As everyone had come out of the Spider House, Irene was sitting on the back of Courage, though I think Irene lacked a bit of courage herself at the moment. Sky had told her to hold onto the long fur of Courage around his neck tightly, especially if he began to run. “Courage will take you directly to the hotel,” said Sky, “and don’t worry about anything along the way, nothing can hurt you.”

“Someone could shoot me,” said Irene, “or did you not think about that?” “I thought about it,” said Sky, “but no one can shoot you while you are on the back of Courage. You will have to trust me on this one.” “Okay, guess I can do that Sky,” smiled Irene. It was at that point that Misty pressed the button and the surprise packages from Catalina exploded into balls of flame and soon the house was burning nicely.

These surprise packages are not meant to give a big explosion, not usually anyway, they are meant to start fires, and when placed in the right locations they do a perfect job of getting fires burning quickly. But when that happened, Adamson’s men began to shoot at the girls.

They were hiding higher up in trees where they were using rifles to shoot at the girls. Courage began to run right away, with a rather scared Irene holding on as best she could. But, about half way back to the hotel, she fell off, rolling on the ground. Angel came running back to her and helped her back to her feet. “Are you hurt?” asked Angel.

“Not really, just some minor bumps and scrapes,” said Irene, “um, what happened to Courage? And where did you come from?” “Well, um, I guess Courage kept going,” said Angel, “and I was coming to look for you.” She gave a smile to Irene. “I’m not so sure I believe you,” said Irene, also smiling, “Steve has some explaining to do.”

“I’m sure he will do that,” said Angel, “oh, here are you suitcases, um, guess Courage dropped them too. I will carry them for you.” “I can carry one,” said Irene. “This might seem strange,” said Angel, “but would you mind holding my hand as we walk? It is the only way I can keep you safe. No one can shoot you while we hold hands.” “May I ask why?” asked Irene.

“Well, some of us girls, and one guy,” began Angel, “have this ability to keep people safe from being shot, if we hold onto them in some way and holding hands is the easiest way. Um, Steve can explain it better than I can.” “Okay,” said Irene, “he really has some things to explain.” Off they went together, talking all the way. Back to the others.

“Up in that tree Sky, about 20 feet on the right side,” said Kitty. Sky tossed a lightning ball. There was a scream and a man fell to the ground. This happened three times, then several men began running away in different directions. Sky and Kitty smiled as the men ran. Then they turned and ran over to the girls. Misty and Melanie were okay, but Milena, Melissa and Astrid had been shot.

They picked up Milena and Melissa and Sky disappeared with them, returning in a few minutes for Astrid, then disappearing again. Kitty was keeping Misty and Melanie safe and they began to run down the pathway to the main sidewalk, then off toward the hotel.

Sky then reappeared, but the girls were gone. “Now where did they go?” she asked herself, “Must have headed back to the hotel.” So, she returned to the hotel and waited at the main door. “There you are,” said Sky with a scolding look, “leaving without telling me, not nice!” “Oops,” said Kitty, “forgot to tell you, we were in a hurry to leave that area in case Adamson’s men came back.”

“Hmm, okay, I will accept that,” said Sky smiling. They all giggled and went inside. Kat was now in one of the rooms with the three girls helping them. Only one wound was serious, that was with Astrid, so Kat is working on her first and Samantha is working on the other two for now. Meanwhile, back with Adamson.

“What?!” screamed Adamson, “They burned the house down? That’s where all our loot was hidden! Now we’ll never get at it, all that money lost! There was $25,000,000 in there, plus gold and jewels and now it’s gone! That PI is going to regret this!” “Well, you shouldn’t have let Tina kill her grandmother before she told us where she hid the loot,” said Miss Hanson shaking her head.

Adamson then handed a gun to Tina. “Miss Hanson?” asked Tina. She turned around to see Tina standing there with a gun. Tina shot 3 times and Miss Hanson was dead. “Can I go kill those 2 little boys now too?” Tina asked. “Good idea,” said Adamson. She quickly went to the basement and shot 2 more times, then came back upstairs.

Adamson then told his men to tie something heavy to the bodies and take them for a swim, and they did so immediately. Meanwhile, back to us again. “Steve?” asked Cristy, “You busy?” “No, what have you got for me?” I asked. “That casket they dug up didn’t have Geraldine in it,” said Cristy, “it was 2 little girls.”

“I figured it might be something like that,” I said, “now Adamson is finished. He can’t go anywhere far on this island, and we know where he is staying. He will soon be behind bars for a long time.” “But how are you going to prove he did the killing?” asked Cristy.

“He ordered the killing,” I said, “that’s good enough. We just need to prove it and I admit that might be a bit tricky. But first we need to catch him before he decides to leave this island. However, Adamson was ahead of us and his yacht, along with him, Tina and his remaining men were soon heading toward the mainland.

Once there they quickly headed for their cars, but the police came rushing in with their vehicles from left and right, cutting off their only means of escape. But Adamson quickly surrendered, yelling that he had the person who killed Geraldine, Miss Hanson and several children. “Uncle Jeremy,” said Tina, “look at me.” He turned around and looked at Tina, but a look of horror showed on his face when he saw Tina standing there with her gun.

She shot twice and Adamson fell to the ground, dead. She then tossed her gun away, laughing at the police. She was quickly arrested, but what will happen to her? Since she is under 18, possibly not too much. The rest of Adamson’s gang that were with him were also arrested. Unfortunately that is not the end…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.