This huge dog was running toward me, but I managed to call Sky and she arrived in time, standing in front of me to stop this dog. The dog then leaped at Sky and went right through her and slammed into me, knocking me onto my back. Kat and Kristina saw this and they came over quickly and Kristina put up a shield to keep the dog away, which worked, the dog just stood there growling. Sky then did something I had not seen her do before, she ran to the dog and put her hands on it causing the dog to glow and it disappeared.

“That dog wanted you Steve,” said Kat, “not anyone else, yet it wasn’t real.” “True,” said Sky, “it was just a hologram, nothing more, but how did it knock Steve down like that?” “I would like to know that too,” I said, “for a hologram I could certainly feel it hit me.” “The dog didn’t hit you Steve,” said Kat, “something fell from the ceiling, hitting you on the chest just as the dog supposedly hit you. Very elaborate and well done. Someone has gone to a lot of work to scare people. This house must be important to someone.”

“Yes, and we need to find out who finds this house so important,” I said, “and convince them it would be in their best interest to return those 7 women, alive and unharmed.” Hopefully someone was listening to us right then and heard what I said. We then continued to look around with half the team going upstairs to check the bedrooms and look for hidden doors and passageways. The rest of us stayed downstairs for now checking all the rooms and then heading into the basement which was only about half the size of the house which was a bit curious.

The entire foundation was made from granite blocks, but one wall didn’t look quite the same as the others. “That wall isn’t as old as the rest,” said Oskar. He then pointed out subtle differences in the rock to prove his point. I certainly won’t doubt him, he worked with rock a lot for a company in Sweden before he joined us. That means there could be more of the basement on the other side of that wall, and there is likely a hidden door with a passageway that leads to that part of the basement.

A typical setup for these old houses we have discovered on other cases. However, we did not find out anything more that night, it was actually quite boring, aside from the dog at the beginning. So, at about 2am we went back to our hotel and to bed. By 8am we were having breakfast in the hotel restaurant and George came by to see how things went last night. I told him there wasn’t really anything to report, though we did hear some noises of kids talking and footsteps going up the stairs.

I didn’t tell him about the dog, even though it wasn’t real. He is already terribly worried about his daughter and the others too and I didn’t want to worry him even more. I then told him we will be going back there after breakfast to look around while there is daylight. Since it’s a sunny day, that will give us lots of natural light in the house. He then left for work and we quickly finished our breakfast. The restaurant had filled our thermoses with fresh coffee to take with us.

When we arrived at the house, Kat got out of the van she was in and Rusty meowed to her that someone was watching them from the very top window, which would be in the attic. Kat turned casually and saw this person too, though she didn’t stare. Instead she came over to me and let me know about the person watching us. I didn’t bother looking, so as not to alarm our friendly “ghost” in the window. Our teams switched places this time, so my team was now looking around upstairs. But, we could not find a way up into the attic, so there must be a secret stairway going up there, but where was it hidden?

Well, the girls have been missing for 4 days now and that’s not good, especially since no ransom note or call has come. That means the girls could be dead or they are being used in sex trafficking. Either scenario is not good. We are missing Cathy, Acadia, Stefanie and Alexine from the Wildcats and the remaining Wildcats are not too happy about that and are ready for a fight. Then there is George’s daughter Shawna and her friends Layne and Virginia.

Alexine is friends with Layne and Virginia, they are three years younger than Cathy and Shawna who are 25 and Acadia just wanted to go along, she is the youngest of the group at just 18. Back to our search, on one end of the house, at the back, the bedroom on one side of the hall was bigger than the bedroom on the other side of the hall. I contacted one of the girls that were looking around outside and she confirmed that the back of the house was even right across. “Well, we found our hidden staircase,” I said, “now to find out how to get at it.”

“It would be right behind that stone wall in the basement,” said Yves, “you know, the wall that shouldn’t be there.” He was right, so we all went down to the basement so we could go to the attic. Kind of a strange house. However, after looking for an hour, we could not find a way to get through that stone wall. “Give me a sledge hammer,” said Rock, “and I will make a way through that wall.” “It would also warn our ghostly friends that we are coming,” I said, “and we don’t want to do that.” Then Melody called me. “I found Virginia, Steve”, she said, “I’ll send you a photo.”

Now, sending me a photo was right, but I wish she had warned me ahead of time so I would know what the photo would be like, instead of just letting it hit me. I sighed when it came through and Ivy came over to look at it too. Ivy is my pretend wife since Dawn became sick before we left home. “She is a very beautiful woman,” said Ivy, then she looked at me and could tell that I was now very worried. The photo of Virginia was from a porn site which means that all of the girls are likely being used on that same site, though not necessarily, they could be on other sites.

“At least it means they are still alive,” Ivy said softly and she hugged me. I called the team together for a meeting in the living room, but I set up one of our scramblers first. I then told everyone about the photo of Virginia so that we all know what we are up against. It also meant that no one was allowed to go off by themselves, but everyone had to stay in their designated groups.

Meanwhile, “Why can’t we hear anything but static now?” asked George. “They must have a way of interfering with our listening device sir,” said Lester. “Phoenix isn’t going to like this,” said Eric. “I don’t care about Phoenix,” said George, “they are always complaining but never try to help us. I mean, we picked up 7 beautiful women for them and they want us to wait for our money.”

“You want me to relay that to Phoenix?” asked Eric. “No, he doesn’t,” said Colin, who had just joined the others, “he’s just a bit frustrated right now, no point in starting problems right now guys. These people won’t find anything and then they’ll leave, right George?” “Uh, yeah, that’s the way I figure it too,” replied George.

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.