Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Mystery of Balding House. Chapter 13. Games.
Dancer had just been talking to the mysterious Mr. Flynn, someone we have been trying to stop for quite a while now. But something wasn’t quite right. This Mr. Flynn sounded like a man and we know that Mr. Flynn is a woman named Donna Filing. Does Donna use different men to speak for her on the phone to hide her identity? That would be smart, then she could easily hide right out in the open and no one would ever think she was Mr. Flynn. Or were we wrong about thinking that Donna was Mr. Flynn?
No, that can’t be. We listened in on her conversations, so we know she is Mr. Flynn. “Hey Steve, listen to this!” said Trixie, “Helene showed me something.” “Okay, let’s have it you two,” I said. She then started to play the conversation between Dancer and Mr. Flynn, but as Mr. Flynn was talking she made some adjustments and his voice changed to that of Donna Filing. “It’s very simple, really,” said Helene, “doing something like that has been around for a long time, and it’s a great way to fool people. People seldom think to challenge the obvious, therefore it makes it easy to fool others.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting to know,” I said, “and it’s something we need to remember for future encounters with criminals. Helene, you are fantastic! And so are you computer girls, I don’t forget the amazing help you are to this team.” I then called Helene up to my office for a private chat. “I know we have been trying to find a new name for you,” I said, “after all, we want you to walk around in the open too without being afraid of someone noticing who you are. I have some new names for you to choose from, hopefully there will be one you will like to keep. Then we can give you a whole new identity and kill off the old Helene so no one will look for you anymore.”
“I already said you can choose the name for me and I will be satisfied with it Steve,” she reminded me, “however, I would love to see what you have for me this time.” So, I gave her the new choices to look over. “Which one is your favorite Steve?” she asked. “Well, it’s not my name, so I can’t pick it for you,” I said. “But I wanted you to pick it, remember?” she replied, “I just want to know your favorite, that’s all, then I will tell you my choice.” “Okay, it’s that one,” I said, “it fits you perfectly and I like the uniqueness of it too.”
“Well, it hardly fits me, because of what I was,” she reminded me, “and it would be a bit confusing with Kat’s name.” “Only if we shortened it,” I told her, “I like the full name, and yes, it does fit you now. Your old life is over, you have a new life now, remember?” I hit her back on that ‘remember’ part. She chuckled. “Well, we agree on one part anyway,” she said, “that is my favorite name too, so that is the one I want.” “Done,” I said, “and that identity is nearly finished too. And thanks for your help in identifying Donna again for us. I like to know who we are fighting.”
I sent this information to our teams at the house so that they also know that Donna is the boss backing Dancer and his family. Jazzy then came up to my office. “You would have to pick the highest part of this chateau for your office,” she said as she entered, “you could have had a nice office on the main floor.” “But this gives you girls some exercise,” I said, smiling. “I am not as young as those other girls down there,” she reminded me, “anyway, I was thinking, the best way to deal with Dancer and his family might be by letting Donna deal with him.
Although Dancer is not a real threat to our girls, he could still injure, or even kill, some of them. Let the criminals fight among themselves and they just might destroy each other.” “True, but how do we get them to fight?” I asked. “We already know that Donna is not thrilled with Dancer,” she said, “and even threatened to replace him. We just need to make him look foolish enough that she will carry through on her threat.” “She must have someone watching Dancer already,” I said, “and Donna was not thrilled with him losing Jenna. Let’s see if we can give her some more information.”
Meanwhile, back at the old house the girls have found the hiding place of something interesting, namely, gold bars. A nice tidy amount equaling about 5 million dollars, nothing wrong with that. The other map is what everyone is likely looking for, the hidden location of gold and jewels in Mexico totaling more than 60 million dollars. If it is accurate and hasn’t been found yet. Now begins the fun. The girls openly began carrying the gold bars out of the house and putting them in the vans with each girl carrying two bars, since they were not large bars.
Then the ghosts carried them back inside the house, invisibly of course. Dancer had men watching the house and they couldn’t believe how many bars of gold the women were carrying out and putting in the vans. They called Dancer and told him and that put him in a rage! He called the Captain who had a road block in place as the vans drove off down the main road. They were stopped and the vans searched for stolen gold, but they found nothing! The girls returned to the house and everyone had a good laugh.
Kat and Angel had also gone to the house across the street where they knew Dancer’s men were watching them and put the men to sleep. Next they placed $10,000 in each of the two men’s pockets, with a thank you note. When Dancer sent a couple more men to the house they found the two sleeping men and told Dancer. The men were brought back to Dancer and disappeared. Then Kat came to Dancer’s with the map to sell him. He knew right away it was the original by a certain mark on it. “What makes you think I will let you out of here?” he asked, “I could just take the map, why buy it?”
“You buy it, or I leave with it,” she said confidently, “I walked in and I will walk out again. The price is 1 million dollars.” Just a few minutes later Dancer’s phone rang and it was Mr. Flynn. “You will buy that map,” he said, “then bring it to me immediately. If not, then you and your whole family are dead.” I communicated the conversation to Kat and she smiled. After the call Dancer said he would buy the map and Kat walked out with her money to a waiting van and the girls drove off.
Sky stayed behind though for further instructions. Dancer and some of his men were planning on going to Mexico to retrieve all that gold and jewels for themselves and then head for Brazil, without telling Mr. Flynn. I communicated this with Sky who then wrote a note and left it on the bar for Mr. Flynn’s man to find. He then called Flynn and told him, that is, Donna, what Dancer was planning, including pretending to not have the map because it supposedly was burned accidentally. Sky then set it on fire while Dancer was busy getting money from his safe, then she returned to the house.
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Mystery of Balding House. Chapter 12. Maps.
The girls have been eagerly looking for the hidden “treasure”, whatever it might be, and they were finally rewarded with finding it. However, they were somewhat disappointed with what they found in one of the mattresses of the two beds in what was a hidden bedroom. “Well Kat, don’t keep me in the dark,” I said, “what did you find?” “A piece of cloth,” she responded. There was silence. “Are you still there Steve?” she asked. “Um, yeah,” I said, “all you found was a piece of cloth?” “Well, it is a bit more than that,” she said, “it has a map drawn on it. Actually, I guess there are two maps. One is a map of some kind of treasure that is hidden down in Mexico somewhere, the other is a map showing where to find “money for Jenna. At least that’s what it says.”
“Does it say where to look for that money?” I asked, “Like, is it in the house somewhere?” “Yep, it seems to lead up to the attic,” she said, “there is still lots of stuff up there, I guess Dancer didn’t know how to get up there.” “Oh, did Jenna show you how?” I asked. “No, she didn’t know how either,” said Kat, “it was Roxie that showed us. She just found out after Jenna had been kidnapped. She didn’t have anything else to do, so she just checked around until she found out. That was before Chuck Henderson came and took all the furniture, otherwise there was one thing she would not have been able to reach. Roxie is much like Steffie, she enjoys puzzles, but she’s probably not quite as good as Steffie.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, “she found something in here that even Steffie didn’t know about.” “Wow, that’s amazing!” said Kat, “The rest of us have tried to look for something interesting but end up with nothing for our efforts. Anyway, we will check this out and let you know what we find.” So, off the girls went to see what could be found in the attic. But, after 3 hours they decided it was time to rest because the only thing they were really finding was a lot of dust.
Downstairs Misty decided to draw the map on a piece of paper so it would show up better. She used a black marker to draw the map and she was so happy with the results. “I did it everyone!” she exclaimed, “I drew the map so it would be easier to see!” She then held it up for everyone to see. Angel was the only one to look over at it. “That’s it!” she exclaimed, “Misty, you’re a genius!” She came over quickly and took it, laying it down on the table. “But that’s…” began Misty. “Just perfect Misty,” said Angel, “look everyone, we were wrong and looking in the wrong place.”
That brought everyone over to look at the map. The marker had gone right through the paper and it was the map on the opposite side of the paper that got Angel so excited. “Look, we were looking at the map backwards, or upside down, or whatever it is,” she explained, “but Misty drew it the right way for us.” “That means we should have been going down, not up, from the main floor,” said Kat. Misty was grinning from ear to ear right then. However, Sky was a bit skeptical about Misty’s skills and she flipped the paper over to see that Misty actually drew the map on that side.
Sky pointed this out right away and Misty frowned at her. “Naturally she drew it that way,” said Angel, “it’s the best way to expose the way it should look. You’re amazing Misty!” Now Sky was frowning at Misty. “Let’s check this out,” said Kat. Everyone had renewed energy now so they got to the starting point and paced off the distance shown on the map. But, right then several cars drove up. “We have company,” said Amerie, “and I don’t think they are coming for tea. Oh, it is that Dancer character again. Maybe we need to teach them how to dance.”
“Hmm, that’s a good idea girls,” said Kat, “everyone in position now.” I was tuned into everything going on now so I could join the conversation if I wanted. Soon there was pounding on the door from the man at Dancer’s called Big Boy. Amerie answered and Big Boy pushed her aside so Sky stood in front of him. He tried to push her aside too, but she didn’t move. “No one pushes my girls around you big ape!” exclaimed Sky, “And no one pushes me!” She then pushed him and he went flying backward and right out the door and down the steps landing on his back, moaning.
“You attacked my man!” shouted Dancer, “I will have you arrested for that!” “He attacked me first,” said Sky. Then she grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back making him scream. The rest of his men then came running inside and the fight was on! The girls and ghosts were careful not to kill anyone this time though, but they did beat up the men quite conclusively, breaking some bones in the process. Finally some of Dancer’s men took out guns, but they found themselves surrounded by guns. The men quickly dropped theirs, even though they were not hot.
Kat then told them to leave and never come back. “Next time I will give my girls permission to use those guns,” said Kat, “and you won’t like that, these girls are experts with guns.” Dancer and his men then retreated to their cars and left. At the hospital the Captain asked Dancer if he should try to arrest the women. “Forget it,” said Dancer, “you and your cops are outnumbered and we don’t want to bring in the State police or we will be finished. I will deal with them.” “Oh, by the way, the big man called and wants you to call him back,” said the Captain.
“That’s just what I need,” said Dancer, “if he finds out what is going on, that will be worse than anything.” Later, as we listened in to the phone call. “Hello Mr. Flynn, good to talk with you again,” said Dancer. “I hear that things are not going so good over there,” said a strange male voice. Does Donna use a man to talk for her in order to hide her identity? “Well, we haven’t found the map yet,” said Dancer a little nervously, “but we are working on it. Jenna has some friends helping her right now and that has complicated things a bit, but not for long. I’m sure her friends will leave soon.”
“I thought you had Jenna in your possession already,” he said. “Well, yes, I did, but one of her friends took her away from here and back home,” said a much more nervous Dancer. “Just one friend took her away from you?” questioned Flynn, “And it was a woman too, correct?” “Um, yes, that is true,” said Dancer, “but I couldn’t really put up much of a fuss when the place was packed with people.” “That woman took down your big boy security man with one kick, I heard,” said Flynn, “you better get things done, quickly, and remember, you can be replaced.” “Yes sir, we will get it done very soon, I assure you,” said Dancer, trying to sound confident. That was the end of the conversation…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
