We certainly did not expect to see what we encountered in our room. Kristina was cowering in a corner and had obviously been beaten. Annelie was on her knees between two men with large guns, and she had been whipped. There was a fat man with a whip in hand standing there. “Well, hello,” he said almost cheerfully, “I’m just here to pick up my property. And your woman tried to stop us so I needed to teach her some manners.” And he walked over to us. Jennifer ran over to Annelie but was stopped by the two men.

“Drop your guns and get out of the way!”, I yelled to them. But they failed to do anything. “Oh, my men only take orders from me,” said the fat man. “That’s what you think,” I said angrily, “okay Jennifer.” She can move amazingly fast and kicked both of them hard in the stomach before they had a chance to do anything. “Meow,” I said. “Thwock!, Thwock!”, and both men were down. Then Kat kicked the fat man in the stomach knocking him against the wall and to the floor. I relieved him of his whip, not a typical whip, it was rather short, but left large red stripes on a person’s back.

I then ripped his shirt off and rolled him onto his stomach. “How many Jennifer?”, I asked. “She has 4,” she answered. “Well, you are a big strong man,” I said, “so you should be able to handle double that.” Amazingly he didn’t utter a sound and I was tempted to keep going but decided not to. “Get up,” I said to him. “You have made a grave mistake my friend,” he said, “you have tangled with the wrong man.” “First of all, I am not your friend,” I replied, “second, you are the one that made the mistake. I would suggest that you stay away from us from now on or next time you will not be walking away. Now take your two men and go.”

“How do you expect me to get them out of here,” he said indignantly, “you killed them, you deal with them. Now, I will take my whip and my property and go.” It was hard to believe I was hearing this. Muffin had the same thoughts, she growled and sprang from a nearby chair onto the man’s sore back with all 18 claws scratching away! That got him screaming. Then Kat took over and Muffin jumped off. “He will have more men in his van,” said Kristina. I called the police and informed them of the situation. It did not take long for several cars and well armed officers to show up. There were 3 other men in the van, plus the 3 bodies up here. And more questions. I think we will need to go back home to relax from our vacation.

Meanwhile in another part of the world…”The big man is working at one of Baldwin’s resorts, not far from where he lives,” said the man, “but there seems to be no other connection with Baldwin.” “Kill that man soon,” said the General, “and destroy the other chateau, that may bring the others out of hiding.” “Done”, said the man, “and I may have a lead on the whereabouts of the PI team. It seems a man from London, known as Whip, has gone to look for a woman that belonged to him. She apparently was freed by a group, a man and 3 women who were on vacation.” “Good, look into that,” said the General. “Being done as we speak,” said the man.

Now back to us…”How did this man find Kristina so easily?”, I asked. “Maybe because Gordon was working for him and Gordon was killed here,” said Kristina. “That is possible,” said Kat, “though he certainly got here fast.” “I think someone told him Kristina was still here,” said Jennifer. “A good thought,” I agreed, “and my thinking is that Marik informed him. The reason this town does not have crime is because the criminals are keeping it crime free so they can use this as some sort of getaway at times.” “And Beth knew,” said Annelie, “and she went to the ruins so she could talk to you when you got there.”

“Yes, that I also agree with,” I said, “but who did it? Those two men or perhaps that young couple?” “Too bad we don’t know what those men were talking about in the dining room,” said Kat. “Not much of anything,” said Kristina, “just talking about their fishing, vacation, jobs back home, telling jokes, just normal stuff.” “You understood them?”, I asked. “Yep, they were speaking Russian,” she said, “I can speak 10 languages fluently, plus another 6 that I am still working on.” “Now that is a good talent to have,” said Kat smiling at her. Just then I got a call from Baldwin saying our chateau was in ruins from explosions and a fire, it was totally destroyed.

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.