The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Ivy’s Missing Life. Chapter 3. The City Club.

Before we left the Mayor’s office I added something else to our list of demands. “There is one other thing that could be done,” I said, “if those people really want to stay in that house, then they can pay Miss Peterson $500,000 for the house, in cash, tomorrow by 4pm. But the contents of the house will be kept by Miss Peterson since they hold great sentimental value to her. If the contents have been moved to storage, they can let us know and we will deal with them at our expense.

Also, if Miss Peterson’s family have gone missing or have been killed, then your police department should be tirelessly investigating. If those people are not out by 6pm today, well, we will just have to remove them ourselves.” “Look you,” said the Mayor, “you obey the law or you will find yourself enjoying the inside of one of our cells down at the police station!” I leaned on his desk and looked right at him. “And you will be in that cell with me Mayor,” I said smiling, “along with your friend here.

I’m quite sure the state police would be interested in knowing where you get all that money each month.” We then left them and went back to the hotel for lunch. “I hope you’re not pushing them too hard Steve,” said Ivy, “if it was me, I would likely hire someone to deal with you.” “Well, by now they should know how many people are in our organization,” I told her, “so that should slow down any thinking along those lines.

But, just in case, from now on, whenever we leave our room, we hold hands at all times. And if I’m not close by, make sure you hold hands with Sky or any of the other ghosts.” “I know they can’t be killed by a sniper,” she said, “but what about my loving boyfriend?” “I’ll be fine,” I said, “when it comes to bullets, they can’t do a thing to me, just like the ghosts.” She then looked at Sky. “Yes, that’s true,” she confirmed smiling.

Meanwhile, a hastily arranged meeting was taking place at the mayor’s office with him, the counselor, the police chief, Mrs. Winslow and the nightclub owner. “Obviously we can’t just ignore these people,” said the mayor, “but we can’t really stop them either. They have us beat.” “Well, we can’t let them have the house,” said Mrs. Winslow, “we have already converted it to our headquarters.” “And most of the contents were taken out to the local garbage dump,” said the counselor, “except that nice antique furniture, we each claimed some of that.”

“Gather all the furniture and put it in storage,” said Scott, the nightclub owner, “at least Miss Peterson will get that back, though I’m sure she was more concerned with some of the small items, like photos.” “What about the bodies?” asked Don, the counselor. “Where’s the Curator?” asked Mrs. Winslow, “He did the work, find out what he did with the bodies, then arrest him and hand him over to these people. Better to lose him than to lose our whole operation.” “Hmm, that just might work,” said Scott.

“There’s one little problem,” said the chief, “I told the Curator to take a vacation after the job and not to tell us where he went.” Everyone else groaned at hearing that news. “But he will be back in a week,” continued the chief, “we just need to stall these people for a while.” “No!” said Mrs. Winslow, “We don’t want these people staying here for another week. They will tear this town apart looking for Miss Peterson’s family.” “I agree with Terry, um, Mrs. Winslow,” said the mayor, “see if you can find out where the Curator might have gone.”

Now, back to us. “Do you really think those people will be out of my house by 6pm?” asked Ivy. “Uh, no, not really,” I said, “but we can easily throw them out.” “What if they meet us at the door with shotguns?” asked Ivy. “That’s why the ghosts will go first,” I said smiling. Just then Hannah called with some more information for us. Jazzy had given her a possible lead to check on and it led her to a group in New York City that calls itself, simply, “The City Club”.

They handle a large amount of drugs, sex trafficking, guns, gambling and money laundering. They apparently have 3 such towns that take care of different aspects of The City Club’s business. This town seems to be the one that handles their financial matters, so that at any time there would be millions of dollars stored in this town. Now I understand why they want Ivy’s family house, a very unassuming place to use for handling all this money, just in case any state or federal authorities decide to come snooping around.

All the more reason for getting that house back, and quickly. Around mid afternoon the police chief showed up at the hotel, disturbing my nap, and told us that the people in the house had rented a storage unit for the furniture. Unfortunately, they had thrown out all the smaller items in the house and there would be no way to retrieve those things now. I could see that really hit Ivy hard. He also told us about a man called the Curator who was wanted in connection with several murders but so far he has not been found.

“Mainly because you haven’t been looking for him,” I suggested, “or perhaps you told him to leave the town for a while. I don’t trust you chief, or any of your friends. But thank you for finding the furniture for us. By the way, those people only have 3 hours left to get out of the house.” “Look, I don’t want any trouble from you or your friends,” he said emphatically. “I don’t cause trouble,” I said, “unless others start it. If that happens, then I roar like a lion and crush everyone in my way.”

We arrived at the house just before 6pm and were met by a lawyer saying that the people in the house would not be leaving and he said it would be better for us to leave or the police would be called. I said it would be wise for him to stand aside or his oversized stomach might get sore. He looked somewhat puzzled, but he did get out of the way. Ivy stayed in the car while Sky, Angel, Dawn, Milena and myself went up to the door. As we walked the roar of motorcycles could be heard coming down the street…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.