The Investigators, Inc. The Mysterious Mystery Case. Chapter 5. Mandy’s Turn.

Our team of ghosts are in place, except for 2 that have stayed here to help protect the chateau. That still gives 6 ghosts for our rescue mission, well, 5 for the rescue and one to guard Mandy. I didn’t want Mandy to go along because it is very dangerous, but I couldn’t think of any other way to do this to get our ghosts inside that building quickly and easily. So, I let her go making sure that one of the ghosts would stay with her to keep her safe. Jennifer will be doing that part which was a big relief for me. I think she realized that too.

Carine and Kitty are here at the chateau and right now I’m in my office and suddenly I sensed trouble, but not for our ghosts or the others that are kidnapped. The trouble was close at hand, very close. I got up to go downstairs, but 4 men came into my office with one of them holding Steffie by the hand and a gun at her head. Now how did this happen? “We would like you to come with us Steve,” said one man. “Let the little girl go and I will come with you,” I replied.

“Sorry Steve, she comes along until we are safely on our way,” he told me. “Sky,” I said casually. She appeared, but invisibly. “Why are you calling me away from the action?” she said frowning at me. “There appears to be some action here too,” I said, pointing to the men. She turned and looked. “The guy’s talking to himself,” said one of the other men. “What?” she responded, “He’s not talking to himself, he’s talking to me!” She then made herself visible and the men yelled, tossing their guns to the floor.

That’s when Steffie bit the one man’s hand, causing him to yell again and let go of her. She then turned and kicked the man’s leg then quickly ran to me! Sky then shot some electricity at three of the men and I did the same to the fourth man. While this was going on I also communicated with Carine and Kitty who had been with the children at school and they came running to find more men in the library. They took care of them quickly then went outside, but there were no vehicles around. These men must have been dropped off down the road. But how did they make it past the electronic surveillance that we have?

Melody checked and everything was working properly. We also have 8 girls outside on guard duty, what happened to them? I sent the Wildcats out to check around. The guards were all from Dawn’s team so the remainder of her team also went out to look. They found all of the girls and all of them had been shot, though not with bullets, with darts. They were taken quickly to the clinic and Samantha confirmed that the darts had poison on them. Fortunately it was a common poison and she had the antidote for it which she gave the girls right away.

The men got inside because Roxette was on her way out to relieve one of the girls and Steffie was at the door. Two men were right there and one hit Roxette on the head, knocking her out and the other managed to grab Steffie which stopped everyone inside. They didn’t dare set off the alarm either in case the men shot Steffie. Nothing had really been done wrong, it was just a case of bad timing. And, our security cameras were not working either and that should have set off a silent alarm in my office, but that didn’t work. We will have to check and find out why it didn’t work.

We can’t rely on guards either, it would take too many for a thorough guarding of the chateau and grounds, and it would have to be 24 hours a day. However, Jazzy noticed that the men’s watches seemed a bit different, and sure enough, their main function was meant to disrupt our electronic security measures in such a way that they appeared to work, yet didn’t pick up these men. Our enemies are getting more sophisticated all the time, but I guess that makes sense. However, we can now copy, and hopefully improve this system, to help us in the future.

Nikolas and Andressa have now made a fatal mistake by attacking us. I told Sky what I now wanted them to do and she went back to the others after I communicated with Jennifer to call Sky. That way Sky will show up in the same place as the rest of them since they likely would be in a different area of the building by now. Sky returned quickly with Mandy and then left again.

Meanwhile, back to our ghostly team where we have to turn the clock back a bit to find out what has been happening. “Hey Nikolas,” said Kurt, “look out the window here.” He did so. “A new woman working in our neighborhood,” he said, “guess no one has told her this is our territory.” “That girl says she’s 16,” said Kurt, “but she knows how to do things, and she’s a very pretty girl too.” “Hmm, we could use a new pretty face in her age group,” he said, “what do you think Andressa?” “Take me out to her Kurt,” she said, and out they went.

Andressa told her if she worked for her, she could make a lot more money with much better clients. Mandy said she does okay, but when she told Andressa what she makes, then Andressa said she could make triple that and she wouldn’t have to stand around outside like she was doing. Mandy thought for a moment, then said okay and off they went back inside the building. The ghosts slipped in easily while the door was open and it was at that point I called Sky. I would like to have seen the look on Nikolas’ face when Mandy disappeared in front of him!

The ghosts then scattered looking through the building for our girls and for Elizabeth’s children. They found our girls, but not the children and Sky began to bring the girls back home. It looked like they had been drugged so Sky could only take two at a time, and even that was hard. The remaining ghosts kept the girls invisible while Sky was busy going back and forth. “Andressa! Those girls have all disappeared!” yelled Ruben.

Andressa showed up with some men and found the door still locked, but inside the room the girls had indeed gone. “Find them, they must still be in the building,” she said, “there’s no way for them to get out of here!” While they went looking Andressa came back to Nikolas and Mandy, except she found that Mandy was gone. “Where did she go?” she asked. “She just disappeared in front of me,” said a dazed Nikolas, “we were talking and then she was gone.”

“That’s ridiculous!” exclaimed Andressa, “People can’t disappear.” “Well, she did,” he said, “unless she wasn’t real, just an image or something.” “You’re not talking sense,” she said, “did the door open after she disappeared?” “Not until you came,” he replied. She just stared at him. “First those Investigator women disappear, then this girl disappears,” she said, “she was a decoy to get our attention, but those women will be dead within 24 hours anyway.”

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.