We finally had a lead on our mystery man, even though we still didn’t know who Betty Wilcox is, or where she is, or if she is even real. Perhaps Hagen Schneider is just playing with us for a while, making us sweat while he has our girls locked up somewhere. Misty was able to tell Storm the name of their captor, though Storm had it a bit mixed up. That is, until Steffie went to talk with him and she figured out what the name was rather easily. Then she told Jennifer and I why she figured it out so easily.

She knew the man back when she was being held captive to make Friskie work for a man, doing whatever he wanted her to do. But that man had visitors on a regular basis and he would supply women for them for a night or two, and sometimes even young girls, like Steffie. She never told her mom until yesterday, which is why Friskie went into hiding. And she made Steffie promise not to tell anyone where she was hiding. But, I told Steffie if she showed me where her mom was hiding, then she wasn’t breaking her promise. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of a gray area, but it was important to find Friskie quickly before she got too depressed about that news of Steffie.

I was with Friskie for over an hour and she finally agreed to let Jennifer and Celestine join us. It was Celestine that really helped her though, so Friskie came out and joined us all again. Erika and Mandy understand what Steffie went through and they were both a great help to her and they all bonded very close. Meanwhile, even with our best computer girls at work, plus Aari, Jazzy, Rossana and Mandar helping, we’re still no closer to finding this mysterious Betty Wilcox.

“Why aunties so busy on computers?” asked Steffie. “They are trying to find someone named Betty Wilcox,” said Jennifer. Steffie thought for a moment, then ran off. She was soon back with a metal bar which she said is called Betty, auntie Misty told her, and she said burgers use it to break doors and windows to steal stuff. “Well, that’s not quite it,” said Jennifer. Steffie thought again, then ran off returning with an odd shaped bottle. “Mandy say it hold olive’s oil,” she said, “and it also called Florence bottle, or different name I can’t remember.”

Hmm, Florence, the computer girls were busy right away. “Betty also shortcut for E LIZ A BETH,” said Steffie, “that hard name.” “Right away Wisty found an Elizabeth Florence whose husband died 4 years ago after the birth of their third child. The police labeled it a suspicious death, but closed the case anyway. Then she apparently married a man named Peter Williams who died a year ago from a heart attack. “William is England name of Wilcox,” said Steffie, then she smiled, “Erika tell me that from school.

“He was quite wealthy,” said Akila. “His net worth was around 500 million pounds,” said Mandar who is here now. He is definitely worried about this whole thing. Well, we now know who the mysterious Betty Wilcox is. However, even with the name of Hagen Schneider and Steffie confirming his existence, we can’t find a thing about him. How is that possible? This is starting to drive me crazy! At exactly noon Hagen called, though I didn’t mention his name, or these calls might stop, rather permanently. He didn’t say much and Misty was soon on the phone with me.

“Are they treating you okay still?” I asked. “Yep, we even have better mattresses now,” she said, “the coffee is better too. We get tea and muffins in the afternoon. We will get to shower this afternoon too.” “Everyone misses you here,” I told her, “the cats go wacky when they hear your name.” “Oh, that’s nice,” she said, “can I speak to Storm?” Meowr?= “Any names, town, store? Not mention names here.” “Meowr meow meow meow,” she said and then the call was ended. I had told Misty yesterday, in our code, not to mention any names of anyone here, but I wanted Storm to say it as well so Misty would know how important it is not to use names.

Misty didn’t have much to tell me, but she told Storm an office building was being constructed nearby, that would explain the Ka-thunk she mentioned yesterday. There is also a hardware store nearby and there is also a woman in the picture, her name is Andressa Bauer. The girls are already checking her out. Maybe this person will actually exist, since Hagen Schneider certainly doesn’t seem to exist. About mid afternoon another phone call came in for me. “It’s a woman,” said Wisty, “but she won’t give me her name.” “Maybe it’s our mystery woman,” I said and told her to put the call through on our speaker. “My name is Steve McCann,” I said, “leader of the Investigators, how may I help you?”

“I am looking for a private investigator to locate my three children,” she said, “they have been kidnapped by someone who is demanding a ransom of 50 million euros! I don’t have that kind of money, but he thinks that I do. My husband was quite wealthy and he died a year ago, but he left his fortune to his two sons from his previous marriage. I should say, we were not actually married. I was married, but my husband died 4 years ago, then I met this man. We had planned to get married, but he died before we had a chance. All I received from his will is a monthly allowance of 4,000 pounds until the youngest of my children turns 18.

His two sons are contesting that part of the will and since I can’t afford a lawyer, I will likely lose that allowance. All I have in savings is 10,000 pounds, but the kidnapper doesn’t believe me and I have less than two weeks to pay or he will keep my children for his business, whatever that is. I have tried the police, which were no help, and 3 other private investigators who were warned to stay away from me. I don’t know what to do now, I know I can’t afford an organization like yours, but I’m willing to work to pay my bill…” At this point she began to cry.

“I need to know your name,” I said quietly, “if we are going to work for you.” “My name is Betty Wilcox,” she said hesitatingly. “Your real name please,” I said, “it is important that we are truthful with each other.” There was a short silence. “It’s Elizabeth Florence,” she said, “the man I was going to marry was Peter Williams.” “Is there a reason for keeping your real name a secret?” I asked. “Yes, a man has been stalking me since my husband died,” she said, “I think he killed my husband hoping to get me.”

“Do you know his name?” I asked. “Yes, it’s Nikolas Bauer,” she replied, “but he’s not the one who kidnapped my children, that man’s name is Hagen, though I don’t know his last name.” “I will let you know that we have been warned to stay away from you,” I said, though I didn’t tell her about our girls, “do you have a photo of Nikolas Bauer?” She did, and sent it to me right away. Wisty put it on our screen and when Steffie saw it she jumped on my lap and held me tight which told me that Nikolas and Hagen were the same man…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.