The Investigators, Inc. The Case of the Old Lodge. Chapter 9. Trapping Trappers.

Why is it that all of our cases lately start of with something that seems to be normal and small, but it turns out to be something that is major? It would be nice to have something more normal for a change. Oh well. Anyway, Sky and myself returned to Old Lake Lodge and found the missing women in the upstairs bedrooms, just like that woman Alice had told Aari. But I sensed trouble, and a trap. This would bring the Black Wolves out here, but these people could also set a trap, hiding in the lodge and surrounding trees. Then they could easily shoot the Black Wolves as they ride in on their motorcycles.

Most of them would be killed before they could stop and shoot back at these ambushers. Or am I thinking too much again? Whatever the case, I thought about that possibility already, so I set our own trap to catch the trappers. The hunters would then become the hunted. So, although we made it look like we all left, taking all of our vans with us, we left some girls behind. All of Sky’s Bad Girls were left here, plus Angel and Kitty, to watch over things. They hid when they saw six men carrying the three women over on stretchers and let them leave the women in the bedrooms and leave again.

They could have captured the 6 men, but that would have alerted this outfit of our plan. We want all of them, not just six. When I brought Jennifer back before, I also brought Charlotte back too. She is our other new sniper, along with Emily who was already here. Aoife is our third sniper and she has been with us a long time now. All three of them are here at the old lodge, ready to do their job. Hopefully we can do this without getting any more of us killed or seriously wounded. We put all three women in one bedroom and I left Angel there to protect them.

No one can get past Angel or Courage. It should be noted that prior to all of this, our computer girls, Akila, Cristy, Cynthia and Melody, had found the computers of this group and had hacked into them, retrieving all of the information from this secret group and their plans to sow chaos across the country. They do have a secret complex beneath the old house and they have been training an elite group of assassins from that village, while others in the village are just guards for this group.

Sienna had called the Governor and told him about this information which Cristy then sent to him. He had already contacted various federal agencies which had arrived in the city and were ready to come out when the time was right. We just wanted to make sure that none of these people escaped. We also wanted to catch the elusive Jameson who was funding this operation. But, we couldn’t find anyone, anywhere, by that name that was a millionaire. That part made no sense at all. It is like he didn’t exist and yet he must.

That means the name Jameson is not his real name, it was just a cover name. Anyway, we are here and ready for the hunters to show up, so we can trap them. Back at the store, I had communicated with Carine now and she told Aari what was happening. “The girls are in the old lodge,” she told Aari, “and they are alive. But, it’s a trap for us. There are men coming from the old house to the lodge right now and they will likely ambush us as we ride up to the lodge.”

The look on Alice and Pete’s faces would have been nice to see. Aari and Carine said it was a look of total shock. “How do you know that?!” exclaimed Alice, “It’s not true at all!” “I’m a ghost Alice,” said Carine and she disappeared, reappearing next to Alice. She then grabbed her by the throat, slamming her against the wall. “I saw what was happening out there!” shouted Carine, “You can’t fool a ghost, you mortal idiot!” Pete quickly pulled out his gun from under the counter and shot three times at Carine. She let him actually shoot this time, but she caught the 3 bullets and tossed them back at Pete.

He then turned to Aari, who already had his gun out and he shot Pete, killing him. Aari then told Rock to get the men started in tearing the village apart. The Black Wolves went to work quickly! Back to us at the old lodge. “Okay snipers, get busy,” I said. They quickly began shooting at the men who were running toward the old lodge. That was the cue for the Bad Girls to also begin shooting. Sky and I went behind these men and took care of any that tried to turn and run back to the old house. We captured four men and 2 women who had surrendered to us, 10 others were killed and six wounded.

While this was happening Angel was invisible, watching the three women who were sleeping, at least that’s what we thought. However, Angel was surprised when Amelia suddenly opened her eyes and reached under an outdoor vest she was wearing and pulled out a rather large knife. We had sat her nicely in a big armchair in that bedroom and our two girls were put on the bed. Amelia is a rather large woman, 6 feet tall and 220 pounds. She then got up and went over to our girls.

“You two have caused enough problems for us,” she said, “now you and your friends will die.” She then was about to use the knife, but she suddenly found herself unable to move. “That’s very bad Amelia,” said Angel, “trying to kill your friends. You may turn around now.” Amelia turned and saw Angel, who is small, like Sky. “I will kill you first!” she shouted and ran at Angel, running right through her and into the wall. “What happened?” she asked. “You can’t kill me,” said Angel laughing, “I’m already dead. You see, I’m a ghost.”

“Impossible!” shouted Amelia, “Ghosts are not real!” She then tried to catch Angel, but Angel moved too fast for her, laughing the whole time. Then Angel turned into Courage which terrified Amelia and she jumped out the window, falling to her death. Then Angel heard something in the closet, so she opened the door. Inside was another woman. “And who are you?” asked Angel. The frightened woman could barely speak. “My name is Amelia,” she said timidly…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.