We all went to bed after that bit of excitement with the safe, all except Misty, she couldn’t sleep for some reason. I told her she should try going to bed earlier, maybe that would help. She then screamed, which was a rather odd reaction to my advice. Oh well. The night passed quickly, but then, there were only 3 hours left of the night. I’m glad they have such a big restaurant in this hotel, kind of necessary when all of us are here. While eating breakfast I was kind of daydreaming a bit, wondering what could have happened to all that gold.

And who is this Ben Regrette? Cristy is busy trying to find information about him. She even asked Wisty and Melody to help. But still they could not find a thing about this man. Obviously it is someone that Koffman knows and he didn’t think this Ben fellow was serious, yet he was. Since the gold was at Mary’s house, it would seem that Mary and Ben must have been working together, otherwise Mary would have noticed. Hmm, that note was pinned onto one of the skeletons, was that Ben?

Could he have helped Mary hide the gold elsewhere and then she killed him? Or did Bernadette kill him and then her and Mary will split the gold? Lots of thoughts and ideas, but are any of them accurate? Mary is likely the only one who knows the hiding place of that gold. Just as I was thinking about this, 4 men came into the restaurant with automatic weapons and opened fire around the room! I grabbed Soleil quickly to keep her safe and Jennifer grabbed Vivienne!

Sky and Angel were slower at getting down to the restaurant this morning and they came in behind these 4 men. Courage leapt on 2 of them and Sky took care of the other two, so that all four of them were killed. Ambulances were soon arriving at the hotel and taking many of our girls to the hospital. Kat and her Wildcats had gone to a different restaurant, to spread our patronage around a bit, so we had Misty’s and Dawn’s teams with us and that totaled 37, plus Jennifer, Sky, Angel, Vivienne, Soleil and myself.

Yves and his family had decided to eat in their room this morning, which turned out to be a wise decision. I think these men were actually here to kill Yves and his family, Francois is likely quite upset with Yves turning against him. Whatever the case, Francois has made a big mistake and we will have to “discuss” this error with him. Right now I need to find out how serious the injuries are for our girls and if any of them were killed. Our friend the Inspector came to see me at the hospital.

By this time I had contacted Kat and Aari. I was glad that Macy had not been hit by any bullets. Fortunately Sky and Angel arrived just as the men had begun to shoot, so they were able to stop them before things became worse. Since we couldn’t prove who sent these men, I asked the Inspector if the police could stay out of it for now, since I wanted to trap Koffman too and not just Francois. He agreed to that and instead brought in police to guard our girls that had to stay in the hospital. That would free up more of our team for us to use.

I had Sky take Soleil and Vivienne back home for safety, and I took Jennifer home so our two new girls would have someone they know with them. I then brought Kristina back with me and told Sky to bring Suzette and Colette back with her. Twelve of our girls ended up in the hospital with various wounds, 5 were in very serious condition.

Meanwhile, back with Francois later in the day. “The four men were killed,” said Percival, “but 12 of those Investigators are in the hospital.” “None were killed?” asked Francois. “No, but 5 are in very serious condition, three likely won’t survive.” Francois slammed his fist on the desk. “None were killed!” he yelled, “they should have been able to kill several of them! That’s the only way we can get rid of them! We lose the gold, but we can’t lose those stupid Investigators! And who is that Ben Regrette?!”

“I haven’t been able to find out Francois,” said Blaise, “it is like he does not exist.” We knew that Francois had his own listening devices in the house, but we left them alone and decided to talk carefully. I had told them to mention this Ben Regrette so that hopefully we would learn from Francois the identity of this person. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. I had asked Soleil if she knew, but she didn’t, her grandmother had never mentioned the name. More and more I think that one of those skeletons is Ben.

That doesn’t help however. Mary must know who he is, and possibly Bernadette as well. Hmm, there is a thought, so I asked Bernadette if she knew Ben Regrette. “Do you really think I will help you?” she asked. “Would you like to go free?” I asked her in return. “You would never let me go,” she retorted, “you want me in prison.” “Yes, I would like you in prison,” I admitted, “but I also want to know about Ben Regrette, so I’m willing to let you go for information about him.” I then told Sky to remove her restraints, which she did.

“You will find Ben in that big safe in Mary’s basement,” she said laughing, “a nice bit of work, I must say. He is with his beloved girlfriend, Felix’s first wife. Ben and Mary took the gold and hid it somewhere, although Mary says Ben took and hid it without telling her where. I killed Ben at the arranged time when Mary was out and had a good alibi, just in case Ben’s body was found right away, but it never was. So, now Francois is trying to get Mary to talk and tell him where the gold is located. I think Mary is telling the truth, she doesn’t know.

Francois has her chained in the basement of his house, in case you’re interested. May I go now?” “Yes, you may go,” I said, “I always keep my word.” She left quickly, whistling while she went. “Now what?” asked Sky. “Well, I plan to go and wait for her to retrieve the gold that isn’t there anymore,” I said. “Wait,” said Misty, “you knew where the gold was hidden and didn’t tell anyone?” “I just found out about it this morning,” I said, “and Jensen’s Jaguars took it all away.”

I then smiled at the girls. They just stared at me. “I thought we were going after Francois tonight,” said Angel. “We are,” I said, “but it’s not night yet. Hopefully Bernadette will want to move quickly and won’t wait until it’s late tonight before retrieving the gold. She will need to round up some help first, so I doubt she will arrive before dark.” “Um, would it be too much to ask where we are going?” asked Sky.

“Not at all,” I said, “we’re going back to Mary’s basement, that’s where you said the gold was hidden.” “We didn’t say anything,” said Misty. “Well, Angel did,” I said, “she mentioned that big, wood box that you two couldn’t move, so I went and looked at it. After removing a board on the lid, there it was, gold bars.”

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.