It has been a month since our last case and we sure needed the time off to relax and recharge from that one. It is only about 6 weeks until Christmas and the girls are already decorating the chateau. We learned a lot from that last case and we need more time for relaxation even if it means saying no to some cases that come along. I also discovered something about Misty and Cristy. They had gone through a special training course with Mandar security and in that course perfection was taught and expected if you wanted to pass.

Misty and Cristy passed with high honors which is why they were put in such a high position within Mandar Corp. Unfortunately, it did lead to some problems for them and even small failures stressed them out terribly, which is why Cristy went flippedy, as the twins call it. She needed to be calmed down with a strong sedative, maybe a little too strong for Cristy though, and she slept for nearly 24 hours. Misty doesn’t go wild, like Cristy, she is just the opposite, she hides, curls up somewhere surrounded by cushions and won’t eat or talk.

After we came home from our last case, I found her in the twin’s den, curled up, with half a dozen cushions around her. I left and came back with a big bag of cushions taken off our armchairs. I put them carefully all around Misty so that she was nearly covered. Then I asked if I could join her. She didn’t say anything, so I curled up beside her, with a bunch of cushions between us. Guess I fell asleep quickly and when I woke up about an hour later, Misty had rearranged the cushions so they were around me too. “Thank you,” I said. “Welcome,” she replied, “feel better?” “Yes,” I said, “this is a good idea.”

Then I stroked her long blond hair. “I love you little sis,” I said. She moved closer. “Love you too,” she said. “I kind of thought you two would be in here,” said Jennifer, “can I convince you to come out now?” We both smiled and came out. That was shortly after we got home from our case. Now we are back in the present. All of the girls, and guys, are out of the clinic now and doing well. Unfortunately, Laura (from Misty’s team) and Celeste (from the Bad Girls) were killed.

Katresa and Cassie (also from the Bad Girls) and Valeria (from Misty’s team) will be staying at home for now, they need more recovery time, but all 3 should be fully back to normal at some point. Birkett, one of the new men from the Black Wolves, was also killed. Losing Laura and having Valeria seriously wounded, is what hit Misty hard and she felt like a failure because of it. Misty and Cristy even tried to resign, which I refused to accept. We held a vote and 100% said they wanted the twins to stay.

One day while the girls were decorating, an old car came driving in, slowly and swerving a bit. Dawn told the occupant to stay by the car and identify themself. The older lady that got out obviously didn’t know what to do, so she came up to the door anyway. I said to let her in and Dawn brought her into the library. She told us a rather mixed up story about her two grandchildren that had been kidnapped, at least, she was certain they were kidnapped since they disappeared without saying anything, something they never did.

She talked as though they were little children, yet when I asked she told us the boy was 18 and the girl was 20. “Or is it 17 and 19?” she thought out loud, “Well, something like that anyway.” She said the three of them were very close and the children never went anywhere without telling her. Then one day about 2 weeks ago they went shopping, or to work, she wasn’t quite sure which, and never returned. She called the police but they told her that the children likely moved out on their own, or maybe decided to go on a vacation.

She admitted they did talk about wanting to go on a vacation to Hawaii, but it was too expensive. The grandmother offered to pay for it, but they didn’t want her to waste her money like that. “But I have lots of money,” she said, “so why not spend it on my children?” She kept referring to them as her children, but when I asked, she said they were her grandchildren, but she always called them her children since she had raised them from little children.

Apparently the parents had disappeared mysteriously 15 years ago and haven’t been heard from since. That part is interesting, I wonder if there is a connection? She talked about how the kids were doing so well in school, then switched to saying they were having such a hard time getting a full time job ever since finishing school several years ago. The poor woman was definitely mixed up telling us about what happened. Perhaps that’s because she is so stressed about the situation, and she did admit to being stressed and she was taking medication for that.

Hmm, that might contribute to her being so mixed up at times. Samantha was with us during this interview and she felt that the medication was likely the problem. I didn’t sense anything wrong with this woman. Jennifer, Celestine and Galyna thought she was genuine. Seeing how she drove in here, I had some of the girls go back with her, driving her home in her car and some following in one of our vans so the girls could come back afterward. I told Mary, the grandmother, that I would have to check with the police first to see if they were still working on the case.

If they were not, then we would take the case and look for her grandchildren. She thanked us, then 8 of the girls took her back home to the city. I sent Dawn and 7 of her girls, plus 3 cats to sniff around for us. The girls would also be checking the house for clues while there. I checked with the police and they had looked for the grandchildren for 2 weeks but found nothing wrong and they determined the pair likely left on their own.

It was kind of hard to tell what happened, he told me, since the grandmother was so mixed up at times. Anyway, he said there would be no problem with us taking the case and he sent us a copy of their report which didn’t tell us much. The report did tell us when the two had graduated and their ages were 17 and 19. It was dark when the girls arrived at the grandmother’s house. The woman gave the key to Dawn and she stayed in her car with 4 of the girls.

Dawn told her this was standard procedure. When Dawn and the others got to the door, the cats began to growl. Not a good sign. Dawn called me right away to let me know. I didn’t like that at all, but told Dawn to let the cats go in first and wait for their signal. The cats gave the all clear, so Dawn and the 3 others went inside. That was the last I heard from Dawn…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.