The Investigators, Inc. The Case of the Old Lodge. Chapter 6. Laura.

After the Sheriff and deputy left I communicated with Kat again telling her to be careful with that deputy, he’s trouble and might be working with the villagers. Also, I told her to watch Sienna and Carmeline closely, those villagers might want to kill Carmeline now that she has come to our side. She might also know more than she realizes. Carine now went back inside to look around with the others and Sky, Angel, Brandy and Emily (our sniper), joined us outside to look around more.

As we walked around, going further back behind the lodge, Brandy shared some things with me. “That empty bedroom is now furnished,” she said, “and furniture in some of the other bedrooms has been moved around. Plus, some furniture in the main room and the small dining room have also been moved around. And, you might have noticed this one, the dishes on the table in the large dining room were changed with ones of a different pattern.”

I looked at her with kind of a blank stare. I did actually notice the dishes, but thought the girls had changed them for some reason. Guess I should have asked. “I took photos of everything yesterday,” she said, “coming out to a place like this, it can be hard to remember details because there is so much stuff, but photos don’t forget.” Like the shed, moving stuff around and putting furniture in that empty bedroom, made no sense. “I knew there was a good reason to bring you with us,” I said smiling.

“Aww, thanks Steve,” she said, “do I get a kiss?” So, I did. “Hmm, that was a peck, not a kiss,” she said, “but I’ll take it since it’s my first kiss.” She then giggled. Celestine gave me a tiny slap. “Kissing other women on our honeymoon,” she said, shaking her head. For some reason that got Brandy and Celestine laughing, then all of them joined in. Sigh. Right then Celestine pointed out something just beyond some spruce trees. It was an old house! I communicated this with Carine right away so she would know what we are doing.

All the windows were broken on the main floor, but none on the second floor. The door creaked loudly as I opened it. Well, no sneaking up on anyone in this house. Unlike the old lodge, there wasn’t much in this house on the main floor. Only a broken table, a few old dishes lying around the kitchen, an old, and very large, armchair that had definitely seen better days, and a small table in front of the living room window. The odd thing was the plant on the table, it was a live plant, nice and healthy.

“Someone is playing with us,” said Celestine, “trying to reinforce the idea of the Lodge being haunted.” “Yes, I believe you are right about that,” I said. Suddenly I had an uneasy feeling about this place, though I didn’t sense any trouble at hand, but I did sense trouble farther away. Sky had already gone upstairs with Brandy and Amerie. They had only been gone a few minutes when Amerie called the rest of us to come upstairs right away.

In one of the bedrooms, lying on the bed, was Laura! “She’s dead Steve,” said Sky and she handed me an envelope. It contained a very short note telling us to leave or more would die. I picked up Laura and disappeared, reappearing at our clinic back home. I told Samantha I wanted an autopsy done right away and to let me know how she died. I then talked with everyone about what was happening and let them know about Laura. Jennifer and the girls were outraged and wanted to come and help deal with those villagers.

“Not this time, sorry,” I said, “but we will use the Black Wolves to help out now.” Jennifer, however, wanted to come back with me and I thought that might be a good idea since her and Kat are identical twins, we might be able to use that. Celestine will continue to be my “wife” on this case though. Cristy gave me the information about the reporter who had committed suicide after writing the story of those hunters.

She said that $50,000 had been deposited in his wife’s bank account the next day. Another bribe to keep quiet. I will let Aari look into that and the wives of the hunters since they are in the city anyway. I brought Jennifer back and left her at the lodge with Kat. I also brought Storm and Jewel with us as well. I then returned to Old Lake Lodge with Storm and Jewel.

Nothing happened while I was away, which was good. I told everyone that no one goes outside without clearing it with me first, unless it’s one of the ghosts. The cats also must stay indoors tonight and not run off by themselves looking through the lodge. The ghosts will watch the vans all night, 2 teams for 4 hours each.

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.