“But I need to go,” I told Baldwin, “this is my case after all.” “No Steve,” said Rock, “this is our case, or we would not be here. Now you stay here and relax, we all know what needs to be done in Australia and we will not be taking chances. You can join us on the Mexico trip.” Kat stood there looking at me. I knew that look, and she was right. So were the others, I did need a break so I could think clearly again.

The others left right away, at least, the ones that were going on this one. Half stayed behind to rest, which included me, Kat, Galyna, Carine, Jennifer, Sigurbjorn, Chung and Tracy. Muffin stayed as well, but MC went along with Storm to help out. It gave us a bit of time for getting to know Tracy a bit better, and Cassie too. We checked her story and she was wrongly charged and should never have been in that prison, or any other prison.

The place she worked at needed someone to take the fall so the vice president would not end up in prison. However, when Baldwin heard all this he got his lawyers working to make sure Cassie was completely cleared and that vice president charged instead. Poor Cassie was really shaken by all that happened and was scared to go back home again.

Baldwin said she could stay here as long as she wanted, and he did need a new secretary, once she felt well enough to work. She accepted the offer. We all made her feel very welcome to be a part of our little family, though she will not be working as a team member. I rested through the day, but could not stop thinking about our case. Rounding up these people again will not be so easy.

Avina will likely hide them away somewhere until they have done their jobs, whatever that might be. Then I remembered something else and phoned John right away. “Hi Steve, thought I told you not to worry about this Toledo guy,” he said. “I just remembered something about him John,” I said, “and I wanted to warn you. He has 3 brothers, worse than he is, and when they find out their brother is dead, they will be out looking for his killer.”

“Hmm, a family affair,” he said, “well, I am still doing the job.” “Okay, but remember, you are still working on my team for this case,” I said, “so make sure his brothers know that and they will come looking for us.” “After they kill me,” he said, “well, I will not be sticking around to give them a chance. This Toledo guy seems to have gone into hiding too, but I will keep you informed.” He then hung up.

I did not think that news would stop John, but I did want him to know anyway. Later I talked to Annelie to see if her and Rock would be interested in adopting Krissy. It would not be good for Kat and I to adopt her, she would just be in too much danger as our daughter. Rock and Annelie are not able to have children so they had talked about adopting Krissy and were going to ask me.

Of course we will have to see how Krissy feels about it too. We will likely just let her stay here at the chateau with us for a while so she can get to know us all first. This is going to be a big change in her young life. I just hope there are no problems with getting Krissy back, I do not trust Avina at all. But it would be a big mistake for her not to keep our agreement.

I had started getting those headaches again the last few days, but they were not bad so I did not mention anything. Headaches that caused that ‘nowhere’ feeling. But today while Sigurbjorn was massaging my back the headache was very bad. I held my head and groaned, so Sigurbjorn called Kat. She looked at me and knew right away so she took me to the clinic to see Chung.

She also brought the medicine she had been giving me regularly like he had told her. Chung checked the bottle. “This is not the right medicine, though it is marked correctly on the bottle,” he said, “this will actually bring that ‘nowhere’ feel back again.” “That means someone switched the medication on us, but when?” “It must have been some time ago,” said Chung, “considering how much has been used.

But we caught it soon enough to reverse the effects without problem I am sure.” “I hope so,” said Kat, “we cannot have Steve with problems right now.” Things are not going well right now, first we have Avina, then Toledo, now this, although I guess this was really the first thing. But at least we caught it soon enough, however, it could still affect my ability to think clearly and that could be a big problem. Speaking of problems…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.