While waiting for the other girls to arrive, I started thinking about some things. When I mentioned that it was the other two guys we had scared off from finding the money, the brothers believed me right away. And they were scared of someone chasing them. Obviously there is someone else around here besides the gang they are part of.

But who is that? And what are they after? Are they the ones that came in behind the brothers and kidnapped the girls? Why didn’t the girls yell, or shoot, or something? It is possible they were overcome by some gas that knocked them out. But then they would have had to be carried out of the house.

That would mean a lot of men came in, so why didn’t they come after us then? Questions. I do not like so many questions. I want answers. But so far we are not doing well in the answers category, and that is not good. How could Aileen be so cold that she would shoot her own daughter and her friend. Perhaps Aoife’s friend came to warn her of danger.

That would explain coming so early in the morning. I guess Aoife will be able to fill us in on that part. I also need to talk with Kat and Jennifer…then I began thinking about when I had been captured by Christopher way back. I woke up with Jennifer beside me and I could not believe it, she was dead.

Yet she assured me it was her and she would help me escape, but she couldn’t come with me because Christopher owned her. But I finally persuaded her to come back with me or I wouldn’t go either. She called me stubborn, like I was from the first time we met.

She was right, I was stubborn and I guess perhaps I’m still stubborn. But she came back. I didn’t believe she was a ghost with super powers, yet she could do some strange things, things which just didn’t make sense. Like this case. Strange things that don’t make sense. But why am I even thinking about that right now?

I’m wasting time thinking about something from the past, I need to be thinking about what is happening right now. We’re up against a gang we don’t know. Now it seems like there is someone else mixed up in this too. And I’m wasting time thinking about something that doesn’t matter. Or does it?

Back then Christopher kidnapped me from our chateau, from my own bedroom, with the others in the chateau and me with 2 bodyguards and a locked door. That was strange. Now we have our girls kidnapped while we are searching the house and we don’t know it. That is also strange. Is this somehow related?

But Christopher is dead, or at least that is what we were told. Perhaps he was never killed and he has now come back. Is he the one that the brothers are afraid of? But then there is Major. I had originally thought maybe it was Majori, but I know she was killed on our case in Norway. But there is another Major, a woman named Livia and she is someone that Kat knows well. She also hates me.

Like Kat, who originally hated me, she hates me for putting her parents in jail. Livia is Kat’s half sister, and she was in the military. Maybe she still is. This case is getting more strange all the time. My thoughts were suddenly broken by Amerie’s voice. “Steve, all the windows in that building are covered,” she said, “how do you know our car is in there?”

“Because I could see it,” I told her, smiling. She just looked at me. “Maybe Misty has been slamming you onto the floor too often,” she said. “I saw the car through the wall,” I said, “sometimes when I…” Right then the other girls arrived and parked where we were. “Okay, there are 4 of us ghosts,” I said, “we each take two girls with us so we can enter the building invisible. The rest of you stay here until we call for you.”

Then off we went. The regular entrance door was locked but Sky opened it for us. Guess I can actually do that too. “Hey Patrick,” said Kian, “that door just opened by itself.” “Likely the wind blew it open,” he replied. “But I had it locked,” insisted Kian. “In these old buildings, doors and windows never fit properly,” said Patrick, “just go close it again if it bothers you.”

That is what he did and he made sure it fit nice and tight this time and he locked it securely. “I made sure it fit tight this time,” said Kian. “Good idea,” I said, “you never know who might come in.” Dawn and Amerie went into action, subduing the two men quickly. The girls were not in the car, or on the main floor, so we ghosts went upstairs, that way we wouldn’t make noise on the stairs.

There were two more men upstairs, but Sky and Carine had them subdued without a fight. I opened a door to one of the rooms and that’s where our girls were located, tied up and sitting on the floor. “What happened?” I asked.

“No idea Steve,” said Sherry, “we were searching one of the bedrooms and then we woke up here.” “Well, let’s get out of here before anyone else shows up,” I said. We were soon back at the hotel. We did bring that big bag of money with us earlier, but we had to leave the gold behind.

However, a certain “someone” called me and said the gold was now safe with him. Jennifer then called me and said they had received another message, like the last one, but this one was shorter…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.