The Investigators, Inc. The Mystery of Helene’s Murder. Chapter 3. Catriona.

There was a slight change in who ended up going on this case though it was still the Bad Girls and the Wildcats. The change was in which ghosts went along with them. Kat decided that Sky needed to be along since she is the Leader of the Bad Girls. Kristina also went along, as did Kitty. That made four going along on the case, but Sky could be called back here quickly if needed. Jennifer, Angel, Friskie and myself can call Sky during this case. I am the only one who can call her anytime.

Jennifer was actually relieved to be staying home, I think she worries about me for some reason. I’m not sure why though. Meanwhile, our teams are heading for Springfield, Illinois, the hometown of Bobby Frank. He doesn’t have a large organization, with about 40 men working directly for him and another 20 or so affiliated with him. So, he’s large enough to be a serious adversary, and definitely large enough to be deadly. Therefore the teams will not be taking chances with him, an order I made very clear to them all.

“Okay Steve,” said Jennifer as she came into my office, “what is the problem? You’re not upset about not going along, are you?” “No, not upset about that,” I assured her, “I was just thinking about something else.” She then sat on my lap. “Now that’s the way it should be,” I said smiling. “True,” she admitted, “but the other girls need time with their older brother too, after all, you’re the only man in their life. And you haven’t been keeping up with the dating schedule lately either.” “I know, but our cases have been keeping us all rather busy lately,” I said, “besides, they probably don’t really miss them anyway. I have been hearing things.”

“What have you heard?” she asked, looking over at the 8 cats sleeping in a pile on the bed. “They needed some rest time,” I explained, “so I said they could hide, I mean sleep, here.” Jennifer giggled. “I guess those two girls keep them quite busy,” she said in between giggles. “Now, what have they been telling you?” she asked again. “Um, well, uh, nothing much really,” I said unconvincingly. Jennifer called over to the cats for one of them to come forward and talk. Three back legs from cats within the “pile”, pushed Snow away from the others which caused her head to pop up.

“Thank you for volunteering Snow,” said Jennifer, “now, come here please.” She comes over and climbs onto my lap, sitting upright and saluting. “Snow, no saluting please,” said Jennifer. Snow put her paw down right away. Then she told of things the cats have heard the girls saying about me, like, I don’t do anything anymore, maybe I should retire and let Kat and Jennifer take over the Investigators, I’m not paying attention to the girls like I should. “Okay, that one is true I guess,” I admitted, “but it’s not deliberate, really it’s not.”

I then suggested that Jennifer take Snow to her office to continue since it was time for my exercising. She was going to get Friskie and Angel to go with me, but I said I would take half of Dawn’s team so I could see how they are doing with exercises, so she agreed to that. That does give me 10 bodyguards, so it should be enough since we will just be outside close to the chateau. Everything was going well until we had our first break. Suddenly, out of nowhere it seemed, there were a dozen armed men standing not far from us.

They quickly demanded that we lay down weapons and our badges on the ground and come with them. That’s when I said, “Sky”. She arrived, though invisibly, staring at the men and sighing. “We are not going anywhere with you men,” I said, “but you have a choice, put down your weapons and we will hand you over to the police, or you will die. It’s your choice.” The head man laughed, so I told him he was going to die painfully. He screamed and fell to the ground. Another man checked him and then I said he, too, would die, which he did.

That’s when Misty and her team came around the side of the chateau with their guns out. Jennifer, Friskie and Angel came out the back door at that moment also. The remaining men tried to shoot, but their assault rifles would not work, but Misty’s team had no trouble shooting. Two men tried to run but Angel and Friskie caught them and brought them back. With a little questioning we found out they worked for Bobby Frank, and the tattoos on their left arm proved it. All of his men have a certain tattoo on their left arm to signify they are his men.

But leaving 12 men here seemed rather odd since he only has 40 men total. It just didn’t make sense. “It would if Bobby didn’t actually leave,” said Catriona. She is one of our newest team members and she knows a lot about Bobby Frank. “But would he actually stay here after I warned him to leave?” I asked. “He might,” said Catriona, “just to show he’s not afraid of anyone, especially not you. He definitely doesn’t want his men thinking he’s afraid of you, or they won’t think he is very serious.

Then he loses control. So instead, he tries to capture you, which this time didn’t work out very well for him. But it also means he must be fairly close by, but likely not in France.” We held the two men until the police came to pick them up. They also arranged for the bodies of the other men to be taken away. A little while later a thought came to me, so I made a phone call to our old friend Koffman…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.