The Investigators, Inc. The Widow’s Case. Chapter 4. The Message.

Once inside Elenore said to me she was glad that no bullets hit me, but I told her two did, however, I was wearing my bullet proof vest which protects me front and back. She was relieved to hear that. Now that we know this case is going to be so dangerous, all of the team will be wearing their vests while outside. I asked Elenore if some of the girls could stay with her tonight for protection. She was very happy with that idea and she has lots of room since it is a 4 bedroom house even though 2 of the bedrooms are quite small. I told her that didn’t matter, the girls won’t mind a small room to sleep in.

I am going to leave 6 of the girls here and they will take turns staying awake during the night to guard Elenore and the house. While we were talking Friskie went over to Misty who was studying that baseball. “That biker was from a criminal gang Steve,” said Jazzy, “why would he stop to toss a baseball?” “It is a criminal gang for sure,” I said, “how did you know?” She just looked at me. “I was involved in the criminal world for 20 years Steve,” she said, “I know another criminal when I see one, especially when they have that kind of name on their jacket.”

“I must admit, the baseball is hard to understand,” I said, “yet it seems to be just a normal baseball.” Misty then came over and handed me the baseball. Hmm, seems it isn’t quite normal after all, it had a message written on it. I didn’t think anyone sent invisible messages anymore, but there it was, “Meet me at the fish, 4pm”. He writes a nice message, short and to the point. “You’re not planning to go, are you?” asked Jazzy. “Well, it’s the only way to find out what he wants,” I said, “I won’t go alone though.”

I then communicated with Jennifer and Kat about the message. They agreed that I should go, but only if I took Sky and Angel with me and one of them had to hold my hand at all times. I agreed with that. At 3:50pm we stopped in the parking lot. “I don’t see any fish vendor,” said Misty. “There isn’t one,” I told her, “turn your head that way and you will see a fish.” She turned and looked. “That thing is a fish?” she asked. “Yep, they swim around in the lake,” I said. “Nope, I will not swim in this lake,” she said.

“It’s too cold for swimming anyway,” I said. “Good thing, ’cause I would never swim in that lake with a fish that big,” she said, “nope, not me, never, not a chance.” “Okay, you girls stay here, only Sky and Angel can come with me,” I said, and off we went. We arrived at the fish at precisely 4pm and the man was sitting on a bench, so we went over to him. But before we got to the bench Angel stopped me. “Wait, there is something wrong,” she said, “I will check him out, but you stay here with Sky.”

I wasn’t going to argue though I didn’t sense any trouble and Jennifer hasn’t contacted me about sensing danger. Angel said something to the man, but he didn’t speak, so she gave him a light push and he fell off the bench onto the sidewalk. He had been stabbed! So, we quickly returned to our car and went back to the hotel. Oddly enough the police were waiting for us and tried to arrest us for the murder of the biker. I asked how they knew about the murder of the biker and apparently they received an anonymous tip so they checked and found him dead.

They were told I, or one of my team members, killed him. I asked why they left his body on the bench. They wanted to see if I would return to the scene of the crime. I told them they have been watching too many movies. There is no logical reason for me to go back to check on a dead body, that would be foolish. He then mentioned we had also killed that man over at Elenore’s. I said there was no “also” involved, we did not kill the biker and they have no proof we did. The man over at Swann’s place shot at us and then he fell out of the tree, how could we kill him from where we were standing without shooting him?

They had to admit there were no marks on his body, one of the nice points for those lightning balls. Sky can make them hot or cold and either way they pack a lethal punch of electricity, though I didn’t mention that. Right then our lawyer arrived, Misty had called him to come down to the lobby and help us with the police. He managed to get rid of the police quite quickly too. They could hardly arrest us for anything, they didn’t even catch us at the body of that dead biker.

I do wonder who killed him though, perhaps his own gang? Or was he killed on Swann’s orders? This is quite interesting though, we have just begun our investigation and already two people have been killed. Fortunately none on our side though. We went to the restaurant and had dinner and while there I sensed trouble in the room. I finally narrowed it down to one table where four men were sitting. “Those men are carrying guns,” said Friskie as she looked out across the lake.

“How can you tell when you’re looking the wrong direction?” I asked. “I saw them when the waitress brought our food,” she said casually, “and I noticed you were checking people in the room.” “Yes, they are trouble,” I said. That’s when the other girls turned and looked too. “Try not to be so obvious, please,” I told them and they went back to eating right away. “Men with guns are always trouble,” said Jazzy. Just then our 5 guys came into the restaurant and joined us. I had reserved a table large enough to add them since I knew they would be arriving shortly.

I even ordered for them and the waitress brought their food out quickly. “The 4 men at that table have guns,” said Mac. “Yes, we were just discussing that,” I replied, “I also sense trouble from them.” “Men and guns usually spell trouble,” he said. Jazzy had just taken a drink of water and she spit it out all over Sky when Mac make his comment. Seems she was trying hard not to laugh. “I’m all wet,” said Sky. For some reason that got Misty laughing.

Sky reached her leg across and touched Misty’s knee giving her a gentle touch of electricity. That caused Misty to say “AA”, though not too loud, and she jumped also. Sky just giggled and kept on eating with Misty frowning at her. We finished and went back to our rooms, but those 4 men were still at their table talking as we left. The guys came to our room so I could bring them up to date on our day of events. Then Melody called to give us the information they have found on Swann…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.