Well, things do go smoothly for our teams at the Black Swan, no one was killed and only a few with minor injuries from fighting. I was a bit concerned before that perhaps we would be counter attacked here at the hotel, but all of Dinah’s men, which numbered 10, were killed. Some of Tobias’ men were killed and the rest were arrested, along with Tobias himself. He was charged with sex trafficking and crooked gambling. His men were charged with various offences, though none were very serious.

Most likely won’t even get any jail time. Except for Tobias. He will be in prison for a long time no doubt. We found out later that a cousin of his will be managing the Black Swan while Tobias is “away”. Hannah, who has some excellent contacts in Brazil and Argentina, got the word out quickly that Dinah and her men had been killed. So, when the others who were supposed to come and join Dinah in Vegas heard that news, they decided to stay home. After all, who is going to pay them now?

Dinah had no one ready to take over her operations if something should happen to her. Guess she wasn’t expecting to die any time soon. Meanwhile, for us back at the hotel. It took me a while to explain things to Celestine, I had to keep stopping due to choking up a bit while talking. Angel showed her how she disappeared, and I did too. But, finally, I was nearing the end of my explanations and I turned to Celestine and apologized for keeping these things secret, especially since she was being so open and honest with me and taking the time to help me like she did.

I was a total stranger and she just took time off work, gave me a place to stay and gave me such amazing counsel which really turned things around for me. “And in return I lied to you by not telling you the total truth about myself,” I said, with tears streaming down my cheeks. “Steve, I think you’re an amazing man,” she said, “and I don’t think you were lying to me, you were just following the rules, which is something you should do, most of the time anyway.

However, there are times when it’s okay to break the rules. Like right now. Jennifer might get mad at me for doing this, but you have done so much for me, more than I ever did for you, so I’m gonna do this anyway.” The girls went “oooooo”, “ahhhhhh”. The cats meowed, “Wow, that a super long one!” Suddenly there was a familiar voice. “Oh my, I always seem to come along when you’re kissing one of the girls,” said Jennifer, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do with you Steve.”

Celestine and I quickly stopped kissing and looked at Jennifer. She was standing at the door smiling at us. “Oh, I’m sorry Jennifer, don’t be mad at Steve, please,” pleaded Celestine, “it was all my fault, I kissed Steve, he didn’t kiss me, so please blame me instead…” That was as far as she got when Jennifer stopped her. “Yes, I could see that Steve was struggling to push you away from him,” she said. “He was?” asked Misty. For some reason that made Celestine and Jennifer laugh.

Loud and long. Misty sighed. “I think I must have missed something again,” she said. That got Aasta and Angel laughing too. I got up and went over to sit with Misty and she curled up on my lap with her head on my shoulder. “Feel better?” I asked. “Yep, thank you,” she said. “We’ll soon be home again,” I said, “and you will have your den.” “Yep,” she said. “You need to make it a bit bigger,” I said, “that way if you want a hidden nap, then you have enough room.”

“Me, or you?” she asked. “Well, maybe me sometimes,” I said, “you don’t mind sharing, do you?” “Nope,” she said, “but we don’t have anymore wood, or nails.” “I can supply that for you,” I said, “there’s lots of left over wood in our garage. Nails too.” “I didn’t think we could take that,” she replied. “You can’t,” I said, “but I can.” I smiled at her. “You’re the best older brother,” she said. “They are not laughing at you,” I said, “just at what you said.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said, “but now I get to cuddle with you.” “Sneak,” I said. “Sneaked cuddles are the best,” she said. A little later. “Did Steve introduce you to Courage too?” Jennifer asked Celestine. “Nope, he didn’t,” she said, “is that another one of the cats?” “A cat with a difference,” I said, “I was going to introduce you to him, but we got sort of, um, sidetracked. Okay Angel, bring out Courage.” “Is Courage your cat?” Celestine asked Angel. “Well, actually, I am Courage,” she said.

She then got down on her hands and knees and right away Courage was in front of us. Celestine’s eyes got real big at that one. Courage came over to the bed and Celestine reached over and hugged him. “It’s a real lion, but huge!” she exclaimed. Soon we were all heading back home. The Black Swan was now a police investigation, so we had to leave. Mandar decided to tell Richard about his family, but he just told Richard that his family had been killed by Dinah.

He gave Richard time off from work to deal with this tragedy. Vlora, who had wanted to come back to us, decided to stay with Mandar for now and help him out. So, she is now number 3 at Mandar Corporation and she is perfect for the position. She has been with Mandar for a long time and is completely trustworthy. We had 5 of our girls end up with minor injuries and one of the guys, which is not bad at all.

It is good to be back home again though. That was a rather stressful case. It didn’t take long for Misty to remind me about their den. So, one day I took her to the garage to get wood and nails, plus a hammer, she had used a rock before, which didn’t work so good. We added another room, for the naps and Celestine made curtains to divide the two rooms.

Anyway, the case is over, and sure didn’t turn out to be what we expected. Alfred looked at the gems that Jennifer took from Tobias and oddly enough he knew nothing about them. Guess that means we will keep them. Now we can relax and wait for the next case to come along.

The End. A new case will begin soon. ©2025 Steve McLeod.