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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I had told Catalina to keep the explosive devices smaller, so that hopefully it would not trigger an avalanche. If one did happen, it would go down into an area that was uninhabited at least. However, nothing like that happened, so that was good. The resort itself was soon engulfed in flames and was completely destroyed.
Helene is not going to be happy about that, but she should know that there are risks to running such a business. It’s too bad she escaped us though, and we have no photo of her either. We will have to try and find one somewhere. It is always nice to know what our enemies look like, for future reference.
Koffman and his men also got away from us, though he was not exactly who we were fighting this time. We now have to wait for him to make his move first, so we can legally go after him. Standing by the car, Carine handed me an envelope that had been left taped to the car window. I opened it and it read;
“Greetings Mr. PI, well, you won this time but don’t let it go to your head. One of these days I will win, those ghosts of yours can’t protect you all the time. One day I will find you when you are vulnerable and then you will die. That is a promise.”
Unfortunately the author of this charming little note did not sign it, but I’m certain we can figure out who it was from. She even added a bit of perfume to the note, which I thought was a nice touch. “Please take it seriously Steve,” said Jennifer, “after all, your new wife doesn’t want to be a young widow.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Misty, “I sure don’t want to be…wait, how can I be a young widow when we are not even married? We are not actually married, right? Steve, you’re not answering, why are you not answering? Jennifer, maybe you can answer instead, Steve is trying to make me nervous.”
“Well, it’s like this Misty,” said Jennifer, “we had to make it real just in case someone decided to check to see if it was true. Sometimes people will do that, and it’s not hard to check and see if something is fake, so, we made sure it was real. Um, did she fall asleep?”
“I think she fainted again,” I said. “She’ll be okay,” said Kat, “the thought of actually being married to you was just too much for her, so she fainted.” Everyone had a good laugh about that. “Is it really that bad being married to me Jennifer?” I asked. She sighed. “Well, sometimes it can be a bit trying,” she said, “especially when you don’t do as you’re told and you get yourself in trouble.”
She had a stern look on her face, but that quickly disappeared and she laughed again. Now I guess it’s my turn to sigh. We stopped in the city to give the two women who had been held for ransom to the police. I didn’t want to give them over to the local police near the resort, not knowing whose side they were on.
Apparently they were reliable officers however, but the police thanked us for being on the cautious side. The families of these two women were ecstatic to have them returned, unharmed physically, but they are likely very traumatized by the ordeal and will need some counseling. We were offered a reward in each case but turned it down.
The other dead woman’s body was returned to her family by the police. The other 3 women who had been on vacation traveling across Europe, had been held in that prison for 7 weeks. It was a very traumatic experience for all of them, to varying degrees. They asked if they could stay with us for a while and get some counseling from us.
Amazingly all three of them have no immediate family. Each is an only child and each of their parents was also an only child. This was something that brought them together as friends when they were teenagers. Each of them also lost their parents in accidents within days of each other. That part really intrigued me, it just seemed to be too much of a coincidence.
I didn’t say anything to the women however. I did ask Cristy to do some checking on those accidents though. The parents had paid for this vacation for the women, then the accidents happened shortly afterward. They decided to continue with their plans with this vacation anyway but soon wished they had stayed home, after they had been kidnapped and put into that prison.
All three were 21, but looked younger, and all 3 were indeed very beautiful. We happily allowed them to stay with us as long as they wanted and they would get good counseling from Galyna, Misty, and Hannah, our 3 counselors. Perhaps they will decide to join our team eventually, but for now they are just guests, though they also want to help wherever they can.
We left Sienna at her house, one of many, and she will be going on an extended business trip so we may not see her for a while. But Mandar is back from his trip and was waiting for us at our chateau, eager to hear of our adventure. Kristina is doing well and will soon be back to normal, whatever normal is for a ghost.
It is good to know that no more ghosts will show up, since everything was completely destroyed by Sky and Angel. At least, I’m glad that none will show up on the wrong side. Well, this was a shorter case, but that is okay once in a while. Now we relax while waiting for another case to come our way.
The End. A new case will come along soon.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Xavier had just returned from the resort casino, or one of them anyway, and handed an envelope to Koffman. “Here you go Mr. Koffman,” he said smiling, “it’s almost all there, except for $5,000. The casino is a bit low on American cash at the moment.” “I would have accepted euros,” said Koffman calmly, “now, go back and get me 10,000 euros, and we will call our deal closed.”
“Oh, uh, you mean 5,000 euros,” said Fabien, chuckling. “No, I meant 15,000 euros,” said Koffman, “now Xavier, you have 2 minutes to get that money, and if you don’t get back here within that time, then we will add another 5,000 euros for each minute over that 2 minutes.” “But, there is no way I can get there and back in 2 minutes, Mr. Koffman,” he pleaded, “you have to give me more time than that.”
“Actually, I don’t have to give you any time at all,” said Koffman, “now, you have already used up 30 seconds.” “Be reasonable Koffman,” said Fabien, “that’s impossible to do so quickly.” “Perhaps you are right Fabien,” said Koffman, “as I recall, you have a hidden safe behind that bookcase. Let’s see if you have the money in there instead.” “But, but, that’s my personal money!” pleaded Fabien, “You can’t take that from me!”
“Open the safe Fabien,” said Koffman, and he took aim at Fabien’s head. “Okay, okay,” he said, and he pressed a button which moved the bookcase out of the way revealing the safe. Once open he took out a small steel box and opened it. “Wait a minute Fabien,” said Koffman, “what is that on the bottom shelf?” “Oh now wait! Those are worth over a million euros!” yelled Fabien, “they are not going anywhere! You would have to kill me for those!”
“If you wish,” said Koffman, and he shot Fabien, killing him instantly. “Kill his men,” said Koffman to his own men, and they did so immediately. “Now, Vivienne, tell Helene that she has a new business partner,” said Koffman, “my share will be 40%. If she doesn’t like the terms, then I will ensure that this resort closes, permanently. But together we could make a lot of money. And you would be a much better manager than Fabien.”
“Actually, I am already the manager,” said Vivienne. “Then you deserve a raise,” he said, “effective immediately you will receive an extra 20,000 euros annually.” “Excuse me please,” said a woman as she came into the room. “Jazzy, what brings you in here?” asked Koffman.
“Well, I thought since you were being so generous right now,” she began, “that perhaps you would be willing to let me have the contents of that cash box since I am a witness to this mur…I mean, self defense.” “I could just kill you instead,” said Koffman smiling. “True, but then my men would have to kill you and your men. They are standing right behind you.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game, whoever you are!” yelled Vivienne. “Oh, I have played much more dangerous games than this Vivienne,” said Jazzy. Just then Sky and Courage came walking in from the adjacent office. “Look at the size of that lion!” exclaimed one of Koffman’s men. “You look familiar,” Koffman said to Sky.
“I get around,” said Sky, “you could say that I’m sort of a freelancer, I go where the money is best at the time, with my pet, Courage.” “You were with that PI before, at my nightclub,” he said. “You have a good memory,” said Sky, “likely Courage helped you remember. I work for him at times too. He saved my life once, so now, if he needs help, I’m there to help him. Remember that, you’ll stay healthier that way.”
While this conversation was happening, Vivienne took the opportunity to bring out her own gun which she quickly aimed at Koffman. But Sky was quicker and with a blast of electricity from her finger, Vivienne fell to the floor, dead. “Don’t say I never did anything for you, Koffman,” said Sky, “now, if you and your men would kindly stand aside so we can leave, uh, with our cashbox.”
Koffman handed it to Jazzy and the girls left with Courage. “Get a fire started,” said Koffman, “then we go.” We had thought about a fire too and had disabled the sprinkler system, but we left the fire alarm system working so people would be warned. Soon that alarm was blaring all over the resort and people were running quickly for the exits.
Most people were actually outside at the time, which was good. Sky and Angel had already destroyed Wilbert and his work in the prison, so no one else will ever get at those notes again. And it didn’t take them long to kill Raoul and his men either, although Sky decided to fight Raoul the normal way since he was the one that had beaten Kristina.
During all this chaos we were able to safely get all the rescued women out and into Aoife and Catalina’s van. Then Catalina pressed a button and explosions were heard behind the resort complex and the prison that wasn’t there, was no longer there.
The police were here now and they began telling people to leave the area quickly, fearing an avalanche after the explosions. Fortunately people did as they were warned and left very quickly. Amazing how criminals never seem to really trust each other.
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 