“Now,” said Baldwin, “who are you working for?” “I am a police officer,” he said calmly, “I have ID right here”. And he reached into his pocket. Rock grabbed his arm, twisting it a bit causing some serious pain to the man. Then Rock took out the ID and handed it to Baldwin. “You do not move without permission,” said Baldwin, “or you could get seriously hurt. By the way, you should always show your ID when you arrive, we should not need to ask for it.”

It looked okay but he handed it to Annelie to check it out. “Hmm, a very good fake, but a fake nonetheless,” she said after checking what the real one should be like. “Now,” said Baldwin, “let us start again. And I want the truth or I will let Rock here start breaking some bones. He is very good at that and if he should break your arm, or leg, it will never be the same again. Now, who are you working for?” “I, I, do not really know,” he said very nervously, “they just hired me to play a police officer and do things exactly the way they told me.”

“What do they look like?”, asked Baldwin. “It was just a man and woman, just kind of average. He was my size, gray hair, but did not look old, maybe in his 30s. She was the same height, very pretty, short dark brown hair. I don’t know their names or nothing. They pay me cash each time I need to come here, 5,000 euros.” “Where do you meet them?”, asked Baldwin again. “Just down the road a bit, they pay me as I come out here,” he answered, “I don’t know what they are up to though, nothing, honest.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Baldwin. He then looked at Annelie and Angel and they ran back to the room to stay with Kara, Kat and the cats. “Okay Rock,” said Baldwin. There was some screaming from the man, and he yelled to stop. Rock did. “Ready for some real answers now?”, asked Baldwin. He shook his head, he would. Then he suddenly slumped over and footsteps could be heard of someone running down the hall.

The girls went after whoever it was, but the person disappeared. The man in the chair was dead due to a poison dart that hit him in the neck. Then Baldwin noticed that Darren was gone! Could it have been him that shot the dart and ran off? They all looked around for him, but he was gone. Strangely, Stewart, the butler, did not seem to be bothered at all by what was happening. Elsa certainly was nervous however.

Baldwin and Rock went out to the cottage where Harris lived. He was still in bed but got up and joined them in the castle right away. Harris was quite angry when he found out what had happened, he was ready to join my team and help expose these people. Annelie did a quick check on Harris and found nothing against the man at all. So Baldwin gave Harris a gun, even though he had never used one. But he was given some quick lessons and should be a help if needed.

“Hey boss, look what I found in this guy’s pocket,” Rock said to Baldwin. It was a note which Baldwin read, “You are doing well. If you can find your friends before the time limit at 1am tomorrow, then we will not stop you from taking them and leaving. But if you cannot find them by that time then we will hand them to you, though they may not be breathing. But if you wish to leave now, you can have them back alive now. The choice is yours. Leave your reply on the kitchen table and go back to your room. The ghosts.”

That made everyone angry and Baldwin left the reply. “We will keep looking and if our friends die, we will hunt you down.” They then returned to their room, along with Harris, Stewart and Elsa. Everyone talked for a bit, then Stewart decided to go back to his room and get some sleep. Apparently he was not at all afraid. He had been working here for 12 years and did not believe anyone would harm him.

Harris went down to the kitchen after a while with Rock, Annelie and Elsa to make tea and get something to eat. The note had been taken by the time they got to the kitchen. Elsa went to Annelie and said something to her quietly. Annelie just stared. It was now 2am…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.