Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Accidental Murder Case. Chapter 14. Betrayed.
Poor Sky, going into that studio was hard on her. It was not an ordinary photo studio, this one was for pornography. That is what Sky got involved with when she was 18, though she never planned to get involved. It was just supposed to be a regular modeling photo shoot, and it started off that way for a while. Sky ran away after 6 months and never looked back. That is why she found going into that room so hard, it brought back memories of things she wanted to forget about.
The other girls no nothing about that part of her past, only Annelie, myself and Baldwin, to a lesser extent, know the profiles of team members. I sent the girls back down to take photos of everything in those rooms and also to put our own alarm locks on all the doors down there so we would know if anyone came in to use the rooms, or if they came to remove the evidence.
I sent the photos to Annelie so she could give them to John and Cindy. I said that John could use this any way he felt it would be good to use with the Major. John said this was all great and would help him a lot with their meeting. I called Baldwin to see if he had been able to get an appropriate car for John. “Sure thing Steve,” he said, “it is a beauty too and something that a person like John would be driving too.” “That is good to know,” I said, “we need everything to be just right so the Major does not get suspicious at all.”
“The only problem so far is that John has not been able to get in touch with Victor to set up a meeting,” said Baldwin. “That is not good,” I said, “there is not much time left and they need to have enough time to get here. Tell them to leave anyway, even if they have not heard from Victor. Hopefully he will call them along the way.” “Okay, I will let John know,” said Baldwin, “I am starting to get very nervous about this. What if John does not get hold of Victor?”
“Then we will have to try something else,” I said, “John and Cindy cannot go to see the Major without getting in touch with Victor first. That would be suicide.” “Okay, got that,” he replied, “that makes me feel better, a little anyway.” “Is everything else in order?” I asked him. “Yes, no problems with anything else,” said Baldwin, “how is Mandi doing, still cooperating?” “Yes, she seems to be on our side now,” I said, “she was quite shaken up about hearing of Tuva.”
“That is a good sign,” he admitted, “I hope she will stay that way now. But be careful anyway Steve, she might just be acting still.” “Yes, I know, that is always a possibility,” I admitted, “so we are being careful. I am going to give her a test tonight by letting her be alone again if she wants. But she will not have any way to communicate with Alonzo. And we will still be watching her too.” “Good,” he said, “we do not want anything to go wrong now.”
“Yes, I agree,” I said. We then hung up and I called for another team meeting. It meant that Mandi was alone for a short time, but she was busy with making dinner anyway. Plus, she had no way to get in touch with Alonzo. What we did not know was that while we were having our meeting, Alonzo showed up and Mandi quickly went to the door and they went outside to talk. She warned him that we had found his hidden rooms and had placed alarms down there to warn us if he or his friends showed up. So she told him to stay away for now.
“You little idiot!” he exclaimed, “why did you take that PI down there in the first place?” “It is your fault,” she said angrily, “coming around when they are still awake. He knew there had to be another secret door near his room because those cats of his could smell you guys when you went past their door.” “Well, it is your fault for calling them in the first place,” he growled, “everything was going great until you got them involved. Why did you have to do that anyway?”
“You know why,” she continued, “the insurance company was not satisfied with the coroner report and was going to send their own team to investigate. But they were satisfied with my friend Rossana coming to check on things. But she called this PI to come instead, so it is not my fault!” He then stormed off back to his car and drove away. Mandi was back in the kitchen by the time the girls came down to help her. After dinner Sigurbjorn came to give me my massage and Galyna came along too. “Something was wrong with Mandi,” said Galyna…
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. The Accidental Murder Case. Chapter 13. Rooms.
Annelie was doing the video so Sky and myself could see and talk with Cindy. It was very helpful to see how Cindy handled herself and answered questions. “How old are you Cindy?” asked Sky. “I am 22,” she answered. “Why did you hook up with John?” Sky continued, “He is much older than you.” “I don’t care about age,” Cindy replied, “John is fun, and he treats me good.” “That is great Cindy,” I said, “you will do just fine with this. Now, are you sure yourself, you did not get much warning about this assignment.”
“No problem,” replied Cindy, “if it means maybe getting that creep Alonzo out of action, then I really do not mind helping out with this. He has done too much harm already, so I hope this stops him cold.” “I hope so too,” said Sky, “hey Annelie, how is Tuva doing?” Annelie was silent. I knew what that meant, and I think Sky did too. “She did not make it,” said Annelie quietly, “you will stop Alonzo, right Steve?” “I guarantee we will stop him,” I said, “one way or another he is going to pay for killing Tuva. Even though Mandi did the driving, it was still Alonzo that did it with his order to kill her. He is just too much of a coward to do his own work.”
Afterward I called the girls together and told them about Tuva, Mandi actually started to cry when she heard the news. Perhaps she really has changed. Then we planned our day of searching. “You know Steve,” said Sky, “I do not think anyone was listening at our door. They got away too quickly for that. I think there is another secret door in the hallway close to our door, and that is what they were aiming for all along.” “Hmm, you could be right about that,” I said, “okay cats, time to do some sniffing.”
We all went into the hall. Mandi said she did not know of any door here, apart from the one in our bedroom. The cats sniffed around. Meowr.=Me think maybe here. Muffin and MC checked it too and they agreed. “Well, there is certainly enough space between the 2 bedrooms for another passageway,” said Angel, “but how does it open?” There was a light switch on the wall which seemed like an odd place for one. Mandi said it did not work.
Hmm, I decided to turn the whole thing and sure enough, another door opened to a narrow passage going down some stairs. The cats went first again, but there were no traps along the way. At the bottom was a heavy wood door. I opened it and shone my flashlight into a fairly large room. I found the light switch and turned it on. “This is the room Alonzo uses for his forgery work,” I said. He was working on false identity papers for 2 dozen people, obviously coming into the country illegally. “He can do most anything in here,” I said, “this is quite an operation he has going.”
Just then I heard the cats growling at another heavy wood door at the end of the long room. Is someone in there perhaps? We all took out our guns and went over to the door. This time Sigurbjorn insisted on opening the door and had me stand off to the side. Once the door was open, the cats ran into the dark room. We all entered slowly. I spotted the lamp and turned it on. What do you know, Mandi was telling the truth after all. This was a huge haul of drugs, plus weapons of every description and large amounts of cash in euros, pounds and American dollars.
Sky had the money counted amazingly fast and she said it added up to $15 million or so, converting it all to American money. Plus the $20 million in drugs, that is a lot of value down here. And all these weapons would be worth a lot as well. Mandi did say that Alonzo wanted to hire a small army to help him. Perhaps those two dozen people he is making false identity papers for? There was another wood door in this room, so we opened that one too. This was his photo studio, if it can be called that.
Once Sky saw what it was, she turned and went back out. The other girls were puzzled by that. I went to her. “Sorry you saw that Sky,” I said. She turned and looked at me through tears. I hugged her and she began sobbing loudly. I told everyone to come back upstairs. Once in our bedroom Sky was able to settle down again. “I, I am sorry everyone,” she apologized. “You do not need to apologize for that,” said Kristina, “and you do not need to explain either.” The other girls all said the same thing.
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 