Well, here I am speaking with the mysterious Mr. B, the person that everyone is afraid of and yet no one has seen. Or, at least, no one knew they had seen him, since he is a woman, not a man. An ingenious way to hide, without the need to hide. What better way to hide than to be right out in the open all the time. “I am surprised that Kenwood hasn’t figured out that you are Mr. B by now,” I said. “Well, he may may be thinking about it,” said Ivy, “but he has never said anything.”

“Perhaps like so many others, he was afraid to upset Mr. B and end up losing his life,” I suggested. “Perhaps,” she said, “he did tell me, not long back, that he just preferred to stay away from him. By the way, I said you could have 2 guards with you and yet you are here alone, why?” “Well, you did say you would be coming alone and unarmed,” I began, “so I didn’t think it was really necessary to have any guards. My wife disagreed with me, however, so I do have one guard. You may come out now Crystal.”

Then Crystal came walking out of the bathroom. “See this button on my belt?” I asked Ivy, “If I pressed this, it would sound an alarm which would bring Crystal out of the bathroom and she would kill you before you had a chance to kill me. But for that matter, I could do the same thing.” “But sometimes he forgets that,” said Crystal, “which is why Jennifer wanted me here.” “I could have kept Kitty here, as she could do the same thing as Crystal,” I said, “but, Jennifer specifically chose Crystal.”

“Hmm, Jennifer is the real boss of the Investigators?” asked Ivy chuckling. “Well, in some ways at least,” I said, rolling my eyes. That got Ivy laughing out loud. I sighed. “So, are you willing to change, or just thinking about it?” I asked. “I want that change to happen right now Steve,” she said, now almost crying, “I’m tired of running, of doing things I hate, trying to pretend I enjoy a criminal life. I have become so hardened that I can’t even cry anymore. Can you please help me Steve?”

“Celestine, come in here please,” I said and almost immediately she was knocking at the door, so Crystal let her in. “Celestine came from a criminal family,” I explained, “she discovered it was possible to cry again, and laugh, have fun and be quite normal again.” “Steve let me listen to that last part of your conversation,” she said to Ivy, “if you really want change, it will come easily, and if you stay with us, there will be lots of us girls to help you along, with love, real love.” Ivy was now sitting on the edge of the bed after she had been walking around while talking.

Celestine had sat beside her and put her arm around her. Now Ivy was actually crying and she remained crying for quite some time. She had been holding in her emotions for so long and it now just burst out. After she settled down we talked a bit more. She was the one who sent her lawyers over to get us out of jail. She wasn’t able to help Barry, however, the cops said he tried to escape when they stopped at a service station so he could use the washroom, so they shot him, dead. She also said that there are 5 cops on Kenwood’s payroll.

She then told us that Kenwood was the one that kidnapped Crystal and she was surprised that we had her back already. I told her we didn’t, but he still didn’t have Crystal, since she is one of triplets. “Won’t that be dangerous for the one he has then?” she asked. “No, it will be dangerous for her kidnappers though,” I said, “and I imagine she will be calling for a ride soon.” She also thought that Kenwood had killed Jacie and Dan, but he denied doing it she said. “If he did it, he wouldn’t deny it to me,” she said, “he likes to brag about things, it makes him look tougher. He thought it was Mr. B, but I know it wasn’t.”

“The evidence seems to suggest a woman did the murders,” I said, “a rock was used each time, likely to subdue the person to make it easier to kill them. So it would seem likely a smaller woman would be responsible.” “Well, guess I do match that description,” she said, “but honestly, it was not me Steve, I have never killed anyone myself and I would never have my people kill an innocent person. Perhaps the murderer did it that way to throw you off.” “I have thought about that possibility too,” I said, “but my primary suspect for that was Barry, and he is now on the murdered list too. By the way, does Kenwood know you were coming here?”

“No, I just told him I had some business to do and would be back in a couple of hours,” she said, “unless you agreed to help me, then I wouldn’t return. However, I’m sure he would have had someone follow me, so he knows I’m here now.” “Mac.” I said. “Yeah Steve,” he replied. “Did anyone follow Ivy Hendrick to the hotel?” I asked. “Yeah, 2 guys, small green car,” he replied. “That would be Chuck and Chisholm, two brothers from Kentucky, two brutal boys in talk and action.”

“Eliminate them Mac,” I said, “if there are not too many people around.” “None around at the moment,” he said. Both men were in the front seat with their windows open, since it was a rather warm day for this time of year. Mac went over to the car. “Hi Chuck, hi Chisholm,” he said. “No, you got us mixed up man,” said Chuck. “Sorry boys,” said Mac, “good bye.” He already had his gun out, with silencer on and with two shots they were both dead. Mac then walked casually away. “Done,” was all he said. “Thanks Mac,” I replied.

“So you do have men with you as well,” said Ivy, “he’s a talkative one.” “Mac doesn’t say more than necessary,” I said, “and even less when women are around.” “Are you not worried that the other Crystal might be in danger, or even dead by now?” asked Ivy. Meanwhile, in an old warehouse somewhere in the city. “That’s enough noise from that woman,” said the one man. There were 4 of them guarding Angel who was posing as Crystal. He opened the door where they had Crystal (Angel) tied up and gagged.

He immediately screamed as this huge lion jumped on him, killing him instantly. Then Courage went after the other three and it didn’t take long to catch and kill them as well. A little while later she communicated with me that she needed a ride. “Kitty, go pick up Angel please,” I said, “and take Astrid with you. Oh, and send Misty and Tracy up here.” “Okay Steve,” she said, “uh, where is Angel?” “She didn’t know,” I said, “so you will just have to follow her signal.” “Okay, we’re on it,” she said, “is Mr. B still there?”

“No, Mr. B left already,” I said. “But we were watching all 3 doors and we didn’t see him leave.” “Do you know what he looks like?” I asked. There was silence. “Um, we’re in the car on the way to pick up Angel now,” she said. “That’s good,” I said, “thank you.” Ivy was laughing so hard now that she had tears from that! Well, our murder suspects are getting murdered, which isn’t helping, and one is now on our side and she is quite confident that Kenwood didn’t do it, or he would brag about it. That leaves us with Andrew Li and someone named Big Daddy.

Ivy had never heard of Big Daddy before, but she said there are always new arrivals in the sex trafficking business and they pick names like that to make themselves look more important, and surrounded with cheap rough types who will do anything, even murder, for one or two hundred dollars. Most likely it was someone Jacie didn’t want to see a second time, and that certainly fit Andrew Li. He’s a small man too, which also fits, but something is leading me to look for this Big Daddy…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.