The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Papa Levi. Chapter 1. Nadia and Ilyana.

We have been back home and enjoying days of peace and quiet, 4 days to be exact. Okay, that’s not a lot, but sometimes we don’t get much of a break between cases. That’s just part of the job. Anyway, I’m still at home relaxing, while Jennifer, Sky and the Bad Girls are in the city shopping, something that needs to be done once in a while. And for some reason they seem to enjoy shopping. Misty and her team will go shopping tomorrow.

Well, that’s the plan at the moment. But, sometimes plans get changed rather quickly and unexpectedly. Like today, for instance. The girls were enjoying themselves shopping, when 4 of them brought some of their shopping out to one of the vans. That would be Rochelle, Celeste, Alizea and Crystal. When they arrived at the van and had put their shopping inside, they suddenly heard some screaming coming from someone just down the street from them.

It turned out to be a little girl that was being kidnapped by 4 rather large men. The girls pressed their emergency buttons and ran after the men, jumping on them. But, as mentioned, the men were rather large, and strong. The girls tried putting up a good fight, but they were no match for those men, but it did give the little girl a chance to run away and right into Jennifer. “Those bad men!” she screamed, “They want to take me from my mommy!”

Jennifer looked at the little girl as the men were running closer. “No way they will take you away from me,” said Jennifer firmly. “Get them Bad Girls!” yelled Sky and soon the fight was on! This time, however, the girls outnumbered those four men. They quickly surrounded them and jumped, kicking, jumping and slamming those men into cars and buildings until all four were on the ground, out cold. Then they ran to check on the other girls who had been beat up, but not too seriously.

“Those men beat my mommy yesterday,” said the little girl, “that’s why I’m out by myself, looking for food again.” “Where do you look for food?” asked Jennifer. “Anywhere, garbage cans mostly,” she said, “but I didn’t find anything yesterday, and I only found a little piece of bread, which I’m bringing home to mommy.” “Do you like hamburgers and fries?” asked Jennifer. “We like hamburgers,” she replied, “but I don’t know what is fries.”

They stopped at a place to pick up the hamburgers and fries and then continued on to the hotel where the girl and her mom lived. “I love fries!” said the girl, “Not have them before. There, that is where we live.” “You walked a long way,” said Jennifer. “That’s not very far,” she said, “I walk lots, and run fast too.” Jennifer, Angel, Amerie, Melanie, Melissa and Cynthia went inside with the girl to see her mom and make sure she is okay.

“I brought lots of food for you mommy,” she said excitedly, “and some new friends that helped me today. Papa Levi’s men almost got me, but these women helped and beat them up! But 4 of them got beat up too.” “Your daughter said you haven’t had any food for a couple of days,” said Jennifer, “I hope you like what we brought you.” “It is delicious,” she said, “it feels good to get some food into my stomach.” “My name is Jennifer,” she said and she then introduced the other girls too.

“My name is Nadia, and this is my daughter Ilyana,” she said, “though I often just call her Ana.” She then went on to explain about Papa Levi. He was a gangster that used little girls in movies doing terrible things. Her husband worked in one of Papa Levi’s clubs and he gambled and got far in debt. Then Levi said he could pay off the debt by giving him Ana for his movie business. But her husband said no, not ever would he do such a thing. So Levi told his man to shoot her husband and he did.

But he made it home and warned Nadia to take Ana and run. He gave her all the money he had, which he had stolen from Levi. So, she took their car and left that night and made it from Belarus to Poland, but it broke down, so they took the bus from there to here. She hoped to get work once they got here, but she was unable to find anything. Finally Papa Levi’s men found her yesterday while Ana was out looking for food and they beat her trying to find out where Ana was, but she really wasn’t sure.

So they left, but waited outside for Ana to come back. But, Ana spotted them first and she crawled into the old hotel at the back through a broken window and went back upstairs to their room. They were scared, but safe, for the night. In the morning the men were gone, so Ana went out again, carefully watching for those men, but they finally caught up with her that afternoon, which is when Ana met our girls. “What do you think Steve?” asked Jennifer.

“Bring them home with you,” I said, “we can’t leave them on their own with those thugs looking for them.” “We really would like you to come home with us,” said Jennifer, “we can protect you from that Levi character and his men.” “But he has a lot of men, with guns,” said Nadia. “We have a lot of people too, and we also have guns,” said Jennifer, “we are not afraid of people like them.” “I must work to pay our way then,” said Nadia. “Well, we have many women now who share the work load,” said Jennifer, “but once you are feeling better, then we will let you help out with the household work.”

Meanwhile. “We almost had that little brat Papa Levi,” said one man, “but a group of women took her from us. They were fighters, not ordinary women.” “That is interesting to know,” said Levi, “keep an eye on things and see what happens next. If they take Nadia and Ilyana from the hotel, then follow them and tell me.” “We will do so Papa Levi,” said the man. “Those men seem to be following us,” said Angel.

So, they opened the back door of the van and Katresa dropped a couple of surprise packages from Catalina. The first one blew up behind the car, which was no good, but the second one blew up under the car, sending it into the ditch and rolling over. The men were not seriously hurt, but their car was destroyed so they could no longer follow the girls. “We will find them other ways,” said Papa Levi, “come back to the hotel for now…”

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.