two bodyguards and Ivy.

“Perhaps it is time to have a talk with this Kenwood fellow,” I said, “I don’t like being followed.” “Be careful Steve,” said Samantha, “we don’t know if he is involved in anything, except showing up now and then, and that is not a crime.” She is right, of course, but still…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.