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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
After the encounter with Aari and his Black Wolves, the four men in Marcel’s flat went quickly back to their gang headquarters. Carine and Kitty were with Aari and the others, but invisible. Carine went inside with the guys, while Kitty went over to their car and put a tracker on it while staying invisible. She noticed that there was still one man in the car, likely to protect the car.
That doesn’t protect against a ghost though! Carine put trackers and listening devices on the men inside, after they were sitting moaning and groaning while being searched. We have new trackers for people now that are much harder to find, they almost look like a label, or sticker, which can be quickly put on the inside of a belt, wallet or purse.
With these trackers we can also hear conversations over quite a long distance. Kat, Carolyn and Melanie are doing great with their inventions. Sienna has even started producing some of them for government and military use. Anyway, it was very beneficial this time, and it is our first time using them, so now we know for certain how they work.
I mean, we did test them already ourselves, but that’s still not the same as real use testing. “Why are you back so soon?” the man asked, “And without the laptops and book. What happened?” “Some guys showed up,” said one of the men, “called the Black Wolves, a tough looking bunch and a couple of those guys were huge, and strong.
They claimed to be friends of Marcel and told us if we had anything to do with Marcel’s disappearance then we better run far away.” “Did they mention any names?” the first man asked. “Nope,” said another man, “but the head guy took pics of our ID, like driver’s license, cut up our cards and took our money and guns.” “Anyone go near the car?” he asked again. “No, I stayed in it the whole time,” said Francois, “no one else got out of their van.”
“Good, you did that right,” said Hubert, “now, get that girl in here, maybe she knows something.” In a few minutes they were talking with Clarisse. “Who are these Black Wolves that are friends with Marcel?” growled Hubert. “I, I, never heard of them,” she replied, “Marcel never mentioned them, just like he never mentioned you either. Please let me go home, my mother is not well and she needs me to look after her. Please!”
He then hit her a couple of times causing her to scream. Then he told one of the men to take her back to her room. “You should have killed her when you killed Marcel,” said Hubert, “she is certainly no good to us.” “I thought we could maybe sell her, or use her ourselves and make some money,” said Claud. “The problem is you didn’t think,” said Hubert, “hmm, where did you take Marcel’s body?”
“We stuck it under some fallen trees where guys go fishing all the time,” said Francois, “we figured someone would find it sooner or later and call the police.” “Good, take the girl to that spot and put her there too,” said Hubert, “but don’t kill her ahead of time, drown her. Hopefully the cops will think Marcel drowned her, then was so filled with remorse, he stabbed himself. A typical murder/suicide case.”
Meanwhile, back to us. “Cristy, find that popular fishing spot, in a hurry!” I told her, “Um, Jennifer wants you to do it.” “On it Jennifer,” said Cristy, just as Jennifer entered the library. “What did I tell her to do this time?” Jennifer asked me, so I filled her in. “Good for me,” she said smiling, “talk about thinking ahead of myself.” “You are getting good at that,” I said, giving her a hug.
Then Kat entered the library too and came over to Jennifer and I. “I have had it being Leader 1,” she said firmly, “I don’t get any time for doing things, like inventing, or relaxing, or anything else. Someone is always around asking about this or that or singing those whatever they are and I don’t have any time for myself anymore.” “I agree, it is rather time consuming,” said Jennifer.
“We hereby make you, Steve, Leader 1 from this moment of time,” they said together, and smiled. I smiled back. “That doesn’t work,” I told them. They stood there blinking at me. “And why not?” they said together. “You need to have a leaders meeting,” I said, “plus have all the ghosts and cats present, plus Cristy as recorder, and Galyna and Sienna. And it must be a 100% vote in favor.”
They stood there blinking some more, then arranged it, except Aari couldn’t be there, so he was excluded from the vote. “All those in favor of reinstating Steve as Leader 1, raise your hand, or tail,” they said together, but no one voted. “Since you didn’t vote, then pool time gets cut in half,” they said together, “anyone wish to change?” No one voted.
“I will double your pool time and add play structures 43 to 45 to the cats play room if you vote me back as Leader 1,” I said. Every hand and tail was raised with lots of cheering and meowing. Kat and Jennifer looked at me, then shrugged. “It worked,” they said, “but how do you plan on giving them all double pool time and still get all the work done around here?”
“Easy,” I said, “you just cut the pool time in half, then I doubled it, which brings it back to normal.” They stood there looking at me and blinking. “Someone will be in trouble tomorrow at pool time,” they said together, “don’t expect help from us either.” “You two were part of the trick,” I said, “I could not have done it without you.” They looked at each other and sighed. “Okay, but we get actual double pool time,” they said. “Deal,” I said.
Meanwhile, the gang was taking Clarisse to that pond where they had hidden Marcel’s body before. “There’s a couple guys fishing down there,” said one, “now what?” “Simple, we use our garde champetre ID to scare them off,” said Francois. So, two of them went down to the fishermen to have a talk. The other two stayed by the car, one outside and one inside with Clarisse, but the one inside was in the front, while she was in the back.
Suddenly the man outside the car was grabbed from behind and slammed against the car by Rock. “You again!” he growled, “You don’t listen good.” He then hit the man in the stomach, then hit his head against the car and he was out cold. This caused the man inside the car to turn and look, but then a gun was put against his head and he was told to get out of the car. He was about to yell, but he had his head smashed against the car too, knocking him out also.
As the other two got close to the pond, the fishermen put down their poles and quickly picked up guns. There was a brief gun battle and the gang members were dead. Clarisse was scared by all of this, but Carine was there too, and speaking French to Clarisse, let her know she was now safe and would be taken back to her mother now. But, back home. “I sense danger Steve,” said Jennifer, “it’s with Eloise!”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
We were looking around Marcel’s flat, but not finding much interesting, other than his laptop. That is, until Snow got excited about something she found. Fortunately we had remembered to bring several scramblers with us which we put around the flat so we could talk freely. We still tried to be quiet so neighbors wouldn’t hear us. I went into the bedroom to see what Snow had found. It was a bucket of cat litter.
I looked at her. Meowy mew!= Move bucket, move bucket! I looked at it. “Only 18 kgs,” I said, “that isn’t so bad.” I tried to lift it but it wouldn’t budge, not even a little. “Need some help, dear husband of mine?” asked Jennifer, somewhat sarcastically. “Help yourself,” I said and move out of the way. “18 kgs,” she said, “I can lift that easily enough.”
I just smiled. She couldn’t budge it either. So, we tried together. Still didn’t move. Now Snow was sniffing around the bucket again. Then she stopped and it looked like she was reaching for something behind the bucket. There was a slight click, so we tried again, together. Still wouldn’t move. “Try tilting it,” said Astrid. Jennifer and I looked at her.
She went over and tilted the bucket onto it’s side, revealing a small opening in the floor. I reached in and pulled out a book. Inside were numbers and letters arranged in columns, but most of the book was blank. There was nothing else in that opening so we put the bucket back and it clicked into place. “This is something for Aari, Clarence or Alfred to look at,” I said, “um, just a suggestion though.”
“Of course,” said Jennifer, “suggestion is noted and accepted.” Astrid giggled. We decided to keep looking around Marcel’s bedroom but we were not finding anything more. Jennifer and I then sat on his bed. “This has to be the hardest mattress I have ever sat on,” I said. “I don’t think there is a mattress,” said Jennifer. So, we had a look.
Sure enough, it was just wood, which was unusual, but it didn’t help us at all. We then looked under the bed, which the cats had already done, but they forgot to tell us about the briefcase under the bed. Jennifer and I saw it at the same time, and grabbed it at the same time also. “Let go,” said Jennifer, “or you will be cleaning bathrooms for months.”
So, I did what she said. I heard a “whack” kind of sound, then a bang, then a groan. Seems the briefcase hit Jennifer in the face which made her jump, hitting her head on the boards of the bed. “Good thing you’re a ghost,” I said, “or you might get hurt.” She just looked at me. To make matters worse, the briefcase was empty, but I said we would take it anyway.
“Why, may I ask?” inquired Jennifer. “There might be something in the lining of the briefcase,” I said, “but I knew you were already thinking of that.” “Of course,” she said, “I was just testing you?” Correct,” I said. “Good thing you passed that test,” she said, then we both started to laugh. We then went back to the living room where the cats had been playing with the photos that Eloise had given us to help in our investigation.
They were spread all over the floor. Jennifer and I looked at them. Meow, meow!= We find important clue, maybe! She then picked up a photo for us to look at. “Hmm, it’s a photo of this chair with Clarisse sitting on Marcel’s lap,” I said, “but I don’t get the importance of it.” Jennifer was looking at it too. “Hey, look!” she exclaimed, “It’s not the same chair!”
I looked a bit closer and sure enough, it was a different chair. “This photo was taken the day before they disappeared,” said Jennifer, “which means it was changed after they disappeared. And look, this carpet is different too, it is more worn in the photo, otherwise it’s the same color.” “So they changed the carpet too,” I said, “but the two items are close enough that Eloise likely wouldn’t notice the subtle difference.”
“Yes, but why did Meowser not notice that these things were changed?” asked Jennifer, “If he had been sleeping, the noise would have awakened him.” “Not if they gave him something to keep him asleep,” I said. “But why would they be afraid of a cat seeing them?” she asked again. “That is a good question,” I said, “but I have no answer for it.” “Useless male ghost,” she said smiling.
Just then Akila came out of the other bedroom carrying another laptop. “I found it hidden behind a false panel in the closet,” she said, “must be important to hide it like that.” We spent about 3 hours looking around that flat, but we didn’t find anything else, but something doesn’t seem right. However, we, I mean, Jennifer, decided it was time for us to go.
Once down at the car another car drove up and parked. “That car is trouble,” I said. “Hmm, I don’t sense danger though,” said Jennifer. We got in the car, but sat and waited. So did the people in the other car. I, meaning Jennifer, had called Aari and his team who were not far away and they soon came and parked beside us. The passenger window opened and Sherry tossed the flat’s keys in through the window and it closed again.
We then drove away. Four men then got out of the other car and went into the building. After a few minutes Aari, Rock, Bear, John and Cal went inside too. The others waited in the van. Sure enough, the first four men had gone to Marcel’s flat and could be heard talking inside. Rock opened the door quietly and in they went. “Put your guns on the table boys,” said Aari, “or die with them in your hands.”
They all put them on the table. “Now, who are you and what are you doing here?” asked Aari. “I would suggest you leave,” said one man in French, “before you get hurt. This does not concern you.” “When it concerns my friends, it concerns me,” said Aari in French, “now, answer my questions.” The man stepped a little closer to Aari, so Aari gave him a hard backhanded hit, knocking him to the floor.
Aari then told his men to search the others. Rock and Bear liked that idea and soon the other men had sore stomachs and had lost their wallets. Aari took photos of any ID they had, then they took their credit and debit cards and cut them in pieces and put them back in the wallets. Then they took the cash they had. “To help pay for our time,” said Aari.
He also took the keys that the one man had for the flat, then told them all to leave and not return. “If you are responsible for Marcel’s disappearance,” said Aari, “then you better run as far away as you can.”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
