The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Papa Levi. Chapter 7. It Just Gets Worse.

When Sienna arrived back at the chateau, it was only a few minutes later that the police also arrived. They had more arrest warrants, this time for Misty and Cristy, Sky, Sherry, Samantha, Galyna, Aurora, Bridgette, Dr. Jorgenson and Sienna. Sienna called Roger right away and said to get hold of her lawyers, but he told her they would not touch this case because they may be disbarred if they did. That angered Sienna a bit and she told Roger that they were now fired, and to contact Fischer and Sons and see if they would like to represent Baldwin Corp. and herself from now on.

They jumped at the chance, even with the possibility of danger involved. They were based in New York City, but had offices around the world, including Paris. The police were then told all the other people on the list were no longer living at the chateau. Since they had cancelled our license to operate as PI’s, most of the women have gone other places looking for work elsewhere. Even Sky was no longer at the chateau, although she had been until just a few hours before this, but I decided on a change and sent Sky to guard Nadia and Ana and Kat would take over at the chateau.

Her job was to get everyone away from there and hide them in different locations with 8 or 10 women together. Dr. Jorgenson had left us some time ago, sort of anyway. He is now with the Black Wolves having passed all the required tests to do so. They just call him Doc now, and he is handy for the guys to have with them in case any are ever wounded. And he is never far away if we need him at the clinic. Meanwhile Samantha is able to handle things at the clinic on her own.

Even Bridgette is now on Dawn’s team. Or maybe I should say, was on Dawn’s team, since there are no teams left now. The Investigators have crumbled, at least for a time. But will we be able to come back after all this is over? Will it ever be over? Sienna’s new lawyers managed to get her out of jail after just one night locked up. She then got them working on getting Jennifer and I out of here too, but that may be much harder. We are the leaders of this what is now labelled a “terrorist organization”.

Although it is not yet an official designation, they just keep referring to us that way. Jennifer is having a hard time dealing with solitary confinement, even though it has only been 3 weeks. At least we can still communicate with each other and with the other ghosts, so that does help. Otherwise Jennifer would not hold up so long as she has. She has never done well in confined spaces. Galyna said a long time ago that Jennifer has claustrophobia. I told Jennifer that if it gets too bad, then she has permission to leave and hide out with Nadia and Ana.

But she knows that will make it harder for me and everyone. But I told her that the whole team is now in safety in various locations, and she doesn’t need to worry about me. What more can they do to me here? By now Nadia was getting worried, she knew something must be wrong since neither Jennifer or I have come by to visit like we had planned. Sky had run out of excuses to tell Nadia, so she finally told her what was happening while Ana was in another room playing with the cats and Kitty.

Nadia was so saddened by what she heard that she wanted to give herself up to Papa Levi right away. But Sky told her that wouldn’t help, we need to get at the people in our government who are working with the ambassador. We are convinced that more than the prime minister are involved and we want to find them all. Meanwhile Aasta, whose name was Macy before as the Major’s daughter, after talking things over with her dad, who is now Aari, he gave her permission to carry out her plan.

So, off she went with 5 of the girls to see a man that we heard about previously. His name is Brando, leader of a large organization in Italy, though his territory extends into southern France as well. “Well, well, it really is you Macy,” said Brando, “when Vinny said it was you I could barely believe it. I thought perhaps you had been killed along with your father.”

“No,” she said, “daddy had asked Steve, the leader of the Investigators, to look after me since I was so young and I had wanted to be part of the Investigators, even though they are on the opposite side. But they are an organization of amazing women and I admired that. And daddy said he trusted Steve to look after me when he saw how Steve and his team had risked their lives to get me away from those kidnappers. Steve almost was killed that time. But I just came here to warn you about Papa Levi, a ruthless man that has destroyed the Investigators and wants to take over everything across Europe.

That means you and your territory are in danger, so please don’t underestimate this Papa Levi. He is cunning and once he has his hands on all that gold he is after, there will be no stopping him, he must be stopped now. I came to warn you of the danger because you and daddy were such good friends. Please don’t let Papa Levi fool you, he is not a small time player, he is a major threat to you and others too. He has already brought in more men, 20 of them, so he can start taking business away from you.”

“Where are you staying now that the Investigators are gone?” Brando asked. “Here and there,” she said, “my friends and I sleep in the car or in the woods, trying not to be caught by the police.” “Where do you eat?” he asked. She just smiled and put her head down. “Wherever,” she answered. He then called for Vinny and told him to bring in a red envelope. “Oh, I did not come here to beg for money,” she said. “I know that,” he replied, “but you brought me valuable information and I will not let the daughter of my good friend Major to go hungry because of the likes of this Papa Levi.

I warned him once already and that is all the warning he gets. He and this ambassador will now find out what it means to disobey Brando.” After getting the envelope Macy and her friends left heading for, well, wherever they could go. Once gone Brando instructed Vinny to arrange a call with Niklaus, Johann and Hagen. “Gentlemen, we have gotten sleepy,” said Brando, “and we need to wake up quickly while we can.” He then told them what was going on and what needed to be done.

Johann volunteered to deal with the ambassador since he knew more about him than the others. So, plans were made by these 4 men. Meanwhile, I could tell things were not going well for Jennifer, so I asked Sky and Kat to check on her, which they did. Soon Jennifer’s cell was empty, Kat realized they needed to get Jennifer out now. Then Sky returned to check on me and she didn’t like what she saw. But I assured her I was fine.

She then disappeared and returned with Celestine after an hour or so. I kind of lost track of time right then. Celestine was shocked when she saw me, it was obvious to her that I was not doing as well as I had been saying. The stress of everything was weighing on me very heavily and she told Sky and me that I could not stay here any longer, something had to be done. Sky communicated with Kat who then made the decision, since she was now in charge…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.