The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 7. Not Going Well.

Prior to Stellan being shot in his car just outside the company offices, Mac was trying to track down this well known hitman, Frank Meyers. We know he is involved in these murders in some way, and yet, he obviously didn’t kill everyone. It’s a rather complicated murder, or I should say, series of murders. Something is just not making sense yet. Anyway, back to Mac trying to track down Frank. Frank returned to his hotel room that afternoon, before Stellan was shot. He came walking into his room and the door shut behind him. He turned around and saw Mac standing there with a gun pointed at him.

“You were a hard man to find Frank,” said Mac, “but then, that was always the way with you.” Frank stood there staring at Mac, studying his face, but he was puzzled, not recognizing the man in front of him. “How come I don’t know you?” he asked. “You know me Frank,” said Mac, “listen to my voice.” When Mac said that there was a strange look came across Frank’s face as he suddenly realized who this man was. “Carver!” he exclaimed, “but, you’re dead.”

“You should know, Frank, that in our business, don’t believe everything you hear,” said Mac, “now, you made a big mistake getting mixed up with murders in this family and I need to stop that right now.” “Wait!” he said, “I have not killed anyone here!” “Now Frank,” said Mac shaking his head, “do you really expect me to believe that? You were in a certain house with a woman named Hedda and one of the family members named Astrid.”

“I had permission from the owners of the house to spend the night,” he explained, “then Hedda asked me if I was doing these murders, because it was ruining her plans to get Stellan back. Hedda is friends with Astrid who came along with her since she was scared to meet me by herself. She did ask if I would help her with some more killings and she could pay my price. So, I said I would think about it.” “Considering you upgraded to this nice hotel, I would say you accepted her offer,” said Mac.

“Well, a guy needs to eat,” said Frank, “but I haven’t killed anyone, yet. I will give you fair warning Carver, don’t get in my way or you will definitely be dead this time.” “You won’t be doing anymore killing Frank,” said Mac, “I am here to make sure of that.” “What are you going to do?” asked Frank, “Just stand there and shoot me, an unarmed man?” “Wouldn’t be the first time Frank,” said Mac, “and no one would mind if I did, there is a long list of people that you have killed, innocent people, including a couple of kids.” “Actually, that is 4 kids,” he said with a slight sneer, “just so you have your facts straight.”

He had turned away from Mac as he talked, then suddenly he turned to face Mac with a gun in his hand. But, Mac shot first and Frank fell to the floor. After Mac left he called me to give me the news. “Are you sure he was dead?” I asked. “Very sure,” said Mac, “I checked. With a man like Frank, that first shot counts, you won’t get a second.” “This makes things harder,” I said, “we’re losing our suspects, it sounds like Hedda wasn’t trying to kill the family, so who is doing it?

Astrid has a bit of an anger problem, but she doesn’t really seem like a killer either. What do you think Mac?” “I haven’t talked to her,” he said, “so can’t help with that one Steve. But, is she strong enough to drown her father-in-law? If not then someone else is involved, perhaps helping her, or, she might be innocent. Maybe we’re looking in the wrong direction.” He is probably right with that last remark. It was shortly after this that I got the news of Stellan being shot and killed. I contacted Mac and he said there was no way it could have been Frank, he was already dead by the time Stellan was shot.

We are losing our suspects and that is not good. Hedda and Astrid certainly didn’t shoot Stellan and Ronja was with Sigrid and 3 other girls at the time. And Dagmar was at work with Kitty watching her. “I have been with her all day Steve,” she said, “the only time I wasn’t was when she was in the bathroom twice, but she wasn’t in there long enough for her to escape and go somewhere else and return.” “Okay, I just needed to check and make sure they all have an alibi,” I told her, “keep watching her, if she’s not killing then she’s on the killer’s list.” “She also didn’t make any phone calls all day,” said Kitty.

I then called Aari to see what he thought. “Well Steve,” he said, “that parking area is surrounded by an 8 foot high wood fence, topped with some kind of wire and a metal gate. No one could get in there without us seeing them climb that fence, if they could climb it, which I doubt. The killer was inside, perhaps we are looking at this wrong, maybe it’s one of the employees. Someone might have missed a promotion they thought should have gone to them. Or maybe one of them had an idea that Stellan wouldn’t consider, Stellan might have even laughed at the idea. It doesn’t take much sometimes to turn a loyal employee into someone who hates the boss enough to kill him.”

Hmm, maybe we have been looking at this all wrong. It seems there had to be an employee to kill Stellan, but an employee couldn’t sneak up on Lotta while she’s having a bath and drown her. Unless that employee was Lotta’s boyfriend. Could that be possible? We know that Stellan had other women in his life, so maybe Lotta decided to have some men in her life. This is getting more mixed up all the time and it’s not getting us any closer to finding the murderer. We need to work faster before anyone else is murdered. So far 5 people have been murdered in this family and there are 5 people still alive, and hopefully they will stay that way.

From now on there will be a ghost with each of the remaining family members, whether they want one or not. Angel went to spend her night with the older of the two remaining brothers. Angel and Sky drew straws to see who got the job and Angel lost. Nice that my team is so enthusiastic. Anyway, Sky took Angel into the flat and left quickly, so Angel decided to lie down on the sofa for a while. Although all the lights were on, Angel couldn’t hear any sound which she thought was odd since it wasn’t late.

She checked the small kitchen, but he wasn’t there. Next she checked the bedroom and Petter was in bed and a woman with him, probably his girlfriend. But something wasn’t right, so she went over to the bed and both Petter and the woman had been shot in the head! She communicated with me right away and I told her to leave the flat immediately, then call the police anonymously. She called Sky to pick her up and off they went back to their hotel…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.