We were presently at the little grocery store in this tiny village and the owner was not being very friendly at all, so, I had to get a little tough with him. I was hoping this might wake him up a bit, but he remained quite firm in his pretense of ignorance. I had just finished slamming him against one of the store shelves, knocking canned goods onto the floor. I then told him we would be hanging around until we found the four women we were looking for, and letting him know we better find the women alive. I then let him go and told the girls to look around the store.

That’s when one of the men playing checkers got up and came toward me, but Misty stood between us. This man was rather large and he used one arm to knock Misty aside and she fell against those same shelves, knocking more canned goods onto the floor. “Pick up your mess Mister,” he said to me. I went over to him. “I don’t like the way you treated my friend,” I said. “What ya gonna do about it,” he said smiling.

So, I punched him, with a little electrical addition, and that knocked him flying right out the screen door and down the four steps where he laid on the ground groaning. “Whoa, did ya see that?!” exclaimed the other checker player. “You owe me $200 for a new screen door Mister!” yelled the owner. “I didn’t break it, your friend did, get the money from him,” I said calmly. “And what about the mess?” he asked. “Are you ready to answer my questions?” I asked in return.

“I know nothin’,” he said and he again folded his arms. “Hey girls,” said Kat, “the man said to make a mess.” So, that is what they did, quite thoroughly too. While they were doing that, Kat went over to the checker player. “I bet you could answer our questions,” she said. “N, n, no, n, n, not me,” he said nervously, “I don’t know nothin’ too.” Then Kat’s head and hands disappeared making the man scream. Then her head and hands came back, but her body disappeared. That man was quite literally terrified now. The store owner couldn’t see what was happening from where he stood.

“Shut up Stan,” he said, “we don’t talk to strangers.” Then Kat’s body reappeared. “Think about it Stan,” she said, “or maybe I will have to come and haunt you. I’m a ghost.” “Let’s go everyone,” I said, “but we will be back tomorrow, Mister.” I said that last part to the store owner since he liked to call me Mister. Back in the van Kat told me the phones in town won’t work for about an hour. Hmm, that gave me an idea. Once out of the village, every so often I shot some electricity at the phone cable, breaking it, causing it to fall to the ground.

I even snapped off a few poles along the way as well. “That will keep them without their phones for a while. “Yeah, I noticed our phones didn’t work out there,” said Tracy, “too far from any tower, I guess.” “Or something else is causing interference,” said Ivy as she continued playing her game. I looked over at her phone. It’s Muffin’s favorite mouse catching game. “It’s not easy,” said Ivy. “That’s why I don’t play it,” I said. For some reason that got her giggling, then laughing, loud and long. Sigh.

We arrived safely back at the lodge and got cleaned up before dinner, which we were told would be served at 6pm, sharp. The owner doesn’t seem to be too happy, but his wife said to ignore him, he gets that way sometimes. Celestine and I are in the honeymoon suite and it is quite spacious. There is a large sitting room, a large bedroom with a round bed. There are red satin sheets and a white comforter with red roses on it. Basically everything is red and white in here. The bathroom is also large and everything is red and white in there too, except the walls and ceiling are cedar as they are in the bedroom.

We even have our own private deck. “This room is big enough for my whole team,” said Misty. “Yes, it certainly is nice,” said Celestine, “by the way, there are 6 young men in those two other rooms, not 2. All they did all day was just sit around drinking and watching us girls, though they never tried talking to us.” “They probably know who you are,” I said, “and who wants to get friendly with a PI?” “Someone who wants information,” said Sky, “and that owner sure asked a lot of questions, like, who are we really, where are we from, why are we here, how long are we staying, who is paying us, you know, typical stuff.

I never gave him a clear answer though, except to say we would stay until we find the missing women. And if we find them dead, then we would stay until we found their killers.” “Good,” I said, “that guy is in on this, whatever is going on around here. He is the early warning man for that village.” “Did you notice something about the people we saw out there Steve?” asked Ivy. “Aside from being annoying?” I asked. “I’m serious,” she said, “everyone is about the same age, including the owner here and his wife.”

“I noticed that too,” said Brandy, “I doubt anyone is over 30. But there was no sign of children, not even children’s toys or bikes sitting around outside.” “And their speech is not real,” said Acadia, “they just wanted us to think they were simple, country folk without much education.” “Well, all this proves that they are up to no good in that little village,” I said, “and perhaps the girls stumbled onto something and that’s why they disappeared.” “That is not a comforting thought Steve,” said Kat.

Hmm, time to check with my favorite computer girl. “Hey Cristy, my beautiful, intelligent and the very best computer girl on our team,” I began. “Forget the compliments Steve,” she said, “it’s much too early. But, I haven’t found anything useful except the village has been there since about 1920 and once had a population of 300 but now is populated by a few older folks that just don’t want to leave.”

“That is useful Cristy,” I said. “It is?” she asked. “Yes, the whole population seems to be in their 20s now,” I told her. “That’s odd,” she said, “oh, last fall there were 3 moose hunters killed at Old Lake by a black bear, so tell everyone to be careful.” At dinner Ivy was sitting on one side of me and she said casually that those young men across the room were carrying guns…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.