“You are wasting your time,” said Mike, “I will tell you nothing. And big boy here cannot do anything to me, that would be illegal and I would have all of you arrested.” He just looked at us with a smirk on his face. “Okay,” I said, “have it your way, you are free to go. And that is exactly what I mean, go. You must leave this property right away or you will be arrested and locked up in the town jail until the police are able to be contacted.” Mike just shook his head.

“I am not going anywhere,” he said, “and you cannot do anything about that.” He started to walk away and go back in the house when he suddenly fell to the ground. I went to look at him. “Sp…sp…spi…rs…,” was all he said and he died. “What was he trying to say?”, asked Rock. Meow,meow.=It sound like he say spiders. “That is it Muffin!,” I said and I called the others to come outside. Val fainted when she saw her husband was dead.

I think she knows some things too, but that will have to wait. “I think he just told us where Carine is being held,” I said, “in one of those cellars with spiders.” “But which one?,” asked Kat, “they all have spiders, and Carine is terrified of them.” “We will look until we find her,” I said, “so we start with the barbershop.” We all ran over there except Jenny, Kristina and Angel, they stayed behind to watch Maggie and Val.

Down went Rock and I into the cellar of the barbershop. Carine was there, tied and mouth taped and literally covered with spiders! Rock is normally afraid of spiders too, which is amazing, but he was right with me brushing the spiders off Carine and then he carried her outside. Galyna pulled the tape off Carine’s mouth and hugged her while Kat and Axelina untied her.

Caren and the cats were standing guard to make sure there were no surprises for us. Rock and I left so the girls could finish removing spiders from off Carine. Then they took her into the hotel to give her a bath. “Okay Maggie,” I said, “what is going on here?” “I wish I knew,” she said slowly, “Sam would never tell me much. He did say this town was going to be a goldmine for us, but he did not mean real gold, just that we would make a lot of money from the business he wanted to do here.

I knew it had to be more than a tourist business, we are just too far from anything for that. So it must have been something bad, something illegal. After he talked with that ghost, that I mentioned before, he was just never the same person.” “Well, that does not really help us much,” I said, “but I do know that Mike was involved too. When we let him walk away, his “friends” decided he must have talked and told us what was going on, so they killed him.

He knew that too, that is why he helped us. I hate to think what would have happened to Carine if we did not find her now.” “She would likely have gone insane,” said Kat. “It is interesting to note,” I said, “that Mike and Mark are both dead, and Sam is missing, but Maggie and Val are still okay. But, Melinda is missing as well.” Maggie put her head down.

“I am sure they are working together,” she said, “Melinda is an old high school girlfriend of Sam’s.” “I do not really know anything more than Maggie,” said Val, “just that Mike said we would soon be millionaires and he always told me to keep my mouth shut about this great business venture out here. But he never said what it was. He just said this town would be a goldmine soon.”

Hmm, I thought to myself, they both mention the town, not the mine itself. Someone was hoping we would leave town and search the mine for Carine, that way they could kill us all easily by just causing part of the mine to cave in on us. “There is one odd thing,” said Maggie, “I used to see Sam go down the street early in the morning and go into the mining office. He said he liked that old building best of all.”

Hmm, not much to go on, but it is worth checking it out more thoroughly. I convinced Maggie to move in with Val at the hotel, that way we could protect the 2 of them better. I am still not convinced that Maggie and Val are telling us everything they know. But I also do not think they are involved in what is going on here, they are just scared…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.