Our limousine is one of the safest places around, so it was a good time to continue our conversations with Arielle and Dorothy. But we will continue with Dorothy first, I think. “Can you tell us a bit about this Mr. Stone?” I asked Dorothy,” Such as his first name, where he lives, is he married, does he have children? Also, are there more snipers like yourself on his payroll?”

“As for your last question, yes,” she said, “there are 3 others, but I was his top sniper and he always used me first since I never missed. His first name is Willard, he is married, coming up to three years. He is 30 years old, his wife is 21. They have no children. He has 4 brothers. They all are quite wealthy from inheritance money, but Willard is by far the most wealthy. He made a lot of money on the stock market and through real estate deals. He also operates a sex trafficking business which is operated by Wendy Dupuis.”

When she mentioned that name I decided to show her a photo. “Yep, that’s Wendy,” said Dorothy. I then showed the photo to Arielle. “That’s my sister Camille,” she said. Dorothy just looked at her. “Is she looking at the same woman?” she asked me. “Yes, she is,” I said, “and Camille is married to Tony, so her name is now Mancini.” Now Dorothy was looking at me and blinking the same way that Misty and Cristy blink.

“If Mr. Stone finds out,” said Dorothy, “he would kill Wendy, or Camille, or whoever she is. None of his employees are allowed to be married. You can’t even date without special approval from Mr. Stone. He says that married employees are distracted employees.” “How old are you Dorothy?” I asked. “Must I answer that question?” she asked in return. “If you want to join us, then it is necessary for me to know your age,” I replied. “I’m 23,” said Colette.

“Same here,” replied Sky. “I’m 26!” said Sherry, our driver. “I’m also 23!” said Dawn, sitting in the front with Sherry. “Okay, fine,” said Dorothy, “I’m 22, and here’s my driver’s license to prove it. I’m kind of surprised you didn’t check me for weapons. I thought that was just normal for everyone to do.” “Well, um, usually we do that,” I said, “but I didn’t think it was necessary this time.” Sky looked at me and frowned. “I’m 24,” said Arielle, “what about you Steve? Or does the boss not have to give his age?”

“I’m 32,” I said, “I’m the old one here.” “That’s okay, we love you anyway,” said Sky smiling. “Oh, does your wife know you have a girlfriend on the side?” asked Dorothy. Sky had her arm around me with her head on my shoulder, which is why Dorothy asked. The girls laughed, I turned red. “Sky is not my girlfriend,” I said, “she is my ex-wife actually.” “And she still works for you?” asked Dorothy, “That’s kind of strange, isn’t it?” “He needs me to help protect him,” said Sky giggling.

“Yes, that is very true,” I said. “She doesn’t carry a gun,” said Dorothy, “though I notice that Colette does.” “I don’t need a gun,” said Sky, “I’m my own weapon.” Dorothy was a bit perplexed, I could tell, but she didn’t ask anymore questions. I then asked her where Mr. Stone lives, but she said no one knows exactly. He has many places to live and he keeps moving around which makes it hard for anyone to find him at any given time. Hmm, that’s not much help for us unfortunately.

She did give us three places where he lives in London and a couple other cities in the UK. He also has homes in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and other places in Europe, America, Australia and Singapore. She said there are likely others, but those are ones she knows about, but she doesn’t know exact addresses, except the ones in the UK. That is quite a list and will make it hard to track him down. Considering we don’t know him from any previous case, I asked Dorothy why he wants to kill us.

“It seems you put a friend of his in prison at one time,” said Dorothy, “and his friend was killed while in prison. That’s why he wants you to die as well.” Well, there is a slight connection with our present case because of Camille, but that is not why he wants me dead. So, we are back to figuring out what this is all about. “Me Fluffy, see car following us.” “Fluffy, tell car 10 about it please,” I said. “Fluffy alert car 10, they will divert.” “Thank you Fluffy,” I said. “Fluffy say welcome!”

“Wow, now that is new,” said Dorothy, “using a toy cat for communicating!” “Yes, he needed a little adjusting,” I said, “but a couple of my girls are great with things like that.” “Aside from Mr. Cold,” said Dorothy, “do other men work for you?” I laughed. “You are full of questions Dorothy,” I said, “but for now your questions will have to wait.”

“Yes, I see,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry for that, I guess that makes you suspicious of me now. But please, don’t be. I, I guess you all just made me feel welcomed and I just got carried away.” “We won’t worry about it right now,” I said. “Thank you,” she said, having her head down. I really don’t think she was trying to pry, she just felt comfortable being with us and she didn’t think. I understand that problem. Sometimes it’s easy to tell when a person is true and when they are not.

She will be fine once she settles in with us. Suddenly a car pulls up quickly beside us. “Fluffy say bad car beside us, we go zoom?” Just then the back window of the car opens and the blast of a shotgun hits our side window. Then there were two more. “Go zoom Fluffy, now!” Now our car jumped into action and took off speeding down the street, with the other car trying to catch up! “Window open,” I said, and it opened.

I had a lightning ball in my hand and tossed it backward at the car. It was a direct hit, causing it to explode and roll along the street. I made sure there were no other cars around before I did that though, I didn’t want to hurt innocent people. “Best way back to the hotel, please, Fluffy,” said Sherry. “Fluffy say turn in 3 streets left.” While Fluffy was taking us through a maze of streets and lanes, Dorothy said the car was not from Mr. Stone.

It was a black car and Mr. Stone hates dark colored cars, so he doesn’t allow them to be used, at any time. Also, she said, the shotgun was not used by Mr. Stone’s men. He only allowed one type to be used and that wasn’t it. “I know guns,” she said, “let me look briefly at any gun and I can tell you all about it, in detail. Part of my job. As your man, Mr. Cold said, it helps keep me alive.” “His name is Mac,” I said. Hmm, I wonder who that car belonged to if it wasn’t Mr. Stone?

Might be hard to figure out now. I communicated with Jennifer to be extra careful with Gabriel and Josephine. Then Cristy called. “Found out something about the grandparents finally,” she said, “their real names are Joseph and Gabriella Meyer. Joseph and John Meyer are brothers. There are also 5 other brothers and 3 sisters, all living. Joseph and John are the two oldest.”

Well, we seem to be getting somewhere, I think, although it seems like Joseph and John are working against each other. However, Cristy said the whole family are close and all are criminals with most of them working for John Meyer, including Joseph. We were soon at our hotel and we all ran inside quickly while Sky and Sherry hid the limousine.

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.