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.