I found out from Richard that his wife had a brother, named Dean, who disappeared at the age of 16 and no one ever saw him again. He was 2 years younger than Richard’s wife Delena. We checked to see which of our guys might look close enough to Dean at the age of 33, so that if necessary, we can bring her brother back. “You wanted to talk with me Steve?” asked Trapper.

I told him my idea and asked if he would be willing to play her long lost brother. We won’t do this right away, but we will keep it as a possibility. He accepted the challenge. Fortunately after 17 years, her brother would have changed quite a bit, and that is helpful. We gave him basic knowledge of the family. Apparently he never got along with his parents, but he was fairly close to Delena.

I have a terrible feeling about this kidnapping which is why I’m doing this. I’m not telling Richard why, it might be too devastating for him to ponder right now. “What makes you think this is a set up Steve?” asked Celestina. “Just a hunch really,” I said, “money can do strange things to people sometimes.” “Yeah, like Whitaker and his men,” she said slowly. She then went back out to be with the others. “I think something happened to that girl,” said Jennifer, “someone did something to her and she’s trying to hide it. But it bothers her at times, I have noticed it before. So, someone needs to talk with her about it.”

“Well, I…” and that was as far as I got. “I agree, you should be the one to talk with her,” said Jennifer, “after all, you know her best and she trusts you. Thanks for volunteering Steve, I knew you would do the right thing.” The right thing would be for me to keep my mouth closed at certain times. I thought Jennifer should do it. Hmm, and then there is Misty. “Oh, and don’t even think about passing it to Misty,” she said and then went out to talk with the girls. Sigh. She always knows.

Well, it didn’t seem to take long and we arrived in Vegas. Sienna had vans and cars waiting for us, plus one nice limousine. Sherry loves driving these cars, but I don’t think Sienna enjoys it so much. The last one needed a few repairs. Oh well. It was a rather intense chase. We went directly to our hotels, each team was staying in a different hotel, but not far apart, just in case we need each other quickly. We arrived just in time for an early breakfast and our hotel had a nice, large restaurant.

I asked if our cats could join us, but the manager just laughed, so we took pancakes and bacon up to the cats in our room. “I sense trouble in here,” I said to Jennifer and the message was passed along around our two tables. The restaurant was not too busy, but it was early. There were 3 men sitting at one table and I was sure they were the source of my trouble senses. Jennifer agreed with me. Celestine looked quickly over at them, but also quickly turned away and put her head down.

That was a rather strange reaction, I thought, but I didn’t want to say anything right then. A little later those men left and the trouble left with them. Meanwhile, not too far away. “Guess who we saw at the restaurant this morning boss?” asked Herman. “You know I don’t like playing games,” he said, “if it’s important, just tell me.” “It was Celestine,” said Chaz, “she was with some guy and a bunch of women.” “And you didn’t bring her back with you?” he asked. “There was 20 of them boss,” said Herman.

“Hmm, I wonder who she is with?” he asked, not expecting an answer, “go back there and watch for an opportunity to grab her.” So, off they went right away. “Well Celestine,” said the man to himself, “I am going to teach you a lesson you will never forget. No one runs away from me, no one!” Now, back to us. The girls had gone back to their rooms, but Jennifer and I stayed behind to talk with Celestine about those men.

However, when I saw the men returning, we decided to head back to our room. “Dawn, get down here right away please, with some of your girls,” I said, “those men have returned.” Dawn and 5 others came running into the restaurant, so we then got up to leave. As we got closer to the men, one of them called out. “Hey Celestine, Tobias wants to see you,” he said.

Jennifer kept going with Celestine, but I stayed behind with the girls. “You tell that Tobias, whoever he is,” I began, “to stop thinking about Celestine, it will be healthier for him that way.” “Maybe we should bring you back to Tobias,” he said, “he would love to hear you tell him that.” He then stood up, but with 2 kicks from Dawn, he was sitting again.

“By the way,” I said to those guys, “I only give one warning.” We then left and went back to our rooms. This is not starting off the way I thought it would. We are no longer members of The Investigators, so that part is good. We are now our own gang, here on a vacation. That will make it harder for them to check on us…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.