The Investigators, Inc. The Widow’s Case. Chapter 11. Plans.

There seemed to be a coordinated attack happening against us right now. Christopher’s part was to go to our chateau and get Jennifer again under his control, though he didn’t know that wouldn’t be possible now. When Jennifer first reappeared after being killed, she was captured by Christopher and kept as his prisoner in two ways. One way was by using some kind of electrical magnetic pulse from a ring that Toledo invented which Jennifer couldn’t resist. So, with that ring he kept her doing what he wanted.

But he also used me to keep her in control too by saying he would hurt or kill me if she didn’t do what he said. That way she would help him in his criminal ways with the abilities she had as a ghost. Then he kidnapped me when she began to resist him a bit, and this way he kept her under his control still. But it backfired on him because I was able to convince her to not only help me to escape, but to come with me.

When Christopher went to the chateau, he thought he was talking to Jennifer, but really he was talking to Kat. He didn’t know Jennifer had an identical twin and Kat is too strong to be controlled with that ring even though Christopher had made it stronger now. He had also brought men and explosives along to try and kill as many of our team as possible. It was part of a major plan to attack us in three ways, at the chateau, at the hotel and at Elenore’s house.

He also didn’t expect to see me there since he had been told by Fiske that he had kidnapped me. But we had escaped, then Sky had brought Jennifer and I back to the chateau to capture Christopher. Unfortunately things didn’t go quite according to our plan, but Christopher was stopped and he, plus all of his men, were killed. Christopher also managed to bring in a knife, hidden up the sleeve of his jacket. The sleeves were lined with a special fabric, that we also use, that can hide weapons from being detected by x-ray.

When he stood in front of me, he was able to move quickly enough to stab me, seriously. So, I am now in the clinic with Samantha and Kat trying to keep me alive. Jennifer has now taken the Bad Girls with her to the city to try and find Swann and Williams, and hopefully find the identities of Gordon and Betty, two new people found on Swann’s computer with whom he has meetings lined up tomorrow. Then, as three more girls arrived at Elenore’s house, they were shot as they were coming up the steps to the house.

Angel understood that right away and she jumped to protect Elenore and just made it in time as two bullets came through the window. The bullets would have killed Elenore, but instead they hit Angel’s back. “Oh my,” said Elenore, “it’s a good thing those bullets missed us or we likely would have both been killed!” We have not tried to explain to Elenore about the ghosts, sometimes it’s best not to talk about such things. Our own two snipers were at Elenore’s house and went out the back door and around to the side of the house to watch the trees across the street while the other girls brought our wounded into the house.

Emily then saw a man jump out of a tree so she shot him. That caused a man in another tree to move and Charlotte shot him. He quickly fell from high up in the tree, crashing to the ground. Then Angel called Sky to come and pick up the wounded girls, which she did, making two trips taking them back to our clinic. This is not good, we now have 5 wounded on our team, plus Venus, and we nearly lost Elenore. Akila has discovered that Swann and Williams are planning to build a multistory nightclub with gambling available too, just like Venus told us.

They have already been given approval by the town council and the land has been rezoned for such an establishment. That is quite an accomplishment to get done in just 3 months in this town. That just doesn’t seem possible without a big payoff to the town council and likely the local police as well. There are also plans to build a new hotel not far away, right on the lakeshore. It will end up being the largest hotel in town too. Interestingly, the property was sold for far less than the actual value of the property.

The owner was likely forced into selling at that low price. Then I suppose when all of this is up and running, Sandra and Fiske will take over from Swann and Williams, perhaps even before that point. With a little more digging through Swann’s computer, Akila also discovered more about Betty, her last name being Porter, and a photo went with that information. She is know to us by the name of Helene, real name, Helen Porter. She is presently staying at a hotel near the airport in the city and that is where Jennifer and the Bad Girls will make their first stop.

Finally, after much more digging through Swann’s computer, she found Gordon again, last name of Henkley. Apparently he is the contact man for drugs and he has a new, and large, shipment for Swann which he will then take to Williams for safe keeping. Jennifer decided to visit Gordon first, then go see Helene, after all, they arrived in the city early enough to beat Swann to his 11am meeting. They arrived at 9am and since Jennifer doesn’t need an open door, she just walked in, through the door.

There was no alarm system, so she unlocked the door for the other girls and in they came. Jennifer went looking for Gordon while the girls looked for the drugs. Jennifer found Gordon asleep in his bedroom so she called his name. He didn’t move, or so it looked, but she could detect a tiny movement of his hand. She went closer and touched his shoulder and he swung around pulling a gun out from under his pillow.

Jennifer just laughed and slowly disappeared, then reappeared on the other side of his bed and said “boo!” He jumped and shot at Jennifer, but the bullets went right through her and into the wall. She laughed again. Then his gun became hot so he yelled and dropped it. “Now Gordon,” said Jennifer, “we need to have a little talk.”

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.