We decided to put the treasure hunt behind us for now and spend some time relaxing and planning. We need to find this Mandar so he does not hurt any more young girls, or anyone else. That will be our case for now which is still part of the original, but I call this part “Mysterious Mandar”. Mysterious because he has just disappeared and no one can find him. John knew a lot about Mandar, but not where he was.

He told me that he would get the word out for information about where Mandar might be. John knows a lot of people that he says are trustworthy enough. I am not sure what he means by that. But I guess they know their business, or they would soon be out of business. Even Brenda has vanished, so that finished any thoughts of using her as bait to bring Mandar out in the open.

I am beginning to think that perhaps those two are working together, although John does not seem to think that would be a possibility. He knows those kind of people better than I do, so I will go with his thoughts. It has been a month now since our big upheaval in losing so many of our team and everything else that was going on. Muffin is back to normal now and outside running with MC and Storm getting her strength back.

Rossana has gone back to her job as an undercover police officer. She was planning to stay with us for 6 months but they needed her back at work. We enjoyed having her for the 3 months she was with us. Benson has gone back to work for Baldwin as his driver and personal bodyguard. He felt better suited to that than working as a PI.

I think losing his friend Rock was really the reason for his decision. So Baldwin is our president, Chung and Mriya our doctors and they will stay working at the clinic, and that leaves just 10 of us and the 3 cats for the active duty team. We have lost a lot of expertise with the loss of team members, so the rest of us are working at trying to fill some of that void in knowledge.

There are also 4 people going through our course so they can apply to join our team. All of them are doing very well, but they have much to do yet. We have added some things to the course just to make sure this is really what people want to do. We do not want anyone quitting on us part way through a case. I am doing much better and ready to tackle things again. Kat thinks I should wait longer, and relax more. Everyone wants me to relax, but that is impossible while Mandar is loose.

Kat, Angel and Sovia decided to go shopping, we always go in groups of least 3 now. While they were gone I got an interesting phone call, but not the kind I like to get. It was Mandar! “I hear you are looking for me,” he said, “well, I am here in your town, at the hotel, and I wish to speak with you, if you would be so kind as to come at meet with me.” Still pretending to be a gentlemen. “Why would I come there?”, I asked, “it would be nice for you to come out here, I am sure you know where I live.”

“Yes, I am sure you would like that,” he said chuckling, “but I must insist that you come here, alone and unarmed please. You see, I have your wife with me and it would be terrible for such a beautiful woman to, how shall I say this, lose her life?” I tried very hard to remain calm. “How do I know you have Kat?”, I asked. “Well, the other 2 young ladies should be arriving back home shortly, they will verify that for you. I will expect you at 1pm, please do not be late.”

He then hung up and right then Angel and Sovia came running inside. They began talking so fast I could not keep up with them, but I told them I already knew about Kat. I pressed the alarm button and Baldwin was calling immediately. “What is wrong Steve?”, he asked, almost yelling. “Mandar is in town and has Kat,” I began, “he wants me to meet with him at the hotel so I will be going.”

“You cannot do that!”, he yelled, “Mandar will just kill both of you!” Everyone was in the library now and listening quietly to the news. “I have to go Baldwin, he will kill Kat if I do not, and I cannot bear that thought,” I said, “but we will do this our way as best we can. Unfortunately it will mean losing Mandar right now, but it is the only way that might work.” I then told him what we would do.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.