Here we are, three weeks after our desert ordeal, and all of us are out of the clinic now. All but Misty and I are cleared for active duty now. Poor Misty is having a hard time after all that happened, it really hit her hard and she is very subdued these days. I understand a little about how she feels. Like me she wants to quit her position as team leader, she just doesn’t think she reacted the way a leader should. Jennifer and Sky tried talking to her, but she won’t listen. I shouldn’t say anything I guess, Jennifer, Kat, Sky and Celestine have tried talking to me as well, without much success.

While in the library one day a very expensive car drove up to the chateau. We have a new electronic surveillance system in place and it’s working very well. However, we don’t rely totally on that and so, like in days of old, we have our girls taking turns watching from our towers at the chateau. Anyway, our new surveillance system told us there were 5 occupants in the car. It stopped out front and a man got out of the front and stood by the car. He gave his name and the name of his employer, which was Koffman.

He said that Koffman wanted to speak with me, so Kristina asked if that was okay. I said yes and told everyone to leave the library, except for Cristy, Kat, Jennifer, Sky and Rock, who was here visiting me. He also asked if a young woman could come inside as well, which I said was okay. They were both checked for weapons and brought into the library. “One of your girls, Dawn, said that my safety was assured if I came,” said Koffman. “Yes, she told me,” I said, “and we will honor that.”

He then introduced the young woman. Her name is Alyson, she is 18, she has been through a lot the last couple of years and ended up working, against her will, for someone Koffman knew. He offered to buy her for his nightclub and this other man was tired of having her around anyway, so he sold her for 5,000 euros. “She doesn’t want this kind of life Steve,” he said, “so I thought maybe you would be willing to help her out. I would just let her go, but she has nowhere to go, which is why I brought her here. I know you help young women get their lives turned around.”

“Please sir, I really do want to have a normal life,” she said, “I will do what you tell me, honest. My family doesn’t want me around anymore and I don’t know what else to do. Please help me sir.” “We would be very happy to help you,” I said, “although the final decision rests with my wife Jennifer and her sister, Kat.” “That’s no problem,” said Jennifer, “we will gladly help you, welcome to our family.” “Thank you so much,” said Alyson with a big smile. “I always thought you made the decisions Steve,” said Koffman. “Well, after our ordeal in the desert,” I began, “I felt that perhaps it was time for me to retire and let Jennifer and Kat look after things.”

“You mean that after losing one battle you want to quit?” he asked, “She’s a very clever woman Steve, everyone loses to her, that’s no reason to quit. If your health isn’t up to going out anymore, you can always direct things from home. You have more experience and knowledge locked inside of you than all of your other team leaders combined. Just take a look around the world, all your top leaders stay behind the scenes to direct things, leaders of countries to military leaders. You can be a great help to your team even from home, after all, you would still be part of the team and the case by using your wisdom to help them.”

Unfortunately Koffman was starting to make sense, and this was really the same thing that the others had been telling me already. I was knocked over by Koffman giving me advice, considering he never wanted to help us in any way before. He stayed for a while after this, just talking, but then said he had to get back home today. Before he left Misty arrived, walking slow, and handed me an envelope, which I then handed to Koffman. “Keep it,” he said, “you may not believe it, but I just wanted to do this one.” Then off he went to his car and they drove away.

“Um, what now sir?” asked Alyson. “First, please stop calling me sir, my name is Steve,” I told her, “we use only first names around here.” “That’s right,” said Jennifer, “now, I will show you to your room.” About an hour later Rossana phoned with a case for us. Apparently her best friend has been arrested for murdering her husband and Rossana doesn’t believe she did it. The police are convinced she is the murderer, however. Rossana and her friend, Carmen, have been best friends since they were 6 years old and she said there is no way that Carmen could have murdered her husband.

Apparently they had no problems in their marriage, nothing serious anyway. They had no financial problems, both worked at good jobs, they had no children which is good right now. She checked through files and the police were never called to their home or workplace and neither of them had any kind of criminal record. There was, however, a couple of odd things. First, there was 500 euros being withdrawn from their account on the same day each month.

Carmen said it was just shopping money that her husband, Vincent, said she could use each month. Carmen maintains that she loved her husband and she did not kill him. The other odd thing is that there’s nothing else odd. Okay, I don’t really see that as odd, but I’ll trust Rossana on this one. They also own a yacht. That’s when Rossana said that makes 3 odd things and she apologized. I didn’t understand why owning a yacht was odd.

“Because Carmen didn’t know about it,” said Rossana, “and Vincent had purchased the yacht nearly a year ago. He was a member of a yacht club and often had parties on his yacht. There were always lots of young women at those parties. No one at the yacht club would talk about him, except to say he had parties like lots of other people. Now the police figure Carmen found out and that’s why she killed Vincent.

But she knew nothing about the yacht or the parties.” “Are you sure you can believe her?” I asked, “I need to ask if we are going to take the case. All information helps and we have to stay neutral in this and just look for the truth about what happened.” “Yes, I know that Steve,” she said, “I believe Carmen, she could never kill her husband.” I told her we would take the case…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.