The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 5. Hedda.

I timed the girl’s visits so that Sky, Kat and Jennifer could go along. The ghosts would go in invisibly and stay behind once the girls left to see what might happen next. Just in case one of these places decided to tip off our mystery woman that we are looking for her. That wouldn’t be nice, but it would help us out a great deal since we just might get her name that way, or at least her phone number. The first place we checked was the one in Berlin, and Jennifer was with the girls on this one. I was going to check out the place in Stockholm first, but then I thought about Steffie, and the man she was so afraid of was from Berlin.

A wild chance I will admit, but we have to start somewhere. Anyway, two of the girls went inside, along with Jennifer who remained invisible, and they began talking with the owner about that brand of cigarettes and asked if he had any. He didn’t have any in stock, but would within a week at the most. He said that he didn’t get much call for those because they were so expensive and not many people liked them anyway. The girls asked if it was men or women who usually bought them and he said it was nearly all men, but he did have two customers who were women that liked them as well.

Then they asked if the women were local or from out of the city, or perhaps out of the country. That made him a little curious and he asked why they wanted to know. So they told him they were private investigators hired by a woman to see if her husband was cheating on her. A cigarette was all she had to go on, and her husband didn’t smoke. So, they had the cigarette analyzed and found out what brand it was, so they are checking to see if it might have come from a woman.

That’s when he got rather cold and said he didn’t give away information about his customers and he asked them to leave. “Not even for 500 euros?” asked Melanie. “No, now please go,” he said. “How about 1,000 euros?” she asked again as she put the money on the counter. That made him stop and think for a bit, but then he shouted “NO” and ordered them to leave or he would call the police. So, she picked up the money and they went back out to the car. Jennifer, however, stayed inside and close to the owner.

The girls had parked down the street a bit so the owner was not able to see if they drove away or not. It was an old fashioned shop and the owner still had a book with names and phone numbers of his customers written in it. He took that out of a drawer and put it on the counter, opening to a certain page and then he phoned one of the numbers. Jennifer was watching what he dialed and quickly looked at the book and got the woman’s name. “Hello, Mrs. Karlsson?” he began, but Jennifer put her ring against his neck and he immediately fell asleep.

She hung up the phone right away, then laid the man on the floor. He won’t remember the girls being in his shop, that drug works very well. “Okay girls,” said Jennifer, “pick me up please.” She left the shop invisible and became visible down the street behind some people as they came out of another store. No one even noticed, which was the whole point. She communicated with me the information that she had and I gave it to Cristy to track down where she lived. The woman’s name was Mrs. Hedda Karlsson, her husband’s name is Jon.

He is quite wealthy and is 52 years old, she is a beautiful woman who is 27 years old. But something else that Cristy found was more interesting. The high school newspaper labeled Stellan and Hedda as the hottest couple in the school. So, I just had to call Oskar since he and Stellan were best friends since before high school and he must know something about this romance. “That’s right Steve,” said Oskar, “Stellan and Hedda went together for 4 years. Since she was 2 years behind Stellan they decided to wait until she graduated before they got married.

However, Hedda’s parents objected to their plans so Stellan walked away from their relationship and 3 months later he was going with his present wife and they were married a year after that. Unfortunately, Stellan couldn’t stay away from women, but his wife stayed with him anyway, even though she knew about his girlfriends.” “Hmm, this doesn’t look good for Stellan,” I said, “especially if he has been seeing Hedda again.” “Do we have to tell the police about this?” asked Oskar, “I mean, they would likely arrest him if they found out.”

“Yes, they would, so we won’t say anything just yet,” I told him, “after all, we have no proof he has been seeing Hedda again. But if he has been lying to us, then we can’t protect him.” Oskar understood that and he asked if he could talk with Stellan and see if he has seen Hedda lately. I gave him permission, but only if he took one of the other guys along with him, and he agreed to that. Meanwhile, “Mr. Jakob,” said Hedda, “your phone call was interrupted. Did you have a message for me?” “No, Mrs. Karlsson,” he replied, “I never called you.” “But it was you who called,” she said, “is there a problem to discuss?”

“No, none at all,” he said again, “I’m not sure how a call could have been made to you, it certainly was not me, I have phoned no one today and I have had only one customer today, a nice old gentlemen who has been a regular customer for years now.” “Okay Mr. Jakob,” she said, “I guess it was just a wrong number.” That is very odd, she thought to herself, but Mr. Jakob himself is getting rather old, so maybe he dialed the wrong number by mistake and didn’t want to admit it.

That night there were extra team members watching Stellan’s house, to make sure he didn’t somehow leave without them knowing. But, the night passed quietly with nothing happening at Stellan’s house or the houses next to his. However, over with the next brother Leif and his wife Astrid it was a different matter. Astrid woke up to find that Leif had already got up and was making breakfast, so she went to shower and get dressed. Then she was alerted by the smoke alarm and she ran downstairs and found bacon burned and smoke pouring from the frying pan.

Then she noticed Leif lying on the floor, he was dead! Okay, this is not going well at all, someone is murdering people that we are supposed to be guarding. How did they do it this time? I sent the ghosts and cats over to do some serious checking around once the police were gone. There was no evidence of foul play this time though, the police thought it could have been a heart attack but they won’t know for sure until they get the coroner’s report.

It could be a heart attack, brought on by stress because of what has been happening. Samantha said it could happen, even though Leif is only 27. They have 2 young children, ages 1 and 3. I still think it was murder, it could have been done with poison, but we won’t know until the coroner’s report comes out. “Cristy, I want a copy of the coroner’s report as soon as it’s ready please,” I said. “I thought you would,” she said, “so I’m ready to grab it.” Then Sigrid learned something interesting talking with Ronja, the youngest daughter in the family…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.