The Investigators, Inc. Best Friend Murder Case. Chapter 12. This and That.

Well, it seemed like our case was over once again. We found out who likely killed Carmen, though we can’t be absolutely sure, and we did find out who killed Vincent. In either case it was Marchetti who ordered the killings. He’s just smart enough not to do anything himself. He stays in the background where he runs things, gives orders, and his men do the work. That’s kind of what I’m supposed to be doing, except in a better way. Anyway, I told everyone to head back home, but to take different routes back, just in case they are followed by Marchetti’s men.

I also told them that if it looks like they are being followed, then to make sure they take care of those people before they return home. If they can’t stop them, then they are to take them on a wild ride somewhere and I will send some help. They will be bringing Harley back with them for now too and we will start the procedure of getting Shirley’s body sent back home to her family in London. I don’t want them to pay for the return of Shirley’s body. Apparently Shirley’s parents are not exactly wealthy, and Shirley had been sending money home to them each month.

Therefore we will be paying for her funeral as well. Courtney actually wants to use some of her money that Rossana let her keep to pay for the funeral, so I didn’t argue, I could understand why she wanted to do that. Everyone was back later that day and thankfully no one had followed them home. I suppose that Marchetti was getting low on men by now anyway. Our teams certainly made sure of that.

Meanwhile, the next day. “What’s the news on those dogs and their girlfriends?” asked Marchetti. “The Black Wolves and the Wildcats checked out of their hotels and have disappeared,” said Anthony, “perhaps they decided to go back home.” “If they were smart, that’s what they would do,” said Marchetti, “what about those other women, whatever they called themselves?” “The Bad Girls,” said Anthony, “not much information about them. Apparently they are a small gang of women from Quebec, in Canada. Maybe they hang out with those Black Wolves. They have disappeared too. But I do have some bad news though.”

“And what might that be?” asked Marchetti, “Those people killed 16 of my men and beat up a bunch more. What other bad news could there be?” “They found the secret vault at Vincent’s house that we have tried to find,” said Anthony, “and they emptied it completely.” Marchetti was quiet for a few minutes. “Was there a lot of money in there?” asked Anthony. “No, not much money,” said Marchetti quietly, “but there was information about my organization in there, all of our contacts for drugs, for women, for everything! Whoever has that information could tear us apart!”

“You should never have trusted Vincent with so much information,” said a woman who had just entered the room. “Oh, Francesca, my dear,” said Marchetti, “I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.” “That’s obvious,” she said, “I have been standing in the hall listening to you men talking. It doesn’t sound like things have been going well in my absence. I thought you would be able to handle things on your own for 3 weeks, but I guess not. You are pathetic Rufino, after all these years you have learned nothing.

It’s a good thing I came back early or this organization would have fallen apart completely. Now, tell me just what information was in that vault at Vincent’s house, and I want to know exactly what we lost. We may have to shut down certain operations for a while until we can make some changes. Where’s Nilo anyway?” “He went home one day but never made it,” said Anthony, “he’s probably dead too. I don’t think it was these gangs that were in town, I think someone had a contract out on some of our key people, to try and disrupt things while you were away.”

“I agree,” said Francesca, “Anthony, get in touch with our contacts and tell them to halt operations for a while until we change our drop off and pick up points. And now, my dear Rufino, you have become a liability to this organization.” He looked up at her with a shocked look on his face. “No, no, you can’t do that Francesca!” he pleaded. There were three shots, then she turned to Anthony and told him to clean up the mess while she went home. He called in a couple men to take Marchetti’s body to the other side of town and get rid of it.

Later Rossana called me to say that Marchetti had been killed by his wife who is taking over the organization. Well, justice has been served on Marchetti for the killings he was responsible for, but his wife will likely be just as bad. Well, it has been a few days since our case was officially over. Harley, Courtney and some of our girls, including 2 ghosts for protection, have gone to London for Shirley’s funeral. Harley will be staying there with her parents, but Courtney will be coming back here since she would like to join the Investigators.

I think she will fit in quite nicely. I think Harley would have been a good addition as well and Jennifer agreed. Misty also agreed and had hoped she could join her team, so she was a bit disappointed that Harley didn’t stay. However, we have several new people to add officially to our teams now anyway. The Wolves have gained 5 more from Mandar, so they have the largest team still, but that’s a good thing. Each team will be getting some new members with the home team getting the most since they are the smallest team.

I would like to send 2 ghosts with each team when they are on a case, plus there should be two at home all the time. It should work out okay. I called Misty to my office and said she could have first pick for new members for her team. She stood there blinking at me. “YES!” she exclaimed and she hugged me so tight I could barely breathe. “You might want to let Steve breathe a bit Misty,” said Jennifer without looking up from her book. How did she know? I thought Misty would take a long time, but I was wrong. She chose Venus, Morning and Alyson, then smiled at me.

“Go get them and start practicing together,” I told her and she was gone! Next I called Dawn and she chose Courtney, Sugar and Kelsey, then she kissed me and left. Sky was next and she chose Nalle, Cosette and Roxanne, the 3 girls we got from Koffman a while back. Kat picked Piper and Patti, the twins from Mandar. She only got two girls because her team was already one more than the others. The remaining girls will be on the home team for now, though things may change as we go along.

Rock and John are in the clinic still and John will likely be there for a while, but he will recover fully, as will Rock. I am certainly thankful for that, losing either of them would have been hard for me. The Investigators has certainly grown a lot from our meagre beginnings with just Muffin and I. It was tough, barely enough money to buy food, and sometimes not much of that. Now there are well over a hundred of us. But I miss those times with Muffin and Mr. Cat helping me. Sigh. I wonder what our next case will be like?

The End of this case. But a new case is coming shortly. ©2026 Steve McLeod.