The Investigators, Inc. The Nordic Family Mystery. Chapter 12. Tove.

When the police went to Johan’s flat they found a lot of information and plans for murdering the family one by one. His idea was to kill all of them except Dagmar whom he would then marry and the two of them would live happily ever after. Or something like that. Although, I’m not quite sure how they could possibly trust each other after all these murders. I would think they would be constantly wondering if the other one would someday murder them while they slept. Then the survivor would own everything and be quite wealthy. We do know that Dagmar had that idea already planned out in her mind.

After all, she didn’t really need Johan once the rest of the family was out of the way. Even though she was talking like she wanted Ronja to be her business partner so they would both finally prosper, I wonder how long that would last. Would Dagmar really be content with just 50% of the family business? Or would she eventually want all of it and murder Ronja? I don’t think I would want to trust Dagmar, no matter how close we were at one time. Times change. People change. Anyway, the police also found evidence that a woman was living in the flat with Johan, and it obviously wasn’t Dagmar or Astrid or Ronja.

So, who was it? “I believe it’s the missing secretary,” I said to Jennifer, “check her address, hopefully before the police do that.” “I think they already have checked it Steve,” she said, “they just told me she wasn’t home when they went to talk with her.” “Go check the flat anyway,” I said, “the police may have missed something.” “Okay, I will get Kat to take some of the girls and cats over there right away,” she replied. Kat then took Sky and Angel with her, but she stopped and replaced Jennifer so that she could go along, just in case they had to sneak into the flat.

Then Jennifer and the others went over to the secretary’s flat to look around. I also called Aari and told him to get his Wolves out hunting for that missing secretary. She likely has gone into hiding somewhere and must know someone who would be willing to help her. And that could mean someone in the criminal world. That’s something our Black Wolves are good at checking. Meanwhile, there was no answer at the door, so Jennifer took the others inside since no one was watching. They had four cats with them, Jewel, Azura, Tracker and Storm. The cats spread out right away sniffing around to see if the secretary had been there recently.

After a while the cats returned with their first report. Meowr= “Only new scent from human man people. Human woman scent is old.” Meow mew= “Except in bedroom, there human woman scent fresh.” “That’s odd,” said Angel, “check out here by the door again Tracker.” So he did so and he then went all around the living room, but no scent from a woman. “The male scent would be from the police,” said Sky. Meower= “No human man scent in bedroom or bathing room.” Meowr= “Yep, only living room, eating room and office room.”

“That is so odd,” said Angel. Jennifer was now in the office room trying to turn on the computer, or rather, gain access to it. She then contacted Akila who asked if she knew the internet provider. “Yep, the latest bill is right her on her desk,” said Jennifer. “Great, that makes it easy,” she said and soon Jennifer had access and was quite surprised by what she saw. “This secretary has been moonlighting,” said Jennifer, “and she certainly isn’t shy.” “Beauty sells,” said Akila, who was also looking at the secretary’s web page.

“And here is the man who set it up for her,” said Akila. She also told me and I sent the man’s name to Aari and told him where he could be found after noon, which it now is. “Get the information from him that we need Aari,” I said. “Shall do Steve,” he said. Then he got the Black Wolves driving over to this man’s favorite place to be. This guy is not nice and likely won’t want to cooperate right away. On this case our Black Wolves have been renamed the Nordic Wolves, it just seemed more appropriate. Also, Aari can speak 10 languages fluently and Swedish is one of them fortunately.

When dealing with guys like the one we want, whose name is Lars Olsen, it helps to speak the right language, it gets their attention better. They entered the main place I sent Aari to look for this guy and sure enough, he was there, sitting at a small round table with 3 friends. It looked like they were talking business, so the timing was perfect. Aari had Carine next to him on one side, plus Rock on the other side. Cal and Burk also came in but stayed closer to the door, they would signal the rest if there was trouble. There were 8 other men in the room too, plus the bartender who was watching things closely.

Aari went over to Lars right off and stood there. “Lars, we need to talk,” said Aari confidently. Lars didn’t even look up. Aari then dropped a photo in front of him. “Where is she?” asked Aari. “The door is over there,” replied Lars, “get out before you get hurt.” That’s when Aari gave him a hard back-handed slap knocking him off his chair landing on the floor with a thud. But Lars quickly pulled out a gun, however, Rock grabbed his arm and easily broke it. Then he stepped on his hand, breaking some fingers so he let go of his gun which Rock picked up.

While this was going on the other men in the room got up, some with clubs, some with knives. The bartender had a shotgun. However, the Wolves were now entering the room too with guns and shotguns. Aari then told the men to put their weapons on the tables and stand against the wall. One of the men at the table with Lars told the others to do what Aari said, so they did so, even though reluctantly. Just then Tove, the secretary, came out from down a hallway. But when she saw what was happening she turned to run.

However, Trapper was after her quickly and caught her before got away and he brought her back to Aari. “Are you going to beat me like you did to Lars?” she asked, sneering at Aari. “No, he leaves that up to me,” said Carine. Tove then spit at Carine, but it went right through her, hitting the man behind her. “It went right through her!” exclaimed one of the men. Carine then slapped the woman. “My sister wants to talk with you lady,” said Aari. Then Trapper took her out to one of the vans. Aari and Carine then left followed by the other Wolves. They brought Tove over to Kat who was at Ronja’s flat at the time.

Macy was there now too since she is the same age as Ronja and, like her Dad, can speak Swedish fluently. Macy and Sigrid were quickly becoming good friends with Ronja and Sanna. Sigrid’s parents and siblings had also been murdered, so she can relate with Ronja very well and all four of these girls are 18. Meanwhile, back at the secretary’s flat Angel was looking at the odd checkerboard pattern on the ceiling and noticed a faint outline of something, which she showed to Jennifer.

Right away Jennifer went to the flat above that one and found it vacant, but there was a trapdoor in the floor leading to Tove’s bedroom. Plus there was a rope ladder hidden in the closet upstairs. That’s why there was no woman’s scent elsewhere in the flat below. But, why did the police not take the secretary’s computer with them? Or did they even come into the flat? Perhaps someone else came in, like some of Lars’ men. This doesn’t seem to be quite finished yet…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.